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

Page 82

SELF-RELIANCE

64 allax,

without calculable elements, which shoots

a ray of beauty even into trivial and impure actions, if the least

pear

The

?

mark of independence ap-

inquiry leads us to that source, at

once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life,

which we

denote all

this

call

In that deep

tuitions.'

analysis cannot

behind which

things find their

all

common

origin.

the sense of being which in calm hours

know

not how, in the soul,

things,

from space, from

We

as Intuition, whilst

primary wisdom

later teachings are

force, the last fact

go,

Spontaneity or Instinct.

For

rises,

we

not diverse from

is

light,

from time, from

man, but one with them and proceeds obviously from the same source whence their life and being also proceed. We first share the life by which things exist and afterwards see them as appearances in nature and forget that we have shared their cause.

of thought.

Here Here

is

the fountain of action and

are the lungs of that inspi-

ration which giveth

man wisdom and which

cannot be denied without jmpiety and atheism.

We lie in the lap of immense makes us

receivers of

its activity.

its

When we

discern truth,

intelligence,

truth and organs of

discern justice,

we do nothing of

allow a passage to

its

which

beams.

If

when we

ourselves, but

we ask whence


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