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PS 1600.F03 V.2 The complete works
of Ralph
3 1924 021
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Waldo Emerso
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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021972546
Concorti
(iBtiition
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY
EDWARD WALDO EMERSON AND A GENERAL INDEX ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAVURES
VOLUME
II
/^y/j
Ralph Waldo Emerson
in
18^4
ESSAYS BT
RALPH WALDO EMERSON FIRST SERIES
BOSTON AND NEW YORK MIFFLIN COMPANY
HOUGHTON
COPYRIGHT, 1865 AND 1876
BY TICKNOR b FIELDS AND RALPH WALDO EMERSON COPYRIGHT, 1883 AND
1903,
BY EDWARD W. EMERSON
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CONTENTS PAGE I,
HISTORY
JL
SELF-RELIANCE
III.
COMPENSATION
I
_
^V. SPIRITUAL LAWS
43 '
91
129
LOVE
1^7
FRIENDSHIP
189
PRUDENCE
219
HEROISM
243
THE OVER-SOUL
265
CIRCLES
299
XL INTELLECT
323
V. VI.
VIL VIII.
•IX. X.
XII.
ART
<
349
NOTES
371
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS RALPH WALDO EMERSON From
a daguerreotype taken
in the possession
Frontispiece
by Hawes
in
1854,
of the family, and never before
reproduced
MR. EMERSON'S HOUSE IN CONCORD, Showing Mr. Emerson standing by the entrance
From
MR. EMERSON'S STUDY From
192
a photograph
a photograph
326
;
I
HISTORY There
To
is
no
great
the Soul that
and no small
maketh
all
:
And where it cometh, all things And it cometh everywhere.
are
I
am owner of the
sphere.
Of the seven stars and the solar year. Of Caesar's hand, and Plato's brain. Of Lord Christ's heart, and Shakspeare's
strain,"
HISTORY
THERE
is
one mind
dividual men.
the same and to
Every^
all
common to all inman is an inlet to
of the same.
He
once admitted to the right of neason
freeman of the whole
may
thought, he
he
may
feel;
estate.
think
;
/What
what a
is
that
is
made
a
Plato has
saint has
felt,
what at_any time has befallen any
man, he can unders tan d.^ WhQ_liath access to thijj nniy^yi-sa1 mip^ is a party to all that is or can be done, for this is the only and sovereign'' agent.
Of
the works of this
record.
Its genius
series
of days.
than
all
rest,
the
is
Man is
his history.
mind
illustrated
explicable
history
is
the
by the entire by nothing less
Without hurry, without
human spirit goes forth from the beembody every faculty, every thought,
ginning to
every emotion which belongs to
it,
in appro-
But the thought is always prior aU the facts of history preexist in to the fact the mind as laws. ^ Each law in turn is made by circumstances predominant, and the limits of nature give power to but one at a time. A man
priate events. ;
is
the whole encyclopaedia of facts.
The
creation
HISTORY
4
of a thousand forests Greece, already
is
in
one acorn, and Egypt,
Rome, Gaul, Britain, America, lie folded Epoch after epoch, in the first man.
camp, kingdom, empire, republic, democracy, are merely the application of his manifold spirit
to the manifold world.
This human mind wrote history, and
must read riddle. it is all
it.
The Sphinx must
solve her
this
own
in one man, from individual experelation between the hours
If the whole of history
is
to be .explained
There is a and the centuries of time. As the air I breathe is drawn from the great repositories of nature, as the light on my book is yielded by a star a hundred millions of miles distant, as the poise of my body depends on the equilibrium of centrifugal and centripetal forces, so the hours should be instructed by the ages and the ages explained by the hours. Of-ÂąheJiniversal mind eachindividuaLjjian is one more incarnation. All its properties consist in him. Each new fact in his private experience flashes a light on what great bodies of men have done, and the crises of his life refer to national crises. Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mii^,_and when -the same ^hougbt occurs to rience.'
of our
life
_
anotherjnaiiijtjsjthejkey. to. thai era.
Every
'
HISTORY
5
reform was once a private opinion, and when shall
be a private opinion again
problem of the
The
age.'
it
it
will solve the
fact narrated
must
"corresponSTto something in m^e to be "credible
or intelligible.
We,
we
as
Greeks, Romans, Turks, priest
and executioner
tyr to
some
reality in
must
;
drubal or Caesar Borgia tration as
fasten these images
our secret experience, or we
What befell Asmuch an illus-
nothing rightly.
shall learn
must become and king, mar-
read,
is
as
of the mind's powers and depravations
what has befallen
political
movement
us.
has
a
Each new law and meaning for you.
Stand before each of its tablets and say, this
mask did my Proteus
'
Under
nature hide itself
This remedies the defect of our too great nearness to ourselves. This throws our actions into perspective,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and
as
crabs, goats, scorpions,
the balance and the waterpot lose their
meanwhen hung as signs in the zodiac, .JO-X. can see my own vices \yithout heat in the disness
â&#x20AC;˘
tant persons of Jine,_ It
-i
is
-K^feA,
Solomon, Alcibiades, andjCati-
'<V^^ -
'^\.t,
--^a
K^.::
the universal nature which gives worth
to particular
containing
we hedge
men and
this, is
it
things.
Human
life,
as
mysterious and inviolable, and
round with penalties and
laws.
All
i
HISTORY
6
reason
laws derive hence their ultimate
more or
of
supreme, illimitable essence.
less
also holds of the
and
facts,
distinctly
we
Property
great spiritual
soul, covers
instinctively
all
some command
express this
;
at first
hold to
it
with
swords and laws and wide and complex combinations.
The
obscure .consciousness of this
fact is th^ Jight.^pf all
claims
the plea for education, for justice, for
;
char ity
our day, the claim of
;
the foundation of friendship and love
and of the heroism and grandeur which belong to acts of self-reliance.
involuntarily
It
remarkable that
is
we always read
as superior beings.
Universal history, the poets, the romalicers, do
not
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
in their stateliest pictures,
dotal, the imperial palaces, in the will or
of genius,
where make us is
for better
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; anywhere
feel
men
;
that
we
we
triumphs of
lose our ear, any-
intrude, that this
but rather
their grandest strokes
the sacer-
in
feel
is it
true that in
most
at
home.
All that Shakspeare says of the king, yonder slip
of a boy that reads in the corner
^be^true of himself'
moments of
feels
to
We sympathize in the great
history, in the great discoveries,
the great resistances, the great prosperities of
men
;
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; because
there law was enacted, the sea
was searched, the land was found, or the blow
HISTORY was struck, /or
us, as
we
7
ourselves in that place
would have done or applauded. We have the same interest in condition and character. We honor the rich because they have externally the freedom, power, and grace which we feel to be proper to man, proper to us. So all that is said of the wise man by Stoic or Oriental or modern essayist, describes to each reader his
own
able
idea, describes his unattained
but attain-
All literature writes the character of
self.
Books, monuments, pictures,
the wise man.
conversation, are portraits in which he finds the
lineaments he
is
eloquent praise
The
and the him and accost him, and he is forming.
silent
stimulated wherever he moves, as by personal
A
allusions.
true aspirant therefore never needs
look for allusions personal and laudatory in dis-
He
course.
himself, but,
seeks,
in
hears the commendation, not of
more
sweet, of that character he
every word that
is
said concerning
character, yea further in every fact .
stance,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
corn.
Praise
flows,
in the is
running river and the rustling looked,
from mute
and the
and circum-
homage
nature, from
tendered, love the mountains
lights of the firmament.'
These
hints,
and night,
let
dropped
as
it
were from sleep
us use in broad day.
The.stu-
8
HISTORY
'
dent
is
sively
;
to read history actively
esteem his own
_to
life
,
and not pasthe text, and
books the commentary. Thus compelled, the
Muse
of history
those
who do
will utter oracles, as
never to
not respect themselves.
have
I
no expectation that any man who thinks that what was done in a remote age, by men whose names have resounded far, has any deeper sense than what he is doing will read history
aright
to-day.'
The_world_-e3dsts for the education of each
man. There
no age or
is
mode of action
state
somewhat corresponding
of society or
which there
in history to in
his
life.
is
not
Every
thing tends in a wonderful manner to abbreviate itself
and yield
own
its
should see that he can
own
person.
He
must
but
know
geography and
that he
all
the
home, and by kings or em-
solidly at
sit
not suffer himself to be bullied pires,
He
virtue to him.
live all history in his
is
greater than
all
the
government of the world
;
he must transfer the point of view from which history
is
commonly
read,
from
Rome and Ath-
ens and London, to himself, and not deny his conviction that he
is
the court, and if
Eng-
land or Egypt have anything to say to him he will try the case
;
if not,
let
them forever be
HISTORY
He
silent.
sight
must
where
attain
9
and maintain that
The
poetry and annals^re alike.
we make of the
Time
itself in
the
signal narrations of history.
dissipates to shining ether the solid an-
No
gularity_ofJacts. avail to
keep a
ancHor~no'caBre, no fences
Babylon, Troy, Tyre,
fact a fact.
Palestine,
and even early
ready into
fiction.
standing
still
in
Rome
The Garden
Gibeon,
to all nations.
Who
when we have rnade in
and
instinct of the
mind, the purpose of nature, betrays use
lofty
facts yield their secret sense,
are passing al-
of Eden, the sun
poetry thenceforward
is
cares
what the
heaven an immortal sign
?
fact was,
to
hang
London and
Paris
a constellation of
it
go the same way. "What " but a fable agreed history," said Napoleon, is ? upon " This life of ours is stuck round with and
New York must
Egypt, Greece, Gaul, England, War, Colonization, Church,
so
many
gay.
flowers
I will
not
Court and Commerce, as with and wild ornaments grave and
make more account of them.
believe in Eternity.'
I
can find Greece, Asia,
Spain and the Islands,
Italy,
creative principle of each
I
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the genius
and of
all eras, in
and
my
own mind.
We facts
coming up with the emphatic of history in our private experience and are always
t
HISTORY
10 verifying jective
;
history^
know
becomes subin other words there is properly no only biography. Every mind must
them
here.
AJ1_ history
the whole lesson for
over the whole ground.
what
it
does not
itself,
What
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; must
i^^^oes not see,
not know.
live, it will
go
What
the former age has epitomized into a formula or rule for manipular convenience,
it
will
lose
by means of the wall of that rule. Somewhere, sometime, it will demand and find compensation for that loss, by doing the work itself. Ferguson discovered many things in astronomy which had long been known. The better for him. History must be this or it is nothing. Every all
the
good of verifying for
itself,
law which the state enacts indicates a fact in
human
nature
;
that
is
all.
We
must
in our-
selves see the necessary reason of every fact, see fore
how
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
could and must be.
So stand beevery public and private work before an
oration
it
;
NapoThomas More,
of Burke, before a victory of
leon, before a
martyrdom of
of Sidney, of
Marmaduke Robinson
Sir
French Reign of Terror, and of witches
a
; '
before a
Salem hanging
before a fanatic Revival and the Animal Magnetism in Paris, or in Providence. We assume that we under like influence should ;
;
HISTORY
II
be alike affected, and should achieve the like and we aim to master intellectually the steps
and reach the same height' or the^mF^egradation that our fellow, our proxy has dorieT"
All inquiry into antiquity, specting
the
Pyramids,
the
all
curiosity re-
excavated
Stonehenge, the Ohio Circles, Mexico,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
cities,
Mem-
do away this wild, savage^nd preposterous There or Then, and introduce in its place the Here and the Now. Belzoni digs and measures in the mummy-pits and pyramids of Thebes until he can see the end of the difference between the monstrous work and himself. When he has satisfied himself, in general and in detail, that it was made by such a person as he, so armed and so motived, and to ends to which he himself should also have worked, the problem is solved hisj thought lives along the whole line of temples and sphinxes and catacombs, passes through them all with satisfaction, and they live again phis,
is
the
desire
to
i
!
;
to the mind, or are now.
A
Gothic cathedral afiirms that
by us and not done by man, but we find it not
was done
it
us.
Surely
in
our man.
it
was by
But we
apply ourselves to the history of its production.
We
put ourselves into the place and
state
of
HISTORY
12
We
the builder.
remember the
forest-dwellers,
temples, the adherence to the
tlTe first
and the decoration of nation Increased
wood by
;
it
first
type,
wealth of the
as the
the value which
is
given to
carving led to the carving over the
whole mountain of stone of a cathedral. When we have gone through this process, and added thereto the Catholic Church, its
processions,
its
we have
it
ship,
the minster
must
be.
The
as
;
We
Saints'
days and image-wor-
man, that made it could and
were, been the
we have seen how have the
difference
sufficient reason.','
men is in their prinSome men classify objects
between
ciple of association.
by
cross, its music,
its
color and size and other accidents of appear-
by intrinsic likeness, or by the relation of cause and effect. The progress of the intellect is to the clearer vision of causes, which
ance
;
others
neglects surface differences.
philosopher, to the saint,
and
sacred,
men
all
all
divine.
To
all
the poet, to the
things are friendly
events profitable,
For the eye
is
all
days holy,
fastened on the
life,
and
ical
substance, every plant, every animal in
slights the circumstance.
Every chemIts
growth, teaches the unity of cause, the variety
of appearance.
Upborne and surrounded
as
we
are
by
this
HISTORY all-creating nature, soft
the~aif,
and
why should we be
and magnify a few forms
13
cloud or
fluid as a
such hard pedants,
Why should we make
?
account of time, or of magnitude, or of figure
The its
?
knows them not, and genius, obeying knows how to play with them as a young
soul
law,
child plays with graybeards
and
in
churches.
Genius studies the causal thought, and
far
back
in the w'onTH of things sees the rays parting
from
one orb, that diverge, ere they
Genius watches the
diameters. all
his
masks
as
fall,
by
infinite
monad through
he performs the metempsychosis
of nature. Genius detects through thefly, through the caterpillar, through the grub, through the egg, the constant individual
species the genus fast
type
ized
life
;
through count-
;
the fixed species
less individuals
;
through
all
;
through many
genera the stead-
kingdoms of organNature is a mutable always and never the same. She
through
all
the
the eternal unity.
cloud which
is
same thought makes twenty
casts the
into troops of forms, as
one moral. Through the bruteness and toughness of matter, a subtle spirit bends all things to its own a poet
will.
The adamant
fables with
streams into soft but precise
and whilst
form before
it,
and texture
are
I
look at
changed again.
it its
outline
Nothing
is
so
14
HISTORY
.
fleeting as itself.
form
;
man we
In
yet never does still
deny
quite
it
trace the remains or hints
we esteem badges of servitude in the lower races yet in him they enhance his nobleof
all
that
;
ness and grace to
as lo, in iEschylus,
;
transformed
cow, offends the imagination
a
changed when
as Isis in
metamorphosis
left
with nothing of the
but the lunar horns as the
splendid ornament of her brows
!
The_jdentityof\histoi2_i^_egu^^ th e dive rsi ty eq ually obvious. There surface, infirutevanety^oP things
same character
man !
in
;
intrinsic, is,
at the
at the centre
How many
there is^sTmplicity of cause.
the acts of one
how
but
she meets Osi-
Egypt
woman
ris-Jove, a beautiful
;
which we recognize the
Observe the sources of our
tus,
civil history
in-
We
formation in respect to the Greek genius.
have the
are
of that people, as Herodo-
Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plutarch have
given
it
;
a very sufficient account of
what man-
ner of persons they were and what they did.
We
have the same national mind expressed for
us again in their literature, in epic and lyric
poems, drama, and philosophy form.
Then we have
architecture, a
it
;
a very
complete
once more in their
beauty as of temperance
limited to the straight line
itself,
and the square,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
a
HISTORY
15
builded geometry. Then we have it once again in sculpture, the " tongue on the balance of expression," a multitude of forms in the utmost
freedom of action and never transgressing the -deal
some
serenity; like votaries performing
religious dance before the gods, and,
though
in
convulsive pain or mortal combat, never daring
and decorum of their dance. Thus of the genius of one remarkable people we have a fourfold representation and to the senses what more unlike than an ode of Pindar,
to break the figure
:
a marble centaur, the peristyle of the Parthenon,
and the
last actions
of Phoeion
"
?
Every one must have observed
faces
and
forms which, without any resembling feature,
make
a like impression
on the beholder.
ticular picture or copy of verses, if
it
A pardo not
awaken the same train of images, will yet superinduce the same sentiment as some wild mountain walk,
although the resemblance
obvious to the senses, but
is
is
nowise
and out of Nature is an
occult
the reach of the understanding.
endless combination and repetition of a very few laws.
She hums the old well-known
air
through
innumerable variations.^
Nature is full of a sublime family likeness throughout her works, and delights in startling
HISTORY
i6
us with resemblances in the most unexpected
have seen the head of an old sachem of the forest which at once reminded the eye of a bald mountain summit, and the furrows of the quarters.
I
brow suggested the strata of the rock. There are men whose manners have the same essential splendor as the simple and awful sculpture on the friezes of the Parthenon and the remains of the earliest Greek art. And there are compositions of the same strain to be found in the books of
all
ages.
rora but a are only a
What
is
Guide's Rospigliosi
Au-
morning thought, as the horses in it If any one will but morning cloud? "
take pains to observe the variety of actions to
which he
is
equally inclined in certain
of mind, and those to which he will see
how deep
A painter merely,
averse, he
the chain of affinity.
is
me
that
some
sort
nobody could draw a becoming a tree; or by studying the outlines of its form told
tree without in
draw a child
is
moods
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but
.by watching for a time his
mo-
and plays, the painter enters into his nature and can then draw him at will in every attitude. So Roos " entered into the inmost tions
ployed
in a
knew
draughtsman empublic survey who found that he
nature of a sheep."
I
a
could not sketch the rocks until their geological
;
HISTORY structure was tain state
first
17
explained to him.
of thought
the
is
common
very diverse works.
It is the spirit
fact that
By
is
identical.
In a cerorigin of
and not the
a deeper apprehension,
and not primarily by a painful acquisition of
many manual
skills,
the artist attains the
power
of awakening other souls to a given activity. It has been said that " common souls pay with
what they do, nobler souls with that which they are." And why ? Because a profound nature awakens in us by its actions and words, by its very looks and manners, the same power and beauty that a gallery of sculpture or of pictures addresses. Civil
and of
and natural
vidual history, is
history, the history of art
must be explained from indior must remain words. There
literature,
nothing but
'
is
related to
does not interest us, horse, or iron shoe, are in
us, nothing that
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; kingdom,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the
college, tree,
roots of
man. Santa Croce and the
all
Dome
things
of
St.
Peter's are lame copies after a divine model.'
Strasburg Cathedral
is
a material counterpart
of the soul of Erwin of Steinbach.
poem
is
the poet's
ship-builder.
mind; the
The
true
true ship is, the
In the man, could we lay him
open, we should see the reason for the
last
8
;
HISTORY
1
and
flourish
and
tendril of his
work
;
as
every spine
tint in the sea-shell preexists in the secreting
The whole of heraldry and courtesy. A man of fine man-
organs of the
fish.
of chivalry
in
is
pronounce your name with
ners shall
ornament that
The
verifying
titles
the
of nobility could ever add.
experience of every day
trivial
all
some old prediction
to us
is
always
and con-
verting into things the words and signs which
we had heard and seen without heed. with
whom
was riding
I
A lady
in the forest said to
me
woods always seemed to her to wait, as if the genii who inhabit them suspended their deeds until the wayfarer had passed onward that the
a thought which poetry has celebrated in the
dance of the proach of the rising
fairies,
which breaks off on the ap-
human feet. The man who has seen moon break out of the clouds at mid-
night, has been present like an archangel at the
and of the world. I remember one summer day in the fields my companion
creation of light
pointed out to
me
a broad cloud,
which might
extend a quarter of a mile parallel to the horizon, quite accurately in the form of a cherub as painted over churches,
which
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
a
round block
in the
was easy to animate with eyes and mouth, supported on either side by wide-
centre,
it
HISTORY stretched
once it
symmetrical
in the
19
What
wings.
appears
atmosphere may appear often, and
was undoubtedly the archetype of that famil-
iar
ornament.
summer
I
have seen in the sky a chain
showed to me that the Greeks drew from nature when they painted the thunderbolt in the hand of of
Jove.
I
lightning which at once
have seen a snow-drift along the sides
of the stone wall which obviously gave the idea of the
common
architectural scroll to abut a
tower.'
By surrounding circumstances
ourselves with the original
we invent anew
the orders
the ornaments of architecture, as
each
people
abodes.
tent.
decorated
The Doric temple
blance of the dwelt.
merely
wooden
we its
see
and
how
primitive
preserves the sem-
cabin in which the Dorian
The Chinese pagoda is plainly a Tartar The Indian and Egyptian temples still
betray the
mounds and subterranean houses
of their forefathers.
houses and tombs
"
The custom
of making
in the living rock," says
Heeren in his Researches on the Ethiopians, " determined very naturally the principal character of the
Nubian Egyptian
the colossal form which caverns,
it
already prepared
architecture to
assumed.
by
In these
nature, the eye
HISTORY
20
was accustomed to dwell on huge shapes and masses, so that
of nature
when
art
to the assistance
came
could not move on a small
it
What would
scale
statues
without degrading
itself.
of the usual
or neat porches and wings
size,
have been, associated with those gigantic halls before which only Colossi could
sit as
or lean on the pillars of the interior
The Gothic church boughs, to a
festal
"
plainly originated in a
rude adaptation of the forest
bands about the
watchmen
?
trees, with all their
or solemn arcade
cleft pillars
green withes that tied them. in a road cut through pine
No
;
as the
indicate the
still
one can walk
woods, without being
struck with the architectural appearance of the
grove, especially in winter, ness of
all
Saxons.
one
when
In the woods in a winter afternoon
will see as readily the origin
glass
the barren-
other trees shows the low arch of the
of the stained
window, with which the Gothic cathedrals
are adorned, in the colors of the western
sky
seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest.
Nor
can any lover of nature enter
the old piles of Oxford and the English cathedrals,
without feeling that the forest overpow-
ered the his
mind of the
saw and plane
builder,
still
and that
reproduced
his chisel,
its
ferns,
its
HISTORY spikes of flowers,
its
21
locust, elm, oak, pine,
fir
and spruce.'
The Gothic
cathedral
is
a blossoming in stone
subdued by the insatiable demand of harmony in man. The mountain of granite blooms into an eternal flower, with the lightness and delicate finish as well as the aerial proportions and perspective of vegetable beauty.
In like manner vidualized,
all
all
public facts are to be indi-
private facts are to be general-
ized^_^Then at once_ History becomes fluid and true,
and JBiography deep and sublime. As the
Persian imitated in the slender shafts and capitals
of
his architecture the
stem and flower of
the lotus and palm, so the Persian court
magnificent era never gave over the
of
its
in. its
nomadism
barbarous tribes, but travelled from Ec-
bqtana, where the spring was spent, to Susa in
summer and
to
Babylon
for the winter.
In the early history of Asia and Africa, No-
madism and Agriculture nist facts.
The geography
necessitated a
nomadic
were the terror of
all
are the
life.
those
two antago-
of Asia and of Africa
But the nomads
whom
the soil or the
advantages of a market had induced to build towns.
Agriculture therefore was a
injunction, because of the perils
religious
of the state
HISTORY
22
and civil prothese America countries of England and
And
from nomadism. pensities
in these late
fight out the
still
old battle, in the
The nomads of
nation and in the individual.
Africa were constrained to wander, by the tacks of the gad-fly, which drives the cattle
at-
mad,
and so compels the tribe to emigrate in the rainy season and to drive off the cattle to the higher sandy regions.
The nomads
of Asia fol-
low the pasturage from month to month. In America and Europe the nomadism is of trade
and
curiosity
;
a progress, certainly,
gad-fly of Astaboras' to the
from the
Anglo and
mania of Boston Bay.^ Sacred
cities,
a periodical religious pilgrimage
Italo-
which
to
was enjoined,
or stringent laws and customs tending to invigorate the national bond, were the check
old rovers
;
on the
and the cumulative values of long
residence are the restraints on the itinerancy of
The antagonism
the present day.
tendencies
is
not
less
of the two
active in individuals, as
the love of adventure or the love of repose hap-
pens to predominate.
A man of rude health
and
flowing spirits has the faculty of rapid domestication, lives in his
wagon and roams through
itudes as easily as a Calmuc.^ forest, or in the
At
all lat-
sea, or in the
snow, he sleeps as warm, dines
HISTORY
23
with as good appetite, and associates as happily
own chimneys. Or perhaps
as beside his facility is
of
deeper seated,
his faculties
in
his
the increased range
of observation, which yield him
points of interest wherever fresh objects meet his eyes. The pastoral nations were needy and hungry to desperation and this intellectual in excess, nomadism, its bankrupts the mind through the dissipation of power on a miscellany of objects. The home-keeping wit, on the other ;
hand,
is
the
all
that continence or content which finds
elements of
which has
its
own
life
perils
in
its
own
soil
;
and
of monotony and de-
terioration, if not stimulated
by foreign
infu-
sees without
him
sions.'
Every thing the individual
correspon3s~toTiis states of mind, and every thing
is
thinking leads him into fact or series belongs.
The the
primeval world,
Germans
as well as in
onward the trumto'wHich that
in turn intelligLhle ;toTiim, as his
say,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
grope for
catacombs,
the Fore- World, as
myself
I
can dive to
it
with researching fingers
libraries,
and torsos of ruined
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
it
in
and the broken
reliefs
villas.
What is the foundation of that interest all men feel in Greek history, letters, art and poetry,
HISTORY
24 In
all its
age
periods from the Heroic or
down
to the domestic
life
Homeric
of the Atheni-
ans and Spartans, four or five centuries later ?
What
but
man passes personallyperiod. The Grecian state is
this, that
through a Grecian
every
the era of the bodily nature, the perfection of the senses,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; of
the spiritual nature unfolded
In
In strict unity with the body.
human
it
existed those
forms which supplied the sculptor with
models of Hercules, Phoebus, and Jove; not like the forms abounding in the streets of
his
modern
cities,
wherein the face
is
a confused
composed of incorrupt, sharply defined and symmetrical features, whose eye-sockets are so formed that it would be imblur of features, but
possible for such eyes to squint and take fur-
on this side and on that, but they must turn the whole head. The manners of that period are plain and fierce. The reverence
tive glances
exhibited
Is
for personal qualities
;
courage, ad'
dress, self-command, justice, strength, swiftness,
Luxury and
a loud voice, a broad chest.
gance are not known.
A
ele-
sparse population and
want make every man his own valet, cook, butcher and soldier, and the habit of supplying his
own needs
performances.
educates the
Such
body
are the
to wonderful
Agamemnon and
.
HISTORY
25
Diomed of Homer, and not far different is the Xenophon gives of himself and his compatriots in the Retreat of the Ten Thousand. picture
"After the army had crossed the river Teleboas in Armenia, there fell much snow, and the troops
on the ground covered with it. But Xenophon arose naked, and taking an axe, began to split wood whereupon others rose and did the like." Throughout his army exists lay miserably
;
'
They
a boundless liberty of speech.
quarrel for
plunder, they wrangle with the generals on each
new as
and Xenophon
order,
sharp-tongued
as
is
any and sharper-tongued than most, and so
gives as
good
as
he
gets.
Who
does not see
gang of great boys, with such a code of honor and such lax discipline as great that this
is
boys have
The
a
?
charm of the ancient tragedy, and
costly
indeed of
all
sons speak
the old literature,
simply,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; speak
is
that the
per-
as
persons
who
have great good sense without knowing
it,
be-
fore yet the reflective habit has
become the pre-
dominant habit of the mind.
Our
of the antique
is
of the natural.
admiration
not admiration of the old, but
The Greeks
are not reflective,
but perfect in their senses and in their health, with the finest
physical
organization
in
the
;
HISTORY
26
Adults acted with the simplicity and
world.
They made
grace of children. statues,
that
is,
tinued to be
wherever
and are now,
in all ages,
physique
exists
but, as a
;
their superior organization, they
from
manhood
made
a healthy
surpassed
all.
They combine
have
energy of
the
with the engaging unconsciousness of
The
childhood.
attraction of these
that they belong to
every
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
such as healthy senses should, in good taste. Such thiijgs have con-
and
class,
vases, tragedies
man
man, and
are
manners
is
known
to
in virtue of his being once a child
besides that there are always retain these characteristics.
individuals
A
and inborn energy
like genius
who
person of childis
a
still
Greek,
and revives our love of the Muse of Hellas. admire the love of nature
I
In
in the Philoctetes.
reading those fine apostrophes to sleep, to the stars, rocks,
mountains and waves,
passing away as an ebbing nity of
man, the
Greek had,
it
sea..
I
feel
I feel
time
the eter-
identity of his thought.
The
seems, the same fellow-beings as
The sun and moon, water and
fire,
met
I.
his heart
meet mine. Then the vaunted distinction between Greek and English, between Classic and Romantic schools, seems superficial
precisely as they
and pedantic.
When
a
thought of Plato be-
HISTORY comes a thought
to
the soul of Pindar
When
I feel
that
27
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; when
me,
fires
a truth that fired
mine, time
we two meet
is
no more.
in a perception,
two souls are tinged with the same hue, and do as it were run into one, why should
that our
I
measure degrees of
count Egyptian years
latitude,
why should
I
?
The student interprets the age of chivalry by his own age of chivalry, and the days of maritime adventure and circumnavigation by quite
of his own.
To
the sacred history of the world he has the
same
parallel miniature experiences
When
key.
the voice of a prophet out of the
deeps of antiquity merely echoes to him a sentiment of his infancy, a prayer of his youth, he then pierces to the truth through
all
the confu-
sion of tradition and the caricature of institutions.
come by us at internew facts in nature. 1
Rare, extravagant spirits vals,
who
see that
disclose to us
men
felt
God have from time to time men and made their commission
of
walked among
in the heart
hearer.
Hence
and soul of the commonest
evidently the tripod, the priest,
the priestess inspired by the divine afflatus.
Jesus astonishes and overpowers sensual people.
They cannot
unite him to history, or re-
HISTORY
28
him with themselves. As they come
concile
to
revere their intuitions\3.nd aspire to live holily,
own
their
How
piety explains every fact, every word.
worships of Moses, of
easily these old
Zoroaster, of
Menu, of
Socrates, domesticate
themselves in the mind. tiquity in them.
They
I
cannot find any an-
are
mine
as
much
as
theirs. I
have seen the
first
monks and
anchorets,
More appeared to me
without crossing seas or centuries.
than
once some individual has
with
such negligence of labor and such commanding contemplation, a haughty beneficiary begging in the
name of God,
as
made good
to the nine-
teenth century Simeon the Stylite, the Thebais,
and the
first
Capuchins.'
The priestcraft of the East and West, of the Magian, Brahmin, Druid, and Inca, is expounded in the individual's private
life.
influence of a hard formalist in repressing his spirits
on
The cramping a
young
child,
and courage, paralyzing
the understanding, and that without prodxicing indignation, but only fear and obedience, and
even much sympathy with the tyranny^â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is famtliar fact, explained to the child
comes
of his
when he
a
be-
man, only by seeing that the oppressor youth is himself a child tyrannized over a
HISTORY
29
by those names and words and forms of whose influence he was fflerely^he organ to the Youth. The' fact teaches him how Belus was worshipped
and how the Pyramids were built, better than the discovery by Champollion of the names of all the workmen and the cost of every tile. He finds Assyria and the Mounds of Cholula at his door,
and himself has
laid the courses.
Again, in that protest which each considerate person makes against the superstition of his times, he repeats step for step the part of old
reformers, and in the search after truth finds, like
them, new
perils to virtue.
what moral vigor of a superstition.
on the
is
A great
licentiousness treads
heels of a reformation.
in the history
He learns again
needed to supply the girdle
How many times
of the world has the Luther of
the day had to lament the decay of piety in his
" Doctor," said Martin Luther, one day, " how is
own household
!
his it
wife to
that whilst
we prayed so often and with whilst now we pray with the utmost
subject to papacy
such fervor,
coldness and very seldom
The
advancing
man
"' ?
discovers
property he has in literature, well as in
all
history.
He
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
how deep
a
in all fable as
finds that the poet
was no odd fellow who described strange and
HISTORY
30
impossible situations, but that universal
man and
wrote by his pen a confession true for one true for
His own
wonderfully
in lines
down
all.
One
before he was born.
comes up
in his private
fable of iEsop, of
biography he
secret
intelligible to
finds
him, dotted
after
another he
adventures with every
Homer, of
of Chaucer, of Scott, and
Hafiz, of Ariosto,
them with
verifies
own head and hands. The beautiful fables of
the
his
Greeks, being
proper creations of the imagination and not of the fancy, are universal verities.
What
a range
of meanings and what perpetual pertinence has Beside its primary the story of Prometheus !
value
as
the
chapter of the history of
first
Europe, (the mythology thinly veiling authentic facts, the invention of the mechanic arts and the migration of colonies,)
it
gives the history
of religion, with some closeness to the faith of later ages.
mythology.
Prometheus
He
is
is
the Jesus of the old
the friend of
man;
stands
between the unjust "justice" of the Eternal Father and the race of mortals, and readily fers all things
on
their account.'
suf-
But where
it
departs from the Calvinistic Christianity and
him as the defier of Jove, it represents of mind which readily appears wherever
exhibits
a state
HISTORY the doctrine of
Theism
31
taught in a crude,
is
objective form, and which seems the self-defence
of
man
against this untruth, namely a discon-
tent with the believed fact that a
and
God
exists,
a feeling that the obligation of reverence
is
would steal if it could the fire of the Creator, and live apart from him and independent of him. The Prometheus Vinctus is the romance of skepticism. Not less true to all onerous.
It
time are the details of that stately apologue.
Apollo kept the flocks of Admetus, said the
When
poets. are not
the gods
known.
come among men, they
Jesus was not
Shakspeare were not.
;
Socrates and
Antaeus was suffocated
by the gripe of Hercules, but every time he touched his mother-earth newed.
Man
is
weakness both
his strength
was re-
the broken giant, and in
all his
mind are
invig-
his
body and
his
orated by habits of conversation with nature.
The power unfix and as
of music, the power of poetry, to it
were clap wings to solid nature,
interprets the riddle of Orpheus.'
The
philo-
sophical perception of identity through endless
know the Prowho laughed or wept yes-
mutations of form makes him teus.
What else am
terday, this
who
I
slept last night like a corpse,
morning stood and ran
?
And
and
what see
I
HISTORY
32 side
teus?
can symbolize
I
name of any
the ,
but the transmigrations of Promy thought by using
on any
every creature lus
is
is
fact,
because
agent or patient.
Tanta-?
creature, of
man
any
but a name for you and me.
Tantalus
impossibility of drinking the waters
means the
of thought which are always gleaming and waving within sight of the soul.' The transmigra-
would it were but men and women are only half human. Every animal of the barn-yard, the field and the fortion of souls
is
no
fable.
I
;
of the earth and of the waters that are
est,
earth, has contrived to get a footing
under the
and to leave the print of its features and form in some one or other of these upright, heavenfacing speakers. Ah brother, stop the ebb of thy soul,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ebbing
!
downward into the forms thou hast now for many years
whose habits As near and proper to us is also that old of the Sphinx, who was said to sit in the fable road-side and put riddles to every passenger. into
slid.'
If the
man
alive.
If he could solve the riddle, the Sphinx
was
slain.
of winged
could not answer, she swallowed him
What
is
these changes come,
human
our
life
facts or events
spirit.
all
?
but an endless flight In splendid variety
putting questions to the
Those men who cannot answer
HISTORY by a superior wisdom these of time,
make
tyrannize over them, and
men
or questions
facts
Facts encumber them,
serve them.
routine, the
33
of sense, in
the
whom
men of
a literal obe-
dience to facts has extinguished every spark of that light by which
man
the
is
man
is
truly
man.
But
if
true to his better instincts or senti-
ments, and refuses the dominion of
facts, as
one
comes of a higher race; remains fast by the and sees the principle, then the facts fall they know aptly and supple into their places their master, and the meanest of them glorifies' that
soul
;
him.'
See in Goethe's Helena the same desire that
These figures, Griffins, Phorkyas, would these Chitons, he say, Helen and Leda, are somewhat, and do exert a specific influence on the mind. So far then are every word should be a thing.
they eternal first
entities, as real
Olympiad.
Much
to-day as in the
revolving them he writes
out freely his humor, and gives them body to his
own
imagination.
And
although that
poem
be as vague and fantastic as a dream, yet
much more
attractive than the
is
it
more regular
dramatic pieces of the same author, for the rea-
son that
it
operates a wonderful relief to the
mind from the routine of customary Images,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
HISTORY
34
awakens the reader's invention and fancy by the wild freedom of the design, and by the unceasing succession of brisk shocks of surprise.
The
universal nature, too strong for the petty
neck and writes through his hand; so that when he seems to vent a mere caprice and wild romance, the issue nature of the bard,
is
sits
an exact allegory.
on
his
Hence
Plato said that
" poets utter great and wise things which they All the ficdo not themselves understand." tions of the Middle Age explain themselves as a masked or frolic expression of that which in grave earnest the mind of that period toiled to achieve. Magic and all that is ascribed to it is '
a deep presentiment of the powers of science.
The
shoes of swiftness, the sword of sharpness,
the power of subduing the elements, of using the secret virtues of minerals, of understanding the voices of birds, are the obscure efforts
of the mind in a right direction.
The
preternat-
ural prowess of the hero, the gift of pe'rpetual
youth, and the like, are alike the endeavor of the human spirit " to bend the shows of things to the desires of the mind."
In Perceforest and Amadis de Gaul a garland and a rose bloom on the head of her who is faithful, and fade on the brow of the inconstant.
HISTORY
35
In the story of the Boy and the Mantle a
mature reader may be surprised with
of virtuous pleasure Venelas
tle
;
annals,
elfin
be named
at the
and indeed
—
even
'
glow
a
triumph of the gen-
all
the postulates of
that the fairies
do not
not to be trusted
;
who
that
to
like
that their gifts are capricious
;
and
seeks a treasure
—
I must not speak; and the like, Concord, however they might be
find true in in
Cornwall
or Bretagne. Is
it
otherwise in the newest romance
the Bride of
ton
is
wood
a
mask
Lammermoor.
Sir
?
I
read
William Ash-
Ravensproud poverty, and
for a vulgar temptation.
Castle a fine
name
for
the foreign mission of state only a guise for honest industry.
We
Bunyan
may
all
dis-
shoot a
wild bull that would toss the ful,
by fighting
Lucy Ashton is
is
good and beautidown the unjust and sensual.
another name for
fidelity,
which
always beautiful and always liable to calamity
in this world.
But along with the civil and metaphysical history of man, another history goes daily forward,
he
is
—
that of the e xternal world ,
not
less strictly implicated.
compend of time; he
is
—
in
He
which is
the
also the correj^ative of
HISTORY
36
His power
nature.
of his
affinities, in
consists in
the multitude
the fact that his
life is
inter-
twined with the whole chain of organic and inorganic being. In old Rome the public roads beginning
at the
Forum proceeded
east, west, to the centre
north, south,
of every province of the
empire, making each market -town of Persia,
Spain and Britain pervious to the soldiers of the capital
:
so out of the
human
heart go as
were highways to the heart of every object nature, to reduce
A man
is
a
it
dict the
relations, a
fruitage
is
world he
is
knot of roots,
His
the world.
natures out of
faculties refer to
in
under the dominion of man.
bundle of
whose flower and
it
him and pre-
to inhabit, as the fins of
the fish foreshow that water exists, or the wings
of an eagle in the egg presuppose
air.
He
can-
Put Napoleon in an island prison, let his faculties find no men to act on, no Alps to chmb, no stake to play for, and he would beat the air, and appear stupid. Transport him to large countries, dense population, complex interests and antagonist power, and you shall see that the man Napoleon, bounded that is by such a profile and outnot live without a world.'
.
line, is
not the virtual Napoleon.
Talbot's shadow
;
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
This
is
but
HISTORY " His
substance
For what you see
And
least
is
is
37 not here.
but the smallest part
proportion of humanity;
But were the whole frame here. It is
of such a spacious, lofty pitch.
Your roof were not
sufficient to contain it.'"
Columbus needs a planet to shape his course upon. Newton and Laplace need myriads of
One may
age and thick-strewn celestial areas. say a gravitating solar system
is
already pro-
Not
phesied in the nature of Newton's mind.
does the brain of
less
from
Davy
or of Gay-Lussac,
childhood exploring the
and
affinities
repulsions of particles, anticipate the laws of organization.
embryo
Does not the eye of
predict the light?
the
the ear of
human Handel
predict the witchcraft of harmonic sound
Do
?
not the constructive fingers of Watt, Fulton,
Whittemore, Arkwright, predict the
fusible,
hard, and temperable texture of metals, the properties of stone, water, and
wood
?
Do
not
the lovely attributes of the maiden child predict
the refinements and decorations of
ety?
of
Here
also
we
man on man.
are
A
soci-
reminded of the action
mind might ponder
thoughts for ages and not gain so
knowledge
civil
as the passion
of love
much
its
self-
shall teach
it
HISTORY
38
Who
in a day.
knows himself
been thrilled with indignation
at
before he has
an outrage, or
has heard an eloquent tongue, or has shared the
throb of thousands in a national exultation or
alarm
?
,
No man can
antedate his experience, or
new
guess what faculty or feeling a
object shall
unlock, any more than he can draw to-day the face of a person
for the
ment
not
now go behind
the general states
to explore the reason of this correspon-
Let
dency.
two
he shall see to-morrow
time.
first
I will
whom
facts,
it
that nature
is
of these
suffice that in the light
namely, that the mind its
is
One, and
correlative, history
is
to be
read and written.
Thus
in all
and reproduce
ways does the soul concentrate its
treasures for each pupil.
He
too shall pass through the whole cycle of experience.
He
of nature.
book.
It shall
wise man.
and
titles a
read.
You
have lived.
Fame.
shall collect into a focus the rays
History no longer
He
walk incarnate
You
shall
not
tell
shall
in
be a dull
every just and
me by
languages
catalogue of the volumes shall
A
make me feel man shall be
you have what periods you the
Temple of
shall walk, as the poets
have de-
scribed that goddess, in a robe painted
all
over
HISTORY
39
with wonderful events and experiences
own form and
by
features
him the Foreworld
in
Age of Gold,
his
their exalted intelli-
gence shall be that variegated '
;
—
vest.
.
I shall find
in his childhood the
;
the Apples of Knowledge, the
Argonautic Expedition, the calling of Abra-
ham, the building of the Temple, the Advent of Christ, Dark Ages, the Revival of Letters, the Reformation, the discovery of
the opening of
He
man.
shall
new
sciences
new
lands,
and new regions
in
be the priest of Pan, and bring
with him into humble cottages the blessing of the
morning
stars,
and
all
the recorded benefits
of heaven and earth. Is there
Then
somewhat overweening
I reject all I
use of pretending to
But
it is
know what we know
the fault of our rhetoric that
not strongly state one belie
in this claim?
have written, for what
some
very cheap.
other.
Hear
I
fact
is
the
not
?
we can-
without seeming to
hold our actual knowledge
the rats in the wall, see the
on the fence, the fungus under foot, the lichen on the log. What do I know sympalizard
thetically, morally, life
?
older,
As
—
of either of these worlds of
old as the Caucasian man,
— perhaps
these creatures have kept their counsel
beside him, and there
is
no record of any word
HISTORY
40
or sign that has passed from one to the other."
What the
connection do the books show between
fifty
or sixty chemical elements and the his-
torical eras
;
?
Nay, what does history yet
cord of the metaphysical annals '
light does
it
re-'
of man ? What
shed on those mysteries which we
hide under the names Death and Immortality?
Yet every history should be written in a wiswhich divined the range of our affinities
dom
and looked
at facts as
what History is. Rome, and
a shallow village tale
to see
does
symbols.
How many Paris,
Rome know
am ashamed
I
our so-called
we must say and Constantinople What times
!
of
rat
and lizard?
What
are
Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the
seal-hunter, for the
Kanaka
in
Esquimaux
his canoe, for
the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter
—
?
Broader and deeper we must write our annals, from an ethical reformation, from an influx
of the ever new, ever sanative conscience,
we would
—
if
trulier express
our central and widerelated nature, instead of this old chronology of selfishness and pride to which we have too •long lent our eyes. Already that day exists for us, shines in
on us
at
unawares, but the path of
HISTORY science
The
and of
letters is
not the way into nature.
idiot, the Indian, the child
farmer's
nature
is
41
boy stand nearer
and unschooled
to the light
by which
to be read, than the dissector or the
antiquary,'
II
SELF-RELIANCE *'
Man
is
his
Ne
own
te quaesiveris
and the
star;
Render an honest and ,-
Commands
all
Nothing
him
Our Our
to
to
man,
light, all influence, all fate; falls
shadows
Epilogue
soul that can
a perfect
early or too late.
acts our angels are, or fatal
extra."
that
good or
walk by us
Beaumont and
Fletcksfl'' s
ill.
still.
Honest
Man's Fortuno
Cast the bantling on the rocks. Suckle him with the she-wolf's
teat,
Wintered with the hawk and fox.
Power and speed be hands and
feet,
;
SELF-RELIANCE READ
the other day
some
verses written
I
by an eminent .painter which were original and not conventional.' The soul always hears an admonition
what
in
such
lines, let the subject
may. The sentiment they
It
instil Is
more value than any thought they may
To
believe your
what
Is
men,
for all
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
In
to believe that
your private heart
It
Is
genius.
shall
Speak your
is
true
latent
be the universal sense
inmost in due time becomes the outmost,
and our
first
thought
Is
rendered back to us by
the trumpets of the Last Judgment. as the voice of the
merit
contain.
;
that
conviction, and for the
own thought,
you
true for
be of
we
ascribe to
that they set at
mind
is
Familiar
to each, the highest
Moses, Plato and Milton
naught books and
traditions,
Is
and
spoke not what men, but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that
gleam of light which flashes across within,
more than
his
mind from
the lustre of the firmament
of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because
It is
his.
In every
work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts they come back to us with a certain ;
-
(
SELF-RELIANCE
46
Great works of art have no
alienated majesty.'
more
They
affecting lesson for us than this.
teach us to abide by our spontaneous impres-
good-humored
sion with
inflexibility
then most
on the other
when
the whole cry of voices
side.
Else to-morrow a stranger will say with
is
masterly good sense precisely what
thought and
we have
the time, and we shall be shame our own opinion from
felt all
forced to take with another.
There
is
he arrives rance
;
a
time in every man's education when
at the conviction
that imitation
is
envy
that
suicide
;
igno-
is
that he
must
take himself for better for worse as his portion that
though the wide universe
full
is
;
of good,
no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. .The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that does he
know
until
is
which he can do, nor
he has
Not
tried.
thing one face, one character, one
much
fact,
for no-
makes
impression on him, and another none.
This sculpture preestablished
memory is not without harmony. The eye was placed in the
where one ray should of that particular ray.
j
fall,
We
that
it
might
testify
but half express our-
;
SELF-RELIANCE selves,
47
and are ashamed of that divine idea which
each of us represents.' as proportionate
It
may
and of good
faithfully imparted,
but
God
be safely trusted issues, so
will
it
not have
be his^^
work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace.__ ;
It
is
a deliverance
which does not
the attempt his genius deserts
deliver.
him
;
In
no muse
no invention, no hope.
befriends;
[JVust thyself: every heart vibrates to that
Accept the place the divine provi-
iron string.
dence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great
men have
always done so, and confided them-
selves childlike to the genius of their age, betray-
ing their perception that the absolutely trustwor-
thy was seated
at their heart,
working through
their hands,
predominating in
And we
now men, and must
are
mind
all,
their being.
accept in the
same transcendent destiny and not minors and invalids in a protected corhighest
the
ner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but
guides, redeemers and benefactors, obeying the
Almighty Dark.
effort
and advancing on Chaos and the
SELF-RELIANCE
48
What
on
pretty oracles nature yields us
and
text in the face
and even brutes
That divided and
!
this
behavior of children, babes,. rebel mind,
that distrust of a sentiment because our
arith-
metic has computed the strength and means
opposed
have not. Their
to our purpose, these
mind being whole, their eye quered, and when we look in
makes four
we are nobody all one babe commonly
Infancy conforms to
disconcerted.
conform to
it
so that
;
or five out of the adults
and play to
it.
with
less
quancy and charm, and made its
;
who
prattle
So God has armed youJth^and
puberty and manhood no gracious and
uncon-
as yet
is
their faces
it
its
own
claims not to be put by,
Do
pi-
enviable and if
it
not think-the youth has
will stand
by
no
because he cannot speak to you and
force,
Hark
me.
!
ciently clear
how
itself.
in the next
room
and emphatic.
his voice
It
to speak to his contemporaries.
bold then, he will
know how
to
is suffi-
seems he knows Bashful or
make us
seniors
very unnecessary.'
The
nonchalance of boys
dinner, and
would disdain
do or say aught attitude of lor
pit
who are much as
to conciliate one,
human
what the
as
is
is
sure of a a lord to
the healthy
nature.
A
In the
playhouse ; indepen-
boy
is
in the par-
SELF-RELIANCE
49
dent, irresponsible, looking out from his corner
on such people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences them on their merits, in the swift, summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly,
He
eloquent, troublesome.
self never
cumbers him-
about consequences, about interests
must court him sthe
man
is
as
;
it
As soon
consciousness.
But
he does not court you.
were clapped into
or spoken with hlat he
as
by
jail
;
You
he gives an independent, genuine verdict.
his
he has once acted
committed person, watched by the sympathy or the hatred of hundreds, whose affections must now enter into his account. There is no Lethe for this. Ah, that hq is
a
could pass again into his neutrality! thus avoid
all
Who
can
pledges and, having observed, ob-
serve again from the same unaffected, unbiased,
unbribable, unaffrighted innocence,
ways be formidable.
on
all
passing
affairs,
private but necessary,
the ear of
These
He
would sink
are the voices
grow
enter into the world.
like darts into
in fear.'
which we hear
faint
in soli-
and inaudible
Society everywhere
conspiracy against the its
al-
utter opinions^
which being seen to be not
men and put them
tude, but they
of
would
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; must
manhood of
members. Society
is
as is
we in
every one
a joint-stock
com-
SELF-RELIANCE
50
pany, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the hberty and culture of the eater.
The
reliance
and
most request is conformity.
virtue in is
aversion.
its
creators, but
Self-
It loves not realities
names and customs.
Whoso would
be a man, must be a nonconwho would gather immortal palms
He
formist.
must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is
but the integrity of your_own--
at last sacred
mind.
Absolve you
have the suffrage of the world.
I
answer which when quite young to
make
to a valued adviser
importune church.
me
"
these impulses
above."
I
saying, "
to
What
have
I
if I live
to do
wholly
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " But
friend suggested,
may
be from below, not from
replied, "
They do not seem to me am the Devil's child, I will
then from the Devil."
cred to
an
my
to be such; but if I live
remember
was prompted
who was wont
with the sacredness of traditions, ?
I
shall
with the dear old doctrines of the
On my
from within
and you
to yourself,
me
but that of
my
No
law can be
Good
nature.
sa-
and
bad are but names very readily transferable that or this
constitution
the only right
;
;
the only
is
what
wrong what
is is
after
to
my
against
it.
SELF-RELIANCE
A
man
is
51
to carry himself in the presence of all
opposition as
every thing were titular and
if
ephemeral but he. easily
we
large
societies
am ashamed
I
capitulate
to think
badges and names, to
to
and dead
me more
is
right.
ways.
vital,
philanthropy, shall that pass
assumes
comes
to
;
?
If an angry bigot
bountiful cause of Abolition, and
this
me with
why should infant
I
affects
and speak the rude truth in If malice and vanity wear the coat of
upright and all
than
Every and bught to go
institutions.
decent and well-spoken individual
sways
how
I
his last
news from Barbadoes,
not say to him,
love thy wood-chopper
tured and modest
;
'
Go
;
have that grace
love thy
be good-na;
and never
varnish your hard, uncharitable ambition with this incredible
sand miles
off.
Rough and
tenderness for black folk a thou-
Thy
love afar
is
spite at
home.'
would be such greeting, but truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
else
it
graceless
is
none.
The
doctrine of hatred
must be preached, as the counteraction of the doctrine of love, when that pules and whines. I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post. Whim. I hope it is
;
SELF-RELIANCE
52
somewhat
whim
better than
at last,
not spend the day in explanation.'
not to show cause
why
I
seek or
but we can-
Expect me
why
I
exclude
me,
as a company. Then good man did to-day, of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor ? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent I
again, do not
tell
do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold for them I will go to prison
give to such
men
as
;
need be
if
charities
;
;
but your miscellaneous
the education at
popular
of fools
college
the building of meeting-houses to the vain end to
which many now stand
;
alms to
the thousand-fold Relief Societies I
confess with
shame
give the dollar,
and by
I
shall
it
is
I
a
sots, and
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; though
;
sometimes succumb and wicked
dollar,
which by
have the manhood to with-
hold.^
Virtues are, in the popular estimate, rather the exception than the rule.
and
There
is
the
man
Men
do what is called a good some piece of courage or charity, much they would pay a fine in expiation of daily his virtues.
action, as as
non-appearance on parade.
Their works
are
;
SELF-RELIANCE done
as
ing in
53
an apology or extenuation of their
the world, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
Their virtues are penances.
pay a high board.
My
do not wish to expiate, but to live. is for itself and not for a spectacle. I
prefer that
it
liv-
as invalids and the insane
should be of a lower
be genuine and equal, than that
life
much
I
strain, so
it
it
should be
and unsteady. I wish it to be sound and sweet, and not to need diet and bleeding. I ask primary evidence that you are a man, and refuse this appeal from the man to his actions, I know that for myself it makes no difference whether I do or forbear those actions which are reckoned excellent. I cannot consent to pay for glittering
a privilege
where
I
have
intrinsic right.
Few
and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testi-
mony.
^
What
I
must do
is all
that concerns me, not
what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness.
It
is
the harder because
you
will al-
ways find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the
world to
live after the world's
opinion
SELF-RELIANCE
54
own
easy in solitude to live after our
it is
;
but
man is he who in the midst of the keeps with perfect sweetness the indecrowd the great
pendence of solitude. objection to conforming to usages that
The
have become dead to you force.
It loses
is
that
it
scatters your
your time and blurs the impres-
sion of your character.
If
you maintain
a dead
church, contribute to a dead Bible-society, vote
with a great party either for the government or against
spread your table like base house-
it,'
keepers,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; under
these screens
all
culty to detect the precise
man you
I
have
are
:
diffi-
and
of
much
force is withdrawn from your But do your work, and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself. A man must consider what a blindman's-buff is this game of conformity. If I know
course so
proper
your
life.
sect I anticipate
your argument.
I
hear
preacher announce for his text and topic the ;
a
ex-
pediency of one of the institutions of his church.
Do
I
not
he say a
know
know beforehand
that not possibly can
new and spontaneous word
that with
all
Do
?
this ostentation
I not
of examin-
ing the grounds of the institution he will do no
such thing
?
Do
I
to himself not to
not
know
that he
is
look but at one
pledged side, the
;
SELF-RELIANCE
55
permitted side, not as a man, but as a parish
He
minister?
is
a retained attorney,
and these
of the bench are the emptiest affectation.
airs
men
Well, most
have bound their eyes with one
another handkerchief, and attached them-
or
selves to
some one of
these communities of
opinion. This conformity
makes them not
in a few particulars, authors in
false
all
particulars.
not quite true.
of a few
false
lies,
but
Their every truth
Their two
is
not the
real
is
two,
so that every word we know not where to them right. Meantime nature is
their four not the real four
;
they say chagrins us and begin to set
not slow to equip us in the prison-uniform of the party to which
we
one cut of face and
adhere. figure,
We
come
to
wear
and acquire by deThere is
grees the gentlest asinine expression. a mortifying experience in particular,
not tory
to
fail ;
I
wreak
mean "
itself also in the
which does general his-
the foolish face of praise," the
forced_smiTewFich we put~onitrcompa^ny where
we do not feel at ease, in answer to conver sation whicnHbes not interest us. The muscles, not spontaneouslymbvedr^t moved by a low usurping wilfulness, grow tight about the outline of the face, with the most disagreeable sensation.
For
nnnrnpfnrrriity thp wmild-ULhipg yni] jmfh^
SELF-RELIANCE
56 its
displeasure.
how
And therefore a man must know
to estimate a sour face.
The
by-standers
look askance on him in the public street or in If this aversion had
the friend's parlor.
gin in contempt and resistance like his
might well go home
its ori-
own
with a sad countenance
he
but
;
the sour faces of the multitude, like their sweet
have no deep cause, but are put on and off as the wind blows and a newspaper directs. Yet is the discontent of the multitude more forfaces,
midable than that of the senate and the college.
enough for a firm man who knows the brook the rage of the cultivated classes. world to It is easy
Their rage
is
decorous and prudent, for they are
timid, as being very vulnerable themselves.
when
But
to their feminine rage the indignation of
the people
is
added, when the ignorant and the
poor are aroused, when the unintelligent brute
bottom of society
force that lies at the to growl
and mow,
it
is
made
needs the habit of magna-
nimity and religion to treat
it
godlike as a
trifle
of no concernment.
The is
other terror that scares us from self-trust
our consistency
;
a reverence for
our past
act
word because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loth to disappoint them. or
SELF-RELIANCE
57
But why should you keep your head over your shoulder ? Why drag about this corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat you have stated in this or that public place ? Suppose you should contradict yourself; what then ? It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand-eyed present, and live ever in a new day. In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity, yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to
them heart and
God with as
Joseph
though they should clothe color.' Leave your theory,
life,
shape and
his coat in the
hand of the
harlot,
and
flee.
A foolish tle
consistency
minds, adored by
sophers and divines.
is
little
the hobgoblin of
lit-
statesmen and philo-
With
consistency a great
soul has simply nothing to do.
He may as well
concern himself with his shadow on the wall.
Speak what you think now in hard words and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
'
misunderstood.'
understood
?
Ah, so you
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
Is
it
shall be sure to be
so bad then to be mis-
Pythagoras was
misunderstood,
SELF-RELIANCE
58
and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Coper^ nicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is
to be misunderstood.'
can violate his nature. All the sallies of his will are rounded in by the law of his being, as the inequalities of Andes and I
suppose no
man
Himmaleh are insignificant in the curve of the sphere. Nor does it matter how you gauge and
A character
try him.
andrian stanza across,
it
still
;
is
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; read
like it
spells the
an acrostic or Alex-
forward, backward, or
same
pleasing contrite wood-life which
me
let
record day by day
my
mean
will
it it
it
not.
My
cannot
I
hum
my window
swallow over
are.
into
my web
also.
We
of
should
interweave that thread or straw he carries in bill
I
book should
smell of pines and resound with the
The
me,
be found symmetrical, though
not and see
insects.^
this
honest thought
without prospect or retrospect, and, doubt,
In
thing.
God allows
his
pass for what we
Character teaches above our wills.
Men
imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only
by overt
actions,
and do not see
virtue or vice emit a breath every
There
will
that
moment.
be an agreement in whatever vari-
ety of actions, so they be each honest
and natu=
.
SELF-RELIANCE
59
For of one will, the actions will be harmonious, however unlike they seem. These varieties are lost sight of at a little disral in
their hour.
tance, at a
little
height of thought.
dency unites them ship line
is
The voyage
all.
One
ten-
of the best
hundred tacks. See the distance, and it straightens
a zigzag line of a
from a
itself to
sufficient
the average tendency.
action will explain itself
and
Your genuine
will explain y^our
Your conformity explains you have already
other genuine actions.
nothing. Act singly, and what
done singly appeals to
will justify
'the future.
If
you now. I
Greatness
can be firm enough
to-day to do right and scorn eyes,
I
must have
me done so much right before as now. Be it how it will, do right now. Always scorn appearances and you always may. The to defend
force of character
is
cumulative.
All the fore-
gone days of virtue work their health into this. What makes the majesty of the heroes of the senate and the field, which so fills the imagination
?
The
consciousness of a train of great
days and victories behind. They shed a united light on the advancing actor. He is attended as by a visible escort of angels. That is it which
throws thurfder into Chatham's voice, and dignity into
Washington's port, and America into
;
SELF-RELIANCE
6o
Adams's eye. Honor is venerable to us because It is always ancient virtue. it is no ephemera.
We
worship
We
day.
it
love
to-day because it
and pay
it
it
is
not of to-
homage because
it
is not a trap for our love and homage, but is self-dependent, self-derived, and therefore of
an old immaculate pedigree, even
if
shown
in a
young person. days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency. Let the words
hope
I
in these
be gazetted and ridiculous henceforward. stead of the
gong
from the Spartan
tle
and apologize more.
my
eat at I
house.
In-
for dinner, let us hear a whis-
I
fife.
Let us never bow
A great
man
is
coming
wish that he should wish to please me.
will
to
do not wish to please him I
stand here for humanity, and though I
would make it kind, I would make it true. Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom and trade and office, the fact which is the upshot of all history, that there
is
a great responsible
Actor working wherever a true
but is
man is
;
that a
belongs to no other time or place,
the centre of things.
nature.
Thinker and
man works
He
Where
measures you and
he
all
is,
there
men and
SELF-RELIANCE all
Ordinarily, every
events.
reminds us of somewhat
body
else, or
thing else
;
it
in society
of some other
Character, reality, reminds
person.
you of no-
takes place of the whole creation.
The man must all
6i
be so
much
must make Every true man
that he
circumstances indifferent.
and an age; requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to acand posterity seem to complish his design;
is
a cause, a country,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
A man
follow his steps as a train of clients. Caesar
born, and for ages after
is
Roman
Empire.
