RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
422 his
own mind he added from
rest
the tradition, and the
would be Transcendentalism."
Emerson's sympathies, in that age of renovation, of confident outlook to the speedy removal of the ills that beset man's condition, were of course with the renovators, the temperance men, the abolitionists, the seekers after improved forms of society. But " abolition, or abstinence from rum, or any
other far-off external virtue should not divert attention from
we
the all-containing virtue which
vainly dodge and postpone, but which must be met and obeyed at last, if we wish to be substance, and
not accidents."
The
stress that
was
laid
on the
importance of
improved conditions, of associations to help men to escape from bodily or mental bondage,
made him think
prime necessity that the
the
more strongly of the
man
himself should be re-
newed, before any alterations of his condition can be of much help to him. " If the man were dewrites to a [he mocratized and
friend]
made kind and
faithful in his heart,
the whole sequel would flow easily out and instruct us in what should be the new world ; nor should
we need
to be always laying the axe at the root of
this or that vicious institution."
In Emerson's philosophy "
all
that
we
call Fate,"
or external condition, has to be reckoned with, since it is
the counterpart of our internal condition, and its own so long as that remains unchanged.
holds
Here are some
extracts
from
his journal in
1840
:
—