Ralph Waldo Emerson - The Complete Works, Vol. II, Essays First Series, 1903 by gnosisclassics

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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

/^y/j

Ralph Waldo Emerson

18^4

ESSAYS BT

RALPH WALDO EMERSON FIRST SERIES

BOSTON AND NEW YORK MIFFLIN COMPANY

HOUGHTON

BY TICKNOR b FIELDS AND RALPH WALDO EMERSON COPYRIGHT, 1883 AND

1903,

BY EDWARD W. EMERSON

CONTENTS PAGE I,

HISTORY

SELF-RELIANCE

III.

COMPENSATION

^V. SPIRITUAL LAWS

43 '

129

LOVE

1^7

FRIENDSHIP

189

PRUDENCE

219

HEROISM

243

THE OVER-SOUL

265

CIRCLES

299

XL INTELLECT

323

V. VI.

VIL VIII.

â&#x20AC;¢IX. X.

XII.

ART

349

NOTES

371

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS RALPH WALDO EMERSON From

a daguerreotype taken

in the possession

Frontispiece

by Hawes

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

326

;

HISTORY There

great

the Soul that

and no small

maketh

all

And where it cometh, all things And it cometh everywhere.

are

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

one mind

dividual men.

the same and to

Every^

all

common to all inman is an inlet to

of the same.

once admitted to the right of neason

freeman of the whole

may

thought, he

may

feel;

estate.

think

;

/What

what a

that

made

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.

the works of this

record.

Its genius

series

of days.

than

all

rest,

the

Man is

his history.

mind

illustrated

explicable

history

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. ;

the whole encyclopaedia of facts.

The

creation

HISTORY

of a thousand forests Greece, already

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

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

reform was once a private opinion, and when shall

be a private opinion again

problem of the

The

age.'

will solve the

fact narrated

must

"corresponSTto something in m^e to be "credible

or intelligible.

We,

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,

of the mind's powers and depravations

what has befallen

political

movement

us.

has

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

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

-K^feA,

Solomon, Alcibiades, andjCati-

'<V^^ -

'^\.t,

--^a

K^.::

the universal nature which gives worth

to particular

containing

we hedge

men and

this, is

things.

Human

life,

mysterious and inviolable, and

round with penalties and

laws.

All

HISTORY

reason

laws derive hence their ultimate

more or

supreme, illimitable essence.

less

also holds of the

and

facts,

distinctly

Property

great spiritual

soul, covers

instinctively

all

some command

express this

;

at first

hold to

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

remarkable that

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

triumphs of

lose our ear, any-

intrude, that this

but rather

their grandest strokes

the sacer-

feel

is it

true that in

most

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

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

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

eloquent praise

The

and the him and accost him, and he is forming.

silent

stimulated wherever he moves, as by personal

allusions.

true aspirant therefore never needs

look for allusions personal and laudatory in dis-

course.

himself, but,

seeks,

hears the commendation, not of

sweet, of that character he

every word that

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

were from sleep

us use in broad day.

The.stu-

HISTORY

dent

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

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

mode of action

state

somewhat corresponding

of society or

which there

in history to in

his

life.

not

Every

thing tends in a wonderful manner to abbreviate itself

and yield

own

its

should see that he can

own

person.

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,

virtue to him.

live all history in his

greater than

all

the

government of the world

;

he must transfer the point of view from which history

commonly

read,

from

Rome and Ath-

ens and London, to himself, and not deny his conviction that he

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

silent.

sight

must

where

attain

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-

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

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

cares

what the

heaven an immortal sign

fact was,

hang

London and

Paris

a constellation of

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,

many

gay.

flowers

I will

not

Court and Commerce, as with and wild ornaments grave and

make more account of them.

believe in Eternity.'

can find Greece, Asia,

Spain and the Islands,

Italy,

creative principle of each

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the genius

and of

all eras, in

and

own mind.

We facts

coming up with the emphatic of history in our private experience and are always

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

does not

itself,

What

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; must

i^^^oes not see,

not know.

live, it will

What

the former age has epitomized into a formula or rule for manipular convenience,

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

all.

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

;

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

; '

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

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,

the

desire

;

to the mind, or are now.

Gothic cathedral afiirms that

by us and not done by man, but we find it not

was done

us.

Surely

our man.

was by

But we

apply ourselves to the history of its production.

put ourselves into the place and

state

HISTORY

the builder.

remember the

forest-dwellers,

temples, the adherence to the

tlTe first

and the decoration of nation Increased

wood by

;

first

type,

wealth of the

as the

the value which

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

ship,

the minster

must

be.

The

;

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.

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

divine.

all

the poet, to the

things are friendly

events profitable,

For the eye

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

are

this

HISTORY all-creating nature, soft

the~aif,

and

why should we be

and magnify a few forms

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

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

fall,

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

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

look at

changed again.

it its

outline

Nothing

HISTORY

fleeting as itself.

form

;

man we

yet never does still

deny

quite

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

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 !

;

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-

formation in respect to the Greek genius.

have the

are

of that people, as Herodo-

Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plutarch have

given

;

a very sufficient account of

what man-

ner of persons they were and what they did.

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

;

a very

complete

once more in their

beauty as of temperance

limited to the straight line

itself,

and the square,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

HISTORY

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

equally inclined in certain

of mind, and those to which he will see

how deep

A painter merely,

averse, he

the chain of affinity.

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

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."

could not sketch the rocks until their geological

;

HISTORY structure was tain state

first

explained to him.

of thought

the

common

very diverse works.

It is the spirit

fact that

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

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

St.

Peter's are lame copies after a divine model.'

Strasburg Cathedral

a material counterpart

of the soul of Erwin of Steinbach.

poem

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

;

HISTORY

and

flourish

and

tendril of his

work

;

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

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

always

and con-

verting into things the words and signs which

we had heard and seen without heed. with

whom

was riding

A lady

in the forest said to

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

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;

round block

in the

was easy to animate with eyes and mouth, supported on either side by wide-

centre,

HISTORY stretched

once it

symmetrical

in the

What

wings.

appears

atmosphere may appear often, and

was undoubtedly the archetype of that famil-

iar

ornament.

summer

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.

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,

already prepared

architecture to

assumed.

In these

nature, the eye

HISTORY

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

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

;

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

locust, elm, oak, pine,

fir

and spruce.'

The Gothic

cathedral

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

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

his architecture the

stem and flower of

the lotus and palm, so the Persian court

magnificent era never gave over the

its

in. its

nomadism

barbarous tribes, but travelled from Ec-

bqtana, where the spring was spent, to Susa in

summer and

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

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

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

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

all lat-

sea, or in the

snow, he sleeps as warm, dines

HISTORY

with as good appetite, and associates as happily

own chimneys. Or perhaps

as beside his facility is

deeper seated,

his faculties

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,

the

all

that continence or content which finds

elements of

which has

its

own

life

perils

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

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

can dive to

with researching fingers

libraries,

and torsos of ruined

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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 strict unity with the body.

human

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

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

for personal qualities

;

courage, ad'

dress, self-command, justice, strength, swiftness,

Luxury and

a loud voice, a broad chest.

gance are not known.

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

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

any and sharper-tongued than most, and so

gives as

good

gets.

Who

does not see

gang of great boys, with such a code of honor and such lax discipline as great that this

boys have

The

charm of the ancient tragedy, and

costly

indeed of

all

sons speak

the old literature,

simply,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; speak

that the

per-

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

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

the

;

HISTORY

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

known

in virtue of his being once a child

besides that there are always retain these characteristics.

individuals

and inborn energy

like genius

who

person of childis

still

Greek,

and revives our love of the Muse of Hellas. admire the love of nature

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,

sea..

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

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

thought of Plato be-

HISTORY comes a thought

the soul of Pindar

When

I feel

that

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; when

me,

fires

a truth that fired

mine, time

we two meet

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

measure degrees of

count Egyptian years

latitude,

why should

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.

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

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

him with themselves. As they come

concile

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

cannot find any an-

are

mine

much

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,

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

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

be-

man, only by seeing that the oppressor youth is himself a child tyrannized over a

HISTORY

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

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.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

how deep

in all fable as

finds that the poet

was no odd fellow who described strange and

HISTORY

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

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,)

gives the history

of religion, with some closeness to the faith of later ages.

mythology.

Prometheus

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

their account.'

suf-

But where

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

taught in a crude,

objective form, and which seems the self-defence

man

against this untruth, namely a discon-

tent with the believed fact that a

and

God

exists,

a feeling that the obligation of reverence

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.

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

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

slept last night like a corpse,

morning stood and ran

And

and

what see

HISTORY

32 side

teus?

can symbolize

name of any

the ,

but the transmigrations of Promy thought by using

on any

every creature lus

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

fable.

;

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

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

of sense, in

the

whom

men of

a literal obe-

dience to facts has extinguished every spark of that light by which

man

the

man

truly

man.

But

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

more regular

dramatic pieces of the same author, for the rea-

son that

operates a wonderful relief to the

mind from the routine of customary Images,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

HISTORY

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,

sits

an exact allegory.

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

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

triumph of the gen-

all

the postulates of

that the fairies

do not

not to be trusted

;

who

that

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

otherwise in the newest romance

the Bride of

ton

wood

mask

Lammermoor.

Sir

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.

Bunyan

may

all

dis-

shoot a

wild bull that would toss the ful,

by fighting

Lucy Ashton 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,

—

that of the e xternal world ,

not

less strictly implicated.

compend of time; he

—

which is

the

also the correj^ative of

HISTORY

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

dict the

relations, a

fruitage

world he

knot of roots,

His

the world.

natures out of

faculties refer to

under the dominion of man.

bundle of

whose flower and

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.

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

but

HISTORY " His

substance

For what you see

And

least

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

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

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

not

the lovely attributes of the maiden child predict

the refinements and decorations of

ety?

Here

also

man on man.

are

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

HISTORY

Who

in a day.

knows himself

been thrilled with indignation

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,

that nature

of these

suffice that in the light

namely, that the mind its

One, and

correlative, history

to be

read and written.

Thus

in all

and reproduce

ways does the soul concentrate its

treasures for each pupil.

too shall pass through the whole cycle of experience.

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

walk incarnate

You

shall

not

tell

shall

be a dull

every just and

me by

languages

catalogue of the volumes shall

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

with wonderful events and experiences

own form and

features

him the Foreworld

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

man.

shall

new

sciences

new

lands,

and new regions

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

fact

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,

—

of either of these worlds of

old as the Caucasian man,

— perhaps

these creatures have kept their counsel

beside him, and there

no record of any word

HISTORY

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

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

our so-called

we must say and Constantinople What times

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

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

—

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

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

boy stand nearer

and unschooled

to the light

by which

to be read, than the dissector or the

antiquary,'

SELF-RELIANCE *'

Man

his

own

te quaesiveris

and the

star;

Render an honest and ,-

Commands

all

Nothing

him

Our Our

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

by an eminent .painter which were original and not conventional.' The soul always hears an admonition

what

such

lines, let the subject

may. The sentiment they

instil Is

more value than any thought they may

believe your

what

men,

for all

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

to believe that

your private heart

genius.

shall

Speak your

true

latent

be the universal sense

inmost in due time becomes the outmost,

and our

first

thought

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

ascribe to

that they set at

mind

Familiar

to each, the highest

Moses, Plato and Milton

naught books and

traditions,

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

Great works of art have no

alienated majesty.'

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

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

he arrives rance

;

time in every man's education when

at the conviction

that imitation

envy

that

suicide

;

igno-

that he

must

take himself for better for worse as his portion that

though the wide universe

full

;

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

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.

fall,

that

might

testify

but half express our-

;

SELF-RELIANCE selves,

and are ashamed of that divine idea which

each of us represents.' as proportionate

may

and of good

faithfully imparted,

but

God

be safely trusted issues, so

will

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.__ ;

a deliverance

which does not

the attempt his genius deserts

deliver.

him

;

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

What

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

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

their faces

its

own

claims not to be put by,

pi-

enviable and if

not think-the youth has

will stand

because he cannot speak to you and

force,

Hark

me.

ciently clear

how

itself.

in the next

room

and emphatic.

his voice

to speak to his contemporaries.

bold then, he will

know how

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

sure of a a lord to

the healthy

nature.

In the

playhouse ; indepen-

boy

in the par-

SELF-RELIANCE

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,

eloquent, troublesome.

self never

cumbers him-

about consequences, about interests

must court him sthe

man

;

As soon

consciousness.

But

he does not court you.

were clapped into

or spoken with hlat he

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

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.

all

passing

affairs,

private but necessary,

the ear of

These

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

would

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; must

manhood of

members. Society

as is

we in

every one

a joint-stock

com-

SELF-RELIANCE

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

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.

answer which when quite young to

make

to a valued adviser

importune church.

these impulses

above."

saying, "

What

have

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

to be such; but if I live

remember

was prompted

who was wont

with the sacredness of traditions, ?

shall

with the dear old doctrines of the

On my

from within

and you

to yourself,

but that of

law can be

Good

nature.

sa-

and

bad are but names very readily transferable that or this

constitution

the only right

;

the only

what

wrong what

is is

after

against

it.

SELF-RELIANCE

man

to carry himself in the presence of all

opposition as

every thing were titular and

ephemeral but he. easily

large

societies

am ashamed

capitulate

to think

badges and names, to

and dead

me more

right.

ways.

vital,

philanthropy, shall that pass

assumes

comes

;

If an angry bigot

bountiful cause of Abolition, and

this

me with

why should infant

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

his last

news from Barbadoes,

not say to him,

love thy wood-chopper

tured and modest

;

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

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

graceless

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

somewhat

whim

better than

at last,

not spend the day in explanation.'

not to show cause

why

seek or

but we can-

Expect me

why

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

;

need be

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

shall

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

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

ing in

an apology or extenuation of their

the world, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Their virtues are penances.

pay a high board.

do not wish to expiate, but to live. is for itself and not for a spectacle. I

prefer that

liv-

as invalids and the insane

should be of a lower

be genuine and equal, than that

life

much

strain, so

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

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

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.

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

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

that

scatters your

your time and blurs the impres-

sion of your character.