Christ
is
we have
a
born, and millions
of minds so grow and cleave to his genius that
he
is
man.
confounded with virtue and the possible of An institution is the lengthened shadow
man
Monachism, of the Hermit Antony; the Reformation, of Luther; QuakerMethodism, of Wesley Aboliism, of Fox of one
;
as,
;
tion,
;
of Clarkson.
height of
Rome
;
Scipio,
" and
all
Milton called "the
history resolves itself
very easily into the biography of a few stout
and earnest persons.' Let a man then know his worth, and keep Let him not peep or
things under his feet. steal,
orjkulk up and down with the
air
of a
charity-boy, a bastard, or an interlaper in the-
world which
exists for
him.
But the man
in the
62
SELF-RELIANCE
street, finding
no worth
in himself
sponds to the force which tured a marble god, feels
which corre-
tower or sculppoor when he looks
built a
on these. To him a palace, a statue, or a costly book have an alien and forbidding air, much like a gay equipage, and seem to say like that, " Who are you. Sir ? " Yet they all are his, suitors for his notice, petitioners to his faculties that
they will come out and take possession. The picture waits for my verdict; it is not to com-
mand me,
but
I
am
to settle
its
claims to praise.
That popular fable of the sot who was picked up dead -drunk in the street, carried to the duke's house, washed and dressed and laid
in
the duke's bed, and, on his waking, treated with all
obsequious ceremony like the duke, and
sured that he had been insane, owes larity to
the fact that
it
its
as-
popu-
symbolizes so well the
but
of man, who is in the world a sort of sot, now and then wakes up, exercises his reason
and
finds himself a true prince.'
state
Our reading is mendicant and sycophantic. In history our imagination plays us fal^er"King-
dom and
lordship,
power and
estate, are a gau-
John and Edward in a small house and common day's work; but the things of life are the same to both; the sum dier vocabulary than private
SELF-RELIANCE total
of both
is
Why
the same.
63 all this
defer-
ence to Alfred and Scanderbeg and Gustavus
?
Suppose they were virtuous did they wear out virtue ? As great a stake depends on your pri;
vate act to-day as followed their public and
renowned
When
steps.
private
men
shall act
with original views, the lustre will be transferred
from the actions of kings to those of gentlemen. The world has been instructed by its kings,
who have It has
so magnetized the eyes of nations.
been taught by
this colossal
symbol the
due from man to man. The joyful loyalty with which men have every-
mutual reverence that
is
where suffered the king, the noble, or the great
among them by a law of his scale of men and things and pay for benefits not with money
proprietor to walk
own, make
his
reverse theirs,
own
but with honor, and represent the law in his person, was the hieroglyphic by which they obscurely signified their consciousness of their right
own
and comeliness, the right of every man.
The magnetism which erts is explained self-trust.
Who
when we is
all
original action ex-
inquire the reason of
the Trustee
?
What
is
the
on which a universal reliance may be grounded ? What is the nature and power of that science-baffling star, without paraboriginal Self,
SELF-RELIANCE
64 allax,
without calculable elements, which shoots
a ray of beauty even into trivial and impure actions, if the least
pear
The
?
mark of independence ap-
inquiry leads us to that source, at
once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life,
which we
denote all
this
call
In that deep
tuitions.'
analysis cannot
behind which
things find their
all
common
origin.
the sense of being which in calm hours
know
not how, in the soul,
things,
from space, from
We
as Intuition, whilst
primary wisdom
later teachings are
force, the last fact
go,
Spontaneity or Instinct.
For
rises,
we
not diverse from
is
light,
from time, from
man, but one with them and proceeds obviously from the same source whence their life and being also proceed. We first share the life by which things exist and afterwards see them as appearances in nature and forget that we have shared their cause.
of thought.
Here Here
is
the fountain of action and
are the lungs of that inspi-
ration which giveth
man wisdom and which
cannot be denied without jmpiety and atheism.
We lie in the lap of immense makes us
receivers of
its activity.
its
When we
discern truth,
intelligence,
truth and organs of
discern justice,
we do nothing of
allow a passage to
its
which
beams.
If
when we
ourselves, but
we ask whence
SELF-RELIANCE we seek
comes,
if
that causes,
all
sence or
absence
this
man
its
pry into the souZ
to
philosophy is all
65
at fault.
is
we can
Its pre-
Every
affirm.
discriminates between the voluntary acts
of his mind and his involuntary perceptions,
and knows that to perfect faith
his involuntary perceptions a
He may err
due.
is
sion of them, but he are so, like
My ing
;
emotion,
in the expres-'
that these things
day and night, not to be disputed.
wilful actions
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the
knows
idlest
and acquisitions are but rovthe
reverie,
command my
native
faintest
and
curiosity
Thoughtless people contradict
respect.
readily the
as
statement of perceptions as of opinions, or rather
much more
do not distinguish
readily; for they
between perception and notion.
They
fancy
that I choose to see this or that thing. perceptioji
a
trait,
my
is
not whimsical, but
children will see
course of time
all
perception of
If
it
is
as
after
it
before me.
much
But I see
me, and
it
mankind, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; although
chance that no one has seen
my
fatal.
it
in
may For
a fact as the
sun.'
The
relations of the soul to the divine spirit
are so pure that
pose helps.
It
it is
profane to seek to inter-
must be
that
when God speak-
eth he should communicate, not one thing, but
SELF-RELIANCE
66 all
things; should
fill
the world with his voice;
should scatter forth light, nature, time, from the centre of the present thought
souls, ;
and
Whenever
new date and new create the whole. mind is simple and receives a divine wisdom,
a
old things pass away,
temples
fall
it
;
lives
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; means,
now, and absorbs past and All things are
future into the present hour.
made
sacred
another.
by
teachers, texts,
relation to
it,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; one
as
much
as
All things are dissolved to their centre
by their cause, and in the universal miracle petty and particular miracles disappear. If therefore a
man
claims to
know and speak of God
you backward
carries
to the
and
phraseology of some
old mouldered nation in another country,
another world, believe him not. better than the
pletion
whom
?
oak which
is its
Is the parent better
Is the acorn
fulness
?
are conspirators against the sanity
Time and
into
?
Whence
The
centuries
he has cast his ripened being
of the soul.
and com-
than the child
then this worship of the past
in
and authority
space are but physiolo-
which the eye makes, but the soul is where it is, is day; where it was, is night;
gical colors
light
:
and history
an impertinence and an injury if it be any thing more than a cheerful apologue or parable of my being and becoming. is
;
SELF-RELIANCE
Man upright
is ;
timid and apologetic
he dares not say
'
I
quotes some saint or sage."
;
67
he
He
no longer
is
think,'
'
ashamed be-
is
the blade of grass or the blowing rose.
fore
These
roses under
my window make
no
ence to former roses or to better ones for
what they are
There rose
;
ence. acts
;
in. the is
am,' but
I
is
no time
it is
There
to them.
perfect in every
is
moment
root there
and
it
satisfies
is
no
of
its
exist-
whole
life
no more
is
Its nature
less.
nature in
to-day.
simply the
its
in the full-blown flower there leafless
they are
;
God
they exist with
Before a leaf-bud has burst,
satisfied
alike.
;
refer-
all
moments
But man postpones or remembers
;
he
does not live in the present, but with reverted
eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands
the future.
He
on
tiptoe to foresee
cannot be happy and strong
until he too lives with nature in the present,
above time. This should be plain enough. Yet see what strong intellects dare not yet hear
God
unless he speak the phraseology of
I
himself
know
not
what David, or Jeremiah, or Paul. We shall not always set so great a price on a few texts, on a few
lives.
We
are like children
who
repeat
by
rote the sentences of grandames and tutors, and.
SELF-RELIANCE
68 as they
grow
older, of the
men
character they chance to see,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
of talents and painfully recol-
words they spoke; afterwards,) when they come into the point of view which those had who uttered these sayings, they understand them and are willing to let the words go for at any time they can use words as good lecting the exact
;
when
occasion comes. It is
see truly.
strong, as
it is
we have new
If
we
live truly,
we
shall
man to be weak. When
as easy for the strong
for the
weak we
perception,
to be
shall gladly disbur-
den the memory of its hoarded treasures as old rubbish. When a man lives with God, his voice be as sweet as the
shall
and the
murmur of the
brook
rustle of the corn.
And now at last the
highest truth on this sub-
ject remains unsaid; probably cannot be said;
we say is the far-off remembering of the intuition. That thought by what I can now
for all that
nearest approach to say is is
it, is
this.
When
good
when you have life in yourself, it not by any known or accustomed way you near you,
;
shall
you
not discern the footprints of any other;
shall
not see the face of
hear any name; shall
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
man you ;
shall not
the way, the thought, the good,,
be wholly strange and new.
clude example and experience.
It shall ex-
You
take the
SELF-RELIANCE
69
way from man, not
to
ever existed are
forgotten ministers.
and hope are is
in
Fear
There is somehope. In the hour of vision
alike beneath
what low even there
its
man. All persons that
it.
nothing that can be called gratitude, nor
properly joy.
The
soul raised over passion be-
holds identity and eternal causation, perceives
Truth and Right, and calms all things go well. Vast spaces of nature, the Atlantic Ocean, the South the self-existence of
knowing
itself with
Sea
;
that
long intervals of time, years, centuries, are
of no account. This which
I
think and
derlay every former state of stances, as is
called
it
life
does underlie
and what
is
feel
un-
and circum-
life
my present, and
what
called death.
Life only avails, not the having lived. ceases in the instant of repose
moment of transition from
;
it
Power
resides in the
new
a past to a
state,
in the shooting of the gulf, in the darting to an
aim.
This one
soul becomes
turns
all
;
fact the
world hates
;
that the
for that forever degrades the past,
riches to poverty,
shame, confounds the
all
reputation to a
saint with the rogue, shoves
Why then do we Inasmuch as the soul is be power not confident but
Jesus and Judas equally aside. prate of self-reliance
present there will agent.'
To
?
talk of reliance
is
a
poor external
SELF-RELIANCE
70
way of speaking. Speak
rather of that which works and is. Who has more obedience than I masters me, though he should not raise his finger. Round him I must revolve relies
because
it
by the gravitation of spirits. We fancy it rhetoric when we speak of eminent virtue. We do not yet see that virtue is Height, and that a man or a company of men, plastic and permeable to principles, by the law of nature must overpower and ride all cities, nations, kings, rich men, poets,
who
are not.
This
the ultimate fact which
we so quickly reach on this, as on every topic, the resolution of all into the ever-blessed One. Self-existence is
the attribute of the
Supreme Cause, and
it
constitutes the measure of good by the degree
in
is
which
it
enters into
all
lower forms.
All things
so by so much virtue as they contain. Commerce, husbandry, hunting, whaling, war, real are
eloquence, personal weight, are somewhat, and my respect as examples of its presence
engage
and impure action.
I
is,
same law working and growth. Power
see the
in nature for conservation in nature, the essential
measure of right.
Na-
ture suffers nothing to remain in her kingdoms:
which cannot help ration of a planet,
itself. its
The
genesis and matu-
poise and orbit, the bended
SELF-RELIANCE tree recovering itself vital
71
from the strong wind, the
resources of every animal and vegetable, are
demonstrations of the self-sufficing and therefore self-relying soul.
Thus all sit at home
concentrates: let us not rove
institutions
divine
fact.
let
us
with the cause.' Let us stun and as-
tonish the intruding rabble of
and
;
by
men and books
a simple declaration of the
Bid the invaders take the shoes from
off their feet, for
God
simplicity judge them,
own law demonstrate
is
here within.
and our
Let our
docility to
our
the poverty of nature and
fortune beside our native riches.
But now we are a mob. Man does not stand awe of man, nor is his genius admonished to stay at home, to put itself in communication in
with the internal ocean, but
it
goes abroad to
beg a cup of water of the urns of other men.
We
must go
alone.
I like
the silent church be-
any preach-
fore the service begins, better than ing.
How
far off,
how
cool,
how
chaste the
persons look, begirt each one with a precinct or sanctuary
!
we assume
So
let
us always
sit.
Why
should
the faults of our friend, or wife, or
father, or child, because they
hearth, or are said to have the
men have my blood and
sit
around our
same blood
I all
men's.
?
Not
All for
SELF-RELIANCE
72
that will I adopt their petulance or folly, even to the extent of being
ashamed of
But your
it.'
must not be mechanical, but spiritAt times the is, must be elevation.
isolation ual, that
whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
Come come not out unto us.' But keep thy state into their confusion. The power men possess at
once
at
thy closet door and say,
'
;
to
annoy me
No man "
I
give them by a
weak
curiosity.
come near me but through my act. love that we have, but by desire we
can
What we
bereave ourselves of the love."
we cannot obedience and If
temptations
;
at
once
rise to
us at least
faith, let
let
the sanctities of resist our
us enter into the state of war
and wake Thor and Woden, courage and
con-
Saxon breasts. This is to be done smooth times by speaking the truth. Check this lying hospitality and lying affection. Live no longer to the expectation of these deceived and deceiving people with whom we stancy, in our
in our
Say
converse. wife,
you 1
O
after
am
to
them,
brother,
O
'
O
father,
friend, I
appearances hitherto.
the truth's.
Be
it
O
mother,
have lived
with
Henceforward
known unto you
that
SELF-RELIANCE henceforward nal law.
I will
I shall
ties.
to support
less
than the eter-
have no covenants but proximi-
my
parents,
to be the chaste
husband
endeavor to nourish
my family,
of one wife, after a
obey no law
I
73
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but
these relations
I
must
new and unprecedented way.
I
fill
appeal
from your customs. I must be myself. 1 cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. If you can love the happier.
If
me
what
for
you
cannot,
deserve that you should.
I
am, we
shall be
seek to
I will still
I will
not hide
my
so trust that what
tastes or aversions.
I will
deep
do strongly before the inly rejoices me and If you are noble, I will love
is
holy, that
sun and
;
if
I will
moon whatever
the heart appoints.
you
you
are not, I will not hurt
myself by hypocritical attentions. true,
is
you and
If you are
but not in the same truth with me, cleave
to
your companions
do
this
;
I will
seek
my
own.
not selfishly but humbly and truly.
I
It
alike your interest, and mine, and all men's, however long we have dwelt in lies, to live in truth. Does this sound harsh to-day ? You will soon love what is dictated by your nature as well as mine, and if we follow the truth it But so may will bring us out safe at last.' is
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
you give these
friends pain.
Yes, but
I
cannot
SELF-RELIANCE
74 sell
my
liberty
and
Besides,
sensibility.
my all
power, to save their persons have their mo-
ments of reason, when they look out into region of absolute truth
then will they justify
;
me and do the same thing. The populace think that your popular standards
is
a rejection of
and mere antinomianism alist will
use the
are
;
rejection of all
standard,
and the bold sensu-
name of philosophy
to gild
But the law of consciousness abides.
his crimes.
There
the
two confessionals,
of which we must
in
be shriven.
one or the
other
You may
fulfil
your round of duties by clearing yourself in the the reflex way. Consider whether you have satisfied your relations to father, mo-
direct, or in
neighbor, town, cat and dog
ther, cousin,
whether any of these can upbraid you.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
But
1
may also neglect this reflex standard and absolve me to myself. I have my own stern claims and It denies the
perfect circle.
many
name of duty
offices that are called duties.
discharge
its
debts
it
enables
me
But
to
if I can
to dispense
If any one imagines him keep its command-
with the popular code. that this law
ment one
And
is
lax, let
day.'
truly
him who has
it
demands something godlike
cast off the
common
motives
in
of
!
SELF-RELIANCE humanity and has ventured
High be
a taskmaster.
will, clear his sight, that
75
to trust himself for
his heart, faithful
may
he
in
his
good earnest
be doctrine, society, law, to himself, that a simple
purpose may be to him
as strong as iron neces-
sity is to others
If any
man
consider the present aspects of
what is called by distinction society, he will see the need of these ethics. The sinew and heart of man seem to be drawn out, and we are be-
come timorous, desponding whimperers.
We
are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of
death, and afraid of each other.
no great and perfect persons.
women who state,
Our
age yields
We want men and
shall renovate life
and our
social
but we see that most natures are insol-
vent, cannot satisfy their
ambition out of
all
own
wants, have an
proportion to their practical
and do lean and beg day and night continually. Our housekeeping is mendicant, our
force
arts,
our occupations, our marriages, our religion
we have not us.
chosen, but society has chosen for
We are parlor soldiers. We shun the rugged
battle of fate,
If our
where strength
young men miscarry
terprises they lose all heart.
chant
is
fails,
men
say he
is
born. in their first en-
If the
ruined.
young merIf the finest
SELF-RELIANCE
76
genius studies at one of our colleges and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or suburbs of it
seems to
his friends
Boston or
and
right in being disheartened
the rest of his
life.
A
New
York,
to himself that he
and
in
sturdy lad from
Hampshire or Vermont, who
is
complaining
New
in turn tries
all
who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, the professions,
goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years,
like a cat falls on
worth a hundred of these city dolls.' walks abreast with his days and feels no
his feet,
He
and always
shame
is
in
not
'
studying a profession,' for he
does not postpone his
He has
life,
but lives already.
not one chance, but a hundred chances.
Let a Stoic open the resources of
men
man and
tell
they are not leaning willows, but can and
must detach themselves that with the exercise of self-trust, new powers shall appear that a man is the word made flesh, born to shed healing to the nations that he should be ashamed of our compassion, and that the moment he ;
;
;
acts
from himself, tossing the laws, the books,
and customs out of the window, we him no more but thank and revere him; and that teacher shall restore the life of man
idolatries
pity
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
SELF-RELIANCE to
make
splendor and
his
77
name
dear to
all
history. It
is
easy to see that a greater self-reliance
must work education living
;
;
and
a revolution in all the offices
men
relations of
in
in their religion
;
their pursuits
their association
;
their
in their
;
;
in
their
modes of
property
;
in
their speculative views.
In what prayers do
I.
That which they
much
as
call
men
brave and manly.
and asks
for
some
allow themselves
holy
a
office
is
!
not so
Prayer looks abroad
foreign addition to
through some foreign virtue, and loses
come
itself in
endless mazes of natural and supernatural, and
mediatorial and miraculous.
good,
is
vicious.
the facts of It
is
Prayer that craves
commodity, anything
a particular
life
Prayer
is
less
than
all
the contemplation of
from the highest point of view.
the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant
It is the spirit of God pronouncing his works good. But prayer as a means to effect a private end is meanness and theft. It supposes dualism and not unity in nature and consciousness. As soon as the man is at one with God, he will not beg. He will then see prayer in all
soul.
action.
The
his field to
prayer of the farmer kneeling in
weed
it,
the prayer of the rower
;
SELF-RELIANCE
78
kneeling with the stroke of his oar, are true prayers heard throughout nature, though for
cheap ends.' duca,"
when
Caratach, in
replies,
His hidden meaning
Another Discontent
"Bonmind
admonished to inquire the
of the god Audate, Our
Fletcher's
lies
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
in our endeavors
valors are our best gods.
sort of false prayers are our regrets. is the^ want of^self-reliance
Regret calamities
firmity of will.
if not,
thereby help the sufferer;
it is in-
:
if
you
can
attend your
own work and already the evil begins to be repaired. Our sympathy is just as base. We come to them who weep foolishly and sit down and cry for company, instead of imparting to them truth and health in rough electric shocks, putting
them once more
their
own
In
our hands.
men
is
communication with
the self-helping man.
are flung wide
crown,
in
The secret of fortune Is Welcome evermore to gods
reason.
all
;
him
all
For him
tongues greet,
eyes follow with desire.
all
all
joy
and
doors
honors
Our
love
goes out to him and embraces him because he it. We solicitously and apologetiand celebrate him because he held way and scorned our disapprobation.
did not need cally caress
on
his
The gods
love
him because men hated
him.
SELF-RELIANCE "
To
79
the persevering mortal," said Zoroaster,
" the blessed Immortals are
As men's
swift."
prayers are a disease of the will, so
are their creeds a disease of the intellect.
say with those foolish Israelites,
speak to us,
lest
we
die.
'
They God
Let not
Speak, thou, speak any
man with us, and we will obey.' Everywhere I am hindered of meeting God in my brother, because he has shut his own temple doors and recites
merely of his brother's, or
fables
brother's brother's
new
classification.
mon a
activity
Hutton,
a
classification
his
God. Every new mind is a If it prove a mind of uncom-
and power, a Locke, a Lavoisier, Bentham, a Fourier, it imposes its on other men, and lo a new sys!
tem. In proportion to the depth of the thought,
and so to the number of the objects it touches and brings within reach of the pupil, is his
But
complacency.
chiefly
is
this
apparent in
creeds and churches, which are also classifications
of some powerful mind acting on the elemen-, tal
thought of duty and man's relation to the
Highest.
Such
denborgism.
is
Calvinism, Quakerism, Swe-
The
pupil takes the same delight
in subordinating every thing to the
nology as a seeing a
girl
new
who
new
termi-
has just learned botany in
earth and
new seasons
thereby.
SELF-RELIANCE
8o
happen
It will
for a time that the pupil
will
find his intellectual power has grown by the study of his master's mind. But in all unbalanced minds the classification is idolized, passes for the end and not for a speedily exhaustible
means, so that the walls of the system blend to their eye in the
the universe
remote horizon with the walls of
the luminaries of heaven
;
seem
to
They
them hung on the arch their master cannot imagine how you aliens have any right to see, how you can see; It must be somehow that you stole the light from us.' They do not yet perceive that light, unsystematic, inbuilt.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
'
domitable, will break into any cabin, even into theirs."
own.
Let them chirp awhile and
their neat will
new
pinfold will be too strait and low,
and vanish, and young and joyful, million-
crack, will lean, will rot
the Immortal light,
all
orbed, million-colored, will verse as 2.
call it their
If they are honest and do well, presently
It
on the is
perstition
beam over
the uni-
morning. want of self-culture that the suof Travelling, whose idols are Italy, first
for
England, Egypt, retains educated Americans.
its
fascination for
all
They who made Eng-
land, Italy, or Greece venerable in the imagination, did so
by sticking
fast
where they were.
SELF-RELIANCE
In manly hours we
like an axis of the earth. feel that
duty
eller; the wise
man
stays at
necessities, his duties,
from
his
home
still
The
our place.
is
8i
soul
no
is
trav-
home, and when
on any occasion
call
house, or into foreign lands, he
and
shall
make men
sensible
his
him is
at
by the
expression of his countenance that he goes, the
missionary of wisdom and virtue, and
and men
like a sovereign
and not
visits cities
like an inter-
loper or a valet. I
have no churlish objection to the circum-
navigation of the globe for the purposes of
of study, and benevolence, so that the
art,
man
is
domesticated, or does not go abroad with
first
the hope of finding
knows.
He who
somewhat greater than he
travels to be
amused, or to get
somewhat which he does not carry, travels away from himself, and grows old even in youth
among will
old things. In Thebes, in Palmyra, his and mind have become old and dilapidated
as they.
He
carries ruins to ruins.
Travelling
is
a fool's paradise.
Our
first jour-
neys discover to us the indifference of places.
At home
I
dream that
at
Naples,
at
can be intoxicated with beauty and lose ness.
I
pack
my
trunk, embrace
bark on the sea and
at last
Rome,
I
my sad-
my friends, em-
wake up
in
Naples,
SELF-RELIANCE
82
me
and there beside self,
is
the stern fact, the sad
unrelenting, identical, that
I fled
seek the Vatican and the palaces.
from.
I
I affect to be
intoxicated with sights and suggestions, but
am
not intoxicated.
wherever 3.
of a
My
I
me
giant goes with
I go.'
But the rage of travelling is a symptom deeper unsoundness affecting the whole
The
intellectual action.
intellect
is
vagabond,
and our system of Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to and what is imitastay at home. We imitate tion but the travelling of the mind? Our houses education fosters restlessness.
;
are built with foreign taste; our shelves are gar-
nished with foreign ornaments
our
tastes,
our
faculties,
Past and the Distant.
our opinions, and follow the
;
lean,
The
soul created the
wherever they have flourished.
own mind
It
was
arts
in his
that the artist sought his model.
was an application of
his
own thought
It
to the
thing to be done and the conditions to be observed.
And why
Gothic model
?
need we copy the Doric or the
Beauty, convenience, grandeur
of thought and quaint expression are as near us as td any, and
if
the American artist
will
study with hope and love the precise thing be done by him, considering the
climate, the
to
to
soil,
;
SELF-RELIANCE
83
the length of the day, the wants of the people, the habit and form of the government, he will
house in which
create a
and
selves fitted,
all
these will find them-
and sentiment
taste
be
will
satisfied also.
on yourself; never
Insist
imitate.
Your own
you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation
gift
but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession.
which each can do teach him. can,
till
best,
No man
none but
yet
his
knows what
that person has exhibited
That
Maker can
it.
it is,
nor
Where
is
who could have taught Shakspeare ? who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton ? Every great man is a unique. The Scipthe master
Where
is
the master
ionism of Scipio not borrow.'
is
precisely that part he could
Shakspeare
will
Do
the study of Shakspeare.
never be made by that which
is
as-
much or moment for
signed you, and you cannot hope too dare too much.
There
is
at this
you an utterance brave and grand
as that
of the
colossal chisel of Phidias, or trowel of the
Egyp-
tians, or the
pen of Moses or Dante,, but
differ-
ent from
all
these.
rich,
all
all
Not
possibly will the soul,
eloquent, with thousand
-
cloven
SELF-RELIANCE
84
tongue, deign to repeat
itself;
but
if
hear what these patriarchs say, surely
them
reply to
in the
you you
same pitch of voice
;
can can for
the ear and the tongue are two organs of one
Abide in the simple and noble regions obey thy heart, and thou shalt reproduce the Foreworld again. nature.
of thy
life,
As our
4.
Religion, our Education, our Art
look abroad, so does our
men plume
one side
as
it
christianized,
change
;
it is
it is
new
It
barbarous, rich,
it is
undergoes
it is civilized,
scientific
;
but
not amelioration. For every thing
given something
is
quires
is
It recedes as fast on
gains on the other.
continual changes
that
All
themselves on the improvement of
Society never advances.
this
of society.
and no man improves.
society,
it is
spirit
arts
and
is
taken.
Society
loses old instincts.
ac-
What
a
contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing,
thinking American, with a watch, a pencil and bill
a
of exchange in his pocket, and the naked
New
Zealander, whose property
is
a club, a
mat and an undivided twentieth of a shed to sleep under But compare the health of the two men and you shall see that the white spear, a
!
man
has lost his aboriginal strength.
If the
traveller tell us truly, strike the savage with
a
SELF-RELIANCE
85
broad-axe and In a day or two the flesh unite and heal as
shall
you struck the blow into and the same blow shall send the
soft pitch,
if
white to his grave.
The
civilized
man
use of his
lost the
He
feet.
crutches, but lacks so
He
has built a coach, but has
supported on
Is
much support of
muscle.
Geneva watch, but he fails of the skill to tell the hour by the sun. A Greenwich nautical almanac he has, and so being sure of the Information when he wants It, the man In has a fine
the street does not solstice
knows
know
as little
of the year
Is
The
the equinox he
;
and the whole bright calendar
;
without a dial In his mind.
note-books impair overload his wit the
a star in the sky.
he does not observe
;
memory
his
;
his
His
libraries
the insurance-office increases
number of accidents
;
and
it
may
be a ques-
not encumber, by refinement some
tion whether machinery does
whether we have not
lost
energy, by a Christianity, entrenched In estab-
lishments and forms, some vigor of wild virtue.'
For every
dom
Stoic was a Stoic
where
There
is
is
the Christian
;
but in Christen-
?
no more deviation
in
the moral
standard than in the standard of height or bulk.
No
greater
men
are
now
than ever were.
A
SELF-RELIANCE
86
singular equality
men
great
can
all
of the
the
may first
be observed between the and of the last ages nor ;
and philosophy
science, art, religion,
of the nineteenth century avail to educate greater men than Plutarch's heroes, three or four and
Not in time is the race pro-
twenty centuries ago.
gressive. Phocion, Socrates,
Anaxagoras, Dioge-
nes, are great.men, but they leave no
who
is
their
of their
really
name, but
will
class will
be his
turn the founder of a sect.
He
class.
not be called by
own man, and
The
arts
in his
and inven-
its costume and do men. The harm of the improved machinery may compensate its good. Hudson and Behring accomplished so much in their fishing-boats as to astonish Parry and Frank-
tions of each period are only
not invigorate
lin,
whose equipment exhausted the
oi science and
resources
Galileo, with an opera-glass,
art.
discovered a more splendid series of
celestial
phenomena than any one since. Columbus found the New World in an undecked boat. It
is
curious to see the periodical disuse and
perishing of means and machinery which were
introduced with loud laudation a few years centuries before. essential
of the
man.
art
The
We
of war
great genius returns
or to
reckoned the improvements
among
the triumphs of science,
SELF-RELIANCE
87
and yet Napoleon conquered Europe by the bivouac, which consisted of falling back on naked valor and disencumbering it of all aids.
The Emperor
held
perfect army, says
impossible to
it
make
a
Las Cases, " without abolish-
ing our arms, magazines, commissaries and carriages, until, in imitation
of the
Roman
custom,
the soldier should receive his supply of corn,
grind
and bake
in his hand-mill
it
his
bread
himself."
Society
is
a wave.
The wave moves
but the water of which
The same to
composed does
particle does not rise
the ridge.
The
it is
persons
Its
unity
onward,
is
who make up
not.
from the valley
only phenomenal. a
nation to-day,
next year die, and their experience dies with
them.
And
so the reliance
on Property, including
the reliance on governments which protect
it,
the want of self-reliance. Men have looked away from themselves and at things so long that they have come to esteem the religious, learned and civil institutions as guards of property, and they deprecate assaults on these, because they feel them to be assaults on property. They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is. But a is
SELF-RELIANCE
88
man becomes ashamed of
cultivated
perty, out of cially
accidental, gift,
ing;
new
he hates what he has
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; came
or crime it
to
then he
;
him and merely or no robber takes is,
Espe-
he see that
if
him by
it
is
inheritance, or
feels that
it is
not hav-
does not belong to him, has no root
in
no revolution But that which a
there because
lies
man
pro-
his
respect for his nature.
it
away.
does always by necessity acquire
;
and
what the man acquires, is living property, which does not wait the beck of rulers, or mobs, or revolutions, or
fire,
or storm, or bankruptcies,
but perpetually renews
"Thy
breathes.
Caliph Ali, "
is
itself
wherever the man
lot or portion
of
life," said the
seeking after thee
be at rest from seeking after
therefore
;
Our
it.'"
depen-
dence on these foreign goods leads us to our slavish respect for numbers. The political parties meet in numerous conventions the greater the concourse and with each new uproar of announcement. The delegation from Essex The Democrats from New Hampshire The Whigs ;
!
!
of Maine
the
!
young
patriot
feels
himself
new thousand of eyes manner the reformers sum-
stronger than before by a
and arms.
mon
In like
conventions and vote and resolve in mul-
titude.
Not
so,
O
friends
!
will the
God
deign
SELF-RELIANCE to enter
and inhabit you, but by
cisely the reverse. all
It
is
89 a
only as a
method
man
foreign support and stands alone that
him to be strong and to prevail. by every recruit to his banner. better
than a town
?
Ask
He
pre-
puts off
is
I
see
weaker
Is not a
man
nothing of men,
and, in the endless mutation, thou only firm
column must presently appear the upholder of all that surrounds thee. He who knows that power is inborn, that he is weak because he has looked for good out of him and elsewhere, and, so perceiving, throws himself unhesitatingly on his thought, instantly rights himself, stands in
commands his limbs, works miracles just as a man who stands on his feet is stronger than a man who stands on thfc^rect position, ;
his head.
So use all that is called Fortune. Most men gamble with her, and gain all, and lose all, as her wheel rolls. But do thou leave as unlawful these winnings, and deal with Cause and Effect, the chancellors of God. In the Will work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheel of Chance, and shall sit hereafter out of fear from her
rotations.
A
rents, the recovery
political
victory,
a rise
of
of your sick or the return
of your absent friend, or
some other
favorable
90
SELF-RELIANCE
event raises your
spirits,
and you think good
days are preparing for you.
Do
not believe
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph it.
of principles.
Ill
compensaticJn The
wings of Time are black and white.
Pied with morning and with night.
Mountain
and ocean deep
tall
Trembling balance duly keep. In changing moon, in
Glows
the feud of
Gauge of more and Electric star
The
plays.
lonely Earth amid the balls
makeweight
Supplemental
Or
wave.
through space
less
and pencil
That hurry through
A
tidal
Want and Have.
the eternal halls,
flying to the void.
asteroid.
compensatory spark.
Shoots across the neutral
DatL
;
90 e
Man 's
the elm, and
Wealth the vine.
Stanch and strong the tendrils twine
Though the frail ringlets None from its stock that
:
thee deceive. vine can reave.
Fear not, then, thou child infirm.
There
's
no god dare wrong a worm.
Laurel crowns cleave to deserts
And power
to
him who power
Hast not thy share
Lo
it
!
And
all
?
On
rushes thee to meet that
exerts
winged
feet,
;
Nature made thy own.
Floating in air or pent in stone.
Will rive the hiUs and swim the sea
And,
like
thy shadow, follow thee.
COMPENSATION EVER
boy I have wished to on Compensation for it me when very young that on this was ahead of theology and the peo-
since I was a
write a discourse
seemed
to
subject
life
ple
knew more than
;
the preachers taught.
The
documents too from which the doctrine is to be drawn, charmed my fancy by their endless variety, and lay always before me, even in sleep; for they are the tools in our hands, the bread in our basket, the transactions of the sfreet, the farm
and the dwelling - house
;
greetings, relations,
debts and credits, the influence of character, the
nature and to
me
endowment of
also that in
it
all
men.
It
seemed
might be shown men a ray
of divinity, the present action of the soul of
this
world, clean\ from
and
i
so the heart of
all jvesdge_of
man might
tradition
; '
be bathed by an in-
undation of eternal love, conversing with that
which he knows was always and always must be, because it really is now. It appeared moreover that if this doctrine could be stated in terms
with any resemblance to those bright intuitions in
which
this truth
would be
a star in
is
sometimes revealed to
us,
it
many dark hours and crooked
COMPENSATION
94
passages in our journey, that would not suffer
us to lose our way. I
Was
confirmed in these desires by
lately
The
hearing a sermon at church.
man esteemed
preacher, a
for his orthodoxy, unfolded in the
ordinary manner the doctrine of the Last Judg-
He
ment.
assumed that judgment
ecuted in this world
;
is
not ex-
that the wicked are suc-
and then good are miserable urged from reason and from Scripture a comcessful
;
that the
pensation to be life.
No
; '
made
to
both parties in the next
offence appeared to be taken by the
As
congregation at this doctrine.
far as I
could
observe when the meeting broke up they sepa-
on the sermon. Yet what was the import of this teaching ? What did the preacher mean by saying that the good are miserable in the present life ? Was it that houses and lands, offices, wine, horses, dress, luxury, are had by unprincipled men, whilst the saints are poor and despised and that a comrated without remark
;
pensation
is
to be
by giving them day,
made
to these last hereafter,
the like gratifications another
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; bank-stock and doubloons, venison and
champagne intended
;
?
for
This must be the compensation what else ? Is it that they are to
have leave to pray and praise
?
to love
and serve
COMPENSATION men
Why, that
?
We are to
have now
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
port,
'
;
'
You
or, to
push
legiti-
would draw was,
disciple
have such a good time
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
The
they can do now.
mate inference the '
95
it
to
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
as the sinners
extreme im-
its
now, we shall sin by and by ; now, if we could; not being sucsin
we would sin cessful we expect our revenge to-morrow.' The fallacy lay in the immense concession that the bad are successful
;
that justice
is
not
done now. The blindness of the preacher consisted in deferring to the base estimate of the market of what constitutes a manly success, instead of confronting and convicting the world
from the truth soul
;
;
announcing the presence of the
the omnipotence of the will
lishing the standard of
;
good and
and so estabill,
of success
and falsehood. 1
find a sit^ilar base tone in the popular reli-
gious works of the day and the same doctrines
assumed by the
literary
men when
occasionally
they treat the related topics.
I
think that our
popular theology has gained
in
decorum, an^
not in principle, over the superstitions placed.
But men
Their daily
life
it
has dis-
are better than their theology.
gives
it
the
lie.
Every ingenu-
ous and aspiring soul leaves the doctrine behind
him
in his
own
experience, and
all
men
feel
;
COMPENSATION
96
sometimes the falsehood which they cannot monstrate.
For men
de-
are wiser than they know."
That which they hear without afterthought,
and
in schools if
said
pulpits
conversation
in
would probably be questioned in silence. If a man dogmatize in a mixed company on Providence and the divine laws, he is answered by a silence which conveys well enough to an observer the dissatisfaction of the hearer, but incapacity to I shall ter''
make
attempt
to record
his
own
in this
some
and the following chap-
facts that indicate the path
of the lawof Compensation expectation
of this
truly
if I shall
happy beyond my draw the smallest arc ;
circle.
Polarity, or action
every part of nature heat and cold in
his
statement.
;
;
reaction,
in darkness
in the
male and fÂťmale
ration of plants
;
and
we meet
and
light
;
in in
ebb and flow of waters
in the inspiration
and animals
;
and
expi-
in the equation of
quantity and quality in the fluids of the animal
body
;
in the systole
and
diastole of the heart
in the undulations of fluids
and of sound
the centrifugal and centripetal gravity tricity,
galvanism, and chemical
;
in
;
in elec-
affinity.
Super-
induce magnetism at one end of a needle,
the
;
COMPENSATION
97
opposite magnetism takes place at the other end.
If the south attracts, the north repels.
empty
here,
you must condense
evitable dualism
thing
is
make
it
a half,
whole;
odd, even
under
bisects
matter
;
man, woman
subjective, objective; in. out
;
Whilst thewgrld of its parts.
The
upper,
;
yea, nay.'
;
is^thus^ualj^^so^is
system ^f
entire
everyone
thi ngs
There
represented in every particle.
is
g ets some-
what that resembles the ebb and flow of the
day and
night,
in-
that each
nature, so
and suggests another thing to as, spirit,
motion, rest
;
An
there.
To
man and woman,
sea,
a single
in
needle of the pine, in a kernel of corn, in each individual of every animal tribe.
so grand in the elements, these
small boundaries.
is
The
reaction,
repeated within
For example,
in
the
animal kingdom the physiologist has observed that
no creatures
are
favorites,
compensation balances every fect.
gift
but a certain
and every de-
A surplusage given to one part
is
paid out
of a reduction from another part of the same creature.
If the head and neck are enlarged,
the trunk and extremities are cut short.
The
theory of the mechanic forces
example.
What we
gain in power
time, and the converse.
The
is is
another lost in
periodic or
com-
;
COMPENSATION
98
pensating errors of the planets is another instance. The influences of climate and soil in political
history
invigorates.
is
The
The
another.
cold climate
barren soil does not breed
fevers, crocodiles, tigers or scorpions.
The same
dualism underlies the nature and
Every excess causes a defect every defect an excess. Every sweet hath its sour every evil its good. Every faculty which condition of man.
;
is
a receiver of pleasure has an equal penalty put
on
abuse.
its
It
is
to answer for its moderation
For every grain of wit there is a grain of folly. For every thing you have missed, you have gained something else and for every with
its
life.
;
thing you gain,
you
lose something.
them.
If
much, Nature takes
out
increase, they are increased that use
the gatherer gathers too
of the
man what
she puts into his chest
the estate, but kills the owner.
monopolies and exceptions.
;
swells
Nature
The waves
do not more speedily seek
_sea
If riches
a level
hate s
of th e
from
their
loftiest tossing than the varieties of condition
tend to equalize themselves.
some
There
levelling circumstance that puts
is
always
down
the
overbearing, the strong, the rich, the fortunate, substantially Is a
man
on the same ground with
all others.
too strong and fierce for society and
COMPENSATION by temper and position
a
bad
99
citizen,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
rose ruffian, with a dash of the pirate in
Nature sends him daughters
who
a troop of pretty sons
them smooths
Thus
mo?
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
and
are getting along in the dame's
classes at the village school,
for
a
him
his
and love and
fear
grim scowl to courtesy.
she contrives to intenerate the granite and
felspar, takes the
boar out and puts the lamb in
and keeps her balance
The
true.'
power and place are fine But the President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace, and the best of his manly attributes. farnier imagines
things.
To
preserve for a short time so conspicuous an
appearance before the world, he
is
content to eat
who stand erect Or do men desire the more
dust before the real masters
behind the throne.
and permanent grandeur of genius?
substantial
Neither has of
will or
this
an immunity.
of thought
is
He who by force
great
and overlooks
thousands, has the charges of that eminence.
With every influx of light comes new danger. Has he light ? he must bear witness to the light, and always outrun that sympathy which gives him such keen satisfaction, by his fidelity to new revelations of the incessant soul. -He must hate father and mother, wife and child. Has he all
COMPENSATION
100
that the world loves and admires
he must cast behind him
and covets
?
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
their admiration and
them by faithfulness to his truth and become byword and a hissing. This law writes the laws of cities and nations. It is in vain to build or plot or combine against Things refuse to be mismanaged long. Res it. nolunt diu male administrari. Though no checks to a new evil appear, the checks exist, and will appear. If the government is cruel, the governor's life is not safe. If you tax too high, the revenue will yield nothing. If you make the afflict
a
criminal code sanguinary, juries will not convict. If the law in.
is
too mild, private vengeance comes
If the government
the pressure
is
ergy in the citizen, and
The
flame.
seem
true
to elude the
is
life
and
life
a terrific democracy,
by an over-charge of en-
resisted
glows with a
fiercer
satisfactions of
utmost rigors or
man
felicities of
condition and to establish themselves with great indifferency under
Under ter
all
all
varieties of circumstances.
governments the influence of charac-
remains the same,
England about
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
alike.
in Turkey and in New Under the primeval des-
pots of Egypt, history honestly confesses
man must have been make him.
that
as free as culture could
COMPENSATION These appearances universe
is
loi
indicate the fact that the
represented in every one of
its
par-
Every thing in nature contains all the Every thing is made of one
ticles.
powers of nature.
hidden stuff; as the naturalist sees one type under every metamorphosis, and regards a horse as a running man, a fish as a swimming man, a
man, a tree as a rooted man. Each new form repeats not only the main char-
bird as a flying
acter of the type, but part for part all the details,
the aims, furtherances, hindrances, energies
all
Every occupation, trade, art, transaction, is a compend of the world and a correlative of every other. Each and whole system of every other.
one
is
an entire
good and its
end.
ill, its
And
emblem of human trials, its
enemies,
each one must
modate the whole man and
life
;
of
its
course and
its
somehow accom-
recite all his destiny.
The world globes itself in a drop of dew.' The microscope cannot find the animalcule which is
less perfect for
being
little.
Eyes,
smell, motion, resistance, appetite,
ears, taste,
and organs
of reproduction that take hold on eternity, all
find
room
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
to consist in the small creature.
So do we put our life into every act. The true doctrine of omnipresence is that God reappears with all his parts, in every moss and. cobweb.
COMPENSATION
102
The
value of the universe contrives to throw
itself into is
the evil
If the good
every point.
is
there, so
the affinity, so the repulsion
if
;
if
;
the force, so the limitation.
Thus
All things
the universe alive.
is
That soul which within us
moral.
ment, outside of us
is
We
a law.
is
are
a senti-
feel its inspi-
but there in history we can see its fatal strength. " It is in the world, and the world was ration
;
made by
Justice
it."
fect equity adjusts its
'Aei
yap
not postponed.
balance in
all
are always loaded.
it
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The
The world
like a multiplication-table, or a
equation, which, turn
A per-
parts^oOfe,
ev ttCtttovctlv oi Atos kv^ol,"
God
dice of
is
how you
looks
mathematical will, balances
value,
Take what figure you will, its exact nor more nor less, still returns to you.
Every
secret
itself.
told, every crime
is
punished,
every virtue rewarded, every wrong
redressed,
in silence
tion
is
is
and
the
certainty.
What we
call retribu-
universal necessity by which
whole appears wherever a part appears.
the
If you
smoke, there must be fire. If you see a hand or a limb, you know that the trunk to which
see
it
belongs
is
Every mtegrates
there behind. act
rewards
itself,
itself,
or in other words
in a twofold
manner;
first^in
COMPENSATION the thing, or in real nature
103
and secondly
;
circumstance, ox in_ .ap.parent nature.
retribution
The
soul.
is
The
;
it is
causal
is
seen
inseparable from the
distinct until
may
specific stripes
call
seen by the
often spread over a long time
become
so does not years.
is
retribution in the circumstance
by the understanding thing, but
and
in the thing
is
Men
The
the circumstance the retribution.
the~A
in
after
and
many
follow. late after
the offence, but they follow because they accom-
Crime and punishment grow out of one Punishment is a fruit that unsuspected ripens within the flower of the pleasure which concealed it. Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in
pany
it.
stem.
;
the means, the fruit in the seed.'
Whilst thus the world fuses to be disparted,
will
to sunder, to appropriate gratify the senses
we
be whole and re-
we seek ;
for
td act partially,
example,
man
to
sever the pleasure of the
senses from the needs of the character.
genuity of
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
The
in-
has always been dedicated to the
solution of one problem,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; how
to detach the
sensual sweet, the sensual strong, the sensual bright, etc.,
from the moral sweet, the moral
deep, the moral
fair
;
that
is,
again, to contrive
.
COMPENSATION
J04
dean off
to cut
leave
it
this
bottomless
upper surface so thin
as to
to get a one end, without an
;
;
The soul says, Eat the body would The soul says, The man and woman '
other end.
'
'
feast.
;
be one flesh and one soul
shall
The
join the flesh only.
minion over
all
the
'
soul says,
body would
Have
'
do-
things to the ends of virtue;'
the body would have the power over things to its
own The
ends.
amain to
soul strives
through aU things.
It
;
it,
The
knowledge, beauty.
aims to be somebody
and work
would be the only
All things shall be added unto sure,
live
to set
up
plea-
particular
man
for himself;
truck and higgle for a private good particulars, to ride that he
that he
and
may
be dressed
to govern, that he
to be great
;
"
to possess
may
may
They
be seen.
to this
day
it
to in
may eat;
Men
seek
offices, wealth,
one side of nature,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
great
the sweet,
bitter.
This dividing and detaching
Up
and,
think that to be
without the other side, the
teracted.
;
ride; to dress
to eat that he
they would have
power, and fame. is
;
fagt^
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; power,
is
steadily coun-
must be owned
no
projector has had the smallest success.
The
parted water reunites behind our hand.
Plea-
sure
is
taken out of pleasant things,
profit out
'
l^UMJi'Jt-MSAriON
105
of profitable things, power out of strong things, as soon as we seek to separate them from the whole.
We
can no more halve things and get
the sensual good, by
itself,
than we can get an
have no outside, or a light without a shadow. " Drive out Nature with a
inside
that shall
comes running back."
fork, she
Life invests itself with inevitable conditions,
which the unwise seek to dodge, which one and another brags that he does not know, that they
do not touch him
;
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but the brag
the conditions are in his soul.
them more
on
his lips,
one part they attack him in another vital part. If he has escaped them in in
form and
in the appearance,
retribution failure
of
is
all
and
because he has
fled
attempts to
of the good from the would not be tried,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but
it is
from himself, and the so much death. So signal is the
resisted his life
mad,
is
If he escapes
make
this separation
experiment
tax, that the
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
since to try
disease began in thp will, of rebellion ration, the intellect
the
man
but
is
object
at
is
ceases to see
is
it
for the circumstance that
to be
when
the
and sepa-
once infected, so that
God whole
in each object,
able to see the sensual allurement of an
and not
see the sensual hurt
;
he sees the
mermaid's head but not the dragon's
tail,
and
COMPENSATION
io6
thinks he can cut off that which he would have
from that which he would not have. " How secret art thou who dwellest in the highest heavens in silence, O thou only great God, sprinkling with an unwearied providence certain penal blindnesses
upon such
The human
as
soul
have unbridled desires!"' is
true to these facts in the
painting of fable, of history, of law, of proverbs,
of conversation.
It finds a
tongue in
literature
unawares. Thus the Greeks called Jupiter, Supreme Mind but having traditionally ascribed to him many base actions, they involuntarily made amends to reason by tying up the hands of so bad a god. He is made as helpless as a ;
king of England. Prometheus knows one
which Jove must bargain for
He
cannot get his
;
Minerva,
own thunders
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
keeps the key of them " Of all the gods, I only know :
That ope the
solid
and of
â&#x20AC;˘
the keys
'
confession of the in-working of the All its
moral aim.
same possible for any ends
another.
Minerva
doors within whose vaults
His thunders sleep."
A plain
;
secret
in the
ethics
The ;
and
Indian mythology it
would seem
im-
fable to be invented and get
any currency which was not moral. Aurora
for-
got to ask youth for her lover, and though
Ti-
COMPENSATION thonus
Is
immortal, he
quite invulnerable
;
old.
is
107
Achilles
is
not
the sacred waters did not
wash the heel by which Thetis held him. Siegfried, in the
Nibelungen,
for a leaf fell
on
his
in the dragon's blood,
covered
is
is
not quite immortal,
back whilst he was bathing
and that spot which
it
And so it must be. There is thing God has made. It woujd
mortal.
a crack in every
seem there
is
always this vindictive circumstance
stealing in at
unawares even into the wild poesy
in
which the human fancy attempted to make
bold holiday and to shake laws,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
this
certifying that the law
nothing can be given,
This
is
itself free
of the old
back-stroke, this kick of the gun, is
all
fatal; that in nature
things are sold.
that ancient doctrine of Nemesis,
who
lets no offence go unchastised. The Furies, they said, are attendants on justice, and if the sun in heaven should transgress his path they would punish him. The poets related that stone walls and iron swords and leathern thongs had an occult sympathy with the wrongs of their owners that the belt which Ajax gave Hector dragged the Tro-
keeps watch in the universe and
;
jan hero over the field at the wheels of the car
of Achilles, and the sword which Hector gave
Ajax was that on whose point Ajax
fell.
They
;
COMPENSATION
io8
recorded
that
when
Thasians erected
the
a
statue to Theagenes, a victor in the games, one
of his to
went
rivals
throw
he moved
to
down by
it
from
it
to death beneath
by night and. endeavored
it
repeated blows, until at
its
last
pedestal and was crushed
its fall.
fable has in it somewhat divine. came from thought above the will of the writer. That is the best part of each writer which has nothing private in it that which he does
This voice of
It
;
not
know
that which flowed out of his consti-
;
tution and not from his too active invention
that which in the study of a single artist you
might not
easily find,
you would Phidias
but in the study of
abstract as the spirit of
It is
not, but the
early Hellenic world that
many
them
all.
work of man in that I would know. The
name and circumstance of Phidias, however conwhen we come to
venient for history, embarrass
We
the highest criticism.
man was
are to see that which
tending to do in a given period, and was
hindered, or,
if
you
modified in doing, by
will,
the interfering volitions of Phidias, of Dante,
of Shakspeare, the organ whereby
moment Still
man
at the
wrought.'
more
fact in the
striking
is
proverbs of
the expression of this
all
nations,
which are
al-
— ;
COMPENSATION ways the
109
literature of reason, or the statements
of an absolute truth without qualification.
Pro-
verbs, like the sacred books of each nation, are
That which the
the sanctuary of the intuitions.
droning world, chained to appearances, allow the realist to say in his
not
will
own words,
will
it
suffer
him
to say in proverbs without contradic-
tion.
And
this
law of laws, which the pulpit, the
senate and the college deny, in
all
is
hourly preached
markets and workshops by
flights
whose teaching is as true and as that of birds and flies. sent verbs,
as
of pro-
omnipre-
All things are double, one against another.
Tit for tooth
;
tat
an eye for an eye
;
blood for blood
love for love.
— He — What
;
a tooth for a
measure for measure and it shall be given
that watereth shall be watered
you. self
— Give,
;
will
him-
you have ? quoth God pay ;
for
— Nothing nothing — Thou be paid what thou — Who doth not work done, no more, no — Harm watch, harm not Curses always on head of him who imprecates them. — you put around other end neck of around your own. — Bad counsel confounds — The Devil an it
and take
venture,
it.
have.
exactly for
shalt
hast
less.
shall
catch.
eat.
the
recoil
a chain
If
the
a slave, the
fastens itself
the
adviser.
is
ass.
COMPENSATION
no It
is
Our
thus written, because
action
is
it
is
thus in
life.
overmastered and characterized
above our will by the law of nature. We aim at a petty end quite aside from the public good, but our act arranges
itself
by
irresistible
mag-
netism in a line with the poles of the world.
A
man
With
cannot speak but he judges himself.
he draws his companions by every word. Every_J3pj_nioiLj;eacts on him wha_ utters it. It is a thread-ball thrown at a mark, but his will or against his will
portrait to the eye of his
Or
the other end remains in the thrower's bag. rather
a
it is
winding, as and,
if
thrown,
harpoon hurled it
flies,
the harpoon it
will
at the whale,
un-
a coil of cord in the boat, is
not good, or not well
go nigh to cut the steersman
in
twain or to sink the boat.'
You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong, "
No man
had ever a point of pride that was not
injurious to him," said Burke.
The
exclusive
in fashionable life does not see that he excludes
himself from enjoyment, in the attempt to appropriate
it.
The
exclusionist in religion does
not see that he shuts the door of heaverPbn himself, in striving to shut out others.
men fer as
Treat
pawns and ninepins and you shall sufwell as they. If you leave out their heart
as
you
COMPENSATION
iii
The
senses would
your own.
shall lose
make
things of
The
dren, of the poor.
get
from
it
his
of women, of chilyulgar proverb, " I will
persons
all
;
purse or get
from
it
his skin," is
sound philosophy. All infractions of love and equity in our social relations are speedily punished.
ished by to
Whilst
fear.
my fellow-man, I
We
ing him.
meet
They
pun-
are
stand in simple relations
I
have no displeasure
in
meet-
meets water, or as
as water
two currents of air mix, with perfect diiFusion and interpenetration of nature. But as soon as there is any departure from simplicity and attempt
at halfhess, or
my
good
for
me
that
not
is
wrong he shrinks from me as far as I have shrunk from him his eyes no longer seek mine there is war between us there Is hate In him and fear In me. All the old abuses in society, universal and
good
for him,
neighbor
feels the
;
;
;
;
particular, all unjust accumulations
and power, Fear
is
herald of
all
that there is
of property
same manner. an Instructor of great sagacity and the is
are
avenged
revolutions.
in the
One
thing he teaches,
rottenness where he appears.
He
a carrion crow, and though. you see not well
what he hovers
for, there is
Our
timid, our laws are timid, our
property
Is
death somewhere.
COMPENSATION
112
Fear for ages has
cultivated classes are timid.
boded and mowed and gibbered over government and property. That obscene bird is not there for nothing. He indicates great wrongs which must be revised.
Of the like nature is that expectation of change which instantly follows the suspension of our voluntary activity.
The terror of cloudless
noon,
the emerald of Polycrates,' the awe of prosperity, the instinct which leads every generous soul to
impose on
itself tasks
of a noble asceticism and
vicarious virtue, are the tremblings of the balance
of justice through the heart and mind of man.
Experienced that
it
is
men
of the world
best to pay scot
along, and that a
man
and
know very well lot as they go
often pays dear for a small
The borrower runs in his own debt. Has a man gained any thing who has received a hundred favors and rendered none ? Has he frugality.
gained by borrowing, through indolence or cunning, his neighbor's wares, or horses, or money ?
There
arises on the deed the instant acknowledgment of benefit on the one part and of debt
on the other ority.
The
;
that
is,
of superiority and
transaction remains in the
of himself and his neighbor
;
transaction alters according to
inferi-
memory
and every new its
nature their
COMPENSATION each other. He may soon
relation to
had better
see that he
113
come to have broken his own bones
than to have ridden in his neighbor's coach, and that " the highest price he can pay for a thing is to ask for
'
it."
A wise man will of
life,
extend
and know that
Always pay
the part of prudence and pay every just de-
it is
to face every claimant
mand on your
this lesson to all parts
time, your talents, or your heart.
for first or last
;
you must pay your
Persons and events
entire debt.
may
stand for
you and justice, but it is only a You must pay at last your own debt. If you are wise you will dread a prosperity which only loads you with more. Benefit is the end of nature. But for every benefit which you receive, a tax is levied. He is great who confers the most benefits. H^ is base, and a time between
postponement.
that
is
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
the one base thing in the universe,
receive favors
nature
and rehder none.
we cannot render
whom we the benefit
to
In the order of
benefits to those
from
receive them, or only seldom.
But
we
line for line,
receive
must be rendered
again,
deed for deed, cent for cent, to
somebody. Beware of too.much good staying in youj^J^Q.d&â&#x20AC;&#x17E; It will fast corrupt and worm worms.
Pay
it
away quickly
in
some
sort.
COMPENSATION
114
Labor
is
watched over by the same
laws.
Cheapest, say the prudent,
labor.
What we buy
a knife,
is
common
some want.
broom,
in a
application of It
is
is
pitiless
the dearest
a mat, a
wagon,
good sense
to a
best to pay ip your land
buy good sense applied gardening in your sailor, good sense applied navigation; in the house, good sense ap-
a skilful gardener, or to
to to
;
plied to cooking, sewing, serving; in
your agent,
good sense appHed to accounts and affairs. So do you multiply your presence, or spread yourself throughout your estate. But because of the dual constitution of things, in labor as in hfe there can be no cheating.
The
The
thief steals from
For knowledge and virtue, whereof wealth and credit are signs. These signs, like paper money, may be counterfeited or stolen, but that which they represent, namely, knowledge and virtue, cannot be counterfeited or stolen. These ends of labor cannot be answered but by real exertions of the mind, and in himself
swindler swindles himself.
the real price of labor
is
obedience to pure motives. faulter, the
The
cheat, the de-
gambler, cannot extort the know-
ledge of material and moral nature which his
honest care and pains yield to the operative.
The
law of nature
is.
Do
the thing, and you
COMPENSATION shall
have the power
;
but they
115
who do not
the
thing have not the power.
Human
labor,
through
all
its
forms, from
the sharpening of a stake to the construction
of a
an
city or
epic, is
one immense
illustration
of the perfect compensation of the universe.
The
absolute balance of Give and Take, the
doctrine that every thing has if that
price
something
is
else
its
not paid, not that thing but is
obtained, and that
possible to get anything without
not
less
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and
price,
its
it
im-
is
price,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
is
sublime in the columns of a leger than
and
in the budgets of states, in the laws of light
darkness, in
all
the action and reaction of na-
cannot doubt that the high laws which
ture.
I
each
man
which he
sees implicated in those processes with is
conversant, the stern ethics which
sparkle on his chisel-edge, which are measured
out by his plumb and foot-rule, which stand as manifest in the footing of the shop-bill as in the history of a state, trade,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; do recommend
and though seldom named,
to
him
his
exalt his busi-
ness to his imagination.'
The league between virtue and all
nature engages
things to assume a hostile front to vice.
The
beautiful laws and substances of the world per-
secute and
whip the
traitor.
He
finds that
COMPENSATION
ii6
things are arranged for truth and benefit, but there
is
no den
wide world to hide
in the
a
Commit a crime, and the earth is made of glass. Commit a crime, and it seems as if
rogue.
snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge and fox and squirrel and mole. You cannot recall the spoken word, you cannot wipe out the foot-track, you cannot draw up the ladder, so as to leave no inlet or clew. Some damning a coat of
The
circumstance always transpires. substances of nature, itation,
On
— become
—
laws and
water, snow, wind, grav-
penalties to the thief.
the other hand the law holds with equal
sureness for
all
shall be loved.
Love, and you
right action.
All love
is
mathematically
just,
much as the two sides of an algebraic equation. The good man has absolute good, which like fire turns every thing to its own nature, so as
you cannot do him any harm but as the royal armies sent against Napoleon, when he approached cast down their colors and from enemies became friends, so disasters of all kinds, that
as
;
sickness,
tors
:
—
offence,
poverty, prove benefac-
" Winds blow
and waters
Strength to the brave and
Yet
in themselves are
roll
power and
nothing."
'
deity.
COMPENSATION The good
117
are befriended even
by weakness
As no man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him, so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him. The stag in the fable admired and
defect.
horns and blamed
his
hunter came, his
feet
his feet,
but when the
saved him, and afterwards,
caught in the thicket, his horns destroyed him.
Every man faults.'
in his lifetime
needs to thank his
As no man thoroughly understands
truth until he has contended against
man
it,
so
a
no
has a thorough acquaintance with the hin-
drances or talents of
men
he has suffered
until
from the one and seen the triumph of the other over his own want of the same. Has he a deof temper that unfits him to live in society ? Thereby he is driven to entertain himself alone and acquire habits of self-help and thus, like the wounded oyster, he mends his shell with fect
;
pearl.
Our
The
strength grows out of our weakness.
indignation which arms itself with secret
forces does not
awaken
until
we
are pricked
and
stung and sorely assailed. A great man is always willing to be little. Whilst he sits on the cushion of advantages, he goes to sleep. is
When
he
pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance
COMPENSATION
ii8
to learn something
on
wits,
he has been put on
;
manhood; he
his
learns his ignorance
;
is
cured of the insanity
of conceit; has got moderation and real
The
wise
man throws
his assailants.
It
is
theirs to find his
is
cicatrizes
skin,
and
falls
more weak off
his interest than
point.
from him
I
it
The wound like a dead
and when they would triumph, .Blame is
As long
skill.
himself on the side of
passed on invulnerable. praise.
his
has gained facts;
lo
!
he has
safer than
hate to be defended in a newspaper." as all that is said
feel a certain
is
said against me,
I
But as soon spoken for me
assurance of success.
honeyed words of praise are as one that lies unprotected before his enemies. In general, every evil to which we do not succumb is a benefactor. As the Sandwich as
I feel
Islander believes that the strength and valor of the
enemy he
kills
passes into himself, so we
gain the strength of the temptation
we
resist.
