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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2945-h.zip b/2945-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae93a52 --- /dev/null +++ b/2945-h.zip diff --git a/2945-h/2945-h.htm b/2945-h/2945-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..170d079 --- /dev/null +++ b/2945-h/2945-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5840 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Essays, Second Series, by Ralph Waldo Emerson + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Essays, Second Series, by Ralph Waldo Emerson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Essays, Second Series + +Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson + +Release Date: December 1, 2008 [EBook #2945] +Last Updated: January 26, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS, SECOND SERIES *** + + + + +Produced by Tony Adam, and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + ESSAYS, SECOND SERIES + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Ralph Waldo Emerson + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + Contents + </h3> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4"> + <tbody> + <tr> + <td> + <a + href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2944/2944-h/2944-h.htm">Previous + Volume</a> + </td> + </tr> + </tbody> + </table> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I. THE POET. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II. EXPERIENCE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> III. CHARACTER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> IV. MANNERS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> V. GIFTS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> VI. NATURE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> VII. POLITICS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> VIII. NONIMALIST AND REALIST. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. </a> + </p> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + THE POET. + + A moody child and wildly wise + Pursued the game with joyful eyes, + Which chose, like meteors, their way, + And rived the dark with private ray: + They overleapt the horizon's edge, + Searched with Apollo's privilege; + Through man, and woman, and sea, and star + Saw the dance of nature forward far; + Through worlds, and races, and terms, and times + Saw musical order, and pairing rhymes. + + Olympian bards who sung + Divine ideas below, + Which always find us young, + And always keep us so. + + +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + I. THE POET. + </h2> + <p> + Those who are esteemed umpires of taste are often persons who have + acquired some knowledge of admired pictures or sculptures, and have an + inclination for whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they are + beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are like fair pictures, you + learn that they are selfish and sensual. Their cultivation is local, as if + you should rub a log of dry wood in one spot to produce fire, all the rest + remaining cold. Their knowledge of the fine arts is some study of rules + and particulars, or some limited judgment of color or form, which is + exercised for amusement or for show. It is a proof of the shallowness of + the doctrine of beauty as it lies in the minds of our amateurs, that men + seem to have lost the perception of the instant dependence of form upon + soul. There is no doctrine of forms in our philosophy. We were put into + our bodies, as fire is put into a pan to be carried about; but there is no + accurate adjustment between the spirit and the organ, much less is the + latter the germination of the former. So in regard to other forms, the + intellectual men do not believe in any essential dependence of the + material world on thought and volition. Theologians think it a pretty + air-castle to talk of the Spiritual meaning of a ship or a cloud, of a + city or a contract, but they prefer to come again to the solid ground of + historical evidence; and even the poets are contented with a civil and + conformed manner of living, and to write poems from the fancy, at a safe + distance from their own experience. But the highest minds of the world + have never ceased to explore the double meaning, or shall I say the + quadruple or the centuple or much more manifold meaning, of every sensuous + fact; Orpheus, Empedocles, Heraclitus, Plato, Plutarch, Dante, Swedenborg, + and the masters of sculpture, picture, and poetry. For we are not pans and + barrows, nor even porters of the fire and torch-bearers, but children of + the fire, made of it, and only the same divinity transmuted and at two or + three removes, when we know least about it. And this hidden truth, that + the fountains whence all this river of Time and its creatures floweth are + intrinsically ideal and beautiful, draws us to the consideration of the + nature and functions of the Poet, or the man of Beauty; to the means and + materials he uses, and to the general aspect of the art in the present + time. + </p> + <p> + The breadth of the problem is great, for the poet is representative. He + stands among partial men for the complete man, and apprises us not of his + wealth, but of the common wealth. The young man reveres men of genius, + because, to speak truly, they are more himself than he is. They receive of + the soul as he also receives, but they more. Nature enhances her beauty, + to the eye of loving men, from their belief that the poet is beholding her + shows at the same time. He is isolated among his contemporaries by truth + and by his art, but with this consolation in his pursuits, that they will + draw all men sooner or later. For all men live by truth and stand in need + of expression. In love, in art, in avarice, in politics, in labor, in + games, we study to utter our painful secret. The man is only half himself, + the other half is his expression. + </p> + <p> + Notwithstanding this necessity to be published, adequate expression is + rare. I know not how it is that we need an interpreter, but the great + majority of men seem to be minors, who have not yet come into possession + of their own, or mutes, who cannot report the conversation they have had + with nature. There is no man who does not anticipate a supersensual + utility in the sun and stars, earth and water. These stand and wait to + render him a peculiar service. But there is some obstruction or some + excess of phlegm in our constitution, which does not suffer them to yield + the due effect. Too feeble fall the impressions of nature on us to make us + artists. Every touch should thrill. Every man should be so much an artist + that he could report in conversation what had befallen him. Yet, in our + experience, the rays or appulses have sufficient force to arrive at the + senses, but not enough to reach the quick and compel the reproduction of + themselves in speech. The poet is the person in whom these powers are in + balance, the man without impediment, who sees and handles that which + others dream of, traverses the whole scale of experience, and is + representative of man, in virtue of being the largest power to receive and + to impart. + </p> + <p> + For the Universe has three children, born at one time, which reappear + under different names in every system of thought, whether they be called + cause, operation, and effect; or, more poetically, Jove, Pluto, Neptune; + or, theologically, the Father, the Spirit, and the Son; but which we will + call here the Knower, the Doer, and the Sayer. These stand respectively + for the love of truth, for the love of good, and for the love of beauty. + These three are equal. Each is that which he is essentially, so that he + cannot be surmounted or analyzed, and each of these three has the power of + the others latent in him, and his own, patent. + </p> + <p> + The poet is the sayer, the namer, and represents beauty. He is a + sovereign, and stands on the centre. For the world is not painted or + adorned, but is from the beginning beautiful; and God has not made some + beautiful things, but Beauty is the creator of the universe. Therefore the + poet is not any permissive potentate, but is emperor in his own right. + Criticism is infested with a cant of materialism, which assumes that + manual skill and activity is the first merit of all men, and disparages + such as say and do not, overlooking the fact that some men, namely poets, + are natural sayers, sent into the world to the end of expression, and + confounds them with those whose province is action but who quit it to + imitate the sayers. But Homer's words are as costly and admirable to Homer + as Agamemnon's victories are to Agamemnon. The poet does not wait for the + hero or the sage, but, as they act and think primarily, so he writes + primarily what will and must be spoken, reckoning the others, though + primaries also, yet, in respect to him, secondaries and servants; as + sitters or models in the studio of a painter, or as assistants who bring + building materials to an architect. + </p> + <p> + For poetry was all written before time was, and whenever we are so finely + organized that we can penetrate into that region where the air is music, + we hear those primal warblings and attempt to write them down, but we lose + ever and anon a word or a verse and substitute something of our own, and + thus miswrite the poem. The men of more delicate ear write down these + cadences more faithfully, and these transcripts, though imperfect, become + the songs of the nations. For nature is as truly beautiful as it is good, + or as it is reasonable, and must as much appear as it must be done, or be + known. Words and deeds are quite indifferent modes of the divine energy. + Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words. + </p> + <p> + The sign and credentials of the poet are that he announces that which no + man foretold. He is the true and only doctor; he knows and tells; he is + the only teller of news, for he was present and privy to the appearance + which he describes. He is a beholder of ideas and an utterer of the + necessary and causal. For we do not speak now of men of poetical talents, + or of industry and skill in metre, but of the true poet. I took part in a + conversation the other day concerning a recent writer of lyrics, a man of + subtle mind, whose head appeared to be a music-box of delicate tunes and + rhythms, and whose skill and command of language, we could not + sufficiently praise. But when the question arose whether he was not only a + lyrist but a poet, we were obliged to confess that he is plainly a + contemporary, not an eternal man. He does not stand out of our low + limitations, like a Chimborazo under the line, running up from the torrid + Base through all the climates of the globe, with belts of the herbage of + every latitude on its high and mottled sides; but this genius is the + landscape-garden of a modern house, adorned with fountains and statues, + with well-bred men and women standing and sitting in the walks and + terraces. We hear, through all the varied music, the ground-tone of + conventional life. Our poets are men of talents who sing, and not the + children of music. The argument is secondary, the finish of the verses is + primary. + </p> + <p> + For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem,—a + thought so passionate and alive that like the spirit of a plant or an + animal it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new + thing. The thought and the form are equal in the order of time, but in the + order of genesis the thought is prior to the form. The poet has a new + thought; he has a whole new experience to unfold; he will tell us how it + was with him, and all men will be the richer in his fortune. For the + experience of each new age requires a new confession, and the world seems + always waiting for its poet. I remember when I was young how much I was + moved one morning by tidings that genius had appeared in a youth who sat + near me at table. He had left his work and gone rambling none knew + whither, and had written hundreds of lines, but could not tell whether + that which was in him was therein told; he could tell nothing but that all + was changed,—man, beast, heaven, earth and sea. How gladly we + listened! how credulous! Society seemed to be compromised. We sat in the + aurora of a sunrise which was to put out all the stars. Boston seemed to + be at twice the distance it had the night before, or was much farther than + that. Rome,—what was Rome? Plutarch and Shakspeare were in the + yellow leaf, and Homer no more should be heard of. It is much to know that + poetry has been written this very day, under this very roof, by your side. + What! that wonderful spirit has not expired! These stony moments are still + sparkling and animated! I had fancied that the oracles were all silent, + and nature had spent her fires; and behold! all night, from every pore, + these fine auroras have been streaming. Every one has some interest in the + advent of the poet, and no one knows how much it may concern him. We know + that the secret of the world is profound, but who or what shall be our + interpreter, we know not. A mountain ramble, a new style of face, a new + person, may put the key into our hands. Of course the value of genius to + us is in the veracity of its report. Talent may frolic and juggle; genius + realizes and adds. Mankind in good earnest have availed so far in + understanding themselves and their work, that the foremost watchman on the + peak announces his news. It is the truest word ever spoken, and the phrase + will be the fittest, most musical, and the unerring voice of the world for + that time. + </p> + <p> + All that we call sacred history attests that the birth of a poet is the + principal event in chronology. Man, never so often deceived, still watches + for the arrival of a brother who can hold him steady to a truth until he + has made it his own. With what joy I begin to read a poem which I confide + in as an inspiration! And now my chains are to be broken; I shall mount + above these clouds and opaque airs in which I live,—opaque, though + they seem transparent,—and from the heaven of truth I shall see and + comprehend my relations. That will reconcile me to life and renovate + nature, to see trifles animated by a tendency, and to know what I am + doing. Life will no more be a noise; now I shall see men and women, and + know the signs by which they may be discerned from fools and satans. This + day shall be better than my birthday: then I became an animal; now I am + invited into the science of the real. Such is the hope, but the fruition + is postponed. Oftener it falls that this winged man, who will carry me + into the heaven, whirls me into mists, then leaps and frisks about with me + as it were from cloud to cloud, still affirming that he is bound + heavenward; and I, being myself a novice, am slow in perceiving that he + does not know the way into the heavens, and is merely bent that I should + admire his skill to rise like a fowl or a flying fish, a little way from + the ground or the water; but the all-piercing, all-feeding, and ocular air + of heaven that man shall never inhabit. I tumble down again soon into my + old nooks, and lead the life of exaggerations as before, and have lost my + faith in the possibility of any guide who can lead me thither where I + would be. + </p> + <p> + But, leaving these victims of vanity, let us, with new hope, observe how + nature, by worthier impulses, has ensured the poet's fidelity to his + office of announcement and affirming, namely by the beauty of things, + which becomes a new and higher beauty when expressed. Nature offers all + her creatures to him as a picture-language. Being used as a type, a second + wonderful value appears in the object, far better than its old value; as + the carpenter's stretched cord, if you hold your ear close enough, is + musical in the breeze. "Things more excellent than every image," says + Jamblichus, "are expressed through images." Things admit of being used as + symbols because nature is a symbol, in the whole, and in every part. Every + line we can draw in the sand has expression; and there is no body without + its spirit or genius. All form is an effect of character; all condition, + of the quality of the life; all harmony, of health; and for this reason a + perception of beauty should be sympathetic, or proper only to the good. + The beautiful rests on the foundations of the necessary. The soul makes + the body, as the wise Spenser teaches:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "So every spirit, as it is most pure, + And hath in it the more of heavenly light, + So it the fairer body doth procure + To habit in, and it more fairly dight, + With cheerful grace and amiable sight. + For, of the soul, the body form doth take, + For soul is form, and doth the body make." +</pre> + <p> + Here we find ourselves suddenly not in a critical speculation but in a + holy place, and should go very warily and reverently. We stand before the + secret of the world, there where Being passes into Appearance and Unity + into Variety. + </p> + <p> + The Universe is the externization of the soul. Wherever the life is, that + bursts into appearance around it. Our science is sensual, and therefore + superficial. The earth and the heavenly bodies, physics, and chemistry, we + sensually treat, as if they were self-existent; but these are the retinue + of that Being we have. "The mighty heaven," said Proclus, "exhibits, in + its transfigurations, clear images of the splendor of intellectual + perceptions; being moved in conjunction with the unapparent periods of + intellectual natures." Therefore science always goes abreast with the just + elevation of the man, keeping step with religion and metaphysics; or the + state of science is an index of our self-knowledge. Since everything in + nature answers to a moral power, if any phenomenon remains brute and dark + it is that the corresponding faculty in the observer is not yet active. + </p> + <p> + No wonder then, if these waters be so deep, that we hover over them with a + religious regard. The beauty of the fable proves the importance of the + sense; to the poet, and to all others; or, if you please, every man is so + far a poet as to be susceptible of these enchantments of nature; for all + men have the thoughts whereof the universe is the celebration. I find that + the fascination resides in the symbol. Who loves nature? Who does not? Is + it only poets, and men of leisure and cultivation, who live with her? No; + but also hunters, farmers, grooms, and butchers, though they express their + affection in their choice of life and not in their choice of words. The + writer wonders what the coachman or the hunter values in riding, in horses + and dogs. It is not superficial qualities. When you talk with him he holds + these at as slight a rate as you. His worship is sympathetic; he has no + definitions, but he is commanded in nature, by the living power which he + feels to be there present. No imitation or playing of these things would + content him; he loves the earnest of the north wind, of rain, of stone, + and wood, and iron. A beauty not explicable is dearer than a beauty which + we can see to the end of. It is nature the symbol, nature certifying the + supernatural, body overflowed by life which he worships with coarse but + sincere rites. + </p> + <p> + The inwardness and mystery of this attachment drives men of every class to + the use of emblems. The schools of poets and philosophers are not more + intoxicated with their symbols than the populace with theirs. In our + political parties, compute the power of badges and emblems. See the great + ball which they roll from Baltimore to Bunker hill! In the political + processions, Lowell goes in a loom, and Lynn in a shoe, and Salem in a + ship. Witness the cider-barrel, the log-cabin, the hickory-stick, the + palmetto, and all the cognizances of party. See the power of national + emblems. Some stars, lilies, leopards, a crescent, a lion, an eagle, or + other figure which came into credit God knows how, on an old rag of + bunting, blowing in the wind on a fort at the ends of the earth, shall + make the blood tingle under the rudest or the most conventional exterior. + The people fancy they hate poetry, and they are all poets and mystics! + </p> + <p> + Beyond this universality of the symbolic language, we are apprised of the + divineness of this superior use of things, whereby the world is a temple + whose walls are covered with emblems, pictures, and commandments of the + Deity,—in this, that there is no fact in nature which does not carry + the whole sense of nature; and the distinctions which we make in events + and in affairs, of low and high, honest and base, disappear when nature is + used as a symbol. Thought makes everything fit for use. The vocabulary of + an omniscient man would embrace words and images excluded from polite + conversation. What would be base, or even obscene, to the obscene, becomes + illustrious, spoken in a new connexion of thought. The piety of the Hebrew + prophets purges their grossness. The circumcision is an example of the + power of poetry to raise the low and offensive. Small and mean things + serve as well as great symbols. The meaner the type by which a law is + expressed, the more pungent it is, and the more lasting in the memories of + men: just as we choose the smallest box or case in which any needful + utensil can be carried. Bare lists of words are found suggestive to an + imaginative and excited mind; as it is related of Lord Chatham that he was + accustomed to read in Bailey's Dictionary when he was preparing to speak + in Parliament. The poorest experience is rich enough for all the purposes + of expressing thought. Why covet a knowledge of new facts? Day and night, + house and garden, a few books, a few actions, serve us as well as would + all trades and all spectacles. We are far from having exhausted the + significance of the few symbols we use. We can come to use them yet with a + terrible simplicity. It does not need that a poem should be long. Every + word was once a poem. Every new relation is a new word. Also we use + defects and deformities to a sacred purpose, so expressing our sense that + the evils of the world are such only to the evil eye. In the old + mythology, mythologists observe, defects are ascribed to divine natures, + as lameness to Vulcan, blindness to Cupid, and the like,—to signify + exuberances. + </p> + <p> + For as it is dislocation and detachment from the life of God that makes + things ugly, the poet, who re-attaches things to nature and the Whole,—re-attaching + even artificial things and violations of nature, to nature, by a deeper + insight,—disposes very easily of the most disagreeable facts. + Readers of poetry see the factory-village and the railway, and fancy that + the poetry of the landscape is broken up by these; for these works of art + are not yet consecrated in their reading; but the poet sees them fall + within the great Order not less than the beehive or the spider's + geometrical web. Nature adopts them very fast into her vital circles, and + the gliding train of cars she loves like her own. Besides, in a centred + mind, it signifies nothing how many mechanical inventions you exhibit. + Though you add millions, and never so surprising, the fact of mechanics + has not gained a grain's weight. The spiritual fact remains unalterable, + by many or by few particulars; as no mountain is of any appreciable height + to break the curve of the sphere. A shrewd country-boy goes to the city + for the first time, and the complacent citizen is not satisfied with his + little wonder. It is not that he does not see all the fine houses and know + that he never saw such before, but he disposes of them as easily as the + poet finds place for the railway. The chief value of the new fact is to + enhance the great and constant fact of Life, which can dwarf any and every + circumstance, and to which the belt of wampum and the commerce of America + are alike. + </p> + <p> + The world being thus put under the mind for verb and noun, the poet is he + who can articulate it. For though life is great, and fascinates, and + absorbs; and though all men are intelligent of the symbols through which + it is named; yet they cannot originally use them. We are symbols and + inhabit symbols; workmen, work, and tools, words and things, birth and + death, all are emblems; but we sympathize with the symbols, and being + infatuated with the economical uses of things, we do not know that they + are thoughts. The poet, by an ulterior intellectual perception, gives them + a power which makes their old use forgotten, and puts eyes and a tongue + into every dumb and inanimate object. He perceives the independence of the + thought on the symbol, the stability of the thought, the accidency and + fugacity of the symbol. As the eyes of Lyncaeus were said to see through + the earth, so the poet turns the world to glass, and shows us all things + in their right series and procession. For through that better perception + he stands one step nearer to things, and sees the flowing or + metamorphosis; perceives that thought is multiform; that within the form + of every creature is a force impelling it to ascend into a higher form; + and following with his eyes the life, uses the forms which express that + life, and so his speech flows with the flowing of nature. All the facts of + the animal economy, sex, nutriment, gestation, birth, growth, are symbols + of the passage of the world into the soul of man, to suffer there a change + and reappear a new and higher fact. He uses forms according to the life, + and not according to the form. This is true science. The poet alone knows + astronomy, chemistry, vegetation and animation, for he does not stop at + these facts, but employs them as signs. He knows why the plain or meadow + of space was strewn with these flowers we call suns and moons and stars; + why the great deep is adorned with animals, with men, and gods; for in + every word he speaks he rides on them as the horses of thought. + </p> + <p> + By virtue of this science the poet is the Namer or Language-maker, naming + things sometimes after their appearance, sometimes after their essence, + and giving to every one its own name and not another's, thereby rejoicing + the intellect, which delights in detachment or boundary. The poets made + all the words, and therefore language is the archives of history, and, if + we must say it, a sort of tomb of the muses. For though the origin of most + of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and + obtained currency because for the moment it symbolized the world to the + first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to + have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry. As the + limestone of the continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of + animalcules, so language is made up of images or tropes, which now, in + their secondary use, have long ceased to remind us of their poetic origin. + But the poet names the thing because he sees it, or comes one step nearer + to it than any other. This expression or naming is not art, but a second + nature, grown out of the first, as a leaf out of a tree. What we call + nature is a certain self-regulated motion or change; and nature does all + things by her own hands, and does not leave another to baptize her but + baptizes herself; and this through the metamorphosis again. I remember + that a certain poet described it to me thus: + </p> + <p> + Genius is the activity which repairs the decays of things, whether wholly + or partly of a material and finite kind. Nature, through all her kingdoms, + insures herself. Nobody cares for planting the poor fungus; so she shakes + down from the gills of one agaric countless spores, any one of which, + being preserved, transmits new billions of spores to-morrow or next day. + The new agaric of this hour has a chance which the old one had not. This + atom of seed is thrown into a new place, not subject to the accidents + which destroyed its parent two rods off. She makes a man; and having + brought him to ripe age, she will no longer run the risk of losing this + wonder at a blow, but she detaches from him a new self, that the kind may + be safe from accidents to which the individual is exposed. So when the + soul of the poet has come to ripeness of thought, she detaches and sends + away from it its poems or songs,—a fearless, sleepless, deathless + progeny, which is not exposed to the accidents of the weary kingdom of + time; a fearless, vivacious offspring, clad with wings (such was the + virtue of the soul out of which they came) which carry them fast and far, + and infix them irrecoverably into the hearts of men. These wings are the + beauty of the poet's soul. The songs, thus flying immortal from their + mortal parent, are pursued by clamorous flights of censures, which swarm + in far greater numbers and threaten to devour them; but these last are not + winged. At the end of a very short leap they fall plump down and rot, + having received from the souls out of which they came no beautiful wings. + But the melodies of the poet ascend and leap and pierce into the deeps of + infinite time. + </p> + <p> + So far the bard taught me, using his freer speech. But nature has a higher + end, in the production of New individuals, than security, namely + ascension, or the passage of the soul into higher forms. I knew in my + younger days the sculptor who made the statue of the youth which stands in + the public garden. He was, as I remember, unable to tell directly, what + made him happy or unhappy, but by wonderful indirections he could tell. He + rose one day, according to his habit, before the dawn, and saw the morning + break, grand as the eternity out of which it came, and for many days + after, he strove to express this tranquillity, and lo! his chisel had + fashioned out of marble the form of a beautiful youth, Phosphorus, whose + aspect is such that it is said all persons who look on it become silent. + The poet also resigns himself to his mood, and that thought which agitated + him is expressed, but alter idem, in a manner totally new. The expression + is organic, or the new type which things themselves take when liberated. + As, in the sun, objects paint their images on the retina of the eye, so + they, sharing the aspiration of the whole universe, tend to paint a far + more delicate copy of their essence in his mind. Like the metamorphosis of + things into higher organic forms is their change into melodies. Over + everything stands its daemon or soul, and, as the form of the thing is + reflected by the eye, so the soul of the thing is reflected by a melody. + The sea, the mountain-ridge, Niagara, and every flower-bed, pre-exist, or + super-exist, in pre-cantations, which sail like odors in the air, and when + any man goes by with an ear sufficiently fine, he overhears them and + endeavors to write down the notes without diluting or depraving them. And + herein is the legitimation of criticism, in the mind's faith that the + poems are a corrupt version of some text in nature with which they ought + to be made to tally. A rhyme in one of our sonnets should not be less + pleasing than the iterated nodes of a sea-shell, or the resembling + difference of a group of flowers. The pairing of the birds is an idyl, not + tedious as our idyls are; a tempest is a rough ode, without falsehood or + rant; a summer, with its harvest sown, reaped, and stored, is an epic + song, subordinating how many admirably executed parts. Why should not the + symmetry and truth that modulate these, glide into our spirits, and we + participate the invention of nature? + </p> + <p> + This insight, which expresses itself by what is called Imagination, is a + very high sort of seeing, which does not come by study, but by the + intellect being where and what it sees; by sharing the path or circuit of + things through forms, and so making them translucid to others. The path of + things is silent. Will they suffer a speaker to go with them? A spy they + will not suffer; a lover, a poet, is the transcendency of their own + nature,—him they will suffer. The condition of true naming, on the + poet's part, is his resigning himself to the divine aura which breathes + through forms, and accompanying that. + </p> + <p> + It is a secret which every intellectual man quickly learns, that, beyond + the energy of his possessed and conscious intellect he is capable of a new + energy (as of an intellect doubled on itself), by