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

have

are

diffi-

and

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.

hear

preacher announce for his text and topic the ;

ex-

pediency of one of the institutions of his church.

not

he say a

know

know beforehand

that not possibly can

new and spontaneous word

that with

all

this ostentation

I not

of examin-

ing the grounds of the institution he will do no

such thing

to himself not to

not

know

that he

look but at one

pledged side, the

;

SELF-RELIANCE

permitted side, not as a man, but as a parish

minister?

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-

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

not the

real

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

one cut of face and

adhere. figure,

come

wear

and acquire by deThere is

grees the gentlest asinine expression. a mortifying experience in particular,

not tory

fail ;

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

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

decorous and prudent, for they are

timid, as being very vulnerable themselves.

when

But

to their feminine rage the indignation of

the people

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,

made

needs the habit of magna-

nimity and religion to treat

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

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.

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;

shall be sure to be

so bad then to be mis-

Pythagoras was

misunderstood,

SELF-RELIANCE

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,

still

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; read

like it

spells the

an acrostic or Alex-

forward, backward, or

same

pleasing contrite wood-life which

let

record day by day

mean

will

it it

not.

cannot

hum

my window

swallow over

are.

into

my web

also.

should

interweave that thread or straw he carries in bill

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,

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

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

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.

you now. I

Greatness

can be firm enough

to-day to do right and scorn eyes,

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

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

Adams's eye. Honor is venerable to us because It is always ancient virtue. it is no ephemera.

worship

day.

love

to-day because it

and pay

not of to-

homage because

is not a trap for our love and homage, but is self-dependent, self-derived, and therefore of

an old immaculate pedigree, even

shown

in a

young person. days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency. Let the words

hope

in these

be gazetted and ridiculous henceforward. stead of the

gong

from the Spartan

tle

and apologize more.

eat at I

house.

In-

for dinner, let us hear a whis-

fife.

Let us never bow

A great

man

coming

wish that he should wish to please me.

will

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

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

Where

measures you and

all

is,

there

men and

SELF-RELIANCE all

Ordinarily, every

events.

reminds us of somewhat

body

else, or

thing else

;

in society

of some other

Character, reality, reminds

person.

you of no-

takes place of the whole creation.

The man must all

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;

a cause, a country,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

A man

follow his steps as a train of clients. Caesar

born, and for ages after

Roman

Empire.

Christ

we have

born, and millions

of minds so grow and cleave to his genius that

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

as Intuition, whilst

primary wisdom

later teachings are

force, the last fact

go,

Spontaneity or Instinct.

For

rises,

not diverse from

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

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.

when we

ourselves, but

we ask whence

SELF-RELIANCE we seek

comes,

that causes,

all

sence or

absence

this

man

its

pry into the souZ

philosophy is all

at fault.

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.

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

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

trait,

not whimsical, but

children will see

course of time

all

perception of

after

before me.

much

But I see

me, and

mankind, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; although

chance that no one has seen

fatal.

may For

a fact as the

sun.'

The

relations of the soul to the divine spirit

are so pure that

pose helps.

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,

old things pass away,

temples

fall

;

lives

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; means,

now, and absorbs past and All things are

future into the present hour.

made

sacred

another.

teachers, texts,

relation to

it,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; one

much

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

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

quotes some saint or sage."

;

no longer

think,'

ashamed be-

the blade of grass or the blowing rose.

fore

These

roses under

my window make

ence to former roses or to better ones for

what they are

There rose

;

ence. acts

;

in. the is

am,' but

no time

it is

There

to them.

perfect in every

moment

root there

and

satisfies

its

exist-

whole

life

no more

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

;

does not live in the present, but with reverted

eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands

the future.

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

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.

are like children

who

repeat

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

live truly,

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

way from man, not

ever existed are

forgotten ministers.

and hope are is

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

think and

derlay every former state of stances, as is

called

life

does underlie

and what

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

;

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.'

talk of reliance

poor external

SELF-RELIANCE

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

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

constitutes the measure of good by the degree

which

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.

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

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

with the cause.' Let us stun and as-

tonish the intruding rabble of

and

;

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

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

goes abroad to

beg a cup of water of the urns of other men.

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

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

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

thy closet door and say,

;

annoy me

No man "

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

;

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

after

them,

brother,

father,

friend, I

appearances hitherto.

the truth's.

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-

parents,

to be the chaste

husband

endeavor to nourish

my family,

of one wife, after a

obey no law

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but

these relations

must

new and unprecedented way.

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.

what

for

you

cannot,

deserve that you should.

am, we

shall be

seek to

I will still

I will

not hide

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

holy, that

sun and

;

I will

moon whatever

the heart appoints.

you

are not, I will not hurt

myself by hypocritical attentions. true,

you and

If you are

but not in the same truth with me, cleave

your companions

this

;

I will

seek

own.

not selfishly but humbly and truly.

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

cannot

SELF-RELIANCE

74 sell

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

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

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

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

enables

But

if I can

to dispense

If any one imagines him keep its command-

with the popular code. that this law

ment one

And

lax, let

day.'

truly

him who has

demands something godlike

cast off the

common

motives

SELF-RELIANCE humanity and has ventured

High be

a taskmaster.

will, clear his sight, that

to trust himself for

his heart, faithful

may

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.

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

fails,

men

say he

born. in their first en-

If the

ruined.

young merIf the finest

SELF-RELIANCE

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.

New

York,

to himself that he

and

sturdy lad from

Hampshire or Vermont, who

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,

and always

shame

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

name

dear to

all

history. It

easy to see that a greater self-reliance

must work education living

;

and

a revolution in all the offices

men

relations of

in their religion

;

their pursuits

their association

;

their

in their

;

their

modes of

property

;

their speculative views.

In what prayers do

That which they

much

call

men

brave and manly.

and asks

for

some

allow themselves

holy

office

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,

vicious.

the facts of It

Prayer that craves

commodity, anything

a particular

life

Prayer

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

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-

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

our hands.

men

communication with

the self-helping man.

are flung wide

crown,

The secret of fortune Is Welcome evermore to gods

reason.

all

;

him

all

For him

tongues greet,

eyes follow with desire.

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

his

The gods

love

him because men hated

him.

SELF-RELIANCE "

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

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,

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

soul

trav-

home, and when

on any occasion

call

house, or into foreign lands, he

and

shall

make men

sensible

his

him is

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

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.

carries ruins to ruins.

Travelling

a fool's paradise.

Our

first jour-

neys discover to us the indifference of places.

At home

dream that

Naples,

can be intoxicated with beauty and lose ness.

pack

trunk, embrace

bark on the sea and

at last

Rome,

my sad-

my friends, em-

wake up

Naples,

SELF-RELIANCE

and there beside self,

the stern fact, the sad

unrelenting, identical, that

I fled

seek the Vatican and the palaces.

from.

I affect to be

intoxicated with sights and suggestions, but

not intoxicated.

wherever 3.

of a

giant goes with

I go.'

But the rage of travelling is a symptom deeper unsoundness affecting the whole

The

intellectual action.

intellect

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

was

arts

in his

that the artist sought his model.

was an application of

his

own thought

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

the American artist

will

study with hope and love the precise thing be done by him, considering the

climate, the

soil,

;

SELF-RELIANCE

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

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

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

the master

ionism of Scipio not borrow.'

precisely that part he could

Shakspeare

will

the study of Shakspeare.

never be made by that which

as-

much or moment for

signed you, and you cannot hope too dare too much.

There

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

Not

possibly will the soul,

eloquent, with thousand

cloven

SELF-RELIANCE

tongue, deign to repeat

itself;

but

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

Religion, our Education, our Art

look abroad, so does our

men plume

one side

christianized,

change

;

it is

new

barbarous, rich,

it is

undergoes

it is civilized,

scientific

;

but

not amelioration. For every thing

given something

quires

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

taken.

Society

loses old instincts.

ac-

What

contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing,

thinking American, with a watch, a pencil and bill

of exchange in his pocket, and the naked

New

Zealander, whose property

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

SELF-RELIANCE

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,

white to his grave.

The

civilized

man

use of his

lost the

feet.

crutches, but lacks so

has built a coach, but has

supported on

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

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

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

the Christian

;

but in Christen-

no more deviation

the moral

standard than in the standard of height or bulk.

greater

men

are

now

than ever were.

SELF-RELIANCE

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

their

of their

really

name, but

will

class will

be his

turn the founder of a sect.

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

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

of war

great genius returns

or to

reckoned the improvements

among

the triumphs of science,

SELF-RELIANCE

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

make

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

his

bread

himself."

Society

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,

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

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

then he

;

him and merely or no robber takes is,

Espe-

he see that

him by

inheritance, or

feels that

it is

not hav-

does not belong to him, has no root

no revolution But that which a

there because

lies

man

pro-

his

respect for his nature.

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, "

itself

wherever the man

lot or portion

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,

friends

will the

God

deign

SELF-RELIANCE to enter

and inhabit you, but by

cisely the reverse. all

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

pre-

puts off

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.

rents, the recovery

political

victory,

a rise

of your sick or the return

of your absent friend, or

some other

favorable

SELF-RELIANCE

event raises your

spirits,

and you think good

days are preparing for you.

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

wave.

through space

less

and pencil

That hurry through

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

no god dare wrong a worm.

Laurel crowns cleave to deserts

And power

him who power

Hast not thy share

And

all

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,

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

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

endowment of

also that in

all

men.

seemed

might be shown men a ray

of divinity, the present action of the soul of

this

world, clean\ from

and

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

sometimes revealed to

us,

many dark hours and crooked

COMPENSATION

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-

ment.

assumed that judgment

ecuted in this world

;

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.

; '

made

both parties in the next

offence appeared to be taken by the

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

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 '

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

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.

think that our

popular theology has gained

decorum, an^

not in principle, over the superstitions placed.

But men

Their daily

life

has dis-

are better than their theology.

gives

the

lie.

Every ingenu-

ous and aspiring soul leaves the doctrine behind

him

in his

own

experience, and

all

men

feel

;

COMPENSATION

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

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 elec-

affinity.

Super-

induce magnetism at one end of a needle,

the

;

COMPENSATION

opposite magnetism takes place at the other end.

If the south attracts, the north repels.

empty

here,

you must condense

evitable dualism

thing

make

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.

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

;

there.

man and woman,

sea,

a single

needle of the pine, in a kernel of corn, in each individual of every animal tribe.

so grand in the elements, these

small boundaries.

The

reaction,

repeated within

For example,

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

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

pensating errors of the planets is another instance. The influences of climate and soil in political

history

invigorates.

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.

;

a receiver of pleasure has an equal penalty put

abuse.

its

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.

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

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

bad

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

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.

preserve for a short time so conspicuous an

appearance before the world, he

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

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

criminal code sanguinary, juries will not convict. If the law in.

too mild, private vengeance comes

If the government

the pressure

ergy in the citizen, and

The

flame.

seem

true

to elude the

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

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

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

an entire

good and its

end.

ill, its

And

emblem of human trials, its

enemies,

each one must

modate the whole man and

life

;

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.

there, so

the affinity, so the repulsion

;

the force, so the limitation.

Thus

All things

the universe alive.

That soul which within us

moral.

ment, outside of us

a law.

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.

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

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

punished,

every virtue rewarded, every wrong

redressed,

in silence

tion

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

belongs

Every mtegrates

there behind. act

rewards

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.

The

;

it is

causal

seen

inseparable from the

distinct until

may

specific stripes

call

seen by the

often spread over a long time

become

so does not years.

retribution in the circumstance

by the understanding thing, but

and

in the thing

Men

The

the circumstance the retribution.

the~A

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

be whole and re-

we seek ;

for

td act partially,

example,

man

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

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,

The

knowledge, beauty.

aims to be somebody

and work

would be the only

All things shall be added unto sure,

live

to set

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

They

be seen.

to this

day

to in

may eat;

Men

seek

offices, wealth,

one side of nature,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

great

the sweet,

bitter.

This dividing and detaching

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,

steadily coun-

must be owned

projector has had the smallest success.

The

parted water reunites behind our hand.

Plea-

sure

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.

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

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

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,

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

object

ceases to see

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

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

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

immortal, he

quite invulnerable

;

old.

107

Achilles

not

the sacred waters did not

wash the heel by which Thetis held him. Siegfried, in the

Nibelungen,

for a leaf fell

his

in the dragon's blood,

covered

not quite immortal,

back whilst he was bathing

and that spot which

And so it must be. There is thing God has made. It woujd

mortal.

a crack in every

seem there

always this vindictive circumstance

stealing in at

unawares even into the wild poesy

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

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

statue to Theagenes, a victor in the games, one

of his to

went

rivals

throw

he moved

down by

from

to death beneath

by night and. endeavored

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

;

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

the highest criticism.

man was

are to see that which

tending to do in a given period, and was

hindered, or,

you

modified in doing, by

will,

the interfering volitions of Phidias, of Dante,

of Shakspeare, the organ whereby

moment Still

man

at the

wrought.'

fact in the

striking

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

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

hourly preached

markets and workshops by

flights

whose teaching is as true and as that of birds and flies. sent verbs,

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

the

a slave, the

fastens itself

the

adviser.

ass.

COMPENSATION

no It

Our

thus written, because

action

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

irresistible

mag-

netism in a line with the poles of the world.

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

the other end remains in the thrower's bag. rather

it is

winding, as and,

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

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

you

COMPENSATION

iii

The

senses would

your own.

shall lose

make

things of

The

dren, of the poor.

get

from

his

of women, of chilyulgar proverb, " I will

persons

all

;

purse or get

from

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

ing him.

meet

They

pun-

are

stand in simple relations

have no displeasure

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

good

for

that

not

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

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.

a carrion crow, and though. you see not well

what he hovers

for, there is

Our

timid, our laws are timid, our

property

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

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

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

In the order of

benefits to those

from

receive them, or only seldom.

But

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

away quickly

some

sort.

COMPENSATION

114

Labor

watched over by the same

laws.

Cheapest, say the prudent,

labor.

What we buy

a knife,

common

some want.

broom,

in a

application of It

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

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

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.

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

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

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

im-

price,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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.