The same
guards which protect us from disand enmity, defend us, if we will, from selfishness and fraud. Bolts and bars are aster, defect
not the best of our institutions, nor ness in trade a their
life
mark of wisdom.
is
Men
shrewdsuffer
all
long under the foolish superstition
that they can be cheated.
But
it is
as impossi-
COMPENSATION ble for a
man
by any one but be and not to be at
to be cheated
himself, as for a thing to
the same time. all
iig
There
our bargains.
The
is
a third silent party to
nature and soul of things
takes on itself the guaranty of the fulfilment of
every contract, so that honest service cannot
come
you serve an ungrateful master, serve him the more. Put God in your debt.' Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is withholden, the better for you for compound interest on compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer. If
to loss.
;
The
history of persecution
deavors to cheat nature, to hill,
to twist a rope of sand.
mob.
A
mob
is
makes no
It
dif-
many
or one, a
a society
of bodies
ference whether the actors be
tyrant or a
a history of en-
is
make water run up
voluntarily bereaving themselves of reason and traversing rily fit
its
work.
The mob
is
man
volunta-
descending to the nature of the beast.
hour of
sane, like
activity
its
is
night.
Its
Its actions are in-
whole constitution.
persecutes
It
would whip a right it would tar and feather justice, by inflicting fire and outrage upon the houses and persons of those who a principle
;
it
;
have these. It resembles the prank of boys,
who run
with fire-engines to put out the ruddy
COMPENSATION
120
aurora streaming to the
The
stars.
spirit turns their spite against the
inviolate
wrongdoers.
The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash every prison a inflicted is a tongue of fame ;
more
illustrious
abode
;
every burned book or
house enlightens the world
every suppressed
;
expunged word reverberates through
or
the
Hours of
sanity and
consideration are always arriving to
communi-
earth from side to side.'
ties, as
to individuals,
when
the truth
and the martyrs are justified. Thus do all things preach the
The man
of circumstances.
the doctrine of compensation
The
of indiiferency.
if I
there
gain any
any good
I
Every thing Every ad-
be content.
not the doctrine
is
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; What boots
one event to good and
is
good
But
thoughtless say, on hear-
ing these representations,
do well?
evil.
I learn to
its tax.
seen
indifferency
is all.
has two sides, a good and an
vantage has
is
must pay gain some other
for
I
;
it
all
;
it
to
evil;
if I lose
actions are
indifferent.
There
is
a deeper fact in the soul than com-
pensation, to wit,
its
own
nature.
not a compensation, but a
Under
all
this
life.
The soul is The soul is.
running sea of circumstance,
whose waters ebb and flow with perfect
balance,
COMPENSATION lies
12I
the aboriginal abyss of real Being,
or God, whole.'
Essence,
not a relation or a part, but the
is
Being
the vast affirmative, excluding
is
negation, self-balanced, and swallowing
up
all
and times within itself. Nature, are the influx from thence. Vice
relations, parts
truth, virtue, is
the absence or departure of the same.
thing, Falsehood,
may
No-
indeed stand as the great
Night or shade on which
background the no fact is begotten by it it cannot work, for it is not. It cannot work any good it cannot work any harm. It is harm inasmuch as it is worse not as a
living universe paints itself forth, but ;
;
to be than to be.
We
feel
defrauded of the retribution due to
evil acts, because the criminal adheres to
his
and contumacy and does not come to a or judgment anywhere in visible nature. There is no stunning confutation of his non-
vice
crisis
sense before
men and
aflgels.
Has
he therefore
Inasmuch as he carries the malignity and the lie with him he so far deceases from nature. In some manner there will be a demonstration of the wrong to the underoutwitted the law
standing also
;
?
but, should
we not
see
it,
this
deadly deduction makes square the eternal account.
COMPENSATION
122
be said, on the other hand, that the gain of rectitude must be bought by any loss. There is no penalty to virtue; no penalty to wisdom ; they are proper additions
Neither can
of being.
it
In a virtuous action
properly am;
I
add to the world; I plant into deserts conquered from Chaos and Nothing and see the darkness receding on the limits of the horizon. There can be no excess to love, in a virtuous act I
none
to
knowledge, none to beauty, when these considered in the purest sense.
attributes are
The
soul refuses limits, and always affirms an
Optimism, never
His
life is
instinct
"
His " " more and instinct uses
a progress,
is trust.
Our
less " in application to
the soul, is
a Pessimism.
and not
man, of the presence
and not of its absence
greater than the coward
volent, the wise,
is
more
than the fool and knave. the
good of
God
a station.
;
the brave
of
man
the true, the bene-
;
a
man and
There
virtue, for that
is
is
not
less,
no tax on
the incoming of
himself, or absolute existence, without any
comparative.
Material good has
its tax,
and
if
came without desert or sweat, has no root in will blow it away. But all the good of nature is the soul's, and may be had if paid for in nature's Jawful coin, that is.
it
me, and the next wind
COMPENSATION
123
by labor which the heart and the head allow. I no longer wish to meet a good I do not earn,
example to find a pot of buried gold, know-
for
ing that
it
brings with
goods, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
wish more external gain
there
is
apparent
;
the tax
neither posses-
up
Herein
treasure.'
eternal peace.
is
not desirable to
I rejoice
with a serene
contract the boundaries of pos-
I
sible mischief.
it
But the com-
certain.
is
no tax on the knowledge that
is
pensation exists and that dig
do not
I
nor honors, nor powers, nor persons.
sions,
The
new burdens.
it
I
learn the
wisdom of
Ber-
St.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " Nothing can work me damage except
nard,
myself; the harm that with me, and never
my own
sustain I carry about
I
am
a real sufferer but
by
fault."
In the nature of the soul
is
the compensation
for the inequalities of condition.
The
radical
tragedy of nature seems to be the distinction of
More and pain
;
how More
faculty,
Look
?
and one
what
to
eye
he
feels
make of fears
it.
at
those
who have
It
less
sad and knows not well
He
almost shuns their
they will upbraid God.
should they do?
But
can Less not feel the
not feel indignation or malevolence
towards
;
How
Less.
seems a great
see the facts nearly
What
injustice.
and these mountainous
COMPENSATION
124
Love reduces them
inequalities vanish.
sun melts the iceberg
and soul of
all
men
The
the sea.
in
as the
heart
being one, this bitterness
His
of His and Mine ceases.
Is
mine.
I
am
ray-
brother and my brother shadowed and outdone by great neighbors, I can yet love; I can still receive; and he that
loveth maketh his
Thereby is
my
I
make
the grandeur he loves.
the discovery that
me
guardian, acting for
and the own. It
designs,
liest
own
envied
is
my
to appropriate
all
wit,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
if it
Such
The
things.
Jesus and Shakspeare
virtue,
is
admired and
the nature of the soul
cannot be
also
brother
is
and by love
my own
quer and incorporate them in
His
my
with the friend-
estate I so
are fragments of the soul,
domain.
If I feel over-
me.
is
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
is
I
con-
conscious
not that mine?
made mine,
it is
not
His wit.
the natural history of calamity.
changes which break up
the prosperity of
men
nature whose law
is
at
short intervals
are advertisements of a
growth.
Every soul
is
by
whole system and home and laws and
this intrinsic necessity quitting its
of things,
its
friends
faith, as the shell-fish crawls
but stony case, because Its
it
out of
its
beautiful
no longer admits of
growth, and slowly forms a new house.
In
proportion to the vigor of the individual these
COMPENSATION
125
revolutions are frequent, until in
some happier
mind they tions it
are incessant and all worldly relahang very loosely about him, becoming as
were a transparent fluid membrane through
which the living form
is seen, and not, as in most men, an indurated heterogeneous fabric of many dates and of no settled character, in which
man
the
is
nizes the
Then there can be enman of to-day scarcely recog-
imprisoned.
largement, and the
man of
And
yesterday.
be the outward biography of
man
ting off of dead circumstances day
renews his raiment day by day.
our lapsed
estate, resting,
such should
in time, a
put-
by day, as he But to us, in
not advancing, resist-
ing, not cooperating with the divine expansion, this
growth comes by shocks.
We
cannot part with our friends.
We
cannot
our angels go. We do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in.' We are let
We
do not believe in the riches of the soul, in its proper eternity and omnipresence. We do not believe there is any force
idolaters of the old.
in
to-day to rival or recreate that beautiful yes-
We linger in the ruins of the old tent where once we had bread and shelter and organs, terday.
nor believe that the nerve us again.
We
spirit
can feed, cover, and
cannot again find aught so
;
COMPENSATION
126
But we sit and weep in vain. The voice of the Almighty saith, Up We cannot stay and onward for evermore amid the ruins. Neither will we rely on the dear, so sweet, so graceful.
'
!
'
new
;
and so we walk ever with reverted
like those
And
monsters
eyes,
who look backwards.
yet the compensations of calamity are
made apparent
to the understanding also, after
long intervals of time.
A
fever, a mutilation, a
cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss
of friends, seems
and unpayable.
at the moment unpaid loss, But the sure years reveal the
deep remedial force that underlies
all facts.
The
death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which
seemed nothing but privation, somewhat
later
assumes the aspect of a guide or genius for it operates revolutions in our way of ;
commonly life,
terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth
which was waiting
to
be closed, breaks up a
wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones
more
friendly to the growth of character.
It per-
mits or constrains the formation of new acquaintances and the reception of
prove of the
first
new
influences that
importance to the next years
and the man or woman who would have mained a sunny garden-flower, with no room
re-
for
COMPENSATION its
roots and too
much sunshine
for
127 its
head, by
the falling of the walls and the neglect of the
gardener
is
made
the banian of the forest, yield-
ing shade and fruit to wide neighborhoods of
men.
IV
SPIRITUAL LAWS" The
living
House
at
Heaven
once and
thy prayers respe'ctj architect.
Quarrying man's rejected hours. Builds there
eternal towers
virith
;
Sole and self-commanded vyorks.
Fears not undermining days,
Growrs by decays.
And, by
the famous might that lurks
In reaction and
Makes flame
recoil.
to freeze
and
ice to boil;
Forging, through swart arms of OfFencej
The
silver seat
of Innocence.
SPIRITUAL LAWS
WHEN
the act of reflecUon takes place in
when we look at ourselves in the light of thought, we discover that our life is embosomed in beauty. Behind us, as we go, all the mind,
things assume pleasing forms, as clouds do far off.
Not only
things familiar and stale, but even
the tragic and terrible are comely as they take place in the pictures of
their
river-bank', the
weed
The
memory.
at the water-side, the
old
house, the foolish person, however neglected in the passing, have a grace in the past.
Even
the
corpse that has lain in the chambers has added a
solemn ornament
not
know
to the house."
The
either deformity or pain.
soul will
If in the
hours of clear reason we should speak the severest truth,
we should
a sacrifice.
In these
we had never made hours the mind seems so
say that
great that nothing can be taken from us that
seems much. All
loss, all pain, is particular
universe remains to the heart unhurt.^
vexations nor calamities abate our trust.
man
;
the
Neither
No
ever stated his griefs as lightly as he might.
Allow
for exaggeration in the
most patient and
sorely ridden hack that ever was driven.
Fo''
it
;
SPIRITUAL LAWS
132 is
only the
the infinite
The
has wrought and suffered
finite that lies
stretched in smiling repose.
may be kept
intellectual life
healthful if
man
will live the life
not import into his mind
none of
his.
speculations.
No man
clean and
of nature and
difficulties
which
need be perplexed
Let Ijim do and say what
are
in his
strictly
belongs to him, and though very ignorant of
books, his nature shall not yield him any
intel-
and doubts. Our young peo-
lectual obstructions
ple are diseased with the theological problems
of original
of
sin, origin
evil,
predestination and
These never presented a practical difficulty to any man, never darkened across any man's road who did not go out of his way to seek them. These are the soul's mumps and measles and whooping-coughs, and those who have not caught them cannot describe their health or prescribe the cure. A simple mind will the like.
not
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
know
these enemies.'
It is quite another
thing that he should be able to give account of
and expound
his faith
his self-union gifts.
Yet without
may be
to another the theory of
and freedom. This requires this
a sylvan strength
which he
is.
"
A few
self-knowledge
and integrity
rare
there
in that
strong instincts and a few
plain rules " suffice us.*
SPIRITUAL LAWS
My
133
my mind
never gave the images in
will
the rank they
now
The
take.
regular course of
studies, the years of academical
and professional
education have not yielded
me
better facts than
some
bench
idle
School.
books under
What we do
the^
not
precious than that which
no guess, of
wastes
its effort in
this natural
we
at the Latin is
more
We
form
education call so.
the time of receiving a thought,
at
comparative value.
its
call
And
attempts to thwart and balk
magnetism, which
what belongs
to
education often
is
sure to select
it.'
In like manner our moral nature is vitiated by any interference of our will. People represent virtue as a struggle, and take to themselves great airs upon their attainments, and the question is everywhere vexed when a noble nature is commended, whether the man is not better who strives with temptation.
Either
in the matter.
We love
there.
are impulsive
thinks or like
him.
victories,
is
is
no merit
there or he
not
is
characters in proportion as they
and spontaneous. The
knows about
less a
man
his virtues the better
we
Timoleon's victories are the best
which ran and flowed
verses, Plutarch
whose
But there
God
said.
like
When we
acts are all regal, graceful
Homer's
see a soul
and pleasant
as
SPIRITUAL LAWS
134
we must thank God
roses,
be and say
'
are,
and not turn sourly on the angel and
Crump
resistance to
Not of
that such things can
less
a better
is
all
man
with his grunting
his native devils.'
conspicuous
is
the preponderance
nature over will in all practical history than
less intention in
life.
we
There
ascribe to
is it.
We
impute deep-laid far-sighted plans to Caesar and Napoleon but the best of their power was ;
in nature, not in
them.
Men
of an extraordi-
nary success, in their honest moments, have always sung
'
Not unto
us, not
unto
us.'
Ac-
cording to the faith of their times they have built altars to Fortune, or to Destiny, or to St.
Their success lay
Julian.
in their parallelism to
the course of thought, which found in
unobstructed channel
;
them an
and the wonders of which
they were the visible conductors seemed to the
eye their deed.
vanism
?
It
is
Did
the wires generate the gal-
even true that there was
them on which they could other
;
reflect
as the virtue of a pipe
is
less in
than in an-
to be smooth
and hollow." That which externally seemed will and immovableness was willingness and self-an-
Could Shakspeare give a theory of Shakspeare ? Could ever a man of prodigious mathematical genius convey to others any in-
>nihilation.
SPIRITUAL LAWS
135
methods ? If he could communicate that secret it would instantly lose its exaggerated value, blending with the daylight and the vital energy the power to stand and to go. The lesson is forcibly taught by these observations that our life might be much easier and simpler than we make it that the world might be a happier place than it is that there is no need of struggles, convulsions, and despairs, of the wringing of the hands and the gnashing of
sight into his
;
;
the teeth
;
that
we
interfere with the
we
ever
miscreate our
own
optimism of nature
We
evils. ;
for
when-
get this vantage-ground of the past, or
of a wiser mind in the present, we are able to discern that
we
are begirt with laws which exe-
cute themselves.
The
Nature
lesson.
She does not ing
much
not have us
will
like
fret
and fume.
our benevolence or our learnout of the caucus, or the
bank, or the Abolition-convention, or the perance
-
?
my
We
Tem-
meeting, or the Transcendental club
into the fields
hot
and
better than she likes our frauds
When we come
wars.
same
face of external nature teaches the
and woods, she says
little Sir.'
to us,
'
So
'
are full of mechanical actions.
We
needs intermeddle and have things in our
must
own
SPIRITUAL LAWS
136
and virtues of society are odious. Love should make joy ; but our benevolence is unhappy. Our Sunday-schools and churches and pauper-societies are yokes
way, until the
sacrifices
We
to the neck.
pain ourselves to please no-
ways of arriving at the same ends at which these aim, but do not arrive. Why should all virtue work in one and the
There
body.
same way
?
are natural
Why
should
all
give dollars
It
?
is
very inconvenient to us country folk, and we
do not think any good have not
dollars,
give them. sing
;
drag
this
will
come of
merchants have
Farmers
women
;
hand
will
will give
sew
;
corn
laborers
;
;
them
lend a
And why
?
It
is
natural
and beau-
childhood should inquire and maturity
should teach
;
but
it is
when they young people
time enough to answer
Do
not shut
questions
are asked.
up
against their will in a
the
will
dead weight of a Sunday-school over
the whole Christendom tiful that
let
poets
will
the children will bring flowers.
We
it.
pew
and force the children to ask them questions for an
If
hour against
we look
their will.
wider, things are
all
alike; laws
and creeds and modes of living seem a travesty of truth. Our society is encumbered
and
letters
by ponderous machinery, which resembles
the
SPIRITUAL LAWS endless aqueducts which the
and dale and which
hill
Romans
its
source.
It
is
a Chinese wall
titled, richly
as a peace.
over
by the
rises to the level
nimble Tartar can leap over.
army, not so good
built
are superseded
discovery of the law that water
of
137
It It
is
is
which any a standing
a graduated,
appointed empire, quite superflu-
ous when town-meetings are found to answer just as well.
Let us draw a lesson from nature, which
ways works by short ways. ripe,
When
it falls.
leaf falls.
The
is
man and
of
al-
the fruit
is
despatched, the
of the waters
circuit
The walking
ing:
the fniit
When
all
is
mere
animals
fallis
a
All our manual labor and works
falling forward.
of strength, as prying, spHtting, digging, rowing
and so forth, are done by dint of continual falling, and the globe, earth, moon, comet, sun, star, fall for
The
ever and ever.
simplicity of the universe
is
very
ent from the simplicity of a machine. sees moral nature out
and out and thoroughly
knows how knowledge ter
formed,
ture is
is
is
is
acquired and charac-
The simplicity of nawhich may easily be read, but The last analysis can no wise
a pedant.
not ^hat
inexhaustible.
be ma,de.
differ-
He who
We judge
of a man's wisdom by his
;
SPIRITUAL LAWS
13S
hope, knowing that the perception of the inexhaustibleness of nature is an immortal youth.
The
wild
fertility
of nature
in
is felt
comparing
our rigid names and reputations with our fluid consciousness.
and schools, are
pass in the world for sects
and
the time jejune babes.
all
how Pyrrhonism grew
well
sees that he
thing
is
is
may be
reason.
he
We
for erudition
One
sees very
Every man
up.'
that middle point
and we
piety,
whereof every
affirmed and denied with equal
He is old,
he
is
young, he
altogether ignorant.
He
is
very wise,
hears and feels
what you say of the seraphim, and of the
There
peddler.
is
the hero, as
we read or
ard and the robber that coward
not '
man
no permanent wise
cept in the figment of the Stoics.
;
We
tin-
ex-
side with
paint, against the cow-
but we have been ourselves
and robber, and
shall
be again,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
low circumstance, but in comparison
in the
with the grandeurs possible to the soul.
A
little
consideration of what takes place
around us every day would show us that a higher law than that of our will regulates events that
our painful labors are unnecessary and
fruitless
;
that only in our easy, simple, spon-
taneous action are we strong, and by contenting ourselves with obedience
we become
divine.
SPIRITUAL LAWS Belief and love,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
a believing love will relieve
us of a vast load of exists.
There
and over the
is
O my
care.
brothers,
God
a soul at the centre of nature
of every man, so that none
will
of us can wrong the universe. its
139
It has so infused
strong enchantment into nature that we pros-
per when we accept struggle to
wound
advice,
its
and when we
creatures our hands are
its
own
glued to our sides, or they beat our
The whole faith.
We
course of things goes to teach us
need only obey.
hear the right word.
ates
There
and by lowly
for each of us,
painfully
breasts.
Why
guidance
is
listening
we
need you choose so
your place and occupation and
and modes of
Certainly there
is
action
shall
associ-
and of entertainment?
you
a possible right for
that
precludes the need of balance and wilful election.
For you there
congenial duties.
is
a reality, a
place
fit
and
Place yourself in the middle
of the stream of power and wisdom which ani-
mates
all
whom
it
floats,
and you are without
effort impelled to truth, to right
and
a perfect
Then you put all gainsayers in wrong. Then you are the world, the mea-
contentment. the
sure of right, of truth, of beauty.
If
we would
not be mar-plots with our miserable interferences, the work, the society, letters, arts, sci-
SPIRITUAL LAWS
140
men would go on far better heaven predicted from the the and now, than beginning of the world, and still predicted from ence, religion of
the bottom of the heart, would organize as
do now the rose and the I say, do not choose
speech by which
commonly is
called
air
and the sun.
but that
;
itself,
is
a figure of
would distinguish what is choke among men, and which I
a partial act, the choice of the hands, of the
eyes, of the appetites,
the man.' ness,
is
which
But
and not
which
that
the choice of
my
a
whole
constitution
;
and
heaven, and inwardly aspire
I call
act of
right or good-
I call
that
after,
is
my constiall my years
the state or circumstance desirable to tution
;
and the action which
tend to do,
must hold
is
the
work
for
man amenable
a
I in
my
faculties.
to reason for the
choice of his daily craft or profession.
an excuse any longer for
his
the custom of his trade.
with an evil trade his character
?
Has
We
It
is
deeds that they
What
not are
business has he
he not a
calling in
?
Each man has his own vocation. The talent the is call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him. He has faculties silently inviting him thither to endless exertion. He is like a ship in a river
;
he runs against obstruc'
SPIRITUAL LAWS tions
on every
struction
is
side but one,
on
that side
ob-
all
taken away and he sweeps serenely
over a deepening channel into an
This talent and tion, or the
141
is
his organiza-
which the general soul
in
carnates itself in him.
thing which
depend on
this call
mode
infinite sea.
easy to
in-
He inclines to do somehim and good when it is
done, but which no other
man
can do.
He
has
For the more truly he consults his own powers, the more difference will his work exhibit from the work of any other. His ambino
rival.
tion
is
exactly proportioned to his powers.
height of the pinnacle
breadth of the base.
is
The
determined by the
Every man has
this call
of the power to do somewhat unique, and no
man
call. The pretence that he summons by name and perand outward " signs that mark
has any other
has another
call,
sonal election
a
him extraordinary and not in the roll of common men," is fanaticism, and betrays obtuseness to perceive that there is one mind in all the individuals, and no respect of persons therein. By doing his work he makes the need felt which he can supply, and creates the taste by which he is enjoyed. By doing his own work '
he unfolds himself. speaking that
it
It
is
the vice of our public
has not abandonment.
Some-
SPIRITUAL LAWS
142
where, not only every orator but every
should
let
out
the length of
all
make
should find or
experience
meaning that the
is
as well as he can to the
work
or trade he
^
he moves
;
the
is
in him.
man
customary
falls into,
Then is man is
turns a spit.
the reins
details
and tends
it
The
himself
fits
of that
as a
dog
he a part of the machine lost.
Until he can man-
age to communicate himself to others in his stature
;
a frank and hearty expres-
sion of what force and
common
all
man
and proportion, he does not yet find He must find in that an outlet
vocation.
may justify
full
his
for
work to their eyes. If the labor is mean, let him by his thinking and character make it liberal.' Whatever he knows and thinks, whatever in his apprehension is worth doing, that let him comhis character, so that
he
municate, or
men
him
Foolish, whenever
will
his
never know, and honor
you take
the
meanness and formality of that thing you
do,
aright.
instead of converting cle
it
into the obedient spira-
of your character and aims.
We
like
only such actions as have already
long had the praise of men, and do not perceive that
any thing man can do may be divinely
done. ized in
We
think greatness entailed or organ-
some
places or duties, in certain offices
'
SPIRITUAL LAWS
143
or occasions, and do not see that Paganinl can extract rapture
from
from a catgut, and Eulenstein and
a jews-harp,
a nimble-fingered lad
out
scissors, and Landand the hero out of the pitihabitation and company in which he was
of shreds of paper with his seer out of swine, ful
What we
hidden.
gar society
poetry
call
make
as
and society whose
enviable and renowned as
In our estimates
kings.
obscure condition or vul-
that condition
not yet written, but which you shall
is
presently any.
is
The
let
us take a lesson from
parts of hospitality, the connection
of families, the impressiveness of death, and a
own To make
thousand other things, royalty makes estimate of, and a royal habitually a
What
a
new
man
estimate,
mind
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
will.
that
does, that he has.
is
its
elevation.
What
has he
do with hope or fear ? In himself is his Let him regard no good as soHd but, that which is in his nature and which must grow out of him as long as he exists. The goods of fortune may come and go like summer leaves let him scatter them on every wind as the momentary signs of his infinite productiveness. to
might.
;
He may
have
own.
A
man's genius, the quality that differences him from every other, his
the susceptibility to one class of influences, the
SPIRITUAL LAWS
144
what
selection of
what sive
for him, the rejection of
A man
of the universe. /
is fit
determines for him the character
is unfit,
arrangement
;
is
a method, a progres-
a selecting principle, gather-
ing his like to him wherever he goes.
only
and
his
own out of the
circles
round him.
booms which
He
takes
multiplicity that sweeps
He
are set out
is
like
one of those
from the shore on
rivers to catch drift-wood, or like the loadstone
amongst
splinters of steel.
persons, which dwell in his
Those
words,
facts,
memory
without
his
being able to say why, remain because they have a relation to
him not
him
less real for
They
unapprehended.
are
being as yet
symbols of value
to
as they can interpret parts of his conscious-
would vainly seek words for in the conventional images of books and other ness which he
minds. it,
What
as I will
attracts
go
to the
my
attention shall have
man who knocks
at
my
door, whilst a thousand persons as worthy go
by
it,
to
whom
I
give no regard.
that these particulars speak to me.
It
is
enough
A few anec-
dotes, a few traits of character, manners, face, a
few incidents, have an emphasis in your
mem-
ory out of
all
nificance if
you measure them by the ordinary They relate to your gift. Let them
standards.
proportion to their apparent
sig-
SPIRITUAL LAWS have cast
their weight,
about for
The
great.
Over
all
and do not reject them and and facts more usual
illustration
What your
in literature.
145
soul's
heart thinks great,
emphasis
is
is
always right.
things that are agreeable to his na-
man has the highest right. Everywhere he may take what belongs~to his
ture and genius the
spiritual estate,
though all of
men
nor can he take anything
doors were open, nor can
all
else
the force
hinder him from taking so much.
It is
vain to attempt to keep a secret from one
has a right to
mood
know
it.
minion over
us.
To
is
his
do-
the thoughts of that state
of mind he has a right. state
That
It will tell itself.
into which a friend can bring us
who
All the secrets of that
of mind he can compel. This
is
a law
which
statesmen use in practice. All the terrors of the
French Republic, which held Austria in awe, were
command
But Napoleon sent to Vienna M. de Narbonne, one of the old noblesse, with the morals, manners and
unable to
name of
her diplomacy.
that interest, saying that
it
was indis-
pensable to send to the old aristocracy of Europe
men of the same stitutes a sort in less
connection, which in fact con-
of free-masonry.
M. de Narbonne
than a fortnight^ penetrated ^1 the secrets
of the imperial cabinet.
SPIRITUAL LAWS
146
Nothing seems so easy as to speak and to be Yet a man may come to find that that he the strongest of defences and of ties, has been understood and he who has received an opinion may come to find it the most incon-
understood.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
;
venient of bonds. If a teacher have any opinion which he wishes
become
to conceal, his pupils will
as fully in-
doctrinated into that as into any which he pub-
If you pour water into a vessel twisted
lishes.
into coils
pour
and angles,
it
is
vain to say,
only into this or that
it
level in
all.
Men
feel
and
;
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
it
I will
will find
its
act the consequences
of your doctrine without being able to show how they follow. a
Show
us an arc of the curve, and
good mathematician
We
figure.
to the unseen.
Hence
his
from the seen
the perfect intelligence
that subsists between wise
A man
out the whole
will find
are always reasoning
men
of remote
cannot bury his meanings so deep
book but time and like-minded men
find them,
What Bacon
ages.
Plato had a secret doctrine, had he?
secret can ?
in
will
he conceal from the eyes of
of Montaigne
Aristotle said of his
of Kant ? Therefore works, " They are published ?
and not published."
No man
can learn what he has not prepara-
;
SPIRITUAL LAWS tion for learning,
A
object.
however near to
may
chemist
secrets to a carpenter,
wiser,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
the secrets he
chemist for an
we cannot
the
shall be never the
would not
ideas.
utter to a
see things that stare us in the face,
hour arrives when the mind
until the
is
God screens us evermore Our eyes are holden that
estate.
from premature
his eyes
most precious
his
tell
and he
147
is
ripened
then we behold them, and the time when we saw
them not
Not
worth he is
is
like a
sees.
dream.
but in
in nature
The
man
is all
world
is
the beauty and
very empty, and
indebted to this gilding, exalting soul for pride.
its
" Earth
not her own.'
fills
The
vale of
yet
good
how
earth
and water
unafFecting
"
Tempe, Tivoli and
Rome are earth and water, rocks are as
all
her lap with splendors
in a
and sky. There thousand places,
!
People are not the better for the sun and
moon,
the horizon and the trees
observed that the keepers of
;
as
Roman
it is
not
galleries
or the valets of painters have any elevation of
thought, or that librarians are wiser others.
There
are graces in the
men
demeanor of a
polished and noble person which are lost the eye of a churl.
whose
These
than
upon
are like the stars
light has not yet reached us.
â&#x20AC;˘
SPIRITUAL LAWS
148
what he maketh. Our dreams are the sequel of our waking knowledge/ The
He may
see
some proportion to Hideous dreams are ex-
visions of the night bear
the visions of the day.
We
aggerations of the sins of the day.
embodied
evil affections
see our
bad physiognomies. sometimes beholds his
in
On the Alps
the traveller
own shadow
magnified to a giant, so that every
gesture of his hand
man
said an old in the
see
My children,"
boys scared by a
to his
dark entry, "
"
is terrific.
my
children,
you
anything worse than yourselves."
dreams, so in the scarcely
world every
man
As
in
events of the
sees himself in colossal, with-
out knowing that
pared to the
less fluid
figure
will never
evil
himself.
it is
which he
The
sees,
good, comas his
is
own
own mind
evil. Every quality of his some one acquaintance, and every emotion of his heart in some one. He is like
good
to his
is
magnified
a
quincunx of
in
trees,
west, north, or south
terminal acrostic. to one person their likeness
which counts ;
or an
And why
five,
initial,
not?
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
east,
medial, and
He
cleaves
and avoids another, according or unlikeness to
to
himself, truly
seeking himself in his associates and moreover in his trade
and habits and gestures and meats
and drinks, and comes
at last to
be
faithfully
;
SPIRITUAL LAWS
149
represented by every view you take of his
cir-
<:u instances.
He may
read what he writes.
what we are
see or acquire but
man
served a skilful
author
is
reading Virgil.
Well, that
a thousand books to a thousand per-
Take
sons.
?
What can we You have ob-
the
book
into your
two hands and
read your eyes out, you will never find what If any ingenious reader would have a
find.
nopoly of the wisdom or delight he as secure
now
the
book
is
were imprisoned in the Pelews' tongue. with a good book as
it is
Introduce a base person all
to
no purpose; he
society protects safe, is
and he
is
itself.
is
mo-
gets, he
Englished, as
I
is
if it
It is
with good company.
among gentlemen, not their fellow.
The company
is
it is
Every
perfectly
not one of them, though his body
in the
room.
What
avails
It
to fight with the eternal laws
of mind, which adjust the relation of
all
persons
by the mathematical measure of havings and beings ? Gertrude is enamored
to each other their
of
Guy
;
man
his
were
life
how high, how aristocratic, how Romien and manners to live with him indeed, and no purchase is too great !
and heaven and earth are moved to that end. Well, Gertrude has
Guy
;
but what now avails
SPIRITUAL LAWS
150
how
high,
how aristocratic, how Roman
and manners,
mien
his
heart and aims are in the
if his
and in the billiard-room, and she has no aims, no conversation that can senate, in the theatre
enchant her graceful lord
He
shall
have
own
his
ents, the
most
little
We
society.
The most
nothing but nature. very
?
can love
wonderful
tal-
meritorious exertions really avail
with us
;
but nearness or likeness of
nature,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; how
tory!
Persons approach us, famous for
beautiful
the ease of
is
its vic-
their
beauty, for their accomplishments, worthy of
wonder their whole
for their
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with
charms and
lated
;
all
they dedicate
hour and the company,
skill to the
very imperfect
would be ungrateful loudly. Then, when
gifts
To
result.
be sure
in us not to praise all is
mind, a brother or
it
them
done, a person of re-
sister
by nature, comes
to us so softly
and
mately, as
were the blood in our proper
veins, that
if it
we
easily, so
feel as if
tude.
and refreshed
We foolishly
we must court toms of its
;
it is
a sort of joyful
soli-
think in our days of sin that
friends
society, to
estimates.
;
inti-
some one was gone, income we are utterly
stead of another having relieved
nearly and
by compliance to the
its
dress,
But only
its
cus-
breeding, and
that soul can be
my
SPIRITUAL LAWS
151
friend which I encounter on the line of
march, that soul to which
I
my own
do not decline and
which does not decline to me, but, native of the same celestial latitude, repeats in
my
The
experience.
its
own
all
scholar forgets himself and
apes the customs and costumes of the
man of
the world to deserve the smile of beauty, and follows
some giddy
that
all
is
the noble
and
serene, oracular
Let him be
soul.
not yet taught by
girl,
know
gious passion to
great,
woman
reli-
with
beautiful in her
and love
shall follow
more deeply punished than the by which alone socishould be formed, and the insane levity of
him. Nothing
is
neglect of the affinities ety
choosing associates by others' eyes.'
He may set thy of
all
his
own
rate.
acceptation that a
allowance he takes.
Take
the place and attitude
which belong to you, and
The
world must be
just.
It is a maxim worman may have that
all
men
It leaves every
with profound unconcern, to set his
Hero
or driveller,
it
acquiesce.
own
man, rate.
meddles not in the matter.
It will certainly accept your own measure of your doing and being, whether you sneak about and deny your own name, or whether you see your
work produced heavens,'
to the concave sphere of the
one with the revolution of the
stars.
SPIRITUAL LAWS
152
(
The same reality pervades all man may teach by doing, and If he can
teaching.
communicate himself he can
He
but not by words.
The
not otherwise.
who
teaches
teach,
gives, and
he learns who receives. There is no teaching is brought into the same state
until the pupil
or principle in which you are takes place
;
he
is
you and you
transfusion
a
;
are he
;
then
is
a teaching, and by no unfriendly chance or bad
company can he ever
quite lose the benefit.
But your propositions run out of one they ran in at the other. that
Mr. Grand
We
will deliver
see
it
ear as
advertised
an oration on the
Fourth of July, and Mr. Hand before the Mechanics' Association, and we do not go thither, because we know that these gentlemen will' not
communicate their own character and experience to the company. If we had reason to expect such a confidence we should go through convenience and opposition.
be carried in
litters.
But
The
all in-
sick would
a public oration
is
an
escapade, a non-committal, an apology, a gag,
and not man.
A
a
like
works.
communication, not a speech, not
Nemesis presides over
We
all
a
intellectual
have yet to learn that the thing
uttered in words
is
not therefore
affirxned.
It
SPIRITUAL LAWS must
also contain
The is
it
The
evidence.
own apology
its
effect
How
much
for being spoken.'
it lift
it
draw
?
If
you from your
of eloquence, then the
permanent, over the
to be wide, slow,
minds of men
depth of
its
water does
to think, if
feet with the great voice is
of
of any writing on the public mind
awaken you
effect
logic or
sentence must
mathematically measurable by
thought. it
no forms of
affirm itself, or
oath can give
153
you not, they will die like flies in the hour. The way to speak and write what shall not go out of fashion is to speak and write sincerely. The argument which has not power to reach my own practice, I may well doubt will fail to reach yours. But ;
if
the pages instruct
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
" Look in thy heart, maxim He. that writes to himself writes to
take Sidney's
:
and write." an eternal public. to
That statement only be made public which you have come
attempting to
who
writer
satisfy
your own
when
much
the
as
!
'
at in
The
curiosity.
know
empty book has gathered it still
that he has
he seems to have gained, and
and half the people genius
fit
takes his subject from his ear and
not from his heart, should lost as
is
say,
'
What
needs fuel to
only profits which
is
all its
poetry
make
profitable.
fire.
praise, !
what
That
Life alone can
SPIRITUAL LAWS
154
impart
life
and though we should burst we
;
can only be valued as
There
able.
is
we make
no luck
ourselves valu-
in literary reputation.
They who make up the final verdict upon every book are not the partial and noisy readers of the hour when it appears, but a court as of annot to be bribed, not to be en-
gels, a public
and not to be overawed, decides upon
treated
every man's
title
to fame.
Only those books
come down which deserve to
last.
Gilt edges,
vellum and morocco, and presentation to all the libraries will not preserve a circulation
with to
all
its
beyond
its
intrinsic date.
It
- copies
book in must go
Walpole's Noble and Royal Authors
fate.
Blackmore, Kotzebue or Pollok
Moses and Homer There are not in the world at any one time more than a dozen persons who read and understand Plato, never enough to pay for an edition of his works yet to every generation these come duly down, for the sake of those few persons, as if God brought them in his hand. "No book," said Bentley, "was ever written down by any but itself." The permanence of all books is fixed by no effort, friendly or hostile, but by their own specific gravity, or
may endure
for a night, but
stand for ever.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
;
the intrinsic importance of their contents to the
;
SPIRITUAL LAWS constant
mind of man. " Do not
self too
much about
Michel Angelo
said light
155 trouble your-
the light on your statue,"
to the
of the public square
In like manner the
young
sculptor; "the
will test its value."
of every action
effect
Is
measured by the depth of the sentiment from which it proceeds. The great man knew not that he
was great.
cause he
must
;
it
took a century or two for
It
What
that fact to appear.
he did, he did be-
was the most natural thing in
the world, and grew out of the circumstances of the
moment. But now, every thing he
to the lifting
did,
even
of his finger or the eating of bread,
looks large, all-related, and
called an institu-
is
tion.
These ticulars
are the demonstrations in a few par-
of the genius of nature
;
they show the
But the stream is blood Truth has not single victo-
direction of the stream.
every drop ries
;
all
is alive.
things are
and stones, but
its
errors
organs,
and
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not The
lies.
only dust
laws of dis-
ease, physicians say, are as beautiful as the laws
of health.
Our philosophy
is
affirmative
and
readily accepts the testimony of negative facts, as
every shadow points to the sun.
necessity every fact in nature offer its testimony.
is
By a
divine
constrained to
;
SPIRITUAL LAWS
156
Human The
character evermore publishes
itself.
most fugitive deed and word, the mere
air
of doing a thing, the intimated purpose, ex-
you act you show character if you sit still, if you sleep, you show it. You think because you have spoken nothing presses character.
If
;
when
others spoke, and have given no opinion on the times, on the church, on slavery, on marriage, on socialism, on secret societies, on the college, on parties and persons, that your verdict
expected with curiosity as a reserved
is still
wisdom.
Far otherwise
You
very loud.
;
your
silence answers
have no oracle to utter, and
your fellow-men have learned that you cannot help them
dom
for oracles speak. Doth not Wisand Understanding put forth her
;
cry
voice
?
Dreadful limits are set in nature to the powers of dissimulation. Truth tyrannizes over the unwilling
members of
the body.
Faces never
lie,
No man
need be deceived who will study the changes of expression. When a man
it is
said.
speaks the truth in the
spirit
as clear as the heavens.
When
and speaks
falsely, the
eye
is
of truth, his eye
is
he has base ends
muddy and
some-
times asquint. I
have heard an experienced counsellor
"
say
SPIRITUAL LAWS upon
that he never feared the effect
who does
lawyer
ought
client
it
to
despite
all
of
have a verdict.
This
is
If he does not
appear to the jury,
and will become whereby a work
his protestations,
their unbelief.
a jury of a
not believe in his heart that his
his unbelief will
believe
157
that law
of whatever kind, sets us in the same
art,
of mind wherein the
artist was when he That which we do not believe we cannot adequately say, though we may repeat
state
made
it.
the words viction
never so often.
It
was
this
con-
which Swedenborg expressed when he
described a group of persons in the spiritual
world endeavoring in vain to articulate a proposition which they did not believe
but they
;
could not, though they twisted and folded their lips
even to indignation.
A is
man
all
passes for that he
less so.
all fear
If a
of remaining
man know
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he can do â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he has pledge of
thing, else,
worth.
Very
idle
curiosity concerning other people's esti-
mate of us, and not
is
of that
that
it
a
fact
by
all
persons.
unknown
that he can better than
the
is
do any
any one
acknowledgment
The world
is*
full
of
judgment-days, and into every assembly that a
man
enters, in every action he attempts, he
gauged and stamped.
is
In every troop of boys
;
SPIRITUAL LAWS
158
each yard and square, a and accurately weighed in the course of a few days and stamped with his right number, as if he had undergone a formal trial of his strength, speed and temper, A that
whoop and run
new-comer
stranger
comes from
dress, with trinkets ;
of no use
we
'
What
a distant school, his pockets,
in'
an older boy
pretensions ;
in
as well
is
?
is
'
'
A fop
may
It
's
the divine question
which searches men and transpierces every reputation.
and
airs
says to himself,
him out to-morrow.'
shall find
has he done
with better
with
sit
in
false
any chair of
the
world nor be distinguished for his hour from
Homer and Washington
;
but there need never
be any doubt concerning the respective of
human
cannot
act.
beings.
Pretension
may
ability
sit still,
but
Pretension never feigned an act of
real greatness.
Pretension never wrote an
Iliad,
nor drove back Xerxes, nor christianized the world, nor abolished slavery.
as
As much virtue much goodness
as there
is,
as there
commands. All the
ence
it
tue.
The
so
is,
much appears much rever-
so
devils respect vir-
high, the generous, the self-devoted
and command mankind. Never was a sincere word utterly lost. Never a magnanimity fell to the ground, but there is
sect will always instruct
!
SPIRITUAL LAWS some
A
and accept
heart to greet
man
passes for that he
engraves
on
is
it
159
unexpectedly.
What
worth.
on
he
is
on his fortunes, in letters of light. Concealment avails him nothing, boasting nothing. There is conitself
his face,
his form,
fession in the glances of our eyes, in our smiles,
and the grasp of hands. His sin bedaubs him, mars all his good impression. in salutations,
Men know
not
why
they do not trust him, but
they do not trust him. His vice glasses his eye, cuts lines
of mean
expression in his cheek,
pinches the nose, sets the
mark of the
the back of the head, and writes
O
beast
fool
!
on
fool
on the forehead of a king. If you would not be known to do any thing, never do it. A man may play the fool in the drifts
of a desert, but every grain of sand shall
seem
to see.
He may
he cannot keep
be a solitary eater, but
his foolish counsel.
A
broken
complexion, a swinish look, ungenerous acts
and the want of due knowledge,
Can
a cook, a Chiffinch, an
for
Zeno
"
How
man
can a
man
be concealed
On if
or Paul
?
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
all
blab.
lachimo be mistaken Confucius exclaimed,
be concealed
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
?
How
can
a
" ?
the other hand, the hero fears not that
he withhold the avowal of a just and brave
SPIRITUAL LAWS
i6o act
it
will
knows
it,
go unwitnessed and unloved. One and is pledged by it himself,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
to sweetness of peace
which
will
tion of
tue
is
it
and to nobleness of aim
prove in the end a better proclama-
than the relating of the incident.
Vir-
the adherence in action to the nature of
makes
things and the nature of things
pre-
it
It consists in a perpetual substitution
valent.
of being for seeming, and with sublime propriety
The is.
God
is
described as saying,
I
AM.
lesson which these observations convey
Be, and not seem.
Let us acquiesce.
Let us
take our bloated nothingness out of the path
of the divine
dom
circuits.
Let us
of the world.
power and learn
Let us unlearn our lie
low
that truth alone
wis-
in the Lord's
makes
rich and
great.
If
you
visit
your
friend,
why need you
apolo-
gize for not having visited him, and waste his
time and deface your
Let him
feel that
see him, in thee
own
act
?
Visit
the highest love has
its
lowest organ.
him now. come to
Or why
need
you torment yourself and friend by secret selfreproaches that you have not assisted him or complimented him with gifts and salutations heretofore ? Be a gift and a benediction. Shine with real light and not with the borrowed
re-
SPIRITUAL LAWS
Common men
flection of gifts.
for
men
;
they
bow
i6i are apologies
the head, excuse themselves
with prolix reasons, and accumulate appearances
because the substance
We
is
not.
are full of these superstitions of sense,
We
the worship of magnitude. inactive, because
he
is
We
chant, or a porter.
and do not see that which we have. ments.
The
visible facts
it is
But
adore an institution,
founded on a thought
mo-
real action is in silent
epochs of our
life
of our choice of a
our acquisition of an
riage,
the poet
call
not a president, a mer-
are not in the
calling,
office,
our mar-
and the
like,
but in a silent thougRt by the wayside as
walk
in a
;
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
manner of
life
done, but
were better thus.'
it
and
says,
years, like menials, serve
'
Thus
And
revisal or correction
a
The
is
hast thou
all
and wait on
according to their ability execute
as
we
thought which revises our entire
our
after
and This
this,
its will.
a constant force, which,
tendency, reaches through our lifetime. object of the man, the aim of these
ments,
is
to
make
mo-
daylight shine through him,
to suffer the law to traverse
his
whole being
without obstruction, so that on what point soever of his doing your eye truly of his
falls it shall
character, whether
it
report
be his diet, his
1
SPIRITUAL LAWS
62
house, his rehgious forms, his society, his mirthj
Now
his vote, his opposition.
he
is
not homo-
geneous, but heterogeneous, and the ray does
not traverse
;
there are
no thorough Hghts, but
the eye of the beholder
many unhke
puzzled, detecting
is
tendencies and a
life
not yet
at
one.
Why
should we make
it
a point with our
modesty to disparage that man we are and that form of being assigned to us ? A good man is contented. I love and honor Epaminondas, but I do not wis.h to be Epaminondas. I hold it more just to love the world of this hour than the world of his hour. Nor can you,
false
am
if I
by
true, excite
saying,
'
He
me
to the least uneasiness
acted and thou sittest
when
see action to be good, sitting still to
he was the still
is
is,
and
man
I
Epaminondas, if take him for, would have sat
large,
if his lot
had been mine.
and affords space for
of love and fortitude.
Why
tion are alike to the true.
all
modes
should we be busy-
bodies and superserviceable?
is
the need
I
be also good.
with joy and peace,
Heaven
still.'
Action and
One
inac-
piece of the tree
cut for a weathercock and one for the sleeper
of a bridge ; the virtue of the in both.
wood
is
apparent
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; SPIRITUAL LAWS I
am
me
here certainly shows
had need of an organ here. the post
Shall
?
I
with
my
esty
and imagine
ing there
?
own needs
fact
that the soul
Shall I not
assume
skulk and dodge and duck
unseasonable apologies and vain
less pertinent
my
mod-
being here impertinent
than Epaminondas or
Homer
?
be-
and that the soul did not know its Besides, without any reasoning on
?
the matter,
I
soul nourishes
have no discontent.
me and
The good
unlocks new magazines
me
of power and enjoyment to
every day.
I
not meanly decline the immensity of good,
because in
The
desire not to disgrace the soul.
that I
will
163
I
have heard that
it
has
come
to others
another shape. Besides,
why should we
be cowed by the
name of Action? 'T is a trick of the senses, no morq. We know that the ancestor of every action is a thought. The poor mind does not seem
to itself to be
outside badge,
any thing unless
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; some Gentoo
it
have an
diet, or
Quaker
coat, or Calvinistic prayer-meeting, or philan-
thropic society, or a great donation, or a high office, or,
any how, some wild contrasting action
to testify that lies in
think
it is
somewhat.
the sun and sleeps, and is
to act.
The is
rich
mind
Nature.
To
'
1
SPIRITUAL LAWS
64
Let us, our own
if
we must have great All action
so.
and the
city,
me
of an
infinite elasti-
eclipses
it
the sun and
Let us seek one peace by
heed
my
Why
duties.
need
go gadding
I
How
?
Greek and
have justified myself
Italian history before I
benefactors
Let
fidelity.
into the scenes and philosophy of
my
make
admits of being inflated with
least
the celestial air until
moon.
is
actionsj
dare
to
read Washing-
I
when I have not answered the own correspondents ? Is not that
ton's campaigns letters
of
my
a just objection to
much of our
reading
?
It
is
work to gaze peeping. Byron says
a pusillanimous desertion of our after
our neighbors.
of Jack Bunting,
He knew I
may
say
it
—
It
is
not what to say, and so he swore.
of our preposterous use of books,
— He knew not what
to do,
can think of nothing to I find the
fill
Life of Brant. It
and so he
my is
read.
I
time with, and
a very extrava-
gant compliment to pay to Brant, or to General Schuyler, or to General Washington.
My time
should be as good
as their time,
facts,
net of relations, as
good me do
theirs.
Rather
other idlers
if
let
they choose
— my
my
as theirs, or either of
my work
so well that
may compare my
tex-
SPIRITUAL LAWS
165
ture with the texture of these and find cal
it
identi-
with the best.
This over-estimate of the possibilities of Paul and Pericles, this under-estimate of our own,
comes from
a neglect of the fact of an identical
Bonaparte knew but one merit, and
nature.
re-
one and the same way the good solgood astronomer, the good poet, the good player. The poet uses the names of Csesar,
warded
in
dier, the
of Tamerlane, of Bonduca,' of Belisarius
;
the
painter uses the conventional story of the Vir-
gin
Mary, of Paul, of
Peter.
He does
not there-
men,
fore defer to the nature of these accidental
of these stock heroes.
drama, then he Csesar
:
emotion
is
If the poet write a true
Caesar,
and not the player of
then the selfsame strain of thought, as pure, wit as subtle,
motions
mounting, extravagant, and a heart sufficing, dauntless,
all
that
;
—
is
its
reckoned solid
— gardens, — marking own
and precious in the world, money, navies, kingdoms, incomparable worth by the
men
as great, self-
which on the waves of
love and hope can uplift
these gauas of
as swift,
these
palaces,
its
slight all
it
on and by
casts
are his,
power of these he rouses the nations. Let man believe in God, and not in names and
the a
places and persons.
Let the great soul
incar-
1
SPIRITUAL LAWS
66
nated in some woman's form, poor and sad and
some Dolly or Joan, go out to service and sweep chambers and scour floors, and its single, in
effulgent
daybeams cannot be muffled or
hid,
but to sweep and scour will instantly appear
supreme and beautiful actions, the top and radihuman life, and all people will get mops
ance of
and brooms
;
until, lo
!
suddenly the great soul
has enshrined itself in
some other form and done
some other deed, and
that
head of
We leaf
all
now
the flower and
living nature.'
are the photometers, we the irritable gold-
and
tinfoil that
measure the accumulations
of the subtle element. effects
is
of the true
million disguises.
fire
We
know
the authentic
through every one of
its
V LOVE "I
WAS
as a
Me my
gem
concealed
;
burning ray revealed."
LOVE EVERY promise of the able fulfilments into a
;
soul has innumer-
each of
its
joys ripens
new want. Nature, uncontainable,
flow-
ing, forelooking, in the first sentiment of kind-
ness
already a benevolence which
anticipates
shall .lose alj__particuJar
regar3iHn
nght^Tnh^^Jntroduction to
its general
this felicity is in a
and tender relation of one to one, which is t he en chantment of human lif^.; which, like a certain divine rage and enthusiasm, seizes on private
man
at
one period and works a revolution
mind and body unites him to him to the domestic and civic him with new sympathy into ;
in his
his race, pledges
relations, carries
nature, enhances
the power of the senses, opens the imagination,
adds to his character heroic and sacred butes,
establishes
nence to
The
human
attri-
marriage and gives perma-
society.
natural association of the sentiment of
love with the heyday of the blood seems to require that in order to portray
it
in vivid tints,
which every youth and maid should confess to be true to their throbbing experience, one must not be too old.
The
delicious fancies of
youth
LOVE
170
of a mature philosophy,
reject the least -^avor
as chilling with age
And
bloom.
and pedantry
therefore
I
know
their purple
incur the im-
I
putation of unnecessary hardness and stoicism
from those who compose the Court and Parliament of Love. But from these formidable censors I shall appeal to
my
For
seniors.
it is
to be considered that this passion of which
speak, though
begin with the young, yet
it
sakes not the old, or rather suffers no one
grow
servant to
is its
old, but
makes
we
for-
who
the aged
participators of it not less than the tender maiden,
though
in a different
a fire that kindling
nook of a
private
and nobler
its first
For
sort.
embers
it is
in the narrow
bosom, caught from
a wander-
ing spark out of another private heart, glows
and enlarges until multitudes of sal heart
and ters
all
of
it
warms and beams upon
men and women, upon
all,
and so
nature with
its
lights
the univer-
up the whole world
generous flames.
It mat-
not therefore whether we attempt to de-
scribe the passion at twenty, thirty, or at eighty years.
He who
paints
it
at the first period will
some of its later, he who paints it at the last, some of its earlier traits. Only it is to be hoped that by patience and the Muses' aid we lose
may
attain to that
inward view of the law which
LOVE shall describe a truth ever
so central that at
it
shall
171
young and
commend
beautiful,
itself to the
eye
whatever angle beholden.
And
the
first
condition
that
is
we must
leave
a too close and lingering adherence to facts, and
study the sentiment as
it
appeared in hope, and
own life defaced and disfigured, as the life of man is not to his imagination. Each man sees over his own not in history.
For each nian
sees his
experience a certain stain of error, whilst that
men looks fair and ideal. Let any man go back to those delicious relations which make the beauty of his life, which have given of other
him will
but life
sincerest instruction
and nourishment, he
shrink and moan. Alas infinite
!
I
know
compunctions embitter
not why,
in
mature
the remembrances of budding joy, and cover
every beloved name.'
Every thing
is
beautiful
seen from the point of the intellect, or as truth.
But ^U is sour melanch oly
are
if ;
seen as '^experience.
the plan
In the actual world
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the
is
Details
seemly and noble.
painful
kingdom of
time ^nd place"^^ dwell care and canker and
With ity,
thought, with the ideal,
is
Round
it
the rose of joy.
sing.
B argrrrfgle aves
the partial interests
immortal all
the
fear.
hilar-
Muses
names and persons and of to-day and yesterday. to
LOVE
172
The
strong bent of nature
is
seen in the pro-
portion which this topic of personal relations
What
usurps in the conversation of society.
we wish as
to
how he
ment
know of any worthy person
do
much
has sped in the history of this senti-
What books
?
so
in the circulating library
How
? we glow over these novels of passion, when the story is told with any spark of truth and nature And what fastens atten-
circulate
!
tion, in the intercourse
of
like
life,
any passage
betraying affection between two parties
?
haps we never saw them before and never
But we
Pershall
them exchange a glance or betray a deep emotion, and we are no longer strangers. We understand them and take meet them
again.
see
the warmest interest in the development of the
romance. All rnankind love liest
_a
lover.
The
ear-
demonstrations of complacency and kind-
most winning pictures.' It is the dawn of civility and grace in the coarse and rustic. The rude village boy teases the girls ness are nature's
about the school-house door
;
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but
to-day he
comes running into the entry and meets one fair
child disposing her satchel
books
him
to help her,
as if she
nitely,
; he holds her and instantly it seems to
removed
and was
herself from
a sacred precinct.
him
infi-
Among_^the
LOVE throng of
girls
alone^ distances bors,, that
173
he runs rudely enough, but one
him
;
and these two
little
neigh-
were so close just now, have learned
Or who
to respect each other's personality.
can
avert his eyes from the engaging, half-artful, half-artless
ways of school-girls who go into the
country shops to buy a skein of
silk or a sheet
of paper, and talk half an hour about nothing with the broad-faced, good-natured shop-boy.
In the village they are on a perfect equality,
which love delights
in,
and without any coquetry
woman flows The girls may have
the happy, affectionate nature of
out in this pretty gossip. little
beauty, yet plainly do they establish be-
tween them and the good boy the most agreeable, confiding relations
and
their earnest,
Almira, and
who danced
;
what with
their fun
about Edgar and Jonas and
who was
invited to the party,
at the dancing-school,
and
and when
the singing-school would begin, and other nothings concerning which the parties cooed. By and by that boy wants a wife, and very truly and heartily will he know where to find a sincere
and sweet mate, without any
Milton deplores great men. I
as
risk such as
incident to scholars
and
some public
dis-
have been told that
in
LOVE
174 courses of mine
has
my
reverence for the intellect
made me unjustly cold to the personal relaBut now I almost shrink at the remem-
tions.
brance of such disparaging words.
For persons
and the coldest philosopher cannot recount the debt of the young soul wan-
are love's world,
dering here in nature to the power of love, with-
out being tempted to unsay, as treasonable to nature, aught derogatory to the social instincts.
For though the
celestial raggire falling
out of
heaven seizes only upon those of tender age, and although a beauty overpowering all analysis or comparison and putting us quite beside ourselves
we can seldom
see after thirty years, yet
the remembrance of these visions outlasts
all
other remembrances, and is a wreath of flowers on the oldest brows. But here is a strange fact; it may seem to many men, in revising their experience, that they have no fairer page in their life's book than the delicious memory of some
passages wherein affection contrived to give a witchcraft, surpassing the
own
truth, to a parcel of accidental
circumstances. find
deep attraction of
that
and
ils
trivial
In looking backward they may
several
charm have more
things which were not the reality to this
ory than the charm itself which
groping
embalmed
memthem.
LOVE
175
But be our experience in particulars what it may, no man ever forgot the visitations of that power to his heart and brain, which created all
things
anew
;
which was the dawn
of music, poetry and
art
of nature radiant with purple
face
when
a
one voice could make the heart
bound, and the most ciated with
;
him
morn-
light, the
ing and the night varied enchantments single tone of
in
which made the
;
circumstance asso-
trivial
one form
is
put
in the
amber of
memory when he became all eye when one was and all memory when one was gone ;
present,
when
;
the youth
becomes a watcher of win-
dows and studious of
a glove, a veil, a ribbon,
or the wheels of a carriage
;
when no
place
too solitary and none too silent for him has richer
who
company and sweeter conversation
new thoughts than any old best and purest, can give him his
;
friends,
is
in
though
for the figures,
the motions, the words of the beloved object are not, like other images, written in water, but, as Plutarch said, "
enamelled in
the study of midnight
' Thou Thou
art not
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
fire,"
and make
gone being gone, where'er thou
leav'st in
heart."
:
him thy
watchfiil eyes, in
art.
him thy loving
'
In the noon and the afternoon of
life
we
still
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; LOVE
176
when happiness
throb at the recollection of days
was not happy enough, but must be drugged with the relish of pain and fear the secret of the matter
" All
who
for he touched
;
said of love,
other pleasures are not worth
pains
its
:
"
'
and when the day was not long enough, but the night too must be consumed in keen recollections
;
when
the head boiled
low with the generous deed
all
it
night on the
resolved on; when
the moonlight was a pleasing fever and the
were
letters
was coined into song
running to and
The It
stars
and the flowers ciphers and the ;
an impertinence, and
when all
all
the
pil-
air
business seemed
men and women
fro in the streets,
mere
pictures.
passion rebuilds the world for the youth.
makes
aiLthiilgs_alivs,ajnd.jig|ijficMtj__J^ature
grows con sÂŁiQ.us,,Jl very bird on the boughs of the tree sings now to his heart and soul. The notes are almost articulate.
The
clouds have
on them. The trees of the forest, the waving grass and the peeping flowand he almost fears ers have grown intelligent to trust them with the secret which they seem faces as he looks
;
to invite.
Yet nature soothes and sympathizes. a dearer home
In the green solitude he finds than with
men
:
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
LOVE "
177
Fouiitain-heads and pathless groves.
which pale passion
Places
Moonlight walks, when
Are
A
loves.
the fowls
all
safely housed, save bats
midnight
and owls,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
bell, a passing groan,
These are the sounds we feed upon."
Behold there
He
is
dilates
wood
in the
he
akimbo and the
twice a
is
trees
;
he
talks with the
;
lily
he
;
he accosts the grass
blood of the
in
his veins
brook that wets
heats that have
!
he walks with arms
;
feels the
the clover and the
The
man
he soliloquizes
;
madman
sounds and sights
a palace of sweet ;
the fine
"
;
violet,
and he
his foot.^
opened
his perceptions
of natural beauty have made him love music
and
verse.
It
is
a fact often observed, that
men
have written good verses under the inspiration of passion
who cannot
under any
write well
other circumstances.
The nature.
like force has the passion It
over
expands the sentiment
;
it
all
his
makes
the clown gentle and gives the coward heart.
Into the most
pitiful
and abject
it
will infuse a
heart and courage to defy the world, so only
have the countenance of the beloved giving him to another himself.
He
is
a
it still
more
object.
gives
him
it
In to
new man, with new percep-
LOVE
178 tions,
new and keener purposes, and
solemnity of character and aims. longer a.ppertain is
somewhat
And
family, and. sodetjL^-^^
to_ his
^/_isj^ person
;
here
;
he_ is
us examine a
let
tion to
is
nearer the
thus potent
human youth. Beauty, whose man we now celebrate, welcome
sun wherever
it
The
is
lover cannot paint
poor and
his fancy
tree in flower, so
loveliness
as the
and with themselves, seems
sufficient to itself.
maiden to
revela-
pleases to shine, which pleases
it
everybody with
his eye
a soulj.
little
nature of that, influence which
over the
a religious
He_does_not
much
soft,
and Graces attending her
makes the world
a
and she
teaches
pictured with Loves steps.
Though
rich.
his
Like
budding, informing
society for itself;
why Beauty was
solitary.