abandonment to the + nature of things; that beside his privacy of power as an individual man, + there is a great public power on which he can draw, by unlocking, at all + risks, his human doors, and suffering the ethereal tides to roll and + circulate through him; then he is caught up into the life of the Universe, + his speech is thunder, his thought is law, and his words are universally + intelligible as the plants and animals. The poet knows that he speaks + adequately then only when he speaks somewhat wildly, or, "with the flower + of the mind;" not with the intellect used as an organ, but with the + intellect released from all service and suffered to take its direction + from its celestial life; or as the ancients were wont to express + themselves, not with intellect alone but with the intellect inebriated by + nectar. As the traveller who has lost his way throws his reins on his + horse's neck and trusts to the instinct of the animal to find his road, so + must we do with the divine animal who carries us through this world. For + if in any manner we can stimulate this instinct, new passages are opened + for us into nature; the mind flows into and through things hardest and + highest, and the metamorphosis is possible. + </p> + <p> + This is the reason why bards love wine, mead, narcotics, coffee, tea, + opium, the fumes of sandal-wood and tobacco, or whatever other procurers + of animal exhilaration. All men avail themselves of such means as they + can, to add this extraordinary power to their normal powers; and to this + end they prize conversation, music, pictures, sculpture, dancing, + theatres, travelling, war, mobs, fires, gaming, politics, or love, or + science, or animal intoxication,—which are several coarser or finer + quasi-mechanical substitutes for the true nectar, which is the ravishment + of the intellect by coming nearer to the fact. These are auxiliaries to + the centrifugal tendency of a man, to his passage out into free space, and + they help him to escape the custody of that body in which he is pent up, + and of that jail-yard of individual relations in which he is enclosed. + Hence a great number of such as were professionally expressers of Beauty, + as painters, poets, musicians, and actors, have been more than others wont + to lead a life of pleasure and indulgence; all but the few who received + the true nectar; and, as it was a spurious mode of attaining freedom, as + it was an emancipation not into the heavens but into the freedom of baser + places, they were punished for that advantage they won, by a dissipation + and deterioration. But never can any advantage be taken of nature by a + trick. The spirit of the world, the great calm presence of the Creator, + comes not forth to the sorceries of opium or of wine. The sublime vision + comes to the pure and simple soul in a clean and chaste body. That is not + an inspiration, which we owe to narcotics, but some counterfeit excitement + and fury. Milton says that the lyric poet may drink wine and live + generously, but the epic poet, he who shall sing of the gods and their + descent unto men, must drink water out of a wooden bowl. For poetry is not + 'Devil's wine,' but God's wine. It is with this as it is with toys. We + fill the hands and nurseries of our children with all manner of dolls, + drums, and horses; withdrawing their eyes from the plain face and + sufficing objects of nature, the sun, and moon, the animals, the water, + and stones, which should be their toys. So the poet's habit of living + should be set on a key so low that the common influences should delight + him. His cheerfulness should be the gift of the sunlight; the air should + suffice for his inspiration, and he should be tipsy with water. That + spirit which suffices quiet hearts, which seems to come forth to such from + every dry knoll of sere grass, from every pine-stump and half-imbedded + stone on which the dull March sun shines, comes forth to the poor and + hungry, and such as are of simple taste. If thou fill thy brain with + Boston and New York, with fashion and covetousness, and wilt stimulate thy + jaded senses with wine and French coffee, thou shalt find no radiance of + wisdom in the lonely waste of the pinewoods. + </p> + <p> + If the imagination intoxicates the poet, it is not inactive in other men. + The metamorphosis excites in the beholder an emotion of joy. The use of + symbols has a certain power of emancipation and exhilaration for all men. + We seem to be touched by a wand which makes us dance and run about + happily, like children. We are like persons who come out of a cave or + cellar into the open air. This is the effect on us of tropes, fables, + oracles, and all poetic forms. Poets are thus liberating gods. Men have + really got a new sense, and found within their world another world, or + nest of worlds; for, the metamorphosis once seen, we divine that it does + not stop. I will not now consider how much this makes the charm of algebra + and the mathematics, which also have their tropes, but it is felt in every + definition; as when Aristotle defines space to be an immovable vessel in + which things are contained;—or when Plato defines a line to be a + flowing point; or figure to be a bound of solid; and many the like. What a + joyful sense of freedom we have when Vitruvius announces the old opinion + of artists that no architect can build any house well who does not know + something of anatomy. When Socrates, in Charmides, tells us that the soul + is cured of its maladies by certain incantations, and that these + incantations are beautiful reasons, from which temperance is generated in + souls; when Plato calls the world an animal; and Timaeus affirms that the + plants also are animals; or affirms a man to be a heavenly tree, growing + with his root, which is his head, upward; and, as George Chapman, + following him, writes,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "So in our tree of man, whose nervie root + Springs in his top;"— +</pre> + <p> + when Orpheus speaks of hoariness as "that white flower which marks extreme + old age;" when Proclus calls the universe the statue of the intellect; + when Chaucer, in his praise of 'Gentilesse,' compares good blood in mean + condition to fire, which, though carried to the darkest house betwixt this + and the mount of Caucasus, will yet hold its natural office and burn as + bright as if twenty thousand men did it behold; when John saw, in the + Apocalypse, the ruin of the world through evil, and the stars fall from + heaven as the figtree casteth her untimely fruit; when Aesop reports the + whole catalogue of common daily relations through the masquerade of birds + and beasts;—we take the cheerful hint of the immortality of our + essence and its versatile habit and escapes, as when the gypsies say "it + is in vain to hang them, they cannot die." + </p> + <p> + The poets are thus liberating gods. The ancient British bards had for the + title of their order, "Those Who are free throughout the world." They are + free, and they make free. An imaginative book renders us much more service + at first, by stimulating us through its tropes, than afterward when we + arrive at the precise sense of the author. I think nothing is of any value + in books excepting the transcendental and extraordinary. If a man is + inflamed and carried away by his thought, to that degree that he forgets + the authors and the public and heeds only this one dream which holds him + like an insanity, let me read his paper, and you may have all the + arguments and histories and criticism. All the value which attaches to + Pythagoras, Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, Cardan, Kepler, Swedenborg, + Schelling, Oken, or any other who introduces questionable facts into his + cosmogony, as angels, devils, magic, astrology, palmistry, mesmerism, and + so on, is the certificate we have of departure from routine, and that here + is a new witness. That also is the best success in conversation, the magic + of liberty, which puts the world like a ball in our hands. How cheap even + the liberty then seems; how mean to study, when an emotion communicates to + the intellect the power to sap and upheave nature; how great the + perspective! nations, times, systems, enter and disappear like threads in + tapestry of large figure and many colors; dream delivers us to dream, and + while the drunkenness lasts we will sell our bed, our philosophy, our + religion, in our opulence. + </p> + <p> + There is good reason why we should prize this liberation. The fate of the + poor shepherd, who, blinded and lost in the snow-storm, perishes in a + drift within a few feet of his cottage door, is an emblem of the state of + man. On the brink of the waters of life and truth, we are miserably dying. + The inaccessibleness of every thought but that we are in, is wonderful. + What if you come near to it; you are as remote when you are nearest as + when you are farthest. Every thought is also a prison; every heaven is + also a prison. Therefore we love the poet, the inventor, who in any form, + whether in an ode or in an action or in looks and behavior has yielded us + a new thought. He unlocks our chains and admits us to a new scene. + </p> + <p> + This emancipation is dear to all men, and the power to impart it, as it + must come from greater depth and scope of thought, is a measure of + intellect. Therefore all books of the imagination endure, all which ascend + to that truth that the writer sees nature beneath him, and uses it as his + exponent. Every verse or sentence possessing this virtue will take care of + its own immortality. The religions of the world are the ejaculations of a + few imaginative men. + </p> + <p> + But the quality of the imagination is to flow, and not to freeze. The poet + did not stop at the color or the form, but read their meaning; neither may + he rest in this meaning, but he makes the same objects exponents of his + new thought. Here is the difference betwixt the poet and the mystic, that + the last nails a symbol to one sense, which was a true sense for a moment, + but soon becomes old and false. For all symbols are fluxional; all + language is vehicular and transitive, and is good, as ferries and horses + are, for conveyance, not as farms and houses are, for homestead. Mysticism + consists in the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an + universal one. The morning-redness happens to be the favorite meteor to + the eyes of Jacob Behmen, and comes to stand to him for truth and faith; + and, he believes, should stand for the same realities to every reader. But + the first reader prefers as naturally the symbol of a mother and child, or + a gardener and his bulb, or a jeweller polishing a gem. Either of these, + or of a myriad more, are equally good to the person to whom they are + significant. Only they must be held lightly, and be very willingly + translated into the equivalent terms which others use. And the mystic must + be steadily told,—All that you say is just as true without the + tedious use of that symbol as with it. Let us have a little algebra, + instead of this trite rhetoric,—universal signs, instead of these + village symbols,—and we shall both be gainers. The history of + hierarchies seems to show that all religious error consisted in making the + symbol too stark and solid, and was at last nothing but an excess of the + organ of language. + </p> + <p> + Swedenborg, of all men in the recent ages, stands eminently for the + translator of nature into thought. I do not know the man in history to + whom things stood so uniformly for words. Before him the metamorphosis + continually plays. Everything on which his eye rests, obeys the impulses + of moral nature. The figs become grapes whilst he eats them. When some of + his angels affirmed a truth, the laurel twig which they held blossomed in + their hands. The noise which at a distance appeared like gnashing and + thumping, on coming nearer was found to be the voice of disputants. The + men in one of his visions, seen in heavenly light, appeared like dragons, + and seemed in darkness; but to each other they appeared as men, and when + the light from heaven shone into their cabin, they complained of the + darkness, and were compelled to shut the window that they might see. + </p> + <p> + There was this perception in him which makes the poet or seer an object of + awe and terror, namely that the same man or society of men may wear one + aspect to themselves and their companions, and a different aspect to + higher intelligences. Certain priests, whom he describes as conversing + very learnedly together, appeared to the children who were at some + distance, like dead horses; and many the like misappearances. And + instantly the mind inquires whether these fishes under the bridge, yonder + oxen in the pasture, those dogs in the yard, are immutably fishes, oxen, + and dogs, or only so appear to me, and perchance to themselves appear + upright men; and whether I appear as a man to all eyes. The Bramins and + Pythagoras propounded the same question, and if any poet has witnessed the + transformation he doubtless found it in harmony with various experiences. + We have all seen changes as considerable in wheat and caterpillars. He is + the poet and shall draw us with love and terror, who sees through the + flowing vest the firm nature, and can declare it. + </p> + <p> + I look in vain for the poet whom I describe. We do not with sufficient + plainness or sufficient profoundness address ourselves to life, nor dare + we chaunt our own times and social circumstance. If we filled the day with + bravery, we should not shrink from celebrating it. Time and nature yield + us many gifts, but not yet the timely man, the new religion, the + reconciler, whom all things await. Dante's praise is that he dared to + write his autobiography in colossal cipher, or into universality. We have + yet had no genius in America, with tyrannous eye, which knew the value of + our incomparable materials, and saw, in the barbarism and materialism of + the times, another carnival of the same gods whose picture he so much + admires in Homer; then in the Middle Age; then in Calvinism. Banks and + tariffs, the newspaper and caucus, Methodism and Unitarianism, are flat + and dull to dull people, but rest on the same foundations of wonder as the + town of Troy and the temple of Delphi, and are as swiftly passing away. + Our logrolling, our stumps and their politics, our fisheries, our Negroes + and Indians, our boats and our repudiations, the wrath of rogues and the + pusillanimity of honest men, the northern trade, the southern planting, + the western clearing, Oregon and Texas, are yet unsung. Yet America is a + poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will + not wait long for metres. If I have not found that excellent combination + of gifts in my countrymen which I seek, neither could I aid myself to fix + the idea of the poet by reading now and then in Chalmers's collection of + five centuries of English poets. These are wits more than poets, though + there have been poets among them. But when we adhere to the ideal of the + poet, we have our difficulties even with Milton and Homer. Milton is too + literary, and Homer too literal and historical. + </p> + <p> + But I am not wise enough for a national criticism, and must use the old + largeness a little longer, to discharge my errand from the muse to the + poet concerning his art. + </p> + <p> + Art is the path of the creator to his work. The paths or methods are ideal + and eternal, though few men ever see them; not the artist himself for + years, or for a lifetime, unless he come into the conditions. The painter, + the sculptor, the composer, the epic rhapsodist, the orator, all partake + one desire, namely to express themselves symmetrically and abundantly, not + dwarfishly and fragmentarily. They found or put themselves in certain + conditions, as, the painter and sculptor before some impressive human + figures; the orator, into the assembly of the people; and the others in + such scenes as each has found exciting to his intellect; and each + presently feels the new desire. He hears a voice, he sees a beckoning. + Then he is apprised, with wonder, what herds of daemons hem him in. He can + no more rest; he says, with the old painter, "By God, it is in me and must + go forth of me." He pursues a beauty, half seen, which flies before him. + The poet pours out verses in every solitude. Most of the things he says + are conventional, no doubt; but by and by he says something which is + original and beautiful. That charms him. He would say nothing else but + such things. In our way of talking we say 'That is yours, this is mine;' + but the poet knows well that it is not his; that it is as strange and + beautiful to him as to you; he would fain hear the like eloquence at + length. Once having tasted this immortal ichor, he cannot have enough of + it, and as an admirable creative power exists in these intellections, it + is of the last importance that these things get spoken. What a little of + all we know is said! What drops of all the sea of our science are baled + up! and by what accident it is that these are exposed, when so many + secrets sleep in nature! Hence the necessity of speech and song; hence + these throbs and heart-beatings in the orator, at the door of the + assembly, to the end namely that thought may be ejaculated as Logos, or + Word. + </p> + <p> + Doubt not, O poet, but persist. Say 'It is in me, and shall out.' Stand + there, balked and dumb, stuttering and stammering, hissed and hooted, + stand and strive, until at last rage draw out of thee that dream-power + which every night shows thee is thine own; a power transcending all limit + and privacy, and by virtue of which a man is the conductor of the whole + river of electricity. Nothing walks, or creeps, or grows, or exists, which + must not in turn arise and walk before him as exponent of his meaning. + Comes he to that power, his genius is no longer exhaustible. All the + creatures by pairs and by tribes pour into his mind as into a Noah's ark, + to come forth again to people a new world. This is like the stock of air + for our respiration or for the combustion of our fireplace; not a measure + of gallons, but the entire atmosphere if wanted. And therefore the rich + poets, as Homer, Chaucer, Shakspeare, and Raphael, have obviously no + limits to their works except the limits of their lifetime, and resemble a + mirror carried through the street, ready to render an image of every + created thing. + </p> + <p> + O poet! a new nobility is conferred in groves and pastures, and not in + castles or by the sword-blade any longer. The conditions are hard, but + equal. Thou shalt leave the world, and know the muse only. Thou shalt not + know any longer the times, customs, graces, politics, or opinions of men, + but shalt take all from the muse. For the time of towns is tolled from the + world by funereal chimes, but in nature the universal hours are counted by + succeeding tribes of animals and plants, and by growth of joy on joy. God + wills also that thou abdicate a manifold and duplex life, and that thou be + content that others speak for thee. Others shall be thy gentlemen and + shall represent all courtesy and worldly life for thee; others shall do + the great and resounding actions also. Thou shalt lie close hid with + nature, and canst not be afforded to the Capitol or the Exchange. The + world is full of renunciations and apprenticeships, and this is thine: + thou must pass for a fool and a churl for a long season. This is the + screen and sheath in which Pan has protected his well-beloved flower, and + thou shalt be known only to thine own, and they shall console thee with + tenderest love. And thou shalt not be able to rehearse the names of thy + friends in thy verse, for an old shame before the holy ideal. And this is + the reward; that the ideal shall be real to thee, and the impressions of + the actual world shall fall like summer rain, copious, but not + troublesome, to thy invulnerable essence. Thou shalt have the whole land + for thy park and manor, the sea for thy bath and navigation, without tax + and without envy; the woods and the rivers thou shalt own; and thou shalt + possess that wherein others are only tenants and boarders. Thou true + land-lord! sea-lord! air-lord! Wherever snow falls or water flows or birds + fly, wherever day and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue heaven is + hung by clouds or sown with stars, wherever are forms with transparent + boundaries, wherever are outlets into celestial space, wherever is danger, + and awe, and love,—there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for + thee, and though thou shouldest walk the world over, thou shalt not be + able to find a condition inopportune or ignoble. + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + EXPERIENCE. + + THE lords of life, the lords of life,— + I saw them pass, + In their own guise, + Like and unlike, + Portly and grim, + Use and Surprise, + Surface and Dream, + Succession swift, and spectral Wrong, + Temperament without a tongue, + And the inventor of the game + Omnipresent without name;— + Some to see, some to be guessed, + They marched from east to west: + Little man, least of all, + Among the legs of his guardians tall, + Walked about with puzzled look:— + Him by the hand dear Nature took; + Dearest Nature, strong and kind, + Whispered, 'Darling, never mind! + Tomorrow they will wear another face, + The founder thou! these are thy race!' +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. EXPERIENCE. + </h2> + <p> + WHERE do we find ourselves? In a series of which we do not know the + extremes, and believe that it has none. We wake and find ourselves on a + stair; there are stairs below us, which we seem to have ascended; there + are stairs above us, many a one, which go upward and out of sight. But the + Genius which according to the old belief stands at the door by which we + enter, and gives us the lethe to drink, that we may tell no tales, mixed + the cup too strongly, and we cannot shake off the lethargy now at noonday. + Sleep lingers all our lifetime about our eyes, as night hovers all day in + the boughs of the fir-tree. All things swim and glitter. Our life is not + so much threatened as our perception. Ghostlike we glide through nature, + and should not know our place again. Did our birth fall in some fit of + indigence and frugality in nature, that she was so sparing of her fire and + so liberal of her earth that it appears to us that we lack the affirmative + principle, and though we have health and reason, yet we have no + superfluity of spirit for new creation? We have enough to live and bring + the year about, but not an ounce to impart or to invest. Ah that our + Genius were a little more of a genius! We are like millers on the lower + levels of a stream, when the factories above them have exhausted the + water. We too fancy that the upper people must have raised their dams. + </p> + <p> + If any of us knew what we were doing, or where we are going, then when we + think we best know! We do not know to-day whether we are busy or idle. In + times when we thought ourselves indolent, we have afterwards discovered + that much was accomplished, and much was begun in us. All our days are so + unprofitable while they pass, that 'tis wonderful where or when we ever + got anything of this which we call wisdom, poetry, virtue. We never got it + on any dated calendar day. Some heavenly days must have been intercalated + somewhere, like those that Hermes won with dice of the Moon, that Osiris + might be born. It is said all martyrdoms looked mean when they were + suffered. Every ship is a romantic object, except that we sail in. Embark, + and the romance quits our vessel and hangs on every other sail in the + horizon. Our life looks trivial, and we shun to record it. Men seem to + have learned of the horizon the art of perpetual retreating and reference. + 'Yonder uplands are rich pasturage, and my neighbor has fertile meadow, + but my field,' says the querulous farmer, 'only holds the world together.' + I quote another man's saying; unluckily that other withdraws himself in + the same way, and quotes me. 'Tis the trick of nature thus to degrade + to-day; a good deal of buzz, and somewhere a result slipped magically in. + Every roof is agreeable to the eye until it is lifted; then we find + tragedy and moaning women and hard-eyed husbands and deluges of lethe, and + the men ask, 'What's the news?' as if the old were so bad. How many + individuals can we count in society? how many actions? how many opinions? + So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much + retrospect, that the pith of each man's genius contracts itself to a very + few hours. The history of literature—take the net result of + Tiraboschi, Warton, or Schlegel,—is a sum of very few ideas and of + very few original tales; all the rest being variation of these. So in this + great society wide lying around us, a critical analysis would find very + few spontaneous actions. It is almost all custom and gross sense. There + are even few opinions, and these seem organic in the speakers, and do not + disturb the universal necessity. + </p> + <p> + What opium is instilled into all disaster! It shows formidable as we + approach it, but there is at last no rough rasping friction, but the most + slippery sliding surfaces. We fall soft on a thought; Ate Dea is gentle,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Over men's heads walking aloft, + With tender feet treading so soft." +</pre> + <p> + People grieve and bemoan themselves, but it is not half so bad with them + as they say. There are moods in which we court suffering, in the hope that + here at least we shall find reality, sharp peaks and edges of truth. But + it turns out to be scene-painting and counterfeit. The only thing grief + has taught me is to know how shallow it is. That, like all the rest, plays + about the surface, and never introduces me into the reality, for contact + with which we would even pay the costly price of sons and lovers. Was it + Boscovich who found out that bodies never come in contact? Well, souls + never touch their objects. An innavigable sea washes with silent waves + between us and the things we aim at and converse with. Grief too will make + us idealists. In the death of my son, now more than two years ago, I seem + to have lost a beautiful estate,—no more. I cannot get it nearer to + me. If to-morrow I should be informed of the bankruptcy of my principal + debtors, the loss of my property would be a great inconvenience to me, + perhaps, for many years; but it would leave me as it found me,—neither + better nor worse. So is it with this calamity: it does not touch me; + something which I fancied was a part of me, which could not be torn away + without tearing me nor enlarged without enriching me, falls off from me + and leaves no scar. It was caducous. I grieve that grief can teach me + nothing, nor carry me one step into real nature. The Indian who was laid + under a curse that the wind should not blow on him, nor water flow to him, + nor fire burn him, is a type of us all. The dearest events are + summer-rain, and we the Para coats that shed every drop. Nothing is left + us now but death. We look to that with a grim satisfaction, saying There + at least is reality that will not dodge us. + </p> + <p> + I take this evanescence and lubricity of all objects, which lets them slip + through our fingers then when we clutch hardest, to be the most unhandsome + part of our condition. Nature does not like to be observed, and likes that + we should be her fools and playmates. We may have the sphere for our + cricket-ball, but not a berry for our philosophy. Direct strokes she never + gave us power to make; all our blows glance, all our hits are accidents. + Our relations to each other are oblique and casual. + </p> + <p> + Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion. Life is a + train of moods like a string of beads, and as we pass through them they + prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and + each shows only what lies in its focus. From the mountain you see the + mountain. We animate what we can, and we see only what we animate. Nature + and books belong to the eyes that see them. It depends on the mood of the + man whether he shall see the sunset or the fine poem. There are always + sunsets, and there is always genius; but only a few hours so serene that + we can relish nature or criticism. The more or less depends on structure + or temperament. Temperament is the iron wire on which the beads are + strung. Of what use is fortune or talent to a cold and defective nature? + Who cares what sensibility or discrimination a man has at some time shown, + if he falls asleep in his chair? or if he laugh and giggle? or if he + apologize? or is infected with egotism? or thinks of his dollar? or cannot + go by food? or has gotten a child in his boyhood? Of what use is genius, + if the organ is too convex or too concave and cannot find a focal distance + within the actual horizon of human life? Of what use, if the brain is too + cold or too hot, and the man does not care enough for results to stimulate + him to experiment, and hold him up in it? or if the web is too finely + woven, too irritable by pleasure and pain, so that life stagnates from too + much reception without due outlet? Of what use to make heroic vows of + amendment, if the same old law-breaker is to keep them? What cheer can the + religious sentiment yield, when that is suspected to be secretly dependent + on the seasons of the year and the state of the blood? I knew a witty + physician who found the creed in the biliary duct, and used to affirm that + if there was disease in the liver, the man became a Calvinist, and if that + organ was sound, he became a Unitarian. Very mortifying is the reluctant + experience that some unfriendly excess or imbecility neutralizes the + promise of genius. We see young men who owe us a new world, so readily and + lavishly they promise, but they never acquit the debt; they die young and + dodge the account; or if they live they lose themselves in the crowd. + </p> + <p> + Temperament also enters fully into the system of illusions and shuts us in + a prison of glass which we cannot see. There is an optical illusion about + every person we meet. In truth they are all creatures of given + temperament, which will appear in a given character, whose boundaries they + will never pass: but we look at them, they seem alive, and we presume + there is impulse in them. In the moment it seems impulse; in the year, in + the lifetime, it turns out to be a certain uniform tune which the + revolving barrel of the music-box must play. Men resist the conclusion in + the morning, but adopt it as the evening wears on, that temper prevails + over everything of time, place, and condition, and is inconsumable in the + flames of religion. Some modifications the moral sentiment avails to + impose, but the individual texture holds its dominion, if not to bias the + moral judgments, yet to fix the measure of activity and of enjoyment. + </p> + <p> + I thus express the law as it is read from the platform of ordinary life, + but must not leave it without noticing the capital exception. For + temperament is a power which no man willingly hears any one praise but + himself. On the platform of physics we cannot resist the contracting + influences of so-called science. Temperament puts all divinity to rout. I + know the mental proclivity of physicians. I hear the chuckle of the + phrenologists. Theoretic kidnappers and slave-drivers, they esteem each + man the victim of another, who winds him round his finger by knowing the + law of his being; and by such cheap signboards as the color of his beard + or the slope of his occiput, reads the inventory of his fortunes and + character. The grossest ignorance does not disgust like this impudent + knowingness. The physicians say they are not materialists; but they are:—Spirit + is matter reduced to an extreme thinness: O so thin!—But the + definition of spiritual should be, that which is its own evidence. What + notions do they attach to love! what to religion! One would not willingly + pronounce these words in their hearing, and give them the occasion to + profane them. I saw a gracious gentleman who adapts his conversation to + the form of the head of the man he talks with! I had fancied that the + value of life lay in its inscrutable possibilities; in the fact that I + never know, in addressing myself to a new individual, what may befall me. + I carry the keys of my castle in my hand, ready to throw them at the feet + of my lord, whenever and in what disguise soever he shall appear. I know + he is in the neighborhood hidden among vagabonds. Shall I preclude my + future by taking a high seat and kindly adapting my conversation to the + shape of heads? When I come to that, the doctors shall buy me for a cent.