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,

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.

finds that

COMPENSATION

ii6

things are arranged for truth and benefit, but there

no den

wide world to hide

in the

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,

— 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

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

;

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,

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

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

pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance

COMPENSATION

ii8

to learn something

wits,

he has been put on

;

manhood; he

his

learns his ignorance

;

cured of the insanity

of conceit; has got moderation and real

The

wise

man throws

his assailants.

theirs to find his

cicatrizes

skin,

and

falls

more weak off

his interest than

point.

from him

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;

he has

safer than

hate to be defended in a newspaper." as all that is said

feel a certain

said against me,

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

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.

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

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.

mob

makes no

dif-

many

or one, a

a society

of bodies

ference whether the actors be

tyrant or a

a history of en-

make water run up

voluntarily bereaving themselves of reason and traversing rily fit

its

work.

The mob

man

volunta-

descending to the nature of the beast.

hour of

sane, like

activity

its

night.

Its

Its actions are in-

whole constitution.

persecutes

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

;

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 ;

illustrious

abode

;

every burned book or

house enlightens the world

every suppressed

;

expunged word reverberates through

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

Every thing Every ad-

be content.

not the doctrine

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; What boots

one event to good and

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

must pay gain some other

for

;

all

;

evil;

if I lose

actions are

indifferent.

There

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

Being

the vast affirmative, excluding

negation, self-balanced, and swallowing

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.

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.

In a virtuous action

properly am;

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

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,

than the fool and knave. the

good of

God

a station.

;

the brave

man

the true, the bene-

;

man and

There

virtue, for that

not

less,

no tax on

the incoming of

himself, or absolute existence, without any

comparative.

Material good has

its tax,

and

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.

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

brings with

goods, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

wish more external gain

there

apparent

;

the tax

neither posses-

Herein

treasure.'

eternal peace.

not desirable to

I rejoice

with a serene

contract the boundaries of pos-

sible mischief.

But the com-

certain.

no tax on the knowledge that

pensation exists and that dig

do not

nor honors, nor powers, nor persons.

sions,

The

new burdens.

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

a real sufferer but

fault."

In the nature of the soul

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

eye

feels

make of fears

it.

those

who have

less

sad and knows not well

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.

as the

heart

being one, this bitterness

His

of His and Mine ceases.

mine.

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

make

the grandeur he loves.

the discovery that

guardian, acting for

and the own. It

designs,

liest

own

envied

to appropriate

all

wit,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

if it

Such

The

things.

Jesus and Shakspeare

virtue,

admired and

the nature of the soul

cannot be

also

brother

and by love

my own

quer and incorporate them in

His

with the friend-

estate I so

are fragments of the soul,

domain.

If I feel over-

me.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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

short intervals

are advertisements of a

growth.

Every soul

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

out of

its

beautiful

no longer admits of

growth, and slowly forms a new house.

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

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.

cannot part with our friends.

cannot

our angels go. We do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in.' We are let

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.

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.

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.

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

be closed, breaks up a

wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones

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

made

the banian of the forest, yield-

ing shade and fruit to wide neighborhoods of

men.

SPIRITUAL LAWS" The

living

House

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

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''

;

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

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

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

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

at the Latin is

form

education call so.

the time of receiving a thought,

comparative value.

its

call

And

attempts to thwart and balk

magnetism, which

what belongs

education often

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,

no merit

there or he

not

characters in proportion as they

and spontaneous. The

knows about

less a

man

his virtues the better

Timoleon's victories are the best

which ran and flowed

verses, Plutarch

whose

But there

God

said.

When we

acts are all regal, graceful

Homer's

see a soul

and pleasant

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

all

man

with his grunting

his native devils.'

conspicuous

the preponderance

nature over will in all practical history than

less intention in

life.

There

ascribe to

is it.

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

Did

the wires generate the gal-

even true that there was

them on which they could other

;

reflect

as the virtue of a pipe

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

interfere with the

ever

miscreate our

own

optimism of nature

evils. ;

for

when-

get this vantage-ground of the past, or

of a wiser mind in the present, we are able to discern that

are begirt with laws which exe-

cute themselves.

The

Nature

lesson.

She does not ing

much

not have us

will

fret

and fume.

our benevolence or our learnout of the caucus, or the

bank, or the Abolition-convention, or the perance

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,

are full of mechanical actions.

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

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

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

natural

and beau-

childhood should inquire and maturity

should teach

;

but

it is

when they young people

time enough to answer

not shut

questions

are asked.

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.

it.

pew

and force the children to ask them questions for an

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.

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

137

It It

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

man and

al-

the fruit

despatched, the

of the waters

circuit

The walking

ing:

the fniit

When

all

mere

animals

fallis

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

very

ent from the simplicity of a machine. sees moral nature out

and out and thoroughly

knows how knowledge ter

formed,

ture 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

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

may be

reason.

for erudition

One

sees very

Every man

up.'

that middle point

and we

piety,

whereof every

affirmed and denied with equal

He is old,

young, he

altogether ignorant.

very wise,

hears and feels

what you say of the seraphim, and of the

There

peddler.

the hero, as

we read or

ard and the robber that coward

not '

man

no permanent wise

cept in the figment of the Stoics.

;

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.

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

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.

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

listening

need you choose so

your place and occupation and

and modes of

Certainly there

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.

a reality, a

place

fit

and

Place yourself in the middle

of the stream of power and wisdom which ani-

mates

all

whom

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.

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,

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,

which

But

and not

which

that

the choice of

whole

constitution

;

and

heaven, and inwardly aspire

I call

act of

right or good-

I call

that

after,

my constiall my years

the state or circumstance desirable to tution

;

and the action which

tend to do,

must hold

the

work

for

man amenable

I in

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

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

side but one,

that side

ob-

all

taken away and he sweeps serenely

over a deepening channel into an

This talent and tion, or the

141

his organiza-

which the general soul

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.

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

exactly proportioned to his powers.

height of the pinnacle

breadth of the base.

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

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

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

as well as he can to the

work

or trade he

he moves

;

the

in him.

man

customary

falls into,

Then is man is

turns a spit.

the reins

details

and tends

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

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

into the obedient spira-

of your character and aims.

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

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

and society whose

enviable and renowned as

In our estimates

kings.

obscure condition or vul-

that condition

not yet written, but which you shall

presently any.

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

new

man

estimate,

mind

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

will.

that

does, that he has.

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.

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

;

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

takes

multiplicity that sweeps

are set out

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

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

to the

attention shall have

man who knocks

door, whilst a thousand persons as worthy go

it,

whom

give no regard.

that these particulars speak to me.

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

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.

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

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

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,

vain to say,

only into this or that

level in

all.

Men

feel

and

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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

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 ?

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,

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

God screens us evermore Our eyes are holden that

estate.

from premature

his eyes

most precious

his

tell

and he

147

ripened

then we behold them, and the time when we saw

them not

Not

worth he is

like a

sees.

dream.

but in

in nature

The

man

is all

world

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

;

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.

aggerations of the sins of the day.

embodied

evil affections

see our

bad physiognomies. sometimes beholds his

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.

children,

you

anything worse than yourselves."

dreams, so in the scarcely

world every

man

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

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

magnified

quincunx of

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

cleaves

and avoids another, according or unlikeness 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

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

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

were imprisoned in the Pelews' tongue. with a good book as

it is

Introduce a base person all

no purpose; he

society protects safe, is

and he

itself.

mo-

gets, he

Englished, as

if it

It is

with good company.

among gentlemen, not their fellow.

The company

it is

Every

perfectly

not one of them, though his body

in the

room.

What

avails

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

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

shall

have

own

his

ents, the

most

little

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

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

result.

be sure

in us not to praise all is

mind, a brother or

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

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

SPIRITUAL LAWS

151

friend which I encounter on the line of

march, that soul to which

my own

do not decline and

which does not decline to me, but, native of the same celestial latitude, repeats in

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

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

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,

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

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

;

you and you

transfusion

;

are he

;

then

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

will deliver

see

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

escapade, a non-committal, an apology, a gag,

and not man.

works.

communication, not a speech, not

Nemesis presides over

all

intellectual

have yet to learn that the thing

uttered in words

not therefore

affirxned.

SPIRITUAL LAWS must

also contain

The is

The

evidence.

own apology

its

effect

How

much

for being spoken.'

it lift

draw

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 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 ;

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

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

say,

What

needs fuel to

only profits which

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.

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.

- 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

measured by the depth of the sentiment from which it proceeds. The great man knew not that he

was great.

cause he

must

;

took a century or two for

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-

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

affirmative

and

readily accepts the testimony of negative facts, as

every shadow points to the sun.

necessity every fact in nature offer its testimony.

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.

;

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

of truth, his eye

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

despite

all

have a verdict.

This

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.

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

of that

that

fact

all

persons.

unknown

that he can better than

the

do any

any one

acknowledgment

The world

is*

full

judgment-days, and into every assembly that a

man

enters, in every action he attempts, he

gauged and stamped.

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

What

a distant school, his pockets,

in'

an older boy

pretensions ;

as well

A fop

may

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

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 much virtue much goodness

as there

is,

as there

commands. All the

ence

tue.

The

is,

much appears much rever-

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

and accept

heart to greet

man

passes for that he

engraves

159

unexpectedly.

What

worth.

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

beast

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.

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

" ?

the other hand, the hero fears not that

he withhold the avowal of a just and brave

SPIRITUAL LAWS

i6o act

will

knows

it,

go unwitnessed and unloved. One and is pledged by it himself,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

to sweetness of peace

which

will

tion of

tue

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 consists in a perpetual substitution

valent.

of being for seeming, and with sublime propriety

The is.

God

described as saying,

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.

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

not.

are full of these superstitions of sense,

the worship of magnitude. inactive, because

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.'

and

says,

years, like menials, serve

Thus

And

revisal or correction

The

hast thou

all

and wait on

according to their ability execute

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,

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

report

be his diet, his

SPIRITUAL LAWS

house, his rehgious forms, his society, his mirthj

Now

his vote, his opposition.

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

tendencies and a

life

not yet

one.

Why

should we make

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

if I

true, excite

saying,

to the least uneasiness

acted and thou sittest

when

see action to be good, sitting still to

he was the still

is,

and

man

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?

the need

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

apparent

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; SPIRITUAL LAWS I

here certainly shows

had need of an organ here. the post

Shall

with

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

mod-

being here impertinent

than Epaminondas or

Homer

be-

and that the soul did not know its Besides, without any reasoning on

the matter,

soul nourishes

have no discontent.

me and

The good

unlocks new magazines

of power and enjoyment to

every day.

not meanly decline the immensity of good,

because in

The

desire not to disgrace the soul.

that I

will

163

have heard that

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

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.

SPIRITUAL LAWS

Let us, our own

we must have great All action

so.

and the

city,

of an

infinite elasti-

eclipses

the sun and

Let us seek one peace by

heed

Why

duties.

need

go gadding

How

Greek and

have justified myself

Italian history before I

benefactors

Let

fidelity.

into the scenes and philosophy of

make

admits of being inflated with

least

the celestial air until

moon.

actionsj

dare

read Washing-

when I have not answered the own correspondents ? Is not that

ton's campaigns letters

a just objection to

much of our

reading

work to gaze peeping. Byron says

a pusillanimous desertion of our after

our neighbors.

of Jack Bunting,

He knew I

may

say

—

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.

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

let

they choose

— 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

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

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

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

;

—

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

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-

SPIRITUAL LAWS

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

of the true

million disguises.

fire

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

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

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

know

their purple

incur the im-

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

For

seniors.

it is

to be considered that this passion of which

speak, though

begin with the young, yet

sakes not the old, or rather suffers no one

grow

servant to

is its

old, but

makes

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

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

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

shall

171

young and

commend

beautiful,

itself to the

eye

whatever angle beholden.

And

the

first

condition

that

we must

leave

a too close and lingering adherence to facts, and

study the sentiment as

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

know

compunctions embitter

not why,

mature

the remembrances of budding joy, and cover

every beloved name.'

Every thing

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

Details

seemly and noble.

painful

kingdom of

time ^nd place"^^ dwell care and canker and

With ity,

thought, with the ideal,

Round

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

seen in the pro-

portion which this topic of personal relations

What

usurps in the conversation of society.

we wish as

how he

ment

know of any worthy person

much

has sped in the history of this senti-

What books

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

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

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

risk such as

incident to scholars

and

some public

dis-

have been told that

LOVE

174 courses of mine

has

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

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

which made the

;

circumstance asso-

trivial

one form

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,

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

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

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

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

dilates

wood

in the

akimbo and the

twice a

trees

;

talks with the

;

lily

;

he accosts the grass

blood of the

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.

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

;

all

his

makes

the clown gentle and gives the coward heart.

Into the most

pitiful

and abject

will infuse a

heart and courage to defy the world, so only

have the countenance of the beloved giving him to another himself.

it still

object.

gives

him

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

nearer the

thus potent

human youth. Beauty, whose man we now celebrate, welcome

sun wherever

The

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

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

and she

teaches

pictured with Loves steps.

Though

rich.

his

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

are

we cannot

Nor it

destroyed for the imagina-

any attempt

does

or love

find

dainty emotion, this wandering

this

gleam, points. tion by

and

touched with emotions of ten-

derness and complacency, but

whereat

face

to refer

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

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

of things which in

have not found and

fluency

may

all

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

represented

representable to the senses,

Then

first

remark holds of painting. success

not attained when

but when

that which

ceases to be a stone.

astonishes and

And

always

fires

endeavors after the unattainable. Landor inquires " whether it

some purer

state

The

not.

same

of poetry the

it lulls

referred to

a transition yro?Âť that which

and

satisfies,

us with new

Concerning not to be

of sensation and

existence."

manner, personal beauty

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

it,

though he were Caesar

right to

;

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

;

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

intelli-

suggests to

the presence of that which indeed

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

;

the

body,

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

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.

comes to a and a quicker

Then he

one to loving them

passes from in

all,

and

the one beautiful soul only the door through

which he enters to the society of pure souls.

mag-

just, the lover

warmer love of these loving them

conversa-

in itself excellent,

nanimous, lowly, and

the_ hearth,

they become pure and hallowed.

attains a clearer sight of

his

mate

any spot, any

taint

which her beauty has contracted from

and

tru e and

all

In the particular society of

able to point

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

the same. traits

And

beholding in

many

_s,ouls the

of the divine beauty, and separatingjn each divine from the taint which

has contracted in the world, the lover ascends

soul that which

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

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

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.

beautiful,

In the procession

of the soul from within outward, circles ever,

and that

has no other aim.