Her
existence
she extrudes
all
other persons from his attention as cheap and
unworthy, she indemnifies him by carrying out
own being
somewhat impersonal, large, maiden stands to him for a representative of all select things and virtues. For that reason the lover never sees personal her
into
mundane, so
that the
resemblances
in his mistress__to
to others..â&#x201E;˘
His
friends find in her a likeness to
her mother, or her of her blood.
her kiriHreH or
The
sisters,
or to persons not
lover sees no resemblance
LOVE except to
summer
ings, to rainbows
The
179
evenings and diamond mornand the song of birds.
ancients called beauty the flowering of
Who
virtue.'
can analyse the nameless charm
which glances from one and another
form
We
?
are
we cannot
Nor it
It
destroyed for the imagina-
is
any attempt
does
or love
it
find
dainty emotion, this wandering
this
gleam, points. tion by
and
touched with emotions of ten-
derness and complacency, but
whereat
face
to refer
it
to organization.
point to any relations of friendship
known and
described in society, but, as
seems to me, to a quite other and unattaina-
ble sphere, to relations of transcendent delicacy
and sweetness, to what^roses and ^visJ.^ts, hint and foreshow. We cannot approach beauty. Its ,
nature
is
ering and evanescent.
moil
bow
hovHerein it resembles the which all have this rain-
like opaline doves'-neck lustres,
excellent things,
character, defying all attempts at appropri-
and
What
Jean Paul Richter signify, when he said to music, " Away away ation
use.
else did
!
thou speakest to endless
life I
The same
me
of things which in
have not found and
fluency
may
!
all
my
shall not find."
be observed in every
work of the plastic arts. The statue is then beautiful when it begins to be incomprehensible,
LOVE
i8o
when
passing out of criticism and can no
it is
longer be defined by compass and measuring-
wand, but demands an active imagination to go with it and to say what it is in the act of do-
The god
ing.
or hero of the sculptor
m
represented
representable to the senses,
Then
first
remark holds of painting. success
is
not attained when
but when
it
that which
to
ceases to be a stone.
it
astonishes and
And
always
fires
endeavors after the unattainable. Landor inquires " whether it
some purer
state
is
The
is
not.
same
of poetry the
it lulls
it
referred to
is
a transition yro?Âť that which
and
satisfies,
us with new
Concerning not to be
is
of sensation and
existence."
In
like
manner, personal beauty
is
then
first
itself when it dissatisfies us with when it becomes a story without an end when it suggests gleams and vision's and when it makes the betiot earthly satisfactions holder feel his unwofthiness when he cannot
charming and
any end
;
;
;
;
feel his right to
cannot
feel
more
it,
though he were Caesar
right to
it
;
he
than to the firma-
ment and the splendors of a sunset. Hence arose the saying, " If I love you, what " We say so because we feel that is that to you ? what we love is not in your will, but above it. It
LOVE is
i8i
not^you, but youÂŁ_radiance.
Itjs that which
you know not in yojirself and can never know. This agrees well with that high philosophy of Beauty which the ancient writers delighted
in
;
man, embodied here on earth, went roaming up and down in quest of that other world of its own out of which it came into this, but was^oon stupefied by the for they said that the soul of
light
of the natural sun, and unable to see any
other objects than those of this world, which are
bu t shad ows of real.things/ Therefore the Deity sends the glory of youth before the soul, that it
may
avail itself
of beautiful bodies as aiJdstS^ts
recollection of the celestial
good and
fair
;
and
the~matr beholding such a person in the female sex runs to her and finds the highest joy in
contemplating the form,
gence of
this person,
movement and
because
it
intelli-
suggests to
the presence of that which indeed
is
him
within the
beauty, and the cause of the beauty. If however, from too
much
conversing with
material objects, the soul was gross, and mis-
placed
its
satisfaction
nothing but sorrow fil
;
in
the
body,
it
body being unable
the promise which beauty holds out
;
reaped to ful-
but
if,
accepting the hint of these visions and suggestions
which beauty makes
to his
mind, the soul
LOVE
i82
body and
passes through the
to admire
falls
strokes of character,"and the lovers contemplate
one another
in theTr discourses
and
their actions,
then they pass to the true" palace of beauty,
more and more inflame
their love
of
and by
it,
this love extinguishing the basej affection, as
the sun puts out
fire
by shining on
tion with that
which
nobilities,
apprehension of them.
is
in
comes to a and a quicker
Then he
one to loving them
passes from in
all,
and
so
the one beautiful soul only the door through
which he enters to the society of pure souls.
he
mag-
just, the lover
warmer love of these loving them
conversa-
in itself excellent,
is
nanimous, lowly, and
the_ hearth,
By
they become pure and hallowed.
attains a clearer sight of
his
mate
any spot, any
taint
which her beauty has contracted from
and
is
tru e and
all
In the particular society of
able to point
it
now
joy that they are
out,
and
this world,
this with
mutual
able, without offence, to
and hindrances in each other, each all help and comfort in curing
indicate blemishes
and give
to
the same. traits
And
beholding in
many
_s,ouls the
of the divine beauty, and separatingjn each divine from the taint which
it
has contracted in the world, the lover ascends
to
soul that which
is
the highest beauty, to the love and k nowledg e
LOVE
183
of the Divinity^ by steps on
this Ja.ddex_Qf cre-
ated sou ls.
Somewhat
like this
us of love in
nor
is it
taught
all
new.
it,
have the truly wise told
The
ages.
doctrine
is
not old,
If Plato, Plutarch and Apuleius
so have Petrarch,
It awaits a truer
Angelo and Milton.
unfolding in opposition and
rebuke to that subterranean prudence which presides at marriages with
words that take hold of
the upper world, whilst one eye
is
prowling in the
cellar; so that its gravest discourse has a
of hams and powdering-tubs.
sensu^al^rrLiufrudes into the education of
women, and
human fies
But
this
young
withers the hope and affection of
nature by teaching that marriage signi-
nothing but a housewife's
woman
savor
Worst, when
s lire
this
thrift,
dream of
though
love,
only one scene in our play.
like
beautiful,
is
In the procession
of the soul from within outward, circles ever,
and that
has no other aim.
it
enlarges
its
the pebble thrown into the
pond, or the light proceeding from an orb. rays of the soul alight
first
on things
The
nearest,
on
every utensil and toy, on nurses and domestics,
on the house and yard and passengers, on the circle of household acquaintance, on politics and geography and history. But things are ever
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; LOVE
i84
grouping themselves according to higher or interior laws. Neighborhood, size, num-
more
bers, habits, persons, lose
Cause and
over us.
by degrees
their
power
real affinities, the
effect,
longing for harmony between the soul and the circumstance, the progressive, idealizing
predominate
later,
the higher to the lower relations
Thus even
love,
instinct,
and the step backward from
which
is
is
impossible.
the deificalipji of per-
must become more impersonal every .dgjOf this at first it gives no hint. Little think the youth and maiden who are glancing at each other across crowded rooms with eyes so full of mutual intelligence, of the precious fruit long sons,
hereafter to proceed from this new, quite external stimulus. first in
The work of
vegetation begins
the irritability of the bark and leaf-buds.
From exchanging
glances, they advance to acts
of courtesy, of gallantry, then to fiery passion, plighting troth and marriage. its
embodied, and the body " Her
is
Passion beholds
The
object as a perfect unit.
to
soul
is
who lly
wholly e nsouled
:
pure and eloquent blood
Spoke
in her cheeks,
and so
distinctly
wrought.
That one might almost say her body thought."
Romeo, if dead, should be cut up into little to make the heavens fine. Life, with this
'
stars pair,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; LOVE
185
has no other aim, asks no more, than Juliet,
Romeo. Night,
than
doms,
day, studies, talents, king-
religion, are all contained in_thia.f(arni^full
of squljjn_this soul which ers delight in
is
dl form.
The
lov-
endearments, in avowals of love,
When
in comparisons of their regards.
alone,
they solace themselves with the remembered im-
Does that other see the same same melting cloud, read the same book, feel the same emotion, that now delights me ? They try and weigh their affection, and adding up costly advantages, friends, opportuniage of the other. the
star,
'
ties,
properties, exult in discovering that will-
would give
ransom for the beautiful, the beloved head, not one hair~oFwhicF shall be harmed. But the lot of humanity is on these children. Danger, sorrow and pain arrive to them as to all. Love prays. It makes covenants with Eternal Power in beingly, joyfu lly, they
all as
a
The union which is thus and which adds a new value to every
half of this dear mate. effected
atom
in nature
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
for
it
transmutes every thread
throughout the whole web of relation into a golden ray, and bathes the soul sweeter element
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
is
in a
new and
yet a temporary state.
Not
always can flowers, pearls, poetry, protestations,
nor even
home
in,
another heart, content the
LOVE
i86
It arouses itself
awful soul that dwells in clay. at last
from these endearments,
as toys,
and puts
on the harness and aspires to vast and universal
The
aims.
soul which
is
in the soul
of
each,
craving a perfect beatitude, detects incongruities, defects
and disproportion
other.
Hence
pain.
in the behavior of the
arise surprise, expostuTatTon and
Yet that which drew them
to each other
and these however eclipsed. They appear and reappear and continue to attract but the regard changes, quits the sign and attaches to the substance. This repairs the wounded affection. Meantime, as life wears on, it proves a game of permutation and combination of all was signs of loveliness, signs of virtue
;
virtues are there,
;
possible positions of the parties, to employ
all
the resources of each and acquaint each with the
strength and weakness of the other.
For
it is
the nature and end of this relation, that they
should represent the All that
is
human
in the world,
race to each other.
which
known, is cunningly wrought of man, of woman :
" The
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
The world rolls The angels
;
or ought to be
into the texture
person love does to us
Like manna, has the
hour.
is
taste
fit.
of
all
in it."
'
the circumstances vary every that inhabit this temple of
LOVE
187
body appear at the windows, and the gnomes and vices also. By all the virtues they are united. the
If there be virtue,
such
;
all
the vices are
they confess and
known
as
Their once flam-
flee.
ing regard
is
sobered by time in either breast,
and losing
in
violence what
becomes
a
it
gains in extent,
resign each other without complaint to the offices
it
thorough good understanding. They
which
man and woman
good
are severally ap-
pointed to discharge in time, and exchange the passion which once could not lose sight of
its
object, for a cheerful disengaged furtherance, whether present or absent, of each other's de-
At
all which at drew them together, -^ those once sacred features, that magical play of charms, was deciduousj had a prospective end, like the scaffoldings by which the house was built and the
signs.
last
they discover that
first
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
;
and the heart from marriage, foreseen and and wholly above their
purification of the intellect
year to year
is
the real
pregared^from the
first,
Looking at these aims with which two persons, a man and a woman, so variously and correlatively gifted, are shut up in one house consciousness.
to
spend
years, I
in the nuptial society forty or fifty
do not wonder
at
which the heart prophesies
the emphasis with this crisis
from
early
LOVE
i88
infancy, at the profuse beauty with which the instincts intellect
deck the nuptial bower, and nature and and art emulate each other in the gifts
and the melody they bring to the epithalamium. Thus are we put in training for a loye^ which
knows not
sex, nor person,
nor
partiality, but
which seeks virtue and wisdom everywhere, to the end of increasing virtue and wisdom. We
by nature observers, and thereby That is our permanent state. But we
are
made
learners.
are often
to feel that
our affections are but tents of
Though
slowly and with pain, the ob-
a night.
jects of the affections change, as the objects of
thought do. There are moments when the tions rule and absorb the
affec-
man and make
his
happiness dependent on a person or persons. But in health the
mind
is
presently seen again,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
its
overarching vault, bright with galaxies of immutable lights,
and the warm loves and
swept over us as clouds, must lose character and blend with
own
God,
fears, that
their finite
to attain their
But we need not fear that we can lose any thing by the progress of the soul. The soul may be trusted to the end. That which is so beautiful and attractive as these relations, must be succeeded and supplanted _,onIy by what is more beautiful, and so on for ever. perfection.
;
VI
FRIENDSHIP A
RUDDY drop of manly blood
The surging sea outweighs The world uncertain comes and The lover rooted stays. I fancied
And,
he was
after
many
goeSj,
fled.
a year.
Glowed unexhausted
kindliness
Like daily sunrise there.
My careful heart was free again, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; O friend, my bosom said.
Through
thee alone the sky
Through
thee the rose
is
is
arched.
red.
All things through thee take nobler fonm
And The
look beyond the earth.
mill-round of
oiu-
&te appears
A sun- path in thy worth. Me too thy nobleness has
taught
To master my despair The fountains of my hidden ;
Ale through thy
friendship
hfe
fair.
FRIENDSHIP
w:E is
have a great deal more kindness than
Maugre
ever spoken.
all
the selfish-
ness that chills Tike east winds the world, the
whole human family
is
bathed with an element
of love like a fine ether.
we meet
whom
How
many persons
whom we scarcely speak to, we honor, and who honor us How
in houses,
yet
!
many we see in the street, or sit with in church, whom, though siftntly, we warmly rejoice to be with Read the language of these wandering eye-beams. The heart knoweth. The effect of the indulgence of this human !
'
affection
is
a certain
poetry and in
cordial
common
exhilaration.
speech the emotions of
benevol ence and complacency which are towards others are liken ed to the
o f^fire tive,
;
so swift, or
more cheerin g,
ations.
From
m uch are
In
felt
m aterial effects
more swi ft, more
t hese fin e
inward
ac-
irradi-
the highest degree of passionate
love to the lowest degree of good-will, they
make the sweetness of life. Our intellectual and active powers increase with our affection. The scholar sits down to write,
and
all
his years
of meditation do not
FRIENDSHIP
192
him with one good thought or happy
furnish
expression
but
;
to a friend,
it
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and
is
necessary to write a letter
forthwith troops of gentle
thoughts invest themselves, on every hand, with
chosen words.'
and
See, in
any house where
self-respect abide, the palpitation
A commended
approach of a stranger causes. stranger
is
expected and announced, and an un-
easiness betwixt pleasure
and pain invades
the hearts of a household. brings fear to the
good
come him. The house
His
is
the new, and they
Of
report is
is
a
is
wel-
is
exchanged
for
a dinner if they
stranger, only the good
told bYLQthers,j)nIy The
heard by us._lie stands
He
would
dus'ted, all things fly
must get up
commended
all
arrival almost
hearts that
into their places, the old coat
can.
virtue
which the
to
good andTn ew
us for humanity
.
Having imagined and him, we ask how we should stand re-
what we wish.
invested
and action with such a man, and are uneasy with fear. The same idea
lated in conversation
exalts conversation with him.
than
we
a richer
are wont.
We
We
talk better
have the nimblest
fancy,
memory, and our dumb devil has taken For long hours we can con-
leave for the time.
tinue a series of sincere, graceful, rich
com-
munications, drawn from the oldest, secretest
Mr. Emerson's House
in
Concord
FRIENDSHIP experience, so that they
who
sit
193
own
by, of our
kinsfolk and acquaintance, shall feel a lively surprise at our unusual powers.
Butj;S_soon_as_the
stranger begins to intr ude his partia lities, his definitions, his defects into the
aUover. andlE^tne
conver sation,
it
He
has heard the fim,_the_Jast
will
eve r__heax-fronuxs..^_HeJs no
is
stranger now.
Vulgarity, igno rance, mi sappre-
hen^on are o ld acquain tancgSj^ Now, when he comes, HFTnay get the order, the dress and the dinner,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but
the throbbing of the heart and
the communications of the soul, no more.
What
is
so pleasant as these jets of affection
whic h make a yo u ng worldToFm e again ?
What
so delicious as a just and firm encounter of two, in a thought, in a
feehng
?
How
beautiful,
on
approach to this beating h eart, the steps and forms of rfHegifted and th e_jru^ The their
moment we indulge our is metam o r hosed there p ;
affections, the is
no wi nte r and no
n ightj_ all tragemes ^_allennuis vanish, ties
even; nothing
fills
earth
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
all
du-
the proceeding eternity
but the forms
all radiant of beloved persons. Let the soul be assured that somewhere in the universe it should rejoin its friend, and it would
be content and cheerful alone for a thousand years.
FRIENDSHIP
194 I
awoke
ing for I
not
morning with devout thanksgiv-friends, the old and the new. Shall
this
my God
me
himself so to I
who
the Beautiful,
call
in his gifts
I
?
embrace solitude, and yet
a
I
daily showeth
chide society,
m
not so un-
grateful^as not to see thg'wSiljt he lovely an j
the^nablÂŁdtBmde3^as from time to time they pass
my
gate."
W ho hea
bec omes mine,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
rs
me, who un derstands me
.
Nor
a posse ssion for all .time.
Nature so poor but she gives me this joy several times, and thus we weave social threads of is
our own, a new web of relations
;
and, as
many
thoughts in succession substantiate themselves,
we
shall
own
by and by stand in a new world of our and no longer strangers and pil-
creation,
My
grims in a traditionary globe.
come them
me
to to
me. By oldest
right,
friends have
God
gave
by the divine
affin-
The
unsought.
great
v of virtue with itself, I~find them, or rather not I, but t he Deity in me and i n them derides
it
and cancels the thick walls of individual
char-
acter, relation, age, sex, circumstance, at which
he usually connives, and
High thanks
I
owe you,
carry out the world for
depths, and enlarge
thoughts.
These
are
now makes many
one.
excellent lovers,
who
me
the
to
new
and noble
meaning of
new poetry of
all
the
my first
;
FRIENDSHIP Bard,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; poetry without
epic, poetry
chanting selves
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; hymn, ode and and the Muses
flowing, Apollo
still
Will these too separate them-
still.
me
from
stop,
195
again, or
some of them ?
my
I
know
them and the Genius of my life being thus social, the same affinity will exert its energy on whomsoever is as noble as these men and women, wherever I not, but I fear
so pure that
is
may
it
not
;
for
relation to
we hold by simple
affinity,
be.
confess to an extreme tenderness of nature
I
this point. It is almost dangerous to me to " crush the sweet poison of misused wine " of
on
'
A
the affections.
event and hinders
had
me it
fine fancies
new person
me from
yields
no
action
pride in
fruit.
is
my
sleep.
I
a great
have often
very
but the joy ends in the day
;
Thought little
friend's
warmly when he
is
not born of
modified.
I
must
accomplishments as
were mine, and a property in as
me
to
about persons which have given
delicious hours
my
is
is
he hears applause of
if
his virtues.
it
feel
they
I feel
praised, as the lover
when
engaged maiden.
We
his
over-estimate the conscience of our friend. His
goodness seems better than our goodness, nature finer, his temptations that
is his,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
his
name,
less.
his
Every thing books
his form, his dress,
FRIENDSHIP
196
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
fancy enhances, Our^wn and instruments, thought sounds new and. larger from hisjnouth/ Yet the systole and diastole of the heart are not without their analogy In the ebb and flow
of love. Friendship, like the immortality of the soul,
is
good
too
The
to be believed.
lover, be-
holding his maiden, half knows that she verily that
ho ur of
which he worships
fr iendship
we
;
and
in the golden
are su rprised
of suspicion .and nabeljsf.
We
not
is
w
i
th shades
doubt
we
that
bestow on our hero the virtues in which he shines, and afterwards worship the form to which
we have
ascribed this divine inhabitation.
does not respect
strictness, the soul
respects
itself.
Shall
ness.
In
strict science all
same condition of an
derlie the
we
fear to cool
men
In
as
it
persons un-
infinite remote-
our love by mining
for the metaphysical foundation of this Elysian
temple see for
?
?
If
Shall I not be as real as the things I
am,
what they
I shall
are.
not fear to
Their essence
beautiful than their appearance, finer
organs for
the plant
is
its
fact
I
is
The
not it
less
needs
root of
not unsightly to science, though
chaplets and festoons
And
know them
though
apprehension.
we
I
for
cut the stem short.
must hazard the production of the
bald
amidst these pleasing r&veries, though
it
FRIENDSHIP
197
should prove an Egyptian skull
A man who stands united
our banquet.
at
with his thought con-
He is conscious
ceives magnificently of himself.
of a universal success, even though bought by
uniform particular
failures.'
No
advantages, no
powers, no gold or force, can be any match for
him.
I
my own
cannot choose but rely on
more than on your wealth. your consciousness tantamount erty
to
the star dazzlesj the planet has a like ra£.
I
hear what you say of the admirable
temper of the party you
parts
and
but
see well that, for
I
shall
tried
all
his
not like him, unless he
Greek
like
pov-
make mine. Only fa int, mpon-
can not
I
me.
I
cannot deny
praise,
purple cloaks, is at it,
O
least a
I
poor
friend, that
shadow of the~Phenomenal inclu des the e also in its pied and painted immensit y. thee also, compared with whom all else is shadow. Thou art n ot Being, a^ Trut h is, as Justice is, t hou art no t my sou],^jit a picture and effigy of tha t. Thou hast come to me lately, and althe vast
—
—
feady thou art seizing thy hat and cloak.
Is
it
not that the soul puts forth friends as the tree puts forth leaves, and presently, by the germination of
The Each
new buds, extrudes
law of nature
is
electrical state
the old leaf?
^
alternation for evermore.
superinduces the opposite.
FRIENDSHIP
198
The.souj_en virons
with
itself
m ay
frig nds that it
ent er into a grander self-acquaintance or
tude
and
;
exalt
its
it
goes alone for a season that
conversation or society.
soli -
may
it
This method
betrays itself along the whole history of our per-
sonal relations.
The
instinct
of aiFection revives
the hope of union with our mates, and the
re-
turning sense of insulation recalls us from the
Thus
chase.
man
every
passes his
in the
life
search after friendship, and if he should record
he might write a
his true sentiment,
new candidate
this to each
letter like
for his love
:
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
Dear Friend, If to
was sure of thee, sure of thy capacity, sure
I
match
my mood
with thine,
think again of
trifles in
and goings.
am
I
I
should never
relation to thy comings
not very wise
;
my
moods
quite attainable, and I respect thy genius to
me
sume
as yet
unfathomed; yet dare
in thee a perfect intelligence
so thou art to
me
I
;
are
it is
not pre-
of me, and
a delicious torment. Thine
ever, or never.
Yet these uneasy pleasures and fine pains are and not for life. They are not to be indulged. This is to weave cobweb, and not
for curiosity
cloth.
Our
friendships hurry to short and pooir
'
FRIENDSHIP
199
we have made them a texand dreams, instead of the tough
conclusions, because ture of wine fibre
of the
human
heart.
The
laws of friend-
web with
ship are austere and eternal, of one the laws of nature and of morals.
But we have
aimed
at a swift and petty benefit, to suck a sudden sweetness. We snatch at the slowest fruit in the whole garden of God, which many summers and many winters must ripen. We seek2
our friend not
ss-cxsdlY-,
but with an adulterate
\
passion which would appropriate^ him to our-^ sjlges^ In vain. We are armed all over with subtle antagonisms, which, as soon as
begin to play, and translate prose.'
Al^most
as sociation
all
all
we meet,
poetry into stale
people^escend to meet. All
mus t be
compromise, an d, wha t
a
worst, the ver y flower
andaroma of
is
the flower
of each of th e beautifu l natures disappears as t hey
approach eac h_other.
disappointment
is
What
a perpetual
actual society, even of the
virtuous and gifted! After interviews have been
compassed with long foresight we must be tormented presently by baffled blows, by sudden, unseasonable apathies, by epilepsies of wit and of animal
spirits, in
and thought. Our
and both
the heyday of friendship
do not play us reli eved by solitude.
faculties
parties are
tru e,
'
FRIENDSHIP
200 I
ought to be equal to every
relation.
It
makes no difference how many friends I have and what content I can find in conversing with
whom
each, if there be one to
If
I
joy
not equal.
have shrunk unequal from one contest, the I
find in
cowardly.
my
am
I
I
all
other friends
" The
the rest becomes
should hate myself,
my
asylum
:
famoused
valiant warrior
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
if
mean and
then
I
made
for fight.
After a hundred victories, once foiled. Is
from the book of honor razed quite
And
Our
all
the rest forgot for which he toiled."
impatience
is
thus
sharply
rebuked*
Bashfulness and apathy are a tough husk
which a
delicate organization
premature ripening.
in
protected from
is
would be
it knew any of the best souls were yet ripe enough to know and own it. Respect the natur-
It
lost if
itself before
langsamkeit which hardens the ruby in a million years,
and works
in duration in
which Alps and
Andes come and go as rainbows. The good spirit of our
life
rashness.
has no heaven which
Love, which
is
is
the price of
the essence of God,
is
not for levity, but for the total worth of man.
Let us not have
this childish
gards, but the austerest worth
luxury in our
re-
let
us approach
our friend with an audacious trust
in the truth
;
FRIENDSHIP of
his
201
be
heart, in the breadth, impossible to
overturned, of his foundations.
The
attractions of this subject are not to
resisted,
and
Jeave, for the time,
I
all
be
account of
subordinate social benefit, to speak of that select
and sacred relation which is a kind_of_absolute, and which^evenjeaves the language of love suspicjous_and^ common, so much is this purer, and nothing
is
much
so
divine.
to treat friendships daintily, but
do not wish
I
with roughest courage.
When
they are
real,
they are not glass threads or frostwork, but
we know. For now^ after so manyages_of,.expÂŁnence, what do we know of
the solidest thing
nature or of o urselves
?
Not one
step has
man
taken toward the solution of the problem of his
In one condemnation of
destiny.
the whole universe of men.
cerityo f joy an d^peace whicL
my
alliance with
whereof
all
husk and tal
bower
Happier, tion
Happy
shell.
ters a friend
!
It
all is
if
he
its
this
the nut itself
the house that shel-
might well be
know
is
thought is_-but,the
or arch, to entertain
and honor
draw from
I
brother's soul
na ture and
folly stand
But_the. sweet sin-
built, like a fes-
him
a single day.
the solemnity of that rela-
law
!
He who
a candidate for that covenant
offers
himself
comes up,
like
an
;
FRIENDSHIP
202
Olympian,
to the great
games where the
first-
He pro-
born of the world are the competitors.
poses himself for contests where Time, Want,
Danger, are
who
in the lists,
and he alone
is
victor
has truth enough in his constitution to pre-
serve the delicacy of his beauty from the wear
and
The
tear of all these.
be present or absent, but contest depends
contempt of
on
trifles.
gifts all
of fortune may
the speed in that
intrinsic nobleness
There
are
t
wo
and the
element s
that
go to the composition of friendship, each so sovereign that I can detect no siiperlorlty in either, no reason why either should be first named. One is truth. A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think I am arrived at last in the presence of a man so real and equal that I may drop even those
aloud.
undermost garments of dissimulation,
courtesy,
and second thought, which men never put off, and may deal with him with the simplicity and wholeness with which one chemical atom meets another.
Sincerity
is
the luxury allowed, like
diadems and authority, only to the highest rank that being permitted to speak truth, as having
none above
man
it
to court or
conform unto.'
^
E^very
a sec 'At the entrance ond person, hypocrisy ^gins, We parry and
alone
is
sincere.
FRIENDSHIP
203
fend the approach of our fellow-man by compliments, by gossip, by amusements, by
We a
affairs.
up our thought from him under hundred folds. I knew a man who under a cover
certain
frenzy cast off this drapery,
religious
and omitting all compliment and commonplace, spoke to the conscience of every person he encountered, and that with great insight and beauty. At first he was resisted, and all men agreed he was mad. But persisting as indeed he could not help doing
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
for
some time
in this course,
he attained to the advantage of bringing every
man
of his acquaintance into true relations with
him.
No man
would think of speaking
falsely
with him, or of putting him off with any chat
of markets or reading-rooms.
But every man
was constrained by so much sincerity to the like plaindealing,
and what love of nature, what
poetry, what symbol of truth he had, he did certainly
show him.' But
shows not back. false
To age
is
its
and eye,
face
most of us society but its side and its
to
stand in true relations with
worth a
fit
of insanity,
is it
men not?
in a
We
man we meet requires to be humored; some civility He has some fame, some talent, some whim of
can seldom go erect. Almost every requires
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
religion or philanthropy in his
head that
is
not
FRIENDSHIP
204
and which spoils
to be questioned,
But
tion with him. exercises not
gives
me
my ingenuity, but
on
my
A
part.
sort of paradox in nature.
seejiothin g in nature
now
friend
friend therefore I
the semblanpe of
and
my
who
is
a
alone ^m^I
whose existeflccfca n
my
own, behold
being, in
ai l its height,
affirm with equal evidence to
variety
man who
My
me.
entertainment without requiring any
stipulation
who
conversa-
all
a friend is a sane
curiosity, reiterated in a foreign form ;
so that a friend
may well be reckoned the
master-
piece of nature.
The ness.
other element of friendship
We
are holden to
men by
is
tender*
every sort of
by blood, by pride, by fear, by hope, by lucre, by lust, by hate, by admiration, by every but we can circumstance and badge and trifle, tie,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
scarce believe that so sist
in another
much
character can sub-
draw us by
as to
love.
Can
another be so blessed and we so gure^ that we oflfer him tenderness ? When a man comes dear to me I have touched the goal
can
fortune.
very
I find
little
ber.
My author
and bluntly
'
I
And
yet
I
cannot choose but remem-
says,
to those
of
written directly to
the heart of this matter in books.
have one text which
be-
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;"
whose
I offer
myself faindy
I effectually
am, and
;
FRIENDSHIP
205
whom
tender myself least to him to
most devoted."
I
I
am
the
wish that friendship should
have
feet, as well as eyes and eloquence. It must plant itself on the ground, before it vaults over the moon. I wish it to be a little of a cit-
izen, before
it is
citizen because
quite a cherub.
an exchange of
is
gifts,
good neighborhood it
We
chide the
he makes love a commodity.
it
;
of useful loans
;
it
It is
watches with the sick
holds the pall at the funeral
;
and quite
loses
and nobility of the relaBut though we cannot find the god under disguise of a sutler, yet on the other hand
sight of the delicacies tion. this *
we
canjintjnrgive the poet
if
he spins
his thread
too fine a nd does not sub stantiate his romance
by the
m unicipal
v irtues of
it y, fidel itvandjQity.
the
name of
I
justice,
punctual-
hate the prostitution of
friendship to signify modish and
worldly alliances.
I
much
prefer the
company
of ploughboys and tin-peddlers to the silken and
perfumed amity which celebrates its days of encounter by a frivolous display, by rides in a curricle
and dinners
at the best taverns.
The
commerce the most strict and homely that can be joined more strict than any of which we have experience. It is for aid end of friendship
is
a
;
and comfort through
all
the relations and passages
FRIENDSHIP
2o6
of
and death.
life
It
is fit
for serene days and
and country rambles, but
graceful gifts
also for
rough roads and hard fare, shipwreck, poverty and persecution. It keeps company with the of the wit and the trances of religion.
sallies
are to dignify to each other the dail y needs
of man's
offices
life,
We arm
and embellish_it_by_courage,
wisdom and unity .^ It should never something usual and
settled,
fall^ into
but should be
and inventive and add rhyme and reason
alert
to what
was drudgery. *
Friendship
rare
and
may be
said to re quire natures so
and
costly, each so well ternÂŁered
so
happily adapted, and withal so circum stanced (for
even
demands that
its
poet says, love
in that particular, a
that the parties be altogether paired),
satisfaction can
very seld om be assure d.
It cannot subsist in its perfection, say
who
those
are learned in this
heart, betwixt
so strict in
more than two.
my
known
please
my imagination
other and between
But
I
am
not quite I
have
so high a fellowship as others.
men and women
gence.
I
some of
lore of the
terms, perhaps because
never
like
warm
more with
I
a circle of god -
variously related to each
whom
subsists a lofty
intelli-
find this law of one to o ne peremp-
tory for conversation, which
is
th e practice and
FRIENDSHIP consummation of friendship." ters too much. The best mix
You
bad.
shall
207
Do as
ill
not mix waas
good and
have very useful and cheering
discourse at several times with two several men,
but
let all three
shall not
of you come together and you
have one new and hearty word.
may talkandone may
Two
hear, but three cannot
take part in a conversation of the most sincere
and searc hing
sort
In good company there
.
is
never such discourse between two, across the
when you
them alone. In good company the individuals merge their table, as takes place
leave
egotism into a social soul exactly co-extensive with the several consciousnesses there present.
No
partialities
of brother to
of friend to friend, no fondnesses
sister,
pertinent, but
then speak
who
of wife to husband, are there
can
Only he may common thought
otherwise.
quite
sail
on the
of the party, and not poorly limited to his own.
Now
this convention, which good sense demands, destroy s the hig h freedom of^reat con-
versa tion j^_vyhich-rec[.uires an_abso lute running
of two souls intojane.
No
two men but being
left
alone with each
other enter into simpler relations.
Yet
it is
af-
finity that
determines which two shall converse.
Unrelated
men
give
little
joy to each other, will
FRIENDSHIP
2o8
We
never suspect the latent powers of each.
talk sometimes of a great talent for conversation, as if
it
were a permanent property
viduals.
Conversation
— no more.
A man
is
word
They accuse
it
will
mark
his
reason as they would blame
the insignificance of a dial in the shade.
sun
indi-
relation,
for all that, say a
to his cousin or his uncle.
much
some
reputed to have thought
is
and eloquence; he cannot, silence with as
in
an evanescent
the hour.
Among
In the
those
who
enjoy his thought he will regain his tongue.
Friendship requires that rare
m ean
be twixt
and unlikenessjhatjpiques each with the presence of power and of ^con sent in the ^ther likeness
part^ Let me be alone rather than that
to the
my friend
end of the world,
should overstep, by
a
word or a look, his real sympathy. I am equally balked by antagonism and by compliance. Let him not cease an instant to be himself. The only ioy^I have in hjs being mine,dsJJia£_tlie-w/ mine is »?/»£.__ 1 hate, where I loo ked for a^jnan-lv furtherance or at least a manly r esistance, to a
mush of concessio n.
side of your friend than his echo.
which high friendship demands
That high
without
it.
sublime
parts.'
fi
nd
Better be a nettle in the
office
The condition is
ability to
do
requires great and
There must be very two,
before
FRIENDSHIP it
be an alliance of
large, formidable natures,
mutually beljeld,
Let
there can be very one.
two
209
m utually" feared,
before yet they recognize~the
deeÂŁ^ identity which, beneath these disparities,
them
.
only
is fit
unites
He mous
;
who
are always
for this society
who
is
magnani-
sure that greatness and goodness
is
economy
who
;
is
not swift to inter-
meddle wiith his fortunes. Let him not intermeddle with this. Leave to the diamond its ages to grow, nor expect to accelerate the births of
Friendship demands a religious
the eternal. treatment. friends are
part of
it.
We talk of choosing our friends, but self-elected.
Reverence
T reat your friend as
is
a great
a spectacle.
Of
course he has merits that are not yours, and that
you cannot honor close to
if
you must needs hold him
your person.
Stand aside
;
give those
room: let them mou nt and expand. Are. you the frien d of your friend's buttons, or of^his merits
thought?
To
a great heart
he
will still
be a
stranger in a thousand particulars, that he
may
come near
it
girls
and
in the holiest
and boys
ground.
Leave
to
to regard a friend as property,
to suck a short
and all-confounding plea-
sure, instead of the noblest benefit.'
Let us buy our entrance
to this guild
by a
210
FRIENDSHIP
long[ probation. _
Why
ble ,
B
»
we
sh ould
desecrate no-
by intruding on" — them? and beautiful souls —~— -" Wli III
II
II
I
II
I II I
f
Why insist on raslLpersonaL relations^withyour friend ?._ Why go to Jii&Ji£M5e,.orJaiowJiis moWhy be visited ther and-hrother^and. listers ?
by him rial to
your own
at
?
our covenant
clawing.
?
Are
these things mate-
Leave
Let him be to
me
this
touching and
A
a sp irit.
sage, a thought, a sincerity, a glance
want, but not news, nor pottage.
I
mes-
from him,
I
can get poli-
and chat and neighborly conveniences from cheaper companions. Sh ould not the society of
tics
my
me
friend.be to
poetic, pure , univer sal and
great^as nature jtself? tie is
Ought
I
to feel that our
profane in comparison with yonder bar of
cloud that sleeps on the horizon, or that clump
of waving grass that divides the brook not
vilify,
but
raise
it
?
to that standard.
Let us
That
great defying eye, that scornful beauty of his
mien and
do not pique yourself on reducing, but rather fortify and enhance. Worship his superiorities wish him not less by a thought, but hoard and tell them all. Guard him as thy counterpart. Let him be to thee for ever a sort of beautiful enemy, untamable, devoutly revered, and not a trivial- conveniency to be sooa_fltitaction,
;
grown_and
cast aside.
The
hues of the opal, the
FRIENDSHIP light of the
eye
is
a
diamond, are not to be
To
too near.
from him thy of
niy
fri
him
end
receive a letter.
I
Itsuffi£es.mer It
little.
211
to give
and of
fanes nobody. In these trust itself, as
it
will
is
I
seen" if the
writ e a letter
and
That seemFIo you a spiritual gift, wor-
me
warm
to receive.
It pro-
lines the heart will
not to the tongue, and pour
out the prophecy of a godlier existence than the annals of heroism have yet
Respect so
far the
as not to prejudice
patience for
its
holy laws of this fellowship
its
by your immust be our own There is at least
perfect flower
opening.
we can be
before
We
another's.
this satisfaction in crime, according to the
proverb
;
— you
all
made good.
Latin
can speak to your accomplice
on even terms. Crimen quos inquinat, aquat. To whom we admire and love, at first we
those
Yet_the
cannot.
vi tiates, in
my
least defect
of self-possession
judgment, the entire relation.
There_^an. never be deep__p_eace between two spirits,
never mutual respect, until In their dia-
log^SlEh stands Tor t he whole -wofld. What is so great as friendship, let with what grandeur of spirit we silent,
—
so
we may hear
can.
us carry
Let us be
the whisper of the gods.
Let us not interfere. Who set you to cast about what you should say to the select souls, or how
•^
FRIENDSHIP
212 to say
any thing to such
genious, no
matter
No
?
how
matter
how
in-
and bland.
graceful
There are innumerable degrees of folly and wisdom, and for you to say aught is to be frivolous. Wait, and thy heart shall speak. Wait until the necessary and everlasting overpowers you, until day and night avail themselves of your lips.'
The
only reward of virtue
is
virtue
;
the only
way to have a friend is to be one. You shall not come nearer a man by getting into his house. If unlike, his soul only flees the faster from you,
and you
We
eye.
us;
shall never catch a true glance of his
see the noble afar off
why should we
— we
intrude?
and they
Late,
repel
— very
late,
perceive that no arrangements, no intro-
ductions, no consuetudes or habits of society
would be of any avail to relations with them as we
establish us in such desire,
— but
solely
the uprise of nature in us to the same degree is
in
them then shall we meet a s water wi th and if we should not meet them then, we not want them, for we are already they. In
water shall
it
;
;
the last analysis, love
is
only the
refl ection
of a
man's own worthiness from other men.
Men
have sometimes exchanged names with
their
friends,
asif they would
friend each loved his
own
signify soul.
t hat
in thei r
FRIENDSHIP
The
higher the^style we
of course
the..! ess
and bloo4-
213
demand of friendship,
easy to ,estab]ishlit,mj;fajfljes h
We walk jlonejn the_world.
Friends
such_as_we_d,esixe_ar.e dreams and fables,
^ut
a sublime hope cheers ever the faithful heart, that elsewhere, in other regions of the universal
power, souls are
now
acting,
enduring and dar-
ing,
which can love us and which we can
We
may
congratulate ourselves that the period
of nonage, of is
love.'
follies,
of blunders and of shame,
passed in solitude, and when we are finished
men we
shall grasp heroic
hands
in heroic hands.
Only be admonished by what you
already see,
not 'to strike leagues of friendship with cheap
pgrso^sTwhere no
friendship can be.
Our im-
patience betrays us into rash and foolish
ances which no god attends.
your path, though you the great.
You
By
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; those wander
rare
m
persisting in
forfeit the little
you gain
demonstrate yourself, so as to
put yourself out_of the_reach of
and you^raw
alli-
false relations,
you the first-born of the world, pilgrims whereof .ojiiy-one or two to
nature at once, and before
whom
the^vulgar great show as spectres- and shadows merelj;. It
is
foolish to be afraid of
too spiritual, as
if
so
we could
making our lose
ties
any genuine
FRIENDSHIP
214
Whatever correction of our popular views we make from insight, nature will be sure to love.
bear us out
in,
of some joy,
will
we
feel if
and though
it
seem
to rob us
repay us with a greater. Let us
will the absolute insulation
of man.
are sure that we have all in us. We go to Europe, or we pursue persons, or we rea3 books,
We
in the instinctive faith that these
w ill
call
and reveal us to ourselves.^Beggars persons are such as we
Let us drop
;
o ut
The
the books, their
this idolatry.
over this mendicancy.
it
the Europe, an old
;
faded garment of dead persons ghosts.
all.
Let us .give
Let us even bid our
dearest friends farewell, and defy them, saying
'Who
are
you? Unhand me:
Ah
dent no more.
'
ther, that thus
we
!
seest
I will,.be_
thou not,
part only to
depen-
O
bro-
m eet^agaiTT on
a
higher _platform, and only be more each other's
because
we
are
more our own
?
A
friend
is
Janus-faced; he looks to the past and the future.
He
is
the child of
all
my
foregoing hours, the
prophet of those to come, and the harbinger of a greater friend."
do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I c an find them,^^tT seldom use them. Wemust have I
society on our
own
terms, and admit or exclude
FRIENDSHIP it
on the
slightest
makes me so great converse.
me
If he
friend.
presentiments
days,
the firmament.
in
then to dedicate myself to them. I
may
them.
them,
seize
I
go out that
ing into the sky in
go
may
in that
Then, though
seize
reced-
only a prize
I
cannot afford to talk with them
friends, I
and study
I
I
I
patch of brighter light.
my
ought
I
may lose them which now they are
only that
I fear
great he
is
that I cannot descend to
In the great
hover before
I cannot afford to
cause.
my
speak much with
215
their visions, jest
would inde ed give me
lose
I
my
own.
_It
a certain household joy
to quit_this lofty seeking, this spiritual astro-
nomy or search of stars, and come down sympathies with you
mourn always
shall
gods
.
It is true,
moods, when
I
I
have languid
shall
can well afford to occupy
then
I shall
again.
But
my mind
my-
regret the
if
you come, perhaps
only with new visions';
not with yourself but with your not be able any more than
with you.
I
of your mind, and wish you were
lost literature
shall
warm
the vanishing of my mighty
next week
self with foreign objects;
by my side you will fill
to
but then-Uaiow well
;
So
I
will
evanescent intercourse.
owe
to
I will
lustres,'
and
I
now
to converse
my
friends
receive from
this
them
FRIENDSHIP
2i6
not what they have but what they shall give
give, but shall
me
They
are.
that which properly they cannot
But they
which emanates from them.
me by any
not hold
relations less subtile
and pure."
We will meet as though we met
and part
though we parted
It has I
as
seemed
to
me lately more
knew, to carry a friendship
side,
Why
not,
not.
possible than
greatly,
on one
without due correspondence on the other.
should
the receiver
the sun that
cumber myself with
I
is
some of
into ungrateful space,
the reflecting planet. cate the crude
regrets that
It
never troubles
his rays fall
wide and vain
not capacious
?
and only
a small part on
Let your greatness edu-
and cold companion.
If he
is
away but thou thy own art enlarged by shining, and no longer a mate for frogs and worms, dost soar and burn with the gods of the empyrean. It is thought a disgrace to love unrequited. But the great
unequal, he
will presently pass
will see tjjat true Ipye^
True
cannot
;
_be unrequited.
love transcends the unworthy jQhJÂŁÂŁl_and
dwells and broods on the eternal, and-JsiierLlhe
poor interposed, mask crumbles,! t is not sad, but feels rid of so much earth and &f Is its independency the surer.. Yet these things may
FRIENDSHIP
217
hardly, be ,said without a sort of treachery to the
tslation^The essence of friendship a to tal magnanijtnit-y:,and trust.
it
may
entireness,
It rnust not sur-
mise or provide for infirmity. It as a god, that
is
treats its object
deify both.'
VII
PRUDENCE Theme no
poet gladly sung.
Fair to old
and
foul to
young
;
Scorn not thou the love of partSj
And
the articles of arts.
Grandeur of the perfect sphere
Thanks
the atoms that cohere.
;
PRUDENCE
WHAT negative sort
little,
on Prudence, and that of the
My prudence
consists in avoid-
right have
whereof ?
I
have
to write
I
ing and going without, not in the inventing of
means and methods, not in
gentle repairing.
I
in adroit steering,
have no
money spend
well,
no genius
and whoever
sees
my
to
skill
in
my
not
make
economy,
garden discovers that
I
must have some other garden.' Yet I love facts, and hate lubricity and people without perception. Then I have the same title to write on prudence that I have to write on poetry or holiness. We write from aspiration and antagonism, as well as from experience. We paint those qualities which we do not possess. The poet admires the man of energy and tactics the mer;
chant breeds his son for the church or the bar a man is not vain and egotistic you what he has not by his praise. Moreover it would be hardly honest in me not to balance these fine lyric words of Love and
and where shall find
Friendship with words of coarser sound, and whilst
my debt to my
not to
own
it
senses
in passing.^
is
real
and constant,
;
PRUDENCE
222
Prudence
the virtue of the senses.
is
science of appearances.
of the inward oxen. It
life.
It
is
moves matter
It
It
is
God
It
is
the
the outmost action
taking thought for
after the laws of matter.
content to seek health of body by comply-
is
ing with physical conditions, and health of mind
by the laws of the
The world it
intellect.
of the senses
does not exist for
character
and
;
is
itself,
a true
a world of shows
but has a symbolic
prudence or law of shows
recognizes the co-presence of other laws and
knows that
that
its
own
and not centre where
surface
it is
;
knows
it
works.
office is subaltern
when detached.
Prudence
is
when
it is
the Natural History of the soul incar-
nate,
when
false
It
is
legitimate
unfolds the beauty of laws within
it
the narrow scope of the senses.'
There
are
all
degrees of proficiency in know-
ledge of the world.
It
is
sufficient to
purpose to indicate three.
One
our present
class
live
to
the utility of the symbol, esteeming health and
wealth a this
final
mark
poet and science.
good.
Another
class live
above
to the beauty of the symbol, as the artist
A
and the
naturalist
and man of
third class live above the beauty of
the symbol to the beauty of the thing signified; these are wise men.
The
first class
have com-
PRUDENCE mon
sense
spiritual
man
223
the second, taste
;
perception.
Once
;
and the
and
traverses the whole scale,
third,
a long time, a
in
sees
and en-
joys the symbol solidly, then also has a clear
eye for
its
his tent
beauty, and lastly, whilst he pitches
on
this sacred volcanic isle
of nature,
does not offer to build houses and barns thereon,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; reverencing
the splendor of the
sees bursting through each chink
The
world
is filled
God which he and cranny.'
with the proverbs and acts
and winkings of a base prudence, which is a devotion to matter, as if we possessed no other faculties
than the palate, the nose, the touch, the
eye and ear
;
a
prudence which addres the Rule
of Three, which never subscribes, which never
which seldom lends, and asks but one
gives,
question of any project,
This
is
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Will
it
bake bread?'
a disease like a thickening of the skin
until the vital organs are destroyed. ture, revealing the high origin
world and aiming
But
cul-
of the apparent
at the perfection
of the
man
as the end, degrades every thing else, as health
and bodily
life,
into means.
It sees
prudence
name for wisconversing with the body and its
not to be a several faculty, but a
dom and virtue wants.
Cultivated
men
always
so, as if a great fortune, the
feel
and speak
achievement of a
PRUDENCE
224 civil
or social measure, great personal influence,
a graceful and
commanding
address, had their
value as proofs of the energy of the
man
If a
spirit.
and immerse himself
lose his balance
in
any trades or pleasures for their own sake, he may be a good wheel or pin, but he is not a cultivated man.
The final, is
spurious prudence, making the senses the
subject of
god of
all
and cowards, and
sots
comedy.
It
is
The
therefore literature's.
is
the
nature's joke, and
true prudence limits
by admitting the knowledge of and real world. This recognition
this sensualism
an internal
once made, the order of the world and the tribution of aiFairs
and times, being studied
dis-
with
the co-perception of their subordinate place,
reward any degree of attention.
For our
will
exist-
ence, thus apparently attached in nature to the
moon and
sun and the returning
which they mark,
and
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
the periods
so susceptible to climate
to country, so alive to social
good and
evil,
so fond of splendor and so tender to hunger
and cold and debt,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
reads
all its
primary
les-
sons out of these books.
Prudence does not go behind nature and ask whence it is. It takes the laws of the world
whereby man's being
is
conditioned, as they
are.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; PRUDENCE and keeps these laws
that
225
may
it
enjoy their
It respects space and time,
proper good.
cli-
mate, want, sleep, the law of polarity, growth
and death. There revolve, period to his being on all
moon, its
chemical routine.
in
sun and
the sky: here
not swerve from
will
Here
bound and
sides, the
the great formalists
stubborn matter, and
lies
to give
is
a planted globe,
pierced and belted with natural laws and fenced
and distributed externally with
and properties which impose new the
young
partitions
civil
restraints
on
inhabitant.
We eat of the bread which grows in the field. We live by the air which blows around us and we
by the
are poisoned
air that is
too cold or
hot, too dry or too wet. Time, which shows so vacant, indivisible and divine in its coming, is slit and peddled into trifles and tat-
too
ters.
A
door
is
to be painted, a lock to be re-
want wood or oil, or meal or salt the house smokes, or I have a headache then the tax, and an affair to be transacted with a man paired.
I
;
;
without heart or brains, and the stinging recollection of an injurious or very
these eat will
have
up
awkward word,
the hours.
Do what we can, summer
if
we walk in the woods we if we go a-fishing we must
its flies
;
must feed mosquitos
;
PRUDENCE
226
expect a wet coat.
Then
climate
a great im-
is
we often resolve to pediment give up the care of the weather, but still we regard the clouds and the rain." We are instructed by these petty experiences which usurp the hours and years. The hard soil and four months of snow make the inhabitant of the northern temperate zone wiser and abler to idle persons;
who enjoys the fixed smile of the tropics. The islander may ramble all day at will. At night he may sleep on a mat under the than his fellow
moon, and wherever
a wild date-tree grows, na-
ture has, without a prayer even, spread a table for his
The
morning meal.
northerner
is
perforce
He
must brew, bake, salt and wood and coal. But as it happens that not one stroke can labor lay to without some new acquaintance with nature, and as nature is inexhaustibly significant, a householder.
preserve his food, and pile
the inhabitants of these climates have always
Such
excelled the southerner in force.^
is
the
man who knows know too much of
value of these matters- that a other
things
these.
him,
if
can
never
Let him have accurate perceptions. Let he have hands, handle
sure and discriminate
;
let
;
if
eyes, mea-
him accept and
hive
every fact of chemistry, natural history and eco-
PRUDENCE nomics
;
the
more he
ing to spare any one.
227
has, the less
Time
is
is
he
will-
always bringing
Some
the occasions that disclose their value.
wisdom comes out of every natural and innocent action. The domestic man, who loves no music so well as his kitchen clock and the airs which the logs sing to him as they burn on the hearth, has solaces which others never dream of.
The
application of
means
to ends insures
victory and the songs of victory not less in a
farm or a shop than of war.
in the tactics
The good husband
finds
of party or
method
as
efScient in the packing of fire-wood in a shed
or in the harvesting of fruits in the cellar, as in
Peninsular campaigns or the
ment of
State.
files
of the Depart-
In the rainy day he builds a
work-bench, or gets his tool-box
set in the cor-
ner of the barn-chamber, and stored with gimlet, pincers, screwdriver and chisel.
he
tastes
nails,
Herein
an old joy of youth and childhood, the
and corn-chamand of the conveniences of long houseJceeping. His garden or his poultry-yard tells cat-like love of garrets, presses bers,
him many pleasant anecdotes. One might find argument for optimism in the abundant flow of this saccharine element of pleasure
in
suburb and extremity of the good world.
every
Let
PRUDENCE
228 a
man keep
— any
the law,
law,
— and
his way-
be strown with satisfactions. There
will
more
is
difference in the quality of our pleasures than in
the amount.
On lect
the other hand, nature punishes any neg-
of prudence.
obey
not clutch
If
at sensual
on the slow
you think the
tree
sweetness before
of cause and
gar to the eyes to deal with perfect perception.
have of
said,
this
senses
final,
If you believe in the soul, do
their law.
effect.
men
It
is
ripe
vine-
of loose and im-
Dr. Johnson
— "If the
it is
is
reported
to
child says he looked out
window, when he looked out of that,
—
whip him," Our American character is marked by a more than average delight in accurate perception, which is shown by the currency of the byword, " No mistake." But the discomfort of unpunctuality, of confusion of thought about facts, inattention to
of no nation.
The
the wants of to-morrow,
space, once dislocated
holes and dens.
by our
inaptitude, are
If the hive be disturbed by
rash and stupid hands, instead of honey yield us bees.
must be
Our words and
A
timely.
is
beautiful laws of time and
it will
actions to be
fair
gay and pleasant sound
is
the whetting of the scythe in the mornings of
June, yet what
is
more lonesome and sad
than
PRUDENCE
229
the sound of a whetstone or mower's
when
rifle
too late in the season to make hay ? ter-brained and " afternoon " men spoil
Scat-
it is
more than
much
own affair in spoiling the temwho deal with them. I have seen on some paintings, of which I am retheir
per of those a criticism
minded when
I see
the shiftless and
unhappy
men who are not true to their senses. The last Grand Duke of Weimar, a man of superior understanding, said,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; "I have
sometimes
re-
marked in the presence of great works of art, and just now especially in Dresden, how much a certain property contributes to the effect which
gives
life
sistible all
to the figures,
truth.
the figures
ity.
I
and to the
This property
we draw, the
is
life
an
irre-
the hitting, in
right centre of grav-
mean the placing the figures firm upon making the hands grasp, and fastening
their feet,
the eyes on the spot where they should look.
Even
lifeless figures, as vessels
them be drawn ever so
and stools
correctly
so soon as they lack the resting
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
lose
upon
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
let
all effect
their centre
of gravity,and have a certain swimming and oscillating appearance.
The Raphael
in the
Dresden
gallery (the only great affecting picture which I
have seen)
piece
is
the quietest and most passionless
you can imagine
;
a couple of saints
who
PRUDENCE
230
worship the Virgin and Child.
Nevertheless
awakens a deeper impression than the the resistless
beauty of form,
contor-
For beside
tions of ten crucified martyrs.
it
all
possesses in the
it
highest degree the property of the perpendicularity
of
all
the figures."
This perpendicularity
we demand of all the figures in this picture of Let them stand on their feet, and not float and swing. Let us know where to find them. Let them discriminate between what they relife.
member and what
they dreamed,
call a
spade, give us facts, and honor their
with
own
a
senses
trust.'
But what man imprudence
?
shalv dare
Who
is
call greatest are least is
spade
task another with
prudent in
this
?
The men
we
kingdom. There
a certain fatal dislocation in our relation to
nature, distorting our
modes of
living and
ing every law our enemy, which seems at
have aroused to
all
call
last to
the wit and virtue in the world
ponder the question of Reform.
why
mak-
We
must
the highest prudence to counsel, and ask health and beauty and genius should
now
be the exception rather than the rule of hu-
man
nature
?
We
do not know the
properties
of plants and animals and the laws of
through our sympathy with the same
;
nature,
but
this
;;
PRUDENCE
231
remains the dream of poets."
Poetry and pru-
dence should be coincident.
Poets should be
lawgivers
that
;
is,
the boldest lyric inspiration
should not chide and insult, but should announce and lead the civil code and the day's work. But now the two things seem irreconcilably parted. We have violated law upon law until we stand amidst ruins, and when by chance we espy a coincidence between reason and the phenomena, we are surprised. Beauty should be the dowry of every man and woman, as invariably as sensation; but it is rare. Health or sound organization should be universal.
Genius should be the
child of genius and every child should be inspired
but
now
it is
and nowhere
not to be predicted of any child, is
it
pure.
We
by courtesy, genius
lights,
partial half-
which con-
money talent which glitters tomay dine and sleep well to-morrow
verts itself to
day that
;
call
talent
it
;
is officered by men of farts, as they properly called, and not by divine men.
and society are
These use
their gift to refine luxury, not
abolish
Genius
it.
is
always ascetic, and piety,
and love. Appetite shows a disease,
bounds
We
and they
that resist
to
find
to the finer souls as rites
and
to cover
our
beauty in
it.
have found out
fine
names
PRUDENCE
232
sensuality withal, but no gifts can raise intem-
The man
perance.
of talent
affects to
call
transgressions of the laws of the senses
his
trivial
and to count them nothing considered with his His art never taught him art.
devotion to his
lewdness, nor the love of wine, nor the wish to
His
reap where he had not sowed.
art is
less
for every deduction from his holiness, and
less
of
for every defect
who
common
world wreaks
its
small things
will
Goethe's Tasso
He
revenge.
is
historic portrait,
perish
and that
me
him
by
that despiseth
and
little
is
true tragedy.
Antonio and Tasso, both this
other.
One
fair
It
the Third oppresses
slays a score of innocent persons, as
wrong each
little.'
so genuine grief when
some tyrannous Richard
of
On
very likely to be a pretty
does not seem to
and
sense.
scorned the world, as he said, the scorned
apparently
living after the
when right,
maxims
world and consistent and true to them,
the other fired with
all
divine sentiments, yet
grasping also at the pleasures of sense, with-
out submitting to their law.
That
knot we cannot
untie.
all
feel,
a
no unfrequent case
in
is
a grief
Tasso's
modern biography.
we is
A
man
of genius, of an ardent temperament, reck-
less
of physical laws, self- indulgent, becomes
PRUDENCE
233
presently unfortunate, querulous, a "discomfortable cousin," a thorn to himself and to others.
The
scholar shames us
by
his bifold
Whilst something higher than prudence tive,
he
is
admirable
wanted, he
is
an encumbrance.
was not so great
sar
gallows' foot
when common
;
is
;
life.
ac-
is
sense
is
Yesterday, Cae-
to-day, the felon at the
not more miserable.
Yester-
day, radiant with the light of an ideal world in
which he
lives,
the
first
of
men
;
and now
oppressed by wants and by sickness, for which he must thank himself.' iful drivellers
whom
He
resembles the
quenting the bazaars of Constantinople,
skulk about sneaking
;
all
and
pit-
travellers describe as fre-
who
day, yellow, emaciated, ragged, at evening,
are open, slink to the
when
the bazaars
opium-shop, swallow
their
morsel and become tranquil and glorified seers.
And who
has not seen the tragedy of imprudent
genius struggling for years with paltry pecuniary difficulties, at last sinking, chilled, exhausted
and Is first
fruitless, like a giant it
not better that a
slaughtered by pins
man should
?
accept the
pains and mortifications of this sort, which
nature
is
not slack in sending him, as hints that
he must expect no other good than the just fruit of his own labor and self-denial ? Health,
PRUDENCE
234
bread, climate, social position, have their im-
portance, and he will give
him esteem Nature
them
their due.
Let
a perpetual counsellor, and
her perfections the exact measure of our devia-
Let him make the night night, and
tions.
day day.
the
Let him control the habit of expense.
Let him see that as much wisdom may be expended on a private economy as on an empire, and as much wisdom may be drawn from it.
The
laws of the world are written out for him
on every piece of money nothing he
were
it
in his hand.
There
is
not be the better for knowing,
will
only the wisdom of Poor Richard, or
the State-Street prudence of buying by the acre to sell
by the foot
;
or the thrift of the agri-
culturist, to stick a tree it
will
grow whilst he
which consists the tool,
in
between whiles, because
sleeps
portions
little
stock and small gains.
may
never shut.
ger's, will rust
state
;
;
husbanding
or the prudence
of time,
The
strokes of
little
particles of
eye of prudence
Iron, if kept at the ironmonbeer, if not
of the atmosphere,
brewed
will
ships will rot at sea, or if laid
sour
in the right ;
timber of
up high and
dry,
warp and dry-rot; money, if kept yields no rent and is liable to loss if
will strain,
by
us,
invested,
;
is
liable to depreciation
of the particu-
PRUDENCE !ar
kind of stock.
iron
is
white
;
Strike, says
235 the smith, the
keep the rake, says the haymaker,
as nigh the scythe as
you
can,
and the
cart as
Our Yankee trade is reputed to much on the extreme of this prudence.
nigh the rake.
be very
It takes bank-notes,
good, bad, clean, ragged,
and saves itself by the speed with which it passes them off. Iron cannot rust, nor beer sour, nor timber rot, nor caHcoes go out of fashion, nor
money ments
them
stocks depreciate, in the few swift
which the Yankee
mo-
suffers
any one of
to remain in his possession.
In skating
in
over thin
ice
our safety
is
in
our speed.'
Let him learn a prudence of a higher
strain.
Let him learn that every thing in nature, even motes and feathers, go by law and not by luck, and that what he sows he reaps. By diligence and self-command at his
own
let
him put the bread he
disposal, that he
may
eats
not stand in
and false relations to other men for the good of wealth is freedom. Let him practise the minor virtues. How much of human life is lost in waiting let him not make his fellow-creatures wait. How many words and
bitter
;
best
!
promises are promises of conversation be words of
fate.
When
!
Let his
he sees a folded and
sealed scrap of paper float round the globe in
PRUDENCE
236 a pine ship
and come
safe to the eye for which
was written, amidst a swarming population, let him likewise feel the admonition to integrate it
his
being across
keep
a slender
all
these distracting forces, and
human word among
the storms,
distances and accidents that drive us hither and
by persistency, make the paltry of one man reappear to redeem its pledge months and years in the most distant cli-
thither, and,
force after
mates.
We
must not
virtue, looking
loves
try to write the laws of any one
that
at
no contradictions, but
The prudence which being
only.
is
Human is
nature
symmetrical.
secures an outward well-
not to be studied by one set of men,
whilst heroism and holiness are studied by another, but they are reconcilable.