—'But, + sir, medical history; the report to the Institute; the proven facts!'—I + distrust the facts and the inferences. Temperament is the veto or + limitation-power in the constitution, very justly applied to restrain an + opposite excess in the constitution, but absurdly offered as a bar to + original equity. When virtue is in presence, all subordinate powers sleep. + On its own level, or in view of nature, temperament is final. I see not, + if one be once caught in this trap of so-called sciences, any escape for + the man from the links of the chain of physical necessity. Given such an + embryo, such a history must follow. On this platform one lives in a sty of + sensualism, and would soon come to suicide. But it is impossible that the + creative power should exclude itself. Into every intelligence there is a + door which is never closed, through which the creator passes. The + intellect, seeker of absolute truth, or the heart, lover of absolute good, + intervenes for our succor, and at one whisper of these high powers we + awake from ineffectual struggles with this nightmare. We hurl it into its + own hell, and cannot again contract ourselves to so base a state. + </p> + <p> + The secret of the illusoriness is in the necessity of a succession of + moods or objects. Gladly we would anchor, but the anchorage is quicksand. + This onward trick of nature is too strong for us: Pero si muove. When at + night I look at the moon and stars, I seem stationary, and they to hurry. + Our love of the real draws us to permanence, but health of body consists + in circulation, and sanity of mind in variety or facility of association. + We need change of objects. Dedication to one thought is quickly odious. We + house with the insane, and must humor them; then conversation dies out. + Once I took such delight in Montaigne, that I thought I should not need + any other book; before that, in Shakspeare; then in Plutarch; then in + Plotinus; at one time in Bacon; afterwards in Goethe; even in Bettine; but + now I turn the pages of either of them languidly, whilst I still cherish + their genius. So with pictures; each will bear an emphasis of attention + once, which it cannot retain, though we fain would continue to be pleased + in that manner. How strongly I have felt of pictures that when you have + seen one well, you must take your leave of it; you shall never see it + again. I have had good lessons from pictures which I have since seen + without emotion or remark. A deduction must be made from the opinion which + even the wise express of a new book or occurrence. Their opinion gives me + tidings of their mood, and some vague guess at the new fact, but is nowise + to be trusted as the lasting relation between that intellect and that + thing. The child asks, 'Mamma, why don't I like the story as well as when + you told it me yesterday?' Alas! child it is even so with the oldest + cherubim of knowledge. But will it answer thy question to say, Because + thou wert born to a whole and this story is a particular? The reason of + the pain this discovery causes us (and we make it late in respect to works + of art and intellect), is the plaint of tragedy which murmurs from it in + regard to persons, to friendship and love. + </p> + <p> + That immobility and absence of elasticity which we find in the arts, we + find with more pain in the artist. There is no power of expansion in men. + Our friends early appear to us as representatives of certain ideas which + they never pass or exceed. They stand on the brink of the ocean of thought + and power, but they never take the single step that would bring them + there. A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no lustre as you + turn it in your hand until you come to a particular angle; then it shows + deep and beautiful colors. There is no adaptation or universal + applicability in men, but each has his special talent, and the mastery of + successful men consists in adroitly keeping themselves where and when that + turn shall be oftenest to be practised. We do what we must, and call it by + the best names we can, and would fain have the praise of having intended + the result which ensues. I cannot recall any form of man who is not + superfluous sometimes. But is not this pitiful? Life is not worth the + taking, to do tricks in. + </p> + <p> + Of course it needs the whole society to give the symmetry we seek. The + party-colored wheel must revolve very fast to appear white. Something is + earned too by conversing with so much folly and defect. In fine, whoever + loses, we are always of the gaining party. Divinity is behind our failures + and follies also. The plays of children are nonsense, but very educative + nonsense. So it is with the largest and solemnest things, with commerce, + government, church, marriage, and so with the history of every man's + bread, and the ways by which he is to come by it. Like a bird which + alights nowhere, but hops perpetually from bough to bough, is the Power + which abides in no man and in no woman, but for a moment speaks from this + one, and for another moment from that one. + </p> + <p> + But what help from these fineries or pedantries? What help from thought? + Life is not dialectics. We, I think, in these times, have had lessons + enough of the futility of criticism. Our young people have thought and + written much on labor and reform, and for all that they have written, + neither the world nor themselves have got on a step. Intellectual tasting + of life will not supersede muscular activity. If a man should consider the + nicety of the passage of a piece of bread down his throat, he would + starve. At Education-Farm, the noblest theory of life sat on the noblest + figures of young men and maidens, quite powerless and melancholy. It would + not rake or pitch a ton of hay; it would not rub down a horse; and the men + and maidens it left pale and hungry. A political orator wittily compared + our party promises to western roads, which opened stately enough, with + planted trees on either side to tempt the traveller, but soon became + narrow and narrower and ended in a squirrel-track and ran up a tree. So + does culture with us; it ends in headache. Unspeakably sad and barren does + life look to those who a few months ago were dazzled with the splendor of + the promise of the times. "There is now no longer any right course of + action nor any self-devotion left among the Iranis." Objections and + criticism we have had our fill of. There are objections to every course of + life and action, and the practical wisdom infers an indifferency, from the + omnipresence of objection. The whole frame of things preaches + indifferency. Do not craze yourself with thinking, but go about your + business anywhere. Life is not intellectual or critical, but sturdy. Its + chief good is for well-mixed people who can enjoy what they find, without + question. Nature hates peeping, and our mothers speak her very sense when + they say, "Children, eat your victuals, and say no more of it." To fill + the hour,—that is happiness; to fill the hour and leave no crevice + for a repentance or an approval. We live amid surfaces, and the true art + of life is to skate well on them. Under the oldest mouldiest conventions a + man of native force prospers just as well as in the newest world, and that + by skill of handling and treatment. He can take hold anywhere. Life itself + is a mixture of power and form, and will not bear the least excess of + either. To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of + the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom. It is not + the part of men, but of fanatics, or of mathematicians if you will, to say + that the shortness of life considered, it is not worth caring whether for + so short a duration we were sprawling in want or sitting high. Since our + office is with moments, let us husband them. Five minutes of today are + worth as much to me as five minutes in the next millennium. Let us be + poised, and wise, and our own, today. Let us treat the men and women well; + treat them as if they were real; perhaps they are. Men live in their + fancy, like drunkards whose hands are too soft and tremulous for + successful labor. It is a tempest of fancies, and the only ballast I know + is a respect to the present hour. Without any shadow of doubt, amidst this + vertigo of shows and politics, I settle myself ever the firmer in the + creed that we should not postpone and refer and wish, but do broad justice + where we are, by whomsoever we deal with, accepting our actual companions + and circumstances, however humble or odious as the mystic officials to + whom the universe has delegated its whole pleasure for us. If these are + mean and malignant, their contentment, which is the last victory of + justice, is a more satisfying echo to the heart than the voice of poets + and the casual sympathy of admirable persons. I think that however a + thoughtful man may suffer from the defects and absurdities of his company, + he cannot without affectation deny to any set of men and women a + sensibility to extraordinary merit. The coarse and frivolous have an + instinct of superiority, if they have not a sympathy, and honor it in + their blind capricious way with sincere homage. + </p> + <p> + The fine young people despise life, but in me, and in such as with me are + free from dyspepsia, and to whom a day is a sound and solid good, it is a + great excess of politeness to look scornful and to cry for company. I am + grown by sympathy a little eager and sentimental, but leave me alone and I + should relish every hour and what it brought me, the potluck of the day, + as heartily as the oldest gossip in the bar-room. I am thankful for small + mercies. I compared notes with one of my friends who expects everything of + the universe and is disappointed when anything is less than the best, and + I found that I begin at the other extreme, expecting nothing, and am + always full of thanks for moderate goods. I accept the clangor and jangle + of contrary tendencies. I find my account in sots and bores also. They + give a reality to the circumjacent picture which such a vanishing + meteorous appearance can ill spare. In the morning I awake and find the + old world, wife, babes, and mother, Concord and Boston, the dear old + spiritual world and even the dear old devil not far off. If we will take + the good we find, asking no questions, we shall have heaping measures. The + great gifts are not got by analysis. Everything good is on the highway. + The middle region of our being is the temperate zone. We may climb into + the thin and cold realm of pure geometry and lifeless science, or sink + into that of sensation. Between these extremes is the equator of life, of + thought, of spirit, of poetry,—a narrow belt. Moreover, in popular + experience everything good is on the highway. A collector peeps into all + the picture-shops of Europe for a landscape of Poussin, a crayon-sketch of + Salvator; but the Transfiguration, the Last Judgment, the Communion of St. + Jerome, and what are as transcendent as these, are on the walls of the + Vatican, the Uffizii, or the Louvre, where every footman may see them; to + say nothing of Nature's pictures in every street, of sunsets and sunrises + every day, and the sculpture of the human body never absent. A collector + recently bought at public auction, in London, for one hundred and + fifty-seven guineas, an autograph of Shakspeare; but for nothing a + school-boy can read Hamlet and can detect secrets of highest concernment + yet unpublished therein. I think I will never read any but the commonest + books,—the Bible, Homer, Dante, Shakspeare, and Milton. Then we are + impatient of so public a life and planet, and run hither and thither for + nooks and secrets. The imagination delights in the woodcraft of Indians, + trappers, and bee-hunters. We fancy that we are strangers, and not so + intimately domesticated in the planet as the wild man and the wild beast + and bird. But the exclusion reaches them also; reaches the climbing, + flying, gliding, feathered and four-footed man. Fox and woodchuck, hawk + and snipe and bittern, when nearly seen, have no more root in the deep + world than man, and are just such superficial tenants of the globe. Then + the new molecular philosophy shows astronomical interspaces betwixt atom + and atom, shows that the world is all outside; it has no inside. + </p> + <p> + The mid-world is best. Nature, as we know her, is no saint. The lights of + the church, the ascetics, Gentoos, and corn-eaters, she does not + distinguish by any favor. She comes eating and drinking and sinning. Her + darlings, the great, the strong, the beautiful, are not children of our + law; do not come out of the Sunday School, nor weigh their food, nor + punctually keep the commandments. If we will be strong with her strength + we must not harbor such disconsolate consciences, borrowed too from the + consciences of other nations. We must set up the strong present tense + against all the rumors of wrath, past or to come. So many things are + unsettled which it is of the first importance to settle;—and, + pending their settlement, we will do as we do. Whilst the debate goes + forward on the equity of commerce, and will not be closed for a century or + two, New and Old England may keep shop. Law of copyright and international + copyright is to be discussed, and in the interim we will sell our books + for the most we can. Expediency of literature, reason of literature, + lawfulness of writing down a thought, is questioned; much is to say on + both sides, and, while the fight waxes hot, thou, dearest scholar, stick + to thy foolish task, add a line every hour, and between whiles add a line. + Right to hold land, right of property, is disputed, and the conventions + convene, and before the vote is taken, dig away in your garden, and spend + your earnings as a waif or godsend to all serene and beautiful purposes. + Life itself is a bubble and a skepticism, and a sleep within a sleep. + Grant it, and as much more as they will,—but thou, God's darling! + heed thy private dream; thou wilt not be missed in the scorning and + skepticism; there are enough of them; stay there in thy closet and toil + until the rest are agreed what to do about it. Thy sickness, they say, and + thy puny habit require that thou do this or avoid that, but know that thy + life is a flitting state, a tent for a night, and do thou, sick or well, + finish that stint. Thou art sick, but shalt not be worse, and the + universe, which holds thee dear, shall be the better. + </p> + <p> + Human life is made up of the two elements, power and form, and the + proportion must be invariably kept if we would have it sweet and sound. + Each of these elements in excess makes a mischief as hurtful as its + defect. Everything runs to excess; every good quality is noxious if + unmixed, and, to carry the danger to the edge of ruin, nature causes each + man's peculiarity to superabound. Here, among the farms, we adduce the + scholars as examples of this treachery. They are nature's victims of + expression. You who see the artist, the orator, the poet, too near, and + find their life no more excellent than that of mechanics or farmers, and + themselves victims of partiality, very hollow and haggard, and pronounce + them failures, not heroes, but quacks,—conclude very reasonably that + these arts are not for man, but are disease. Yet nature will not bear you + out. Irresistible nature made men such, and makes legions more of such, + every day. You love the boy reading in a book, gazing at a drawing, or a + cast; yet what are these millions who read and behold, but incipient + writers and sculptors? Add a little more of that quality which now reads + and sees, and they will seize the pen and chisel. And if one remembers how + innocently he began to be an artist, he perceives that nature joined with + his enemy. A man is a golden impossibility. The line he must walk is a + hair's breadth. The wise through excess of wisdom is made a fool. + </p> + <p> + How easily, if fate would suffer it, we might keep forever these beautiful + limits, and adjust ourselves, once for all, to the perfect calculation of + the kingdom of known cause and effect. In the street and in the + newspapers, life appears so plain a business that manly resolution and + adherence to the multiplication-table through all weathers will insure + success. But ah! presently comes a day, or is it only a half-hour, with + its angel-whispering,—which discomfits the conclusions of nations + and of years! Tomorrow again everything looks real and angular, the + habitual standards are reinstated, common sense is as rare as genius,—is + the basis of genius, and experience is hands and feet to every enterprise;—and + yet, he who should do his business on this understanding would be quickly + bankrupt. Power keeps quite another road than the turnpikes of choice and + will; namely the subterranean and invisible tunnels and channels of life. + It is ridiculous that we are diplomatists, and doctors, and considerate + people: there are no dupes like these. Life is a series of surprises, and + would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not. God delights to + isolate us every day, and hide from us the past and the future. We would + look about us, but with grand politeness he draws down before us an + impenetrable screen of purest sky, and another behind us of purest sky. + 'You will not remember,' he seems to say, `and you will not expect.' All + good conversation, manners, and action, come from a spontaneity which + forgets usages and makes the moment great. Nature hates calculators; her + methods are saltatory and impulsive. Man lives by pulses; our organic + movements are such; and the chemical and ethereal agents are undulatory + and alternate; and the mind goes antagonizing on, and never prospers but + by fits. We thrive by casualties. Our chief experiences have been casual. + The most attractive class of people are those who are powerful obliquely + and not by the direct stroke; men of genius, but not yet accredited; one + gets the cheer of their light without paying too great a tax. Theirs is + the beauty of the bird or the morning light, and not of art. In the + thought of genius there is always a surprise; and the moral sentiment is + well called "the newness," for it is never other; as new to the oldest + intelligence as to the young child;—"the kingdom that cometh without + observation." In like manner, for practical success, there must not be too + much design. A man will not be observed in doing that which he can do + best. There is a certain magic about his properest action which stupefies + your powers of observation, so that though it is done before you, you wist + not of it. The art of life has a pudency, and will not be exposed. Every + man is an impossibility until he is born; every thing impossible until we + see a success. The ardors of piety agree at last with the coldest + skepticism,—that nothing is of us or our works,—that all is of + God. Nature will not spare us the smallest leaf of laurel. All writing + comes by the grace of God, and all doing and having. I would gladly be + moral and keep due metes and bounds, which I dearly love, and allow the + most to the will of man; but I have set my heart on honesty in this + chapter, and I can see nothing at last, in success or failure, than more + or less of vital force supplied from the Eternal. The results of life are + uncalculated and uncalculable. The years teach much which the days never + know. The persons who compose our company, converse, and come and go, and + design and execute many things, and somewhat comes of it all, but an + unlooked-for result. The individual is always mistaken. He designed many + things, and drew in other persons as coadjutors, quarrelled with some or + all, blundered much, and something is done; all are a little advanced, but + the individual is always mistaken. It turns out somewhat new and very + unlike what he promised himself. + </p> + <p> + The ancients, struck with this irreducibleness of the elements of human + life to calculation, exalted Chance into a divinity; but that is to stay + too long at the spark, which glitters truly at one point, but the universe + is warm with the latency of the same fire. The miracle of life which will + not be expounded but will remain a miracle, introduces a new element. In + the growth of the embryo, Sir Everard Home I think noticed that the + evolution was not from one central point, but coactive from three or more + points. Life has no memory. That which proceeds in succession might be + remembered, but that which is coexistent, or ejaculated from a deeper + cause, as yet far from being conscious, knows not its own tendency. So is + it with us, now skeptical or without unity, because immersed in forms and + effects all seeming to be of equal yet hostile value, and now religious, + whilst in the reception of spiritual law. Bear with these distractions, + with this coetaneous growth of the parts; they will one day be members, + and obey one will. On that one will, on that secret cause, they nail our + attention and hope. Life is hereby melted into an expectation or a + religion. Underneath the inharmonious and trivial particulars, is a + musical perfection; the Ideal journeying always with us, the heaven + without rent or seam. Do but observe the mode of our illumination. When I + converse with a profound mind, or if at any time being alone I have good + thoughts, I do not at once arrive at satisfactions, as when, being + thirsty, I drink water; or go to the fire, being cold; no! but I am at + first apprised of my vicinity to a new and excellent region of life. By + persisting to read or to think, this region gives further sign of itself, + as it were in flashes of light, in sudden discoveries of its profound + beauty and repose, as if the clouds that covered it parted at intervals + and showed the approaching traveller the inland mountains, with the + tranquil eternal meadows spread at their base, whereon flocks graze and + shepherds pipe and dance. But every insight from this realm of thought is + felt as initial, and promises a sequel. I do not make it; I arrive there, + and behold what was there already. I make! O no! I clap my hands in + infantine joy and amazement before the first opening to me of this august + magnificence, old with the love and homage of innumerable ages, young with + the life of life, the sunbright Mecca of the desert. And what a future it + opens! I feel a new heart beating with the love of the new beauty. I am + ready to die out of nature and be born again into this new yet + unapproachable America I have found in the West:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Since neither now nor yesterday began + These thoughts, which have been ever, nor yet can + A man be found who their first entrance knew." +</pre> + <p> + If I have described life as a flux of moods, I must now add that there is + that in us which changes not and which ranks all sensations and states of + mind. The consciousness in each man is a sliding scale, which identifies + him now with the First Cause, and now with the flesh of his body; life + above life, in infinite degrees. The sentiment from which it sprung + determines the dignity of any deed, and the question ever is, not what you + have done or forborne, but at whose command you have done or forborne it. + </p> + <p> + Fortune, Minerva, Muse, Holy Ghost,—these are quaint names, too + narrow to cover this unbounded substance. The baffled intellect must still + kneel before this cause, which refuses to be named,—ineffable cause, + which every fine genius has essayed to represent by some emphatic symbol, + as, Thales by water, Anaximenes by air, Anaxagoras by (Nous) thought, + Zoroaster by fire, Jesus and the moderns by love; and the metaphor of each + has become a national religion. The Chinese Mencius has not been the least + successful in his generalization. "I fully understand language," he said, + "and nourish well my vast-flowing vigor."—"I beg to ask what you + call vast-flowing vigor?"—said his companion. "The explanation," + replied Mencius, "is difficult. This vigor is supremely great, and in the + highest degree unbending. Nourish it correctly and do it no injury, and it + will fill up the vacancy between heaven and earth. This vigor accords with + and assists justice and reason, and leaves no hunger."—In our more + correct writing we give to this generalization the name of Being, and + thereby confess that we have arrived as far as we can go. Suffice it for + the joy of the universe that we have not arrived at a wall, but at + interminable oceans. Our life seems not present so much as prospective; + not for the affairs on which it is wasted, but as a hint of this + vast-flowing vigor. Most of life seems to be mere advertisement of + faculty; information is given us not to sell ourselves cheap; that we are + very great. So, in particulars, our greatness is always in a tendency or + direction, not in an action. It is for us to believe in the rule, not in + the exception. The noble are thus known from the ignoble. So in accepting + the leading of the sentiments, it is not what we believe concerning the + immortality of the soul or the like, but the universal impulse to believe, + that is the material circumstance and is the principal fact in the history + of the globe. Shall we describe this cause as that which works directly? + The spirit is not helpless or needful of mediate organs. It has plentiful + powers and direct effects. I am explained without explaining, I am felt + without acting, and where I am not. Therefore all just persons are + satisfied with their own praise. They refuse to explain themselves, and + are content that new actions should do them that office. They believe that + we communicate without speech and above speech, and that no right action + of ours is quite unaffecting to our friends, at whatever distance; for the + influence of action is not to be measured by miles. Why should I fret + myself because a circumstance has occurred which hinders my presence where + I was expected? If I am not at the meeting, my presence where I am should + be as useful to the commonwealth of friendship and wisdom, as would be my + presence in that place. I exert the same quality of power in all places. + Thus journeys the mighty Ideal before us; it never was known to fall into + the rear. No man ever came to an experience which was satiating, but his + good is tidings of a better. Onward and onward! In liberated moments we + know that a new picture of life and duty is already possible; the elements + already exist in many minds around you of a doctrine of life which shall + transcend any written record we have. The new statement will comprise the + skepticisms as well as the faiths of society, and out of unbeliefs a creed + shall be formed. For skepticisms are not gratuitous or lawless, but are + limitations of the affirmative statement, and the new philosophy must take + them in and make affirmations outside of them, just as much as it must + include the oldest beliefs. + </p> + <p> + It is very unhappy, but too late to be helped, the discovery we have made + that we exist. That discovery is called the Fall of Man. Ever afterwards + we suspect our instruments. We have learned that we do not see directly, + but mediately, and that we have no means of correcting these colored and + distorting lenses which we are, or of computing the amount of their + errors. Perhaps these subject-lenses have a creative power; perhaps there + are no objects. Once we lived in what we saw; now, the rapaciousness of + this new power, which threatens to absorb all things, engages us. Nature, + art, persons, letters, religions, objects, successively tumble in, and God + is but one of its ideas. Nature and literature are subjective phenomena; + every evil and every good thing is a shadow which we cast. The street is + full of humiliations to the proud. As the fop contrived to dress his + bailiffs in his livery and make them wait on his guests at table, so the + chagrins which the bad heart gives off as bubbles, at once take form as + ladies and gentlemen in the street, shopmen or bar-keepers in hotels, and + threaten or insult whatever is threatenable and insultable in us. 