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,

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-

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

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

Passion beholds

The

object as a perfect unit.

soul

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

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

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

transmutes every thread

throughout the whole web of relation into a golden ray, and bathes the soul sweeter element

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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

in the soul

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

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.

taste

fit.

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

Their once flam-

flee.

ing regard

sobered by time in either breast,

and losing

violence what

becomes

gains in extent,

resign each other without complaint to the offices

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-

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

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.

spend

years, I

in the nuptial society forty or fifty

do not wonder

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

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.

;

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

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

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

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

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,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

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

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

the new, and they

report is

wel-

exchanged

for

a dinner if they

stranger, only the good

told bYLQthers,j)nIy The

heard by us._lie stands

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

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

a richer

are wont.

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

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,

has heard the fim,_the_Jast

will

eve r__heax-fronuxs..^_HeJs no

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

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,

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

himself so to I

who

the Beautiful,

call

in his gifts

embrace solitude, and yet

daily showeth

chide society,

not so un-

grateful^as not to see thg'wSiljt he lovely an j

the^nablÂŁdtBmde3^as from time to time they pass

gate."

W ho hea

bec omes mine,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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,

shall

own

by and by stand in a new world of our and no longer strangers and pil-

creation,

grims in a traditionary globe.

come them

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

and cancels the thick walls of individual

char-

acter, relation, age, sex, circumstance, at which

he usually connives, and

High thanks

owe you,

carry out the world for

depths, and enlarge

thoughts.

These

are

now makes many

one.

excellent lovers,

who

the

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.

from

stop,

195

again, or

some of them ?

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

may

not

;

for

relation to

we hold by simple

affinity,

be.

confess to an extreme tenderness of nature

this point. It is almost dangerous to me to " crush the sweet poison of misused wine " of

the affections.

event and hinders

had

me it

fine fancies

new person

me from

yields

action

pride in

fruit.

sleep.

a great

have often

very

but the joy ends in the day

;

Thought little

friend's

warmly when he

not born of

modified.

must

accomplishments as

were mine, and a property in as

about persons which have given

delicious hours

he hears applause of

his virtues.

feel

they

I feel

praised, as the lover

when

engaged maiden.

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,

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

;

and

in the golden

are su rprised

of suspicion .and nabeljsf.

not

th shades

doubt

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.

strict science all

same condition of an

derlie the

fear to cool

men

persons un-

infinite remote-

our love by mining

for the metaphysical foundation of this Elysian

temple see for

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

its

fact

The

not it

less

needs

root of

not unsightly to science, though

chaplets and festoons

And

know them

though

apprehension.

for

cut the stem short.

must hazard the production of the

bald

amidst these pleasing r&veries, though

FRIENDSHIP

197

should prove an Egyptian skull

A man who stands united

our banquet.

with his thought con-

He is conscious

ceives magnificently of himself.

of a universal success, even though bought by

uniform particular

failures.'

advantages, no

powers, no gold or force, can be any match for

him.

my own

cannot choose but rely on

more than on your wealth. your consciousness tantamount erty

the star dazzlesj the planet has a like ra£.

hear what you say of the admirable

temper of the party you

parts

and

but

see well that, for

shall

tried

all

his

not like him, unless he

Greek

pov-

make mine. Only fa int, mpon-

can not

me.

cannot deny

praise,

purple cloaks, is at it,

least a

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.

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

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

goes alone for a season that

conversation or society.

soli -

may

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

match

my mood

with thine,

think again of

trifles in

and goings.

should never

relation to thy comings

not very wise

;

moods

quite attainable, and I respect thy genius to

sume

as yet

unfathomed; yet dare

in thee a perfect intelligence

so thou art to

;

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

we meet,

poetry into stale

people^escend to meet. All

mus t be

compromise, an d, wha t

worst, the ver y flower

andaroma of

the flower

of each of th e beautifu l natures disappears as t hey

approach eac h_other.

disappointment

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.

makes no difference how many friends I have and what content I can find in conversing with

whom

each, if there be one to

joy

not equal.

have shrunk unequal from one contest, the I

find in

cowardly.

all

other friends

" The

the rest becomes

should hate myself,

asylum

famoused

valiant warrior

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

mean and

then

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

thus

sharply

rebuked*

Bashfulness and apathy are a tough husk

which a

delicate organization

premature ripening.

protected from

would be

it knew any of the best souls were yet ripe enough to know and own it. Respect the natur-

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

the price of

the essence of God,

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

heart, in the breadth, impossible to

overturned, of his foundations.

The

attractions of this subject are not to

resisted,

and

Jeave, for the time,

all

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

much

divine.

to treat friendships daintily, but

do not wish

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

alliance with

whereof

all

husk and tal

bower

Happier, tion

Happy

shell.

ters a friend

all is

its

this

the nut itself

the house that shel-

might well be

know

thought is_-but,the

or arch, to entertain

and honor

draw from

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,

;

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

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

trifles.

gifts all

of fortune may

the speed in that

intrinsic nobleness

There

are

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

the luxury allowed, like

diadems and authority, only to the highest rank that being permitted to speak truth, as having

none above

man

to court or

conform unto.'

E^very

a sec 'At the entrance ond person, hypocrisy ^gins, We parry and

alone

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;

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

its

and eye,

face

most of us society but its side and its

stand in true relations with

worth a

fit

of insanity,

is it

men not?

in a

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

not

FRIENDSHIP

204

and which spoils

to be questioned,

But

tion with him. exercises not

gives

my ingenuity, but

part.

sort of paradox in nature.

seejiothin g in nature

now

friend

friend therefore I

the semblanpe of

and

who

alone ^m^I

whose existeflccfca n

own, behold

being, in

ai l its height,

affirm with equal evidence to

variety

man who

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

are holden to

men by

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

And

yet

cannot choose but remem-

says,

to those

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."

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

gifts,

good neighborhood it

chide the

he makes love a commodity.

;

of useful loans

;

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 *

canjintjnrgive the poet

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

justice,

punctual-

hate the prostitution of

friendship to signify modish and

worldly alliances.

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

;

and comfort through

all

the relations and passages

FRIENDSHIP

2o6

and death.

life

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

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.

known

please

my imagination

other and between

But

not quite I

have

so high a fellowship as others.

men and women

gence.

some of

lore of the

terms, perhaps because

never

warm

more with

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

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

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.

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.

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

never suspect the latent powers of each.

talk sometimes of a great talent for conversation, as if

were a permanent property

viduals.

Conversation

— no more.

A man

word

They accuse

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

and eloquence; he cannot, silence with as

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

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.'

Better be a nettle in the

office

The condition is

ability to

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

magnani-

sure that greatness and goodness

economy

who

;

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

a great

a spectacle.

course he has merits that are not yours, and that

you cannot honor close to

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?

a great heart

will still

be a

stranger in a thousand particulars, that he

may

come near

girls

and

in the holiest

and boys

ground.

Leave

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 ,

sh ould

desecrate no-

by intruding on" — them? and beautiful souls —~— -" Wli III

I II I

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

our covenant

clawing.

Are

these things mate-

Leave

Let him be to

this

touching and

a sp irit.

sage, a thought, a sincerity, a glance

want, but not news, nor pottage.

mes-

from him,

can get poli-

and chat and neighborly conveniences from cheaper companions. Sh ould not the society of

tics

friend.be to

poetic, pure , univer sal and

great^as nature jtself? tie is

Ought

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

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

diamond, are not to be

too near.

from him thy of

niy

fri

him

end

receive a letter.

Itsuffi£es.mer It

little.

211

to give

and of

fanes nobody. In these trust itself, as

will

seen" if the

writ e a letter

and

That seemFIo you a spiritual gift, wor-

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

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

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,

—

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

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

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

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

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

;

the last analysis, love

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

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

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; those wander

rare

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

foolish to be afraid of

too spiritual, as

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

feel if

and though

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,

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.

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:

dent no more.

ther, that thus

seest

I will,.be_

thou not,

part only to

depen-

bro-

m eet^agaiTT on

higher _platform, and only be more each other's

because

are

more our own

friend

Janus-faced; he looks to the past and the future.

the child of

all

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.

If he

friend.

presentiments

days,

the firmament.

then to dedicate myself to them. I

may

them.

them,

seize

go out that

ing into the sky in

may

in that

Then, though

seize

reced-

only a prize

cannot afford to talk with them

friends, I

and study

patch of brighter light.

ought

may lose them which now they are

only that

I fear

great he

that I cannot descend to

In the great

hover before

I cannot afford to

cause.

speak much with

215

their visions, jest

would inde ed give me

lose

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

have languid

shall

can well afford to occupy

then

I shall

again.

But

my mind

my-

regret the

you come, perhaps

only with new visions';

not with yourself but with your not be able any more than

with you.

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

but then-Uaiow well

;

will

evanescent intercourse.

owe

I will

lustres,'

and

now

to converse

friends

receive from

this

them

FRIENDSHIP

2i6

not what they have but what they shall give

give, but shall

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

seemed

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

some of

into ungrateful space,

the reflecting planet. cate the crude

regrets that

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

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.

may

entireness,

It rnust not sur-

mise or provide for infirmity. It as a god, that

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 ?

have

to write

ing and going without, not in the inventing of

means and methods, not in

gentle repairing.

in adroit steering,

have no

money spend

well,

no genius

and whoever

sees

skill

not

make

economy,

garden discovers that

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

senses

in passing.^

real

and constant,

;

PRUDENCE

222

Prudence

the virtue of the senses.

science of appearances.

of the inward oxen. It

life.

moves matter

God

the

the outmost action

taking thought for

after the laws of matter.

content to seek health of body by comply-

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

;

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

works.

office is subaltern

when detached.

Prudence

when

it is

the Natural History of the soul incar-

nate,

when

false

legitimate

unfolds the beauty of laws within

the narrow scope of the senses.'

There

are

all

degrees of proficiency in know-

ledge of the world.

sufficient to

purpose to indicate three.

One

our present

class

live

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

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

sees

and en-

joys the symbol solidly, then also has a clear

eye for

its

his tent

beauty, and lastly, whilst he pitches

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

;

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

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Will

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

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.

The

therefore literature's.

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

conditioned, as they

are.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; PRUDENCE and keeps these laws

that

225

may

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.

sun and

the sky: here

not swerve from

will

Here

bound and

sides, the

the great formalists

stubborn matter, and

lies

to give

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

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.

door

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.

;

without heart or brains, and the stinging recollection of an injurious or very

these eat will

have

awkward word,

the hours.

Do what we can, summer

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-

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

perforce

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.^

the

man who knows know too much of

value of these matters- that a other

things

these.

him,

can

never

Let him have accurate perceptions. Let he have hands, handle

sure and discriminate

;

let

;

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

ripe

vine-

of loose and im-

Dr. Johnson

— "If the

it is

reported

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

timely.

beautiful laws of time and

it will

actions to be

fair

gay and pleasant sound

the whetting of the scythe in the mornings of

June, yet what

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.

and to the

This property

we draw, the

life

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

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.

all

possesses in the

highest degree the property of the perpendicularity

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

senses

trust.'

But what man imprudence

shalv dare

Who

call greatest are least is

spade

task another with

prudent in

this

The men

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-

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

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

pure.

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

;

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.

always ascetic, and piety,

and love. Appetite shows a disease,

bounds

and they

that resist

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

for every defect

who

common

world wreaks

its

small things

will

Goethe's Tasso

revenge.

historic portrait,

perish

and that

him

that despiseth

and

little

true tragedy.

Antonio and Tasso, both this

other.

One

fair

the Third oppresses

slays a score of innocent persons, as

wrong each

little.'

so genuine grief when

some tyrannous Richard

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,

no unfrequent case

a grief

Tasso's

modern biography.

we is

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

his bifold

Whilst something higher than prudence tive,

admirable

wanted, he

an encumbrance.

was not so great

sar

gallows' foot

when common

;

life.

ac-

sense

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

men

;

and now

oppressed by wants and by sickness, for which he must thank himself.' iful drivellers

whom

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

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

in his hand.

There

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,

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,

us,

invested,

;

liable to depreciation

of the particu-

PRUDENCE !ar

kind of stock.

iron

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

over thin

ice

our safety

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.

must not

virtue, looking

loves

try to write the laws of any one

that

no contradictions, but

The prudence which being

only.

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

a stab at the health

PRUDENCE human society. On the most

237 profitable

lie

the course of events presently lays a destructive tax

;

whilst frankness invites frankness, puts the

parties

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

Entire little

foils

self-

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.

Every man

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,

of the good-will of the mean-

uneasy

you

But the

at his ill-will.

your peace and of the

rip

kept, because, as children say, one

Far

and threaten

them hand

off,

men

the other dares not.

bring

neigh-

his claims, is as thin and

timid as any, and the peace of society

;

stur-

often

afraid and

swell, bully

to hand, and

they are a feeble folk. It

a proverb that

courtesy costs nothing;'

but calculation might come to value love profit. is

Love

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,

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

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

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

an unfriendly footing.

sympathy and intimacy with people,

man

refuse

as if

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-

new men, new women, approaching

say 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.

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-

will,

VIII

HEROISM '^'

Paradise

under the shadow of swords.

Makomeu

Ruby wine

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

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

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

a gentleman,'

without end

refuse.

;

but

all

the

In harmony with this

delight in personal advantages there

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.

I will take

fare\yell.

leave.

Dorigen,

Yonder, above, 'bout Ariadne's crown.

My spirit Dor. Let not

soft

Never one I

Mar.

;

see

now

sight;

So, 'tis well;

lord bleed.

teach the

Sophocles

to die

't is

Thou

therefore, not

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.

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

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.

and goodness.

from

them

But with

art

Why

life

should I grieve or vex for being sent

I ever loved best

'tvyill do.

not grieved nor vexed to leave thy

Now

back toward thee

'11

kneel.

'tis the last

duty

This trunk can do the gods.

Mar.

Strike, strike, Valerius,

Martius' heart will leap out

This

man,

woman.

at his

mouth.

Kiss thy lord.

thus

;

HEROISM And

With

with

live

love

the freedom

all

thou doubly hast

virtue

hand

Vol.