Prudence con-
cerns the present time, persons, property and existing forms. in the soul,
and
But if
as every fact hath
its
roots
the soul were changed would
would become some other thing, the proper administration of outward things will always rest on a just apprehension of their cause and origin that is, the good man will be the wise man, and the single-hearted the politic man. Every violation of truth is not only a sort cease to be, or
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
;
of suicide
in the liar,
but
is
a stab at the health
PRUDENCE human society. On the most
of
237 profitable
lie
the course of events presently lays a destructive tax
;
whilst frankness invites frankness, puts the
parties
on
a convenient footing
Trust
business a friendship.
be true to you
;
them
treat
show themselves
great,
and makes
men and
their
they will
greatly and they will
though they make an ex-
ception in your favor to
all
their rules
of trade.
So, in regard to disagreeable and formidable things, prudence does not consist in evasion or
but in courage.
in flight,
walk
He who
wishes to
most peaceful parts of life with any must screw himself up to resolution.
in the
serenity
Let him front the object of his worst apprehension,
and
his stoutness will
fear groundless.
battles the eye
dangerous to ball.
life
Examples
who have
overcome."
is first
may make
possession
commonly make '
a battle very
than a match at are
his
Latin proverb says, " In
The
cited
by
Entire little
foils
self-
more
or at foot-
soldiers of
men
seen the cannon pointed and the
fire
and who have stepped aside from the path of the ball. The terrors of the storm are given to
it,
chiefly confined to the
The
parlor and the cabin.
drover, the sailor, buffets
it all
day, and his
health renews itself at as vigorous a pulse under the sleet as under the sun of June.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; PRUDENCE
238
In the occurrence of unpleasant things among neighbors, fear comes readily to heart and magthe consequence of the other party
nifies it
bad counsellor.
a
is
Every man
is
but
;
actually
weak and apparently strong. To himself he seems weak to others, formidable. You are afraid of Grim but Grim also is afraid of you. ;
;
You are "solicitous est person,
diest offender of
borhood,
if
of the good-will of the mean-
uneasy
you
But the
at his ill-will.
your peace and of the
rip
up
kept, because, as children say, one
Far
and threaten
them hand
off,
is
men
the other dares not.
bring
neigh-
his claims, is as thin and
timid as any, and the peace of society
;
stur-
often
is
afraid and
swell, bully
to hand, and
they are a feeble folk. It
is
a proverb that
'
courtesy costs nothing;'
but calculation might come to value love profit. is
Love
is
necessary to perception
;
love
partisan, never recognize the dividing
but meet on what if
common ground
a hoslines,
remains,
only that the sun shines and the rain rains
both
;
know
the area will widen very it,
its
not a hood,
is
but an eye-water. If you meet a sectary or tile
for
fabled to be blind, but kindness
fast,
and
ere
for
you
the boundary mountains on which the
eye had fastened have melted into
air.
If they
PRUDENCE set out to contend, Saint
John
will hate.
What
239
Paul
will lie
and Saint
low, poor, paltry, hypo-
argument on religion will make of the pure and chosen souls They will shuffle and crow, crook and hide, feign to confess here, only that they may brag and conquer there, and not a thought has enriched either
critical
people an
!
and not an emotion pf bravery, modesty, or hope." So neither should you put yourself in a false position with your contemporaries by indulging a vein of hostility and bitterness. Though your views are in straight antagonism to theirs, assume an identity of sentiment, asparty,
sume
you are saying precisely that which and in the flow of wit and love roll out your paradoxes in solid column, with not the" infirmity of a doubt. So at least shall you get all
that
think,
an adequate deliverance.
The
natural motions
of the soul are so much better than the volun-
you
tary ones that tice in dispute.
will
never do yourself jus-
The thought
is
not then taken
hold of by the right handle, does not show self
proportioned and
in its true bearings,
bears extorted, hoarse, and half witness.
sume
a consent
since really sities, all
and
it
are of
as-
shall presently be granted,
and underneath
men
But
it-
but
their external diver-
one heart and mind.'
PRUDENCE
240
Wisdom or men on
will
never
let
us stand with any
We
an unfriendly footing.
sympathy and intimacy with people,
man
refuse
as if
we
waited for some better sympathy and intimacy
But whence and when
to come. will
are preparing to live.
workers die off from see
To-morrow
?
Life wastes itself whilst we
be like to-day.
Our
us.
friends
and
Scarcely can
fellow-
we
new men, new women, approaching
say we
We
us.
are too old to regard fashion, too old to expect
patronage of any greater or more powerful. Let us suck the sweetness of those affections and
consuetudes that grow near us. These old shoes are easy to the feet.
Undoubtedly we can
easily
pick faults in our company, can easily whisper â&#x20AC;˘
'names prouder, and that
tickle the fancy more.
Every man's imagination hath its friends and would be dearer with such companions. But if you cannot have them on good mutual terms, you cannot have them. If not the Deity but our ambition hews and shapes the new rela;
life
tions, their virtue
escapes, as strawberries lose
their flavor in garden-beds.
Thus ity
and
truth, frankness, courage, love, humilall
the virtues range themselves on the
side of prudence, or the art of securing a pre-
sent well
-
being.
I
do not know
if all
matter
PRUDENCE will
241
be found to be made of one element, as
oxygen or hydr-ogen, at last, but the world of manners and actions is wrought of one stuff, and begin where
short space to
ments.
we are pretty sure in a be mumbling our ten command-
we
will,
'
VIII
HEROISM '^'
Paradise
is
under the shadow of swords.
'
Makomeu
Ruby wine
is
drunk by knaves.
Sugar spends to fatten slaves.
Rose and vine-leaf deck buffoons
;
Thunderclouds are Jove's festoons.
Drooping
oft in
wreaths of dread
Lightning- knotted round his head:
The
hero
Daily
his
is
not fed on sweets.
own
heart he eats
Chanibers of the great are
And
head-winds right
;
jails.
for royal sails.
— HEROISM English dramatists, and mainly INin thethe elder plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, there
is
a constant recognition of gentility, as if
marked in the society of their age as color is in our American population. When any Rodrigo, Pedro or Valerio enters, though he be a stranger, the duke
a noble behavior were as easily
or governor exclaims,
and proffers
civilities
rest are slag
and
'
This
is
a gentleman,'
without end
refuse.
;
but
all
the
In harmony with this
delight in personal advantages there
is
in their
plays a certain heroic cast of character and dialogue,
—
as in
Bonduca, Sophocles," the
Lover, the Double Marriage,
— wherein
Mad the
speaker is so earnest and cordial and on such deep grounds of character, that the dialogue, on the slightest additional incident in the plot, rises
Among many texts The Roman Martius has
naturally into poetry.
take
the following.
con-
quered Athens,
—
all
but the invincible
spirits
of Sophocles, the duke of Athens, and Dorigen, his wife.
The
beauty of the
latter inflames
tius, and he seeks to save her husband
Sophocles will not ask
his life,
Mar;
but
although assured
HEROISM
246 that a
word
him, and the execution of
will save
both proceeds
:
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
Bid thy wife
Valerius.
No,
Soph.
no
I will take
fare\yell.
My
leave.
Dorigen,
Yonder, above, 'bout Ariadne's crown.
My spirit Dor. Let not
soft
Never one I
Mar.
;
see
my
now
A
up
my
sight;
So, 'tis well;
lord bleed.
my
teach the
Sophocles
to die
't is
Thou
therefore, not
is
to
a better.
to die.
?
dost not, Martius,
'tis to live;
to die
end
weary work and
old, stale,
newer and
what It
:
Romans how
Dost know what
Is to begin to live.
An
this tie
object underneath the sun
Sofh.
And,
Prithee, haste.
with
gentler sexed humanity.
behold before
Farewell
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
nature so transformed be.
And lose her To make me Will
hover for thee.
shall
Stay, Sophocles,
'Tis
to
commence
to leave
Deceitfvd knaves for the society
Of gods At
last
And
Thou
thyself must part
thy garlands, pleasures, triumphs.
all
prove thy fortitude what then
But
Val.
Soph.
To
and goodness.
from
them
But with
art
Why
life
should I grieve or vex for being sent
I ever loved best
my
'tvyill do.
not grieved nor vexed to leave thy
?
Now
back toward thee
:
I
'11
kneel.
'tis the last
duty
This trunk can do the gods.
Mar.
Or
Strike, strike, Valerius,
Martius' heart will leap out
This
is
a
man,
a
woman.
at his
mouth.
Kiss thy lord.
thus
;
HEROISM And
O
With
My
with
live
love
the freedom
all
thou doubly hast
!
virtue
hand
Vol.
What
brother
Mar. With
way
hast found a
O
words
star
of Rome
to follow
urn.
?
O
Martius,
Thou now Dor.
my
knot of piety.
this
my
ails
me
Treacherous heart.
quick into
shall cast thee
Soph.
Fit
you were wont.
afflicted
and with beauty.
Ere thou transgress
247
!
to
what
Martius,
conquer me. gratitude can speak
such a deed as
this
?
This admirable duke, Valerius,
his disdain
of fortune and of death,
Captived himself, has captivated me.
And
though
my arm
hath ta'en his body here.
His soul hath subjugated Martius'
By Romulus, he
He
hath no
flesh,
and
spirit
Then we have vanquished
And I
Martius walks
do not
readily
soul.
soul, I think
is all
now
cannot be gyved.
nothing
;
he
is
free.
in captivity."
remember any poem,
play,
sermon, novel or oration that our press vents in the last
We
tune.
few years, which goes to the same
have a great many
flutes
and flageo-
but not often the sound of any fife.. Yet Wordsworth's " Laodamia," and the ode of lets,
" Dion," and some sonnets, have music
;
and Scott
like the portrait
will
a certain
noble
sometimes draw a stroke
of Lord Evandale given by
Balfour of Burley.'
Thomas
Carlyle, with his
HEROISM
248
manly and daring in character, has suffered no heroic trait in his favorites to drop from his biographical and hisEarlier, Robert Burns has torical pictures. given us a song or two. In the Harleian Misnatural taste for
cellanies there
'
what
is
is
an account of the battle of
Lutzen which deserves to be read. And Simon Ockley's History of the Saracens recounts the prodigies of individual valor, with admiration the
all
more evident on
the part of the narrator
that he seems to think that his place in Chris-
Oxford requires of him some proper protestations of abhorrence. But if we explore the literature of Heroism we shall quickly come to
tian
Plutarch,
who
is its
him we owe the
Doctor and I
must think we
more deeply indebted to him than Each of his " Lives "
ancient writers. tation to the
religious
and
To
Brasidas, the Dion, the Epami-
nondas, the Scipio of old, and are
historian.
the
to
all
is
a refu-
despondency and cowardice of our political theorists.
A wild courage,
a Stoicism not of the schools but of the blood,
shines in every anecdote, and has given that
book
immense fame.' need books of this
its
We
more than books of vate economy.
tart cathartic virtue
political science or
Life
is
a festival only
of
pri-
to the
HEROISM
249
Seen from the nook and chimney
wise.
of prudence,
The
front.
it
- side
wears a ragged and dangerous
violations of the laws of nature
by
our predecessors and our contemporaries are
punished
around us
The
in us also.
disease
certify the infraction
tellectu aTand
moral
la ws^
and deformity of naturalfin-
and often violatiotTon
vioration_to_breed__such_co^^
misery.
A
lock-jaw that bends a man's head back to his heels wife grass
;
hydrophobia that makes him bark
and babes ;
;
insanity that
at his
makes him
eat
war, plague, cholera, famine, indicate a
n ature, which, as it had its by human crime, must have its outlet by human suffering^ Unhappily no man exists wh^Tias not^jn h^s own person become to some amount a stockholder in the sin, and so made certain ferocity in inlet
himself liable to a share in the
Our
expiajti_on.
must not omit the arming of the man. Let him hear in season that he ^^ b orn in to the state of war, and" that the commonwealth and his o^n well-being require that he should not go dancing in the weeds of peace, but warned, self-collected and neither defying nor dreading the thunder, let him take both culture therefore
reputation and
life in
his
hand, and with perfect
urbanity dare the gibbet and the
mob by
the^
;
HEROISM
250
'absolute truth of his^ speech an d the rect itude
of his Jbehavior.' .
Towards
external evil the
all this
man
within
and
affirms
the breast assumes a warlike attitude, his ability to nite
cope single-handed-Jisith.-JiiÂŁ- infi-
army of enemiesT To
this military attitud e
He roism.
of the soul we_give the name o f
Its
and ease, is the contempt which makes the attractiveness of war. It is a self;trust^;hich slights the restraints of pru3ence^ rudest form
for safety
in the plenitude of pair the harjns
mind
it
its
energy and_ power to
may
The
suflfer.
hero
reis
a
of such balance that no disturbances can
shake
his
but pleasantly and as
will,
merrily he adva nces to his
own
it
were
rn usic, alike in
frightfuralarms and in the tipsy mirth of universal dissoluteness.
There
is
some what no t somewhat
philosophical in
heroism
not holy in
seems not to know that other
it;
it
;
there
souls are of one texture with it is
it
is
;
it
has pride
Never-
the extreme of individual nature.
we must profound ly rev e re it There is somewhat in great actions which does not allow us to go behind them. Heroism feels_and theless
never reasons, and therefore
.
is
alwa^sright
and although a different breeding, different religion and greater intellectual activity would
HEROISM
251
have modified or even reversed the particular action, yet for the hero that thing he does
the highest deed, and
is
of philosophers or divines.
man
the unschooled
him life,
that
It
is
the avowal of
that he finds a quality in
negligent of expense, of health, of
is
of danger, of hatred, of reproach, and knows
that his will all
is
not open to the censure
actual
higher and more excellent than
is
and
all
possible antagonists.
^SeTSismworks in contradiction to the voice of mankind and in contradiction, for a time, to the voice of the great and good. Heroism is an obedience-ta-a_se cret impulse of an indiv id-
Now
u al's-eharacter. wisdom_a ppear
as
it
must be supposed
to
d oes
no other man can _its to him, for every
to see a little farther
own proper path than any one
else.
just
and wise men take^umbrage
after
some
little
time be past
;
see that the action
sensual prosperity
by
itself
But
it
finds
prudent also
state
Therefore
then they see
it
All prudent
clean contrary to a
for every heroic act measures
contempt of some external good. its own success at last, and then the
its
Self-trust
;
is
his
at his act, until
to be in unison with their acts.
men
man
on
extol.' is
the essence of heroism.
of the soul at war, and
its
It
is
the
ultimate objects
HEROISM
252
are the last defiance of falsehood
the
power
to bear
all
It speaks the truth
agents.
and wrong, and
that can be inflicted
and jt_is
by evil
just, gen-
erous, hospitable, temperate, scornful of pettycalculations persists
and scornful of being scorned. It of an undaunted boldness and of
it is
;
a fortitude not to be wearied out.
the littleness of
common
life.
Its jest
That
dence which dotes on healtlTand wealth
shall
it
almost a s hamed of
cats'-
compliments, quarrels, cards
and custard, which rack the wit of
What joys has
the
Bg dYTWhat
its
say then to the sugar-plums and
cradles, to the toilet,
is
H eroism, like
butt and merriment of heroism.
P lotinus, is
is
pru-
false
all
society
?
kind nature provided for us dear
There seems to be no interval between greatness and meanness. When the spirit creatures
is
!
not master of the world, then
it is
its
dupe.
Yet the Httje man takes^the_great hoax so innocently, j^rks in it so headlong and believing, is born red, and dies gray, arranging his toilet, attending on his own health, laying traps for sweet food and strong wine, setting his heart on a horse or a rifle, made happy with a little gossip or a little praise, that the great soul cannot
choose but laugh
at
such earnest nonsense. " In-
deed, these humble considerations
make me
out
HEROISM What
of love with greatness.
me
to take note
253
how many
a disgrace
is it
to
pairs of -silk stock-
ings thou hast, namely, these and those that
were the peach-colored ones inventory of thy
shirts, as
and one other for use
!
"
;
or to bear the
one for superfluity^
'
Citizens, thinking after the laws of arithmetic,
consider the inconvenience of receiving strangers at their fireside,
reckon narrowly the loss of time
and the unusual display
;
the soul of a better
quality thrusts back the unseasonable
and
economy
obey and the sacrifice and the God, fire he will provide. Ibn Haukal, the Arabian geographer, into the vaults of
life,
says,
I
will
the
extreme in the hospitality Bukharia. " When I was in Sogd I
describes a heroic
of Sogd, in
saw a great building, like a palace, the gates of
which were open and fixed back to the wall with large nails. I asked the reason,
and was told that
the house had not been shut, night or day, for a
hundred years. Strangers may present themany hour and in whatever number;
selves at
amply provided for the reception of the men and their animals, and is never happier than when they tarry for some time. Nothing of the kind have I seen in any other country." ^ The magnanimous know very well the master has
HEROISM
254 that they
who
give time, or money, or shelter,
to the stranger,
—
so
not for ostentation,
—
it
be done for love and
do, as
were, put
it
under obligation to them, so
God
perfect are the
In some way redeemed and the take remunerate themselves.
compensations of the universe. the time they seem to lose pains they seem to
These men
is
human love and raise the standard of civil virtue among mankind. But
fan the flame of
hospitality
show, or
must be
for service and_ not for
The
pudls-doHOi the host.
it
rates itself too high to value itself !
dor of
its
hath, and
table all
it
and draperies. hath, but
its
It gives
own
The
what
it
maj£sty„can
lend a better grace to Jjannocks and
than belong to city
brave soul
by the splen-
fair
water
feasts.'
temperance of the hero proceeds from
the same wish to do no dishonor to the worthi-
But he loves it for its elegancy, not It seems not worth his while to be solemn and denounce with bitterness fleshness he has.
for
its
austerity.
eating or wine-drinking, the use of tobacco, or tea, or silk, or gold. A great man knows how he dines, how he dresses; but
Opium, or scarcely
without railing or precision
and
poetic.
John
drank water, and
his living
Eliot, the
said of wine,
is
natural
Indian Apostle, " It is a noble,
—
HEROISM
255
generous liquor and we should be humbly thank-
remember, water was made the temperance of King
but, as I
ful for
it,
before
it."
Better
still is
who poured out on the ground unto the Lord the water which three of his warriors had brought him to drink at the peril of their lives. It is told of Brutus, that when he fell on his David,
sword line
after the battle
of Euripides,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
lowed thee through but a shade."
by its
and
justice
O
life,
Virtue
and
The
its
Poverty
is its
nobleness.
It
does not ask to
The
essence of is
enough.
ornament. It does not need plenty,
and can very well abide
But that which takes heroic class,
is
exhibit.
is
It
slandered
is
the perception that virtue
is
fol-
thee at last
heroic soul does not sell
dine nicely and to sleep warm. greatness
have
I
!
I find
doubt not the hero
I
this report.
of Philippi, he quoted a
"
the
its loss.
my
fancy most in the
good-humor and
a height to
which
they
hilarity
common
duty
can very well attain, to suffer and to dare witb solemnity. cess,
and
But these
life
at so
rare souls set opinion, suc-
cheap a rate that they
will
not soothe their enemies by petitions, or the
show of sorrow, but wear greatness. fuses to
their
own
habitual
Scipio, charged with peculation, re-
do himself so great a disgrace
as to wait
;
HEROISM
256 for justification,
though he had the
accounts in his hands, but tears fore the tribunes.'
Socrates's
it
condemnation of
himself to be maintained In
all
Prytaneum, during
and
his
life,
of his
scroll
to pieces be-
honor Sir
In the
Thomas
More's playfulness at the scaffold, are of the same strain. In Beaumont and Fletcher's " Sea Voyage," Juletta tells the stout captain and his company, yul. Why, slaves, 'tis in our power to hang ye.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
Very
Master.
'T
is
in our powers, then, to be hanged,
likely,
and scorn ye.
These replies are sound and whole. Sport is the bloom and glow of a perfect health T he great .
will
not condescend to_take any thing seriously
must be as gay as the song of a canary, though It were the building of cities or the air
eradication of old and foolish churches and nations which have
cumbered the earth long thou-
sands of years. Simple hearts put
and customs of
this
all
the history
world behind them, and play
own game in Innocent defiance of the BlueLaws of the world and such would appear, could we see the human race assembled in vision,
their
;
like little children frolicking together,
the eyes of
mankind
at large
though
to
they wear a stately
and solemn garb of works and
influences.
HEROISM The
257
Interest these fine stories
power of
have for us, the
romance over the boy who grasps the forbidden book under his bench at school, a
our delight in the hero, purpose."
the main fact to our
is
All these great and transcendent pro-
perties are ours.
we
If
pride.
small houses.
The
this great
first
It
Is
we
that
same sentiment.
are already domesticating the
Let us find room for
beholding the
dilate In
Roman
Greek energy, the
guest in our
step of worthiness will
be to disabuse us of our superstitious associa-
and times, with number and
tions with places size.
Why
should these words, Athenian, Ro-
man, Asia and England, so tingle
Where
the heart
Is,
in the ear?
there the muses, there the
goHsTojourn, and not in any geography of fame. NTSsachusetts^ Connecticut River arid Boston
Bay_you~thTrik paltry -places, and the ear loves
names of foreign and
classic
we are and. If we will may come to learn that here here
topography. tarry a
;
on ly th at thyself
is
here,
is
and
best. art
But we
little,
See to
It
and nature,
Supreme B eing shall not be absent Irom the chamber where thou sittest. Epaminondas, brave and affectionate, does not seem to us to need Olymho pe and
fate, frien ds,
angels and the
pus to die upon, nor the Syrian sunshine.
He
;
HEROISM
258
very well where he
lies
is.
handsome ground enough tread,
A
and London
all
The
minds.
to
of Milton.
the beloved
air
its
That country
delicate spirits.
the fairest which
Washington
his climate genial in the
imagination of men, and
element of
for
Jerseys were
streets for the feet
man makes
great
The
is
inhabited by the noblest
is
pictures which
fill
the imagination
of Pericles, Xenophon, Columbus, Bayard, Sidney, Hampden, teach us
in reading the actions
how
needlessly
mean our
life
is
that we, by
;
the depth of our living, should deck
it
more than
and
act
man and
na-
regal or national splendor,
on principles that should
interest
with
ture in the length of our days.'
We have seen or heard of many extraordinary young men who never
ripened, or whose per-
formance in actual
was not extraordinary.
When
we
life
see their air
them speak of society, admire
their superiority
contempt on our theirs
to
and mien, when we hear of books, of religion, we ;
they seem to throw
entire polity
and
social state
the tone of a youthful giant
is
work
revolutions.
who
But they enter an
is
sent
active
profession and the forming~C616ssus shrinks to the
common
was the
size
of man.
ideal tendencies,
The magic
they used
which always make the
HEROISM Actual ridiculous
revenge the
;
259
but the tough world had
moment
the sun to plough in
its
They found
furrow.
no example and no companion, and
What
fainted.
then
?
their first aspirations
its
they put their horses of
The is
their heart
lesson they gave in
yet true
;
and a better
valor and a purer truth shall one day organize their belief. self to
any
Or why should historical
Sappho, or Sevigne, or tered souls
do not
Themis, none can, not
De
who have had
satisfy the
a
woman
woman, and
liken her-
think, because
Stael, or the clois-
genius and cultivation
imagination and the serene
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
certainly not she
Why
?
She has a new and unattempted problem
?
to solve, perchance that of the happiest nature
that ever soul,
bloomed.
Let the maiden, with
of each new experience, search in turn objects that solicit her eye, that she
the
erect
walk serenely on her way, accept the hint all
may
power and the charm of her new-born being,
which
is
the kindling of a
recesses of space.
terference
The
new dawn in who repels
fair girl
influences, so careless of pleasing, so wilful
own
her;
O
the in-
by a decided and proud choice of
lofty, inspires
her
the
learn
and
every beholder with somewhat of
nobleness.
The
silent heart
encourages
friend, never strikejail^ to a fear!
Come
HEROISM
26o
port greatly, or
into
Not
you
in vain
sail
live,
with
God
the seas.
for every passing eye
is
cheered and refined by the vision.
The ency.
and
characteristic o f
All
starts
heroism
men have wandering
is
pÂŁrsist-
its
impulses,
chosen your part,
the
The common
Yet we have the weakness
to expect
try to reconcile yourself with the world
heroic cannot be the
the heroic.
fits
But whe n you have abide by it, and do not weakly
of generosity.
common, nor
.
the sympathy of people in those actions whose
sympathy and you would serve your brother, because it is fit for you to serve him, do not take back your words when you find that prudent people do not commend you. Adhere to your own act, and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant and broken the" monotony of a excellence
is
that they outrun
appeal to a tardy justice.
decorous age.
It
If
was a high counsel that
,once heard given to a
young person,
I
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; "Al-
ways do what you are afraid to do." A simple manly character need never make an apology, "
past action with the calm-
but should regard
its
ness of Phocion,
when he admitted
that the
event of the battle was happy, yet did not gret his dissuasion from the battle.
re-
HEROISM There
no weakness or exposure
is
we cannot find consolation of
this is a part
and
relation
261
my
office to
in the
my
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
thought
my Has
fellow-creature.
me
that I should never'
make
appear to disadvantage, never gure
which
constitution, part of
nature coven anted with
fi
for
a ridiciiTous
Let us be generous of our drgnity~as money. Greatness once andlfor.
?
well as of our
ever has done with opinion. ities, riot
our
tell
our char-
we wish to be praised for them, we think they have great merit, but
l5ecause
not because for
We
justification.
It
is
a capital blunder
you discover when another man
;
as
recites his char-
ities.
To
speak the truth, even with some austerity,
to live with
some
rigor of temperance, or
some
extremes of generosity, seems to be an asceticism which to those
common
who
good-nature would appoint
are at ease
that they feel a
and
in plenty, in sign
brotherhood with the great mul-
titude of suffering
men.
And
not only need we
breathe and exercise the soul by assuming the penalties of abstinence, of debt, of solitude, of
unpopularity, to
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but
it
behooves the wise
man
look with a bold eye into those rarer dangers
which sometimes invade men, and to familiarize himself with disgusting forms of disease, with
HEROISM
262
sounds of execration, and the vision of violent death.
Times of heroism
are generally times of ter-
but the day never shines in which this
ror,
ele-
ment may not work. The cTi-cumstances-of^nan, we say, are historically somewhat better in this country and
hour than perhaps ever be-
More freedom
fore.
not
at this
now run
exists for culture.
against an axe at the
of the beaten track of opinion.
first
It will
step out
But whoso
is
heroic will always find crises to try his edge.
Human
demands her champions and
virtue
martyrs, and the ceeds.
It
is
trial
of persecution always pro-
but the other day that the brave
Lovejoy gave
his breast to the bullets
for the rights of free speech
died I
man
when
of a mob,
and opinion, and
was better not to live.' see not any road of perfect peace which it
a
can walk, but after the counsel of his own
bosom. Let him quit too much association, let him go home much, and stablish himself in those courses he approves.''
The
unremitting
retention of simple and high sentiments in ob-
scure duties
is
temper which in
hardening the character to that will
work with honor,
the tumult, or on the scaffold.
outrages have happened to
if
need be
Whatever
men may
befall a
HEROISM man
263
and very easily in a republic, if any signs of a decay of religion. Coarse slander, fire, tar and feathers and the gibbet, the youth may freely bring home to his mind and with what sweetness of temper he can, again
;
there appear
and inquire how fast he can fix his sense of duty, braving such penalties, whenever it may and a
please the next newspaper
num-
sufficient
ber of his neighbors to pronounce his opinions incendiary. It
may calm
the apprehension of calamity in
how
the most susceptible heart to see
bound Nature has of malice.
We
set to the
utmost
quick a
infliction
rapidly approach a brink over
which no eneriiy can follow us " Let them rave :
Thou
art quiet in
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; :
thy grave."
Âť
In the gloom of our ignorance of what shall be, in the
voices,
hour when we are deaf to the higher who does not envy those who have seen
safely to
meanness of our
congratulates
Washington
wrapped
Who
an end their manful endeavor?
that sees the
in his
politics
that he
is
but inly
long already
shroud, and for ever safe
;
that
he was laid sweet in his grave, the hope of hu-
manity not yet subjugated
in
him
?
Who
not sometimes envy the good and brave
does
who
are
HEROISM
264
no more
to suffer
ural world,
from the tumults of the
the speedy term of his finite
nat-
and await with curious complacency
nature?
And
own
conversation with
yet the love that will be
annihilated sooner than treacherous has already
made ^eath
impossible, and affirms^ itself no
mortal but a native of the deeps of absolute^nd inextinguishable being.
IX
THE OVER-SOUL â&#x20AC;˘"^
But
souls that
He
loves as his
own good life partake^ own self; dear as his eye They are to Him: He 'U never them forsake: When they shaU die, then God himself shall die: They live, they live in blest eternity." of his
Henry More.
Space
is
ample, east and west.
But two cannot go abreast.
Cannot
travel in
two:
it
Yonder masterful cuckoo
Crowds every egg
out of the nest.
Quick or dead, except
A
Night and
Every
Day
quality
its
own;
on sod and stone.
spell is laid
've been tampered with.
and pith
Surcharged and sultry with a power
That works
its
will
on age and hour.
THE OVER-SOUL THERE
between one and
a difference
is
another hour of Ufa in
and subsequent ments our vice ;
in those brief
ascribe
more
experiences. is
Our
effect.
habitual.
is
their
faith
authority
comes
Yet there is
moments which
in
mo-
a depth
constrains us to
reality to them than to all other For this reason the argument which
always forthcoming to silence those
ceive extraordinary hopes of
appeal to experience,
who
con-
man, namely the and vain.
for ever invalid
is
We give
up the past to the objector, and yet we hope. He must explain this hope. We grant that human life is mean, but how did we find out What is the ground of this that it was mean ? '
uneasiness of ours is
of this old discontent
;
.''
What
the universal sense of want and ignorance, but
the fine innuendo by which the soul makes its enormous claim ? Why do men feel that the natural history of
but he
is
man
has never been written,
always leaving behind what you have
said of him,
and
it
becomes
metaphysics worthless
?
old,
The
and books of
philosophy of
six
thousand years has not searched the chambers
and magazines of the
soul.
In
its
experiments
THE OVER-SOUL
268
there has always remained, in the last analysis, a
residuum
it
could not resolve.
Man
is
a stream
Our being is descendus from we know not whence. The
whose source ing into
is
hidden.'
most exact calculator has no prescience that somewhat incalculable may not balk the very next moment. I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than
the will
As I
I call
mine.
with events, so
watch that flowing
is it
river,
which, out of regions
see not, pours for a season I see that I
am
When
with thoughts.
a pensioner
its
not a cause but a
;
surprised^pectator of this ethereal water I
desire
and look up and put myself
titude of reception, but from
I
streams into me,
some
;
that
in the at-
alien
energy
the visions come.'
The Supreme
Critic
on the
errors of the past
and the present, and the only prophet of that which must be, is that great nature in which we rest as the earth lies in the soft
phere
;
arms of the atmos-
that Unity, that Over-Soul, within which
contained and
every man's particular being
is
made one with
common
all
other
;
that
which
all
sincere conversation
which
all
right action
powering
reality
is
is
heart of
the worship, to
submission
;
which confutes our
that overtricks
and
;
THE OVER-SOUL
269
and constrains every one to pass for what to speak from his character and not from his tongue, and which evermore tends to pass into our thought and hand and become wistalents,
he
is,
and
dom and virtue and power and
beauty.
We Hve
in succession, in division, in parts, in particles.
Meantime within man the wise silence
;
is
the soul of the whole;
the universal beauty, to which
every part and particle
is
equally related
;
the
One. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and tlje object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but eternal
the whole, of which these are the shining parts, is
the soul.
Only by
the vision of that
Wisdom
can the horoscope of the ages be read, and by falling
back on our better thoughts, by yielding
to the spirit of prophecy
which
is
innate in every
man, we can know what it saith. Every man's words who speaks from that life must sound vain to those who do not dwell in the same thought on their own part. for
it.
they
My words
fall
short and
I
do not carry cold.
Only
dare not speak its
august sense
itself
can inspire
THE OVER-SOUL
270
whom
and behold their speech shall be lyrical, and sweet, and universal as the rising of the wind. Yet I desire, even by profane words, if I
it
may
will,
!
not use sacred, to indicate the heaven
of this deity and to report what hints
I
lected of the transcendent simplicity
and energy
have col-
of the Highest Law.' If
we consider what happens
in conversation,
in reveries, in remorse, in times of passion, in
surprises, in the instructions
often
we see
of dreams, wherein
ourselves in masquerade,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
the droll
and enhancing a real on our distant notice,
disguises only magnifying
element and forcing
we
shall catch
lighten into
All goes to
many
it
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
hints that will broaden and
knowledge of the show that the soul
secret of nature.^ in
organ, but animates and exercises is
man all
is
not an
the organs
;
not a function, like the power of memory,
of calculation, of comparison, but uses these as
hands and not
feet
is
;
not a faculty, but a light
the intellect or the will,
intellect
and the
will
;
being, in which -they
is
;
is
but the master of the
the background of our
lie,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an
immensity not
possessed and that cannot be possessed.^
From
within or from behind, a light shines through us
upon
things and
makes us aware
nothing, but the light
is all.
A man
that is
we
are
the fa9ade
THE OVER-SOUL of a temple wherein
271
wisdom and all good call man, the eatcounting man, does not,
all
What we commonly
abide.
ing, drinking, planting,
we know him, represent himself, but misreHim we do not respect, but the soul, whose organ he is, would he let it appear through his action, would make our knees as
presents himself.
When
bend. it is
genius
it is
virtue
it
is
;
And
love.
begins
breathes through his intellect,
it
when it breathes througk his will, when it flows through his affection,
;
when
The weakness
the blindness of the intellect
would be something of
it
of the will begins
when
itself.'
the indi-
would be something of himself. All reform aims in some one particular to let the soul have its way through us in other words, to envidual
;
gage us to obey.
Of
this
his colors.
man
pure nature every
It
unmeasurable
at
is
Language cannot paint
time sensible.
is
too subtile.
but we
;
It
know
is
that
some
it
with
undefinable, it
pervades
We know that all spiritual beA wise old proverb says, " God
and contains us. ing
is
comes is
in
man.
to see us without bell
no screen or
ceiling
the infinite heavens, so in the soul,
;
"
^
that
is,
as there
between our heads and is
there
where man, the
no bar or wall and
effect, ceases,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; THE OVER-SOUL
272
God, the
cause, begins.
We
away.
lie
The
open on one
taken
walls are
side to the deeps of
of God. JusPower. Freedom, tice we see and know. Love, These natures no man ever got above, but they tower over us, and most in the moment when spiritual nature, to the attributes
our interests tempt us to wound them.
The speak
sovereignty of this nature whereof we
made known by
is
independency of
its
those limitations which circumscribe us on every
hand.
have
The
soul circumscribes
ence of the senses has in most
mind
like
influ-
men overpowered
;
is,
I
to that degree that the walls of time
and space have come to look mountable and to speak with limits
In
The
abolishes time and space.
it
As
things.
said, it contradicts all experience.
manner the
all
and insur-
real
levity of these
in the world, the sign of insanity.
Yet
time and space are but inverse measures of the force of the soul.
The
spirit sports
with time,
" Can crowd eternity into an hour. Or stretch an hour to eternity."
We are often made to feel that there youth and age than that which the year of our natural birth.
is
is
another
measured from
Some thoughts
always find us young, and keep us
thought
is
so.'
Such a
the love of the universal and eternal
THE OVER-SOUL Every man
beauty.
parts
from that contempla-
tion with the feeling that
ages than to mortal
273
life.
rather belongs to
it
The
of
least activity
the intellectual powers redeems us in a degree
from the conditions of time.
In sickness, in
languor, give us a strain of poetry or a profound sentence,
and we are refreshed
;
or produce a
volume of Plato or Shakspeare, or remind us of their names, and instantly we come into a feeling of longevity.
See
how
the deep divine
thought reduces centuries and millenniums, and
makes
itself
present through
all
teaching of Christ less effective
when
his
first
phasis of facts
mouth was opened
is
tions of the soul.
In
time, as
is
in
has the
Before the revela-
another.
speech
we
refer all things to
habitually refer the
immensely sun-
dered stars to one concave sphere. say that the
was
The em-
?
Time, Space and Nature shrink
common
we
it
one, the scale of the senses and
the understanding
away.
Is the
my thought And so always
and persons
nothing to do with time. soul's scale
ages.
now than
Judgment
is
And
so
we
distant or near, that
the Millennium approaches, that a day of certain political, moral, social
and the
like,
reforms
when we mean
of things one of the
facts
is
at
hand,
that in the nature
we contemplate
is
THE OVER-SOUL
274
external and fugitive, and the other
is
permanent
and connate with the soul. The things we now shall, one by one, detach themselves like ripe fruit from our experience, and The wind shall blow them none knows fall. esteem fixed
whither.
The
London,
are facts as fugitive as
landscape, the figures, Boston,
any
institution
past, or any whiff of mist or smoke, and so is society, and so is the world. The soul looketh
steadily forwards, creating a
world before her,
leaving worlds behind her.
She has no
nor
The
rites,
knows only the
soul
events
dates,
nor persons, nor specialties nor men. the
is
soul
flowing robe
web of
the
;
in
which she
is
clothed.'
After rate of
its
its
own law and not by arithmetic
progress to be computed.
The
the
is
soul's
advances are not made by gradation, such as can be represented by motion in a straight rather
by ascension of
state,
presented by metamorphosis,
such
fly.
but
as can be re-
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from
the worm, from the worm to the
line,
the egg to
The growths
of genius are of a certain total character, that does not advance the elect individual
first
over
John, then Adam, then Richard, and give each the pain of discovered inferiority,
every throe of growth the
to
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but by
man expands
there
THE OVER-SOUL where he works, passing, classes,
each
at
populations, of men.
275
With
pulsation,
each divine
impulse the mind rends the thin rinds of the
and comes out into eternity, and expires its air. It converses and with truths that have always been spoken in the world, and becomes conscious of a closer sympathy with Zeno and Arrian than with persons and
visible
finite,
inspires
house.
in the
This
The
is
the law of moral and of mental gain.
simple
rise as
by
specific levity
not into a
particular virtue, but into the region of
They The
virtues.
them is
all.'
not
it;
requires beneficence, but
dation
felt
is
the
soul requires purity, but purity
requires justice, but justice
that there
all
are in the spirit which contains
is
is
not that;
somewhat better; so and accommo-
a kind of descent
when we
leave speaking of moral
nature to urge a virtue which
well-born child
all
it
enjoins.
To
the
the virtues are natural, and
not painfully acquired.
Speak
to his heart,
and
man becomes suddenly virtuous.' Within the same sentiment is the germ of intellectual growth, which obeys the same law. Those who are capable of humility, of justice, of love, of aspiration, stand already on a platform that commands the sciences and arts, speech the
;
THE OVER-SOUL
276
and poetry, action and grace. For whoso dwells in this moral beatitude already anticipates those special powers which men prize so highly. The lover has no talent, no skill, which passes for quite nothing with his
ever
may
she
little
enamored maiden, how-
possess of related faculty
and the heart which abandons itself to the Supreme Mind finds itself related to all its works, and will ti'avel a royal road to particular knowledges and powers. In ascending to this primary and aboriginal sentiment we have come from our remote station on the circumference instantaneously
to
the
of the world,
centre
where, as in the closet of God, we see causes,
and
which
anticipate the universe,
One^mode of the
divine teaching
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
nation of the spirit in a form,
my
own.
I
live in society;
answer to thoughts in a certain
which
is
the incar-
in forms, like
with persons who
my own
mind, or express
obedience to the great instincts to
I live.
certified
of a
I
see
its
common
presence to them. nature
;
souls, these separated selves,
thing else can.
They
we
passion
tions
but a slow
is
/
effect."
call
admiration, pity
;
stir ;
in
I
draw me
me
the
as
come
no-
new emo-
of love, hatred,
thence
am
and these other
fear,
conversationj
THE OVER-SOUL competition, persuasion,
cities
277
and war. Per-
sons are supplementary to the primary teaching
of the soul.
mad
In youth we are
Childhood and youth see
all
for persons.
the world in them.
But the larger experience of man discovers the identical nature appearing through them all. Persons themselves acquaint us with the impersonal.
In
all
conversation between two persons is
made,
common
nature.
That
nature
not
tacit
And
reference
is
social
;
it
as to a third party, to a
third party or is
common
God. earnest, and
impersonal
;
is
where debate is on high questions, the company become aware that t"he thought rises to an equal level in all bosoms, that all have a spiritual property in what was said, as well as the sayer. They all become wiser than they were. It arches over them like a temple, this unity of thought so in groups
especially
in
which every heart beats with nobler sense of
power and duty, and thinks and usual solemnity.
to a higher self-possession.
There
is
common
a certain
acts with
un-
All are conscious of attaining It shines
for
all.
wisdom of humanity which
to the greatest
men
is
with the lowest,
and which our ordinary education often labors to silence and obstruct. The mind is one, and the best
minds,
who
love truth for
its
own
,
THE OVER-SOUL
278
much
sake, think
They
accept
it
it
in
truth.
with any man's name, for
long beforehand, and from
theirs
The
of property
thankfully everywhere, and do
not label or stamp it is
less
eternity."
learned and the studious of thought have
no monopoly of wisdom. Their violence of direction in some degree disqualifies them to think truly. We owe many valuable observa-
who are not very acute or prowho say the thing without effort
tions to people
found, and
which we want and have long been hunting vain.
The
which
is felt
is
said
in
action of the soul
and
left
is
in
oftener in that
unsaid than in that which
any conversation.
It
broods over
every society, and they unconsciously seek for
We know better than we do.' do not yet possess ourselves, and we know at the same time that we are much more. I feel the same truth how often in my trivial conversait
in each other.
We
tion with
my
neighbors, that somewhat higher
and Jove nods to Jove from behind each of us.^ Men descend to meet. In their habitual and
in each of us overlooks this by-play,
mean
service to the world, for which they for-
sake their native nobleness, they resemble those
Arabian sheiks who dwell in mean houses and affect
an external poverty, to escape the rapa-
THE OVER^SOUL of the Pacha, and reserve
city
all
279 their display
of wealth for their interior and guarded
retire'
ments.
As
is
it
present in
every period of
life.
persons, so
all
it
is
man. In my dealing with my child, Latin and Greek, my accomplishments and
infant
money I
me
stead
have
nothing
If I
avails.
in
It is adult already in the
am
;
but as
wilful,
my my
much
soul as
sets
his will
he
and leaves me, if I please, the degradation of beating him by my superiority of strength. But if I renounce my against mine, one for one,
up
um-
will
and
pire
between us two, out of his young eyes looks
the
same soul
The truth. tic
act for the soul, setting that
soul
We
and
;
is
as
he reveres and loves with me." the perceiver and revealer of
know
when we
it,
let scep-
what they choose.
Foolish
truth
scoffer say
see
when you have spoken what they do not wish to hear, 'How do you know people ask you,
it is
truth,
and not an error of your own?'
We
know truth when we see it, from opinion, as we know when we are awake that we are awake. It was a grand sentence of Emanuel Swedenborg, which would alone indicate the greatness of that man's perception,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; "It
is
no proof of a man's
understanding to be able to affirm whatever he
THE OVER-SOUL
28o pleases
true
but to be able to discern that what
;
true,
is
and that what
mark and book I read,
false is
is
false,
is
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
this is the
character of intelligence."
In the
the
me,
to
whole in
good thought returns image of the
as every truth will, the
To
soul.
the bad thought which
find
I
the same soul becomes a discerning, sep-
it,
arating sword,
and lops
than we know.
we
If
will
We
away.
it
are wiser
not interfere with our
thought, but will act entirely, or see
how
the
God, we know the particular and every thing, and every man. For
thing stands in thing,
the
Maker of all
things and
behind us and casts
persons stands
all
dread omniscience through
his
us over things.
But beyond
recognition of
this
particular passages of the
ence,
it
also reveals truth.
And
seek to reinforce ourselves by
and
speak with a worthier,
to
that advent.
truth
is
For the
soul's
here
its
it
we should
very presence, of
communication of itself,
but
or passes into and becomes that
enlightens
truth he receives,
We
in
experi-
the highest event in nature, since
itself,
whom
own
loftier strain
then does not give somewhat from gives
its
individual's
it
distinguish
;
it
it
man
or in proportion to that
takes
him
to itself.
the announcements of the
THE OVER-SOUL soul,
its
281
manifestations of itsown nature, by the
term Revelation.
These
are always attended
the emotion of the sublime. nication
For
this
an influx of the Divine mind into
is
our mind.'
It
is
an ebb of the individual rivulet
before the. flowing surges of the sea of
Every
distinct
mandment
A thrill
by
commu-
apprehension of
agitates
men
passes through
this central
life.
com-
with awe and delight.
all
men
at the reception
of new truth, or at the performance of a great action,
which comes out of the heart of nature.
In these communications the power to see
is
not separated from the will to do, but the insight proceeds
from obedience, and the obedi-
ence proceeds from a joyful perception.' Every
moment when vaded by
the individual feels himself in-
memorable.
it is
By
the necessity of
our constitution a certain enthusiasm attends the individual's consciousness of that sence.
The
divine pre-
character and duration of this enthu-
siasm vary with the state of the individual, from
an ecstasy and trance and prophetic inspiration,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which
is its
rarer appearance,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
to the faint-
glow of virtuous emotion, in which form it warms, like our household fires, all the families and associations of men, and makes society est
possible.
A
certain
tendency to insanity has
THE OVER-SOUL
282
always attended the opening of the religious sense in men, as if they had been " blasted with excess of light." ' The trances of Socrates, the " union " of Plotinus, the vision of Porphyry,
the conversion of Paul, the aurora of the convulsions of George
Fox and
his
Behmen, Quakers,
the illumination of Swedenborg, are of this kind.
What
was
in the case
of these remarkable per-
sons a ravishment, has, in innumerable instances in
common
life,
been exhibited
in less striking
manner. Everywhere the history of religion be-
The
trays a tendency to enthusiasm.
of the Moravian and Quietist the. eternal sense of the
of the
New
the Calvinistic churches
the opening of
;
Word,
Jerusalem Church ;
rapture
in the ;
language
the revival of
the experiences of the
Methodists, are varying forms of that shudder
of awe and delight with which the individual soul always mingles with the universal soul.
The
nature of these revelations
is
the same
they are perceptions of the absolute law. are solutions of the soul's
own
questions.
;
They They
do not answer the questions which the understanding asks. The soul answers never by words, but by the thing itself that is inquired after.^
Revelation
is
the disclosure of the soul.
The
THE OVER-SOUL popular notion of a revelation telling
of fortunes.
283
is
that
is
it
a
In past oracles of the soul
the understanding seeks to find answers to sensual questions,
and undertakes
to
tell
from
God
how long men shall exist, what their hands shall do and who shall be their company, adding names and dates and places. But we must pick no locks.
An
We
must check
answer in words
ho answer
is
low
this
delusive
to the questions
you
;
curiosity.'
it
ask.
is
really
Do
not
require a description of the countries towards
which you
them
scribe
The
sail.
to you,
description does not de-
and to-morrow you arrive
and know them by inhabiting them. Men ask concerning the immortality of the soul, the there
employments of heaven, the state of the sinner, and so forth. They even dream that Jesus has left
replies
Never
a
to
precisely
moment
in their paiois.
these
interrogatories.
did that sublime spirit speak
To
truth, justice, love, the attri-
butes of the soul, the idea of immutableness is
essentially associated.
Jesus, living in these
moral sentiments, heedless of sensual fortunes, heeding only the manifestations of these, never
made
the separation of the idea of duration from
the essence of these attributes, nor uttered a syllable
concerning the duration of the soul.
It
;
THE OVER-SOUL
284
was
left to his disciples
to sever duration froti:
the moral elements, and to teach the immortality
of the soul as a doctrine, and maintain evidences.
The moment
immortality
is
separately taught,
In the flowing of love,
fallen.
of humility, there
is
it
by
the doctrine of the
man
is
already
in the adoration
no question of continuance.
No inspired man ever asks
this
question or con-
For the soul
descends to these evidences.
is
and the man in whom it is shed abroad cannot wander from the present, which is infinite, to a future which would be finite.' These questions which we lust to ask about true to
itself,
God
the future are a confession of sin.
answer for them.
No
answer
in
has no
words can reply
It is not in an arbitrary " decree of God," but in the nature of man, that
to a question of things.
a veil shuts
down on
for the soul will not
the facts of to-morrow
have us read any other
cipher than that of cause and
which curtains events of
men
it
effect.
By
this veil
instructs the children
to live in to-day.
The
only
mode
of
obtaining an answer to these questions of the senses
is
to forego
all
low curiosity, and, accept-
ing the tide of being which floats us into the
and
all
work and
work and
live,
unawares the advancing soul has
buiit
secret of nature,
live,
THE OVER-SOUL and forged
new
for itself a
285
condition, and the
question and the answer are one.'
By
same
the
into the
we
see
each
is
consecrating, celestial,
fire, vital,
which burns until
things
shall dissolve all
it
waves and surges of an ocean of and know each other, and what
Who
of.
can
tell
light, spirit
the grounds of his
knowledge of the character of the several individuals in his circle of friends ? No man. and words do not disappoint him. In that man, though he knew no ill of him, he put no trust. In that other, though they had seldom met, authentic signs had yet Yet
their acts
might be trusted as
passed, to signify that he
one who had an interest in
We
know
each other very well,
has been just to himself
we teach or behold our honest effort
We
is
gion,
own
only an aspiration or
life
That
diag-
or unconscious power.
its
its
trade,
quarrels,
judicial investigation of character.
face,
is
also.
friendships,
or in small
of us
and whether that which
intercourse of society, its
character.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which
are all discerners of spirits.
nosis lies aloft in our
The
his
its
reli-
is
one wide
In
full court,
committee, or confronted face to
accuser and accused,
to be judged.
men
Against their
offer themselves
will
they exhibit
THE OVER-SOUL
286
trifles by which character is read. But who judges ? and what ? Not our understanding. We do not read them by learning or the wisdom of the wise man concraft. No sists herein, that he does not judge them he lets them judge themselves and merely reads and records their own verdict.
those decisive
;
;
By will is
virtue of this inevitable nature, private
overpowered, and, maugre our
our imperfections, your genius
will
efforts or
speak from
That which we are, we shall teach, not voluntarily but involuntarily. Thoughts come into our minds by avenues which we never left open, and thoughts go out of our minds through avenues which we never you, and mine from me.
voluntarily opened.'
Character teaches over our
head.
The
found
in the tone the
infallible
index of true progress
man
takes.^
Neither
is
his
age, nor his breeding, nor
company, nor books,
nor actions, nor
nor
talents,
all
together can
hinder him from being deferential to a higher spirit
than his own.
home
in
God,
his
If he have not found his
manners,
his
forms of speech,
the turn of his sentences, the build, shall
of let
all his
opinions will involuntarily confess
him brave
found
1 say,
it
out
his centre, the
how he Deity
will.
it,
If he have
will shine
through
THE OVER-SOUL him, through
287
the disguises of ignorance, of
all
ungenial temperament, of unfavorable circum-
The
stance.
tone of seeking
tone of having
The
one, and the
is
another.
is
great distinction between teachers sacred
or literary, poets like
— between poets Pope, — between
Herbert, and
like
philosophers like
Spinoza, Kant and Coleridge, and philosophers like
—
Locke, Paley, Mackintosh and Stewart,
between
men
of the world
who
are
reckoned
accomplished talkers, and here and there a
fer-
vent mystic, prophesying half insane under the thought,
infinitude of his
—
is
that
one
class
s^eakfrom within, or from experience, as parties and possessors of the fact ; and the other class
from without,
as spectators merely, or
as acquainted with the fact
third persons.
from without.
It I
perhaps
on the evidence of
of no use to preach to
is
me
can do that too easily myself.
Jesus speaks always from within, and in a degree that transcends miracle. to be.
I
All
all
others.
In that
believe beforehand that
men
it
is
stand continually in the expec-
tation of the appearance of such a teacher. if a
man do
not speak from within the
where the word
the
ought so
is
him lowly confess
one with that
it.
it tells
But veil,
of, let
THE OVER-SOUL
288
The same Omniscience lect
and makes what we
the
wisdom of the world
flows into the intel-
call is
the most illuminated class of
Much
genius.
of
not wisdom, and
men
no doubt
are
superior to literary fame, and are not writers.
Among
the multitude of scholars and authors no hallowing presence we are sensible of a knack and skill rather than of inspiration they have a light and know not whence it comes and call it their own their talent Is some
we
feel
;
;
;
exaggerated faculty, some overgrown member, so that their strength
is
In these
a disease.
in-
do not make the impression of virtue, but almost of vice and we feel 'that a man's talents stand in the way of his advancement in truth. But genius is relistances the intellectual gifts
;
It is a larger
gious." heart.
not
It is
less like
There
other men.
is
in all great
poets a wisdom of humanity which to any talents they exercise. wit, the partisan, the fine
take
place of the man.
Homer,
common
imbibing of the
not anomalous, but more like and
is
The
superior
author, the
gentleman, does not
Humanity
shines in
in Chaucer, in Spenser, in Shakspeare,
in Milton.
They
are content with truth.
use the positive degree.
phlegmatic to those
They seem
who have been
They
frigid
and
spiced with
THE OVER-SOUL
289
the frantic passion and violent coloring of inferior
For they
but popular writers.
by the
free course
are poets
which they allow to the
in-
forming soul, which through their eyes beholds again andtlesses the things which
The soul
is
any of
works.'
its
superior to
its
The
it
knowledge, wiser than
great poet
makes us
our own wealth, and then we think
His
compositions.
mind
is
hath made.
less
feel
of his
best communication to our
to teach us to despise
all
he has done.
Shakspeare carries us to such a lofty strain of intelligent activity as to suggest a wealth
beggars his
own and we then ;
feel that
which
the splen-
did works which he has created, and which in
other hours
we
extol as a sort of self-existent
no stronger hold of real nature than shadow of a passing traveller on the rock.^ The inspiration which uttered itself in Hamlet and Lear could utter things as good from day to
poetry, take
the
day for ever.
Why then should I
of Hamlet and Lear, as
from which they
fell as
make account
we had not the soul
if
syllables
from the tongue ?
This energy does not descend into individual
on any other condition than entire possesIt comes to the lowly and simple it comes whomsoever will put off what is foreign and
life
sion.
to
proud
;
;
it
comes
as insight
;
it
comes
as serenity
;
THE OVER-SOUL
290
and grandeur. habits,
we
we
It
whom
He
does not talk with
He tries them. true.
traveller attempts to embellish his life
my
in-
man comes back
an eye to their opinion.
requires of us to be plain and
ing
it
new degrees of great-
that inspiration the
with a changed tone.
men with
see those
are apprised of
From
ness.
When
The vain by quot-
lord and the prince and the countess,
who thus
said or did to him.
The
ambitious vul-
gar show you their spoons and brooches and rings,
and preserve their cards and compliments.
The more own
cultivated, in their account of their
experience, cull out the pleasing, poetic
cumstance,
— the
visit
to
Rome,
the
cir-
man of know
genius they saw, the brilliant friend they
;
on perhaps the gorgeous landscape, the mountain lights, the mountain thoughts they enjoyed yesterday, and so seek to throw a romantic color over their life. But the soul that ascends to worship the great God is plain and true has no rose-color, no fine friends, no chivstill
further
—
;
no adventures does not want admiration dwells in the hour that now is, in the earnest alry,
;
the present
become porous sea of light.
—
common day, by reason of moment and the mere trifle having
experience of the
to thought
and bibulous of the
THE OVER-SOUL Converse with a mind that
and
is
291
grandly simple,
looks like word-catching.
literature
The
simplest utterances are worthiest to be written, yet are they so cheap and so things of course, that in the infinite riches of the soul
it is
like
gathering a few pebbles off the ground, or bottling a little air in a phial,
when
and the whole atmosphere can pass there, or
the whole earth
are ours.
make you one of
Nothing the circle,
but the casting aside your trappings and dealing
man
man
to
in
naked
truth, plain confession
and omniscient affirmation. Souls such as these treat
walk
as
gods
in the earth,
you
as
gods would,
accepting without any
admiration your wit, your bounty, your virtue even,-;- say rather your act of duty, for your virtue they
own
as their
proper blood, royal as
themselves, and over-royal, and the father of the gods.
But what rebuke
their plain fraternal
bearing casts on the mutual flattery with which
authors solace each other and
wound them-
I do not wonder that Cromwell and Christina and Charles the Second and James the First and the Grand Turk. For they are, in their
These
selves
!
these
men go
own feel
flatter not.
to see
elevation, the fellows of kings,
and must
the servile tone of conversation in the world.
THE OVER-SOUL
292
They must
always be a godsend to princes, for
they confront them, a king to a king, without
ducking or concession, and give a high nature the refreshment and satisfaction of resistance, of plain humanity, of even
companionship and of
They leave them wiser -and superior men. Souls like these make us feel that sincerity new
is
ideas.
more
excellent than flattery.
man and woman
with
most
sincerity
with you. It
and destroy
is
Deal so plainly
as to constrain the utall
hope of
trifling
the highest compliment you can
pay. Their " highest praising," said Milton, "
not
flattery,
and
their plainest advice
is
is
a kind
of praising." Ineffable
is
the union of
in his integrity
The
man and God
in
who worships God, becomes God;
every act of the soul.
simplest person
yet for ever and ever the influx of this better
new and unsearchable.' awe and astonishment. How dear, how soothing to man, arises the idea of God,
ajid
universal self
is
It inspires
peopling the lonely place, effacing the scars of
our mistakes and disappointments
!
When
we
have broken our god of tradition and ceased from our god of rhetoric, then may God fire the heart with his presence.'
of the heart
itself,
It
is
the doubling
nay, the infinite enlargement
THE OVER-SOUL
293
of the heart with a power of growth to a new
on every
infinity
infallible trust.
side.
He
has not the conviction, but
the sight, that the best
lation
He
and
fears,
may
the true, and
is
that thought easily dismiss tainties
man an
It inspires in
in
all
particular uncer-
and adjourn
to the sure reve-
of time the solution of his private riddles. that his welfare
is sur.e
is
dear to the heart
of being. In the presence of law to his mind he is it
overflowed with a reliance so universal that
sweeps away
cherished hopes and the most
all
stable projects of mortal condition in
He
The
good.
not.
If
are
also,
is
it is
a
running to seek your
feet run,
you do not
for there
him
You
Let your
quiesce that
flood.
things that are really for thee grav-
itate to thee.'
friend.
its
he cannot escape from his
believes that
but your mind need
you not acyou should not find him ?
find him, will
best
power, which, as
it is
you,
in
is
in
and could therefore very well bring
you together,
if it
were for the
best.
You
are
preparing with eagerness to go and render a service to vite
which your talent and your
men and
you, the love of
Has it
taste in-
the hope of fame.
not occurred to you that you have no right
to go, unless
you
vented from going
are equally willing ? ^
O,
o
be pre-
believe, as thou livest.
;
THE OVER-SOUL
294
sound that
that every
is
spoken over the round
world, which thou oughtest to hear, will vibrate
on thine ear
byword
Every proverb, every book, every
!
that belongs to thee for aid or comfort,
come home through open or winding passages. Every friend whom not thy fanshall surely
tastic will
but the great and tender heart in thee
craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace. this
because the heart in thee
And
the heart of
is
all
not a valve, not a wall, not an intersection
is
there anywhere in nature, but one blood rolls
uninterruptedly an endless circulation through all
men,
as the
water of the globe
and, truly seen,
its
tide
is
is all
one
Let man then learn the revelation of ture and that
all
thought to
his heart; this,
the Highest dwells with
him
own mind, But
know what '
go into
said.
God
cowards.
the great
his closet
the
speaketh, he must
and shut the door,'
as Jesus
not
make himself
manifest to
greatly listen
to
withdrawing himself from other men's devotion. hurtful to him, until
Our
if
he would
must
will
He
God
if
na-
that the
;
sentiment of duty
there.
all
namely;
sources of nature are in his is
sea,
one.
religion vulgarly
all
Even
himself,
the accents of their prayers are
he have made his own. stands on
numbers of
THE OVER-SOUL
295
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
Whenever the appeal is made, no how indirectly, to numbers, proclamation is then and there made that religion is not. He that finds God a sweet enveloping thought believers.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
matter
to
him never counts
in that presence,
When
I
his
who
company.
When
I sit
come in ? when I burn
shall dare to
rest in perfect humility,
with pure love, what can Calvin or
Swedenborg
say?
makes no numbers or
difference
It
to
on authority
to one.
not
is
whether the appeal
The
is
faith that stands
The
faith.
reliance
on
authority measures the decline of religion, the
withdrawal of the soul.
now
given to Jesus, tory,
is
it is
The position men have many centuries of his-
a position of authority.
themselves.
Great
for
is
It characterizes
cannqt alter the eternal
It
no follower
;
it
facts.
no flatterer, never appeals from itself.
the soul, and plain.
It
is
Before the immense possimere experience, all past biography, however spotless and sainted, shrinks away. Before that heaven which our presentiIt believes in itself.
bilities
of man
all
ments foreshow form of
us,
we cannot
easily praise
we have seen or read of. We not we have few great men, but, speaking, that we have none that
life
only affirm that absolutely
any
;
THE OVER-SOUL
296
we have no history, no record of any character or mode of living that entirely contents us.
The
saints
ships
we
of allowance.
draw
new
a
whom
and demigods
history wor-
are constrained to accept with a grain
Though
in
our lonely hours we
memory, they are by
strength out of their
pressed on our attention, as
yet,
the
thoughtless and customary, they fatigue and in-
The
vade.
soul gives
itself,
alone, original and
pure, to the Lonely, Original and Pure, who,
on
that condition, gladly
speaks through nimble.
It
things.
It
is is
it.
Then
inhabits, leads is it
not wise, but
it
saith,
and dependent on,
mind. I
I
I,
am born
feel
I
them
its
all
inno-
feels that
by
a law in-
nature.