'Tis the + same with our idolatries. People forget that it is the eye which makes the + horizon, and the rounding mind's eye which makes this or that man a type + or representative of humanity, with the name of hero or saint. Jesus, the + "providential man," is a good man on whom many people are agreed that + these optical laws shall take effect. By love on one part and by + forbearance to press objection on the other part, it is for a time + settled, that we will look at him in the centre of the horizon, and + ascribe to him the properties that will attach to any man so seen. But the + longest love or aversion has a speedy term. The great and crescive self, + rooted in absolute nature, supplants all relative existence and ruins the + kingdom of mortal friendship and love. Marriage (in what is called the + spiritual world) is impossible, because of the inequality between every + subject and every object. The subject is the receiver of Godhead, and at + every comparison must feel his being enhanced by that cryptic might. + Though not in energy, yet by presence, this magazine of substance cannot + be otherwise than felt; nor can any force of intellect attribute to the + object the proper deity which sleeps or wakes forever in every subject. + Never can love make consciousness and ascription equal in force. There + will be the same gulf between every me and thee as between the original + and the picture. The universe is the bride of the soul. All private + sympathy is partial. Two human beings are like globes, which can touch + only in a point, and whilst they remain in contact, all other points of + each of the spheres are inert; their turn must also come, and the longer a + particular union lasts the more energy of appetency the parts not in union + acquire. + </p> + <p> + Life will be imaged, but cannot be divided nor doubled. Any invasion of + its unity would be chaos. The soul is not twin-born but the only begotten, + and though revealing itself as child in time, child in appearance, is of a + fatal and universal power, admitting no co-life. Every day, every act + betrays the ill-concealed deity. We believe in ourselves as we do not + believe in others. We permit all things to ourselves, and that which we + call sin in others is experiment for us. It is an instance of our faith in + ourselves that men never speak of crime as lightly as they think; or every + man thinks a latitude safe for himself which is nowise to be indulged to + another. The act looks very differently on the inside and on the outside; + in its quality and in its consequences. Murder in the murderer is no such + ruinous thought as poets and romancers will have it; it does not unsettle + him or fright him from his ordinary notice of trifles; it is an act quite + easy to be contemplated; but in its sequel it turns out to be a horrible + jangle and confounding of all relations. Especially the crimes that spring + from love seem right and fair from the actor's point of view, but when + acted are found destructive of society. No man at last believes that he + can be lost, nor that the crime in him is as black as in the felon. + Because the intellect qualifies in our own case the moral judgments. For + there is no crime to the intellect. That is antinomian or hypernomian, and + judges law as well as fact. "It is worse than a crime, it is a blunder," + said Napoleon, speaking the language of the intellect. To it, the world is + a problem in mathematics or the science of quantity, and it leaves out + praise and blame and all weak emotions. All stealing is comparative. If + you come to absolutes, pray who does not steal? Saints are sad, because + they behold sin (even when they speculate), from the point of view of the + conscience, and not of the intellect; a confusion of thought. Sin, seen + from the thought, is a diminution, or less: seen from the conscience or + will, it is pravity or bad. The intellect names it shade, absence of + light, and no essence. The conscience must feel it as essence, essential + evil. This it is not; it has an objective existence, but no subjective. + </p> + <p> + Thus inevitably does the universe wear our color, and every object fall + successively into the subject itself. The subject exists, the subject + enlarges; all things sooner or later fall into place. As I am, so I see; + use what language we will, we can never say anything but what we are; + Hermes, Cadmus, Columbus, Newton, Bonaparte, are the mind's ministers. + Instead of feeling a poverty when we encounter a great man, let us treat + the new comer like a travelling geologist who passes through our estate + and shows us good slate, or limestone, or anthracite, in our brush + pasture. The partial action of each strong mind in one direction is a + telescope for the objects on which it is pointed. But every other part of + knowledge is to be pushed to the same extravagance, ere the soul attains + her due sphericity. Do you see that kitten chasing so prettily her own + tail? If you could look with her eyes you might see her surrounded with + hundreds of figures performing complex dramas, with tragic and comic + issues, long conversations, many characters, many ups and downs of fate,—and + meantime it is only puss and her tail. How long before our masquerade will + end its noise of tambourines, laughter, and shouting, and we shall find it + was a solitary performance? A subject and an object,—it takes so + much to make the galvanic circuit complete, but magnitude adds nothing. + What imports it whether it is Kepler and the sphere, Columbus and America, + a reader and his book, or puss with her tail? + </p> + <p> + It is true that all the muses and love and religion hate these + developments, and will find a way to punish the chemist who publishes in + the parlor the secrets of the laboratory. And we cannot say too little of + our constitutional necessity of seeing things under private aspects, or + saturated with our humors. And yet is the God the native of these bleak + rocks. That need makes in morals the capital virtue of self-trust. We must + hold hard to this poverty, however scandalous, and by more vigorous + self-recoveries, after the sallies of action, possess our axis more + firmly. The life of truth is cold and so far mournful; but it is not the + slave of tears, contritions and perturbations. It does not attempt + another's work, nor adopt another's facts. It is a main lesson of wisdom + to know your own from another's. I have learned that I cannot dispose of + other people's facts; but I possess such a key to my own as persuades me, + against all their denials, that they also have a key to theirs. A + sympathetic person is placed in the dilemma of a swimmer among drowning + men, who all catch at him, and if he give so much as a leg or a finger + they will drown him. They wish to be saved from the mischiefs of their + vices, but not from their vices. Charity would be wasted on this poor + waiting on the symptoms. A wise and hardy physician will say, Come out of + that, as the first condition of advice. + </p> + <p> + In this our talking America we are ruined by our good nature and listening + on all sides. This compliance takes away the power of being greatly + useful. A man should not be able to look other than directly and + forthright. A preoccupied attention is the only answer to the importunate + frivolity of other people; an attention, and to an aim which makes their + wants frivolous. This is a divine answer, and leaves no appeal and no hard + thoughts. In Flaxman's drawing of the Eumenides of Aeschylus, Orestes + supplicates Apollo, whilst the Furies sleep on the threshold. The face of + the god expresses a shade of regret and compassion, but is calm with the + conviction of the irreconcilableness of the two spheres. He is born into + other politics, into the eternal and beautiful. The man at his feet asks + for his interest in turmoils of the earth, into which his nature cannot + enter. And the Eumenides there lying express pictorially this disparity. + The god is surcharged with his divine destiny. + </p> + <p> + Illusion, Temperament, Succession, Surface, Surprise, Reality, + Subjectiveness,—these are threads on the loom of time, these are the + lords of life. I dare not assume to give their order, but I name them as I + find them in my way. I know better than to claim any completeness for my + picture. I am a fragment, and this is a fragment of me. I can very + confidently announce one or another law, which throws itself into relief + and form, but I am too young yet by some ages to compile a code. I gossip + for my hour concerning the eternal politics. I have seen many fair + pictures not in vain. A wonderful time I have lived in. I am not the + novice I was fourteen, nor yet seven years ago. Let who will ask Where is + the fruit? I find a private fruit sufficient. This is a fruit,—that + I should not ask for a rash effect from meditations, counsels and the + hiving of truths. I should feel it pitiful to demand a result on this town + and county, an overt effect on the instant month and year. The effect is + deep and secular as the cause. It works on periods in which mortal + lifetime is lost. All I know is reception; I am and I have: but I do not + get, and when I have fancied I had gotten anything, I found I did not. I + worship with wonder the great Fortune. My reception has been so large, + that I am not annoyed by receiving this or that superabundantly. I say to + the Genius, if he will pardon the proverb, In for a mill, in for a + million. When I receive a new gift, I do not macerate my body to make the + account square, for if I should die I could not make the account square. + The benefit overran the merit the first day, and has overrun the merit + ever since. The merit itself, so-called, I reckon part of the receiving. + </p> + <p> + Also that hankering after an overt or practical effect seems to me an + apostasy. In good earnest I am willing to spare this most unnecessary deal + of doing. Life wears to me a visionary face. Hardest roughest action is + visionary also. It is but a choice between soft and turbulent dreams. + People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, and urge doing. I am + very content with knowing, if only I could know. That is an august + entertainment, and would suffice me a great while. To know a little would + be worth the expense of this world. I hear always the law of Adrastia, + "that every soul which had acquired any truth, should be safe from harm + until another period." + </p> + <p> + I know that the world I converse with in the city and in the farms, is not + the world I think. I observe that difference, and shall observe it. One + day I shall know the value and law of this discrepance. But I have not + found that much was gained by manipular attempts to realize the world of + thought. Many eager persons successively make an experiment in this way, + and make themselves ridiculous. They acquire democratic manners, they foam + at the mouth, they hate and deny. Worse, I observe that in the history of + mankind there is never a solitary example of success,—taking their + own tests of success. I say this polemically, or in reply to the inquiry, + Why not realize your world? But far be from me the despair which prejudges + the law by a paltry empiricism;—since there never was a right + endeavor but it succeeded. Patience and patience, we shall win at the + last. We must be very suspicious of the deceptions of the element of time. + It takes a good deal of time to eat or to sleep, or to earn a hundred + dollars, and a very little time to entertain a hope and an insight which + becomes the light of our life. We dress our garden, eat our dinners, + discuss the household with our wives, and these things make no impression, + are forgotten next week; but, in the solitude to which every man is always + returning, he has a sanity and revelations which in his passage into new + worlds he will carry with him. Never mind the ridicule, never mind the + defeat; up again, old heart!—it seems to say,—there is victory + yet for all justice; and the true romance which the world exists to + realize will be the transformation of genius into practical power. + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHARACTER. + + The sun set; but set not his hope: + Stars rose; his faith was earlier up: + Fixed on the enormous galaxy, + Deeper and older seemed his eye: + And matched his sufferance sublime + The taciturnity of time. + He spoke, and words more soft than rain + Brought the Age of Gold again: + His action won such reverence sweet, + As hid all measure of the feat. + + Work of his hand + He nor commends nor grieves + Pleads for itself the fact; + As unrepenting Nature leaves + Her every act. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. CHARACTER. + </h2> + <p> + I HAVE read that those who listened to Lord Chatham felt that there was + something finer in the man than any thing which he said. It has been + complained of our brilliant English historian of the French Revolution + that when he has told all his facts about Mirabeau, they do not justify + his estimate of his genius. The Gracchi, Agis, Cleomenes, and others of + Plutarch's heroes, do not in the record of facts equal their own fame. Sir + Philip Sidney, the Earl of Essex, Sir Walter Raleigh, are men of great + figure and of few deeds. We cannot find the smallest part of the personal + weight of Washington in the narrative of his exploits. The authority of + the name of Schiller is too great for his books. This inequality of the + reputation to the works or the anecdotes is not accounted for by saying + that the reverberation is longer than the thunder-clap, but somewhat + resided in these men which begot an expectation that outran all their + performance. The largest part of their power was latent. This is that + which we call Character,—a reserved force which acts directly by + presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain + undemonstrable force, a Familiar or Genius, by whose impulses the man is + guided but whose counsels he cannot impart; which is company for him, so + that such men are often solitary, or if they chance to be social, do not + need society but can entertain themselves very well alone. The purest + literary talent appears at one time great, at another time small, but + character is of a stellar and undiminishable greatness. What others effect + by talent or by eloquence, this man accomplishes by some magnetism. "Half + his strength he put not forth." His victories are by demonstration of + superiority, and not by crossing of bayonets. He conquers because his + arrival alters the face of affairs. "O Iole! how did you know that + Hercules was a god?" "Because," answered Iole, "I was content the moment + my eyes fell on him. When I beheld Theseus, I desired that I might see him + offer battle, or at least guide his horses in the chariot-race; but + Hercules did not wait for a contest; he conquered whether he stood, or + walked, or sat, or whatever thing he did." Man, ordinarily a pendant to + events, only half attached, and that awkwardly, to the world he lives in, + in these examples appears to share the life of things, and to be an + expression of the same laws which control the tides and the sun, numbers + and quantities. + </p> + <p> + But to use a more modest illustration and nearer home, I observe that in + our political elections, where this element, if it appears at all, can + only occur in its coarsest form, we sufficiently understand its + incomparable rate. The people know that they need in their representative + much more than talent, namely the power to make his talent trusted. They + cannot come at their ends by sending to Congress a learned, acute, and + fluent speaker, if he be not one who, before he was appointed by the + people to represent them, was appointed by Almighty God to stand for a + fact,—invincibly persuaded of that fact in himself,—so that + the most confident and the most violent persons learn that here is + resistance on which both impudence and terror are wasted, namely faith in + a fact. The men who carry their points do not need to inquire of their + constituents what they should say, but are themselves the country which + they represent; nowhere are its emotions or opinions so instant and true + as in them; nowhere so pure from a selfish infusion. The constituency at + home hearkens to their words, watches the color of their cheek, and + therein, as in a glass, dresses its own. Our public assemblies are pretty + good tests of manly force. Our frank countrymen of the west and south have + a taste for character, and like to know whether the New Englander is a + substantial man, or whether the hand can pass through him. + </p> + <p> + The same motive force appears in trade. There are geniuses in trade, as + well as in war, or the State, or letters; and the reason why this or that + man is fortunate is not to be told. It lies in the man; that is all + anybody can tell you about it. See him and you will know as easily why he + succeeds, as, if you see Napoleon, you would comprehend his fortune. In + the new objects we recognize the old game, the Habit of fronting the fact, + and not dealing with it at second hand, through the perceptions of + somebody else. Nature seems to authorize trade, as soon as you see the + natural merchant, who appears not so much a private agent as her factor + and Minister of Commerce. His natural probity combines with his insight + into the fabric of society to put him above tricks, and he communicates to + all his own faith that contracts are of no private interpretation. The + habit of his mind is a reference to standards of natural equity and public + advantage; and he inspires respect and the wish to deal with him, both for + the quiet spirit of honor which attends him, and for the intellectual + pastime which the spectacle of so much ability affords. This immensely + stretched trade, which makes the capes of the Southern Ocean his wharves, + and the Atlantic Sea his familiar port, centres in his brain only; and + nobody in the universe can make his place good. In his parlor I see very + well that he has been at hard work this morning, with that knitted brow + and that settled humor, which all his desire to be courteous cannot shake + off. I see plainly how many firm acts have been done; how many valiant + noes have this day been spoken, when others would have uttered ruinous + yeas. I see, with the pride of art and skill of masterly arithmetic and + power of remote combination, the consciousness of being an agent and + playfellow of the original laws of the world. He too believes that none + can supply him, and that a man must be born to trade or he cannot learn + it. + </p> + <p> + This virtue draws the mind more when it appears in action to ends not so + mixed. It works with most energy in the smallest companies and in private + relations. In all cases it is an extraordinary and incomputable agent. The + excess of physical strength is paralyzed by it. Higher natures overpower + lower ones by affecting them with a certain sleep. The faculties are + locked up, and offer no resistance. Perhaps that is the universal law. + When the high cannot bring up the low to itself, it benumbs it, as man + charms down the resistance of the lower animals. Men exert on each other a + similar occult power. How often has the influence of a true master + realized all the tales of magic! A river of command seemed to run down + from his eyes into all those who beheld him, a torrent of strong sad + light, like an Ohio or Danube, which pervaded them with his thoughts and + colored all events with the hue of his mind. "What means did you employ?" + was the question asked of the wife of Concini, in regard to her treatment + of Mary of Medici; and the answer was, "Only that influence which every + strong mind has over a weak one." Cannot Caesar in irons shuffle off the + irons and transfer them to the person of Hippo or Thraso the turnkey? Is + an iron handcuff so immutable a bond? Suppose a slaver on the coast of + Guinea should take on board a gang of negroes which should contain persons + of the stamp of Toussaint L'Ouverture: or, let us fancy, under these + swarthy masks he has a gang of Washingtons in chains. When they arrive at + Cuba, will the relative order of the ship's company be the same? Is there + nothing but rope and iron? Is there no love, no reverence? Is there never + a glimpse of right in a poor slave-captain's mind; and cannot these be + supposed available to break or elude or in any manner overmatch the + tension of an inch or two of iron ring? + </p> + <p> + This is a natural power, like light and heat, and all nature cooperates + with it. The reason why we feel one man's presence and do not feel + another's is as simple as gravity. Truth is the summit of being; justice + is the application of it to affairs. All individual natures stand in a + scale, according to the purity of this element in them. The will of the + pure runs down from them into other natures as water runs down from a + higher into a lower vessel. This natural force is no more to be withstood + than any other natural force. We can drive a stone upward for a moment + into the air, but it is yet true that all stones will forever fall; and + whatever instances can be quoted of unpunished theft, or of a lie which + somebody credited, justice must prevail, and it is the privilege of truth + to make itself believed. Character is this moral order seen through the + medium of an individual nature. An individual is an encloser. Time and + space, liberty and necessity, truth and thought, are left at large no + longer. Now, the universe is a close or pound. All things exist in the man + tinged with the manners of his soul. With what quality is in him he + infuses all nature that he can reach; nor does he tend to lose himself in + vastness, but, at how long a curve soever, all his regards return into his + own good at last. He animates all he can, and he sees only what he + animates. He encloses the world, as the patriot does his country, as a + material basis for his character, and a theatre for action. A healthy soul + stands united with the Just and the True, as the magnet arranges itself + with the pole; so that he stands to all beholders like a transparent + object betwixt them and the sun, and whoso journeys towards the sun, + journeys towards that person. He is thus the medium of the highest + influence to all who are not on the same level. Thus, men of character are + the conscience of the society to which they belong. + </p> + <p> + The natural measure of this power is the resistance of circumstances. + Impure men consider life as it is reflected in opinions, events, and + persons. They cannot see the action until it is done. Yet its moral + element preexisted in the actor, and its quality as right or wrong it was + easy to predict. Everything in nature is bipolar, or has a positive and + negative pole. There is a male and a female, a spirit and a fact, a north + and a south. Spirit is the positive, the event is the negative. Will is + the north, action the south pole. Character may be ranked as having its + natural place in the north. It shares the magnetic currents of the system. + The feeble souls are drawn to the south or negative pole. They look at the + profit or hurt of the action. They never behold a principle until it is + lodged in a person. They do not wish to be lovely, but to be loved. Men of + character like to hear of their faults; the other class do not like to + hear of faults; they worship events; secure to them a fact, a connection, + a certain chain of circumstances, and they will ask no more. The hero sees + that the event is ancillary; it must follow him. A given order of events + has no power to secure to him the satisfaction which the imagination + attaches to it; the soul of goodness escapes from any set of + circumstances; whilst prosperity belongs to a certain mind, and will + introduce that power and victory which is its natural fruit, into any + order of events. No change of circumstances can repair a defect of + character. We boast our emancipation from many superstitions; but if we + have broken any idols it is through a transfer of the idolatry. What have + I gained, that I no longer immolate a bull to Jove or to Neptune, or a + mouse to Hecate; that I do not tremble before the Eumenides, or the + Catholic Purgatory, or the Calvinistic Judgment-day,—if I quake at + opinion, the public opinion, as we call it; or at the threat of assault, + or contumely, or bad neighbors, or poverty, or mutilation, or at the rumor + of revolution, or of murder? If I quake, what matters it what I quake at? + Our proper vice takes form in one or another shape, according to the sex, + age, or temperament of the person, and, if we are capable of fear, will + readily find terrors. The covetousness or the malignity which saddens me + when I ascribe it to society, is my own. I am always environed by myself. + On the other part, rectitude is a perpetual victory, celebrated not by + cries of joy but by serenity, which is joy fixed or habitual. It is + disgraceful to fly to events for confirmation of our truth and worth. The + capitalist does not run every hour to the broker to coin his advantages + into current money of the realm; he is satisfied to read in the quotations + of the market that his stocks have risen. The same transport which the + occurrence of the best events in the best order would occasion me, I must + learn to taste purer in the perception that my position is every hour + meliorated, and does already command those events I desire. That + exultation is only to be checked by the foresight of an order of things so + excellent as to throw all our prosperities into the deepest shade. + </p> + <p> + The face which character wears to me is self-sufficingness. I revere the + person who is riches; so that I cannot think of him as alone, or poor, or + exiled, or unhappy, or a client, but as perpetual patron, benefactor, and + beatified man. Character is centrality, the impossibility of being + displaced or overset. A man should give us a sense of mass. Society is + frivolous, and shreds its day into scraps, its conversation into + ceremonies and escapes. But if I go to see an ingenious man I shall think + myself poorly entertained if he give me nimble pieces of benevolence and + etiquette; rather he shall stand stoutly in his place and let me apprehend + if it were only his resistance; know that I have encountered a new and + positive quality;—great refreshment for both of us. It is much that + he does not accept the conventional opinions and practices. That + nonconformity will remain a goad and remembrancer, and every inquirer will + have to dispose of him, in the first place. There is nothing real or + useful that is not a seat of war. Our houses ring with laughter and + personal and critical gossip, but it helps little. But the uncivil, + unavailable man, who is a problem and a threat to society, whom it cannot + let pass in silence but must either worship or hate,—and to whom all + parties feel related, both the leaders of opinion and the obscure and + eccentric,—he helps; he puts America and Europe in the wrong, and + destroys the skepticism which says, 'man is a doll, let us eat and drink, + 'tis the best we can do,' by illuminating the untried and unknown. + Acquiescence in the establishment and appeal to the public, indicate + infirm faith, heads which are not clear, and which must see a house built, + before they can comprehend the plan of it. The wise man not only leaves + out of his thought the many, but leaves out the few. Fountains, the + self-moved, the absorbed, the commander because he is commanded, the + assured, the primary,—they are good; for these announce the instant + presence of supreme power. + </p> + <p> + Our action should rest mathematically on our substance. In nature, there + are no false valuations. A pound of water in the ocean-tempest has no more + gravity than in a midsummer pond. All things work exactly according to + their quality and according to their quantity; attempt nothing they cannot + do, except man only. He has pretension; he wishes and attempts things + beyond his force. I read in a book of English memoirs, "Mr. Fox + (afterwards Lord Holland) said, he must have the Treasury; he had served + up to it, and would have it." Xenophon and his Ten Thousand were quite + equal to what they attempted, and did it; so equal, that it was not + suspected to be a grand and inimitable exploit. Yet there stands that fact + unrepeated, a high-water mark in military history. Many have attempted it + since, and not been equal to it. It is only on reality that any power of + action can be based. No institution will be better than the institutor. I + knew an amiable and accomplished person who undertook a practical reform, + yet I was never able to find in him the enterprise of love he took in + hand. He adopted it by ear and by the understanding from the books he had + been reading. All his action was tentative, a piece of the city carried + out into the fields, and was the city still, and no new fact, and could + not inspire enthusiasm. Had there been something latent in the man, a + terrible undemonstrated genius agitating and embarrassing his demeanor, we + had watched for its advent. It is not enough that the intellect should see + the evils and their remedy. We shall still postpone our existence, nor + take the ground to which we are entitled, whilst it is only a thought and + not a spirit that incites us. We have not yet served up to it. + </p> + <p> + These are properties of life, and another trait is the notice of incessant + growth. Men should be intelligent and earnest. They must also make us feel + that they have a controlling happy future opening before them, whose early + twilights already kindle in the passing hour. The hero is misconceived and + misreported; he cannot therefore wait to unravel any man's blunders; he is + again on his road, adding new powers and honors to his domain and new + claims on your heart, which will bankrupt you if you have loitered about + the old things and have not kept your relation to him by adding to your + wealth. New actions are the only apologies and explanations of old ones + which the noble can bear to offer or to receive. If your friend has + displeased you, you shall not sit down to consider it, for he has already + lost all memory of the passage, and has doubled his power to serve you, + and ere you can rise up again will burden you with blessings. + </p> + <p> + We have no pleasure in thinking of a benevolence that is only measured by + its works. Love is inexhaustible, and if its estate is wasted, its granary + emptied, still cheers and enriches, and the man, though he sleep, seems to + purify the air and his house to adorn the landscape and strengthen the + laws. People always recognize this difference. We know who is benevolent, + by quite other means than the amount of subscription to soup-societies. It + is only low merits that can be enumerated. Fear, when your friends say to + you what you have done well, and say it through; but when they stand with + uncertain timid looks of respect and half-dislike, and must suspend their + judgment for years to come, you may begin to hope. Those who live to the + future must always appear selfish to those who live to the present. + Therefore it was droll in the good Riemer, who has written memoirs of + Goethe, to make out a list of his donations and good deeds, as, so many + hundred thalers given to Stilling, to Hegel, to Tischbein; a lucrative + place found for Professor Voss, a post under the Grand Duke for Herder, a + pension for Meyer, two professors recommended to foreign universities; + &c., &c. The longest list of specifications of benefit would look + very short. A man is a poor creature if he is to be measured so. For all + these of course are exceptions, and the rule and hodiernal life of a good + man is benefaction. The true charity of Goethe is to be inferred from the + account he gave Dr. Eckermann of the way in which he had spent his + fortune. "Each bon-mot of mine has cost a purse of gold. Half a million of + my own money, the fortune I inherited, my salary and the large income + derived from my writings for fifty years back, have been expended to + instruct me in what I now know. I have besides seen," &c. + </p> + <p> + I own it is but poor chat and gossip to go to enumerate traits of this + simple and rapid power, and we are painting the lightning with charcoal; + but in these long nights and vacations I like to console myself so. + Nothing but itself can copy it. A word warm from the heart enriches me. I + surrender at discretion. How death-cold is literary genius before this + fire of life! These are the touches that reanimate my heavy soul and give + it eyes to pierce the dark of nature. I find, where I thought myself poor, + there was I most rich. Thence comes a new intellectual exaltation, to be + again rebuked by some new exhibition of character. Strange alternation of + attraction and repulsion! Character repudiates intellect, yet excites it; + and character passes into thought, is published so, and then is ashamed + before new flashes of moral worth. + </p> + <p> + Character is nature in the highest form. It is of no use to ape it or to + contend with it. Somewhat is possible of resistance, and of persistence, + and of creation, to this power, which will foil all emulation. + </p> + <p> + This masterpiece is best where no hands but nature's have been laid on it. + Care is taken that the greatly-destined shall slip up into life in the + shade, with no thousand-eyed Athens to watch and blazon every new thought, + every blushing emotion of young genius. Two persons lately, very young + children of the most high God, have given me occasion for thought. When I + explored the source of their sanctity and charm for the imagination, it + seemed as if each answered, 'From my nonconformity; I never listened to + your people's law, or to what they call their gospel, and wasted my time. + I was content with the simple rural poverty of my own; hence this + sweetness; my work never reminds you of that;—is pure of that.' And + nature advertises me in such persons that in democratic America she will + not be democratized. How cloistered and constitutionally sequestered from + the market and from scandal! It was only this morning that I sent away + some wild flowers of these wood-gods. They are a relief from literature,—these + fresh draughts from the sources of thought and sentiment; as we read, in + an age of polish and criticism, the first lines of written prose and verse + of a nation. How captivating is their devotion to their favorite books, + whether Aeschylus, Dante, Shakspeare, or Scott, as feeling that they have + a stake in that book; who touches that, touches them;—and especially + the total solitude of the critic, the Patmos of thought from which he + writes, in unconsciousness of any eyes that shall ever read this writing. + Could they dream on still, as angels, and not wake to comparisons, and to + be flattered! Yet some natures are too good to be spoiled by praise, and + wherever the vein of thought reaches down into the profound, there is no + danger from vanity. Solemn friends will warn them of the danger of the + head's being turned by the flourish of trumpets, but they can afford to + smile. I remember the indignation of an eloquent Methodist at the kind + admonitions of a Doctor of Divinity,—'My friend, a man can neither + be praised nor insulted.' But forgive the counsels; they are very natural. + I remember the thought which occurred to me when some ingenious and + spiritual foreigners came to America, was, Have you been victimized in + being brought hither?