What

brother

Mar. With

way

hast found a

words

star

of Rome

to follow

urn.

Martius,

Thou now Dor.

knot of piety.

this

ails

Treacherous heart.

quick into

shall cast thee

Soph.

Fit

you were wont.

afflicted

and with beauty.

Ere thou transgress

247

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

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

;

free.

in captivity."

remember any poem,

play,

sermon, novel or oration that our press vents in the last

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

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

Brasidas, the Dion, the Epami-

nondas, the Scipio of old, and are

historian.

the

all

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

more than books of vate economy.

tart cathartic virtue

political science or

Life

a festival only

pri-

to the

HEROISM

249

Seen from the nook and chimney

wise.

of prudence,

The

front.

- side

wears a ragged and dangerous

violations of the laws of nature

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.

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

its

energy and_ power to

may

The

suflfer.

hero

reis

of such balance that no disturbances can

shake

his

but pleasantly and as

will,

merrily he adva nces to his

own

were

rn usic, alike in

frightfuralarms and in the tipsy mirth of universal dissoluteness.

There

some what no t somewhat

philosophical in

heroism

not holy in

seems not to know that other

it;

;

there

souls are of one texture with it is

;

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

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

of philosophers or divines.

man

the unschooled

him life,

that

the avowal of

that he finds a quality in

negligent of expense, of health, of

of danger, of hatred, of reproach, and knows

that his will all

not open to the censure

actual

higher and more excellent than

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

must be supposed

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

itself

But

finds

prudent also

state

Therefore

then they see

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

;

his

at his act, until

to be in unison with their acts.

men

man

extol.' is

the essence of heroism.

of the soul at war, and

its

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

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,

H eroism, like

butt and merriment of heroism.

P lotinus, 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

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

such earnest nonsense. " In-

deed, these humble considerations

make me

out

HEROISM What

of love with greatness.

to take note

253

how many

a disgrace

is it

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,

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,

—

not for ostentation,

—

be done for love and

do, as

were, put

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

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.

rates itself too high to value itself !

dor of

its

hath, and

table all

and draperies. hath, but

its

It gives

own

The

what

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,

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

life,

Virtue

and

The

its

Poverty

is its

nobleness.

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,

exhibit.

slandered

the perception that virtue

fol-

thee at last

heroic soul does not sell

dine nicely and to sleep warm. greatness

have

I find

doubt not the hero

this report.

of Philippi, he quoted a

the

its loss.

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

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.

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

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

All these great and transcendent pro-

perties are ours.

pride.

small houses.

The

this great

first

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

here,

and

best. art

But we

little,

See to

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.

;

HEROISM

258

very well where he

lies

is.

handsome ground enough tread,

and London

all

The

minds.

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

inhabited by the noblest

pictures which

fill

the imagination

of Pericles, Xenophon, Columbus, Bayard, Sidney, Hampden, teach us

in reading the actions

how

needlessly

mean our

life

that we, by

;

the depth of our living, should deck

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

life

see their air

them speak of society, admire

their superiority

contempt on our theirs

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

work

revolutions.

who

But they enter an

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

who have had

satisfy the

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

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;

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

cheered and refined by the vision.

The ency.

and

characteristic o f

All

starts

heroism

men have wandering

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

that they outrun

appeal to a tardy justice.

decorous age.

was a high counsel that

,once heard given to a

young person,

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

we cannot find consolation of

this is a part

and

relation

261

office to

in the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

thought

my Has

fellow-creature.

that I should never'

make

appear to disadvantage, never gure

which

constitution, part of

nature coven anted with

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

justification.

a capital blunder

you discover when another man

;

recites his char-

ities.

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

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

heroic will always find crises to try his edge.

Human

demands her champions and

virtue

martyrs, and the ceeds.

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

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

temper which in

hardening the character to that will

work with honor,

the tumult, or on the scaffold.

outrages have happened to

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.

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

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

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.

THE OVER-SOUL â&#x20AC;˘"^

But

souls that

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

ample, east and west.

But two cannot go abreast.

Cannot

travel in

two:

Yonder masterful cuckoo

Crowds every egg

out of the nest.

Quick or dead, except

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

another hour of Ufa in

and subsequent ments our vice ;

in those brief

ascribe

experiences. is

Our

effect.

habitual.

their

faith

authority

comes

Yet there is

moments which

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

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

man

has never been written,

always leaving behind what you have

said of him,

and

becomes

metaphysics worthless

old,

The

and books of

philosophy of

six

thousand years has not searched the chambers

and magazines of the

soul.

its

experiments

THE OVER-SOUL

268

there has always remained, in the last analysis, a

residuum

could not resolve.

Man

a stream

Our being is descendus from we know not whence. The

whose source ing into

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

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

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

made one with

common

all

other

;

that

which

all

sincere conversation

which

all

right action

powering

reality

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,

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

;

the soul of the whole;

the universal beauty, to which

every part and particle

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

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

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

may

will,

not use sacred, to indicate the heaven

of this deity and to report what hints

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

shall catch

lighten into

All goes to

many

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

not an

the organs

;

not a function, like the power of memory,

of calculation, of comparison, but uses these as

hands and not

feet

;

not a faculty, but a light

the intellect or the will,

intellect

and the

will

;

being, in which -they

;

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

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

;

And

love.

begins

breathes through his intellect,

when it breathes througk his will, when it flows through his affection,

;

when

The weakness

the blindness of the intellect

would be something of

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.

this

his colors.

man

pure nature every

unmeasurable

Language cannot paint

time sensible.

too subtile.

but we

;

know

that

some

with

undefinable, it

pervades

We know that all spiritual beA wise old proverb says, " God

and contains us. ing

comes is

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.

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

independency of

its

those limitations which circumscribe us on every

hand.

have

The

soul circumscribes

ence of the senses has in most

mind

influ-

men overpowered

;

is,

to that degree that the walls of time

and space have come to look mountable and to speak with limits

The

abolishes time and space.

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.

another

measured from

Some thoughts

always find us young, and keep us

thought

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

The

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

tions of the soul.

time, as

has the

Before the revela-

another.

speech

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

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

And

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

hand,

that in the nature

we contemplate

THE OVER-SOUL

274

external and fugitive, and the other

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

soul

flowing robe

web of

the

;

which she

clothed.'

After rate of

its

own law and not by arithmetic

progress to be computed.

The

the

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

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but by

man expands

there

THE OVER-SOUL where he works, passing, classes,

each

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

the law of moral and of mental gain.

simple

rise as

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

the

soul requires purity, but purity

requires justice, but justice

that there

all

are in the spirit which contains

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

enjoins.

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

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,

own.

live in society;

answer to thoughts in a certain

which

the incar-

in forms, like

with persons who

my own

mind, or express

obedience to the great instincts to

I live.

certified

of a

see

its

common

presence to them. nature

;

souls, these separated selves,

thing else can.

They

passion

tions

but a slow

effect."

call

admiration, pity

;

stir ;

draw me

the

come

no-

new emo-

of love, hatred,

thence

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.

all

conversation between two persons is

made,

common

nature.

That

nature

not

tacit

And

reference

social

;

as to a third party, to a

third party or is

common

God. earnest, and

impersonal

;

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

which every heart beats with nobler sense of

power and duty, and thinks and usual solemnity.

to a higher self-possession.

There

common

a certain

acts with

un-

All are conscious of attaining It shines

for

all.

wisdom of humanity which

to the greatest

men

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

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

said

action of the soul

and

left

oftener in that

unsaid than in that which

any conversation.

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.

tion with

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.

present in

every period of

life.

persons, so

all

man. In my dealing with my child, Latin and Greek, my accomplishments and

infant

money I

stead

have

nothing

If I

avails.

It is adult already in the

;

but as

wilful,

my my

much

soul as

sets

his will

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,

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

and

;

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?'

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

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,

and that what

mark and book I read,

false is

false,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

this is the

character of intelligence."

In the

the

me,

whole in

good thought returns image of the

as every truth will, the

soul.

the bad thought which

find

the same soul becomes a discerning, sep-

it,

arating sword,

and lops

than we know.

will

away.

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,

also reveals truth.

And

seek to reinforce ourselves by

and

speak with a worthier,

that advent.

truth

For the

soul's

here

its

we should

very presence, of

communication of itself,

but

or passes into and becomes that

enlightens

truth he receives,

experi-

the highest event in nature, since

itself,

whom

own

loftier strain

then does not give somewhat from gives

its

individual's

distinguish

;

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

our mind.'

an ebb of the individual rivulet

before the. flowing surges of the sea of

Every

distinct

mandment

A thrill

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

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

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.

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

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

the disclosure of the soul.

The

THE OVER-SOUL popular notion of a revelation telling

of fortunes.

283

that

In past oracles of the soul

the understanding seeks to find answers to sensual questions,

and undertakes

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.

must check

answer in words

ho answer

low

this

delusive

to the questions

you

;

curiosity.'

ask.

really

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

precisely

moment

in their paiois.

these

interrogatories.

did that sublime spirit speak

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.

;

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

separately taught,

In the flowing of love,

fallen.

of humility, there

the doctrine of the

man

already

in the adoration

no question of continuance.

No inspired man ever asks

this

question or con-

For the soul

descends to these evidences.

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.

answer

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

effect.

this veil

instructs the children

to live in to-day.

The

only

mode

obtaining an answer to these questions of the senses

to forego

all

low curiosity, and, accept-

ing the tide of being which floats us into the

and

all

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.'

same

the

into the

see

each

consecrating, celestial,

fire, vital,

which burns until

things

shall dissolve all

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

know

each other very well,

has been just to himself

we teach or behold our honest effort

gion,

own

only an aspiration or

life

That

diag-

or unconscious power.

its

trade,

quarrels,

judicial investigation of character.

face,

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-

one wide

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

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

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,

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

another.

great distinction between teachers sacred

or literary, poets like

— between poets Pope, — between

Herbert, and

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

—

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

can do that too easily myself.

Jesus speaks always from within, and in a degree that transcends miracle. to be.

All

all

others.

In that

believe beforehand that

men

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

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.

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

feel

;

exaggerated faculty, some overgrown member, so that their strength

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.

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

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

any of

works.'

its

superior to

its

The

knowledge, wiser than

great poet

makes us

our own wealth, and then we think

His

compositions.

mind

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

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

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.

proud

;

comes

as insight

;

comes

as serenity

;

THE OVER-SOUL

290

and grandeur. habits,

whom

does not talk with

He tries them. true.

traveller attempts to embellish his life

in-

man comes back

an eye to their opinion.

requires of us to be plain and

ing

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

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

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

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

naked

truth, plain confession

and omniscient affirmation. Souls such as these treat

walk

gods

in the earth,

you

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

ideas.

excellent than flattery.

man and woman

with

most

sincerity

with you. It

and destroy

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

a kind

of praising." Ineffable

the union of

in his integrity

The

man and God

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

It inspires

peopling the lonely place, effacing the scars of

our mistakes and disappointments

When

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,

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.

has not the conviction, but

the sight, that the best

lation

and

fears,

may

the true, and

that thought easily dismiss tainties

man an

It inspires in

all

particular uncer-

and adjourn

to the sure reve-

of time the solution of his private riddles. that his welfare

is sur.e

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

The

good.

not.

are

also,

it is

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,

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 ? ^

be pre-

believe, as thou livest.

;

THE OVER-SOUL

294

sound that

that every

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

all

not a valve, not a wall, not an intersection

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 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

withdrawing himself from other men's devotion. hurtful to him, until

Our

he would

must

will

God

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

him never counts

in that presence,

When

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

on authority

to one.

not

whether the appeal

The

faith that stands

The

faith.

reliance

authority measures the decline of religion, the

withdrawal of the soul.

now

given to Jesus, tory,

it is

The position men have many centuries of his-

a position of authority.

themselves.

Great

for

It characterizes

cannqt alter the eternal

no follower

;

facts.

no flatterer, never appeals from itself.

the soul, and plain.

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

of allowance.

draw

new

whom

and demigods

history wor-

are constrained to accept with a grain

Though

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,

that condition, gladly

speaks through nimble.

things.

is is

it.

Then

inhabits, leads is it

not wise, but

saith,

and dependent on,

mind. I

am born

feel

them

its

all

inno-

feels that

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.

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

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

will

come

the perennial miracle which the soul worketh, and be less astonished at parsee that the world

ticular

wonders

;

will

profane history; that the universe

all

learn that there

history

sacred; that

represented in an atom, in a

moment of

time.'

spotted

of shreds and patches, but he

live

what

life

will

with a divine unity. is

weave no longer a

base and frivolous in his

tent with all places

render.

will

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

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

forms

first circle;

nature this primary figure end.

the world.

God

and

its

the highest St.

the horizon which

the second; and throughout

repeated without

emblem

in the cipher

as a circle

whose centre was everywhere

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

shall

now

human

Our

our first

already deduced

compensatory char-

action.

trace, that

being outdone.

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

a beginning

dawn

;

that there

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

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

soli-

see

and scraps of snow left in cold dells and mountain clefts in June and July. For the genius flecks

that created

Greek

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

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

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

ever, behind the coarse effect,

a fine cause,

which, being narrowly seen,

itself

;

and thus the effect

of a finer cause. Everything looks permanent until to

its

known. A rich firm and lasting fact

secret

women

;

estate appears

to a merchant,

one easily created out of any materials, and

easily

lost.

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

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

life

man

a self-evolving circle,

which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes

all

outwards to new and larger

sides

and that without end.' The extent

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,.

—

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

into a high wave, with attempt

again to stop and to bind. to be imprisoned

pulses

;

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

no outside, no inclosing

wall,

—

The man finishes his story, how good how final how it puts a new face

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

first

the outline of

our

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

the creeds,

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.

is is

walk

not so

much

a suggestion of as prophecies

the next age.

Step by step

scale this mysterious ladder

the steps are actions, the

Every several that

result

The new

power.

threatened and judged by Every one seems to be con-

which follows.

tradicted by the

new prospect

new

;

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

;

CIRCLES

3o6

appear, and presently, pales

all

energy spent,

its

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

not;

goes to refine and raise thy theory of matter just as

much. There

are

fixtures to

men,

we appeal

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

write, whilst I

seems the most natural thing but yesterday

in the

saw a dreary vacuity

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

;

CIRCLES Alas for

pages.