Behold,
falls
into the great, the universal
the imperfect, adore
am somehow
thereby
it is
own, and
the grass grows and the stone ferior to,
young and
glad,
sees through
not called religious, but
It calls the light its
cent.
it
and
my own
Perfect.
receptive of the great soul, and
do overlook the sun and the to be the fair accidents
which change and
pass.
stars
and
and
effects
More and more
the
surges of everlasting nature enter into me, and I
become public and human in my regards and So come I to live in thoughts and act
actions.
with energies which are immortal.
Thus
rever-
THE OVER-SOUL
297
ing the soul, and learning, as the ancient said, that "
its
beauty
immense," man
is
will
come
to
the perennial miracle which the soul worketh, and be less astonished at parsee that the world
ticular
wonders
;
is
he
will
profane history; that the universe
is
all
learn that there
history
is
sacred; that
represented in an atom, in a
He
moment of
time.'
spotted
of shreds and patches, but he
live
what
life
will
with a divine unity. is
weave no longer a
He
base and frivolous in his
tent with all places
render.
He
will
no
is
will cease life
and with any
will
from
and be con-
service he can
calmly front the morrow in
the negligency of that trust which carries
God
and so hath already the whole future the bottom of the heart.
with
it
in
X CIRCLES Nature centres into balls. And her proud ephemerals. Fast to surface and outside.
Scan the
Knew
A new
profile
of the spherej
they what that signified} genesis
were here.
CIRCLES
THE
eye
the
is
forms
it
is
first circle;
nature this primary figure end.
It
is
the world.
God
of
and
its
the highest St.
the horizon which
the second; and throughout
repeated without
is
emblem
in the cipher
as a circle
whose centre was everywhere
We
circumference nowhere.'
are
all
lifetime reading the copious sense of this
One moral we have
of forms.
in considering the circular or
acter of every
we
shall
now
human
Our
our first
already deduced
compensatory char-
action.
trace, that
being outdone.
of
Augustine described the nature
Another analogy
every action admits of
life is
an apprenticeship to
the truth that around every circle another can
be drawn
;
every end
another
that there is
no end in nature, but
is
a beginning
dawn
;
that there
is
always
on mid-noon, and under
risen
every deep a lower deep opens.^
This
fact, as far as it
symbolizes the moral fact
of the Unattainable, the flying Perfect, around
which the hands of
man
the inspirer and the
condemner of every
may
can never meet, at once
conveniently serve us to connect
trations of
human power
in
success,
many illus-
every department.
CIRCLES
302
There are no fixtures in nature. The universe Permanence is but a word is fluid and volatile. of degrees. Our globe seen by God is a transparent law, not a mass of facts. The law dissolves the fact and holds it fluid." Our culture is the predominance of an idea which draws after it this train of cities and institutions. Let us
another idea
rise into
The Greek
sculpture
had been statues of
is all
ice
they
;
will disappear.
melted away,
as if
here and there a
;
tary figure or fragment remaining, as
it
soli-
we
see
and scraps of snow left in cold dells and mountain clefts in June and July. For the genius flecks
that created
Greek
it
now somewhat
creates
letters last a little longer,
The
else.
but are already
passing under the same sentence and tumbling into the inevitable pit which the creation of
thought opens for
all
that
is
old.
The new
new con-
tinents are built out of the ruins of an old planet;
the
new
races
out of the decomposition
fed
of the foregoing.
New arts destroy the
old.
the investment of capital in aqueducts,
by hydraulics;
useless
powder
;
by steam
You
fortifications,
by gun-
roads and canals, by railways ;
steam by
admire
the hurts of so
this
See
made
;
sails,
electricity.
tower of granite, weathering
many
ages.
Yet
a little
waving
CIRCLES hand is
huge
built this
wall,
better than that which
built can topple
it
303
and that which builds The hand that
is built.
down much
faster.
Better
than the hand and nimbler was the invisible
thought which wrought through
it
ever, behind the coarse effect,
is
a fine cause,
which, being narrowly seen,
itself
is
;
and thus the effect
of a finer cause. Everything looks permanent until to
its
known. A rich firm and lasting fact
secret
women
a
is
;
estate appears
to a merchant,
one easily created out of any materials, and
easily
lost.
An
seem
a fixture, like a gold mine, or a river, to a
citizen
;
orchard,
good
tillage,
good grounds,
but to a large farmer, not
fixed than the state of the crop.
Nature looks
provokingly stable and secular, but
it
has a cause
and when once I comprehend these fields stretch so immovably wide,
like all the rest that, will
much more
;
hang so individually considerable ? Permanence is a word of degrees. Every thing is medial. Moons are no more bounds to spirthese leaves
power than bat-balls." The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his itual
CIRCLES
304
own.
The
of
life
man
is
a self-evolving circle,
which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes
on
all
outwards to new and larger
sides
and that without end.' The extent
to
circles,
which
this
generation ofcircles,wheel without wheel, will go,
depends on the force or truth of the individual
For it is the inert effort of each thought, having formed itself into a circular wave of cirsoul.
cumstance,.
an
—
as for instance
an empire, rules of
usage, a religious
art, a local
rite,
—
to heap
on that ridge and to solidify and hem in But if the soul is quick and strong it bursts over that boundary on all sides and ex-
itself
the
life.
pands another orbit on the great deep, which also runs
up
into a high wave, with attempt
again to stop and to bind. to be imprisoned
pulses
it
;
in
its
But the heart refuses first and narrowest
already tends outward with avast force
and to immense and innumerable expansions.^ Every ultimate fact is only the first of a new series.
Every general law only a
particular fact
of some more general law presently to disclose itself.
There
is
no outside, no inclosing
wall,
no
—
The man finishes his story, how good how final how it puts a new face
on
all
circumference to us. •
!
things
!
!
He fills
side rises also a
the sky.
Lol on the other a circle around
man and draws
;
CIRCLES the circle
we had just pronounced
Then
the sphere.
already
not man, but only a dress
is
first
the outline of
our
is
speaker.
speaker
first
His only
re-
forthwith to draw a circle outside of his
And so men
do by themselves. The of to-day, which haunts the mind and can-
antagonist. result
305
not be escaped, will presently be abridged into a
word, and the principle that seemed to explain
nature will itself be included as one example of a bolder generalization. In the thought of to-mor-
row there
is
the creeds,
a
power to upheave
all
thy creed,
all
the literatures of the nations, and
all
marshal thee to a heaven which no epic dream
Every man
has yet depicted.
workrhan
in the
world
Men
that he should be.
he
as
is is
walk
not so
much
a
a suggestion of as prophecies
of
the next age.
Step by step
we
scale this mysterious ladder
the steps are actions, the
Every several that
result
The new
is
power.
threatened and judged by Every one seems to be con-
is
which follows.
tradicted by the
new prospect
new
;
it
is
only limited by the
always hated by dweUing in the old, comes like an abyss of scepticism. But the eye soon gets wonted to it, for the eye and it are effects of one cause then its innocency and benefit new.
statement
the old, and, to those
;
is
CIRCLES
3o6
appear, and presently, pales
all
energy spent,
its
it
and dwindles before the revelation of the
new hour. Fear not the new generalization. Does the fact
look crass and material, threatening to de-
grade thy theory of spirit?
Resist
it
not;
it
goes to refine and raise thy theory of matter just as
much. There
are
no
fixtures to
men,
if
we appeal
to
Every man supposes himself not and if there is any truth him, if he rests at last on the divine soul, I in see not how it can be otherwise. The last chamber, the last closet, he must feel was never opened there is always a residuum unknown, unanalyzable. That is, every man believes that consciousness.
to be fully understood
;
;
he has a greater possibility.
Our moods do not believe in each other. I am full of thoughts and can write what please. I see no reason why I should not
To-day I
have the same thought, the same power of expression, to-morrow. write
it,
world
;
What
I
write, whilst I
seems the most natural thing but yesterday
I
in the
saw a dreary vacuity
in
which now I see so much and month hence, I doubt not, I shall wonder who he was that wrote so many continuous
this direction in
a
;
CIRCLES Alas for
pages.
307
this infirm
faith, this will
strenuous, this vast ebb of a vast flow
God in The
nature
;
am
I
weed by the
a
not
I
!
am
wall.
continual effort to raise himself above
himself, to
work a
pitch above his last height,
We thirst for
betrays itself in a man's relations."
approbation, yet cannot forgive the approver.
The
sweet of nature
friend
The
love
is
am tormented
I
love of
me
by
;
yet
my
if I
have a
imperfections.
accuses the other party.
If he
were high enough to slight me, then could
I
by my affection to new heights. A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends. For every friend
love him, and
whom
he loses for truth, he gains a better.
thought
on
rise
as I
walked
my friends, why
game of when not
idolatry
in the
should
woods and mused play with them this
know and
I
?
I
see too well,
voluntarily blind, the speedy limits of
persons called high and worthy.
and great they are by the but truth forsake
is
sad.
O
liberality
blessed
personal consideration that state.
We
sell
for a short
and turbulent
How
must we
often
Rich, noble
of our speech,
Spirit,
for these, they are not
heavenly
I
thou
we allow
whom !
I
Every
costs us
the thrones of angels pleasure.^
learn this lesson?
Men
CIRCLES
3o8
cease to interest us tions.
The
when we
only sin
is
you once come up with is all
talents
has he knowledge?
enterprise?
and
Infinitely alluring
As soon
as
man's limitations,
a
Has he
over with him.
find their limita-
limitation.
It boots not.
was he to you
attractive
yesterday, a great hope, a sea to
it
has he
?
swim
in
;
now,
you have found his shores, found it a pond, and you care not if you never see it again. Each new step we take in thought reconciles twenty seemingly discordant of one law.
Aristotle
facts, as
expressions
and Plato are reckoned
A wise man By going one
the respective heads of two schools. will see that Aristotle platonizes.
step farther back in thought, discordant opinions
by being seen to be two extremes
are reconciled
of one principle, and we can never go so
back as to preclude a
still
higher vision.'
God Then all
Beware when the great thinker on this planet. It
risk.
is
as
when
out in a great or where
safe,
of science but
row
;
there
is
city, it
lets
loose a
things are at
a conflagration has broken
and no man knows what
will end.
its
far
flank
There
may
is
is
not a piece
be turned to-mor-
not any literary reputation, not
the so-called eternal names of fame, that
not be revised and condemned.
The
may
very hopes
CIRCLES
309
of man, the thoughts of his heart, the religion of nations, the manners and morals of mankind
mercy of
are all at the
Generalization
is
a
Hence
divinity into the mind.
attends
new
generalization.
always a new influx of the the thrill that
it.
Valor consists so that a
man
in the
power of
self-recovery,
cannot have his flank turned, can-
not be out-generalled, but put him where you will,
he stands.
This can only be by
his pre-
ferring truth to his past apprehension of truth,
and
his alert
quarter his
;
relations
world,
acceptance of
it
from whatever
the intrepid conviction that his laws,
may
to
at
society,
his
Christianity,
his
any time be superseded and de-
cease.
There
are degrees in idealism.
to play with
it
We learn
first
academically, as the magnet was
Then we see in the heyday of youth and poetry that it may be true, that it is true in gleams and fragments. Then its countenance once a toy.
waxes stern and grand, and we see that be true. tical.
It
We
and that
now shows
learn that
all
itself ethical
God
is
;
that he
it
is
in
things are shadows of him.
idealism of Berkeley
is
must
and prac-
me;
The
only a crude statement
of the idealism of Jesus, and that again
is
a
CIRCLES
310
crude statement of the fact that all nature is the rapid efflux of goodness executing and organizing
Much more
itself.
obviously
history and
is
the state of the world at any one time directly
dependent on the
intellectual classification then
minds of men. The things which at this hour are so on account of the ideas which have emerged on their mental horizon, and which cause the present order existing in the are dear to
men
of things, as a tree bears
its
A
apples.
new
de-
gree of culture would instantly revolutionize the entire system of
Conversation sation
is
a
human pursuits. game of circles. In
we pluck up the
common
termini which
of silence on every
are not to be
judged by the
side. spirit
conver-
bound
The
the
parties
they partake
and even express under this Pentecost. Tomorrow they will have receded from this high-
To-morrow you
them stooping under the old pack-saddles. Yet let us enjoy the cloven flame whilst it glows on water mark.
our walls.
new
light,
of the
last
When
each
shall find
new speaker
strikes a
emancipates us from the oppression
speaker to oppress us with the great-
ness and exclusiveness of his
own thought, then we seem to re-
yields us to another redeemer,
cover our rights, to become
men.
O, what
CIRCLES
311
truths profound and executable only in ages
the
announcement
common
hours, society
and orbs, are supposed of
every truth
sits
cold and statuesque.
empty, full,
In
!
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; knowing,
in
We
all
stand waiting,
we can be
possibly, that
surrounded by mighty symbols which are
not symbols to us, but prose and
Then cometh
trivial
toys.
god and converts the statues into fiery men, and by a flash of his eye burns up the veil which shrouded all things, and the meaning of the very furniture, of cup and saur cer, of chair and clock and tester, is manifest. The facts which loomed so large in the fogs of yesterday,
the
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; property,
beauty and the
climate, breeding, personal
like,
have strangely changed
their proportions.
All that we reckoned settled
shakes and rattles
;
and
literatures,
cities,
cli-
mates, religions, leave their foundations and dance
And yet here again seethe swift
before our eyes.'
circumscription is
better,
!
Good
and shames
as
it.
discourse, silence
is
The
length of the dis-
course indicates the distance of thought betwixt the speaker and the hearer. perfect understanding in
If they were at a
any
part,
no words
would be necessary thereon. If at one parts, no words would be suffered. Literature
is
in
all
a point outside of our hodiernal
CIRCLES
312
through which a new one may be described. The use of literature is to afford us a circle
platform whence
we may command
our present
a purchase
move
life,
We
it.
fill
ourselves with ancient learn-
ing, install ourselves the best
Roman
in Punic, in
wiselier
English and
houses and modes of living.
we
we can
In
Greek,
in
houses, only that
French,
see
a view of
by which we may
we may
American
like
manner
see literature best from the midst of wild
from the din of
nature, or religion.
The
within the
or from a high
cannot be well seen from
field
The
field.
affairs,
astronomer must have
of the earth's orbit as a base to
his diameter
find the parallax of any star.'
Therefore we value the poet.
gument and
all
the
wisdom
cyclopaedia, or the treatise
the
Body of
play.
In
is
All the
ar-
not in the en-
on metaphysics, or
Divinity, but in the sonnet or the
my
daily
work
I
incline to repeat
my
old steps, and do not believe in remedial force, in the
power of change and reform. But some filled with the new wine
Petrarch or Ariosto,
of his imagination, writes romance,
full
my
an ode or a brisk
of daring thought and action.
smites and arouses
breaks up
me
me
with
whole chain of
his shrill
habits,
and
He
tones, I
open
CIRCLES
my
on
eye
my own
wings to the sides of the world, and
am
I
313
possibilities.
all
He
daps
the solid old lumber of
capable once
more of choos-
ing a straight path in theory and practice.
We
We
of the religion of the world. Christianity tures,
command
have the same need to
from the catechism
from a boat
in the
:
a
view
can never see
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from
the pas-
pond, from amidst the
songs of wood-birds we possibly may.
Cleansed
by the elemental light and wind, steeped in the sea of beautiful forms which the field offers us,
we may chance biography. best of
to cast a right glance back
Christianity
mankind
;
upon
rightly de^r to the
is
yet was there never a
young
philosopher whose breeding had fallen into the Christian church
by
whom
that brave text of
Paul's was not specially prized
:
" Then
shall
Son be subject unto Him who put all things under him, that God may be all in all." Let the claims and virtues of persons be never so great and welcome, the instinct of man presses eagerly onward to the impersonal and illimitable, and gladly arms itself against the dogmatism of bigots with this generous word out of the book itself' also the
The
natural world
system of concentric
may
be conceived of as a
circles,
and we now and
CIRCLES
314
then detect in nature slight dislocations which
on which we now stand is not fixed, but sliding. These manifold tenacious qualities, this chemistry and vegetation, these metals and animals, which seem to stand there for their own sake, are means and methods only, are words of God, and as fuapprise us that this surface
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
gitive as other words.'
chemist learned his
craft,
Has who
the naturalist or
has explored the
gravity of atoms and the elective
affinities,
who
has not yet discerned the deeper law whereof this
is
only a partial or approximate statement,
namely that like draws to like, and that the goods which belong to you gravitate to you and need not be pursued with pains and cost ? ' Yet is that statement approximate also, and not final. Omnipresence is a higher fact. Not through subtle subterranean channels need friend and fact be drawn to their counterpart, but, rightly considered,
these things proceed
from the eternal generation of the
and
effect are
The same that
we
call
two
sides of
will
fact. all
the virtues, and extinguishes each in
in the
be so
Cause
law of eternal procession ranges
the light of a better.
prudent
one
soul.
The
great
popular sense
;
man
will
all his
much deduction from
not be
prudence
his grandeur.
CIRCLES But
315
behooves each to see, when he prudence, to what god he devotes it it
;
sacrifices if to
ease
and pleasure, he had better be prudent still if to a great trust, he can well spare his mule and ;
panniers
who
has
winged chariot
a
instead.
Geoffrey draws on his boots to go through the
woods, that his feet
may
be safer from the bite
Aaron never thinks of such a peril. In many years neither is harmed by such an accident. Yet it seems to me that with every precaution you take against such an evil you put yourself into the power of the evil. I sup-
of snakes
;
pose that the highest prudence prudence.
is
the lowest
sudden a rushing from the verge of our orbit ? Think
Is this too
the centre to
how many times we shall fall back into pitiful calculations before we take up our rest in the great sentiment, or make the verge of to-day the new centre. Besides, your bravest sentiment is
familiar to the
The poor and
humblest men.
the low have their
way of expressing
the last
of philosophy as well as you. " Blessed be nothing " and " The worse things are, the bet-
facts
ter
they are " are proverbs which express the
transcendentalism of
One man's justice
common is
life.
another's injustice; one
man's beauty another's ugliness one man's wis;
CIRCLES
3i6
dom
another's folly
;
as
one beholds the same
One man
objects
from
justice
consists in paying debts,
measure in very remiss
a higher point.
and has no
abhorrence of another
his
in this
who
is
duty and makes the creditor
But
wait tediously.
thinks
that second
own way of looking at Which debt must I pay
things first,
;
man
has his
asks himself
the debt to the
or the debt to the poor? the debt of
rich,
money, or the debt of thought to mankind, of ? For you, O broker, there is no other principle but arithmetic. For me, com-
genius to nature
merce
of
is
trivial
import
;
character, the aspiration of
cred all
;
nor can
I
love, faith, truth of
man, these
are sa-
detach one duty, like you, from
other duties, and concentrate
my
forces
me-
on the payment of moneys. Let me onward you shall find that, though slower,
chanically live
;
the progress of
my
character will liquidate
all
these debts without injustice to higher claims.
If a
man
should dedicate himself to the pay-
ment of notes, would not this be injustice ? Does he owe no debt but money ? And are all claims on him to be postponed to a landlord's or a banker's
There initial.
is
The
?
no virtue which
is
final
;
all
are
virtues of society are vices of the
;
!
CIRCLES
The
saint.
we must
terror of reform
cast
away our
is
317 the discovery that
virtues, or
what we have
always esteemed such, into the same pit that has
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
consumed our grosser
vices
"
his virtues too.
Forgive his crimes, forgive
Those
smaller faults, half converts to the right.
It is the highest
that they
:
' '
'
power of divine moments
aboHsh our contritions
also.
I
ac-
cuse myself of sloth and unprofitableness day
but when these waves of God flow into no longer reckon lost time. I no longer poorly compute my possible achievement by
by day
me
;
I
what remains to for these
me
moments
of the month or the year confer a sort of omnipre-
sence and omnipotence which asks nothing of duration, but sees that the energy of the is
commensurate with the work
mind
to be done, with-
out time.
And
thus,
O
circular
philosopher, I hear
some reader exclaim, you have arrived at a fine Pyrrhonism,' at an equivalence and indifferency of all actions, and would fain teach us that if
we
are true, forsooth, our crimes
stones out of which ple of the true
we
may
be lively
shall construct the
tem-
God
I own I I am not careful to justify myself. am gladdened by seeing the predominance of
CIRCLES
3i8
the saccharine principle throughout vegetable nature,
and not
less
by beholding
morals that
in
unrestrained inundation of the principle of good
and hole that selfishness has left open, yea into selfishness and sin itself; so that no evil is pure, nor hell itself without its into every chink
extreme
my own
any when
I
whims,
me remind
let
have
an experimenter.
what
I
But
satisfactions.'
lest I
head and obey
the reader that
Do
false.
me
I
am
any thing
No
I unsettle all things.
sacred
none
;
my
only
not set the least value on
do, or the least discredit on what
not, as if 1 pretended to settle
or
should mislead
are profane
;
I
I
do
as true
facts are to
simply experi-
ment, an endless seeker with no Past
at
my
back.""
Yet which
this incessant all
movement and
progression
things partake could never become
by contrast to some principle or stability in the soul. Whilst the
sensible to us but
of fixture
eternal generation of circles proceeds, the eternal
generator abides.
That
central
life is
somewhat
superior to creation, superior to knowledge and
thought, and contains labors to create a excellent as
made
Itself,
instructs
life
Forever
all its circles.
and thought
as large
and
but in vain, for that which
how
to
make
a better.
it
is
CIRCLES Thus tion,
Why
there
but
no
is
sleep,
no pause, no preserva-
things renew, germinate and spring.
all
should we import rags and
new hour
We
relics into
call
all
;
others run into this
by many names,
it
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
fever, in-
temperance, insanity, stupidity and crime are all
forms of old age
;
they are
vatism, appropriation, inertia the
the
Nature abhors the old, and old age
?
seems the only disease one.
319
We
way onward.
no need of
;
rest,
;
they
conser-
not newness, not
grizzle every day.
I see
Whilst we converse with what
it.
is
above us, we do not grow old, but grow young. Infancy, youth, receptive, aspiring, with reli-
gious eye looking upward, counts itself nothing
and abandons from
itself to the instruction
But the man and woman of sev-
all sides.
know
enty assume to their
flowing
all,
they have outlived
hope, they renounce aspiration, accept the
actual for the necessary
and talk down
to the
Let them then become organs of the Holy Ghost let them be lovers let them be-
young.
;
;
and their eyes are uplifted, their wrinkles smoothed, they are perfumed again with hope and power.' This old age ought not hold truth
;
on a human mind. In nature eyery moment is new the past is always swallowed and forgotten the coming only is sacred. No-
to creep
;
;
CIRCLES
320 thing
secure but
is
No
spirit.
nant to secure
tled
;
transition, the energizing
bound by oath or cove-
No truth
against a higher love.
it
so sublime but light of
life,
love can be
may be
it
trivial
to-morrow
new thoughts. People wish
only as
far as
in the
to be set-
they are unsettled
is
there
any hope for them. Life
is
of surprises.
a series
We do
not guess
to-day the mood, the pleasure, the power of to-
morrow, when we lower tell
states,
somewhat
total
are building
being.
Of
;
but the masterpieces of God, the
growths and universal movements of the
soul, he hideth
know that
they are incalculable.
;
truth
me
divine and helpful
but
how
can have no guess, for so
to be
is
the sole inlet of so to know.
of the advancing
them
man all
has
new.
all
halation of the morning.
;
The new position the powers of the
It carries in its
the energies of the past, yet I cast
itself
is
away
Now for the
first
bosom an ex-
in this
moment all my once hoarded knowledge, cant and vain.
can
I
shall help
old, yet has
I
is
it
all
up our
of acts of routine and sense, we can
new
as va-
time seem
I to
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
know any thing rightly. The simplest words, we do not know what they mean except when we love and aspire.
The
difference between talents
and character
CIRCLES
321
adroitness to keep the old and trodden round, and power and courage to make a new road to new and better goals. Character makes an overis
powering present
;
which
the
fortifies all
see that
much
company by making them
possible and excellent that was
is
not thought of
a cheerful, determined hour,
Character dulls the impression
of particular events.
When we see the conqueror
we do not think much of any one battle or cess. We see that we had exaggerated the was easy to him.
It
ficulty.
not convulsible or tormentable
The ;
great
sucdif-
man
is
events pass over
him without much impression. People say somesee how See what I have overcome times, '
;
cheerful
I
am
umphed over still
remind
quest
is
;
see
how completely
these black events.'
me
have
I
Not
of the black event.
if
tri-
they
True con-
the causing the calamity to fade and dis-
appear as an early cloud of insignificant result in a history so large
The one desire
is
and advancing.
thing' which
we seek with
insatiable
to forget ourselves, to be surprised out
of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal
memory
and to do something without knowing how or why; in short to draw a new circle. Nothing great
was ever achieved without enthusiasm. of life is wonderful ; it is by abandon-
The way
CIRCLES
3^2
The
ment.
facilities
of "
great
ideas, as the
A
moments of
history are the
of performance through the strength
man,"
works of genius and religion. Cromwell, " never rises
said Oliver
when he knows not whither he is Dreams and drunkenness, the use of
so high as
going."
opium and terfeit
of
alcohol are the semblance and coun-
this oracular genius,
dangerous attraction for men.
and hence
For the
son they ask the aid of wild passions, ing and war, to ape in
some manner
and generosities of the
heart.
their
like rea-
as in
gam-
these flames
XI
INTELLECT Go,
On
speed the
stars
of Thought
to their shining goals;
The sower The wheat
scatters
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
broad his seedg
thou strew' st be
souls.
INTELLECT EVERY
substance
negatively electric to
is
that which stands above
in the chemical
it
which stands below it. Water dissolves wood and iron and salt ; air distables, positively to that
solves water
;
electric fire dissolves air,
but the
intellect dissolves fire, gravity, laws, method,
the subtlest
which
is
lies
behind gen-
intellect constructive.
the simple power anterior to
Gladly would
struction.
and
relations of nature in its
menstruum.' Intellect
resistless ius,
unnamed
all
unfold
I
Intellect
is
action or conin
calm de-
grees a natural history of the intellect, but what
man
has yet been able to
mark
the steps and
boundaries of that transparent essence
wisest doctor
The
is
gravelled by the inquisitiveness
How can
we speak of
the action of
mind under any
divisions, as
of
of a child. the
?
questions are always to be asked, and the
first
ledge, of its ethics, of since
it
into act?
its
its
know-
works, and so forth,
melts will into perception, knowledge
Each becomes the
is.
Its vision
but
is
is
other.
Itself alone
not like the vision of the eye,
union with the things known.
Intellect
and
intellection signify to the
com-
INTELLECT
326
mon
The
ear consideration of abstract truth.
you and me,
considerations of time and place, of
of profit and hurt, tyrannize over most men's
minds.
Intellect separates the fact considered,
from you, from
all
and discerns
as if
it
Heraclitus looked
and colored affections
mists.
it
existed for
upon
a straight line.
it
sake.
is
evil
walk forward in void of affection and to
stands in the light of science,
cool and disengaged.
The
the individual, floats over
and regards
it
He who
immersed
is
reference,
own
the affections as dense
man
Intellect
sees an object as
its
In the fog of good and
hard for
it is
and personal
local
as a fact,
intellect
goes out of
own
personality,
its
and not
in
as
/ and
mine.
what concerns person
or place cannot see the problem of existence.
This the
intellect
pierces
the form, overleaps likeness
intrinsic
reduces
all
it.
intellect
the wall, detects
between remote things and
things into a few principles.
The making raises
always ponders. Nature shows
formed and bound. The
things
all
a fact the subject
of thought
All that mass of mental and moral
phenomena which we do not make
objects of
voluntary thought, come within the power of fortune; they constitute the circumstance of daily life
;
they are subject to change, to fear and
Mr. Emerson's Study
INTELLECT hope.
Every man beholds
human condition As a ship aground
his
with a degree of melancholy. is
by the waves, so man. Imprisoned in open to the mercy of coming But a truth, separated by the intellect,
battered
mortal
life, lies
events. is
327
no longer
We
a subject of destiny.
behold
it
god upraised above care and fear. And so any fact in our life, or any record of our fancies or reflections, disentangled from the web of our unconsciousness, becomes an object impersonal and immortal. It is the past restored, but embalmed. A better art than that of Egypt has taken fear as a
and corruption out of it. It
is
It
offered for science.
is
eviscerated of care.
What
is
addressed to
us for contemplation does not threaten us but
makes us
intellectual beings."
The growth of the intellect The mind
every expansion.
spontaneous in
is
that grows could
not predict the times, the means, the that spontaneity.
God
into every individual.^
of reflection darkness light
it
is
enters
Long
mode of
a private
Out of
into the marvellous
In the period of infancy
cepted and disposed of
all
surrounding creation after
mind doth or
door
prior to the age
the thinking of the mind.
came insensibly
of to-day.
ever any
by
it
ac-
impressions from the its
saith
own way. Whatis
after a law,
and
INTELLECT
328 this native
law remains over
it
after
it
has
come
In the most
to reflection or conscious thought.
worn, pedantic, introverted self-tormentor's the greatest part
is
by him, unfore-
and must
be, until he can
seen, unimaginable,
take himself
Nothing.
I
own ears. What am I ? done to make me that I am ?
up by
What has my will
life,
incalculable
his
have been floated into this thought,
this hour, this
connection of events, by secret
currents of might and mind,
and
my
ingenuity
and wilfulness have not thwarted, have not aided to an appreciable degree.'
Our spontaneous
You cannot come
action
is
always the best.
with your best deliberation and heed
so close to any question as your spontane-
ous glance shall bring you, whilst you
your bed, or walk abroad
in the
rise
from
morning
after
meditating the matter before sleep on the pre-
Our thinking is a pious reception. Our truth of thought is therefore vitiated as much by too violent direction given by our will,
vious night.
by too great negligence. We do not determine what we will think. We only open our senses, clear away as we can all obstruction from the fact, and suffer the intellect to see. We have as
little
control over our thoughts.
prisoners of ideas.
They
catch us
We up
are the for
mo-
INTELLECT ments into
we
that
329
heaven and so
their
fully
engage us
take no thought for the morrow, gaze
hke children, without an effort to make them our own. By and by we fall out of that rapture, bethink us where we have been, what we have seen, and repeat held.
As
carry
away
and
all
we can what we have bewe can recall these ecstasies we
as truly as
far as
in the ineffaceable
men and
all
memory
the result,
the ages confirm
But the moment we cease and attempt to correct and contrive, called truth.
it.
It is
to report it
is
not
truth.
If
we consider what persons have stimulated
and profited us, we ity
shall perceive the superior-
of the spontaneous or intuitive principle over
The
the arithmetical or logical.
and
the second, but virtual
every
man
absence of is
a long logic
but
it,
it
;
latent.
first
contains
We want in
we cannot pardon the
must not be spoken.
Logic
the procession or proportionate unfolding of
the intuition the
moment
;
it
but
its
virtue
is
would appear
have a separate value,
it is
as silent
method
as propositions
;
and
worthless."
In every man's mind, some images, words
and
facts
remain, without effort on his part to
imprint them, which others forget, and after-
wards these
illustrate to
him important
laws.
.
INTELLECT
330 All our progress table bud.
You
opinion, then a root, bud and
end, though
an unfolding, like the vege-
is
have
first
an instinct, then an
knowledge,
as the plant
Trust the
fruit.
you can render no
reason.
By
trusting
it
shall ripen into truth
and you
shall
vain to hurry
it.
you believe. Each mind has
man
its
has
instinct to the It
to the end,
is it
know why
A
own method.
true
What
never acquires after college rules.
you have aggregated in a natural manner surprises and delights when it is produced. For we cannot oversee each other's secret. the differences between
ment
men
And
in natural
hence
endow-
are insignificant in comparison with their
common
Do
you think the porter and the cook have no anecdotes, no experiences, no wonders for you ? Everybody knows as much as the savant. The walls of rude minds are scrawled
They
wealth.
all
shall
over with
facts,
with
thoughts.
one day bring a lantern and read
the inscriptions.
Every man,
in the degree in
which he has wit and culture, finds osity inflamed concerning the
his
modes of
curi-
living
and thinking of other men, and especially of those classes whose minds have not been subdued by the drill of school education.
INTELLECT This
instinctive
healthy mind, but
frequent in
of culture.
331
never ceases in
action
becomes
a
and more its informations through all states At last comes the era of reflection, richer
when we not only observe, but take pains to observe when we of set purpose sit down to consider an abstract truth when we keep the mind's eye open whilst we converse, whilst we read, whilst we act, intent to learn the secret law of some class of facts. ;
;
"What think.
I
is
the hardest task in the world
would put myself
on
I
can-
blench and withdraw on this side and
I
that.
said.
To
in the attitude to
look in the eye an abstract truth, and not.
?
I
seem
No man
to
know what he meant who God face to face and live.
can see
For example, a man explores the basis of civil government. Let him intend his mind without respite,
without
rest, in
one direction. His best Yet thoughts
heed long time avails him nothing. him.
are flitting before
we dimly forebode
We
all
the truth.
but apprehend,
We
say
I
will
walk abroad, and the truth will take form and clearness to me. it.
It
seems
We
as if
go
forth, but cannot find
we needed only the
stillness
and composed attitude of the library to seize the thought.
But we come
in,
and
are as far
INTELLECT
332
from
as at
it
Then,
first.
unannounced, the truth
because we shrine.
if
certain
the distinction,
is
we wanted. But the
had previously seems as
It
A
appears.
wandering light appears, and the principle,
moment, and
in a
oracle
comes
siege to the
laid
the law of the intellect
resembled that law of nature by which we now
now expire the breath by which the heart now draws in, then hurls out the blood, the law of undulation. So now you must labor with your brains, and now you must forinspire,
;
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
bear your activity and see what the great Soul
showeth.
The
man
immortality of
preached from
the
moral volitions. prospective.
Every
value
facts
is
a lantern
all
from the is
mainly
you Each truth
In-
in Plutarch, in Shak-
that a writer
which he turns
and thoughts lay already
behold,
as
is its least."
speare, in Cervantes.
acquires
legitimately
as
intellection
Its present
spect what delights
is
intellections
the mats and
full
in his
on what
mind, and
rubbish which had
Every trivial fact in his private biography becomes an illustration of this new principle, revisits the day, and delights all men by its piquancy and littered his garret
new charm.
become
MeÂŤ
say.
precious.
Where
did he get this
?
INTELLECT
333
and think there was something divine in his But no they have myriads of facts just life. ;
as
good, would they only get a lamp to ransack
â&#x20AC;˘their attics withal.'
We sons
are
The
wise.
all
difference between per-
not in wisdom but
is
in art.
who my whim
academical club, a person to
me
;
who, seeing
cied that rior
;
my
whilst
experiences had
I
knew, in an
always deferred for writing, fan-
somewhat supe-
saw that his experiences were as
I
Give them
good
as
make
the same use of them.
mine.
new
to
me and
He
I
would
held the old
;
had the habit of tacking together the old and the new which he did not use to exercise. This may hold in the great he holds the
;
I
Perhaps, if we should meet Shakwe should not be conscious of any steep
examples. speare
inferiority
;
no, but of a great equality,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; only
that he possessed a strange skill of using, of classifying his facts,
withstanding
which we lacked.
For not-
our utter incapacity to produce
anything like Hamlet and Othello, see the perfect reception this wit
of
life
and immense knowledge
and liquid eloquence find
in us
all.
you gather apples in the sunshine, or make hay, or hoe corn, and then retire within doors and shut your eyes and press them with your If
;
INTELLECT
334 hand, you shall
still
see apples hanging in the
bright light with boughs
and leaves
thereto, or
the tasselled grass, or the corn-flags, and this for five or six
hours afterwards.
pressions on the retentive
knew
There lie the imorgan, though you
So lies the whole series of natural images with which your life has made you acquainted, in your memory, though you know it not and a thrill of passion flashes light on their dark chamber, and the active power seizes init
not.
;
stantly the
fit
image, as the word of
its
momen-
tary thought.
long ere we discover
how
we are. Our history, we are sure, is quite tame we have nothing to write, nothing to infer. But our It
is
rich :
wiser years
still
run back to the despised recol-
and always we are fishing up some wonderful article out of that pond until by and by we begin to suspect that the biography of the one foolish person we know lections of childhood,
is,
in reality,
nothing
less
than the miniature
paraphrase of the hundred volumes of the Universal History.
which we popuby the word Genius, we observe the same balance of two elements as in intellect In the
intellect constructive,
larly designate
receptive.
The
constructive intellect produces
INTELLECT
335
thoughts, sentences, poems, plans, designs, sys-
tems/
It
the generation of the mind, the
is
To
marriage of thought with nature.
must always go two
The
publication.
gifts,
first
genius
the thought and the revelation, always
is
a
no frequency of occurrence or incessant study can ever familiarize, but which must always leave the inquirer stupid with wonmiracle, which
It is the
der.
advent of truth into the world, a
form of thought now for the
first
time bursting
into the universe, a child of the old eternal soul, a piece It
of genuine and immeasurable greatness.
seems, for the time, to inherit
existed
and
to dictate to the
all
that has yet
unborn.
It affects
man and goes to fashion every But to make it available it needs a
every thought of institution.
vehicle or art
To
by which
be communicable
or sensible object.
of
facts.
The most wonderful
with their subject
them
to the senses.
visible
We
conveyed to men. must become picture must learn the language it is
it
if
inspirations die
he has no hand to paint
The
ray of light passes in-
through space and only when
an object
is it
seen.
When
it falls
on
the spiritual energy
on something outward, then it is a thought. The relation between it and you first makes you, th; value of you, apparent to 'me.
is
directed
336
INTELLECT
The
rich inventive genius of the painter
must be smothered and lost for want of the power of drawing, and in our happy hours we should be inexhaustible poets if once we could break through the silence into adequate rhyme. As all men have some access to primary truth, so all have some art or power of communication in their head, but only in the artist does
it
descend
There is an inequality, whose we do not yet know, between two men and between two moments of the same man, in respect to this faculty. In common hours we have the same facts as in the uncommon or inspired,
into the hand.
laws
but they do not
sit
not detached, but
of genius
is
;
they are
The
thought
for their portrait
lie
in a
web.
spontaneous; but the power of pic-
ture or expression, in the most enriched and
flowing nature, implies a mixture of will, a certain control over the
spontaneous
out which no production conversion of
all
is
states, with-
possible.'
It
is
a
nature into the rhetoric of
thought, under the eye of judgment, with strenuous exercise of choice.
And
a
yet the im-
aginative vocabulary seems to be spontaneous also.
It
does not flow from experience only or
mainly, but from a richer source.
Not by any
conscious imitation of particular forms are the
;
INTELLECT
337
grand strokes of the painter executed, but by repairing to the fountain-head of
Who
mind.
his
the
is
all
forms in
drawing-master
first
?
we know very well the ideal human form. A child knows if an arm
Without of the
instruction
or a leg be distorted in a picture
be natural or grand or
mean
;
;
if
the attitude
though he has
never received any instruction in drawing or heard any conversation on the subject, nor can himself draw with correctness a single feature.
A good
form strikes
all
eyes pleasantly, long
before they have any science a beautiful face sets
prior to
all
on the
dreams some
skill
;
and
consideration of the mechanical pro-
portions of the features and head. to
subject,
twenty hearts in palpitation,
for as
soon
We may owe
on the fountain of this we let our will go and let
light as
the unconscious states ensue, see
draughtsmen we are
!
We
what cunning
entertain ourselves
with wonderful forms of men, of
women, of ani-
woods and of monsters, and the mystic pencil wherewith we then draw has no awkwardness or inexperience, no meagreness or poverty it can design well and group well mals, of gardens, of
;
its
composition
laid
is full
of
art, its colors are
well
on and the whole canvas which it paints is and apt to touch us with terror, with
lifelike
INTELLECT
338
tenderness, with desire and witli grief. are the artist's copies
copies, but always touched
from
this ideal
The
Neither
from experience ever mere
and softened by
tints
domain.
conditions
to a constructive
essential
mind do not appear to be so often combined but that a good sentence or verse remains fresh and memorable for a long time. Yet when we write with ease and come out into the free air of thought, we seem to be assured that nothing is
communication
easier than to continue this
Up, down, around,
pleasure.
the
thought has no inclosures, but the us free of her
Muse makes
Well, the world has a million
Onewould think then that good thought
writers.
would be gifts
city.
at
kingdom of
as familiar as air
and water, and the
of each new hour would exclude the
last.
Yet we can count all our good books nay, I member any beautiful verse for twenty years. ;
reIt
is
true that the discerning intellect of the world
is
always
there are
much in advance of the creative, so many competent judges of the
book, and few writers of the best books.
some of
The
whole and demands integrity is
But
the conditions of intellectual construc-
tion are of rare occurrence.
This
that
best
resisted equally
by
a
in
intellect
is
a
every work.
man's devotion to
INTELLECT a single
thought and by
his
339
ambition to combine
too many.
Truth
our element of
is
man
yet if a
life,
on a single aspect of truth and apply himself to that alone for a long time,
fasten his attention
becomes distorted and not
the truth
falsehood
;
herein resembling the
itself
but
which
air,
is
our natural element and the breath of our nos-
but
trils,
the
if a
body
stream of the same be directed on
for a time,
even death.
How
it
causes cold, fever, and
wearisome the grammarian,
the phrenologist, the political or religious fanatic, or indeed lost
any possessed mortal whose balance
by the exaggeration of a single
topic.
is
It
Every thought is a prison also. I cannot see what you see, because I am caught up by a strong wind and blown so far in one direction that I am out of the hoop of your is
incipient insanity.
horizon.' Is
it
offence
any better
if
the student, to avoid this
and to liberahze himself, aims
a mechanical
whole of history, or
losophy, by a numerical addition of that
fall
to be
within his vision
analyzed
When we
are
?
to
make
science, or phi-
The
all
the facts
world refuses
by addition and subtraction.
young we spend much time and
pains in filling our note-books with
all
defini-
INTELLECT
340
Love, Poetry, Politics, Art, hope that in the course of a few years we shall have condensed into our encyclopaedia the net value of all the theories at which the tions of Religion,
in the
But year after year our tables get no completeness, and at last we discover that our curve is a parabola, whose arcs
world has yet arrived.
will
never meet.
Neither by detachment, neither by aggregation
to
is
its
the integrity of the intellect transmitted
works, but by a vigilance which brings the
and best state to operate every moment. It must have the same wholeness which nature has. Although no diligence can rebuild the universe in a model by the best intellect in its greatness
accumulation or disposition of
details, yet
does
the world reappear in miniature in every event, so that
all
the laws of nature
The
may be
read in the
must have the like its perfection in apprehension and in its works. For this reason, an index or mercury of intellecsmallest
fact.'
tual proficiency
intellect
the perception of identity.
is
talk with accomplished persons
be strangers in nature. turf, the bird, are
them
;
the world
is
not
The
We
who appear
to
cloud, the tree, the
theirs,
have nothing of
only their lodging and table.
But the poet, whose verses
are to be spheral
and
;
complete,
INTELLECT one whom Nature
is
341
cannot deceive,
whatsoever face of strangeness she may put on.
He feels a strict
consanguinity, and detects more
likeness than variety in
all
We are
her changes.
stung by the desire for new thought
but when
;
new thought it is only the old thought with a new face, and though we make it our own we instantly crave another we are not really enriched. For the truth was in us be-
we
receive
a
;
fore
it
was reflected to us from natural objects
and the profound genius all
of
will cast the likeness
creatures into every product of his wit.
But
if
the constructive powers are rare and
men
is
given to few
is
a receiver of this descending holy ghost,
may
to be poets, yet every
well study the laws of
parallel
is
than the saint's
He
scholar.
and
Exactly
the whole rule of intellectual duty to
the rule of moral duty.
austere
influx.
its
it
man
A is
self-denial
no
less
demanded of
the
must worship truth, and forego all and choose defeat and pain, so
things for that, that
his
treasure in
thought
is
thereby aug-
mented.'
God
off^ers
to every
mind
its
choice between
and repose. Take which you you can never have both. Between truth
pendulum, man
oscillates.
please,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
these, as a
He in whom
the love
INTELLECT
342
of repose predominates the
first
meets,
will accept the first creed,
philosophy, the
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; most
first political
party he
He
gets rest,
likely his father's.
commodity and reputation door of
truth.
predominates
He will
moorings, and
in
but he shuts the
;
whom
the love of truth
keep himself aloof from
He will
afloat.
matism, and recognize
all
all
abstain from dog-
the opposite negations
between which, as walls, his being
is
swung.
He
submits to the inconvenience of suspense and imperfect opinion, but he as the other
is
not,
is
a candidate for truth,
and respects the highest law
of his being.
The
circle
of the green earth he must mea-
man who can know that there
sure with his shoes to find the
him truth. He shall then somewhat more blessed and great
yield is
than in speaking.
Happy
is
in hearing
the hearing
unhappy the speaking man. As long truth
I
am bathed by
a beautiful
man
;
as I hear
element and
am not conscious of any limits to my nature. The suggestions are thousand-fold that I hear and see. The waters of the great deep have ingress
and egress
I define, I
speaks, Lysis and
no shame
to the soul.
confine and
am
less.
Menexenus
that they
But
if I
When
speak,
Socrates
are afflicted
do not speak. They
by also
INTELLECT are
He
good.
likewise
man
natural
Because a true and
and
contains
man
them, loves
defers to
them, whilst he speaks. which an eloquent
343
is
same truth
the
articulates
;
but in the
eloquent man, because he can articulate
seems something the
less to reside,
to these silent beautiful with the
tion
and
respect.
Let us be is
The
progress
is
and universal.
seems
at the
perlative influence, but
Frankly
a new. says.
Leave
is
,
it
let hirn.
Every man's
time to have a su-
at last gives place to
accept
it
Jesus
all.
mother, house and lands,
father,
and follow ma, This
Silence
and gives
through a succession of teachers,
whom
each of
inclina-
ancient sentence said,
a solvent that destroys personality,
us leave to be great
it
and he turns
more
so are the gods.'
silent, for
it,
Who
leaves
all,
receives more.
a* true intellectually as morally.
Each
new mind we approach seems to require an abdication of all our past and present possessions. A new doctrine seems at first a subversion of all our opinions, tastes, and manner of living. Such has Swedenborg, such has Kant, such has
Hegel or his interpreter many young men in this
Coleridge, such has
Cousin seemed to country. can give.
Take
thankfully and heartily
all
they
Exhaust them, wrestle with them,
let
INTELLECT
344
them not go
won, and
until their blessing be
after a short season the dismay will
be over-
past, the excess of influence withdrawn,
and they
will
be no longer an alarming meteor, but one
more bright But
your heayour day.
star shining serenely in
ven and blending
light with all
its
whilst he gives himself
up unreservedly
to that
which draws him, because that
own, he
is
him
to refuse himself to that
not, whatsoever
attend
it,
because
it
fame and authority may is
not his own."
a counterpoise of
umn
of water
treat things itself also
man
he
is
all
soul
souls, as a capillary col-
a balance for the sea.
is
Entire
One
self-reliance belongs to the intellect. is
his
is
which draws
It
must
and books and sovereign genius If iEschylus
a sovereign.
taken
for,
as
be that
he has not yet done
his
when he has educated the learned of Europe for a thousand years. He is now to
office
approve himself a master of delight If he cannot do that,
all
him nothing with me.
I
sacrifice a
his
me
also.
shall avail
were a fool not to
thousand iEschyluses to
tual integrity.
to.
fame
my
intellec-
Especially take the same ground
in regard to abstract truth, the science of the
mind.
The
Schelling,
Bacon, the Spinoza, the Hume.,
Kant, or whosoever propounds to
INTELLECT you
philosophy of the mind,
a
awkward
345 only a more
is
your consciousness which you have also your way of seeing, perhaps of denominating. Say then, inor less
translator of things in
stead of too timidly poring into his sense, that he has not succeeded
in
back to you your consciousness.
He
succeeded
now
;
let
another
not, perhaps Spinoza will.
done, you will find
simple, natural,
rendering
it
common
has not
If Plato can-
If Spinoza cannot,
Anyhow, when
then perhaps Kant. is
try.
obscure
at last it
no recondite, but a state which the writer is
restores to you.
But
let
us end these didactics.
though the subject might provoke I shall
not presume to interfere in the old pol" The cherubim know
of the skies
;
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
most; the seraphim love shall settle their recite,
notj
speak to
Truth and Love.
the open question between
itics
I will it,
own
most."
quarrels.
The gods
But
even thus rudely, laws of the
I
cannot
intellect,
without remembering that lofty and sequestered class
who have been
its
prophets and oracles,
the high-priesthood of the Trismegisti,^
the expounders of the principles
of thought from age to age. tervals
we
pure reason, the
When
at
long in-
turn over their abstruse pages, won-
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; INTELLECT
346
and grand
derful seems the calm
few, these great spiritual lords in the
world,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
air
of these
who have walked
these of the old religion,
dwelling in a worship which makes the sanctities
for
of Christianity look ^ari/^wa^j and popular;
" persuasion
intellect."'
in soul,
is
but necessity
is
in
This band of grandees, Hermes,
Heraclitus, Empedocles, Plato, Plotinus,
piodorus, Proclus, Synesius and the
somewhat so vast
in their logic, so
their thinking, that
it
Olymhave
rest,
primary in
seems antecedent to
all
the ordinary distinctions of rhetoric and literature,
and
to be at once poetry
and music and
dancing and astronomy and mathematics.
I
am
present at the sowing of the seed of the world.
With
sunbeams the soul lays the foundations of nature. The truth and grandeur of their thought is proved by its scope and apa geometry of
plicability, for
it
commands
the entire schedule
and inventory of things for its illustration. But what marks its elevation and has even a comic look to us,
is
the innocent serenity with which
these babe-like Jupiters
from age
to age prattle
and to each other and to no sit in
their clouds,
Well assured that their speech is intelligible and the most natural thing in the world, they add thesis to thesis, without a mocontemporary.
INTELLECT
347
ment's heed of the universal astonishment of the
human
race below,
their plainest
lent so
much
who do not comprehend
argument
;
nor do they ever
as to insert a
re-
popular or explain-
ing sentence, nor testify the least displeasure or
petulance at the dulness of their amazed auditory.
The
guage that
angels are so enamored of the lanis
spoken
in
heaven that they
will
not distort their lips with the hissing and unmusical dialects of men, but speak their own,
whether there be any
who understand it
or not.
XII
ART Give
to barrows, trays
and pans
Grace and glimmer of romance. Bring the moonlight into noon
Hid
On
in gleaming pUes of stone;
the city's paved street
Plant gardens lined with
sweety
lilac
Let spouting fountains cool the
air.
Singing in the sun-baked square.
Let
statue, picture,
and
Ballad, flag
park and
hall.
festival.
The past restore, the day adorn And make each morrow a new morn. So
shall the
Spy behind
drudge in dusty frock the city clock
Retinues of airy kings. Skirts
His
of angels, starry wings.
fathers shining in bright fables.
His children fed
'Tis the
Thus
to play
Man in
at
heavenly tables.
privilege of its
Art
cheer&l part,
Earth to acclimate
And bend
the exile to his fate.
And, moulded of one element
With
the days and firmament.
Teach him on
And
live
these as stairs to climb
on even terms with Time;
Whilst upper
Of human
life
the slender
sense doth overfill.
rill
ART BECAUSE the soul quite repeats
is
progressive,
but
itself,
in
tempts the production of a new and
This appears fine arts, if
in
it
never
every act fairer
at-
whole.
works both of the useful and
we employ the popular
distinction
of works according to their aim either at use or beauty.
Thus
creation
is
in
our
the aim.
fine arts,
not imitation but
In landscapes the painter
should give the suggestion of a than
we know. The
details, the
fairer creation
prose of nature
he should omit and give us only the splendor.
He
should
know
spirit
and
that the landscape
has beauty for his eye because
it
expresses a
him good and this because the same power which sees through his eyes is seen in that spectacle and he will come to value the expression of nature and not nature itself, and so exalt in his copy the features that please him. He will give the gloom of gloom thought which
is
to
;
;
and the sunshine of sunshine. In a portrait he must inscribe the character and not the features, and must esteem the man who
sits
to
him
as
himself only an imperfect picture or likeness
of the aspiring original within."
ART
352
What
observe in
all
spiritual activity,
impulse
creative
and selection we
that abridgment
is
?
for
the
is
it
higher illumination which
but
tion
What
is
a
but nature's finer success in self-explica-
What
?
is
a
man
but a finer and compacter
landscape than the horizon figures, eclecticism
?
and what
is
all
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
nature's
his speech, his love
painting, love of nature, but a
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
of that
teaches to convey
a larger sense by simpler symbols.
man
the
itself
inlet
still
of
finer success,
the weary miles and tons of space and bulk
left out,
and the
spirit or
moral of
into a musical word, or the
of the pencil
it
contracted
most cunning stroke
?
must employ the symbols in use in his day and nation to convey his enlarged sense to his fellow-men. Thus the new in art The Genius is always formed out of the old.
But the
of the
artist
Hour
work and
sets his
gives
the imagination.
it
ineffaceable seal on the
an inexpressible charm for
As
far as the spiritual char-
acter of the period overpowers the artist
finds expression in his work, so far
it
and
will retain
a certain grandeur, and will represent to future
Unknown, the Inevitable, No man can quite exclude this
beholders the Divine.'
ment of Necessity from
his. labor.
the ele-
No man
ART
353
can quite emancipate himself from his age and country, or produce a model in which the education, the religion, the politics, usages
of
his times shall
and
arts
Though he
have no share.
were never so original, never so wilful and fanhe cannot wipe out of his work every
tastic,
of the thoughts amidst which
trace
it
grew.
The very avoidance betrays the usage he avoids. Above his will and out of his sight he is necessitated
by the
air
he breathes and the idea on
contemporaries live and toil, manner of his times, without knowing what that manner is. Now that which is inevitable in the work has a higher charm than
which he and
his
to share the
individual talent can ever give, artist's
pen or
chisel
inasmuch
as the
seems to have been held
and guided by a gigantic hand to inscribe a in the history
of the
human
race.
line
This circum-
stance gives a value to the Egyptian hieroglyphics,
to the Indian,
Chinese and Mexican
idols,
however gross and shapeless. They denote the height of the
human
soul in that hour, and were
not fantastic, but sprung from a necessity as
deep
as the world.'
Shali I n'ow
add that the
whole extant product of the plastic herein
its
highest value, ^j history
drawn In the
;
arts
has
as a stroke
portrait of that fate, perfect
and
ART
354 '"'
according
beautiful,
beings advance to
Thus, office
We
'-'
no
whose ordinations
to
tlieir
historically
beatitude
viewed,
it
all
?
has been the
of art to educate the perception of beauty.
are
in beauty,
but our eyes have
It needs,
by the exhibition
immersed
clear vision.
and lead the dormant taste. We carve and paint, or we behold what is carved and painted, as students of the mystery
,;
of single
traits,
of Form.
The
virtue of art lies in detachment,
in sequestering
one object from the embarrass-
ing variety.
to assist
Until one thing comes out from
the connection of things, there can be enjoy-
ment, contemplation,
but no
thought.
Our
happiness and unhappiness are unproductive.
The
infant lies
in a pleasing
trance, but his
individual character and his practical
pend
power de-
on his daily progress in the separation of
and dealing with one at a time. Love and all the passions concentrate all existence around a single form. It is the habit of certain minds to give an all-excluding fulness to the object, the thought, the word they alight upon, and to make that for the time the deputy of
things,
the world.
These
are the artists, the orators,
the leaders of society.
The power
to detach
I
and
to
magnify by detaching
is
the essence of
ART
355
rhetoric|n the hands of the orator and the poet.
This
rhetoric, or
eminency of an Burke, in Byron,
power
momentary
to fix the
object,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
in Carlyle,
remarkable in
so
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
the painter and
The
exhibit in color and in stone.
sculptor
power depends on the depth of the object has
For every
may
roots in central nature, and
its
in-
artist's
sight of that object he contemplates.
of course be so exhibited to us as to represent
Therefore each work of genius
the world.'
is
the tyrant of the hour and concentrates attention
on
itself
For the time,
worth naming to do
that,
it is
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; be
the only thing it
a sonnet, an
opera, a landscape, a statue, an oration, the plan
of a temple, of a campaign, or of a voyage of Presently
discovery. object,
which rounds
we
some other
pass to
itself into a
whole
as did
example a well-laid garden and nothing seems worth doing but the laying out
the
first
;
for
of gardens.
;
I
should think
in the world, if I
and water, and earth. property of talents,
of
all
all
be for their
fire
the best thing
were not acquainted with
For
it
is
air,
the right and
natural objects, of
all
genuine
native properties whatsoever, to
moment
the top of the world.
A
from bough to bough and making the wood but one wide tree for his pleasure. squirrel leaping
I
ART
356 fills
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
the eye not less than a lion,
beautiful,
is
and stands then and there for naballad draws my ear and heart A good ture.' whilst I listen, as much as an epic has done before. A dog, drawn by a master, or a litter of pigs, satisfies and is a reality not less than self-sufficing,
From
the frescoes of Angelo.
of excellent objects we learn sity
also learn that
I
nated
me
is
;
immen-
human
in
any
nature,
direction.
what astonished and
fasci-
work, astonished
me
in the
that excellence of
all
things
in the first
second work also
succession
at last the
of the world, the opulence of
which can run out to infinitude
But
this
one.
The
office
be merely
of painting and sculpture seems to
initial.
The
best pictures can easily
us their last secret.
tell
The
best pictures are
rude draughts of a few of the miraculous dots
and dyes which make up the ever" changing landscape with figures " amidst which
and
we
lines
dwell.
dancing
is
Painting seems to be to the eye what to the limbs.
When
that has edu-
cated the frame to self-possession, to nimbleness, to grace, the steps of the dancing-master
are better forgotten
;
so painting teaches
me
the
splendor of color and the expression of form,
and
as I see
many
pictures
and higher genius
ART in the art, I
see the boundless opulence of the
which the
pencil, the indifFerency in
can draw every thing,
my
is
stands
why draw any
If he
thing
?
and
eye opened to the eternal picture
which nature paints ing
artist
choose out of the possible forms.
free to
then
357
men and
in
the street, with
mov-
children, beggars and fine ladies,
draped in red and green and blue and gray
;
long-haired, grizzled, white-faced, black-faced,
wrinkled,
dwarf,
giant,
expanded,
elfish,
capped and based by heaven, earth and
A gallery the
same
sea.'
of sculpture teaches more austerely
As
lesson.
ing, so sculpture the I
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
picture teaches the color-
anatomy of form.
When
have seen fine statues and afterwards enter
a public assembly, I understand well
meant who
Homer,
said,
ties
of
living
its
its
When
giants."
I
too see
and sculpture are gymnastics of
and curiosino statue like this
training to the niceties
There
function.
man, with
gallery of art
his infinite
have
I
these varied groups
Here
grim ?nd glad,
is
advantage over
of perpetual- variety.
ideal sculpture,
figures.
what he
have been reading
I
men look hke
all
that painting
the eye,
"
is
here
!
No
What
all
a
mannerist made
and diverse
original single
the artist himself improvising,
at his block.
Now
one thought
ART
358 strikes him,
ment he
now
mo-
another, and with each
whole
alters the
pression of his clay.
air,
Away
attitude
and
ex-
with your nonsense
and easels, of marble and chisels except open your eyes to the masteries of eternaV
of
oil
to
art,
;
they are hypocritical rubbish.
The
reference of
Power
aboriginal all
all
production at
explains the traits
works of the highest
versally intelligible
;
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
art,
last to
an
common
to
that they are uni-
that they restore to us the
simplest states of mind, and are religious.
what
skill is therein
shown
is
Since
the reappearance
of the original soul, a jet of pure
light, it
should
produce a similar impression to that made by natural objects.
In happy hours, nature ap-
pears to us one with art
work of
genius.
And
art perfected,
;
the individual in
simple tastes and susceptibility to
human local
and
special culture,
beautiful, not.'
than
the great
travel the
we must
The
is
the best critic of
it
with us, or we find
best of beauty
is
skill in surfaces, in outlines,
art,
of
human
art.
world over to find the
carry
a finer charm
or rules of art
can ever teach, namely a radiation from the
of
the
whom
influences overpower the accidents of a
Though we it
all
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
character,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
work
a wonderful ex-
pression through stone, or canvas, or musical
;
ART
359
sound, of the deepest and simplest attributes of our nature, and therefore most intelligible at last
which have these attributes. In the sculptures of the Greeks, in the masonry of the Romans, and in the pictures of the Tuscan and Venetian masters, the highest charm is the to those souls
A
universal language they speak.
confession of moral nature, of purity, love, and hope, breathes from them all. That which we carry to them, the
same we bring back more
fairly illustrated
memory. The traveller who visits the Vatican and passes from chamber to chamber in the
through galleries of statues, vases, sarcophagi
and candelabra, through
all
forms of beauty cut danger of forget-
in the richest materials, is in
ting the simplicity of the principles out of
they
all
which
sprung, and that they had their origin
from thoughts and laws
in his
studies the technical rules
own
breast.
He
on these wonderful
remains, but forgets that these works were not
always thus constellated tributions of
many
; '
that they are the con-
ages and
that each
came out of the
one
who toiled perhaps
artist,
many
solitary
countries
workshop of
in ignorance of the
existence of other sculpture, created his
without other model save
life,
household
and the sweet and smart of personal
work life,
relations,
;
ART
360
of beating hearts, and meeting eyes
;
of poverty
and necessity and hope and fear. These were his inspirations, and these are the effects he carries home to your heart and mind. In propor-
work an outlet for his proper character. He must not be in any manner pinched or hindered by his tion to his force, the .artist will find in his
material, but through his necessity of imparting
himself the adamant will be wax in his hands,
and ,
!