—or, prior to that, answer me this, 'Are you + victimizable?' + </p> + <p> + As I have said, Nature keeps these sovereignties in her own hands, and + however pertly our sermons and disciplines would divide some share of + credit, and teach that the laws fashion the citizen, she goes her own gait + and puts the wisest in the wrong. She makes very light of gospels and + prophets, as one who has a great many more to produce and no excess of + time to spare on any one. There is a class of men, individuals of which + appear at long intervals, so eminently endowed with insight and virtue + that they have been unanimously saluted as divine, and who seem to be an + accumulation of that power we consider. Divine persons are character born, + or, to borrow a phrase from Napoleon, they are victory organized. They are + usually received with ill-will, because they are new and because they set + a bound to the exaggeration that has been made of the personality of the + last divine person. Nature never rhymes her children, nor makes two men + alike. When we see a great man we fancy a resemblance to some historical + person, and predict the sequel of his character and fortune; a result + which he is sure to disappoint. None will ever solve the problem of his + character according to our prejudice, but only in his own high + unprecedented way. Character wants room; must not be crowded on by persons + nor be judged from glimpses got in the press of affairs or on few + occasions. It needs perspective, as a great building. It may not, probably + does not, form relations rapidly; and we should not require rash + explanation, either on the popular ethics, or on our own, of its action. + </p> + <p> + I look on Sculpture as history. I do not think the Apollo and the Jove + impossible in flesh and blood. Every trait which the artist recorded in + stone he had seen in life, and better than his copy. We have seen many + counterfeits, but we are born believers in great men. How easily we read + in old books, when men were few, of the smallest action of the patriarchs. + We require that a man should be so large and columnar in the landscape, + that it should deserve to be recorded that he arose, and girded up his + loins, and departed to such a place. The most credible pictures are those + of majestic men who prevailed at their entrance, and convinced the senses; + as happened to the eastern magian who was sent to test the merits of + Zertusht or Zoroaster. When the Yunani sage arrived at Balkh, the Persians + tell us, Gushtasp appointed a day on which the Mobeds of every country + should assemble, and a golden chair was placed for the Yunani sage. Then + the beloved of Yezdam, the prophet Zertusht, advanced into the midst of + the assembly. The Yunani sage, on seeing that chief, said, "This form and + this gait cannot lie, and nothing but truth can proceed from them." Plato + said it was impossible not to believe in the children of the gods, "though + they should speak without probable or necessary arguments." I should think + myself very unhappy in my associates if I could not credit the best things + in history. "John Bradshaw," says Milton, "appears like a consul, from + whom the fasces are not to depart with the year; so that not on the + tribunal only, but throughout his life, you would regard him as sitting in + judgment upon kings." I find it more credible, since it is anterior + information, that one man should know heaven, as the Chinese say, than + that so many men should know the world. "The virtuous prince confronts the + gods, without any misgiving. He waits a hundred ages till a sage comes, + and does not doubt. He who confronts the gods, without any misgiving, + knows heaven; he who waits a hundred ages until a sage comes, without + doubting, knows men. Hence the virtuous prince moves, and for ages shows + empire the way." But there is no need to seek remote examples. He is a + dull observer whose experience has not taught him the reality and force of + magic, as well as of chemistry. The coldest precisian cannot go abroad + without encountering inexplicable influences. One man fastens an eye on + him and the graves of the memory render up their dead; the secrets that + make him wretched either to keep or to betray must be yielded;—another, + and he cannot speak, and the bones of his body seem to lose their + cartilages; the entrance of a friend adds grace, boldness, and eloquence + to him; and there are persons he cannot choose but remember, who gave a + transcendent expansion to his thought, and kindled another life in his + bosom. + </p> + <p> + What is so excellent as strict relations of amity, when they spring from + this deep root? The sufficient reply to the skeptic who doubts the power + and the furniture of man, is in that possibility of joyful intercourse + with persons, which makes the faith and practice of all reasonable men. I + know nothing which life has to offer so satisfying as the profound good + understanding which can subsist after much exchange of good offices, + between two virtuous men, each of whom is sure of himself and sure of his + friend. It is a happiness which postpones all other gratifications, and + makes politics, and commerce, and churches, cheap. For when men shall meet + as they ought, each a benefactor, a shower of stars, clothed with + thoughts, with deeds, with accomplishments, it should be the festival of + nature which all things announce. Of such friendship, love in the sexes is + the first symbol, as all other things are symbols of love. Those relations + to the best men, which, at one time, we reckoned the romances of youth, + become, in the progress of the character, the most solid enjoyment. + </p> + <p> + If it were possible to live in right relations with men!—if we could + abstain from asking anything of them, from asking their praise, or help, + or pity, and content us with compelling them through the virtue of the + eldest laws! Could we not deal with a few persons,—with one person,—after + the unwritten statutes, and make an experiment of their efficacy? Could we + not pay our friend the compliment of truth, of silence, of forbearing? + Need we be so eager to seek him? If we are related, we shall meet. It was + a tradition of the ancient world that no metamorphosis could hide a god + from a god; and there is a Greek verse which runs,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The Gods are to each other not unknown." +</pre> + <p> + Friends also follow the laws of divine necessity; they gravitate to each + other, and cannot otherwise:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + When each the other shall avoid, + Shall each by each be most enjoyed. +</pre> + <p> + Their relation is not made, but allowed. The gods must seat themselves + without seneschal in our Olympus, and as they can instal themselves by + seniority divine. Society is spoiled if pains are taken, if the associates + are brought a mile to meet. And if it be not society, it is a mischievous, + low, degrading jangle, though made up of the best. All the greatness of + each is kept back and every foible in painful activity, as if the + Olympians should meet to exchange snuff-boxes. + </p> + <p> + Life goes headlong. We chase some flying scheme, or we are hunted by some + fear or command behind us. But if suddenly we encounter a friend, we + pause; our heat and hurry look foolish enough; now pause, now possession + is required, and the power to swell the moment from the resources of the + heart. The moment is all, in all noble relations. + </p> + <p> + A divine person is the prophecy of the mind; a friend is the hope of the + heart. Our beatitude waits for the fulfilment of these two in one. The + ages are opening this moral force. All force is the shadow or symbol of + that. Poetry is joyful and strong as it draws its inspiration thence. Men + write their names on the world as they are filled with this. History has + been mean; our nations have been mobs; we have never seen a man: that + divine form we do not yet know, but only the dream and prophecy of such: + we do not know the majestic manners which belong to him, which appease and + exalt the beholder. We shall one day see that the most private is the most + public energy, that quality atones for quantity, and grandeur of character + acts in the dark, and succors them who never saw it. What greatness has + yet appeared is beginnings and encouragements to us in this direction. The + history of those gods and saints which the world has written and then + worshipped, are documents of character. The ages have exulted in the + manners of a youth who owed nothing to fortune, and who was hanged at the + Tyburn of his nation, who, by the pure quality of his nature, shed an epic + splendor around the facts of his death which has transfigured every + particular into an universal symbol for the eyes of mankind. This great + defeat is hitherto our highest fact. But the mind requires a victory to + the senses; a force of character which will convert judge, jury, soldier, + and king; which will rule animal and mineral virtues, and blend with the + courses of sap, of rivers, of winds, of stars, and of moral agents. + </p> + <p> + If we cannot attain at a bound to these grandeurs, at least let us do them + homage. In society, high advantages are set down to the possessor as + disadvantages. It requires the more wariness in our private estimates. I + do not forgive in my friends the failure to know a fine character and to + entertain it with thankful hospitality. When at last that which we have + always longed for is arrived and shines on us with glad rays out of that + far celestial land, then to be coarse, then to be critical and treat such + a visitant with the jabber and suspicion of the streets, argues a + vulgarity that seems to shut the doors of heaven. This is confusion, this + the right insanity, when the soul no longer knows its own, nor where its + allegiance, its religion, are due. Is there any religion but this, to know + that wherever in the wide desert of being the holy sentiment we cherish + has opened into a flower, it blooms for me? if none sees it, I see it; I + am aware, if I alone, of the greatness of the fact. Whilst it blooms, I + will keep sabbath or holy time, and suspend my gloom and my folly and + jokes. Nature is indulged by the presence of this guest. There are many + eyes that can detect and honor the prudent and household virtues; there + are many that can discern Genius on his starry track, though the mob is + incapable; but when that love which is all-suffering, all-abstaining, + all-aspiring, which has vowed to itself that it will be a wretch and also + a fool in this world sooner than soil its white hands by any compliances, + comes into our streets and houses,—only the pure and aspiring can + know its face, and the only compliment they can pay it is to own it. + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + MANNERS. + + "HOW near to good is what is fair! + Which we no sooner see, + But with the lines and outward air + Our senses taken be. + + Again yourselves compose, + And now put all the aptness on + Of Figure, that Proportion + Or Color can disclose; + That if those silent arts were lost, + Design and Picture, they might boast + From you a newer ground, + Instructed by the heightening sense + Of dignity and reverence + In their true motions found." + BEN JONSON +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. MANNERS. + </h2> + <p> + HALF the world, it is said, knows not how the other half live. Our + Exploring Expedition saw the Feejee islanders getting their dinner off + human bones; and they are said to eat their own wives and children. The + husbandry of the modern inhabitants of Gournou (west of old Thebes) is + philosophical to a fault. To set up their housekeeping nothing is + requisite but two or three earthen pots, a stone to grind meal, and a mat + which is the bed. The house, namely a tomb, is ready without rent or + taxes. No rain can pass through the roof, and there is no door, for there + is no want of one, as there is nothing to lose. If the house do not please + them, they walk out and enter another, as there are several hundreds at + their command. "It is somewhat singular," adds Belzoni, to whom we owe + this account, "to talk of happiness among people who live in sepulchres, + among the corpses and rags of an ancient nation which they know nothing + of." In the deserts of Borgoo the rock-Tibboos still dwell in caves, like + cliff-swallows, and the language of these negroes is compared by their + neighbors to the shrieking of bats and to the whistling of birds. Again, + the Bornoos have no proper names; individuals are called after their + height, thickness, or other accidental quality, and have nicknames merely. + But the salt, the dates, the ivory, and the gold, for which these horrible + regions are visited, find their way into countries where the purchaser and + consumer can hardly be ranked in one race with these cannibals and + man-stealers; countries where man serves himself with metals, wood, stone, + glass, gum, cotton, silk, and wool; honors himself with architecture; + writes laws, and contrives to execute his will through the hands of many + nations; and, especially, establishes a select society, running through + all the countries of intelligent men, a self-constituted aristocracy, or + fraternity of the best, which, without written law or exact usage of any + kind, perpetuates itself, colonizes every new-planted island and adopts + and makes its own whatever personal beauty or extraordinary native + endowment anywhere appears. + </p> + <p> + What fact more conspicuous in modern history than the creation of the + gentleman? Chivalry is that, and loyalty is that, and, in English + literature, half the drama, and all the novels, from Sir Philip Sidney to + Sir Walter Scott, paint this figure. The word gentleman, which, like the + word Christian, must hereafter characterize the present and the few + preceding centuries by the importance attached to it, is a homage to + personal and incommunicable properties. Frivolous and fantastic additions + have got associated with the name, but the steady interest of mankind in + it must be attributed to the valuable properties which it designates. An + element which unites all the most forcible persons of every country; makes + them intelligible and agreeable to each other, and is somewhat so precise + that it is at once felt if an individual lack the masonic sign,—cannot + be any casual product, but must be an average result of the character and + faculties universally found in men. It seems a certain permanent average; + as the atmosphere is a permanent composition, whilst so many gases are + combined only to be decompounded. Comme il faut, is the Frenchman's + description of good Society: as we must be. It is a spontaneous fruit of + talents and feelings of precisely that class who have most vigor, who take + the lead in the world of this hour, and though far from pure, far from + constituting the gladdest and highest tone of human feeling, is as good as + the whole society permits it to be. It is made of the spirit, more than of + the talent of men, and is a compound result into which every great force + enters as an ingredient, namely virtue, wit, beauty, wealth, and power. + </p> + <p> + There is something equivocal in all the words in use to express the + excellence of manners and social cultivation, because the quantities are + fluxional, and the last effect is assumed by the senses as the cause. The + word gentleman has not any correlative abstract to express the quality. + Gentility is mean, and gentilesse is obsolete. But we must keep alive in + the vernacular the distinction between fashion, a word of narrow and often + sinister meaning, and the heroic character which the gentleman imports. + The usual words, however, must be respected; they will be found to contain + the root of the matter. The point of distinction in all this class of + names, as courtesy, chivalry, fashion, and the like, is that the flower + and fruit, not the grain of the tree, are contemplated. It is beauty which + is the aim this time, and not worth. The result is now in question, + although our words intimate well enough the popular feeling that the + appearance supposes a substance. The gentleman is a man of truth, lord of + his own actions, and expressing that lordship in his behavior, not in any + manner dependent and servile, either on persons, or opinions, or + possessions. Beyond this fact of truth and real force, the word denotes + good-nature or benevolence: manhood first, and then gentleness. The + popular notion certainly adds a condition of ease and fortune; but that is + a natural result of personal force and love, that they should possess and + dispense the goods of the world. In times of violence, every eminent + person must fall in with many opportunities to approve his stoutness and + worth; therefore every man's name that emerged at all from the mass in the + feudal ages, rattles in our ear like a flourish of trumpets. But personal + force never goes out of fashion. That is still paramount to-day, and in + the moving crowd of good society the men of valor and reality are known + and rise to their natural place. The competition is transferred from war + to politics and trade, but the personal force appears readily enough in + these new arenas. + </p> + <p> + Power first, or no leading class. In politics and in trade, bruisers and + pirates are of better promise than talkers and clerks. God knows that all + sorts of gentlemen knock at the door; but whenever used in strictness and + with any emphasis, the name will be found to point at original energy. It + describes a man standing in his own right and working after untaught + methods. In a good lord there must first be a good animal, at least to the + extent of yielding the incomparable advantage of animal spirits. The + ruling class must have more, but they must have these, giving in every + company the sense of power, which makes things easy to be done which daunt + the wise. The society of the energetic class, in their friendly and + festive meetings, is full of courage and of attempts which intimidate the + pale scholar. The courage which girls exhibit is like a battle of Lundy's + Lane, or a sea-fight. The intellect relies on memory to make some supplies + to face these extemporaneous squadrons. But memory is a base mendicant + with basket and badge, in the presence of these sudden masters. The rulers + of society must be up to the work of the world, and equal to their + versatile office: men of the right Caesarian pattern, who have great range + of affinity. I am far from believing the timid maxim of Lord Falkland + ("that for ceremony there must go two to it; since a bold fellow will go + through the cunningest forms"), and am of opinion that the gentleman is + the bold fellow whose forms are not to be broken through; and only that + plenteous nature is rightful master which is the complement of whatever + person it converses with. My gentleman gives the law where he is; he will + outpray saints in chapel, outgeneral veterans in the field, and outshine + all courtesy in the hall. He is good company for pirates and good with + academicians; so that it is useless to fortify yourself against him; he + has the private entrance to all minds, and I could as easily exclude + myself, as him. The famous gentlemen of Asia and Europe have been of this + strong type; Saladin, Sapor, the Cid, Julius Caesar, Scipio, Alexander, + Pericles, and the lordliest personages. They sat very carelessly in their + chairs, and were too excellent themselves, to value any condition at a + high rate. + </p> + <p> + A plentiful fortune is reckoned necessary, in the popular judgment, to the + completion of this man of the world; and it is a material deputy which + walks through the dance which the first has led. Money is not essential, + but this wide affinity is, which transcends the habits of clique and caste + and makes itself felt by men of all classes. If the aristocrat is only + valid in fashionable circles and not with truckmen, he will never be a + leader in fashion; and if the man of the people cannot speak on equal + terms with the gentleman, so that the gentleman shall perceive that he is + already really of his own order, he is not to be feared. Diogenes, + Socrates, and Epaminondas, are gentlemen of the best blood who have chosen + the condition of poverty when that of wealth was equally open to them. I + use these old names, but the men I speak of are my contemporaries. Fortune + will not supply to every generation one of these well-appointed knights, + but every collection of men furnishes some example of the class; and the + politics of this country, and the trade of every town, are controlled by + these hardy and irresponsible doers, who have invention to take the lead, + and a broad sympathy which puts them in fellowship with crowds, and makes + their action popular. + </p> + <p> + The manners of this class are observed and caught with devotion by men of + taste. The association of these masters with each other and with men + intelligent of their merits, is mutually agreeable and stimulating. The + good forms, the happiest expressions of each, are repeated and adopted. By + swift consent everything superfluous is dropped, everything graceful is + renewed. Fine manners show themselves formidable to the uncultivated man. + They are a subtler science of defence to parry and intimidate; but once + matched by the skill of the other party, they drop the point of the sword,—points + and fences disappear, and the youth finds himself in a more transparent + atmosphere, wherein life is a less troublesome game, and not a + misunderstanding rises between the players. Manners aim to facilitate + life, to get rid of impediments and bring the man pure to energize. They + aid our dealing and conversation as a railway aids travelling, by getting + rid of all avoidable obstructions of the road and leaving nothing to be + conquered but pure space. These forms very soon become fixed, and a fine + sense of propriety is cultivated with the more heed that it becomes a + badge of social and civil distinctions. Thus grows up Fashion, an + equivocal semblance, the most puissant, the most fantastic and frivolous, + the most feared and followed, and which morals and violence assault in + vain. + </p> + <p> + There exists a strict relation between the class of power and the + exclusive and polished circles. The last are always filled or filling from + the first. The strong men usually give some allowance even to the + petulances of fashion, for that affinity they find in it. Napoleon, child + of the revolution, destroyer of the old noblesse, never ceased to court + the Faubourg St. Germain; doubtless with the feeling that fashion is a + homage to men of his stamp. Fashion, though in a strange way, represents + all manly virtue. It is virtue gone to seed: it is a kind of posthumous + honor. It does not often caress the great, but the children of the great: + it is a hall of the Past. It usually sets its face against the great of + this hour. Great men are not commonly in its halls; they are absent in the + field: they are working, not triumphing. Fashion is made up of their + children; of those who through the value and virtue of somebody, have + acquired lustre to their name, marks of distinction, means of cultivation + and generosity, and, in their physical organization a certain health and + excellence which secures to them, if not the highest power to work, yet + high power to enjoy. The class of power, the working heroes, the Cortez, + the Nelson, the Napoleon, see that this is the festivity and permanent + celebration of such as they; that fashion is funded talent; is Mexico, + Marengo, and Trafalgar beaten out thin; that the brilliant names of + fashion run back to just such busy names as their own, fifty or sixty + years ago. They are the sowers, their sons shall be the reapers, and their + sons, in the ordinary course of things, must yield the possession of the + harvest to new competitors with keener eyes and stronger frames. The city + is recruited from the country. In the year 1805, it is said, every + legitimate monarch in Europe was imbecile. The city would have died out, + rotted, and exploded, long ago, but that it was reinforced from the + fields. It is only country which came to town day before yesterday that is + city and court today. + </p> + <p> + Aristocracy and fashion are certain inevitable results. These mutual + selections are indestructible. If they provoke anger in the least favored + class, and the excluded majority revenge themselves on the excluding + minority by the strong hand and kill them, at once a new class finds + itself at the top, as certainly as cream rises in a bowl of milk: and if + the people should destroy class after class, until two men only were left, + one of these would be the leader and would be involuntarily served and + copied by the other. You may keep this minority out of sight and out of + mind, but it is tenacious of life, and is one of the estates of the realm. + I am the more struck with this tenacity, when I see its work. It respects + the administration of such unimportant matters, that we should not look + for any durability in its rule. We sometimes meet men under some strong + moral influence, as a patriotic, a literary, a religious movement, and + feel that the moral sentiment rules man and nature. We think all other + distinctions and ties will be slight and fugitive, this of caste or + fashion for example; yet come from year to year and see how permanent that + is, in this Boston or New York life of man, where too it has not the least + countenance from the law of the land. Not in Egypt or in India a firmer or + more impassable line. Here are associations whose ties go over and under + and through it, a meeting of merchants, a military corps, a college class, + a fire-club, a professional association, a political, a religious + convention;—the persons seem to draw inseparably near; yet, that + assembly once dispersed, its members will not in the year meet again. Each + returns to his degree in the scale of good society, porcelain remains + porcelain, and earthen earthen. The objects of fashion may be frivolous, + or fashion may be objectless, but the nature of this union and selection + can be neither frivolous nor accidental. Each man's rank in that perfect + graduation depends on some symmetry in his structure or some agreement in + his structure to the symmetry of society. Its doors unbar instantaneously + to a natural claim of their own kind. A natural gentleman finds his way + in, and will keep the oldest patrician out who has lost his intrinsic + rank. Fashion understands itself; good-breeding and personal superiority + of whatever country readily fraternize with those of every other. The + chiefs of savage tribes have distinguished themselves in London and Paris, + by the purity of their tournure. + </p> + <p> + To say what good of fashion we can, it rests on reality, and hates nothing + so much as pretenders; to exclude and mystify pretenders and send them + into everlasting 'Coventry,' is its delight. We contemn in turn every + other gift of men of the world; but the habit even in little and the least + matters of not appealing to any but our own sense of propriety, + constitutes the foundation of all chivalry. There is almost no kind of + self-reliance, so it be sane and proportioned, which fashion does not + occasionally adopt and give it the freedom of its saloons. A sainted soul + is always elegant, and, if it will, passes unchallenged into the most + guarded ring. But so will Jock the teamster pass, in some crisis that + brings him thither, and find favor, as long as his head is not giddy with + the new circumstance, and the iron shoes do not wish to dance in waltzes + and cotillons. For there is nothing settled in manners, but the laws of + behavior yield to the energy of the individual. The maiden at her first + ball, the country-man at a city dinner, believes that there is a ritual + according to which every act and compliment must be performed, or the + failing party must be cast out of this presence. Later they learn that + good sense and character make their own forms every moment, and speak or + abstain, take wine or refuse it, stay or go, sit in a chair or sprawl with + children on the floor, or stand on their head, or what else soever, in a + new and aboriginal way; and that strong will is always in fashion, let who + will be unfashionable. All that fashion demands is composure and + self-content. A circle of men perfectly well-bred would be a company of + sensible persons in which every man's native manners and character + appeared. If the fashionist have not this quality, he is nothing. We are + such lovers of self-reliance that we excuse in a man many sins if he will + show us a complete satisfaction in his position, which asks no leave to + be, of mine, or any man's good opinion. But any deference to some eminent + man or woman of the world, forfeits all privilege of nobility. He is an + underling: I have nothing to do with him; I will speak with his master. A + man should not go where he cannot carry his whole sphere or society with + him,—not bodily, the whole circle of his friends, but + atmospherically. He should preserve in a new company the same attitude of + mind and reality of relation which his daily associates draw him to, else + he is shorn of his best beams, and will be an orphan in the merriest club. + "If you could see Vich Ian Vohr with his tail on!