307

this infirm

faith, this will

strenuous, this vast ebb of a vast flow

God in The

nature

;

weed by the

not

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

am tormented

love of

;

yet

if I

have a

imperfections.

accuses the other party.

If he

were high enough to slight me, then could

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

rise

as I

walked

my friends, why

game of when not

idolatry

in the

should

woods and mused play with them this

know and

see too well,

voluntarily blind, the speedy limits of

persons called high and worthy.

and great they are by the but truth forsake

sad.

liberality

blessed

personal consideration that state.

sell

for a short

and turbulent

How

must we

often

Rich, noble

of our speech,

Spirit,

for these, they are not

heavenly

thou

we allow

whom !

Every

costs us

the thrones of angels pleasure.^

learn this lesson?

Men

CIRCLES

3o8

cease to interest us tions.

The

when we

only sin

you once come up with is all

talents

has he knowledge?

enterprise?

and

Infinitely alluring

As soon

man's limitations,

Has he

over with him.

find their limita-

limitation.

It boots not.

was he to you

attractive

yesterday, a great hope, a sea to

has he

swim

;

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.

when

out in a great or where

safe,

of science but

row

;

there

city, it

lets

loose a

things are at

a conflagration has broken

and no man knows what

will end.

its

far

flank

There

may

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

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

from whatever

the intrepid conviction that his laws,

may

society,

his

Christianity,

his

any time be superseded and de-

cease.

There

are degrees in idealism.

to play with

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.

and that

now shows

learn that

all

itself ethical

God

;

that he

things are shadows of him.

idealism of Berkeley

must

and prac-

me;

The

only a crude statement

of the idealism of Jesus, and that again

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

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

apples.

new

de-

gree of culture would instantly revolutionize the entire system of

Conversation sation

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,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; knowing,

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

it.

discourse, silence

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

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,

it.

fill

ourselves with ancient learn-

ing, install ourselves the best

Roman

in Punic, in

wiselier

English and

houses and modes of living.

we can

Greek,

houses, only that

French,

see

a view of

by which we may

we may

American

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.

All the

ar-

not in the en-

on metaphysics, or

Divinity, but in the sonnet or the

daily

work

incline to repeat

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

an ode or a brisk

of daring thought and action.

smites and arouses

breaks up

with

whole chain of

his shrill

habits,

and

tones, I

open

CIRCLES

eye

my own

wings to the sides of the world, and

313

possibilities.

all

daps

the solid old lumber of

capable once

more of choos-

ing a straight path in theory and practice.

of the religion of the world. Christianity tures,

command

have the same need to

from the catechism

from a boat

in the

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

yet was there never a

young

philosopher whose breeding had fallen into the Christian church

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

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

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

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.

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

;

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

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

trivial

import

;

character, the aspiration of

cred all

;

nor can

love, faith, truth of

man, these

are sa-

detach one duty, like you, from

other duties, and concentrate

forces

me-

on the payment of moneys. Let me onward you shall find that, though slower,

chanically live

;

the progress of

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.

The

no virtue which

final

;

all

are

virtues of society are vices of the

;

CIRCLES

The

saint.

we must

terror of reform

cast

away our

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.

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

;

what remains to for these

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,

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

are true, forsooth, our crimes

stones out of which ple of the true

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

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

whims,

me remind

let

have

an experimenter.

what

But

satisfactions.'

lest I

head and obey

the reader that

false.

any thing

I unsettle all things.

sacred

none

;

only

not set the least value on

do, or the least discredit on what

not, as if 1 pretended to settle

should mislead

are profane

;

as true

facts are to

simply experi-

ment, an endless seeker with no Past

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

make

a better.

CIRCLES Thus tion,

Why

there

but

sleep,

no pause, no preserva-

things renew, germinate and spring.

all

should we import rags and

new hour

relics into

call

all

;

others run into this

by many names,

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

way onward.

no need of

;

rest,

;

they

conser-

not newness, not

grizzle every day.

I see

Whilst we converse with what

it.

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

spirit.

nant to secure

tled

;

transition, the energizing

bound by oath or cove-

No truth

against a higher love.

so sublime but light of

life,

love can be

may be

trivial

to-morrow

new thoughts. People wish

only as

far as

in the

to be set-

they are unsettled

there

any hope for them. Life

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.

;

but the masterpieces of God, the

growths and universal movements of the

soul, he hideth

know that

they are incalculable.

;

truth

divine and helpful

but

how

can have no guess, for so

to be

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

away

Now for the

first

bosom an ex-

in this

moment all my once hoarded knowledge, cant and vain.

can

shall help

old, yet has

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

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.

ficulty.

not convulsible or tormentable

The ;

great

sucdif-

man

events pass over

him without much impression. People say somesee how See what I have overcome times, '

;

cheerful

umphed over still

remind

quest

;

see

how completely

these black events.'

have

Not

of the black event.

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

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

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

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

INTELLECT Go,

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

that which stands above

in the chemical

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

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

Intellect

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

gravelled by the inquisitiveness

How can

we speak of

the action of

mind under any

divisions, as

of a child. the

questions are always to be asked, and the

first

ledge, of its ethics, of since

into act?

its

know-

works, and so forth,

melts will into perception, knowledge

Each becomes the

is.

Its vision

but

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

Heraclitus looked

and colored affections

mists.

existed for

upon

a straight line.

sake.

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

He who

immersed

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

/ 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

a subject of destiny.

behold

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

offered for science.

eviscerated of care.

What

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

that grows could

not predict the times, the means, the that spontaneity.

God

into every individual.^

of reflection darkness light

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

ac-

impressions from the its

saith

own way. Whatis

after a law,

and

INTELLECT

328 this native

law remains over

after

has

come

In the most

to reflection or conscious thought.

worn, pedantic, introverted self-tormentor's the greatest part

by him, unfore-

and must

be, until he can

seen, unimaginable,

take himself

Nothing.

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

ingenuity

and wilfulness have not thwarted, have not aided to an appreciable degree.'

Our spontaneous

You cannot come

action

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

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.

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

not

truth.

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,

;

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

;

but

its

virtue

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-

have

first

an instinct, then an

knowledge,

as the plant

Trust the

fruit.

you can render no

reason.

trusting

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

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

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

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.

the hardest task in the world

would put myself

can-

blench and withdraw on this side and

that.

said.

in the attitude to

look in the eye an abstract truth, and not.

seem

No man

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

all

the truth.

but apprehend,

say

will

walk abroad, and the truth will take form and clearness to me. it.

seems

as if

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

Then,

first.

unannounced, the truth

because we shrine.

certain

the distinction,

we wanted. But the

had previously seems as

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

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,

is its least."

speare, in Cervantes.

acquires

legitimately

intellection

Its present

spect what delights

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. ;

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

in art.

who my whim

academical club, a person to

;

who, seeing

cied that rior

;

whilst

experiences had

knew, in an

always deferred for writing, fan-

somewhat supe-

saw that his experiences were as

Give them

good

make

the same use of them.

mine.

new

me and

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

;

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

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

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/

the generation of the mind, the

marriage of thought with nature.

must always go two

The

publication.

gifts,

first

genius

the thought and the revelation, always

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

by which

be communicable

or sensible object.

facts.

The most wonderful

with their subject

them

to the senses.

visible

conveyed to men. must become picture must learn the language it is

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

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.

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

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

;

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

states, with-

possible.'

nature into the rhetoric of

thought, under the eye of judgment, with strenuous exercise of choice.

And

yet the im-

aginative vocabulary seems to be spontaneous also.

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

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

;

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

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

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.

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

true that the discerning intellect of the world

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

intellect

every work.

man's devotion to

INTELLECT a single

thought and by

his

339

ambition to combine

too many.

Truth

our element of

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,

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

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.

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

offence

any better

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

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

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.

talk with accomplished persons

be strangers in nature. turf, the bird, are

them

;

the world

not

The

who appear

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

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-

receive

;

fore

was reflected to us from natural objects

and the profound genius all

will cast the likeness

creatures into every product of his wit.

But

the constructive powers are rare and

men

given to few

a receiver of this descending holy ghost,

may

to be poets, yet every

well study the laws of

parallel

than the saint's

scholar.

and

Exactly

the whole rule of intellectual duty to

the rule of moral duty.

austere

influx.

its

man

A is

self-denial

less

demanded of

the

must worship truth, and forego all and choose defeat and pain, so

things for that, that

his

treasure in

thought

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

gets rest,

likely his father's.

commodity and reputation door of

truth.

predominates

He will

moorings, and

but he shuts the

;

whom

the love of truth

keep himself aloof from

He will

afloat.

matism, and recognize

all

abstain from dog-

the opposite negations

between which, as walls, his being

swung.

submits to the inconvenience of suspense and imperfect opinion, but he as the other

not,

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

in hearing

the hearing

unhappy the speaking man. As long truth

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

less.

Menexenus

that they

But

if I

When

speak,

Socrates

are afflicted

do not speak. They

by also

INTELLECT are

good.

likewise

man

natural

Because a true and

and

contains

man

them, loves

defers to

them, whilst he speaks. which an eloquent

343

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

and universal.

seems

at the

perlative influence, but

Frankly

a new. says.

Leave

let hirn.

Every man's

time to have a su-

at last gives place to

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

and he turns

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

him

to refuse himself to that

not, whatsoever

attend

it,

because

fame and authority may is

not his own."

a counterpoise of

umn

of water

treat things itself also

man

all

soul

souls, as a capillary col-

a balance for the sea.

Entire

One

self-reliance belongs to the intellect. is

his

which draws

must

and books and sovereign genius If iEschylus

a sovereign.

taken

for,

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.

sacrifice a

his

also.

shall avail

were a fool not to

thousand iEschyluses to

tual integrity.

to.

fame

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,

awkward

345 only a more

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

back to you your consciousness.

succeeded

now

;

let

another

not, perhaps Spinoza will.

done, you will find

simple, natural,

rendering

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

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

pure reason, the

When

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,

but necessity

This band of grandees, Hermes,

Heraclitus, Empedocles, Plato, Plotinus,

piodorus, Proclus, Synesius and the

somewhat so vast

in their logic, so

their thinking, that

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.

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

commands

the entire schedule

and inventory of things for its illustration. But what marks its elevation and has even a comic look to us,

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

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

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

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

progressive,

but

itself,

tempts the production of a new and

This appears fine arts, if

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

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.

should

know

spirit

and

that the landscape

has beauty for his eye because

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

;

and the sunshine of sunshine. In a portrait he must inscribe the character and not the features, and must esteem the man who

sits

him

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

for

the

higher illumination which

but

tion

What

but nature's finer success in self-explica-

What

man

but a finer and compacter

landscape than the horizon figures, eclecticism

and what

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

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

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.

ineffaceable seal on the

an inexpressible charm for

far as the spiritual char-

acter of the period overpowers the artist

finds expression in his work, so far

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

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

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

'-'

whose ordinations

tlieir

historically

beatitude

viewed,

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

and

magnify by detaching

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

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.'

the tyrant of the hour and concentrates attention

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

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.

;

should think

in the world, if I

and water, and earth. property of talents,

all

be for their

fire

the best thing

were not acquainted with

For

air,

the right and

natural objects, of

all

genuine

native properties whatsoever, to

moment

the top of the world.

from bough to bough and making the wood but one wide tree for his pleasure. squirrel leaping

ART

356 fills

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the eye not less than a lion,

beautiful,

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

nated

;

immen-

human

any

nature,

direction.

what astonished and

fasci-

work, astonished

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

lines

dwell.

dancing

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

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,

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

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

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

living

its

When

giants."

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

these varied groups

Here

grim ?nd glad,

advantage over

of perpetual- variety.

ideal sculpture,

figures.

what he

have been reading

men look hke

all

that painting

the eye,

here

What

all

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

oil

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

common

that they are uni-

that they restore to us the

simplest states of mind, and are religious.

what

skill is therein

shown

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

the best critic of

with us, or we find

best of beauty

skill in surfaces, in outlines,

art,

human

art.

world over to find the

carry

a finer charm

or rules of art

can ever teach, namely a radiation from the

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

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.

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 ,

will allow

an adequate communication of

himself, in his full stature

and proportion.

nature and culture, nor ask what

Rome

the

mode

of birth have made corner of a

fate

once so odious and so

wood

dear, in the gray unpainted

or in Paris, but that house and weather

and manner of living which poverty and the I

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

through

all.

younger days

heard of the wonders of Italian painting,

had

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,

the spontoons and standards of the militia, which

play such pranks in the eyes and imaginations

of school-boys.

was to see and acquire

When

not what.

came

saw with eyes the pictures, to novices the

left

tatious,

and

and true it

itself

that

;

forms,

was the plain

home

left at

fact I

and me

in so

many

that

lived; that

knew

;

so well,

conversations.

had the same experience already Naples. There

and osten-

had met already

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; unto which

and

found that genius

fantastic

was familiar and sincere

knew

pierced directly to the simple

was the old, eternal

many

gay and

Rome

at last to

in a

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; had I

had

church

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

saw again

in the

chambers of sculpture, and yet again

came

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

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."

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

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

The knowledge

familiar, as if

simple,

one should

of picture dealers

value, but listen not to their criticism

when your

heart

touched by genius.

not painted for them,

was

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

The

past.

Transfiguration

real value

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

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

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

make new

artists.""

ART

364

Already History

old enough to witness the

old age and disappearance of particular art of sculpture It

effect.

The

arts.

long ago perished to any

was originally a useful

art, a

real

mode

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

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

cannot hide from

a certain appearance of pal-

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

may

"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

sweetest music

human

The

never fixed, but always flowing.

voice

not in the oratorio, but in the

when

speaks from

instant

its

The

tones of tenderness, truth, or courage.

life

oratorio has already lost ing, to the sun,

ing voice

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.

attitude

great

and

action.

which drives

ture

may be

man all

new

statue in every

A beautiful woman

a pic-

beholders nobly mad.

Life

poem

or a

lyric or epic, as well

romance.

A if

true

announcement of the law of

man were found worthy

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

are

paupers in the almshouse of this world, with-

ART

366 out dignity, without

poor and

The

low.

skill

Art

or industry.