I
will allow
an adequate communication of
himself, in his full stature
and proportion.
nature and culture, nor ask what
Rome
is
the
mode
of birth have made corner of a
fate
once so odious and so
at
wood
dear, in the gray unpainted
i
in
or in Paris, but that house and weather
and manner of living which poverty and the I
He
need not cumber himself with a conventional
New Hampshire
cabin,
on the
farm, or in the log-
hut of the backwoods, or in the narrow lodging
where he has endured the constraints and seeming of a city poverty, will serve as well as any
other condition as the symbol of a thought which
pours I
itself indifferently
remember when
in
through
my
all.
younger days
heard of the wonders of Italian painting,
I
had
I
fan-
would be great strangers some surprising combination of color and form cied the great pictures
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; '
ART
361
a foreign wonder, barbaric pearl
and gold,
like
the spontoons and standards of the militia, which
play such pranks in the eyes and imaginations
of school-boys.
was to see and acquire
I
When
not what.
came
I
saw with eyes the pictures, to novices the
left
tatious,
and
and true it
so
itself
that
;
forms,
was the plain
home
left at
fact I
and me
in so
many
I
that
lived; that
it
I
knew
I
;
in
so well,
conversations.
had the same experience already Naples. There
and osten-
had met already
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; unto which
ym
and
found that genius
fantastic
was familiar and sincere
it
knew
pierced directly to the simple
was the old, eternal
many
I
gay and
I
Rome
at last to
in a
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; had I
had
church
at
saw that nothing was changed
me but the place, and said to myself Thou foolish child, hast thou come out hither,
with *
over four thousand miles of salt water, to find that
home ? Academmia at Na-
which was perfect to thee there
That
fact I
ples, in the
when
I
saw again
in the
at
'
chambers of sculpture, and yet again
came
to
Rome
and
to the paintings of
Raphael, Angelo, Sacchi, Titian, and Leonardo da Vinci. " What, old mole workest thou in !
the earth so fast side
;
that
which
?
"
^
It
had travelled by my had left in Boston
I faricied I
was here in the Vatican, and again at Milan and
ART
362 at Paris,
and made
treadmill."
I
now
all
travelling ridiculous as a
require this of
all
pictures,
me, not that they dazzle
that they domesticate
must not be too picturesque. Nothing astonishes men so much as common-sense and plain dealing. All great actions have been simple," and all great pictures are. The Transfiguration, by Raphael, is an eminent example of this peculiar merit. A calm me.
Pictures
benignant beauty shines over goes directly to the heart. call
all this
It
picture, and
seems almost to
you by name. The sweet and sublime face is beyond praise, yet how it disappoints
of Jesus all
florid expectations
!
This
home-speaking countenance
meet has
a friend.
its
is
The knowledge
familiar, as if
simple,
one should
of picture dealers
value, but listen not to their criticism
when your
heart
is
touched by genius.
not painted for them,
it
was
It
was painted for you
;
for
such as had eyes capable of being touched by
and lofty emotions. Yet when we have said all our fine things about the arts, we must end with a frank confession that the arts, as we know them, are but initial. Our best praise is given to what they aimed and promised, not to the actual result. He has conceived meanly of the resources of simplicity
ART
363
man, who believes that the best age of production
is
The
past.
Transfiguration
real value
is
as signs
of the Iliad or the of power
;
billows
or ripples they are of the stream of tendfificj.;
tokens of the everlasting effort to produce, which
even in
its
worst estate the soul betrays.' Art
come
do not put itself abreast with the most potent influences of the world, if it is not practical and moral, if it has not yet
do not stand
to
its
maturity
if it
in connection with the conscience,
do not make the poor and uncultivated feel it addresses them with a voice of lofty cheer. There is higher work for Art than the arts.
if it
that
They
are abortive births of an imperfect or vi-
tiated instinct. in its essence,
tient
Art
is
the need to create
immense and
universal,
it is
;
but
impa-
of working with lame or tied hands, and of
making cripples and monsters, such as all pictures and statues are. Nothing less than the creation of man and nature is its end. A man should find in it an outlet for his whole energy. He
may
paint and carve only as long as he can do
that.
Art should exhilarate, and throw down the
tion
on every side, awakening same sense of universal relaand power which the work evinced in the ar-
tist,
and
walls of circumstance in
the beholder the
its
highest effect
is
to
make new
artists.""
ART
364
Already History
is
old enough to witness the
old age and disappearance of particular art of sculpture It
effect.
The
arts.
long ago perished to any
is
was originally a useful
art, a
real
mode
of
writing, a savage's record of gratitude or devotion,
and among
a people possessed of a
form
derful perception of
was refined to the utmost splendor of
But
game of
effect.
and youthful peoand not the manly labor of a wise and spirit is
ple, itual
the
nation.
a rude
Under an
leaves and nuts, I
won-
this childish carving
under
a
oak-tree loaded with
sky
of eternal eyes,
full
stand in a thoroughfare; but in the works of
our tion
plastic arts is
and
especially of sculpture, crea-
driven into a corner.
myself that there triness, as
I
cannot hide from
a certain appearance of pal-
is
of toys and the trumpery of a theatre,
in sculpture.
all our moods we do not yet find.
Nature transcends
of thought, and
its
secret
But the gallery stands at the mercy of our moods, is a moment when "it becomes frivolous. I do not wonder that Newton, with an attention habitually engaged on the paths of planets and suns, should have wondered what and there
the Earl of dolls."
'
Pembroke found to admire
Sculpture
how deep
is
may
in
"stone
serve to teach the pupil
the secret of form,
how
purely the
ART spirit
can translate
quent
dialect.
365
its meanings into that eloBut the statue will look cold and false before that new activity which needs to roll through all things, and is impatient of counterfeits and things not alive. Picture and sculpture are the celebrations and festivities of form. But,
true art
is
sweetest music
human
The
never fixed, but always flowing.
voice
is
not in the oratorio, but in the
when
speaks from
it
instant
its
The
tones of tenderness, truth, or courage.
life
oratorio has already lost ing, to the sun,
ing voice
is
in
and the
its
morn-
relation to the
earth, but that persuad-
tune with these.
All works of art
should not be detached, but extempore performances.
A
attitude
great
and
action.
which drives
ture
may be
man all
is
a
new
statue in every
A beautiful woman
a pic-
is
beholders nobly mad.
Life
poem
or a
lyric or epic, as well
as
a
romance.
A if
true
announcement of the law of
man were found worthy
a
carry art
destroy
up its
into the
to declare
kingdom of
creation, it,
would and
nature,
separate and contrasted existence.
The fountains of invention and beauty in modern society are all but dried up. theatre, or a ball-room all
A popular
makes us
novel, a
feel that
we
are
paupers in the almshouse of this world, with-
ART
366 out dignity, without
poor and
The
low.
skill
Art
or industry.
is
as
old tragic Necessity, which
lowers on the brows even of the Venuses and the Cupids of the antique, and furnishes the sole
apology for the intrusion of such anomalous fignamely that they were inevi,ures into nature,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
table
for
that the artist was
;
drunk with
form which he could not
vented
itself in these fine
a passion
and which no
resist,
extravagances,
longer dignifies the chisel or the pencil. artist
and the connoisseur now seek
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
But the
in art the
exhibition of their talent, or an asylum from
the evils of
life.
the figure they
and they in
Men make
flee to art,
are not well pleased with
in their
own
and convey
imaginations,
their better sense
an oratorio, a statue, or a picture.
Art makes
the same efibrt which a sensual prosperity makes;
namely to detach the beautiful from the useful, to do up the work as unavoidable, and, hating it, pass on to enjoyment. These solaces and compensations, this division of beauty from use, the laws of nature do not permit.
beauty
is
for pleasure, is
As soon
as
sought, not from religion and love but it
degrades the seeker.
no longer attainable by him
High beauty
in canvas or in
stone, in sound, or in lyrical construction efi^emlnate, prudent, sickly beauty,
which
Is
;
an not
ART beauty,
is all
that can be
367
formed
;
for the hand!
can never execute any thing higher than the character can inspire.'
The rated.
art that thus separates
Art must not be a
must begin
back
farther
is itself first
sepa-
superficial talent, but
in
Now men
man.
do
not see nature to be beautiful, and they go to shall be. They abhor men and inconvertible, and console themselves with color-bags and blocks of mar-
make
a statue
which
as tasteless, dull,
They
ble.
reject life as prosaic,
death which they
reveries.
They
eat
and
fly
;
the
name conveys
ary and bad senses as
;
first.
begin higher up,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
they eat and drink
;
despatch
to voluptuous
to the
Thus mind
is
art vili-
its
second-
stands in the imagination
it
somewhat contrary
death from the
create a
and drink, that they may
afterwards execute the ideal. fied
They
poetic.
call
the day's weary chores,
and
to nature,
Would
it
and struck with not be better to
to serve the ideal before to serve the ideal in eating
and drinking, in drawing the breath, and
in the
Beauty must come back to and the distinction between the
functions of life? the useful arts, fine
and the useful
arts
tory were truly told, if
be forgotten.
life
If his-
were nobly spent,
would be no longer easy or possible
it
to distin-
;
ART
368
In nature,
guish the one from the other. useful,
all is
because
is
it
beautiful. alive,
It
Beauty
lature, its
nor
will
is
it
will it repeat in
;
it is
symmetrical and
not come at the
history in Greece.
all is
therefore beautiful
moving, reproductive
therefore useful because fair.
is
call
of a
legis-
England or America
It will
come, as always,
unannounced, and spring up between the feet of brave and earnest men. It is in vain that we look for genius to reiterate old arts
;
it
holiness in
is
its
in the
shop and it
mill.
Proceed-
will raise to a divine
the railroad, the insurance office, the joint-
stock
'
beauty and
necessary facts, in the field
ing from a religious heart ..use
miracles in the
instinct to find
new and
and road-side,
its
blies,
company our law, our primary assemour commerce, the galvanic battery, the ;
iclectric jar,
the prism, and the chemist's retort
which we seek now only an economical use. Is not the selfish and even cruel aspect which
in
belongs to our great mechanical works, to mills,
and machinery, the effect of the mercenary impulses which these works obey ? When its errands are noble and adequate, a steamboat ibridging the Atlantic between Old and New England and arriving at its ports with the puncrailways,
j
|tuality
of a planet,
is
a step of
man
into har-
ART mony
with nature.
which
plies
little
to
in love, will
The
boat at
369 St.
Petersburg,
along the Lena by magnetism, needs
make it sublime. When science is learned and
its
powers are wielded by love, they
appear the supplements and continuations
of the material creation.'
o
NOTES
'
NOTES A
FTER the publication of Nature, the first hint that -^ appears of the collection by Mr. Emerson of his writ-
*
ings into a second book, occurs in the
Memoir of Branson
his
end of
a letter to
1839, which Mr. Sanborn
Alcott, written April i6,
Alcott
"I
:
have been writing
a little,
and arranging old papers more, and by and by. I hope a shapely
In a
I
letter written in April,
am
to get
book of Genesis. '
son thus alludes to the Essays:
"
Mr.
gives in
here at
my
cord out of texture that
lie
work now
1
840,
—
Mr. Emer-
to Carlyle,
for a fortnight to spin
some
single
thousand and one strands of every color and
me
ravelled around
in old snarls.
We
need to
be possessed with a mountainous conviction of the value of our advice to our contemporaries, if
what
that
is.
But no,
it
is
we wiD
take such pains to find
the pleasure of the spinning that
much good
betrays poor spinners into the loss of so
work with the more
shall
you inform
that
on
men
again and again that
read and even review them.
I
dead child before such grand people.
later
he
tells
—
church and
of the problems
state, in social
at
penny
are
tracts'
poetic
Uke Scholasticus of
to
bring out so small a
Pygmalion
home,
modes and
I
am
—
into
' '
shall try if
he
Four months
a
good deal of
sight
every day in
«'
in letters.
Nature^ and the various addresses, published
phlet form.
my
certainly a bigger.
movement and tendency emerging
time.
book-to-be of mine,
men, learned and
Greek Primer, who was ashamed
cannot fashion a better,
1
this
extant; nay, that beside friendly
still
the
me
diligence
You
will natu-
at first separately in
pam-
NOTES
374
me
rally ask
No,
my
if I try
hand
I
invite.
incline
to
of
at the history
way
not in the near and practical
all this.
.
write philosophy, poetry, possibility
anything but history.
And
.
.
which they seem
in
to
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
phantom of the next age
yet this
limns himself sometimes so large and plain that every featme
...
apprehensible and challenges a painter.
is
more ture
in
;
my
but the arrangement
I dot ever-
on every knowable
endless journal, a line
in na-
long, and I get a brick-kiln
loiters
instead of a house."
Soon
" In
after the
coming
in
a fortnight or three
Expect nothing more of
no
ship-building,
and
clipper,
new
of the
weeks
my
my
word
year he sends raft will
little
be
powers of construction,
smack, nor
:
afloat.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
r
no
even, only boards
skiff
logs tied together."
In his Journal he wrote, in January, thoughts are foresters.
the breath of the pines
waved.
1
"All my
841:
have scarce a day-dream on which
I
blown and
has not
my
Shall I not therefore call
little
shadows
their
book Forest Es-
says?"
The book was
published in March, 1841, in Boston, by
James Munroe and Company.
Soon
.
.
.
Nature had appeared, Carlyle had written
after
friend
his
:
whom
" There I
is
a
man
any one
love better than
to
here called John Sterling,
have met with, since
I
a certain sky-messenger alighted to
me
vanished in the Blue again."
Well, and what then, cry
you
Why
.''
then,
love with a certain little
John
prejudices, discerned
Alluding to Emerson's
in 1833.
.
.
;
Craigenputtock and
Sterling has fallen overhead in
Waldo Emerson
book Nature lying here
rum of I
this
.
at
;
that
is all.
He
saw
the
and, across a whole st/va silva-
what was
first visit to
in
it,
took
it
to his
him among the moors of Nithsdale
NOTES
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and
heart,
piece of pleasant news, that
other,
and by God's blessing there
call
you
that nothing
"
?
a noble friendship resulted.
is
the small
shall
recognized each
one day be a
trio
of
Emerson and
Although they never met in the
common with
each other in
hope, their courage, and their desire for expression in
their
poetry than either had with Carlyle.
Emerson
to
it
floating
up
you may
of thought.
find in
it
...
are not
wish, but
I
any thing of the
All thoughts are holy
when
pristine
they
newness from the hidden
to us in magical
no wonder we
died in 1844.
" They
have written your name in a copy and
I
Carlyle by the same steamer.
scarce dare hope, sacredn'ess
Sterlin_g-
sent Sterling his Essays, saying,
yet a fortnight old.
'tis
This
.
Sterlinge wrote to
body, these friends had more in
sent
.
two sky-messengers (such they
both of them, to
;
.
me) have met and
ivere,
us
375
indeed into his pocket.
come
Life,
and
enamoured with these Muses and
are
Graces, until, in our devotion to particular beauties and in our efforts at universal sense
and
literary
artificial
assthetic
of unbelief at
we
disposition,
lose
somewhat of our
and the sovereign eye of Proportion.
last.
All sins,
grow out
and
scientific, as
We
must needs meddle ambitiously, and
cannot quite trust that there
well as moral,
self-evolving
is life,
and indestruc-
tible,
but which cannot be hastened, at the heart of every phy-
sical
and metaphysical
fact.
who
almost adore the person
any thing sublimely, and
Law.
The
"I
certainly did not
write an essay clare
how
become
for
on
certified us that
and obscurity
account, for every thing
is
want of
are of
no
equally related to the soul.
mean, when
I took
am
up
My
this
paper, to
always willing to de-
think our poetry and
that.
he beheld the
which he acted
in
Faith, and yet I
indigent I
thank and greet,
has once or twice in a lifetime
treated
silence
how we
Yet
all
thought had only
literature is this
scope.
;
'
NOTES
376 no more
had long ago grown extremely discon-
that though I
:
tented with
my
and honestly reported, but
in their
first
sensible
how much
rising
in this, as in very
what we- miscall
terference, or
now had
Carlyle
were the thoughts
httle boolc, yet
honest
it
am
very
greater matters, in-
spoU true things."
art, will
'
opportunity to return his friend's kindness
him
in introducing
much
in
that I
to
American
In a
readers.
letter
written
" My second piece Emerson on June 25, 1 841, he said of news ... is that Emerson's Essays, the book so called,
to
:
is
to
.
.
be reprinted here
writing a preface, tion
is
shall I '
Half
ing:
' !
side
nay, I think,
;
Eraser undertakes
.
'
on
it
'
which accordingly he
of Seven Hundred and sack up the small
Man
There,
!
tit
with him:
.
the risk
;
advised
I
him
which,
to
.
Carlyle
The
Sterling perhaps of
man Emerson
to the
all it
after
edi-
With what joy
.
his,
this
was
say-
;
on one
a volunteer
the origin of
it
was
reviewed, as being a really
Write you a Preface,'
will reprint
'
is
to have
'
it;
.
.
at press.
T.
'
for tat, the reciprocity not all
noteworthy Book.
consented.
.
ought to say, moreover, that
I
scheme of Eraser's
;
did.
Ten Pounds
and remit them
Profits,'
Eifty.
now
even
is
half profits
said he,
and
'
due delay and meditation,
I I
'
In a curious and characteristic preface, among other things, Carlyle said:
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
" The name in
England
man
;
;
of Ralph
fractions
of
his writings
hands of the curious here
England some
Waldo Emerson
is
not entirely new,
distinguished travellers bring us tidings of such a
;
have found their
fitful
way
hints that there
spiritual notability called
Emerson
is
into the in
New
glide through
the reviews and magazines.
" >
Emerson's writings and speakings amount
A Correspondence hetiveen John Sterling and Ralph
to
something
Waldo Emerson'
NOTES and yet, hitherto, notable for
377
seems to me,
it
Emerson
this
what he has spoken or done than
he has not spoken and has forborne
things
"
as
Emerson, seated by
silendy
comm.uning with
World
it
finds
in
itself alive
me
yonder.
Pleasures of Virtue,
New
man among the sixteen millions their jabber is The silent voices of the stars above and of the
cal.
Tariff,
beneath are profitable to him others are but ghosts
which
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
tell
him
will shortly
Emerson,
was bred
I understand,
primary bent his
To
man.
unmusi-
all
green earth
gradually that these
have
to vanish
the hfe-fountain these proceed out of does not vanish.
"
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
other Ghosts and substances, are squeaking,
jabbering according to their capabihties round this
one
either),
and with the God's
Ghost of Improved Socinianism,
Eclecticism, Locofocoism,
many
feeling
on the other
soul
Progress of the Species, Black Emancipation,
these, with
.
common
his rustic hearth
own
his
.
.
of the ocean (yet not altogether parted from
side
many-
for the
to do.
For myself, I have looked over with no
to this brave
far less
is
to theology
;
that
;
.
.
.
of which
way of thought still bears traces. In a we hear much of the ' Universal Soul of
latest
very enigmatic way,
bright bodiless northern streamers.
the,' etc., flickering like
Notions and half-notions of a metaphysic, theosophic kind are seldom long wanting in these Essays. British public to trouble itself
That
take offence at
it.
and points or
stretches far
merits.
We will call
the stars, in this
Mr. Geo. ge Mr. I
J.
.
.
.
it tlie
beyond
all
that
:
still less
to
book has no system, systems,
is
one of
its
soliloquy of a true soul alone under
Cooke,
relates
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
&
this little
do not advise the
all
day."
W.
Emerson,"
R. Osgood
I
much with
Co.
1887.
in his careful study
that
five
his Life,
years
Writings,
later
and
of the
life
of
the Countess
Philosophy.
Boston:
'
NOTES
378
who
d' Agoult,
how
Stern," told in the Revue Ind'efendante (July)
by
read a mention of the Essays
on
in a lecture
to obtain the
book
by
later
heard a quotation
a foreign poet, Mickiewicz, she tried
had
in Paris, but
She was greatly pleased, and
charm of the Essays " she
him with
after
said,
irresistible
in following him, for
we
" is
we
that
he pretends
able for nothing, because
London
to send to
for
" The
He
to nothing.
bonhomie.
singular
hold him account-
There
is
no
draws
diificulty
breathe a salubrious atmosphere in his
Nothing offends, not even the discords, because
work.
it.
in her article expressed surprise at
the general ignorance concerning the writer.
you
having
Philarete Chasles in an article
America, and
literary tendencies in
from them
" Daniel
wrote under the nom de plume of
all is
resolved and harmonized in the sentiment of a superior truth.
In Berlin,
Herman Grimm (who
wrote the
later
Michelangelo and Raphael), while waiting parlor of the
from the I
American
dentist,
chanced
"read
a page,
and was
table
;
had understood nothing, though
with English.
gifted
first
own
words.
lives
up the Essay
startled to find that
tolerably well acquainted
In reply
I
opened the book. shot like a to put the
fell
upon
Some
beam of light book in
tively at
home.
to read.
The
extraordinary.
my
my
heH In
ears as so strange that I re-
sentences,
into
my pocket,
...
was
and often unable
at times,
Notwithstanding, no one was
in such esteem for his character and for his prose writings. short, the opinion
of
turn in the
writer in America, an eminently
man, but somewhat crazed
to explain his
to pick
I inquired as to the author.
he was the
told that
his
'
upon
a second reading,
moved
very soul, and I was
that I
might read
it
more
I took Webster's Dictionary
construction of the sentences struck I soon discovered the secret
thoughts, an individual language, a sincere
:
man
atten-
and began
me
as
very
they were real that
I
had be-
NOTES fore
me
naught
;
the book
From
!
son's works, to
me
as if I
But
at
that time I
were reading
home
Princeton
379
the book in
his
Enough
second-hand.
have never ceased
and whenever I take up
Mr. Cooke, real
superficial,
it
for the
a
first
Review who had found
bought
to read
volume anew
Emerseems
it
time."
was not well received biography,
I
!
in
quarters.
all
quotes an author in the
the Essays
" more
meaning than any other book which ever
devoid of
fell
into his
hands, and thought such essays could be produced through a lifetime as rapidly as a
Another
human pen
could be
made
move."
to
a distinguished classical scholar
critic,
connected
with one of the universities, seems to have recognized
Mr.
Emerson's debt to the Greek and, through these, the Oriental philosophers, seeing in the ideas set forth
mistaken for
new
truths
"ancient errors,
and disguised in the drapery of a
misty rhetoric."
HISTORY The first essay in the volume, " History," was not delivered lecture, but in writing it Mr. Emerson made use
as a single
of passages from lectures in three distinct courses
;
namely,
sophy of History"
"The "Human
(1837-38),
the chronological
that
on "EngUsh Literature" (1835-36), on
as
is
(1836-37), and on shown by Mr. Cabot in
Philo-
Life"
of lectures and addresses in the Appendix (F) to
list
his
Memoir.
The
essay
threshold will
is
is
a
fit
gateway
to those that
lie
behind, for on
its
the doctrine of the Universal Mind, and beyond
be found those depending on and
illustrating this,
the
Unity underlying the Flowing of Nature through endless cycles of Protean disguises, the Symbolism of Nature, the beauty
NOTES
38o
of Law, working forward and upward races,
and
The
in the individual
course on
had the following
'
'
The
and
his
alike
Philosophy of History
lectures,
in
Nature, in
works.
" (1836-37)
many of which appear
as
such or in
their matter in the Essays. I.
Profes-
NOTES Mr. Emerson
express himself in verse, which
had so
overcome
far
this essay
" appeared
Page 4,
It will
which CEdipus
fancy, his prime
Problem," and
in
to the
"The
in the third.
note i.
fatal riddle,
months
he had contributed
"The
number of the Dial
Sphinx
desire to
so strongly,
felt
his humility that during the
he was preparing
vsfhich
and
be remembered that the Sphinx's
Man
solved, related to
in his in-
his decline.
In the end of Nature (vol.
i.
),
man
as a
been considered, and Herbert brought to fiil
The
appeared in Oriental form in Brahma.
later
first
381
microcosm had
testify in his beauti-
poem "Man." Page S, note i.
ance,"
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; "An
man," with
the
and Clarkson in the
In
this passage,
institution
work of
as instances,
is
St.
and one
in
"
Self- Reli-
the lengthened shadow of one
Anthony, Luther, Fox, Wesley
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; came
duty and the power of the
out
man
Mr. Emerson's
belief
of thought, a messenger
of the Eternal Mind.
Page 6, note i. In the affectionate sympathy for reading which crops out so often in his books, memories of his
boys,
boyhood and of William
H.
his brothers
Furness,
come
and some near
Page 1, note i. Methought the sky looked
On
all
was base
friends, like
Dr.
to light.
in
scornful
down
man.
"Walden," Poems, Appendix. Page 8, note i. pitiftil
Mr. Emerson
figure that certain scholars
often used to speak of the
and statesmen presented,
tering elevated sentiments about Liberty
and being
dumb on
principles in their
and Justice
in
ut-
1776,
the subject of the flagrant violation of these
own
day.
NOTES
382
his
Page g, note I. That a man was principally of value fol "atmosphere," and an event for the soul of it which
survived for an example or in a
He
with Mr. Emerson.
Harper,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
Still lives
poem, was
the song, though Regnar dies!
With Swedenborg he valued Nature Page 10, note Norton
i.
I
my
for calling
a favorite idea
praised Sterling's line in Alfred the
am
as a
symbol.
indebted to Professor Charles Eliot
compounding
attention to the probable
of the name Marmaduke Robinson, through a
slip
of Mr.
Emerson' s memory, out of the names of the two Quakers hung
Common
on Boston
in
1659, Marmaduke
Stevenson and
William Robinson.
Page 12,
note i.
In
"The Problem"
evolution of the grand architecture, drals,
"out of Thought's
he describes the
the temples and cathe-
sphere,"
interior
and Nature's
ready adoption of them as her own.
Page i^, note i.
Mr. Emerson was much more
the beauty of form than of color.
more than
painting.
Page i^, note which appears
Page 16, sent Raphael
2.
in the
hence one of the
The doctrine of the pervading unity poem "Xenophanes," written in 1834,
earliest
note I.
of the published poems.
In the month of April, 1839, Carlyle
Morghen's engraving of the Aurora, by Guido
in the Rospigliosi palace in ing,
"
alive to
Sculpture appealed to him
It is
my
wife's
Rome,
memorial
to
Mr. Emerson,
your wife.
to
.
.
.
say-
Two
houses divided by wide seas are to understand always that
they are united nevertheless." parlor of
The
picture
Mr. Emerson's home, with
accompanied
it
:
" Will
the lady of
still
hangs in the
the inscription which
Concord hang up
this
NOTES Italian
somewhere
sun-chariot
loolcing at
in
383
her
Drawing Room, and,
think sometimes of a household here
it,
good cause never
Mr. Emerson used
which has
T. Carlyle."
to forget hers.
to point out
children
to his
how
the
varied repetition of the manes, heads and prancing forefeet
of the horses were imitations of the curved folds of a great
cumulus cloud.
Page 17,
appears,
ginning,
Here,
note i.
volume and
this
Society
in
embodied
also
The hand
that
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
in
as in the
and
two
Solitude,
essays
on Art,
in
the same thought
"The Problem"
in the lines be-
rounded Peter's dome,
etc.
Page ig, notei.
Come
see the north wind's masonry, etc.
"The The works
Page 21, note I.
Egypt, and the architectural Garbett, with
Snow-Storm," Poems.
of Heeren and others on
handbooks of Fergusson and
some of Ruskin's writings, were read with
The
inter-
idea of Evolution, whether in
est
by Mr. Emerson.
the
works of Nature or of man, early and always appealed
to
him.
Perhaps the to
him
tion
in his
first
suggestion of the ideas on this page
boyhood,
in the
welcome form of
came
Scott's descrip-
of Melrose Abbey in the Lay of the Last Minstrel:
The moon on Through
the east oriel shone
slender shafts of shapely stone.
By foliaged Thou wouldst
tracery
'Twixt poplars In
many
combined
;
have thought some straight the osier
a freakish knot
fairy's
wand
had twined.
hand
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
NOTES
384 Then framed
And Page 22, tioned
by
the
work was done.
Astaboras was a river of Ethiopia men-
note i.
Strabo.
Page 22, note 2.
The
mainder of this paragraph
"The
when
a spell
changed the willow wreaths to stone.
following
in,
the
between men
difference
the version of the re-
is
edition
first
of the Essays:
in this respect
is
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
the faculty
of rapid domestication, the power to find his chair and bed
everywhere which one man has, and another has not.
men have
much of
so
the Indian
such habits of accommodation, that in the tite
snow, they sleep
and
push
at sea,
warm and
Some
have constitutionally or in the forest, or
dine with as good appe-
own house. And, to we may find it a reprehuman nature. The intellec-
associate as happily as in their
this
old fact one degree nearer,
permanent
sentative of a tual
as
left,
nomadism
is
fact in
the faculty of objectiveness, or of eyes
everywhere feed themselves.
Who
where
with
falls
man, every
into easy relation
thing,
is
this love
smooths
beautiful
and beloved
his
he roams through
Page 22,
all
which
hath such eyes everyhis
Every
fellow-men.
a prize, a study, a property to him, and
brow,
joins
him
in their sight.
to
men, and makes him
His house
latitudes as easily as a
is
wagon
a
:
Cahnuc."
note j.
And well he loved to quit his home And Calmuc in his wagon roam To read new landscapes and old skies.
"The Page 2J,
note j.
scholar of society
In the balancing of the claims on the
and
Mr. Emerson always
Poet," Poems, Appendix.
solitude, so frequent in his
gives
most weight
writings,
to soHtude, yet sidmit-
ting the necessity, for his sanity, his character,
and
his
supply
'
NOTES
385
of raw material to work on, of mingling with the world and sharing the
In
how
common
his journal little
exposures and experiences.
of
he found
his first trip to
return to his proper field of action
was very marked during
ing
Europe,
it
is
remarkable
him and how anxious he was
to detain
and work.
his visit to
The same
to
feel-
Europe and Egypt
in
his old age.
Page 25, note i. The fi-eedom, the dignity and profit of was a rule of practice, not a mere theory, with Mr.
self-help
Emerson.
Many
Page 28, note I.
strange pilgrims
were on the
road in those days, ridiculous enough to the eye of the aver-
New
age
Englander, and these were attracted
to
Concord by
the report that there hospitality to thought could be found.
Their host ministered to their physical wants, and to their
He
hunger to be heard.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
took them by
and, as he wrote of his ideal man,
he harbored he did not share.
The
Page 2g, note i.
made
New
Yet
it
had
that faith,
of
handle,"
madness which
'
respect for the old religion that
his
left that
phase of behef and
was always before him
Aunt Mary, and tianity
their best
"The
England, remained deeply ingrained in Mr. Emer-
son, though he
behind.
"
in his
mother and
own
spiritual
growth
in the fiery faith
of his
household in the devoted Chris-
his wife.
He was aware
of the
losses
might well accompany too extreme reaction from early
and the Luther anecdote might well have had something
akin to
it
in his domestic experience.
Page ^O,
note I.
Compare Byron's Prometheus.
Titan, to whose immortal eye
The
sufferings
Seen
in their sad reality.
Were
of mortality.
not as things that gods despise, etc.
NOTES
386 Page ji,
The power
note I.
of trae vision to unsettle
and move and elevate everything, indeed the old doctrine of "The Flovifing" of Heradleitus, the dance of the trees and the very mountains that Orpheus led, occurs in the prose,
Mr. Emerson's " Poet "
but especially in
in the
Appendix
Poems.
to the
Page 32,
note i. I
drank
at
thy fountains
False waters of thirst.
" Ode to Besaty," Poem. " We probably perceive the influence Page J2, note 2. of these latent inheritances " [dormant tendencies to suppressed "when,
in
bestial
parts or
species
undergo retrograde changes,
traits]
revert to a lower state of being.
world,
as the physical cestral impulse,
we may
when no
the battle of existence,
or, as naturalists phrase
...
In the moral
see these hidden seeds of an-
and therefore stronger motives, spring into Nature, by Professor N. S. Shaler. note I.
it,
well
longer overshadowed by the newer
the creature back to a lower estate."
Page 33,
as
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The
activity
and win
Interpretation of
Boston, 1893.
See the opening paragraphs of
"The
Poet," Essays, Second Series, and "Poetry and Imagination," Letters and Social Aims, for the true use of &cts.
Mr. Emerson as oracles sal
eagerly sought facts, not for themselves, but
from which he was
meaning.
In
with which he looks to
be admitted
there:
men
"
at
to
be
.
.
of the notables of the
invisible
their information
.
univer-
the Insurance Office, and his longing
every company dissolves they so coy.
draw the hidden but
1847, he speaks of the avarice
to hear the gossip
For an hour
retail
to
his Journal in
he would pay great
at his
village
and hear the best informed
approach.
He
prices, but
so eager and
NOTES We want
••
that
them
on our
society
want, and, though
I
want of
for
with his roads,
I
facts:
all
I
know.
terms.
talk
with him, I cannot get
.
.
does not
Here
.
is all
my
at
side.
.
do not know what question in Brisbane's
Reed's;
head;
am
all
to put.
his
—
Boston,
.
and Atnerica
is
in his
at
do
to
all rail-
this well-
Agassiz with
Swedenborg
all
Adams's head;
could cast a spell on
their
all
man
this
at
mod-
all
experience.
my
side,
on another,
hft
.
I .
and see
up the cover
and suck the honey
cells
.
and having
pictures without his intervention or organs,
learned that lesson, turn the spell
I
Fourier
is all
John Quincy Adams's, and
in
of another hive, and see the
facts
chamber and
Here
.
language in Kraitser's;
cannot appropriate a fragment of if I
.
the Revolution in old
all
ern Europe
Now
know what
Here
.
.
theory of anatomy and nature; I
his
Each man has
manufactures and trade, in the head of
informed merchant
in
own
He
the clue.
387
.
.
.
they were not the poorer and I the richer."
Page 34,
When
note i.
asked by one of his children
whether some verse of Shakspeare, or perhaps
by Michelangelo, really was meant nificance attributed to
it,
to carry
it
was
with
it
a picture
the sig-
Mr. Emerson answered: " Every
one has a right to be credited with whatever of good another can find in his
Page torical
25
1
work." Perceforest
note i.
romance,
its
was
a
medisval French
his-
scene being Britain in the pre-Arthurian
period.
Amadis de Gaul, tury,
a
romance written in the fourteenth cen-
by Vasco de Lobeira,
in Portugal, but
which became very
popular in later versions in other tongues.
The Boy and
the Mantle, an ancient English ballad.
See
Percy' s Reliques.
Page j6, note i.
This passage with regard
to
man's
fac-
388
NOTES
ukies
occurred in a lecture called
Hands"
Page J7, Act
Page
Doctrine of the
Culture," 1837-38. I.,
iii.
4.0, note
I.
It
was
a characteristic of
writings to concentrate attention on
on which he was speaking.
He
paragraph, even, in some cases,
much
"The
"Human
See Shakspeare's Henry VI., Part
note i.
Scene
II.,
on
in the course
qualification
Mr. Emerson's
some aspect of the matter
did not weaken a sentence, a a
whole poem or
of his statement.
He
lecture,
by
reserved the counter-
statement, the other aspect, to present as neatly in another place.
Hence,
if but'
one essay be read,
with
his position
reference to the church, or towards society, or reform, might
be misunderstood.
Page 41,
"
note
I.
This passage
appears
verse
in
in Boston
he
in
Limits," Poems, Appendix.
SELF-RELIANCE During the period of Mr. Emerson's ministry had written thus
in his Journal
:
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
" Chardon " The
great difficulty
is
that
St.,
Oct. 14TH, 1832.
men do
themselves, do not consider what
it is
not think enough of
that they are sacrificing
say such a
when they cater for their estabThey know not how divine is a Man. I know you man thinks too much of himself. Alas he is wholly
Ignorant.
He
when
they follow in a herd, or
lishment.
!
yet wanders in the outer darkness, in the skirts
and shadows of himself, and has not seen
" Would that every is lost
by
it
his inner light.
not be a text of a useful discourse to young men,
man must
imitation.
learn in a different
Our
best friends
way ?
may be
How
much
our worst ene-
'
NOTES mies.
A
light
which
man
389
should learn to detect and foster that gleam of
mind from within
flashes across his
whole firmament without.
the lustre of the
without notice his peculiar thought because
come when he
time will to this tion is
will postpone
all
those
peculiar.
it is
would go
to
that in reality there is
show
is
The
this illumina-
the morning.
for
by which the other
the principle
thinking
who watch
more than
acqvured knowledge
spontaneous wisdom, and will watch for
more than
far
Yet he dismisses
For
this
This
be arranged.
to
the significance of self-education,
no other,
for all other
is
nought without
this."
This entry
is
the latter part of
continued by the passage
"
Self-ReUance
each can do best, none but his ing with the sentence about
more
After several subject,
he writes:
jottings as to
world
made from
is
to the high,
now appearing in "That which
beginning,
Maker can teach him," end"the Scipionism of Scipio."
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
"Landor knows many appeal that
"
what might be
things
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
treats
said
on the
of the continual
the facts to the feelings, from the
inward,
infallible
Judge, ever suggesting a
grander creation," etc.
In the entry of the preceding day he transcribes various sentences
from Landor's Imaginary
Conversations (mostly
of Epicurus with his
among them
fi-om the talk
"
Since
all
transcendent,
all
true
firiends),
own raising, and only on God has laid, do not let any
be of a man's the
hand of
off civilly, but
Thus before
keep them
the foundation that
touch
it:
keep them
'
off.
appears that the writings of Landor, read the year
it
Mr. Emerson sought him out
in
Rome, may have given
the original push towards the writing of this essay
Reliance.'
this:
and genuine greatness must
'
on
" Self-
A small portion of the essay came from the lecture
NOTES
390 "Individualism," the
the course on
last in
"The
Philosophy
cf History" in 1836-37, and other passages from the lec-
" School," "
tures
"Human
In reading
Emerson's
this essay, it
fear of
by
a subject
the higher
qualification
self,
chapter to
is
would
"
after
But
make your supposed the very
is,
become
Page 4^, on Plato that
"The
"
His
must
self-reliance
want of
and do some-
I go
of self-reliance
secrets
is
for
?
my
precisely that secret
my
action,
Paint-King"
Men.
This image
4.6, note i.
all skill
If I
am
true,
very impotency,
and
is
toil."
quoted in the chapter
If not these,
it
is
probable
to.
recalls the departure
of the
poem, when the thoughtless poet from among her
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
A few herbs and apples ... I, too late. Under her solemn Page 47, Page 48,
note I. note i.
The
fillet
.
.
girls,
.
saw the
doctrine of
Sympathy
unspoiled boys and
character,
is
Over-
Self- Reliance."
deficiency redundancy.
in Representative
in his
Mr.
1st,
Perhaps these were the poems of Wash-
note I.
proffered gifts chose
for
Hence
William Blake's remarkable poems are alluded
Page
Day
mind,
to
of his presentation of
divinity.
a greater excelling than
ington AUston.
call
effect
"And
new
learn
not finished.
the theory shall
in the course on
2d, That the Self he refers to
;
man's share of
Journal, Oct. 23, 1840. if I
well to
is
weakening the
Soul" should be read what
" Duty "
Genius," and
Life," 1838-39.
scorn.
" The
Over-Soul."
for children, loving reverence
was
and appears throughout
part of
Mr. Emerson's
his writings, especially in
"Domestic Life" and "Education."
'
NOTES Page
An
4.g, note l.
391
annoyance
followed his action with regard to the in his church,
and
later,
on
the notoriety
at
rite
which
of the Last Supper
his simple statement to the
Divin-
of the message that csme to him with regard to
ity students
the torpor of the church of that day,
shows in Mr. Emerson's
any deeper
rather than
letters
trouble.
and
their resulting duties,
and journals
these times
at
"sad self-know-
It is that
ledge" of Uriel.
A
Page ^2, note j.
" But it
of aspects.
is
characteristic case
of
his presentation
the fault of our rhetoric that
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
"
we
cannot
some other."
strongly state one fact without seeming to belie
History."
Page J2, note 2. Of his *' own poor" and his own causes, Mr. Emerson was mindful, and his hand was free. Page ^4,
note i.
It
need hardly be
said that
Mr. Emer-
son was an independent in politics, as in social or ecclesiasti-
He
movements.
cal
men of thought necessity
own
Page ity to
is
The
" The
:
always the same; they
of mediocre men, to take
equilibrium.
equator.
writes in his Journal
to society
sun's path
of
reftise that
They keep
sides. is
relation
their
never parallel to the
'
^'j, note i.
God
because
Page 58, note i. the version of the to delivery in the
Mr. Emerson
it is
firj t
It
in
words
else, if
as
said,
"I
not too
deny personal-
much."
be interesting to reproduce here
more adapted
Lyceum.
Out upon your guarded !
may
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
edition with a ruder vigor,
" With consistency a He may as well concern do
too
little
great soul has simply nothing to do.
himself with his shadow on the wall. lips
!
Sew them up with
pack-thread,
you would be a man, speak what you think to-day hard
to-morrow thinks
as cannon-balls,
in hard
and to-morrow speak what
words again, though
it
contradict
NOTES
392 ,
'
everything
you
you
shall
ladies,
It is a right
stood Jesus,
fool's
word.
Pythagoras was
?
bad then
Is it so
Misunderstood!
misunderstood,
to
and
is
to
spirit
be
note 2.
And
liberal space
nothing jostle or displace.
So waved the pine-tree through
And
fanned the dreams
it
my
Page 6l,
II.,
Poems.
reading was largely in
For novels and romances he cared
biographies.
human, the
Mr. Emerson's
note I.
thought
never brought.
"Woodnotes,"
but the
little,
heroic, the individual in historic characters, he
to find out,
From
whether high or low.
dotes of persons, and he read his delight.
was
and equally so the natural speech, the inde-
pendent action and native refinement in persons
list
To
that ever took flesh.
As sunbeams stream through
was
and
be misunderstood."
Page ^8,
keen
be misunderSocrates,
and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton,
and every pure and wise great
Ah, then, exclaim the aged
to-day.
said
be sure to be misunderstood!
his
whom he
met,
childhood he copied anec-
them
to his scholars.
Plutarch
Dr. Holmes interested himself in making
a
of the persons most often referred to by Mr. Emerson,
and found Plutarch,
that after Shakspeare,
Napoleon, and Plato came
and there were seventy references
Page 62,
note i.
A
to
version of this story
is
him. the Induction
of The Taming of the Shrew.
Page 64,
note i.
This paragraph furnishes two instances
of the nicety of Mr. Emerson's choice of words in
closest
accordance with their derivation to make clear his thought.
His doctrine,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
manifestation of
that there spirit,
was one
great source of
all special
which was from the beginning \ab
NOTES '
trigine
— "In
the Beginning
was self-renewed
spirit
in each
world
Word"]
who would
one
teachings from within [in-tuitions], receiver to help the
393
was the
that this
;
[tuitions],
— made
by ex-
clearer
men
words, shows the real Self on which
actly fitting
by
listen,
and could go out from the
shall
rely.
Page 6j,
He
note i.
Perhaps his early friends
had confirmed
He
spoke.
this
felt
woods- to
tendency in him to wait
deliver the message
own
evidence and
it
committed
was not
note i.
(5/,
to the
the Quakers at
New
listen.
Bedford
the Spirit
until
himself the mere ambassador charged to &ith-
fiilly
Page
went alone
among
Compare
to
him
for
This must be
him.
to argue about
its
it.
" The
the seventh stanza of
Sphinx."
Page 6g, note i.
Though Mr. Emerson's
a Latin style, the training of his youth use of
words of Latin
participles;
as
"man,
is
by no means
shows often
in the
origin, not as adjectives but as present
"power
agent and patient," and here
not confident but agent."
Page 77, note
i.
Hold of the Maker, not Sit
the
Made
;
with the Cause, or grim or glad.
"Fragments on The Poet," Poems, Appendix. Page 72, note i.
" Respect
end, but also respect yourself.
the child, respect
Be
the
him
to the
companion of
thought, the friend of his friendship, the lover of his virtue,
but no kinsman of his sin. self that
you
Let him find you so true
imperturbable slighter of his trifling." tures
and Biographical
Page 7^,
to
are the irreconcilable hater of his vice
note I.
his
—
your-
and the
— "Education,"
Lec-
Sketches.
After the somewhat startling and radical
NOTES
394 counsels of the
paragraph,
last
it is
well that some mitigation
Dr. Holmes does well in
of their drastic quality should follow.
what follows
calling attention to
" guarded
his
to
show how Mr. Emerson
proclamation of self-reliance as the guide of
mankind." Page yd, tury,
many
In the
note i.
New England
a
of his fortune, pecuniary or
laid the foundations
Mr.
half of the nineteenth cen-
first
boy thus acquired experience and intellectual.
Alcott went on foot with his pack more than once through
Virginia and the Carolinas, furnishing Connecticut wares or
owners of the
teaching, at the option of the
Page j8, one day,
he worked in
farm-hand,
odist
that
as
men
While studying
note i.
fell
plantations.
divinity,
Mr. Emerson
into talk with him,.
are always praying,
and
that
all
This man maintained prayers are answered.
This statement interested Mr. Emerson, and on he wrote hooves
his first
men
"approbation
sermon, adding
to well consider to
Meth-
his uncle's hayfield beside a
this
for a third point
these acted prayers.
preach," he read
this
sermon
that
theme it
be-
After his
in the pulpit
of his kind uncle. Rev. Mr. Samuel Ripley, of Waltham, and the next day a stranger addressed ing,
"Young man,
him
in the stage-coach, say-
you'll never preach a better sermon than
that."
A is
short paper,
"
Prayers," originally printed
in
the Dial,
included in the volume Natural History of Intellect.
Page 80, note i.
The
inevitable
Finds them
morning
who
in cellars be.
"The Page 82,
note I.
World-Soul," Poems.
Mr. Emerson, when he
abroad in 1833, was sick and sad, with prospscts
all
first
went
unsetded.
NOTES and he was
landed
and
Appendix
and
Go
work made him through
" Woodnotes "
where he
Page 8j, note
first
came
to
a
him
:
's his
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; .
.
.
road.
and foreshowed.
the paragraph up to this point
in the Journal in
Page 8s, note i. emphasized by the
life
of his duty,
home,
at
is
him, there
light illumined
introduction to this essay,
true for
man
will, the wise
Most of
i.
was from the entry
theme
were
his clear spirit leads
By God's own
this
are printed in the
also traveller, except in the line
his lines in
Where
verses recording his feeling
Poems,
to the
visitor,
the tone of his
reflects
Both of these
his call to his appointed
But
when
Rome.
at
Malta, he
after a short stay in
This paragraph
them he wrote
in
Naples and
bad
eye when,
his
Naples.
at
journals, at
engaged by the novelty and beauty of the
little
which met
sights
395
when
1832, mentioned
in the
the thought of writing on
him.
The
checks
Evolutionists,
m
development,
seem
later
much
have been early
to
apprehended by him.
Page 88, note I. lines
This saying of
of the second motto of
"
Ah
is
rendered in the
last
Compensation."
COMPENSATION When the ladies
young self,
in
1865 Mr. Emerson met by
who,
as girls,
ladies kept in
when
had attended the
Boston by
invitation
many of
finishing school for
his brother
WiUiam and him-
hardly more than boys, he told them that he
certain regrets
with
regard to
his
teaching.
very time already writing every night in
my
"I
was
chamber
felt
at
that
my
first
NOTES
396
thoughts on morals and the beautiful laws of Compensatibn
and of individual genius, which
my
given sweetness to
came
into the school,
have ever
by
their
weakness, and that
one hour of deep thought
you
in thoughts that
to the school,
sure
arithmetic
his ministry,
—
Chardcn
he wrote thus in
can see, different
things.
' '
— Well,
" The
Roxbury
leaves at
in the blind
man's ear
resolved itself into identity.
actered in
my
Three years
the
And
.
.
And
'
I
—
all
it
which
sounded
the joy and
wooden
book.
complains that
word Compensation. entitled
are printed in the Poems.
was ever delivered
Referring to a time
of their use.
when
all
have nothing char-
1834, he wrote the verses
later, in '
old,
i
does not appear that the essay "Compensation," as
stands, "
»
brain that outlives this
" Compensation It
grown
Heraclitus,
it.
sell all
this
the sorrow since have added nothing to thy
I can't help
with a
was writ on
in keep -school days
Cambridge.'
at
It
gods
Why,
old man, hast got no farther
was taught thee months and years ago.
autumn
It holds, as far as
?
to different individuals, but
gifts
his
St., June 29, 1831.
not the law of Compensation perfect
mortgage of responsibility on every one.
all
depth and joy
reality,
these details to the highest plea-
all
and nobleness."
Journal:
we
could have had
if I
could have engaged
at that time, I
would have given
and raised
During the days of
Is
cold
and chemistry.
each should serve the other by his or her
I believe that
strength, not
and
to observe
of languages, geography,
details
Now
illustrate
am afraid no hint of this where we clung to the safe and I
life.
as
a lecture.
No
it
doubt portions
trouble with the eyes deprived
him
for a
time
NOTES of
it
many
appeared in
sermons, and several pages of it came
" Duty "
from the lecture
397
in the course
" Human
on
Life,"
given in 1838-39.
In the
his
lonely Earth amid
one among many instances of the charm which
is
astronomical
" The
motto the image of
first
"
the balls
phenomena had
for
Mr, Emerson.
Evidences of
reading treatises on the heavenly bodies, and of walks for
the purpose of gazing
on them, occur frequently
in journals
and writings.
Page was
<p3, note I.
Mr. Emerson, having
striving the harder to
whom he
spoke, to
awaken
make them
left
the pulpit,
among
real religion
those to
not only on Sundays, but
feel,
through the week, day and night, a
present Deity
beautiftil,
working surely through law.
Page p4, note I.
Dr. Holmes ekes out the forlorn view
of the preacher whose representations of the Christian's aims
and
had
spirit
stirred
the statement of the
A
Christian
When
one
works." secret
soul
is
— The
to write this discourse,
man
is
never long
This
is
a keynote of
superior to
its
doth him
He
God
essays.
is
he could not
its
an obedience to a
— free
Heroism.
;
builded better than he knew.
"The Page p6,
by
seize.
many of the
impulse of an individual's character."
Himself from
—
knowledge, wiser than
" Heroism
Over-Soul.
:
at ease;
fright 's gone, another
Page p6, note i.
" The
Mr. Emerson
unhappy John Bunyan
note 2,
" In
this
Problem," Poems.
and the following chapter."
NOTES
398 Compensation
Laws
'
as
'
doctrine
is
is
"
not so obviously treated of in
might be expected from
" A man
there in
this
passes for
Spiritual
Yet the
expression.
what he
is
worth,"
and other statements of the great laws of balance and
return.
Page gj, note I. Every scientific fact and law had its charm for Mr. Emerson, and ne sought its spiritual correspondent.
Again and again he uses polarity
may be found "Merlin."
The
in the third stanza of
as
a parable.
It
" The Sphinx " and
reconciliation in the very definition of Polarity
'
in
of the
apparently contradictory notions held by the early philosophers
and
priests, viz.,
of the One, and of the Duality that
is
more
the
little
obvious in the world, delighted him.
Page pp, note
One day Mr. Emerson saw
I.
child of a neighbor,
whom
he had always thought to be a
He
sulky chiu-1, playing with a pretty painted cart. the child
who made
fortified
Mr. Emerson
it.
"
My
asked
Papa," answered he, and
in the optimism fi-om
this
which he had
temporarily lapsed.
Page lOI,
note i.
No
ray
My And
is
dimmed, no atom worn.
oldest force
is
the fresh rose
good
as
new.
on yonder thorn
Gives back the bending heavens in dew.
" Song I
"
Polarity (Physics).
A
of Nature," Poems.
term used to designate opposite or
properties or powers simultaneously developed by a
common
dissimilar
cause in oppo-
Mte or contrasted parts, as in the extremities of a magnet, or in the sides of a polarized ray of light, situated respectively in the plane of polarization and
the plane perpendicular to it."
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
Worcester's Dictionary.
NOTES Page 102,
A
note i.
399
fragment from a
lost
play of Sopho-
cles.
In the poem
Page 103, note I.
" Voluntaries,"
national crime of the long tolerance
been
slavery has
told, these lines follow:
Destiny
sat
" Pang
for
Hide
And
this
shall
pay.
your coward head,
round the harvest day."
Nemesis, denied the name of Fate, because
a beneficent force, appears
which
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
by, and said,
pang your seed
in false peace
I bring
is
after the
by our people of African
serves, as
Page 105,
as
"Worship"
justice
poem
motto to the essay so named.
note i.
Naturam
expellas furca,
Et mala perrumpet
tamen usque
Page 106, note
i.
Page 106, note 2. note j.
recurret,
fiirtim fastidia victrix.
Horace,
Page 108,
in the
Epistles,
Confessions of St. Augustine,
i.
10.
Book
I.
From the Prometheus of ^schylus. The same thought that is more fiiJly
expressed in the extract from the letter to Sterling given in the Introduction to the notes on the essays of this volume.
It also
"The Problem." Page no, note i. Mr. Emerson, after his return Europe in 1833, preached often at New Bedford, and
appears in
from later
gave a course of lectures at Nantucket, remaining for some time
on the
island.
Those were
the great days of the whaling in-
dustry of both those towns, the anecdotes of peril
and Mr. Emerson used
and accident
which had been told him by
in hunting the
his hosts.
to repeat
monster
i
NOTES
400 Page JI2,
Herodotus
note i.
Fortune had
that
tells
favored Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, that his friend sis,
him word
king of Egypt, sent
that to
ward
off the fate
sure to follow unbroken prosperity, he ought to sacrifice
what-
Struck by this counsel, Polycrates cast
ever he valued most.
into the sea his emerald ring. in
so
Ama-
Next day
it
returned to him
Amasis
the stomach of a fish sent as a present.
broke off the alliance, foreseeing in
doom of Polycrates.
once
at
event the impending
this
Revolt of his subjects, and
and
civil
eign wars followed, and not long after the tyrant
for-
was lured
out of his domain by the satrap of Sardis and crucified.
Page 113, note I.
He
obligation.
wrote:
Wilt thou
This maxim was a household word
He
with Mr. Emerson.
was
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
seal
loath to place himself under
up the avenues of ill
Pay every debt See also in the Poems, the
as if
God
?
wrote the
bill.
" Translation
from Ibn Jemin." Page IIJ, note I. These thoughts find expression in the arguments used by educators in the last few years to show the mental and moral advantage of manual training schools.
Page 116, note
i.
Wordsworth's
Sonnets
Liberty
to
"September, i8oz."
Page 117, note i. This passage, expanded from an entry in Mr. Emerson's Journal of Oct. 18, 1832, was dis-
made
tinctly personal in its origin,
and shows
" The
his habitual humility
and courage.
It
awkward and
formal manners which hinder your success in
social circles
:
stammering tongue and
keep you true to the mark which
to that particular
own and
continues
is
your
power which God has given you
own
for
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
your
others' benefit."
Page 118,
note i.
This and the next two sentences are
;
NOTES the entry
made by Mr. Emerson
1838, two months to the
young
after
in his Journal, Sept. 29,
he had delivered
on the eve of
divines
been
made by
professors
message
his earnest
their entry into the minis-
and the ensuing disclaimers and
try,
401
attacks
on
had
his address
and clergymen, vigorously answered
by Mr. George Ripley, Mr. Brovi^nson, Professor Parsons, and Rev. James Freeman Clarke.
Page 11^, note i.
Law should
If the
thee forget.
More enamoured serve it yet Though it hate thee, suffer long
;
Put the Spirit in the wrong.
"The
This was well
Page 120, note i. vyithin a
few
years,
Poet," Poems, Appendix.
Mr. Garrison,
had been husded up
an anti-slavery meeting,
with a rope around his body, by the solid
and of the professions
him committed statue stands
;
and the mayor,
to the jail as a
now
at
where,
said in Boston,
for attempting to address
men
State
to save his
" disturber
Street
of business
had
life,
His
of the peace."
the head of the handsomest avenue in
Boston.
Page 12 J, note
word
next ing
it
into
its
the same as
The
i.
translation
pleasing Latin form,
God,
is
a striking
of
"Being"
in the
and immediately mak-
and condensed statement
of the creed Each in All, the Universal
Mind.
Page 12J, note i. This passage, as written in the Journal, March 19, 1839, is perhaps more fresh and vigorous: " Such is my confidence in the compensations of nature,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
that I
no longer wish
to find silver dollars in the road, nor to
have the best of the bargain in that
my
my
dealings with people, nor
property should be increased, knowing that
all
such
'
NOTES
402 gains are apparent
and not
But the perception that
accession of
The
pay
for they
;
their sure tax.
not desirable to find the dollar I
This
enjoy without any alloy.
much
real
it is
is
an abiding good
growth and
description of the
of the
liberation
is
Page 12^, to
ideal
Mr. Emer-
rnan, which follows, written forty years before
son's death,
this is so
:
Godhead."
strangely autobiographical.
Compare
note i.
the
last
"
stanza of
Give All
Love," Poems.
SPIRITUAL LAWS This essay does not appear form
as a lecture;
it
some neighboring town lished, but
was not
to
have been given in
may have been just
before
tory
on
or
pub-
Certain passages
of the essay, however, are found in the lectures
and
present
Essays were
the
Boston courses.
in the
its
Concord
so used in
'
Rehgion
'
" Manners " in the course on " The Philosophy of His" (1836â&#x20AC;&#x201D;37), in "Being and Seeming" in the course
"Human
" Duty "
Culture" (1837-38), and in "School" and on " Human Life " ( 1838-39).
in the course
There was no motto
to
"
Spiritual
Laws "
in the
first
edi-
tion.
The show
verses that he placed before the
the fear
which he
felt,
new
edition in
1847
especially at that period, of
weak-
ening the poetic thought by what, in the letter to Sterling
which has been already quoted, he Here, in twelve strong
tiously."
Laws of
the Universal
and
Good
that
he puts in the
Mind,
calls
lines
"meddling ambi-
presenting the great
Self-Reliance, Compensation,
out of Evil, he followed the counsel to the bard lips
of Merlin in
his
poem:
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
NOTES Great
403
the art.
is
Great be the manners of the bard.
He
shall
With
not his brain encumber
the coil of
rhythm and number;
But, leaving rule and pale forethought.
He
shall
For
his
aye climb
rhyme.
" Pass in, pass in," the angels "In to the upper doors. Nor
count compartments of the floors.
But mount
By
ister
to paradise
the stairway of surprise."
Page 131, note i. honored
essay, his
say,
In the year of the publication of
friend, the
this
Rev. Doctor Ripley, the min-
He
of Concord for more than half a century, died.
had
married 'the vyidow of William Emerson, his predecessor, a
army
chaplain in the a true friend to in his Journal his
death
:
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
at
Ticonderoga.
Dr. Ripley had been
Mr. Emerson
his wife's grandchildren.
of
his visit to the
Old Manse
at
" His body is a handsome and noble spectacle. was moved just now to call it ' the beauty of the looks like a
sachem
rior taking his rest
ried
Waldo
to see
old.
.
.
.
Yet
this
manhood.
He
like a
war-
face has
all
He
is
but a .
nor
was ninety years
and resolution of
the tension
... A man
may abohsh
I car-
testified neither repulsion
midst of these great objects of nature,
moral quality
'
My mother dead.'
with his martial cloak around him.'
him and he
only the quietest curiosity.
surprise, but
vigorous
fallen in the forest, or rather
tells
the time of
little .
.
thing in the
yet a
man by
thoughts of magnitude, and in his
manners equal the majesty of the world."
NOTES
404 Page 131,
This passage
note 2.
"
ing thought," the
{"
See Notes to Nature
Pogi 132,
mind the " morn-
to
one
who
St.
Augustme.
").
Prospects
He would
note I.
William Morris gave
calls to
Matutina Cognitio" of
have liked the answer which asked if he were subject to the
extreme despondency which so often accompanies the highly
"I
poetic temperament.
dare say
never had the time to think of
Pi^gf
133
to
National Independence , part
The
note I.
^
said he,
"but I've
From Wordsworth's Sonnet XII.
P''g^ I33t note 2.
Poems dedicated
am,"
I
so I really can't say."
it,
of
relative value
in
ii.
his
imposed and
chosen studies came up often in Mr. Emerson's mind to
his
the advantage of the
Always an eager and
latter.
delighted
reader of the books (or a few passages in books) that he
"written
as
for
him," he found
knew
in the text-books at
little
In
school or college, besides the classics, that interested him.
" Heroism " he tells of " over a boy who grasps at school;
pose.
power
If
pride,
we
dilate in
we
that
it is
for
good of
a
romance
the forbidden book under the bench
our delight in the hero
...
Roman
the
is
the main fact to our pur-
beholding the Greek energy, the
are already domesticating the
same
sentiment."
Page 134,
mankind
Purified
note I.
as transmitters of
divine thought are described in the poetical note-books as
Pipes through
A
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
which the breath of God doth blow
universal music.
Page 133, note her flustered
little
i.
son
The is
image of Mother Nature calming
repeated,
still
with a
poem " Experience," which serves of that name in Essays, Second Series. the
Page 138, note I.
Pyrrho of
Elis
as
little
motto
humor,
in
to the essay
(360-270
b.
c),
a
NOTES
40s who
Greek painter, poet and philosopher, tion
joined the expedi-
of Alexander to conquer the East, but returned to Elis
and became a
" He
priest.
held that the only condition wor-
thy of a philosopher was that of suspended judgment.
was the highest aim of
ous imperturbability '
unattainable.
'
—
Friends,
divine
During
—
renunciation of aU will,
" The
She was very
Quaker
New
Bedford, in
Dewey,
the Rev. Dr.
the doctrine of Obedience as adopted
motion in the
Journal.
in
his stay
officiating for his friend
Mr. Emerson heard the
Virtu-
but truth was
Appleton's Encyclopedia.