—" But Vich Ian + Vohr must always carry his belongings in some fashion, if not added as + honor, then severed as disgrace. + </p> + <p> + There will always be in society certain persons who are mercuries of its + approbation, and whose glance will at any time determine for the curious + their standing in the world. These are the chamberlains of the lesser + gods. Accept their coldness as an omen of grace with the loftier deities, + and allow them all their privilege. They are clear in their office, nor + could they be thus formidable without their own merits. But do not measure + the importance of this class by their pretension, or imagine that a fop + can be the dispenser of honor and shame. They pass also at their just + rate; for how can they otherwise, in circles which exist as a sort of + herald's office for the sifting of character? + </p> + <p> + As the first thing man requires of man is reality, so that appears in all + the forms of society. We pointedly, and by name, introduce the parties to + each other. Know you before all heaven and earth, that this is Andrew, and + this is Gregory,—they look each other in the eye; they grasp each + other's hand, to identify and signalize each other. It is a great + satisfaction. A gentleman never dodges; his eyes look straight forward, + and he assures the other party, first of all, that he has been met. For + what is it that we seek, in so many visits and hospitalities? Is it your + draperies, pictures, and decorations? Or do we not insatiably ask, Was a + man in the house? I may easily go into a great household where there is + much substance, excellent provision for comfort, luxury, and taste, and + yet not encounter there any Amphitryon who shall subordinate these + appendages. I may go into a cottage, and find a farmer who feels that he + is the man I have come to see, and fronts me accordingly. It was therefore + a very natural point of old feudal etiquette that a gentleman who received + a visit, though it were of his sovereign, should not leave his roof, but + should wait his arrival at the door of his house. No house, though it were + the Tuileries or the Escurial, is good for anything without a master. And + yet we are not often gratified by this hospitality. Every body we know + surrounds himself with a fine house, fine books, conservatory, gardens, + equipage and all manner of toys, as screens to interpose between himself + and his guest. Does it not seem as if man was of a very sly, elusive + nature, and dreaded nothing so much as a full rencontre front to front + with his fellow? It were unmerciful, I know, quite to abolish the use of + these screens, which are of eminent convenience, whether the guest is too + great or too little. We call together many friends who keep each other in + play, or by luxuries and ornaments we amuse the young people, and guard + our retirement. Or if perchance a searching realist comes to our gate, + before whose eye we have no care to stand, then again we run to our + curtain, and hide ourselves as Adam at the voice of the Lord God in the + garden. Cardinal Caprara, the Pope's legate at Paris, defended himself + from the glances of Napoleon by an immense pair of green spectacles. + Napoleon remarked them, and speedily managed to rally them off: and yet + Napoleon, in his turn, was not great enough with eight hundred thousand + troops at his back, to face a pair of freeborn eyes, but fenced himself + with etiquette and within triple barriers of reserve; and, as all the + world knows from Madame de Stael, was wont, when he found himself + observed, to discharge his face of all expression. But emperors and rich + men are by no means the most skilful masters of good manners. No rentroll + nor army-list can dignify skulking and dissimulation; and the first point + of courtesy must always be truth, as really all the forms of good-breeding + point that way. + </p> + <p> + I have just been reading, in Mr. Hazlitt's translation, Montaigne's + account of his journey into Italy, and am struck with nothing more + agreeably than the self-respecting fashions of the time. His arrival in + each place, the arrival of a gentleman of France, is an event of some + consequence. Wherever he goes he pays a visit to whatever prince or + gentleman of note resides upon his road, as a duty to himself and to + civilization. When he leaves any house in which he has lodged for a few + weeks, he causes his arms to be painted and hung up as a perpetual sign to + the house, as was the custom of gentlemen. + </p> + <p> + The complement of this graceful self-respect, and that of all the points + of good breeding I most require and insist upon, is deference. I like that + every chair should be a throne, and hold a king. I prefer a tendency to + stateliness to an excess of fellowship. Let the incommunicable objects of + nature and the metaphysical isolation of man teach us independence. Let us + not be too much acquainted. I would have a man enter his house through a + hall filled with heroic and sacred sculptures, that he might not want the + hint of tranquillity and self-poise. We should meet each morning as from + foreign countries, and, spending the day together, should depart at night, + as into foreign countries. In all things I would have the island of a man + inviolate. Let us sit apart as the gods, talking from peak to peak all + round Olympus. No degree of affection need invade this religion. This is + myrrh and rosemary to keep the other sweet. Lovers Should guard their + strangeness. If they forgive too much, all slides into confusion and + meanness. It is easy to push this deference to a Chinese etiquette; but + coolness and absence of heat and haste indicate fine qualities. A + gentleman makes no noise; a lady is serene. Proportionate is our disgust + at those invaders who fill a studious house with blast and running, to + secure some paltry convenience. Not less I dislike a low sympathy of each + with his neighbor's needs. Must we have a good understanding with one + another's palates? as foolish people who have lived long together know + when each wants salt or sugar. I pray my companion, if he wishes for + bread, to ask me for bread, and if he wishes for sassafras or arsenic, to + ask me for them, and not to hold out his plate as if I knew already. Every + natural function can be dignified by deliberation and privacy. Let us + leave hurry to slaves. The compliments and ceremonies of our breeding + should signify, however remotely, the recollection of the grandeur of our + destiny. + </p> + <p> + The flower of courtesy does not very well bide handling, but if we dare to + open another leaf and explore what parts go to its conformation, we shall + find also an intellectual quality. To the leaders of men, the brain as + well as the flesh and the heart must furnish a proportion. Defect in + manners is usually the defect of fine perceptions. Men are too coarsely + made for the delicacy of beautiful carriage and customs. It is not quite + sufficient to good-breeding, a union of kindness and independence. We + imperatively require a perception of, and a homage to beauty in our + companions. Other virtues are in request in the field and workyard, but a + certain degree of taste is not to be spared in those we sit with. I could + better eat with one who did not respect the truth or the laws than with a + sloven and unpresentable person. Moral qualities rule the world, but at + short distances the senses are despotic. The same discrimination of fit + and fair runs out, if with less rigor, into all parts of life. The average + spirit of the energetic class is good sense, acting under certain + limitations and to certain ends. It entertains every natural gift. Social + in its nature, it respects everything which tends to unite men. It + delights in measure. The love of beauty is mainly the love of measure or + proportion. The person who screams, or uses the superlative degree, or + converses with heat, puts whole drawing-rooms to flight. If you wish to be + loved, love measure. You must have genius or a prodigious usefulness if + you will hide the want of measure. This perception comes in to polish and + perfect the parts of the social instrument. Society will pardon much to + genius and special gifts, but, being in its nature a convention, it loves + what is conventional, or what belongs to coming together. That makes the + good and bad of manners, namely what helps or hinders fellowship. For + fashion is not good sense absolute, but relative; not good sense private, + but good sense entertaining company. It hates corners and sharp points of + character, hates quarrelsome, egotistical, solitary, and gloomy people; + hates whatever can interfere with total blending of parties; whilst it + values all peculiarities as in the highest degree refreshing, which can + consist with good fellowship. And besides the general infusion of wit to + heighten civility, the direct splendor of intellectual power is ever + welcome in fine society as the costliest addition to its rule and its + credit. + </p> + <p> + The dry light must shine in to adorn our festival, but it must be tempered + and shaded, or that will also offend. Accuracy is essential to beauty, and + quick perceptions to politeness, but not too quick perceptions. One may be + too punctual and too precise. He must leave the omniscience of business at + the door, when he comes into the palace of beauty. Society loves creole + natures, and sleepy languishing manners, so that they cover sense, grace + and good-will: the air of drowsy strength, which disarms criticism; + perhaps because such a person seems to reserve himself for the best of the + game, and not spend himself on surfaces; an ignoring eye, which does not + see the annoyances, shifts, and inconveniences that cloud the brow and + smother the voice of the sensitive. + </p> + <p> + Therefore besides personal force and so much perception as constitutes + unerring taste, society demands in its patrician class another element + already intimated, which it significantly terms good-nature,—expressing + all degrees of generosity, from the lowest willingness and faculty to + oblige, up to the heights of magnanimity and love. Insight we must have, + or we shall run against one another and miss the way to our food; but + intellect is selfish and barren. The secret of success in society is a + certain heartiness and sympathy. A man who is not happy in the company + cannot find any word in his memory that will fit the occasion. All his + information is a little impertinent. A man who is happy there, finds in + every turn of the conversation equally lucky occasions for the + introduction of that which he has to say. The favorites of society, and + what it calls whole souls, are able men and of more spirit than wit, who + have no uncomfortable egotism, but who exactly fill the hour and the + company; contented and contenting, at a marriage or a funeral, a ball or a + jury, a water-party or a shooting-match. England, which is rich in + gentlemen, furnished, in the beginning of the present century, a good + model of that genius which the world loves, in Mr. Fox, who added to his + great abilities the most social disposition and real love of men. + Parliamentary history has few better passages than the debate in which + Burke and Fox separated in the House of Commons; when Fox urged on his old + friend the claims of old friendship with such tenderness that the house + was moved to tears. Another anecdote is so close to my matter, that I must + hazard the story. A tradesman who had long dunned him for a note of three + hundred guineas, found him one day counting gold, and demanded payment:—"No," + said Fox, "I owe this money to Sheridan; it is a debt of honor; if an + accident should happen to me, he has nothing to show." "Then," said the + creditor, "I change my debt into a debt of honor," and tore the note in + pieces. Fox thanked the man for his confidence and paid him, saying, "his + debt was of older standing, and Sheridan must wait." Lover of liberty, + friend of the Hindoo, friend of the African slave, he possessed a great + personal popularity; and Napoleon said of him on the occasion of his visit + to Paris, in 1805, "Mr. Fox will always hold the first place in an + assembly at the Tuileries." + </p> + <p> + We may easily seem ridiculous in our eulogy of courtesy, whenever we + insist on benevolence as its foundation. The painted phantasm Fashion + rises to cast a species of derision on what we say. But I will neither be + driven from some allowance to Fashion as a symbolic institution, nor from + the belief that love is the basis of courtesy. We must obtain that, if we + can; but by all means we must affirm this. Life owes much of its spirit to + these sharp contrasts. Fashion, which affects to be honor, is often, in + all men's experience, only a ballroom-code. Yet so long as it is the + highest circle in the imagination of the best heads on the planet, there + is something necessary and excellent in it; for it is not to be supposed + that men have agreed to be the dupes of anything preposterous; and the + respect which these mysteries inspire in the most rude and sylvan + characters, and the curiosity with which details of high life are read, + betray the universality of the love of cultivated manners. I know that a + comic disparity would be felt, if we should enter the acknowledged 'first + circles' and apply these terrific standards of justice, beauty, and + benefit to the individuals actually found there. Monarchs and heroes, + sages and lovers, these gallants are not. Fashion has many classes and + many rules of probation and admission, and not the best alone. There is + not only the right of conquest, which genius pretends,—the + individual demonstrating his natural aristocracy best of the best;—but + less claims will pass for the time; for Fashion loves lions, and points + like Circe to her horned company. This gentleman is this afternoon arrived + from Denmark; and that is my Lord Ride, who came yesterday from Bagdat; + here is Captain Friese, from Cape Turnagain; and Captain Symmes, from the + interior of the earth; and Monsieur Jovaire, who came down this morning in + a balloon; Mr. Hobnail, the reformer; and Reverend Jul Bat, who has + converted the whole torrid zone in his Sunday school; and Signor Torre del + Greco, who extinguished Vesuvius by pouring into it the Bay of Naples; + Spahi, the Persian ambassador; and Tul Wil Shan, the exiled nabob of + Nepaul, whose saddle is the new moon.—But these are monsters of one + day, and to-morrow will be dismissed to their holes and dens; for in these + rooms every chair is waited for. The artist, the scholar, and, in general, + the clerisy, wins their way up into these places and get represented here, + somewhat on this footing of conquest. Another mode is to pass through all + the degrees, spending a year and a day in St. Michael's Square, being + steeped in Cologne water, and perfumed, and dined, and introduced, and + properly grounded in all the biography and politics and anecdotes of the + boudoirs. + </p> + <p> + Yet these fineries may have grace and wit. Let there be grotesque + sculpture about the gates and offices of temples. Let the creed and + commandments even have the saucy homage of parody. The forms of politeness + universally express benevolence in superlative degrees. What if they are + in the mouths of selfish men, and used as means of selfishness? What if + the false gentleman almost bows the true out Of the world? What if the + false gentleman contrives so to address his companion as civilly to + exclude all others from his discourse, and also to make them feel + excluded? Real service will not lose its nobleness. All generosity is not + merely French and sentimental; nor is it to be concealed that living blood + and a passion of kindness does at last distinguish God's gentleman from + Fashion's. The epitaph of Sir Jenkin Grout is not wholly unintelligible to + the present age: "Here lies Sir Jenkin Grout, who loved his friend and + persuaded his enemy: what his mouth ate, his hand paid for: what his + servants robbed, he restored: if a woman gave him pleasure, he supported + her in pain: he never forgot his children; and whoso touched his finger, + drew after it his whole body." Even the line of heroes is not utterly + extinct. There is still ever some admirable person in plain clothes, + standing on the wharf, who jumps in to rescue a drowning man; there is + still some absurd inventor of charities; some guide and comforter of + runaway slaves; some friend of Poland; some Philhellene; some fanatic who + plants shade-trees for the second and third generation, and orchards when + he is grown old; some well-concealed piety; some just man happy in an ill + fame; some youth ashamed of the favors of fortune and impatiently casting + them on other shoulders. And these are the centres of society, on which it + returns for fresh impulses. These are the creators of Fashion, which is an + attempt to organize beauty of behavior. The beautiful and the generous + are, in the theory, the doctors and apostles of this church: Scipio, and + the Cid, and Sir Philip Sidney, and Washington, and every pure and valiant + heart who worshipped Beauty by word and by deed. The persons who + constitute the natural aristocracy are not found in the actual + aristocracy, or only on its edge; as the chemical energy of the spectrum + is found to be greatest just outside of the spectrum. Yet that is the + infirmity of the seneschals, who do not know their sovereign when he + appears. The theory of society supposes the existence and sovereignty of + these. It divines afar off their coming. It says with the elder gods,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "As Heaven and Earth are fairer far + Than Chaos and blank Darkness, though once chiefs; + And as we show beyond that Heaven and Earth, + In form and shape compact and beautiful; + So, on our heels a fresh perfection treads; + A power, more strong in beauty, born of us, + And fated to excel us, as we pass + In glory that old Darkness: + ———— for, 'tis the eternal law, + That first in beauty shall be first in might." +</pre> + <p> + Therefore, within the ethnical circle of good society there is a narrower + and higher circle, concentration of its light, and flower of courtesy, to + which there is always a tacit appeal of pride and reference, as to its + inner and imperial court; the parliament of love and chivalry. And this is + constituted of those persons in whom heroic dispositions are native; with + the love of beauty, the delight in society, and the power to embellish the + passing day. If the individuals who compose the purest circles of + aristocracy in Europe, the guarded blood of centuries, should pass in + review, in such manner as that we could at leisure and critically inspect + their behavior, we might find no gentleman and no lady; for although + excellent specimens of courtesy and high-breeding would gratify us in the + assemblage, in the particulars we should detect offence. Because elegance + comes of no breeding, but of birth. There must be romance of character, or + the most fastidious exclusion of impertinencies will not avail. It must be + genius which takes that direction: it must be not courteous, but courtesy. + High behavior is as rare in fiction as it is in fact. Scott is praised for + the fidelity with which he painted the demeanor and conversation of the + superior classes. Certainly, kings and queens, nobles and great ladies, + had some right to complain of the absurdity that had been put in their + mouths before the days of Waverley; but neither does Scott's dialogue bear + criticism. His lords brave each other in smart epigramatic speeches, but + the dialogue is in costume, and does not please on the second reading: it + is not warm with life. In Shakspeare alone the speakers do not strut and + bridle, the dialogue is easily great, and he adds to so many titles that + of being the best-bred man in England and in Christendom. Once or twice in + a lifetime we are permitted to enjoy the charm of noble manners, in the + presence of a man or woman who have no bar in their nature, but whose + character emanates freely in their word and gesture. A beautiful form is + better than a beautiful face; a beautiful behavior is better than a + beautiful form: it gives a higher pleasure than statues or pictures; it is + the finest of the fine arts. A man is but a little thing in the midst of + the objects of nature, yet, by the moral quality radiating from his + countenance he may abolish all considerations of magnitude, and in his + manners equal the majesty of the world. I have seen an individual whose + manners, though wholly within the conventions of elegant society, were + never learned there, but were original and commanding and held out + protection and prosperity; one who did not need the aid of a court-suit, + but carried the holiday in his eye; who exhilarated the fancy by flinging + wide the doors of new modes of existence; who shook off the captivity of + etiquette, with happy, spirited bearing, good-natured and free as Robin + Hood; yet with the port of an emperor, if need be,—calm, serious, + and fit to stand the gaze of millions. + </p> + <p> + The open air and the fields, the street and public chambers are the places + where Man executes his will; let him yield or divide the sceptre at the + door of the house. Woman, with her instinct of behavior, instantly detects + in man a love of trifles, any coldness or imbecility, or, in short, any + want of that large, flowing, and magnanimous deportment which is + indispensable as an exterior in the hall. Our American institutions have + been friendly to her, and at this moment I esteem it a chief felicity of + this country, that it excels in women. A certain awkward consciousness of + inferiority in the men may give rise to the new chivalry in behalf of + Woman's Rights. Certainly let her be as much better placed in the laws and + in social forms as the most zealous reformer can ask, but I confide so + entirely in her inspiring and musical nature, that I believe only herself + can show us how she shall be served. The wonderful generosity of her + sentiments raises her at times into heroical and godlike regions, and + verifies the pictures of Minerva, Juno, or Polymnia; and by the firmness + with which she treads her upward path, she convinces the coarsest + calculators that another road exists than that which their feet know. But + besides those who make good in our imagination the place of muses and of + Delphic Sibyls, are there not women who fill our vase with wine and roses + to the brim, so that the wine runs over and fills the house with perfume; + who inspire us with courtesy; who unloose our tongues and we speak; who + anoint our eyes and we see? We say things we never thought to have said; + for once, our walls of habitual reserve vanished and left us at large; we + were children playing with children in a wide field of flowers. Steep us, + we cried, in these influences, for days, for weeks, and we shall be sunny + poets and will write out in many-colored words the romance that you are. + Was it Hafiz or Firdousi that said of his Persian Lilla, She was an + elemental force, and astonished me by her amount of life, when I saw her + day after day radiating, every instant, redundant joy and grace on all + around her. She was a solvent powerful to reconcile all heterogeneous + persons into one society: like air or water, an element of such a great + range of affinities that it combines readily with a thousand substances. + Where she is present all others will be more than they are wont. She was a + unit and whole, so that whatsoever she did, became her. She had too much + sympathy and desire to please, than that you could say her manners were + marked with dignity, yet no princess could surpass her clear and erect + demeanor on each occasion. She did not study the Persian grammar, nor the + books of the seven poets, but all the poems of the seven seemed to be + written upon her. For though the bias of her nature was not to thought, + but to sympathy, yet was she so perfect in her own nature as to meet + intellectual persons by the fulness of her heart, warming them by her + sentiments; believing, as she did, that by dealing nobly with all, all + would show themselves noble. + </p> + <p> + I know that this Byzantine pile of chivalry or Fashion, which seems so + fair and picturesque to those who look at the contemporary facts for + science or for entertainment, is not equally pleasant to all spectators. + The constitution of our society makes it a giant's castle to the ambitious + youth who have not found their names enrolled in its Golden Book, and whom + it has excluded from its coveted honors and privileges. They have yet to + learn that its seeming grandeur is shadowy and relative: it is great by + their allowance; its proudest gates will fly open at the approach of their + courage and virtue. For the present distress, however, of those who are + predisposed to suffer from the tyrannies of this caprice, there are easy + remedies. To remove your residence a couple of miles, or at most four, + will commonly relieve the most extreme susceptibility. For the advantages + which fashion values are plants which thrive in very confined localities, + in a few streets namely. Out of this precinct they go for nothing; are of + no use in the farm, in the forest, in the market, in war, in the nuptial + society, in the literary or scientific circle, at sea, in friendship, in + the heaven of thought or virtue. + </p> + <p> + But we have lingered long enough in these painted courts. The worth of the + thing signified must vindicate our taste for the emblem. Everything that + is called fashion and courtesy humbles itself before the cause and + fountain of honor, creator of titles and dignities, namely the heart of + love. This is the royal blood, this the fire, which, in all countries and + contingencies, will work after its kind and conquer and expand all that + approaches it. This gives new meanings to every fact. This impoverishes + the rich, suffering no grandeur but its own. What is rich? Are you rich + enough to help anybody? to succor the unfashionable and the eccentric? + rich enough to make the Canadian in his wagon, the itinerant with his + consul's paper which commends him "To the charitable," the swarthy Italian + with his few broken words of English, the lame pauper hunted by overseers + from town to town, even the poor insane or besotted wreck of man or woman, + feel the noble exception of your presence and your house from the general + bleakness and stoniness; to make such feel that they were greeted with a + voice which made them both remember and hope? What is vulgar but to refuse + the claim on acute and conclusive reasons? What is gentle, but to allow + it, and give their heart and yours one holiday from the national caution? + Without the rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar. The king of Schiraz + could not afford to be so bountiful as the poor Osman who dwelt at his + gate. Osman had a humanity so broad and deep that although his speech was + so bold and free with the Koran as to disgust all the dervishes, yet was + there never a poor outcast, eccentric, or insane man, some fool who had + cut off his beard, or who had been mutilated under a vow, or had a pet + madness in his brain, but fled at once to him; that great heart lay there + so sunny and hospitable in the centre of the country, that it seemed as if + the instinct of all sufferers drew them to his side. And the madness which + he harbored he did not share. Is not this to be rich? this only to be + rightly rich? + </p> + <p> + But I shall hear without pain that I play the courtier very ill, and talk + of that which I do not well understand. It is easy to see, that what is + called by distinction society and fashion has good laws as well as bad, + has much that is necessary, and much that is absurd. Too good for banning, + and too bad for blessing, it reminds us of a tradition of the pagan + mythology, in any attempt to settle its character. 'I overheard Jove, one + day,' said Silenus, 'talking of destroying the earth; he said it had + failed; they were all rogues and vixens, who went from bad to worse, as + fast as the days succeeded each other. Minerva said she hoped not; they + were only ridiculous little creatures, with this odd circumstance, that + they had a blur, or indeterminate aspect, seen far or seen near; if you + called them bad, they would appear so; if you called them good, they would + appear so; and there was no one person or action among them, which would + not puzzle her owl, much more all Olympus, to know whether it was + fundamentally bad or good.' + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + GIFTS. + + Gifts of one who loved me,— + 'T was high time they came; + When he ceased to love me, + Time they stopped for shame. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. GIFTS. + </h2> + <p> + IT is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy; that the world owes + the world more than the world can pay, and ought to go into chancery and + be sold. I do not think this general insolvency, which involves in some + sort all the population, to be the reason of the difficulty experienced at + Christmas and New Year and other times, in bestowing gifts; since it is + always so pleasant to be generous, though very vexatious to pay debts. But + the impediment lies in the choosing. If at any time it comes into my head + that a present is due from me to somebody, I am puzzled what to give, + until the opportunity is gone. Flowers and fruits are always fit presents; + flowers, because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues + all the utilities of the world. These gay natures contrast with the + somewhat stern countenance of ordinary nature: they are like music heard + out of a work-house. Nature does not cocker us; we are children, not pets; + she is not fond; everything is dealt to us without fear or favor, after + severe universal laws. Yet these delicate flowers look like the frolic and + interference of love and beauty. Men use to tell us that we love flattery + even though we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of + importance enough to be courted. Something like that pleasure, the flowers + give us: what am I to whom these sweet hints are addressed? Fruits are + acceptable gifts, because they are the flower of commodities, and admit of + fantastic values being attached to them. If a man should send to me to + come a hundred miles to visit him and should set before me a basket of + fine summer-fruit, I should think there was some proportion between the + labor and the reward. + </p> + <p> + For common gifts, necessity makes pertinences and beauty every day, and + one is glad when an imperative leaves him no option; since if the man at + the door have no shoes, you have not to consider whether you could procure + him a paint-box. And as it is always pleasing to see a man eat bread, or + drink water, in the house or out of doors, so it is always a great + satisfaction to supply these first wants. Necessity does everything well. + In our condition of universal dependence it seems heroic to let the + petitioner be the judge of his necessity, and to give all that is asked, + though at great inconvenience. If it be a fantastic desire, it is better + to leave to others the office of punishing him. I can think of many parts + I should prefer playing to that of the Furies. Next to things of + necessity, the rule for a gift, which one of my friends prescribed, is + that we might convey to some person that which properly belonged to his + character, and was easily associated with him in thought. But our tokens + of compliment and love are for the most part barbarous. Rings and other + jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion + of thyself. Thou must bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem; + the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, a gem; the sailor, + coral and shells; the painter, his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of + her own sewing. This is right and pleasing, for it restores society in so + far to its primary basis, when a man's biography is conveyed in his gift, + and every man's wealth is an index of his merit. But it is a cold lifeless + business when you go to the shops to buy me something which does not + represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith's. This is fit for kings, + and rich men who represent kings, and a false state of property, to make + presents of gold and silver stuffs, as a kind of symbolical sin-offering, + or payment of black-mail. + </p> + <p> + The law of benefits is a difficult channel, which requires careful + sailing, or rude boats. It is not the office of a man to receive gifts. + How dare you give them? We wish to be self-sustained. We do not quite + forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten. + We can receive anything from love, for that is a way of receiving it from + ourselves; but not from any one who assumes to bestow. We sometimes hate + the meat which we eat, because there seems something of degrading + dependence in living by it:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Brother, if Jove to thee a present make, + Take heed that from his hands thou nothing take." +</pre> + <p> + We ask the whole. Nothing less will content us. We arraign society if it + do not give us, besides earth and fire and water, opportunity, love, + reverence, and objects of veneration. + </p> + <p> + He is a good man who can receive a gift well. We are either glad or sorry + at a gift, and both emotions are unbecoming. Some violence I think is + done, some degradation borne, when I rejoice or grieve at a gift. I am + sorry when my independence is invaded, or when a gift comes from such as + do not know my spirit, and so the act is not supported; and if the gift + pleases me overmuch, then I should be ashamed that the donor should read + my heart, and see that I love his commodity, and not him. The gift, to be + true, must be the flowing of the giver unto me, correspondent to my + flowing unto him. When the waters are at level, then my goods pass to him, + and his to me. All his are mine, all mine his. I say to him, How can you + give me this pot of oil or this flagon of wine when all your oil and wine + is mine, which belief of mine this gift seems to deny? Hence the fitness + of beautiful, not useful things, for gifts. This giving is flat + usurpation, and therefore when the beneficiary is ungrateful, as all + beneficiaries hate all Timons, not at all considering the value of the + gift but looking back to the greater store it was taken from,—I + rather sympathize with the beneficiary than with the anger of my lord + Timon. For the expectation of gratitude is mean, and is continually + punished by the total insensibility of the obliged person. It is a great + happiness to get off without injury and heart-burning from one who has had + the ill-luck to be served by you. It is a very onerous business, this of + being served, and the debtor naturally wishes to give you a slap. A golden + text for these gentlemen is that which I so admire in the Buddhist, who + never thanks, and who says, "Do not flatter your benefactors." + </p> + <p> + The reason of these discords I conceive to be that there is no + commensurability between a man and any gift. You cannot give anything to a + magnanimous person. After you have served him he at once puts you in debt + by his magnanimity. The service a man renders his friend is trivial and + selfish compared with the service he knows his friend stood in readiness + to yield him, alike before he had begun to serve his friend, and now also. + Compared with that good-will I bear my friend, the benefit it is in my + power to render him seems small. Besides, our action on each other, good + as well as evil, is so incidental and at random that we can seldom hear + the acknowledgments of any person who would thank us for a benefit, + without some shame and humiliation. We can rarely strike a direct stroke, + but must be content with an oblique one; we seldom have the satisfaction + of yielding a direct benefit which is directly received. But rectitude + scatters favors on every side without knowing it, and receives with wonder + the thanks of all people. + </p> + <p> + I fear to breathe any treason against the majesty of love, which is the + genius and god of gifts, and to whom we must not affect to prescribe. Let + him give kingdoms or flower-leaves indifferently. There are persons from + whom we always expect fairy-tokens; let us not cease to expect them. This + is prerogative, and not to be limited by our municipal rules. For the + rest, I like to see that we cannot be bought and sold. The best of + hospitality and of generosity is also not in the will, but in fate. I find + that I am not much to you; you do not need me; you do not feel me; then am + I thrust out of doors, though you proffer me house and lands. No services + are of any value, but only likeness. When I have attempted to join myself + to others by services, it proved an intellectual trick,—no more. + They eat your service like apples, and leave you out. But love them, and + they feel you and delight in you all the time. + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + NATURE. + + The rounded world is fair to see, + Nine times folded in mystery: + Though baffled seers cannot impart + The secret of its laboring heart, + Throb thine with Nature's throbbing breast, + And all is clear from east to west. + Spirit that lurks each form within + Beckons to spirit of its kin; + Self-kindled every atom glows, + And hints the future which it owes. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI. NATURE. + </h2> + <p> + THERE are days which occur in this climate, at almost any season of the + year, wherein the world reaches its perfection; when the air, the heavenly + bodies and the earth, make a harmony, as if nature would indulge her + offspring; when, in these bleak upper sides of the planet, nothing is to + desire that we have heard of the happiest latitudes, and we bask in the + shining hours of Florida and Cuba; when everything that has life gives + sign of satisfaction, and the cattle that lie on the ground seem to have + great and tranquil thoughts. These halcyons may be looked for with a + little more assurance in that pure October weather which we distinguish by + the name of the Indian summer. The day, immeasurably long, sleeps over the + broad hills and warm wide fields. To have lived through all its sunny + hours, seems longevity enough. The solitary places do not seem quite + lonely. At the gates of the forest, the surprised man of the world is + forced to leave his city estimates of great and small, wise and foolish. + The knapsack of custom falls off his back with the first step he makes + into these precincts. Here is sanctity which shames our religions, and + reality which discredits our heroes. Here we find Nature to be the + circumstance which dwarfs every other circumstance, and judges like a god + all men that come to her. We have crept out of our close and crowded + houses into the night and morning, and we see what majestic beauties daily + wrap us in their bosom. How willingly we would escape the barriers which + render them comparatively impotent, escape the sophistication and second + thought, and suffer nature to intrance us. The tempered light of the woods + is like a perpetual morning, and is stimulating and heroic. The anciently + reported spells of these places creep on us. The stems of pines, hemlocks, + and oaks almost gleam like iron on the excited eye. The incommunicable + trees begin to persuade us to live with them, and quit our life of solemn + trifles. Here no history, or church, or state, is interpolated on the + divine sky and the immortal year. How easily we might walk onward into the + opening landscape, absorbed by new pictures and by thoughts fast + succeeding each other, until by degrees the recollection of home was + crowded out of the mind, all memory obliterated by the tyranny of the + present, and we were led in triumph by nature. + </p> + <p> + These enchantments are medicinal, they sober and heal us. These are plain + pleasures, kindly and native to us. We come to our own, and make friends + with matter, which the ambitious chatter of the schools would persuade us + to despise. We never can part with it; the mind loves its old home: as + water to our thirst, so is the rock, the ground, to our eyes and hands and + feet. It is firm water; it is cold flame; what health, what affinity! Ever + an old friend, ever like a dear friend and brother when we chat affectedly + with strangers, comes in this honest face, and takes a grave liberty with + us, and shames us out of our nonsense. Cities give not the human senses + room enough. We go out daily and nightly to feed the eyes on the horizon, + and require so much scope, just as we need water for our bath. There are + all degrees of natural influence, from these quarantine powers of nature, + up to her dearest and gravest ministrations to the imagination and the + soul. There is the bucket of cold water from the spring, the wood-fire to + which the chilled traveller rushes for safety,—and there is the + sublime moral of autumn and of noon. We nestle in nature, and draw our + living as parasites from her roots and grains, and we receive glances from + the heavenly bodies, which call us to solitude and foretell the remotest + future. The blue zenith is the point in which romance and reality meet. I + think if we should be rapt away into all that we dream of heaven, and + should converse with Gabriel and Uriel, the upper sky would be all that + would remain of our furniture. + </p> + <p> + It seems as if the day was not wholly profane in which we have given heed + to some natural object. The fall of snowflakes in a still air, preserving + to each crystal its perfect form; the blowing of sleet over a wide sheet + of water, and over plains; the waving ryefield; the mimic waving of acres + of houstonia, whose innumerable florets whiten and ripple before the eye; + the reflections of trees and flowers in glassy lakes; the musical steaming + odorous south wind, which converts all trees to windharps; the crackling + and spurting of hemlock in the flames, or of pine logs, which yield glory + to the walls and faces in the sittingroom,—these are the music and + pictures of the most ancient religion. My house stands in low land, with + limited outlook, and on the skirt of the village. But I go with my friend + to the shore of our little river, and with one stroke of the paddle I + leave the village politics and personalities, yes, and the world of + villages and personalities behind, and pass into a delicate realm of + sunset and moonlight, too bright almost for spotted man to enter without + novitiate and probation. We penetrate bodily this incredible beauty; we + dip our hands in this painted element; our eyes are bathed in these lights + and forms. A holiday, a villeggiatura, a royal revel, the proudest, most + heart-rejoicing festival that valor and beauty, power and taste, ever + decked and enjoyed, establishes itself on the instant. These sunset + clouds, these delicately emerging stars, with their private and ineffable + glances, signify it and proffer it. I am taught the poorness of our + invention, the ugliness of towns and palaces. Art and luxury have early + learned that they must work as enhancement and sequel to this original + beauty. I am overinstructed for my return. Henceforth I shall be hard to + please. I cannot go back to toys. I am grown expensive and sophisticated. + I can no longer live without elegance, but a countryman shall be my master + of revels. He who knows the most; he who knows what sweets and virtues are + in the ground, the waters, the plants, the heavens, and how to come at + these enchantments,—is the rich and royal man. Only as far as the + masters of the world have called in nature to their aid, can they reach + the height of magnificence. This is the meaning of their hanging-gardens, + villas, garden-houses, islands, parks and preserves, to back their faulty + personality with these strong accessories. I do not wonder that the landed + interest should be invincible in the State with these dangerous + auxiliaries. These bribe and invite; not kings, not palaces, not men, not + women, but these tender and poetic stars, eloquent of secret promises. We + heard what the rich man said, we knew of his villa, his grove, his wine + and his company, but the provocation and point of the invitation came out + of these beguiling stars. In their soft glances I see what men strove to + realize in some Versailles, or Paphos, or Ctesiphon. Indeed, it is the + magical lights of the horizon and the blue sky for the background which + save all our works of art, which were otherwise bawbles. When the rich tax + the poor with servility and obsequiousness, they should consider the + effect of men reputed to be the possessors of nature, on imaginative + minds. Ah! if the rich were rich as the poor fancy riches! A boy hears a + military band play on the field at night, and he has kings and queens and + famous chivalry palpably before him. He hears the echoes of a horn in a + hill country, in the Notch Mountains, for example, which converts the + mountains into an Aeolian harp,—and this supernatural tiralira + restores to him the Dorian mythology, Apollo, Diana, and all divine + hunters and huntresses. Can a musical note be so lofty, so haughtily + beautiful! To the poor young poet, thus fabulous is his picture of + society; he is loyal; he respects the rich; they are rich for the sake of + his imagination; how poor his fancy would be, if they were not rich! That + they have some high-fenced grove which they call a park; that they live in + larger and better-garnished saloons than he has visited, and go in + coaches, keeping only the society of the elegant, to watering-places and + to distant cities,—these make the groundwork from which he has + delineated estates of romance, compared with which their actual + possessions are shanties and paddocks. The muse herself betrays her son, + and enhances the gifts of wealth and well-born beauty by a radiation out + of the air, and clouds, and forests that skirt the road,—a certain + haughty favor, as if from patrician genii to patricians, a kind of + aristocracy in nature, a prince of the power of the air. + </p> + <p> + The moral sensibility which makes Edens and Tempes so easily, may not be + always found, but the material landscape is never far off. We can find + these enchantments without visiting the Como Lake, or the Madeira Islands. + We exaggerate the praises of local scenery. In every landscape the point + of astonishment is the meeting of the sky and the earth, and that is seen + from the first hillock as well as from the top of the Alleghanies. The + stars at night stoop down over the brownest, homeliest common with all the + spiritual magnificence which they shed on the Campagna, or on the marble + deserts of Egypt. The uprolled clouds and the colors of morning and + evening will transfigure maples and alders. The difference between + landscape and landscape is small, but there is great difference in the + beholders. There is nothing so wonderful in any particular landscape as + the necessity of being beautiful under which every landscape lies. Nature + cannot be surprised in undress. Beauty breaks in everywhere. + </p> + <p> + But it is very easy to outrun the sympathy of readers on this topic, which + schoolmen called natura naturata, or nature passive. One can hardly speak + directly of it without excess. It is as easy to broach in mixed companies + what is called "the subject of religion." A susceptible person does not + like to indulge his tastes in this kind without the apology of some + trivial necessity: he goes to see a wood-lot, or to look at the crops, or + to fetch a plant or a mineral from a remote locality, or he carries a + fowling-piece or a fishing-rod. I suppose this shame must have a good + reason. A dilettantism in nature is barren and unworthy. The fop of fields + is no better than his brother of Broadway. Men are naturally hunters and + inquisitive of wood-craft, and I suppose that such a gazetteer as + wood-cutters and Indians should furnish facts for, would take place in the + most sumptuous drawing-rooms of all the "Wreaths" and "Flora's chaplets" + of the bookshops; yet ordinarily, whether we are too clumsy for so subtle + a topic, or from whatever cause, as soon as men begin to write on nature, + they fall into euphuism. Frivolity is a most unfit tribute to Pan, who + ought to be represented in the mythology as the most continent of gods. I + would not be frivolous before the admirable reserve and prudence of time, + yet I cannot renounce the right of returning often to this old topic. The + multitude of false churches accredits the true religion. Literature, + poetry, science are the homage of man to this unfathomed secret, + concerning which no sane man can affect an indifference or incuriosity. + Nature is loved by what is best in us. It is loved as the city of God, + although, or rather because there is no citizen. The sunset is unlike + anything that is underneath it: it wants men. And the beauty of nature + must always seem unreal and mocking, until the landscape has human figures + that are as good as itself. If there were good men, there would never be + this rapture in nature. If the king is in the palace, nobody looks at the + walls. It is when he is gone, and the house is filled with grooms and + gazers, that we turn from the people to find relief in the majestic men + that are suggested by the pictures and the architecture. The critics who + complain of the sickly separation of the beauty of nature from the thing + to be done, must consider that our hunting of the picturesque is + inseparable from our protest against false society. Man is fallen; nature + is erect, and serves as a differential thermometer, detecting the presence + or absence of the divine sentiment in man. By fault of our dulness and + selfishness we are looking up to nature, but when we are convalescent, + nature will look up to us. We see the foaming brook with compunction: if + our own life flowed with the right energy, we should shame the brook. The + stream of zeal sparkles with real fire, and not with reflex rays of sun + and moon. Nature may be as selfishly studied as trade. Astronomy to the + selfish becomes astrology; psychology, mesmerism (with intent to show + where our spoons are gone); and anatomy and physiology become phrenology + and palmistry. + </p> + <p> + But taking timely warning, and leaving many things unsaid on this topic, + let us not longer omit our homage to the Efficient Nature, natura + naturans, the quick cause before which all forms flee as the driven snows; + itself secret, its works driven before it in flocks and multitudes, (as + the ancient represented nature by Proteus, a shepherd,) and in + undescribable variety. It publishes itself in creatures, reaching from + particles and spiculae through transformation on transformation to the + highest symmetries, arriving at consummate results without a shock or a + leap. A little heat, that is a little motion, is all that differences the + bald, dazzling white and deadly cold poles of the earth from the prolific + tropical climates. All changes pass without violence, by reason of the two + cardinal conditions of boundless space and boundless time. Geology has + initiated us into the secularity of nature, and taught us to disuse our + dame-school measures, and exchange our Mosaic and Ptolemaic schemes for + her large style. We knew nothing rightly, for want of perspective. Now we + learn what patient periods must round themselves before the rock is + formed; then before the rock is broken, and the first lichen race has + disintegrated the thinnest external plate into soil, and opened the door + for the remote Flora, Fauna, Ceres, and Pomona to come in. How far off yet + is the trilobite! how far the quadruped! how inconceivably remote is man! + All duly arrive, and then race after race of men. It is a long way from + granite to the oyster; farther yet to Plato and the preaching of the + immortality of the soul. Yet all must come, as surely as the first atom + has two sides. + </p> + <p> + Motion or change and identity or rest are the first and second secrets of + nature:—Motion and Rest. The whole code of her laws may be written + on the thumbnail, or the signet of a ring. The whirling bubble on the + surface of a brook admits us to the secret of the mechanics of the sky. + Every shell on the beach is a key to it. A little water made to rotate in + a cup explains the formation of the simpler shells; the addition of matter + from year to year, arrives at last at the most complex forms; and yet so + poor is nature with all her craft, that from the beginning to the end of + the universe she has but one stuff,—but one stuff with its two ends, + to serve up all her dream-like variety. Compound it how she will, star, + sand, fire, water, tree, man, it is still one stuff, and betrays the same + properties. + </p> + <p> + Nature is always consistent, though she feigns to contravene her own laws. + She keeps her laws, and seems to transcend them. She arms and equips an + animal to find its place and living in the earth, and at the same time she + arms and equips another animal to destroy it. Space exists to divide + creatures; but by clothing the sides of a bird with a few feathers she + gives him a petty omnipresence. The direction is forever onward, but the + artist still goes back for materials and begins again with the first + elements on the most advanced stage: otherwise all goes to ruin. If we + look at her work, we seem to catch a glance of a system in transition. + Plants are the young of the world, vessels of health and vigor; but they + grope ever upward towards consciousness; the trees are imperfect men, and + seem to bemoan their imprisonment, rooted in the ground. The animal is the + novice and probationer of a more advanced order. The men, though young, + having tasted the first drop from the cup of thought, are already + dissipated: the maples and ferns are still uncorrupt; yet no doubt when + they come to consciousness they too will curse and swear. Flowers so + strictly belong to youth that we adult men soon come to feel that their + beautiful generations concern not us: we have had our day; now let the + children have theirs. The flowers jilt us, and we are old bachelors with + our ridiculous tenderness. + </p> + <p> + Things are so strictly related, that according to the skill of the eye, + from any one object the parts and properties of any other may be + predicted. If we had eyes to see it, a bit of stone from the city wall + would certify us of the necessity that man must exist, as readily as the + city. That identity makes us all one, and reduces to nothing great + intervals on our customary scale. We talk of deviations from natural life, + as if artificial life were not also natural. The smoothest curled courtier + in the boudoirs of a palace has an animal nature, rude and aboriginal as a + white bear, omnipotent to its own ends, and is directly related, there + amid essences and billetsdoux, to Himmaleh mountain-chains and the axis of + the globe. If we consider how much we are nature's, we need not be + superstitious about towns, as if that terrific or benefic force did not + find us there also, and fashion cities. Nature, who made the mason, made + the house. We may easily hear too much of rural influences. The cool + disengaged air of natural objects makes them enviable to us, chafed and + irritable creatures with red faces, and we think we shall be as grand as + they if we camp out and eat roots; but let us be men instead of woodchucks + and the oak and the elm shall gladly serve us, though we sit in chairs of + ivory on carpets of silk. + </p> + <p> + This guiding identity runs through all the surprises and contrasts of the + piece, and characterizes every law. Man carries the world in his head, the + whole astronomy and chemistry suspended in a thought. Because the history + of nature is charactered in his brain, therefore is he the prophet and + discoverer of her secrets. Every known fact in natural science was divined + by the presentiment of somebody, before it was actually verified. A man + does not tie his shoe without recognizing laws which bind the farthest + regions of nature: moon, plant, gas, crystal, are concrete geometry and + numbers. Common sense knows its own, and recognizes the fact at first + sight in chemical experiment. The common sense of Franklin, Dalton, Davy + and Black, is the same common sense which made the arrangements which now + it discovers. + </p> + <p> + If the identity expresses organized rest, the counter action runs also + into organization. The astronomers said, 'Give us matter and a little + motion and we will construct the universe. It is not enough that we should + have matter, we must also have a single impulse, one shove to launch the + mass and generate the harmony of the centrifugal and centripetal forces. + Once heave the ball from the hand, and we can show how all this mighty + order grew.'—'A very unreasonable postulate,' said the + metaphysicians, 'and a plain begging of the question. Could you not + prevail to know the genesis of projection, as well as the continuation of + it?' Nature, meanwhile, had not waited for the discussion, but, right or + wrong, bestowed the impulse, and the balls rolled. It was no great affair, + a mere push, but the astronomers were right in making much of it, for + there is no end to the consequences of the act. That famous aboriginal + push propagates itself through all the balls of the system, and through + every atom of every ball; through all the races of creatures, and through + the history and performances of every individual. Exaggeration is in the + course of things. Nature sends no creature, no man into the world without + adding a small excess of his proper quality. Given the planet, it is still + necessary to add the impulse; so to every creature nature added a little + violence of direction in its proper path, a shove to put it on its way; in + every instance a slight generosity, a drop too much. Without electricity + the air would rot, and without this violence of direction which men and + women have, without a spice of bigot and fanatic, no excitement, no + efficiency. We aim above the mark to hit the mark. Every act hath some + falsehood of exaggeration in it. And when now and then comes along some + sad, sharp-eyed man, who sees how paltry a game is played, and refuses to + play, but blabs the secret;—how then? Is the bird flown? O no, the + wary Nature sends a new troop of fairer forms, of lordlier youths, with a + little more excess of direction to hold them fast to their several aim; + makes them a little wrongheaded in that direction in which they are + rightest, and on goes the game again with new whirl, for a generation or + two more. The child with his sweet pranks, the fool of his senses, + commanded by every sight and sound, without any power to compare and rank + his sensations, abandoned to a whistle or a painted chip, to a lead + dragoon or a gingerbread-dog, individualizing everything, generalizing + nothing, delighted with every new thing, lies down at night overpowered by + the fatigue which this day of continual pretty madness has incurred. But + Nature has answered her purpose with the curly, dimpled lunatic. She has + tasked every faculty, and has secured the symmetrical growth of the bodily + frame by all these attitudes and exertions,—an end of the first + importance, which could not be trusted to any care less perfect than her + own. This glitter, this opaline lustre plays round the top of every toy to + his eye to insure his fidelity, and he is deceived to his good. We are + made alive and kept alive by the same arts. Let the stoics say what they + please, we do not eat for the good of living, but because the meat is + savory and the appetite is keen. The vegetable life does not content + itself with casting from the flower or the tree a single seed, but it + fills the air and earth with a prodigality of seeds, that, if thousands + perish, thousands may plant themselves; that hundreds may come up, that + tens may live to maturity; that at least one may replace the parent. All + things betray the same calculated profusion. The excess of fear with which + the animal frame is hedged round, shrinking from cold, starting at sight + of a snake, or at a sudden noise, protects us, through a multitude of + groundless alarms, from some one real danger at last. The lover seeks in + marriage his private felicity and perfection, with no prospective end; and + nature hides in his happiness her own end, namely, progeny, or the + perpetuity of the race. + </p> + <p> + But the craft with which the world is made, runs also into the mind and + character of men. No man is quite sane; each has a vein of folly in his + composition, a slight determination of blood to the head, to make sure of + holding him hard to some one point which nature had taken to heart. Great + causes are never tried on their merits; but the cause is reduced to + particulars to suit the size of the partisans, and the contention is ever + hottest on minor matters. Not less remarkable is the overfaith of each man + in the importance of what he has to do or say. The poet, the prophet, has + a higher value for what he utters than any hearer, and therefore it gets + spoken. The strong, self-complacent Luther declares with an emphasis not + to be mistaken, that "God himself cannot do without wise men." Jacob + Behmen and George Fox betray their egotism in the pertinacity of their + controversial tracts, and James Naylor once suffered himself to be + worshipped as the Christ. Each prophet comes presently to identify himself + with his thought, and to esteem his hat and shoes sacred. However this may + discredit such persons with the judicious, it helps them with the people, + as it gives heat, pungency, and publicity to their words. A similar + experience is not infrequent in private life. Each young and ardent person + writes a diary, in which, when the hours of prayer and penitence arrive, + he inscribes his soul. The pages thus written are to him burning and + fragrant; he reads them on his knees by midnight and by the morning star; + he wets them with his tears; they are sacred; too good for the world, and + hardly yet to be shown to the dearest friend. This is the man-child that + is born to the soul, and her life still circulates in the babe. The + umbilical cord has not yet been cut. After some time has elapsed, he + begins to wish to admit his friend to this hallowed experience, and with + hesitation, yet with firmness, exposes the pages to his eye. Will they not + burn his eyes? The friend coldly turns them over, and passes from the + writing to conversation, with easy transition, which strikes the other + party with astonishment and vexation. He cannot suspect the writing + itself. Days and nights of fervid life, of communion with angels of + darkness and of light have engraved their shadowy characters on that + tear-stained book. He suspects the intelligence or the heart of his + friend. Is there then no friend? He cannot yet credit that one may have + impressive experience and yet may not know how to put his private fact + into literature; and perhaps the discovery that wisdom has other tongues + and ministers than we, that though we should hold our peace the truth + would not the less be spoken, might check injuriously the flames of our + zeal. A man can only speak so long as he does not feel his speech to be + partial and inadequate. It is partial, but he does not see it to be so + whilst he utters it. As soon as he is released from the instinctive and + particular and sees its partiality, he shuts his mouth in disgust. For no + man can write anything who does not think that what he writes is for the + time the history of the world; or do anything well who does not esteem his + work to be of importance. My work may be of none, but I must not think it + of none, or I shall not do it with impunity. + </p> + <p> + In like manner, there is throughout nature something mocking, something + that leads us on and on, but arrives nowhere; keeps no faith with us. All + promise outruns the performance. We live in a system of approximations. + Every end is prospective of some other end, which is also temporary; a + round and final success nowhere. We are encamped in nature, not + domesticated. Hunger and thirst lead us on to eat and to drink; but bread + and wine, mix and cook them how you will, leave us hungry and thirsty, + after the stomach is full. It is the same with all our arts and + performances. Our music, our poetry, our language itself are not + satisfactions, but suggestions. The hunger for wealth, which reduces the + planet to a garden, fools the eager pursuer. What is the end sought? + Plainly to secure the ends of good sense and beauty, from the intrusion of + deformity or vulgarity of any kind. But what an operose method! What a + train of means to secure a little conversation! This palace of brick and + stone, these servants, this kitchen, these stables, horses and equipage, + this bank-stock and file of mortgages; trade to all the world, + country-house and cottage by the waterside, all for a little conversation, + high, clear, and spiritual! Could it not be had as well by beggars on the + highway? No, all these things came from successive efforts of these + beggars to remove friction from the wheels of life, and give opportunity. + Conversation, character, were the avowed ends; wealth was good as it + appeased the animal cravings, cured the smoky chimney, silenced the + creaking door, brought friends together in a warm and quiet room, and kept + the children and the dinner-table in a different apartment. Thought, + virtue, beauty, were the ends; but it was known that men of thought and + virtue sometimes had the headache, or wet feet, or could lose good time + whilst the room was getting warm in winter days. Unluckily, in the + exertions necessary to remove these inconveniences, the main attention has + been diverted to this object; the old aims have been lost sight of, and to + remove friction has come to be the end. That is the ridicule of rich men, + and Boston, London, Vienna, and now the governments generally of the world + are cities and governments of the rich; and the masses are not men, but + poor men, that is, men who would be rich; this is the ridicule of the + class, that they arrive with pains and sweat and fury nowhere; when all is + done, it is for nothing. They are like one who has interrupted the + conversation of a company to make his speech, and now has forgotten what + he went to say. The appearance strikes the eye everywhere of an aimless + society, of aimless nations. Were the ends of nature so great and cogent + as to exact this immense sacrifice of men? + </p> + <p> + Quite analogous to the deceits in life, there is, as might be expected, a + similar effect on the eye from the face of external nature. There is in + woods and waters a certain enticement and flattery, together with a + failure to yield a present satisfaction. This disappointment is felt in + every landscape. I have seen the softness and beauty of the summer clouds + floating feathery overhead, enjoying, as it seemed, their height and + privilege of motion, whilst yet they appeared not so much the drapery of + this place and hour, as forelooking to some pavilions and gardens of + festivity beyond. It is an odd jealousy, but the poet finds himself not + near enough to his object. The pine-tree, the river, the bank of flowers + before him, does not seem to be nature. Nature is still elsewhere. This or + this is but outskirt and far-off reflection and echo of the triumph that + has passed by and is now at its glancing splendor and heyday, perchance in + the neighboring fields, or, if you stand in the field, then in the + adjacent woods. The present object shall give you this sense of stillness + that follows a pageant which has just gone by. What splendid distance, + what recesses of ineffable pomp and loveliness in the sunset! But who can + go where they are, or lay his hand or plant his foot thereon? Off they + fall from the round world forever and ever. It is the same among the men + and women as among the silent trees; always a referred existence, an + absence, never a presence and satisfaction. Is it that beauty can never be + grasped? in persons and in landscape is equally inaccessible? The accepted + and betrothed lover has lost the wildest charm of his maiden in her + acceptance of him. She was heaven whilst he pursued her as a star: she + cannot be heaven if she stoops to such a one as he. + </p> + <p> + What shall we say of this