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

for pleasure, is

As soon

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

;

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

Now men

man.

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

art vili-

its

second-

stands in the imagination

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

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

to distin-

;

ART

368

In nature,

guish the one from the other. useful,

all is

because

beautiful. alive,

Beauty

lature, its

nor

will

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.

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

;

holiness in

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

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,

|tuality

of a planet,

a step of

man

into har-

ART mony

with nature.

which

plies

little

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.'

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

have been writing

a little,

and arranging old papers more, and by and by. I hope a shapely

In a

letter written in April,

to get

book of Genesis. '

son thus alludes to the Essays:

Mr.

gives in

here at

cord out of texture that

lie

work now

840,

—

Mr. Emer-

to Carlyle,

for a fortnight to spin

some

single

thousand and one strands of every color and

ravelled around

in old snarls.

need to

be possessed with a mountainous conviction of the value of our advice to our contemporaries, if

what

that

is.

But no,

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

men

again and again that

read and even review them.

dead child before such grand people.

later

tells

—

church and

of the problems

state, in social

penny

are

tracts'

poetic

Uke Scholasticus of

bring out so small a

Pygmalion

home,

modes and

—

into

' '

shall try if

Four months

good deal of

sight

every day in

«'

in letters.

Nature^ and the various addresses, published

phlet form.

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,

this

extant; nay, that beside friendly

still

the

diligence

You

will natu-

at first separately in

pam-

NOTES

374

rally ask

No,

if I try

hand

invite.

incline

at the history

way

not in the near and practical

all this.

write philosophy, poetry, possibility

anything but history.

And

which they seem

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.

more ture

;

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

a fortnight or three

Expect nothing more of

ship-building,

and

clipper,

new

of the

weeks

word

year he sends raft will

little

powers of construction,

smack, nor

afloat.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

even, only boards

skiff

logs tied together."

In his Journal he wrote, in January, thoughts are foresters.

the breath of the pines

waved.

"All my

841:

have scarce a day-dream on which

blown and

has not

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

man

any one

love better than

here called John Sterling,

have met with, since

a certain sky-messenger alighted to

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

;

that

is all.

saw

the

and, across a whole st/va silva-

what was

first visit to

it,

took

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.

the small

shall

recognized each

one day be a

trio

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

floating

you may

of thought.

find in

...

are not

wish, but

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

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,

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

disposition,

lose

somewhat of our

and the sovereign eye of Proportion.

last.

All sins,

grow out

and

scientific, as

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

certainly did not

write an essay clare

how

become

for

certified us that

and obscurity

account, for every thing

want of

are of

equally related to the soul.

mean, when

I took

this

paper, to

always willing to de-

think our poetry and

that.

he beheld the

which he acted

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

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

very

greater matters, in-

spoU true things."

art, will

opportunity to return his friend's kindness

him

in introducing

much

that I

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,

be reprinted here

writing a preface, tion

shall I '

Half

ing:

' !

side

nay, I think,

;

Eraser undertakes

which accordingly he

of Seven Hundred and sack up the small

Man

There,

tit

with him:

the risk

;

advised

him

which,

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

was

reviewed, as being a really

Write you a Preface,'

will reprint

to have

it;

at press.

for tat, the reciprocity not all

noteworthy Book.

consented.

ought to say, moreover, that

scheme of Eraser's

;

did.

Ten Pounds

and remit them

Profits,'

Eifty.

now

even

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

his writings

hands of the curious here

England some

Waldo Emerson

not entirely new,

distinguished travellers bring us tidings of such a

;

have found their

fitful

way

hints that there

spiritual notability called

Emerson

into the in

New

glide through

the reviews and magazines.

" >

Emerson's writings and speakings amount

A Correspondence hetiveen John Sterling and Ralph

something

Waldo Emerson'

NOTES and yet, hitherto, notable for

377

seems to me,

Emerson

this

what he has spoken or done than

he has not spoken and has forborne

things

Emerson, seated by

silendy

comm.uning with

World

finds

itself alive

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

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

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

it tlie

beyond

all

that

still less

book has no system, systems,

one of

its

soliloquy of a true soul alone under

Cooke,

relates

Ralph Waldo Emerson,

this little

do not advise the

all

day."

Emerson,"

R. Osgood

much with

Co.

1887.

in his careful study

that

five

his Life,

years

Writings,

later

and

of the

life

the Countess

Philosophy.

Boston:

NOTES

378

who

d' Agoult,

how

Stern," told in the Revue Ind'efendante (July)

read a mention of the Essays

in a lecture

to obtain the

book

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

" is

that

he pretends

able for nothing, because

London

to send to

for

" The

to nothing.

bonhomie.

singular

hold him account-

There

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

opened the book. shot like a to put the

fell

upon

Some

beam of light book in

tively at

home.

to read.

The

extraordinary.

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

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

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

very

they were real that

had be-

NOTES fore

naught

;

the book

From

son's works, to

as if I

But

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,

for the

first

Review who had found

bought

to read

volume anew

Emerseems

time."

was not well received biography,

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."

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

(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

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,

Nature, in

works.

" (1836-37)

many of which appear

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

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.

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

this passage,

institution

work of

as instances,

St.

and one

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

his brothers

Furness,

come

and some near

Page 1, note i. Methought the sky looked

all

was base

friends, like

Dr.

to light.

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

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

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

for calling

a favorite idea

praised Sterling's line in Alfred the

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

1659, Marmaduke

Stevenson and

William Robinson.

Page 12,

note i.

"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

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

wife's

Rome,

memorial

Mr. Emerson,

your wife.

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

" Will

the lady of

still

hangs in the

the inscription which

Concord hang up

this

NOTES Italian

somewhere

sun-chariot

loolcing at

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

embodied

also

The hand

that

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

as in the

and

two

Solitude,

essays

on Art,

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

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

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-

edition

first

of the Essays:

in this respect

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

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

left,

nomadism

fact in

the faculty of objectiveness, or of eyes

everywhere feed themselves.

Who

where

with

falls

man, every

into easy relation

thing,

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.

men, and makes him

His house

latitudes as easily as a

wagon

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

how

common

his journal little

exposures and experiences.

he found

his first trip to

return to his proper field of action

was very marked during

ing

Europe,

remarkable

him and how anxious he was

to detain

and work.

his visit to

The same

feel-

Europe and Egypt

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

Concord by

the report that there hospitality to thought could be found.

Their host ministered to their physical wants, and to their

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

had

that faith,

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

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

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,

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,

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.

with which he looks to

be admitted

there:

men

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

his Journal in

he would pay great

at his

village

and hear the best informed

approach.

prices, but

so eager and

NOTES We want

••

that

them

on our

society

want, and, though

want of

for

with his roads,

facts:

all

know.

terms.

talk

with him, I cannot get

does not

Here

is all

side.

do not know what question in Brisbane's

Reed's;

head;

all

to put.

his

—

Boston,

and Atnerica

in his

all rail-

this well-

Agassiz with

Swedenborg

all

Adams's head;

could cast a spell on

their

all

man

this

mod-

all

experience.

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

Fourier

is all

John Quincy Adams's, and

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

own

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

was

with

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

work." Perceforest

note i.

romance,

its

was

medisval French

his-

scene being Britain in the pre-Arthurian

period.

Amadis de Gaul, tury,

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

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

was

a characteristic of

writings to concentrate attention on

on which he was speaking.

paragraph, even, in some cases,

much

"The

"Human

See Shakspeare's Henry VI., Part

note i.

Scene

II.,

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.

lecture,

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

This passage

appears

verse

in Boston

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

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.

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

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.

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

that in reality there is

show

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.

the significance of self-education,

no other,

for all other

nought without

this."

This entry

the latter part of

continued by the passage

Self-ReUance

each can do best, none but his ing with the sentence about

After several subject,

he writes:

jottings as to

world

made from

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

Mr. Emerson sought him out

Rome, may have given

the original push towards the writing of this essay

Reliance.'

this:

and genuine greatness must

" 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

a subject

the higher

qualification

self,

chapter to

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

for

precisely that secret

action,

Paint-King"

Men.

This image

4.6, note i.

all skill

If I

true,

very impotency,

and

toil."

quoted in the chapter

If not these,

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,

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,

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

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

4.g, note l.

391

annoyance

followed his action with regard to the in his church,

and

later,

the notoriety

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

"sad self-know-

It is that

ledge" of Uriel.

Page ^2, note j.

" But it

of aspects.

characteristic case

his presentation

the fault of our rhetoric that

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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.

need hardly be

said that

Mr. Emer-

son was an independent in politics, as in social or ecclesiasti-

movements.

cal

men of thought necessity

own

Page ity to

The

" The

always the same; they

of mediocre men, to take

equilibrium.

equator.

writes in his Journal

to society

sun's path

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

words

else, if

said,

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

contradict

NOTES

392 ,

everything

you

shall

ladies,

It is a right

stood Jesus,

fool's

word.

Pythagoras was

bad then

Is it so

Misunderstood!

misunderstood,

and

spirit

note 2.

And

liberal space

nothing jostle or displace.

So waved the pine-tree through

And

fanned the dreams

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

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

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.

version of this story

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

listen,

and could go out from the

shall

rely.

Page 6j,

note i.

Perhaps his early friends

had confirmed

spoke.

this

felt

woods- to

tendency in him to wait

deliver the message

own

evidence and

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

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;

"man,

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

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

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^,

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

show how Mr. Emerson

proclamation of self-reliance as the guide of

mankind." Page yd, tury,

many

In the

note i.

New England

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

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

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

work made him through

" Woodnotes "

where he

Page 8j, note

first

came

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,

him, there

light illumined

introduction to this essay,

true for

man

will, the wise

Most of

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.

Malta, he

after a short stay in

This paragraph

them he wrote

Naples and

bad

eye when,

his

Naples.

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,

development,

seem

later

much

have been early

apprehended by him.

Page 88, note I. lines

This saying of

of the second motto of

rendered in the

last

Compensation."

COMPENSATION When the ladies

young self,

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

was

chamber

felt

that

first

NOTES

396

thoughts on morals and the beautiful laws of Compensatibn

and of individual genius, which

given sweetness to

came

into the school,

have ever

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

Three years

the

And

—

all

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,

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.'

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:

could have had

if I

could have engaged

at that time, I

would have given

and raised

During the days of

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.

a lecture.

doubt portions

trouble with the eyes deprived

him

for a

time

NOTES of

many

appeared in

sermons, and several pages of it came

" Duty "

from the lecture

397

in the course

" Human

Life,"

given in 1838-39.

In the

his

lonely Earth amid

one among many instances of the charm which

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

Christian

When

one

works." secret

soul

— The

to write this discourse,

man

never long

This

a keynote of

superior to

its

doth him

God

essays.

he could not

its

an obedience to a

— free

Heroism.

;

builded better than he knew.

"The Page p6,

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

doctrine

not so obviously treated of in

might be expected from

" A man

there in

this

passes for

Spiritual

Yet the

expression.

what he

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

a parable.

" The Sphinx " and

reconciliation in the very definition of Polarity

of the

apparently contradictory notions held by the early philosophers

and

priests, viz.,

of the One, and of the Duality that

the

little

obvious in the world, delighted him.

Page pp, note

One day Mr. Emerson saw

child of a neighbor,

whom

he had always thought to be a

sulky chiu-1, playing with a pretty painted cart. the child

who made

fortified

Mr. Emerson

it.

asked

Papa," answered he, and

in the optimism fi-om

this

which he had

temporarily lapsed.

Page lOI,

note i.

ray

My And

dimmed, no atom worn.

oldest force

the fresh rose

good

new.

on yonder thorn

Gives back the bending heavens in dew.

" Song I

Polarity (Physics).

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,

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

after the

by our people of African

serves, as

Page 105,

"Worship"

justice

poem

motto to the essay so named.

note i.

Naturam

expellas furca,

Et mala perrumpet

tamen usque

Page 106, note

Page 106, note 2. note j.

recurret,

fiirtim fastidia victrix.

Horace,

Page 108,

in the

Epistles,

Confessions of St. Augustine,

10.

Book

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

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

Ama-

Next day

returned to him

Amasis

the stomach of a fish sent as a present.

broke off the alliance, foreseeing in

doom of Polycrates.

once

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.

obligation.

wrote:

Wilt thou

This maxim was a household word

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

Wordsworth's

Sonnets

Liberty

"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.

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

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

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

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

into

its

the same as

The

translation

pleasing Latin form,

God,

a striking

"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

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

an abiding good

growth and

description of the

of the

liberation

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;

some neighboring town lished, but

was not

have been given in

may have been just

before

tory

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

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.

Great be the manners of the bard.

shall

With

not his brain encumber

the coil of

rhythm and number;

But, leaving rule and pale forethought.

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

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-

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;

Ticonderoga.

Dr. Ripley had been

Mr. Emerson

his wife's grandchildren.

his visit to the

Old Manse

" 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.

like a

war-

face has

all

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-

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

poetic temperament.

dare say

never had the time to think of

Pi^gf

133

National Independence , part

The

note I.

said he,

"but I've

From Wordsworth's Sonnet XII.

P''g^ I33t note 2.

Poems dedicated

am,"

so I really can't say."

it,

relative value

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

for

him," he found

knew

in the text-books at

little

school or college, besides the classics, that interested him.

" Heroism " he tells of " over a boy who grasps at school;

pose.

power

pride,

dilate in

that

it is

for

good of

romance

the forbidden book under the bench

our delight in the hero

...

Roman

the

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

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

which the breath of God doth blow

universal music.

Page 133, note her flustered

little

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

little

motto

humor,

to the essay

(360-270

c),

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.

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,

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.

she found an obstruc-

She objected

any particular course of acting.

having

an impression, or an intimation,

was none of them.

was

so simple

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:

away

of forms.

—

to Hotspur,

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

of influencing some opponents of the Covenanters by prospects of worldly gain, but thus

tells

in his

wrath of the incor-

But

and brow

ruptibihty of the

young nobleman who opposes them:

Lord Evandale

a malignant of heart like flint

adamant; the goods of

world

this

fall

on him

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

work

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.

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."

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,

—

never hero more.

he knew not what

to say,

he swore.