Page 140, note i. 1834, while
life,
breast.
sublime religion of
much
JVIiss
Rotch yesterday.
she said, in the
disciplined,
years of
and driven inward, drawn home
dissensions,
by
and awaiting the
to find
an anchor, until she learned to have no choice, to acquiesce without understanding the reason tion to
when
this spiritual direction called
or an oracle.
It
she found an obstruc-
She objected
any particular course of acting.
to
having
an impression, or an intimation,
was none of them.
It
was
so simple
it
could
hardly be spoken pf."
This statement of
faith interested
him, but he had already
learned to yield himself to the divine stream sweeping the distinctions
Page 141, note i. The boast of Glendower Henry IV., Part
I.,
Page 142, note i. nity
Act
III.,
Scene
Mr. Emerson
of the farmer's work:
He
away
of forms.
—
to Hotspur,
i.
thus celebrates the dig-
planted where the deluge ploughed.
His hired hands were wind, and cloud;
His eye
detects the
Gods concealed
In the hummocks of the ««
field.
Fragments," Poems, Appendix.
'
NOTES
4o6
This image was suggested by a passage
Page 143, note i.
Old Mortality which Mr. Emerson
in Scott's
The
fierce fanatic, Balfour
had given him
often repeated
in his
boyhood.
of Burley, speaks of the
possibility
with something of the pleasure
it
of influencing some opponents of the Covenanters by prospects of worldly gain, but thus
tells
in his
wrath of the incor-
"
But
and brow
like
ruptibihty of the
young nobleman who opposes them:
Lord Evandale
a malignant of heart like flint
is
adamant; the goods of
world
this
fall
on him
like
the leaves
on the frost-bound earth, and unmoved he will see them whirled off by the
first
he are more dangerous
who it
.
.
.
The
wind.
may be compelled
but to earn the wages of
Page 141,
heathen virtues of such
to us than the sordid cupidity
to
work
as
of those
in the vineyard,
were
'
sin.
note i.
Earth
fills
her lap with pleasures of her own.
Wordsworth, Intimations of Immortality.
Page 148, note i. In the essay " Demonology," in Lecand Biographical Sketches, dreams are treated of. See
tures
" Memory " in the Poems. When somewhat importunately urged to be presented to a person for whom he felt no aflinity, Mr. Emerson said, " Whom God hath put asunder, let no man
also the quatrain
Page 151,
note i.
put together."
P^S^ I53>
tote I.
It
was
the sentence
more than
the
paragraph in the essay that he valued, hence he strove to make every syllable
tell.
P^S^ 156, note I. This was the remark of his honored friend, Samuel Hoar, Esq. See the notice of him in Lectures
and Biographical
Sketches,
Sanborn prefixed to
H."
in
Poems.
it.
and the sonnet by Mr. F. B.
Also Mr. Emerson's quatrain
" S.
NOTES Page 164,
407
note I.
Jack was embarrassed,
And,
as
—
never hero more.
he knew not what
to say,
he swore.
Byron's Island, Canto III., It
5.
was, however. Jack Skyscrape and not Ben Bunting.
Another name
Page l6j, note l. Boadicea.
Mr. Emerson valued
and Fletcher's
" Tragedy of Bonduca,"
of Caratach in the
first
Page 166, note i.
for
British
queen
Beaumont
especially the speeches
scene.
Dr. Holmes in
quotes the passage, and thus
worse
for the
certain passages in
comments:
his Life
" This
of Emerson
is
not any the
being the flowering out of a poetical bud of George
Herbert's."
He
Teach me, In
my God
Elixer," beginnmg
—
and King,
things thee to see
all
and especially to the verse
A
"The
alludes to
;
—
servant with this clause
Makes drudgerie
Who
sweeps
Makes
that
a
and
divine
room
;
as for thy laws.
th' action fine.
LOVE This essay
is
almost identical with the fourth lecture in the
"Human
Life," given in Boston by
course
on
in the
winter of 1838-39.
He made
a
Mr. Emerson
few verbal changes
and unimportant omissions in the later editions from the form.
Because the love that Emerson
considered from the point of view of life-long,
and unfolding
to
"a
love
treats
young
of here
earlier is
not
lovers alone, but as
which knows not
sex, nor
NOTES
4o8
person, nor partiality, but which
where,"
his
seelcs virtue
poem " Eros " might have
The
sense of the world
Long and
and wisdom every-
served for
is
short,
various the report,
—
its
motto:^
—
To love and be beloved Men and gods have not outlearned ;
And, how
Not In a
letter
of this essay,
oft soe'er
it;
they 've turned
it.
be unproved.
to
written to a friend in the year of the publication
passage occurs
this
" The same
Goodness
alway believes on
in
:
—
which we believe, or rather which
soon as
itself, as
we
cease to consider duties
and consider persons, becomes Love, imperious Love, tha: great Prophet
and Poet, that Comforter, that Omnipotency
in the heart.
Its
moment
not a
eye
there
vegetable nature, so
form
it
on some mortal form, but
it
rests
but, as every leaf represents to us
Love
represents.
all
looks through that spotted, blighted
element of which
We
it
was created and
demand of those we
love that they
be excellent in countenance, in speech, in behavior, in
power, in
were
falls
to the vast spiritual
which shall
;
will.
They
in the right to ask
that dictated
to
are not so
our thought
quickly pass away, but the
on accumulating
as the
;
we
are gritved, but
we
If they do not share the Deity
it.
immense wish, they
this
demand
will
will not die, but will go
supply accumulates, and the virtues of
the soul in the remotest ages will only begin to
fulfil
the
first
craving of our poor heart."
Page 161,
note I.
the quotation from the
"I be
was
In a note-book Mr. Emerson gives
Koran thus
as a treasure concealed:
known."
:
—
then I loved that I might
NOTES And
below
And
it
own
his
rendering
gem
I
was
I
burned with love and was revealed.
as a
concealed;
then the second line altered thus
Me my burning mind
:
—
love revealed.
Although Mr. Emerson did not allow
Page 171, note i. his
409
—
to revert, looking;' ever to the brightness before, yet
when, of
a sudden, a
memory came
over him of his young
wife, his brothers, his mother, gone from this for the
moment,
he would,
life,
" infinite com-
and moan, wrung by
start
own tenderness and humble how they had prized him.
punctions," due to his himself, not thinking
Once
Page 112, note i. kind, but after she
a
He
invited to tea at his house.
young school-teacher was
was,
as ever, courteous
had gone, he mentioned
her, and, though
to
and
perhaps a
Walden
open and weather-stained, addressed
he did not know the
membered her name and Page Z75,
that,
way
dozen years before, he had found on the childish love-letter,
rating of
note
the
little
From
i.
schoolgirl,
a to
he had re-
romance.
the
Efithalamium of John
Donne.
Page If 6,
This was a
note i.
erson's, perhaps written
by one of
been able to find whence
Page jyj, note i.
it
From
favorite line
his friends,
of Mr.
Em-
but I have never
came.
A Nice Valour,
by John Fletcher.
III., 3.
Page Iff,
note 2.
He
looketh seldom in their fate.
His eyes explore the ground,
The
green grass
Whereon
is
—
a looking-glass
their traits are found.
"Manners," Poems.
)
NOTES
410 Page ijp,
" The
note I.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
be the love of beauty"
end of
training should
all liberal
Socrates having previously
fublic.
Book
III.
Page i8l,
This passage
note I.
the
all
men
are ignorant of ApfiUo,
mind from
which
that
Professor Wright, of
of Mr.
graph
is
one from Plu-
recalls the
Sun
tarch, already quoted, to the effect that the
why
de-
(Plato's ^^-
scribed proper education as a training in virtue.
the cause
is
by sense withdrawing
which seems.
to that
Harvard University, says of this para-
"It
Emerson's,
is
distinctly
and
Platonic,
seems to be an echo of the Phadrus, where the entombment
of the soul
is
true being
before
thought that
it is
unable to see are but
referred to, it
stupefied
'
and the necessity
can take human form
by the
light
real things,
'
is
it
must
stated.
see
The
of the natural sun and
any other object but those of
shadows of
that is
this
world, which
perhaps supported by the
opening of the seventh book of the Republic, where appears the famous 'image of the cave.'
Page 182, its
note i.
"
I think that the
word " base
primary sense, to signify the humble
' '
is
used in
foimdation on the
earth.
Thou shah not scale Love's height divine By burrowing at its earthly base ; Nor call the priceless treasure thine
Who Page 184, Drury."
Page 185, Eyes
Still
but to afiront the case.
car' St
"The
Angel
note i.
note I.
in the
House," Coventry Patmore.
From Donne's " Elegy on Compare Emerson's
early
Mistress
poem, "Thine
Shined."
Page 186, note
i.
From Abraham Cowley's
=ÂŤ
Resolved
;
;
NOTES be Beloved," in The Mistress ;
to
411 Several Copies of Love
or.
Letters.
FRIENDSHIP This essay was not given as a
ably
it
this title
in
Mr. Cabot's Memoir (Appendix F),
were taken from the
on " Society,"
lecture
and
courses, although very prob-
served in that capacity in some of the Lyceums.
shown it
under
as a lecture
whole in any of the Boston
and others Culture,"
Several paragraphs
"The
from "Private life," in the course on
is
in the course
"The Philosophy of History" (1836-37), from "The Heart" in the course on "Human
on
given in Boston the following year.
As
portions of
Present
come
Age"
(1839-40). Friendship,
"too good so high
of
to
was
as
Mr. Emerson
his standard that
and
this blessing
cast the
Friends to I
He
me
he
he had not
felt that
wine
are frozen
in the usual sense
few
of the word, and
many
;
close friends in
also
all his life.
cognized as temperamental and deplored.
At
out of evil" for him.
take the greatest their
a
little
their
unknown
to
The
shall not
me
But here too was
them
in
treatment that he asked for
for
know me
him
distance he could
himself he gave in some tempered degree to them shall not love
num-
This lack he re-
pleasure in his friends, could see
proper atmosphere.
You You
yet
wait the sun on them should shine.
had many,
"good
it,
his share
blame on himself.
ber increased with the years but he had
the essay, seemed
said in
be believed," and he earnestly desired
what
in the
:
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
daily spends
crowded
;
street.
;
'
NOTES
412
Where I, as others, follow petty ends Nor when in fair saloons we chance to meet. Nor when I 'm jaded, sick, anxious or mean. But love me then and only, when you know
Me
God
channel of the rivers of
for the
From
deep, ideal, fbntal heavens that flow.
In practice he was loyal and serviceable to his fHends, yet
them
preferred to see
were meant
In writing
to
sparingly, to find in
and
to be,
" take
each by
them what they
his best
handle."
one of his nearest friends through
a gen-
life,
tleman of great charm and culture, Mr. Emerson said, prob-
new
ably about the a year before
"I
find
essay on
publication
...
send you
tion, a piece
may
its
which
I
fitter for
favor of the skies.
intelligible,
or
on
.
that
Certainly
.
your
attractive ftill
to
it ;
we
is
we
so high
I
be
"I I
that
Letters Jrom
Co., 1899.
this
me
is
the
I get
if
we cannot walk we would find the secret. circles,
and the
instincts
'
as follows
whim
to
one on the matter.
:
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
must thank the Quaker City, however,
viction,
&
at
lecturing in Philadelphia, in January,
same friend
is
and sacred,
Nature's roads are not turnpikes, but
While
by
augury which
This
doubt not, whenever
shall
must saunter
are the only sure guides."
to the
special
discover our friends
less sure to that
of all topics, and,
confession of faith,
up
argu-
and these not describable, often not
but not the
Because the subject straight
'
you
trust
The
comes only by the
we
within the intellect, and therefore higher.
most
" Friendship,
alive in the cinders.
still
rhyme, but
.
Love "
[a paper] of last winter's composi-
the very highest tokens,
even
'
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
wrote with good heart, and
some sparks
ment were
'
:
called
friendship
Ralph Waldo Emerson
to
1
for a
was
a Friend.
843, he wrote
the
new
con-
brightest
Houghton,
Mifflia
NOTES Eden
thought in what
two
the
first
my
think
fi'iendship
does not ever seem to
the Soul, this
and
;
would be
right than that
men
if I
ordinary intercourse try if a feel it
:
man is among
at the
a
I think
occurred.
it first
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
travellers.
I
doubt you
my
me
quite real in the world,
wrote on the Immortality of
first
Yet
topic.
nothing more
is
should think to address each other with
and the highest poetry
truth
man.
moments,
their
far as
I will
trifles.
know if he feels that star as I know them and they him ? Is
I will
does he
trees,
certain
at
therefrom and buried in
is
same time both flowing and fixed
Does he
?
feel
Nature proceeds firom him, yet can he carry himself as
that
he were the meanest I
Olympus
of the finest art to be bad enough, but
practice
but always prophetic
he
or
must have been
fiiends
413
particle
All and nothing
?
would know of him, yet without catechism
me them ÂŤmd
in his
in all
manner of unexpected ways,
These
?
he
:
if
things
shall tell
in his behavior
repose."
Page J gi, note I.
my
" At
church I saw that
nattiral,
manly neighbor,
1838.
Joiu-nal,
and
beautiful child
fine,
who
bore the bread and wine to the communicants with so
clear
an eye and excellent face and manners.
" The ers
in
softness
and peace, the benignant humanity
over our assembly
when it
sits
down
at the
that
morning
hov-
service
church."
Page ig2, note i.
The
tongue
Not
so the pen, for in a letter
We have
is
prone
to lose the
way
;
not better things to say.
But surely say them
better.
"Fragments on Life," Poems,
NOTES
414 Page ig4,
The
note i.
sandy southern slope of
"
on the
Great Road
"
warm
high sidewalk under the
hills
Mr. Emerson's house,
opposite
from
to Boston, has a different climate
the rest of Concord, and so used to be a favorite walk in the
Mr. Alcott and Mr. Hawthorne
cold half of the year.
on
and
this road,
Not only
walk.
it
was the venerable Squire Hoar's and
these friends, but the farmers
lived
favorite
laborers,
the schoolgirls and the schoolboys would have been surprised
they had known with what respectful or admiring eyes Mr. Emerson looked on them from his study windows, and had heard his comments on them. if
Page igs, note i. Page 1^6, note i. Park" in the Poems.
Milton, Comus.
Compare with
Page ipj, note i. such
as
it is,
is
Page zp7,
paragraph
this
"My
Journal, 1833.
composed wholly of particular
" The
entire success,
failures."
note 2.
When The
half-gods go
gods arrive.
" Page igg,
Give All
to
Love," Poems.
note i.
If love his
moment
overstay.
Hatred's swift repulsions play.
" The Page 200, Page 202,
May
Shakspeare, Sonnet xxv.
note i. note i.
In his
first
letter
to
John
Sterling,
29, 1840, a few months before the publication of
essay, ship,
Visit," Poems.
Mr. Emerson wrote
and cannot
find
ÂŤ' I
:
am
a
any other good equal
to
As soon
it.
any man pronounces the words which approve him great office, I
make no
haste
:
he
is
this
worshipper of Friend-
holy;
let
me
fit
as
for that
be holy
also;
NOTES why
our relations are eternal;
weeks in
had
I
?
which
The
Page 203, note i.
allusion
whom
and a
is
fuller
and Poems by Jones Very.
tion to Essays
Very, of
to Jones
an interesting account
Mr. Cabot's Memoir of Emerson, one by Mr. W. P. Andrews,
given in
heed the
far less
were opinions, but the tone was the man."'
Salem, a mystic and ascetic, of
X.,
count days and
reading your paper on Carlyle,
this feeling in
admired the rare behavior, with
I
things said; these
is
415 we
should
vol. i., chapter
in his introduc-
In a
Miss
letter to
Margaret Fuller, written in November, 1838, Mr. Emerson wrote:
" Very has been here
founding us first
sight
all
and stayed a few days, con-
lately
with the question whether he was insane.
and speech you would certainly pronounce him
Talk with him a few hours, and you
Monomania
he.
or monosania, he
mind
son; and though his
not in a permanent state, he I
all
insane but
a very remarkable per-
is
not in a natural, and probably
is
a treasure of a companion, and
had with him most memorable conversations."
He I
is
will think
At so.
records that
Very
said to
him
:
"I
always
felt,
when
heard you read or speak your writings, that you saw the
truth better than others, yet I felt that your spirit right.
It
was
as if
Page 204, note Book
I., chapter
xxxix.,
Page 207, same rule held.
the
"
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
â&#x20AC;˘'
"A
is
me."
from Montaigne,
Consideration upon Cicero."
In converse with Nature he
Nature says
to
man,
'
One
felt
to one,
that
my
Journal.
Page 208, note i.
" Etienne
This quotation
I.
note I.
dear.'
was not quite
a vein of colder air blew across
de
la
Compare with
this
paragraph his
note z. From the recent notice of the death man of integrity in Chicago, who was also a lover
Page 20p, of a business
poem
Boece."
X
Correspondence of Sterling
and Emerson.
'
NOTES
4i6 of good books and
a loyal friend
of Mr. Emerson, I copy
this
anecdote showing Mr. Emerson's conscience, and that of his friend also, in the matter of rashly endeavoring to
whom we
to those
wanted
Emerson that
to
admire by
The
him.
young
so if his
" Mr.
desired
friend could truthfully say that
made
as
This the youth decided that he could not do.
fitting.
seems to
me
Mr.
cautious philosopher replied
he stood in such relation to the genius of the poet
on the
come near
of introduction.
know Mr. Longfellow and
to introduce
he would do
letters
it
There
something charming in Mr. Emerson's reliance
of the boy to guard him against a pos-
integral delicacy
sible false position."
Page 212,
note i.
two sentences
Here followed
" The
:
pays never with anything
Page 2IJ, note
Page 214, tion
i.
note i.
in the
or anything else.
less
See the
edition these
first
money of God
only
is
poem " Rubies."
This paragraph closes in the
with the sentence, "It
is
He
God.
'
first
edi-
the property of the divine to
be reproductive."
Page 21^, note i. Carrying out the comparison of friends and books in the chapter "Nominalist and Reahst" in the second
of Essays, Mr. Emerson writes:
series
pleasure in reading a book in a author.
...
know whether
chromatic experiment for
note i.
" The
"
I find
most
least flattering to the
I read for the lustres, as if
fine picture in a
Page 216,
manner
one should use a
its
rich colors."
astronomers are very eager to
moon has an atmosphere I am only conman have one. I observe however that it make an atmosphere. I am acquainted with perthe
;
cerned that every takes
two
sons
who
to
go attended with
this
ambient cloud."
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; "Aristo-
cracy," Lectures and Biographical Sketches.
Page 21J,
note i.
This
trait
may
be found in
all
Mr.
— NOTES Emerson's wherein
letters
all his
417
to his friends, especially those to Carlyle,
friend's petulances
and
faults are
ignored.
PRUDENCE The
greater part of this essay
was probably given
ture in Boston, the seventh in the course
on
education and temperament prudent, but in his
want of practical
a lec-
Cul-
Mr. Emerson was by
ture" in the winter of 1837—38.
Knowing
as
" Human
no petty way.
and the idea of debt or
faculty,
of dependence on others being abhorrent to him, he strove to
honorable economies.
practise
valuable to
him
ings of the great his
But every humblest
fact
was
symbol, and he loved to detect the work-
as a
Recalling in one of
laws in small things.
note-books two or three of his experiences as a young
Boston minister, he wrote,
mon of which
" One
old William Little said to
trifles,'
day when I read a
might have
the text
me
been at
'
ser-
Don't mind
the door that, 'if
he were to make the sermon, he should have taken the other
"
side.'
In the chapter on he
said,
" Malpighi,
" Swedenborg "
in Representative
Men,
following the high doctrines of Hippo-
crates,
Leucippus and Lucretius, had given emphasis to the
dogma
that nature
natura.'
"
works
yet, as a poet,
he
calls it in
u
—
'
tota in
minimis existat
So accepting Plato's word that the macrocosm
may be known by
as
in leasts,
and
the microcosm, in spite of poetic traditions, still
young, he found pleasure in a
Theme no
poet gladly sung.
Fair to old
and
the motto
foul to
which he
young,
vscote for the second edi»
8
NOTES
41
An
tion.
English,
example of the
by
fitness
steadily holding
its
and seeming
occurs in the diminutive in the fourth line, arts
of which great
Page 221,
arts are built find
The
note I.
other
poem of that name. Although
originality
of his
foundations in mind,
classic
where the
little
due recognition.
Garden
is
described in his
in the early years of his house-
keeping, for economy's sake and health's, he hoed and weeded,
he soon found
prudence required
that a higher
spending
his
home garden in that by Walwhence he brought home better and more
the time hitherto given to the
den's shores, lasting fruit.
Page 221, sure
This
note 2.
Mr. Emerson took
homely ground
Page 222, philosophers,
high
after a
also
a good illustration of the plea;
coming
in
to firm,
flight.
The
note I.
and
is
"Aspects"
in
influence of his "-eading of the old
of Swedenborg, shows in
this para-
graph.
Mr. Emerson loved called
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
The unsung Page 223,
to look for
beauty hid
life's
" Nature
note I.
is
what
common
and Biographical
Page 223,
note 2.
A
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; "The
Stevenson's
essay
Virginlbus Puerisque, in
" never
would seem
to
to forget
the glory
complimentary estimate of pro-
" Compensation."
It
"Crabbed Age and Youth" in which, among other strictures on
cowardly and prudential proverbs, he says them,
;
Preacher,"
Sketches.
less
verbs than that given in the essay on lecalls
Whitder
things below.
too thin a screen
of the one breaks in everywhere." Lectures
his friend
that, according to
your umbrella through a long
be a higher and wiser
than to go smiling to the stake
;
and
flight
life
of achievement
so long as
you
are a bit
NOTES ef a
coward, and
419
money
inflexible in
you
matters,
the
fulfil
whole duty of man."
Page 226,
The necessary
note i.
and writing that
Mr. Emerson
befell
He
with philosophy.
interruptions of his study as a
householder he bore
never allowed himself to complain of
mischances in the house or abroad, unless later to serve up his
Of one
misfortune in an amusing manner.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
that there
that
was
The
Page 226, note 2.
austere benefits
which the hardy Titmouse gives
it,
sure,
and
to the
which the North
Poems
wanderer
"Voluntaries," a war poem, and in the
Day: "
was
benefit in
his business to find.
gives to her children are celebrated in the
in
thing he
was some modest share of
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
in the lesson
woods,
in the
lines in
" May-
Titan-born, to hardy natures
Cold
is
genial
and dear.
As Southern wrath Is but
As
in the
When The
to
Northern right
straw to anthracite
day of
;
sacrifice.
heroes piled the pyre.
dismal Massachusetts ice
Burned more than
others' fire.
So Spring guards with surface cold
The
Of course the
garnered heat of ages old.
constant consideration of the effect of Slavery
and Free Labor on our people before the Civil
War
emphasized
these distinctions.
Page 2JO,
note i.
by him, often without tant that
Amidst the stream of visionaries visible
means of support,
some one should stand
the ground.
it
flovring
was impor-
firm, with feet planted
on
NOTES
420 Page 231,
Compare
note i.
his
poem " Limits," Poems,
Appendix.
Mr. Emerson could never hear with There was
Page 2J2, note i.
patience of the divorce of Morals from Intellect.
always abatement of his enjoyment of Goethe because of
his
shortcomings in morals, and hence in insight.
Page 2JJ, or
In scattered verses on
note i.
" The Discontented
and only gathered
these Essays,
Appendix
in the
to the
after
Mr. Emerson's death
Poems, he describes these floods and
ebbs in the passage beginning
Ah! happy
" The Poet"
Poet," written in the same years with
if a
—
sun or star
Could chain the wheel of Fortune's
car.
Page 23J, note i. Again the ancient doctrine of " The Flowing," shown in the hurrying life of the Yankee of the nineteenth century.
Page 2Jf,
"In
note i.
proeliis oculi
(Tacitus); a quotation often used by
primi vincuntur
"
Mr. Emerson, but with-
out giving the source.
" Page 2jp, note I. " perish by the sword was with regard
to his
taketh the sword shall
a rule that
Mr. Emerson held
to
argument, whether as a weapon offensive or
to
His
defensive. letter
He who
feeling
friend.
on
this subject is
shown
Rev. Henry Ware,
after
in his second
the
Divinity
School Address, printed by Mr. Cabot in his Memoir of Emerson, vol.
ii.,
p.
68g.
Page 2jg, note 2. By adhering to this simple rule and faith in «'The Universal Mind," Mr. Emerson, as Dr.
Holmes
among
said,
" could
go anywhere and find willing
listeners
those farthest in their belief from the views he held.
Such was
his simplicity
of speech and manner, such his
trans»
— NOTES parent sincerity, that
it
was next
image-breaker."
gentle
the
teaching in his
"
421
to impossible to quarrel
Suggesting George
Church Porch
:
with
Herbert's
"
Scorn no man's love, though of a mean degree;
(Love
is
Much
lesse
a present for a mightie king.)
As gunnes
make any one
destroy, so
thine enemie.
may
a
little sling.
HEROISM This essay
is
probably the lecture of that name essentially
as delivered in the
in the
course on
" Human
Culture
"
The homage which Mr. Emerson
bound
felt
to render to
the lowly virtues of Prudence, after dealing with lyric
in Boston,
winter of 1837-38.
words of Love and Friendship," made an
contrast for his hearers, the
more
by
effective
"
the fine
interesting
his leading
them
up to the heights of Heroism in the succeeding lecture. In a lecture called
" The
Present
Age,"
following year, this expression occurs, the awakening of those days to the
and
political
to a cultus, is
reform:
— "Religion
but to a heroic
to front a corrupt society
life.
—
delivered in the
need of individual, does not seem
He who
and speak rude
of
his recognition
now
social,
to tend
would undertake truth,
it
and he must
be ready to meet collision and suffering." •
The
saying of
Mahomet
alone served for motto in the
first
edition.
Page 245,
note i.
In
this list
of plays,
all
from Beaumont
and Fletcher, Mr. Emerson evidently trusted to his memory,
and gave play
by
to
the
one the name from a leading character. There
name of " Sophocles," but
the extract given
is
is
no
from
NOTES
422
"
a piece called
" The Triumph
Four Plays in One," the special play being of Honor."
This
founded on a story of
is
Boccaccio's in the Decameron, the tenth day and the
fifth
novel.
Page 24J, note I. Burley's description of the incorruptiof the young nobleman in Old Mortality, chapter xlii.,
bility
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
by Mr. Emerson to his children. From youth to age he took delight in Plutarch, the Lives and the Morals. This passage from Mr. Emerson's Introduction to Professor William Watson Gooda passage often repeated
Page 248,
note j.
win's translations of the Morals (printed
and Biographical
"
tarch.
Sketches')
His extreme
also
in
Lectures
shows what attracted him
interest in
every
trait
to Plu-
of character and
broad humanity lead him constantly to Morals, to the
his
Hence
study of the Beautiftil and Good. his rule
of
life,
and
his love
of heroes,
of the high destiny
his clear convictions
of the Soul."
Page 2^0, that
is
This paragraph
note j.
suggestive of
is
written in "Aristocracy," in Lectures
cal Sketches.
Page 2^1,
note i.
So nigh
is
grandeur to our dust.
So near
is
God
When Duty The
youth
to
man.
whispers low.
replies,
He who,
Thou must.
I can.
Best befriended of the
God
in evil times.
Warned by an inward
voice.
Heeds not the darkness and
the dread.
Biding by his rule and choice. Feeling only the fiery thread
much
and Biographi'
NOTES
423
Leading over heroic ground.
Walled with mortal
To
the aim
And
terror round.
which him
allures.
the sweet heaven his deed secures.
"Voluntaries," Poems.
Page 2S3, Act
II.,
From
note i.
Scene
11.,
Shakspeare's Henry IF., Part
ii.
Page 233, note 2. In the translation of the Oriental Geography of Ibn (or Ebn) Haukal, by Sir George Ouseley,
London
published in
in
1800,
this
may be found
anecdote
with somewhat different wording.
One
Page 2^4, note I.
of the most remarkable instances
of Mr. Emerson's applied philosophy
visitors,
towards whose bodies and souls he had to exercise
Once
hospitality.
or twice nature asserts herself
humorous explosion of
The
the absence in his
is
of untimely, exacting, and wearisome
journals of complaint
by
a half-
protest.
subjects that inspired the
poem
"The
Visit" were
probably unaware that they outstayed their welcome.
Page 2^6, note i. Another version of this story is told by " Apothegms of Kings and Great Command-
Plutarch in his
ers," in the Morals,
"When
Psetilius
him of many crimes before the people he
said,
part
am
and
let
'
going with
Having thus
â&#x20AC;˘
On
this
conquered Hannibal and Carthage
I
him
;
and Quintus accused
my crown
that pleaseth stay said,
he went
his
on
;
very day,' I
for
my
to the capitol to sacrifice
and pass
way
;
his vote
;
upon me.'
and the people followed
him, leaving his accusers declaiming to themselves."
Page 257,
note i.
An
allusion to the
charm of
" the novel,
hardly smuggled into the tolerance of father and mother ihe
schoolboy, occurs again in
" Domestic
Life
"
" by
in the pas-
NOTES
424 sage
which
home
describes the
of the Emerson brothers
life
in childhood.
Page 2^8, Because
note i.
was content with
I
Low, open meads, And found a home
The And
partial
these poor fields.
and sluggish streams.
slender
which others scorned.
in haunts
wood-gods overpaid
granted
me
" Page 260, what you
" Scorn
note i.
do
are afraid to
:
Emerson boys received has
left
cal Sketches.
was the
lift
your aims
do
;
come
These were the teachings which youth from
their brilliant,
Mary Moody Emerson. Her
an account of her in Lectures and Biographi-
His words concerning her are carved upon her
gravestone in Concord Cemetery It
Musketaquid," Poems.
trifles,
in their
loving, and eccentric aunt. Miss
nephew
love
sublimity of character must
from sublimity of motive." the
my
the freedom of their state.
privilege
:
of certain boys
"
She gave high counsels.
to
have
this
immeasurably
high standard indicated to their childhood, a blessing which
nothing else in education could supply."
Page 262, terian minister
note I.
The Rev.
Elijah P. Lovejoy, a Presby-
of intelligence, courage and blameless character,
devoted himself to the cause of awakening public sentiment in the Southern and Border States to the evil results,
press
and became
wrong of Slavery and
editor of the St. Louis Observer.
was destroyed by a mob, and he and
his family
its
His
were
driven from the city.
He
established his paper,
maintaining anti-slavery views.
Riots
by
friends
resulted,
and three
then settled in Alton,
presses, furnished in succession
of the cause, were destroyed. press.
A
Illinois,
Mr. Lovejoy
public meeting of citizens
was
and
sent for another
called because of the
NOTES
425 Resolutions were
excited state of public opinion in the city.
passed requiring Lovejoy to retire from the charge of his paper.
He
stood upon his rights under the Constitution to pubHsh his
To
beliefs freely.
God
in his providence
think
my
ing
do
to
—
—
has devolved upon
so say
me
all
the responsibility of maintain-
ground here; and, Mr. Chairman,
it.
A
voice comes to
me
from Connecticut, from
setts,
mob law " This I never will do. my brethren, and so I
the demand" that in deference to
he should yield up his post, he said:
am
I
determined
from Maine, from Massachu-
New
York, from Pennsylvania,
—
yea, from Kentucky, from Mississippi, from Missouri, call-
ing
upon me
in the
I
am
that
is
shall die at
my
you
You
all.
/ will stand.
My
can crush
post, for I cannot
press arrived
dear in heaven or earth
God
but one and you are many.
but Uttle against
The
name of all
and by the help of
to stand fast,
and
and was lodged by
warehouse belonging
to
November
me
if
you
authorities to
httle
was
set
on
fire,
They
a
stone
company who
On
the night
The
the press.
Mr. Lovejoy's
were attacked.
surrender and
the building it
mob demanded
gave no protection.
will, but I
his friends in
one of a gallant
1837, the
7,
know
will not forsake it."
undertook to defend the right of free speech. of
I
strength will avail
city
friends refiised
resisted,
and when
Lovejoy coming out to prevent
was shot dead.
Mr. George
P. Bradford, one of
friends, described to
me
discourse in Boston.
carrying his audience
with him, in
full
Towards
—
the
Mr. Emerson's
nearest
when he
delivered this
end of the
lecture, while
the occasion
the cultivated people of Boston
sympathy with devoted courage
—
in other
times and lands, suddenly, looking his hearers in the eyes, he
brought before them the instance in their try,
own day and
and told of the martyrdom of Lovejoy
coun-
for the right of
NOTES
426
said that a cold shudder
Mr. Bradford
free speech.
run through the audience
to
opinion twenty years before
Of
freedom.
its
champion
Page 262,
at
ripening in the great
who
entered the
first
know
?
and blood
;
secret wilt thou flesh
Loiter not for cloak or food
Right thou
Page 263,
feelest
lists
as
an
"A
;
such to do.
These
note l.
from memory from
lines
were evidently quoted
Dirge," one of Teimyson's early
The burden, "Let them rave," The following one comes as
the verses. as
for
the time of his slaying.
Counsel not with
quoted
war
note 2.
Freedom's
poems.
seemed
calm braving of public
tliis
course Lovejoy had other defenders in Boston,
notably Wendell Phillips, anti-slavery
at
any of them
Thou
:
—
wilt not turn
runs through
all
near the lines as
upon thy bed
;
Chaunteth not the brooding bee Sweeter tones than calumny
?
Let them rave.
Thou From
wilt never raise thine
head
the green that folds thy grave
—
Let them rave.
THE OVER-SOUL This essay was not given Portions of
it
sophy of History
on
"Human
as a lecture in the
came from " Religion "
" (1836-37),
in that
Boston courses.
on the
" Philo-
from "Holiness" in that
Culture" (1837—38); much was taken from first lecture in the course on
the "Doctrine of the Soul," the
NOTES ÂŤÂŤ
Human
Life," and a
little
427
from "School"
same
in the
course.
Mr. George
Willis
of the influence
first
try about the year
medium,
as a
Cooke
of Emerson speaks
in his Life
exerted by
German
thought in
in opposition to the utilitarian views held by I quote from his interesting chapter
lish moralists.
Era of Transcendentalism:
" " The new
where a reaction
it
against
man
thought was every-
versal
declared
says
it
calls this
transcendent
cannot be called a faculty, and
human mind.
We
do
It is identical
with the Uni-
Reason, a spark from which enters the
human mind.
share in,
the
It
immediate beholding of
as the
but partake of it.
it,
says there
most
He
it
personal property of the
less a
not possess
He
Coleridge
Reason, and regarded
supersensual things.
much
....
morality and religion, and
It identified
intuition their source.
faculty
Eng-
" The
has innate ideas, and a faculty transcending the senses
and the understanding.
made
on
[the philosophy of Locke and
Bentham, and of many English Unitarians] that
coun-
this
1830, received mainly through Coleridge
and
but one reason, which
is
is
it
identical in
them
intelligent beings
all
This idea became
all.
Emerson's mind, the source of his doctrine of
fruitful in
Over-Soul."
It is certain
that
Mr. Emerson
ridge's teachings, through
German
set a
which he
first
ideas, but his eager readings
college, led
him
later to Plotinus,
high value on Cole-
came
in contact
with
of Plato, beginning in
Porphyry, Synesius, Proclus,
and the other Neo-platonists influenced by Oriental thought.
These
"
" great
spiritual lords
who
have walked
the high priesthood of the pure reason,"
'
in the
world,"
had given him a
broader concepdon than contemporary preachers entertained of
" Him
in I
whom we In the
last
live
and move and have our being."
pages of the essay on
" Intellect."
NOTES
428 Dr. Holmes,
"It
a curious
is
commenting on
in
amusement
and expressions to
"The
Over-Soul," says;
many of
to trace
these thoughts
Plato, or Plotinus, or Proclus, or
same tune
to Spinoza or Schelling, but the
according to the instrument on which
There
played.
it is
Porphyry,
a different thing
is
are
songs without words, and there are states in which, in place
of the
of thought moving in endless procession with ever-
trains
varying figures along the highway of Consciousness, the soul is
possessed by a single all-absorbing idea, which, in the high-
est state
The first
of spiritual exaltation, becomes a vision." only motto which was prefixed to the essay in the
edition
Canto
II.,
was
was included by nassus,
from the Psychozoia, or Life of the Soul,
that
by Henry More, printed
g,
I
Mr. Emerson
where he gave
Page 267,
Mr. Emerson
it
the
law more compactly than in
Page 268,
is
a flame
note 2.
of
This verse*
of poems, Par-
in his writings has
triumph of beneficent
New
of the race.
to the salvation
recalls the line in
great pleasure in a
Mr. George E. Tufts,
620.
this sentence, suggesting that the
work
This expression
Page 268, note i.
1
" Euthanasia."
Hardly anywhere
note I.
leaven of conscience would
Life
title
stated his belief in the sure
Mr. Emerson took
in
in his collection
York
:
poem
sent to
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
whose splendor hides
Again the doctrine
its
which
him by
base.
of" The Flowing "
Far seen the river glides below.
Tossing one sparkle to the eyes. I catch thy meaning, wizard
The River of my
" Page 2^0,
note i.
wave
;
Life rephes.
Peter's Field,"
Poems, Appendix.
Dr. Holmes said that
','
In the
'
Over
:
NOTES Soul
'
Emerson attempted the
429
He
impossible.
is
scious of this fact as the reader of his rhapsody,
more profoundly penetrated with .
.
.
The
Over-Soul
«
it
as fiilly
—
con-
nay, he
is
than any of his readers.
might almost be called the Over"
'
flow of a spiritual imagination."
Page 2yo,
Compare
note 2.
and Biographical
in Lectures
of
Sketches.
by Mr. Cooke
in the note at the beginning
Mr. Emerson
This, as
note i.
Found in
note 2.
says elsewhere,
compared with genius.
the weakness of talent as
Page 2^1, 'm
" Demonology "
this chapter.
Page 211, is
on
This suggests the expressions of Cole-
Page 2yo, note j. ridge as rendered
the essay
a
list
of Spanish proverbs given
one of his early journals.
Page
2'/2, note i.
Olympian bards who sung Divine ideas below.
Which always
And Lines from the
motto
to
Page
"The :
" All
Page 2JS> irav
"Ode
else
is
""f^ !•
idle
The
also a familiar
Page 27J,
Beauty," Poems; used
In the is
of Xenophanes, and
nides,"
to
young.
so.
Poet," in Essays, Second
2'/4, note i.
thus given
find us
always keep us
first
weeds
for her
his preaching,
the
and
them by
"common
his
soul"
Page 276, note i.
assuming
increas-
Emerson honored
however humble, by not "coming down
but reached to
in All, the hi koL
thought of Plato.
ingly through his lecturing experiences, \earers,
Each
is
wearing."
venerable and awfiil Parme-
Through
note 2.
edition this last clause
doctrine of
" the
also as
Series.
their virtue,
to
his
them,"
and speaking
in them.
A favorite
image with him, drawn from
NOTES
430
by considering the system
the Copernican astronomy, which,
ftom the central sun, did away with the perturbations apparThis
ent in the Ptolemaic system.
spiritualized in the
is
poem
"Uriel."
Page 2^8, power Civil
for
note I.
good
John Murray Forbes,
War, and one of Mr. Emerson's valued
tell his
children
quence
who
:
"So
the thing
note 2.
"
We
is
know
" We are wiser than we know," line in
and
silent
after the
used to
friends, is
of no conse-
better than
we do," and
done,
it
does it."
Page 2^8,
The
a great
and Country during and
in the State
—
" The Problem,"
He
recur in Emerson's teachings.
builded better than he knew,
—
has passed into a proverb.
Page this
2'/8, note 3.
image
is
In the end of the
poem "Worship"
rendered in verse.
Page 27p,
note I.
graph in the essay
With
this
" Education "
may be compared
in Lectures
a para-
and Biographical
Sketches.
Page 281,
note i.
Here,
as also
in this essay, recurs the favorite
some three pages
image
—
earlief
Being's tide Swells hitherward, and myriads of forms Live, robed with beauty, painted
by the sun;
Their dust, pervaded by the nerves of God,
Throbs with an overmastering energy
Knowing and
doing.
"Pan," Page 281, note 2. «•
Nature
is
He
Poems, Appendix.
quotes Bacon elsewhere as saying
commanded by obeying her."
NOTES Page 282,
431
note i.
Blasted with excess of light.
Gray, Progress of Poesy.
Page 282,
note 2.
fee crude inquiries
on
It
was Emerson's custom
great subjects of his
way
teously, not directly, but in a tions
gods
of the subject, and like indirect
Page 28J,
set
names and
note i.
This
to
them
like
show
to
answer
visitors
cour-
the great propor-
" The
really thinking,
dislike to is
young
be named directly."
a passage in
" Demono-
logy," in Lectures and Biographical Sketches. Believing in the indestructibility of spirit
Page 284, note i.
and of matter, and regarding the
latter as a
method of instruc-
tion,
he never disquieted himself, but, assured that he and
men
shared in the universal existence, did not care to peep
beyond the or
He said, " I
curtain.
am.
The whole
fact
is
all
here
nowhere."
Page 285, note i. him
to seeking light,
They
The
reckon
When me
Spirit
lodged in
man
and works out the answer in ill
they
who fly, I
leave
am
me
has spurred his life.
out;
the wings;
am the doubter and the doubt. And I the hymn the Brahmin sings. I
" Page 286,
Brahma," Poems.
note i.
Thou
art the
unanswered question.
"The God enters by
Sphinx," Poems.
a private door into every individual.
tellect," Essays,
Second Series.
Page 286,
In
note 2.
his first letter to
—
««
In-
John Sterling Emer-
son said, speaking of Sterling's paper on Carlyle,
"
In
it
1
.
NOTES
432
admired the rare behavior, with
heed the things said
far less
Page 288, note I. Journal,
1
85
1
our brothers over the sea do not
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
" There is something Scott, it or own it
.
know
;
Southey, Hallam, and Dickens would deny and blaspheme
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which
setting
is
and planting
them
itself forever
Page 28p,
aside,
all
and the whole world
and ever."
God
he could not
"The Page 28p., note 2. a-ansient character
Life"
This image
one"
to the
I
am
Dr. Holmes spoke of him
this passage,
it
seemed
that they should
really objects
formalism,
of worship.
...
" I and
men
could
as
idols
" an iconfrom
their
an act of worship."
like
Mr. Cabot adds
not sure that he took
worth while
all
himself.
hammer, who took down our
pedestals so tenderly that
on the
lines
Fragments on
that in saying
Jesus meant to teach that
2(^2, note 2.
In quoting
"
Poems.
become channels of deity, instancing
oclast without a
used in some
Emerson believed
note i.
the Father are
is
free.
Problem," Poems.
of grief, printed among the
Appendix
in the
Page 2g2,
Page
it
also,
note I.
Himself from
But
:
" That is
them down,
come down
well said.
or ever thought
so long as they
What he wished
to disturb
the gazing after past revelations until
it
were
was
we
are
blind to the present."
Page 2gj, note i.
This thought
motto of "Compensation," thine
;
were opinions, but the tone was the man."
these
own,"
"And
is
found in the second
all
that
Nature made
etc.
Page 2gj, note 2. This sentence was first an entry made by Mr. Emerson in his Journal on the eve of going to deliver his Divinity
School Address
in -1838.
The
sentence and
the;
'
NOTES were
entire paragraph
a portion
of
433 sermon preached, prob-
a
ably in the following winter, in East Lexington.
son cared so
much
Mrs. Emer-
for this passage that she gave
it
to her
children to read while they were very young.
Page
2g'j, note i.
No
ray
My
dimmed, no atom worn.
is
oldest force
And
is
good
new.
as
the fresh rose on yonder thorn
Gives back the bending heavens in dew.
" Song
of Nature," Poems,
CIRCLES No lier 1
part of this essay appears to have been taken from ear-
papers, and
2 th
no
of September,
lecture of that I
840, in
Mr. Emerson wrote: prosper,
and when
it
"My is
name
a letter to
is
recorded.
On
the
Miss Elizabeth Hoar,
chapter on 'Circles' begins to
October
I
shall
write like a Latin
Father."
His friend, William Ellery Channing, thus spoke of the range of Emerson' s mind
The
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
of thy thought shine vast
circles
No No
:
glass shall
as stars.
round them.
plummet sound them.
They hem
the observer like bright steel wrought bars.
And limpid as the sun. Or as bright waters run From
the cold fountain of the Alpine springs.
Or diamonds
richly set in the king's rings.
Dr. Richard Garnett ' writes: '
Life of Ralph
Waldo Emerson, by Richard
Walter Scott, 1888. II
"The object of this
fine essay
Garnett, LL. D. , London,
NOTES
434 quaintly entitled terable
'
Circles
law with the
fact
one property of a
illustrates
circle,
point
where
circle
another can be drawn.
but in
infinite progress.
sel '
;
began, but
it
.
less true that
.
.
Compensation
which always returns
no
it is
.
.
to reconcile this rigidity of unal*
is
'
of human progress.
Hence
there
'
is
no
security
Emerson followed his own coun-
.
he always keeps a reserve of power.
Circles
to the
around every
His theory of
reappears without the least verbal indebtedness to
himself in the splendid essay on
The poem "
Uriel
"
'
Love.'
"
should be read in connection with
this
essay.
Page 301,
note i.
Line in Nature
is
not found,
Unit and Universe are round.
"Uriel," Foems. Page 301, note
2.
Another morn has
risen
on mid-noon.
Milton, Paradise Lost, V., 310.
The
the sentence suggests one
last clause in
by Mr. Emer-
son's neighbor poet, William Ellery Channing, in
Hope,"
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
my
If
Page 302,
" The Poft'a
bark sinks, 'tis to another sea.
note i.
The
old doctrine of Heracleitus again,
brought to the modern use of progress by evolution. prophecies of
1
841 made
have been strangely
Page 303,
in the later portion
fulfilled in sixty years.
note I.
Giddy with motion. Nature reels. Sun, moon, man, undulate and stream.
The
mountains flow, the
solids
The
of this paragraph
seem.
NOTES Change
And
acts, reacts
back, forward hurled.
;
pause were palsy to the world.
"The Page 304,
435
Poet," Poems, Appendix.
" Throw
note l.
a stone into the stream,
and
the circles that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all
influence."
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Nature,
The
chapter
iv.
rhymes the oar
ripples in
forsake.
"Woodnotes," Page 304, note Middle Ages
that
was a curious
2.
It
evil
spirits
Poems.
superstition in
the
could not get out of a circle
Some American
drawn around them.
II.,
Indians leave a slight
break in the colored circles that decorate their baskets for the Devil to get out.
Page 30^, note I. Unless above himself he can Erect himself,
(Quoted
also
poor a thing
the
The
is
and
man.
of Cumberland."
Countess
in "Civilization," Society
Page 30J, note 2.
may
how
"To
Samuel Daniels
Solitude.')
ideas expressed in this paragraph
be found in the Poems.
Have
I a lover
Who
is
I
noble and free
?
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
would he were nobler
Than
to love
me.
" The
Sphinx," Poems.
Heartily know.
When The
half-gods go
gods arrive."
" Give See also
" The
Park."
All to
Love," Poems.
NOTES
436 Page Jo8,
note i.
It
was Mr. Emerson's own habit one
lectures, after presenting strongly
his
suddenly to show the other aspect of
side
in
of his theme,
almost ignored be-
it,
This might be done in another lecture of the course,
fore.
but often in the same one.
In vain produced,
all
rays return.
Evil will bless, and ice will burn.
" Page 311,
"
note i.
" Woodnotes,"
and in
"The
In
Hearken once more," he
of the
tells
I.
(Appendix),
passage
beginning,
instability
of apparent
the
in
II.,
Uriel," Poems.
Poet,"
permanencies.
Page 312, to nature,
The
note i.
from society
Emerson, the
"The
edly there
is
was always urged by Mr.
each case ranking the former.
latter in
passage in
necessary alternation from books
to solitude,
American Scholar " begiiming
a right
way of
reading, so
it
"
See the
Undoubt-
be sternly subordi"
nated." See thou bring not to
The
fancies found in
or stone
field
books
;
Leave authors' eyes, and fetch your own.
To
brave the landscape's looks.
" Waldeinsamkeit," Page 313, soul with
the
God
"Address
The need
note i. is
dwelt upon
at
to the Senior Class
Poems.
of direct relation of the
length in the latter part of
of the Divinity School"
in
"Let me admonish you, and dare to love God without
Nature, Addresses, and Lectures: first
of
all, to
go alone
mediator or veil,"
Page 314, of
.
.
.
etc.
note i.
Nature he received
The welcome first
idea of the symbolism
from Plato, and
it
was
this
which
'
NOTES
437
" The
gave him pleasure in Swedenborg's teachings. ministry of Nature 'Nature, chapter
P^S^ 31 4t pensation
"
to stand as
is
an apparition of
noblest
God."
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
vii.
""ti
Compare the second motto of " Com-
-2.
in this volume.
Page 31 y, note i. From Young's Night Thoughts. Page J17, note 2. Pyrrho of Elis (360-270 b. c.) taught that truth was unattainable, and that
men
should be
indifferent to all external circumstances.
Page J18, note i. Evil
is
This consoling idea of
taught in the motto for "Spiritual
"
volume and in
The The
Uriel
"
Good
Laws"
out of in this
in the Poems.
balance-beam of Fate was bent.
bounds of good and
were
ill
rent.
Strong Hades could not keep his own.
But
Page 318, graph, says
:
all slid
him
Dr. Holmes,
note 2.
"But Emerson
in his essay entitled
sue with
to confusion.
'
referring to this para-
states his
own position
so frankly
Circles,' that the reader cannot take
as against utterances
His poem
P^S^ 3199 Emerson met advancing old note I.
which he
is-
will not defend.
'
"Terminus" shows how
age.
INTELLECT This lecture was not given Passages of no great length
in
"Literature" in the course on
" Genius "
in that
on
"The
" The " Human
tory" (1836-37), and from and
any of the Boston courses.
were taken from the
lectures oii
Philosophy of His-
Doctrine of the Soul Life
" (1838-39).
"
NOTES
438
Mr. Emerson never took any
He
physics.
boked
"
Memoir,
way
the
book
into a metaphysical
ever looked
in
pleasure in systems of meta-
" Who
even once said in a lecture,
"Yet,"
twice?"
And what
?
as
has not
sensible
Mr. Cabot
man
says in his
the repulsiveness lay not in the subject, but in
which
it is
He
treated."
wished
to
"
the
state
laws and powers of the mind as simply and as attractively as
by
the physical laws are stated
welcomed
all
Owen
He
and Faraday."
the scientific discoveries of his day for their
symbolic value, assured that the same laws ruled mind and
Hence
matter.
for years
History of Intellect. ject in cially
by
England
two
in
courses at
failing strength
After his death able
1
he planned a work on the Natural
He
gave three lectures on that sub-
848, and
later others
Harvard College.
America, espe-
from completing the work he designed.
Mr. Cabot
collected
from the manuscripts, and
ume Natural The motto
in
But he was prevented
what matter was
this gives
the
title
avail-
to the vol-
History of Intellect.
of
this
Mr. Emerpoem which is Poems, among the ÂŤ' Frag-
chapter appears in one of
son's note-books as the third verse of a short
included in the Appendix to the
ments on the Poet."
The
introductory verses run thus
Pale genius roves alone.
No None
scout can track his credits
him
His diamonds
till
way.
he have shown
to the day.
Not his the feaster's wine. Nor land, nor gold, nor power.
By want
and pain
God
Till his elected hour.
screeneth
him
:
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
NOTES P"?^ 325, was
439
Mr. Emerson
note I.
at the
who
associated with his brother William,
young
vate school for
In
Boston.
ladies in
age of nineteen taught a pricapacity he
this
some elementary text-book, possibly
taught chemistry from
showing a few of the simpler experiments.
Later he heard
with great interest of the discoveries in that science from his wife's brother.
Dr. Charles T. Jackson, an accomplished
Each new
chemist and geologist.
he viewed
fact
symbol
as a
awaiting interpretation.
Page 327, note i. Journal, memory is more romantic."
" Of
the most romantic fact
the
" Thoughts come
Page 327, note 2.
we
avenues which
never
Page 328, note I. of Intellect ered
"
as
' '
an ethereal
sea,
and
tue into every creek
human house
inlet
which
whom
visiting
it
making day where
When
it
departs,
it
is
no
the light, public
will
it
fee or
and
Intellect
it
its
is
History consid-
But
whole
To
bathes.
has a water front.
whom It is as
of" Natural
thither, carrying
ating nature, will,
minds by
which ebbs and flows, which
and washes hither and
surges
every
In the early part
volume thus named.
in the
into our
open."
left
this
vir-
this
sea
force, cre-
and withdrawing from
comes and leaving night
property of
entire to each,
man
or angel.
and on the same
terms."
Mr. Emerson himself strove to renPage 32(p, note I. came to him truly, not to "meddle am-
der the thought that bitiously
" and
spoil
it
by "what we
said in his letter to Sterling."
He
miscall
Art,"
as
together, but purposely did not elaborate the argument, left to
he
brought kindred thoughts
and
the reader the pleasure of letting the electric spark pass
and show the connection. I
Letters of
Emerson and
Sterling,
No. lY.
NOTES
440 Page JJ2, first
edition,
"
note i.
is
a
It is
little
seed," found in the
here omitted.
Page JJj', note facts, dull, strange
" Day
j.
creeps after day, each
despised things.
.
.
.
And
flill
of
presently the
aroused intellect finds gold and gems in one of these scorned facts,
—
then finds that a day of facts
that a fact
tures
and Biographical
is
God."
an Epiphany of
is
diamonds
a rock of
— " Education,"
;
Lec-
Sketches.
Page 33^, note i. The seeming contradiction' by this sentence of what has gone before, as to the j'eception rather than the originating of ideas,
done away with by the au-
is
word produce,
thor's strictly classic use of the
forward shed
—
to bring
the ideas received, joined perhaps with others that
light
on them.
Page 336,
note i.
Unless to thought be added will,
Apollo
is
an imbecile. Lines from one of the Note-books.
Page 33p,
"
note i.
Excess of individualism,
when
it is
not corrected or subordinated to the Supreme Reason, makes that vice
which we
stigmatize as monotones,
French say, enfant perdu d'une conviction such a comic tinge to
all
society."
...
isol'ee,
— Natural'
Intellect.
Page 340,
note i.
For thought, and not praise.
Thought
the wages
is
For which
I sell
Will gladly
And .
willing
sell
days. ages.
grow
old,
Deaf and dumb and
blind and cold.
or, as the
which
give
History of
NOTES
441
Melting matter into dreams.
Panoramas which
And
I
saw.
whatever glows or seems
Into substance, into law. *'
Fragments on the Poet," Poems, Appendix.
The
Tage 341, note i.
on
the scholar are dwelt
duties
and
"The
in
"The Man
Nature, Addresses, and Lectures, and in Letters
" and " The
Scholar
"
of
sacrifice required
American Scholar"
in Lectures
in
of
and Biographical
Sketches.
The
Page 343, note i.
sented with his finger on his P''gi little
344>
note i.
proudly," and in
Egyptian god Horus
His counsel was always, to life
he urged
take others' chivalries for one's
Page 34J, note I. phers,
mostly
A
Neo-platonists,
to
whom many
Page 346, note i. It
is
that
repre-
" read
a
one should not mis-
own.
name given
to a group
from
Trismegistus (thrice great), a Greek
god Thoth,
is
lips.
of philoso-
the
mythical
name
for the
Hermes Egyptian
of these writings were ascribed.
This saying
is
quoted from Plotinus.
evident from his mention of these masters of ancient
thought and his markings on the fly-leaves of their books, that, following his
were
for
tres."
custom, he rapidly found such things as
him, and turning It
was evidently
certain quotations
Mr. George ter xix., gives
and
Willis
"
their abstruse pages
" read
for lus-
the lofty tone that pleased him,
and
Chaldean Oracles."
Cooke
in his
book on Emerson, chap-
an interesting brief abstract of the doctrines
of the Neo-platonists.
NOTES
442
ART In the course on the "Philosophy of History" given in Boston in
"The Much
1
8 3 6â&#x20AC;&#x201D;3 7 , the third lecture
" Art, "
was on
following
Hvunanity of Science," and preceding "Literature." this lecture appears in this essay,
from
but some pages
come from " Eye and Ear," in the next year's course. In Mr. Emerson's youth there were almost no works At a art, except portraits, to be seen in New England. epoch of
he landed
his life
He
there.
saw the
Rome. Looking for endowed with color,
a
art
and spent a few weeks
museums of Naples and
greatness of character through works of art,
The
fitness,
but
little
for
he evidently took great and
for technique,
lasting pleasure in the
Greek
Italy
good sense of form and
and none
the Vatican.
in
statues in the
of
sad
works of Michelangelo and Raphael
temperance, simplicity and perfect
He
always charmed him.
saw
in
taste of
the Elgin Marbles
London.
in
After his return he saw the paintings of Allston, enjoyed the
drawings of Flaxman, and a friend, a connoisseur in
him
his collection
Emerson took friends, but
art, lent
of engravings and drawings, in which Mr.
great pleasure."
he read works on
the glimpses they gave of the
Among
the
artists
art, especially artist at
he had few
valuing them for
work, and
his sayings.
Dr. Holmes, while praising the clothing by Emerson of the
common
aspects of
feels that the
" Art,"
danger
life
with the colors of his imagination,
line
was crossed when,
he would have us give even
in
the motto to
to
Barrows, trays and pans
Grace and glimmer of romance. Yet he could do 1
so,
and see even planetary morion
See Letters of Emersan
to
a Friend.
Houghton, Mifflin
in a school-
& Co.,
1
899.
NOTES boy's play.
mon
"
Journal.
a
pick up an old bruised tin milk pan that was rusting by
the roadside, and, poising it
saw
I
443
boy on the Concord Com-
on the top of a
it
stick,
.
made
.
.
describe the most elegant imaginable curves."
Pagt 351 ,
Thomas Couture,
n^te I.
in his admirable
Etde book, Mithode et Entretiens d' Ateiier, speaks thus of the portrait painter's duty of giving the best that can be seen in his sitter iignes,
un
en
tout
"
:
a toutes vos formes, a toutes vos
faire
ce que consritue
cependant dans
du
restent
tiendrez
Fates
travail ascensionnel vers
un
les limites
la
vrai, et
beaute,
vous ob-
I'etonnement de tous,
portrait ressemblant qui, a
excepte pourtant celd que vous aurez represente, semblena
beauooup moins
Page 352,
que
laid
Kite I.
ie
of the useful and the
ator
thing
usefiil
modele."
" The
;
is
the alone cre-
therefore to
make any-
or beautiful the individual must be submitted to
the universal
mind."
Page 3S3, note
i.
— " Art,"
Ssckty and Solitude.
These thoughts
poem " The Problem " and this
universal soul
beautiful
are expressed in his
in the essay
on
" History "
in
volume.
"
Every genuine work of
as earth
and sun."
art
— " Art,"
has as
much
Society
and
Selecrion, " the first Page 3J^, note I. and then what Ruskin calls " Principality," tration
of interest, or focussing
in this paragraph,
shown
in the
of art,"1
the concen-1
are dwelt
upon
Microcosm,
As
stated
by the
an early poem of Emerson's, Talents All
ofiice
— —
and the old doctrine of the Macrocosm
Page 3j6, note i. tain, in
in a picture,
reason for being
Solitude.
is
—
differ,
well and wisely put
;
squirrel to the
moun-
—
—
NOTES
444 If
my
cannot carry forests on
I
back.
Neither can you crack a nut.
Page 3S1, self,
that,
were opened.
and he found what he looked
that
.
for.
Mr. Emerson knew well the
Jj"!?, note I.
which the French true
of him-
Like his Seyd,
Beauty chased he everywhere,
Page
said
In the physical and metaphysical sense
"musical eyes." his eyes
Mr. Emerson found, and
note i.
though he did not have a musical ear, he had
artist insisted
on
one knows what one
to his pupils
One
sees.
"
:
sees
truth
It is
not
what one
knows." This paragraph was taken from the lecture
Ear "
in the course
Page Jjp,
on
note i.
classical studies in the
Page j6l,
" Eye
"Human Culture." An instance of his happy
and
use of his
choice of this best yet unusual word.
note i.
Coelum non animum mutant Qui trans mare currunt. Horace.
Page 361, Page 362,
note 2.
See Hamlet, Act
note i.
In the
the Poems, he
Muse,
—
tells
I travelled
Eastward
And
it
it
at
Rome
Scene v.
;
filled all
Heathendom,
my
when
lay on
Page 362, note
I.,
Fragments on the Poet," in
of a random word, overheard from the
and found it
"
2.
hearth
" Newton
I
did not exercise
ingenuity, but less than another to see the
" Art,"
came home. more
world."
Society
and
Solitude.
NOTES
445
Page j6j, note j. His application of the evolution docof Hunter and Lamarck appears in the words tendency
trines
and
effort.
i
Page 362,
With "the negative,"
note 2.
sceptical in painting or in writing
Page 364, note I.
he had no sympathy.
This paragraph seems a strong in-
stance of that quality of
Mr. Emerson of stating
out qualification, against
which he warns
cles
"
:
"When
reader that I value as if I
am
on what
obey
I
my
whims,
only an experimenter.
I do, or the least
pretended to
settle
as
me
let
Do
discredit
any thing
He
aspects with-
"
his readers in
Cir-
remind the
not set the least
on what
do not,
I
true or false.
I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with
back."
the dismal, or
no Past
.
at
.
.
my
valued painting, and sculpture more, and the
motto, written long after the essay
itself,
shows
his feeling
of the necessity and blessing of art.
Page 367,
note i.
The low
state
of
art in his
day and
country should be remembered.
Page j6p, note I.
Emerson's
far
sight
and
faith
went
beyond the materialism of his age and country, regarding these as a necessary stage in evolution.