Byron's Island, Canto III., It

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

not any the

being the flowering out of a poetical bud of George

Herbert's."

Teach me, In

my God

Elixer," beginnmg

—

and King,

things thee to see

all

and especially to the verse

"The

alludes to

;

—

servant with this clause

Makes drudgerie

Who

sweeps

Makes

that

and

divine

room

;

as for thy laws.

th' action fine.

LOVE This essay

almost identical with the fourth lecture in the

"Human

Life," given in Boston by

course

in the

winter of 1838-39.

He made

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

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

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.

written to a friend in the year of the publication

passage occurs

this

" The same

Goodness

alway believes on

—

which we believe, or rather which

soon as

itself, as

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

on some mortal form, but

rests

but, as every leaf represents to us

Love

represents.

all

looks through that spotted, blighted

element of which

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

are not so

our thought

quickly pass away, but the

on accumulating

as the

;

are gritved, but

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

own

his

rendering

gem

was

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

invited to tea at his house.

young school-teacher was

was,

as ever, courteous

had gone, he mentioned

her, and, though

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

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.

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.

looketh seldom in their fate.

His eyes explore the ground,

The

green grass

Whereon

—

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

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

by sense withdrawing

which seems.

to that

Harvard University, says of this para-

"It

Emerson's,

distinctly

and

Platonic,

seems to be an echo of the Phadrus, where the entombment

of the soul

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,

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

' '

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

From Abraham Cowley's

=ÂŤ

Resolved

;

NOTES be Beloved," in The Mistress ;

411 Several Copies of Love

or.

Letters.

FRIENDSHIP This essay was not given as a

ably

this title

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

in the course

"The Philosophy of History" (1836-37), from "The Heart" in the course on "Human

given in Boston the following year.

portions of

Present

come

Age"

(1839-40). Friendship,

"too good so high

was

Mr. Emerson

his standard that

and

this blessing

cast the

Friends to I

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.

out of evil" for him.

take the greatest their

little

their

unknown

The

shall not

But here too was

them

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

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

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

find

essay on

publication

...

send you

tion, a piece

may

its

which

fitter for

favor of the skies.

intelligible,

that

Certainly

your

attractive ftill

it ;

so high

"I I

that

Letters Jrom

Co., 1899.

this

the

I get

we cannot walk we would find the secret. circles,

and the

instincts

as follows

whim

one on the matter.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

must thank the Quaker City, however,

viction,

lecturing in Philadelphia, in January,

same friend

and sacred,

Nature's roads are not turnpikes, but

While

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,

argu-

and these not describable, often not

but not the

Because the subject straight

you

trust

The

comes only by the

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

for a

was

a Friend.

843, he wrote

the

new

con-

brightest

Houghton,

Mifflia

NOTES Eden

thought in what

two

the

first

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

I think

occurred.

it first

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

travellers.

doubt you

quite real in the world,

wrote on the Immortality of

first

Yet

topic.

nothing more

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

therefrom and buried in

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

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

things

shall tell

in his behavior

repose."

Page J gi, note I.

" 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

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

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.

and

this road,

Not only

walk.

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

it 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

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

John

Sterling,

29, 1840, a few months before the publication of

essay, ship,

Visit," Poems.

Mr. Emerson wrote

and cannot

find

ÂŤ' I

any other good equal

As soon

it.

any man pronounces the words which approve him great office, I

make no

haste

this

worshipper of Friend-

holy;

let

fit

for that

be holy

also;

NOTES why

our relations are eternal;

weeks in

had

which

The

Page 203, note i.

allusion

whom

and a

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

things said; these

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-

not in a natural, and probably

a treasure of a companion, and

had with him most memorable conversations."

He I

will think

At so.

records that

Very

said to

him

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.

was

as if

Page 204, note Book

I., chapter

xxxix.,

Page 207, same rule held.

the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

â&#x20AC;˘'

me."

from Montaigne,

Consideration upon Cicero."

In converse with Nature he

Nature says

man,

One

felt

to one,

that

Journal.

Page 208, note i.

" Etienne

This quotation

note I.

dear.'

was not quite

a vein of colder air blew across

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."

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

admire by

The

him.

young

so if his

" Mr.

desired

friend could truthfully say that

made

This the youth decided that he could not do.

fitting.

seems to

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

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

note i.

in the

or anything else.

less

See the

edition these

first

money of God

only

poem " Rubies."

This paragraph closes in the

with the sentence, "It

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

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

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

" 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

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,

calls it in

—

tota in

minimis existat

So accepting Plato's word that the macrocosm

may be known by

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»

NOTES

tion.

English,

example of the

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

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

to firm,

flight.

The

note I.

and

"Aspects"

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.

what

common

and Biographical

Page 223,

note 2.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; "The

Stevenson's

essay

Virginlbus Puerisque, in

" never

would seem

to forget

the glory

complimentary estimate of pro-

" Compensation."

"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

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

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

genial

and dear.

As Southern wrath Is but

in the

When The

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.

flovring

was impor-

firm, with feet planted

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

argument, whether as a weapon offensive or

His

defensive. letter

He who

feeling

friend.

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.,

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

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

Much

lesse

a present for a mightie king.)

As gunnes

make any one

destroy, so

thine enemie.

may

little sling.

HEROISM This essay

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

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

his recognition

now

social,

to tend

would undertake truth,

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.

this list

of plays,

all

from Beaumont

and Fletcher, Mr. Emerson evidently trusted to his memory,

and gave play

the

one the name from a leading character. There

name of " Sophocles," but

the extract given

from

NOTES

422

a piece called

" The Triumph

Four Plays in One," the special play being of Honor."

This

founded on a story of

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

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

life,

and

his love

of heroes,

of the high destiny

his clear convictions

of the Soul."

Page 2^0, that

This paragraph

note j.

suggestive of

written in "Aristocracy," in Lectures

cal Sketches.

Page 2^1,

note i.

So nigh

grandeur to our dust.

So near

God

When Duty The

youth

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

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

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

of untimely, exacting, and wearisome

journals of complaint

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

and

let

going with

Having thus

â&#x20AC;˘

this

conquered Hannibal and Carthage

him

;

and Quintus accused

my crown

that pleaseth stay said,

he went

his

;

very day,' I

for

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.

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

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

" Page 260, what you

" Scorn

note i.

are afraid to

Emerson boys received has

left

cal Sketches.

was the

lift

your aims

;

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

the freedom of their state.

privilege

of certain boys

She gave high counsels.

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.

established his paper,

maintaining anti-slavery views.

Riots

friends

resulted,

and three

then settled in Alton,

presses, furnished in succession

of the cause, were destroyed. press.

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.

stood upon his rights under the Constitution to pubHsh his

beliefs freely.

God

in his providence

think

ing

—

has devolved upon

so say

all

the responsibility of maintain-

ground here; and, Mr. Chairman,

it.

voice comes to

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:

determined

from Maine, from Massachu-

New

York, from Pennsylvania,

—

yea, from Kentucky, from Mississippi, from Missouri, call-

ing

upon me

in the

that

shall die at

you

You

all.

/ will stand.

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

November

you

authorities to

httle

was

set

fire,

They

stone

company who

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

know

will not forsake it."

undertook to defend the right of free speech. of

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

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

opinion twenty years before

freedom.

its

champion

Page 262,

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

;

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

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

sophy of History

"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

against

man

thought was every-

versal

declared

says

calls this

transcendent

cannot be called a faculty, and

human mind.

It is identical

with the Uni-

Reason, a spark from which enters the

human mind.

share in,

the

immediate beholding of

as the

but partake of it.

it,

says there

most

personal property of the

less a

not possess

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

[the philosophy of Locke and

Bentham, and of many English Unitarians] that

coun-

this

1830, received mainly through Coleridge

and

but one reason, which

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

commenting on

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

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

Mr. Emerson

where he gave

Page 267,

Mr. Emerson

the

law more compactly than in

Page 268,

a flame

note 2.

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.

" Euthanasia."

Hardly anywhere

note I.

leaven of conscience would

Life

title

stated his belief in the sure

Mr. Emerson took

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

impossible.

scious of this fact as the reader of his rhapsody,

more profoundly penetrated with .

The

Over-Soul

as fiilly

—

con-

nay, he

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

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

This suggests the expressions of Cole-

Page 2yo, note j. ridge as rendered

the essay

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

Page

"The :

" All

Page 2JS> irav

"Ode

else

""f^ !•

idle

The

also a familiar

Page 27J,

Beauty," Poems; used

In the is

of Xenophanes, and

nides,"

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

wearing."

venerable and awfiil Parme-

Through

note 2.

edition this last clause

doctrine of

" the

also as

Series.

their virtue,

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

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.

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,

does it."

Page 2^8,

The

a great

and Country during and

in the State

—

" The Problem,"

recur in Emerson's teachings.

builded better than he knew,

—

has passed into a proverb.

Page this

2'/8, note 3.

image

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

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

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

them

show

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

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

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,

note 2.

his first letter to

—

««

In-

John Sterling Emer-

son said, speaking of Sterling's paper on Carlyle,

NOTES

432

admired the rare behavior, with

heed the things said

far less

Page 288, note I. Journal,

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

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

Dr. Holmes spoke of him

this passage,

seemed

that they should

really objects

formalism,

of worship.

...

" I and

men

could

idols

" an iconfrom

their

an act of worship."

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

free.

Problem," Poems.

of grief, printed among the

Appendix

in the

Page 2g2,

Page

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

were

was

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

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

433 sermon preached, prob-

ably in the following winter, in East Lexington.

son cared so

much

Mrs. Emer-

for this passage that she gave

to her

children to read while they were very young.

Page

2g'j, note i.

ray

dimmed, no atom worn.

oldest force

And

good

new.

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

of September,

lecture of that I

840, in

Mr. Emerson wrote: prosper,

and when

"My is

name

a letter to

recorded.

the

Miss Elizabeth Hoar,

chapter on 'Circles' begins to

October

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

less true that

Compensation

which always returns

it is

to reconcile this rigidity of unal*

of human progress.

Hence

there

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

not found,

Unit and Universe are round.

"Uriel," Foems. Page 301, note

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;

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

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

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

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

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.

was Mr. Emerson's own habit one

lectures, after presenting strongly

his

suddenly to show the other aspect of

side

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

Hearken once more," he

of the

tells

(Appendix),

passage

beginning,

instability

of apparent

the

II.,

Uriel," Poems.

Poet,"

permanencies.

Page 312, to nature,

The

note i.

from society

Emerson, the

"The

edly there

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

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.

brave the landscape's looks.

" Waldeinsamkeit," Page 313, soul with

the

God

"Address

The need

note i. is

dwelt upon

to the Senior Class

Poems.

of direct relation of the

length in the latter part of

of the Divinity School"

"Let me admonish you, and dare to love God without

Nature, Addresses, and Lectures: first

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

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

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

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

"Literature" in the course on

" Genius "

in that

"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

physics.

boked

Memoir,

way

the

book

into a metaphysical

ever looked

pleasure in systems of meta-

" Who

even once said in a lecture,

"Yet,"

twice?"

And what

has not

sensible

Mr. Cabot

man

says in his

the repulsiveness lay not in the subject, but in

which

it is

treated."

wished

the

state

laws and powers of the mind as simply and as attractively as

the physical laws are stated

welcomed

all

Owen

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

England

two

courses at

failing strength

After his death able

he planned a work on the Natural

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

But he was prevented

what matter was

this gives

the

title

avail-

to the vol-

History of Intellect.

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

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.

avenues which

never

Page 328, note I. of Intellect ered

' '

an ethereal

sea,

and

tue into every creek

human house

inlet

which

whom

visiting

making day where

When

departs,

the light, public

will

fee or

and

Intellect

its

History consid-

But

whole

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

by "what we

said in his letter to Sterling."

miscall

Art,"

together, but purposely did not elaborate the argument, left to

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.

It is

little

seed," found in the

here omitted.

Page JJj', note facts, dull, strange

" Day

creeps after day, each

despised things.

And

flill

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

God."

an Epiphany of

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-

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

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

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

saw.

whatever glows or seems

Into substance, into law. *'

Fragments on the Poet," Poems, Appendix.

The

Tage 341, note i.

the scholar are dwelt

duties

and

"The

"The Man

Nature, Addresses, and Lectures, and in Letters

" and " The

Scholar

sacrifice required

American Scholar"

in Lectures

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

Neo-platonists,

whom many

Page 346, note i. It

that

repre-

" read

one should not mis-

own.

name given

to a group

from

Trismegistus (thrice great), a Greek

god Thoth,

lips.

of philoso-

the

mythical

name

for the

Hermes Egyptian

of these writings were ascribed.

This saying

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

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

there.

saw the

Rome. Looking for endowed with color,

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.

statues in the

sad

works of Michelangelo and Raphael

temperance, simplicity and perfect

always charmed him.

saw

taste of

the Elgin Marbles

London.

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

the motto 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

a Friend.

Houghton, Mifflin

in a school-

& Co.,

899.

NOTES boy's play.

mon

Journal.

pick up an old bruised tin milk pan that was rusting by

the roadside, and, poising it

saw

443

boy on the Concord Com-

on the top of a

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,

tout

a toutes vos formes, a toutes vos

faire

ce que consritue

cependant dans

restent

tiendrez

Fates

travail ascensionnel vers

les limites

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.

of the useful and the

ator

thing

usefiil

modele."

" The

;

the alone cre-

therefore to

make any-

or beautiful the individual must be submitted to

the universal

mind."

Page 3S3, note

— " Art,"

Ssckty and Solitude.

These thoughts

poem " The Problem " and this

universal soul

beautiful

are expressed in his

in the essay

" History "

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,

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.

—

differ,

well and wisely put

;

squirrel to the

moun-

—

NOTES

444 If

cannot carry forests on

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

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,

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

Rome

Scene v.

;

filled all

Heathendom,

when

lay on

Page 362, note

I.,

Fragments on the Poet," in

of a random word, overheard from the

and found it

hearth

" Newton

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.

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

on what

obey

whims,

only an experimenter.

I do, or the least

pretended to

settle

let

discredit

any thing

aspects with-

his readers in

Cir-

remind the

not set the least

on what

do not,

true or false.

I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with

back."

the dismal, or

no Past

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

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.