omnipresent appearance of that first projectile + impulse, of this flattery and balking of so many well-meaning creatures? + Must we not suppose somewhere in the universe a slight treachery and + derision? Are we not engaged to a serious resentment of this use that is + made of us? Are we tickled trout, and fools of nature? One look at the + face of heaven and earth lays all petulance at rest, and soothes us to + wiser convictions. To the intelligent, nature converts itself into a vast + promise, and will not be rashly explained. Her secret is untold. Many and + many an Oedipus arrives; he has the whole mystery teeming in his brain. + Alas! the same sorcery has spoiled his skill; no syllable can he shape on + his lips. Her mighty orbit vaults like the fresh rainbow into the deep, + but no archangel's wing was yet strong enough to follow it and report of + the return of the curve. But it also appears that our actions are seconded + and disposed to greater conclusions than we designed. We are escorted on + every hand through life by spiritual agents, and a beneficent purpose lies + in wait for us. We cannot bandy words with Nature, or deal with her as we + deal with persons. If we measure our individual forces against hers we may + easily feel as if we were the sport of an insuperable destiny. But if, + instead of identifying ourselves with the work, we feel that the soul of + the workman streams through us, we shall find the peace of the morning + dwelling first in our hearts, and the fathomless powers of gravity and + chemistry, and, over them, of life, preexisting within us in their highest + form. + </p> + <p> + The uneasiness which the thought of our helplessness in the chain of + causes occasions us, results from looking too much at one condition of + nature, namely, Motion. But the drag is never taken from the wheel. + Wherever the impulse exceeds, the Rest or Identity insinuates its + compensation. All over the wide fields of earth grows the prunella or + self-heal. After every foolish day we sleep off the fumes and furies of + its hours; and though we are always engaged with particulars, and often + enslaved to them, we bring with us to every experiment the innate + universal laws. These, while they exist in the mind as ideas, stand around + us in nature forever embodied, a present sanity to expose and cure the + insanity of men. Our servitude to particulars betrays into a hundred + foolish expectations. We anticipate a new era from the invention of a + locomotive, or a balloon; the new engine brings with it the old checks. + They say that by electro-magnetism your salad shall be grown from the seed + whilst your fowl is roasting for dinner; it is a symbol of our modern aims + and endeavors, of our condensation and acceleration of objects;—but + nothing is gained; nature cannot be cheated; man's life is but seventy + salads long, grow they swift or grow they slow. In these checks and + impossibilities however we find our advantage, not less than in the + impulses. Let the victory fall where it will, we are on that side. And the + knowledge that we traverse the whole scale of being, from the centre to + the poles of nature, and have some stake in every possibility, lends that + sublime lustre to death, which philosophy and religion have too outwardly + and literally striven to express in the popular doctrine of the + immortality of the soul. The reality is more excellent than the report. + Here is no ruin, no discontinuity, no spent ball. The divine circulations + never rest nor linger. Nature is the incarnation of a thought, and turns + to a thought again, as ice becomes water and gas. The world is mind + precipitated, and the volatile essence is forever escaping again into the + state of free thought. Hence the virtue and pungency of the influence on + the mind of natural objects, whether inorganic or organized. Man + imprisoned, man crystallized, man vegetative, speaks to man impersonated. + That power which does not respect quantity, which makes the whole and the + particle its equal channel, delegates its smile to the morning, and + distils its essence into every drop of rain. Every moment instructs, and + every object: for wisdom is infused into every form. It has been poured + into us as blood; it convulsed us as pain; it slid into us as pleasure; it + enveloped us in dull, melancholy days, or in days of cheerful labor; we + did not guess its essence until after a long time. + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + POLITICS. + + Gold and iron are good + To buy iron and gold; + All earth's fleece and food + For their like are sold. + Boded Merlin wise, + Proved Napoleon great,— + Nor kind nor coinage buys + Aught above its rate. + Fear, Craft, and Avarice + Cannot rear a State. + Out of dust to build + What is more than dust,— + Walls Amphion piled + Phoebus stablish must. + When the Muses nine + With the Virtues meet, + Find to their design + An Atlantic seat, + By green orchard boughs + Fended from the heat, + Where the statesman ploughs + Furrow for the wheat; + When the Church is social worth, + When the state-house is the hearth, + Then the perfect State is come, + The republican at home. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII. POLITICS. + </h2> + <p> + In dealing with the State we ought to remember that its institution are + not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born; that they are not + superior to the citizen; that every one of them was once the act of a + single man; every law and usage was a man's expedient to meet a particular + case; that they all are imitable, all alterable; we may make as good, we + may make better. Society is an illusion to the young citizen. It lies + before him in rigid repose, with certain names, men and institutions + rooted like oak-trees to the centre, round which all arrange themselves + the best they can. But the old statesman knows that society is fluid; + there are no such roots and centres, but any particle may suddenly become + the centre of the movement and compel the system to gyrate round it; as + every man of strong will, like Pisistratus, or Cromwell, does for a time, + and every man of truth, like Plato or Paul, does forever. But politics + rest on necessary foundations, and cannot be treated with levity. + Republics abound in young civilians, who believe that the laws make the + city, that grave modifications of the policy and modes of living and + employments of the population, that commerce, education, and religion, may + be voted in or out; and that any measure, though it were absurd, may be + imposed on a people if only you can get sufficient voices to make it a + law. But the wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand which + perishes in the twisting; that the State must follow and not lead the + character and progress of the citizen; the strongest usurper is quickly + got rid of; and they only who build on Ideas, build for eternity; and that + the form of government which prevails is the expression of what + cultivation exists in the population which permits it. The law is only a + memorandum. We are superstitious, and esteem the statute somewhat: so much + life as it has in the character of living men is its force. The statute + stands there to say, Yesterday we agreed so and so, but how feel ye this + article to-day? Our statute is a currency which we stamp with our own + portrait: it soon becomes unrecognizable, and in process of time will + return to the mint. Nature is not democratic, nor limited-monarchical, but + despotic, and will not be fooled or abated of any jot of her authority by + the pertest of her sons; and as fast as the public mind is opened to more + intelligence, the code is seen to be brute and stammering. It speaks not + articulately, and must be made to. Meantime the education of the general + mind never stops. The reveries of the true and simple are prophetic. What + the tender poetic youth dreams, and prays, and paints to-day, but shuns + the ridicule of saying aloud, shall presently be the resolutions of public + bodies; then shall be carried as grievance and bill of rights through + conflict and war, and then shall be triumphant law and establishment for a + hundred years, until it gives place in turn to new prayers and pictures. + The history of the State sketches in coarse outline the progress of + thought, and follows at a distance the delicacy of culture and of + aspiration. + </p> + <p> + The theory of politics which has possessed the mind of men, and which they + have expressed the best they could in their laws and in their revolutions, + considers persons and property as the two objects for whose protection + government exists. Of persons, all have equal rights, in virtue of being + identical in nature. This interest of course with its whole power demands + a democracy. Whilst the rights of all as persons are equal, in virtue of + their access to reason, their rights in property are very unequal. One man + owns his clothes, and another owns a county. This accident, depending + primarily on the skill and virtue of the parties, of which there is every + degree, and secondarily on patrimony, falls unequally, and its rights of + course are unequal. Personal rights, universally the same, demand a + government framed on the ratio of the census; property demands a + government framed on the ratio of owners and of owning. Laban, who has + flocks and herds, wishes them looked after by an officer on the frontiers, + lest the Midianites shall drive them off; and pays a tax to that end. + Jacob has no flocks or herds and no fear of the Midianites, and pays no + tax to the officer. It seemed fit that Laban and Jacob should have equal + rights to elect the officer who is to defend their persons, but that Laban + and not Jacob should elect the officer who is to guard the sheep and + cattle. And if question arise whether additional officers or watch-towers + should be provided, must not Laban and Isaac, and those who must sell part + of their herds to buy protection for the rest, judge better of this, and + with more right, than Jacob, who, because he is a youth and a traveller, + eats their bread and not his own? + </p> + <p> + In the earliest society the proprietors made their own wealth, and so long + as it comes to the owners in the direct way, no other opinion would arise + in any equitable community than that property should make the law for + property, and persons the law for persons. + </p> + <p> + But property passes through donation or inheritance to those who do not + create it. Gift, in one case, makes it as really the new owner's, as labor + made it the first owner's: in the other case, of patrimony, the law makes + an ownership which will be valid in each man's view according to the + estimate which he sets on the public tranquillity. + </p> + <p> + It was not however found easy to embody the readily admitted principle + that property should make law for property, and persons for persons; since + persons and property mixed themselves in every transaction. At last it + seemed settled that the rightful distinction was that the proprietors + should have more elective franchise than non-proprietors, on the Spartan + principle of "calling that which is just, equal; not that which is equal, + just." + </p> + <p> + That principle no longer looks so self-evident as it appeared in former + times, partly, because doubts have arisen whether too much weight had not + been allowed in the laws to property, and such a structure given to our + usages as allowed the rich to encroach on the poor, and to keep them poor; + but mainly because there is an instinctive sense, however obscure and yet + inarticulate, that the whole constitution of property, on its present + tenures, is injurious, and its influence on persons deteriorating and + degrading; that truly the only interest for the consideration of the State + is persons; that property will always follow persons; that the highest end + of government is the culture of men; and if men can be educated, the + institutions will share their improvement and the moral sentiment will + write the law of the land. + </p> + <p> + If it be not easy to settle the equity of this question, the peril is less + when we take note of our natural defences. We are kept by better guards + than the vigilance of such magistrates as we commonly elect. Society + always consists in greatest part of young and foolish persons. The old, + who have seen through the hypocrisy of courts and statesmen, die and leave + no wisdom to their sons. They believe their own newspaper, as their + fathers did at their age. With such an ignorant and deceivable majority, + States would soon run to ruin, but that there are limitations beyond which + the folly and ambition of governors cannot go. Things have their laws, as + well as men; and things refuse to be trifled with. Property will be + protected. Corn will not grow unless it is planted and manured; but the + farmer will not plant or hoe it unless the chances are a hundred to one + that he will cut and harvest it. Under any forms, persons and property + must and will have their just sway. They exert their power, as steadily as + matter its attraction. Cover up a pound of earth never so cunningly, + divide and subdivide it; melt it to liquid, convert it to gas; it will + always weigh a pound; it will always attract and resist other matter by + the full virtue of one pound weight:—and the attributes of a person, + his wit and his moral energy, will exercise, under any law or + extinguishing tyranny, their proper force,—if not overtly, then + covertly; if not for the law, then against it; if not wholesomely, then + poisonously; with right, or by might. + </p> + <p> + The boundaries of personal influence it is impossible to fix, as persons + are organs of moral or supernatural force. Under the dominion of an idea + which possesses the minds of multitudes, as civil freedom, or the + religious sentiment, the powers of persons are no longer subjects of + calculation. A nation of men unanimously bent on freedom or conquest can + easily confound the arithmetic of statists, and achieve extravagant + actions, out of all proportion to their means; as the Greeks, the + Saracens, the Swiss, the Americans, and the French have done. + </p> + <p> + In like manner to every particle of property belongs its own attraction. A + cent is the representative of a certain quantity of corn or other + commodity. Its value is in the necessities of the animal man. It is so + much warmth, so much bread, so much water, so much land. The law may do + what it will with the owner of property; its just power will still attach + to the cent. The law may in a mad freak say that all shall have power + except the owners of property; they shall have no vote. Nevertheless, by a + higher law, the property will, year after year, write every statute that + respects property. The non-proprietor will be the scribe of the + proprietor. What the owners wish to do, the whole power of property will + do, either through the law or else in defiance of it. Of course I speak of + all the property, not merely of the great estates. When the rich are + outvoted, as frequently happens, it is the joint treasury of the poor + which exceeds their accumulations. Every man owns something, if it is only + a cow, or a wheel-barrow, or his arms, and so has that property to dispose + of. + </p> + <p> + The same necessity which secures the rights of person and property against + the malignity or folly of the magistrate, determines the form and methods + of governing, which are proper to each nation and to its habit of thought, + and nowise transferable to other states of society. In this country we are + very vain of our political institutions, which are singular in this, that + they sprung, within the memory of living men, from the character and + condition of the people, which they still express with sufficient + fidelity,—and we ostentatiously prefer them to any other in history. + They are not better, but only fitter for us. We may be wise in asserting + the advantage in modern times of the democratic form, but to other states + of society, in which religion consecrated the monarchical, that and not + this was expedient. Democracy is better for us, because the religious + sentiment of the present time accords better with it. Born democrats, we + are nowise qualified to judge of monarchy, which, to our fathers living in + the monarchical idea, was also relatively right. But our institutions, + though in coincidence with the spirit of the age, have not any exemption + from the practical defects which have discredited other forms. Every + actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well. What + satire on government can equal the severity of censure conveyed in the + word politic, which now for ages has signified cunning, intimating that + the State is a trick? + </p> + <p> + The same benign necessity and the same practical abuse appear in the + parties, into which each State divides itself, of opponents and defenders + of the administration of the government. Parties are also founded on + instincts, and have better guides to their own humble aims than the + sagacity of their leaders. They have nothing perverse in their origin, but + rudely mark some real and lasting relation. We might as wisely reprove the + east wind or the frost, as a political party, whose members, for the most + part, could give no account of their position, but stand for the defence + of those interests in which they find themselves. Our quarrel with them + begins when they quit this deep natural ground at the bidding of some + leader, and obeying personal considerations, throw themselves into the + maintenance and defence of points nowise belonging to their system. A + party is perpetually corrupted by personality. Whilst we absolve the + association from dishonesty, we cannot extend the same charity to their + leaders. They reap the rewards of the docility and zeal of the masses + which they direct. Ordinarily our parties are parties of circumstance, and + not of principle; as the planting interest in conflict with the + commercial; the party of capitalists and that of operatives; parties which + are identical in their moral character, and which can easily change ground + with each other in the support of many of their measures. Parties of + principle, as, religious sects, or the party of free-trade, of universal + suffrage, of abolition of slavery, of abolition of capital punishment,—degenerate + into personalities, or would inspire enthusiasm. The vice of our leading + parties in this country (which may be cited as a fair specimen of these + societies of opinion) is that they do not plant themselves on the deep and + necessary grounds to which they are respectively entitled, but lash + themselves to fury in the carrying of some local and momentary measure, + nowise useful to the commonwealth. Of the two great parties which at this + hour almost share the nation between them, I should say that one has the + best cause, and the other contains the best men. The philosopher, the + poet, or the religious man will of course wish to cast his vote with the + democrat, for free-trade, for wide suffrage, for the abolition of legal + cruelties in the penal code, and for facilitating in every manner the + access of the young and the poor to the sources of wealth and power. But + he can rarely accept the persons whom the so-called popular party propose + to him as representatives of these liberalities. They have not at heart + the ends which give to the name of democracy what hope and virtue are in + it. The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless: it + is not loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends, but is destructive only + out of hatred and selfishness. On the other side, the conservative party, + composed of the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the + population, is timid, and merely defensive of property. It vindicates no + right, it aspires to no real good, it brands no crime, it proposes no + generous policy; it does not build, nor write, nor cherish the arts, nor + foster religion, nor establish schools, nor encourage science, nor + emancipate the slave, nor befriend the poor, or the Indian, or the + immigrant. From neither party, when in power, has the world any benefit to + expect in science, art, or humanity, at all commensurate with the + resources of the nation. + </p> + <p> + I do not for these defects despair of our republic. We are not at the + mercy of any waves of chance. In the strife of ferocious parties, human + nature always finds itself cherished; as the children of the convicts at + Botany Bay are found to have as healthy a moral sentiment as other + children. Citizens of feudal states are alarmed at our democratic + institutions lapsing into anarchy, and the older and more cautious among + ourselves are learning from Europeans to look with some terror at our + turbulent freedom. It is said that in our license of construing the + Constitution, and in the despotism of public opinion, we have no anchor; + and one foreign observer thinks he has found the safeguard in the sanctity + of Marriage among us; and another thinks he has found it in our Calvinism. + Fisher Ames expressed the popular security more wisely, when he compared a + monarchy and a republic, saying that a monarchy is a merchantman, which + sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock and go to the bottom; + whilst a republic is a raft, which would never sink, but then your feet + are always in water. No forms can have any dangerous importance whilst we + are befriended by the laws of things. It makes no difference how many tons + weight of atmosphere presses on our heads, so long as the same pressure + resists it within the lungs. Augment the mass a thousand fold, it cannot + begin to crush us, as long as reaction is equal to action. The fact of two + poles, of two forces, centripetal and centrifugal, is universal, and each + force by its own activity develops the other. Wild liberty develops iron + conscience. Want of liberty, by strengthening law and decorum, stupefies + conscience. 'Lynch-law' prevails only where there is greater hardihood and + self-subsistency in the leaders. A mob cannot be a permanency; everybody's + interest requires that it should not exist, and only justice satisfies + all. + </p> + <p> + We must trust infinitely to the beneficent necessity which shines through + all laws. Human nature expresses itself in them as characteristically as + in statues, or songs, or railroads; and an abstract of the codes of + nations would be a transcript of the common conscience. Governments have + their origin in the moral identity of men. Reason for one is seen to be + reason for another, and for every other. There is a middle measure which + satisfies all parties, be they never so many or so resolute for their own. + Every man finds a sanction for his simplest claims and deeds in decisions + of his own mind, which he calls Truth and Holiness. In these decisions all + the citizens find a perfect agreement, and only in these; not in what is + good to eat, good to wear, good use of time, or what amount of land or of + public aid, each is entitled to claim. This truth and justice men + presently endeavor to make application of to the measuring of land, the + apportionment of service, the protection of life and property. Their first + endeavors, no doubt, are very awkward. Yet absolute right is the first + governor; or, every government is an impure theocracy. The idea after + which each community is aiming to make and mend its law, is the will of + the wise man. The wise man it cannot find in nature, and it makes awkward + but earnest efforts to secure his government by contrivance; as by causing + the entire people to give their voices on every measure; or by a double + choice to get the representation of the whole; or, by a selection of the + best citizens; or to secure the advantages of efficiency and internal + peace by confiding the government to one, who may himself select his + agents. All forms of government symbolize an immortal government, common + to all dynasties and independent of numbers, perfect where two men exist, + perfect where there is only one man. + </p> + <p> + Every man's nature is a sufficient advertisement to him of the character + of his fellows. My right and my wrong is their right and their wrong. + Whilst I do what is fit for me, and abstain from what is unfit, my + neighbor and I shall often agree in our means, and work together for a + time to one end. But whenever I find my dominion over myself not + sufficient for me, and undertake the direction of him also, I overstep the + truth, and come into false relations to him. I may have so much more skill + or strength than he that he cannot express adequately his sense of wrong, + but it is a lie, and hurts like a lie both him and me. Love and nature + cannot maintain the assumption; it must be executed by a practical lie, + namely by force. This undertaking for another is the blunder which stands + in colossal ugliness in the governments of the world. It is the same thing + in numbers, as in a pair, only not quite so intelligible. I can see well + enough a great difference between my setting myself down to a + self-control, and my going to make somebody else act after my views; but + when a quarter of the human race assume to tell me what I must do, I may + be too much disturbed by the circumstances to see so clearly the absurdity + of their command. Therefore all public ends look vague and quixotic beside + private ones. For any laws but those which men make for themselves, are + laughable. If I put myself in the place of my child, and we stand in one + thought and see that things are thus or thus, that perception is law for + him and me. We are both there, both act. But if, without carrying him into + the thought, I look over into his plot, and, guessing how it is with him, + ordain this or that, he will never obey me. This is the history of + governments,—one man does something which is to bind another. A man + who cannot be acquainted with me, taxes me; looking from afar at me + ordains that a part of my labor shall go to this or that whimsical end,—not + as I, but as he happens to fancy. Behold the consequence. Of all debts men + are least willing to pay the taxes. What a satire is this on government! + Everywhere they think they get their money's worth, except for these. + </p> + <p> + Hence the less government we have the better,—the fewer laws, and + the less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of formal Government + is the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual; the + appearance of the principal to supersede the proxy; the appearance of the + wise man; of whom the existing government is, it must be owned, but a + shabby imitation. That which all things tend to educe; which freedom, + cultivation, intercourse, revolutions, go to form and deliver, is + character; that is the end of Nature, to reach unto this coronation of her + king. To educate the wise man the State exists, and with the appearance of + the wise man the State expires. The appearance of character makes the + State unnecessary. The wise man is the State. He needs no army, fort, or + navy,—he loves men too well; no bribe, or feast, or palace, to draw + friends to him; no vantage ground, no favorable circumstance. He needs no + library, for he has not done thinking; no church, for he is a prophet; no + statute book, for he has the lawgiver; no money, for he is value; no road, + for he is at home where he is; no experience, for the life of the creator + shoots through him, and looks from his eyes. He has no personal friends, + for he who has the spell to draw the prayer and piety of all men unto him + needs not husband and educate a few to share with him a select and poetic + life. His relation to men is angelic; his memory is myrrh to them; his + presence, frankincense and flowers. + </p> + <p> + We think our civilization near its meridian, but we are yet only at the + cock-crowing and the morning star. In our barbarous society the influence + of character is in its infancy. As a political power, as the rightful lord + who is to tumble all rulers from their chairs, its presence is hardly yet + suspected. Malthus and Ricardo quite omit it; the Annual Register is + silent; in the Conversations' Lexicon it is not set down; the President's + Message, the Queen's Speech, have not mentioned it; and yet it is never + nothing. Every thought which genius and piety throw into the world, alters + the world. The gladiators in the lists of power feel, through all their + frocks of force and simulation, the presence of worth. I think the very + strife of trade and ambition are confession of this divinity; and + successes in those fields are the poor amends, the fig-leaf with which the + shamed soul attempts to hide its nakedness. I find the like unwilling + homage in all quarters. It is because we know how much is due from us that + we are impatient to show some petty talent as a substitute for worth. We + are haunted by a conscience of this right to grandeur of character, and + are false to it. But each of us has some talent, can do somewhat useful, + or graceful, or formidable, or amusing, or lucrative. That we do, as an + apology to others and to ourselves for not reaching the mark of a good and + equal life. But it does not satisfy us, whilst we thrust it on the notice + of our companions. It may throw dust in their eyes, but does not smooth + our own brow, or give us the tranquillity of the strong when we walk + abroad. We do penance as we go. Our talent is a sort of expiation, and we + are constrained to reflect on our splendid moment with a certain + humiliation, as somewhat too fine, and not as one act of many acts, a fair + expression of our permanent energy. Most persons of ability meet in + society with a kind of tacit appeal. Each seems to say, 'I am not all + here.' Senators and presidents have climbed so high with pain enough, not + because they think the place specially agreeable, but as an apology for + real worth, and to vindicate their manhood in our eyes. This conspicuous + chair is their compensation to themselves for being of a poor, cold, hard + nature. They must do what they can. Like one class of forest animals, they + have nothing but a prehensile tail; climb they must, or crawl. If a man + found himself so rich-natured that he could enter into strict relations + with the best persons and make life serene around him by the dignity and + sweetness of his behavior, could he afford to circumvent the favor of the + caucus and the press, and covet relations so hollow and pompous as those + of a politician? Surely nobody would be a charlatan who could afford to be + sincere. + </p> + <p> + The tendencies of the times favor the idea of self-government, and leave + the individual, for all code, to the rewards and penalties of his own + constitution; which work with more energy than we believe whilst we depend + on artificial restraints. The movement in this direction has been very + marked in modern history. Much has been blind and discreditable, but the + nature of the revolution is not affected by the vices of the revolters; + for this is a purely moral force. It was never adopted by any party in + history, neither can be. It separates the individual from all party, and + unites him at the same time to the race. It promises a recognition of + higher rights than those of personal freedom, or the security of property. + A man has a right to be employed, to be trusted, to be loved, to be + revered. The power of love, as the basis of a State, has never been tried. + We must not imagine that all things are lapsing into confusion if every + tender protestant be not compelled to bear his part in certain social + conventions; nor doubt that roads can be built, letters carried, and the + fruit of labor secured, when the government of force is at an end. Are our + methods now so excellent that all competition is hopeless? could not a + nation of friends even devise better ways? On the other hand, let not the + most conservative and timid fear anything from a premature surrender of + the bayonet and the system of force. For, according to the order of + nature, which is quite superior to our will, it stands thus; there will + always be a government of force where men are selfish; and when they are + pure enough to abjure the code of force they will be wise enough to see + how these public ends of the post-office, of the highway, of commerce and + the exchange of property, of museums and libraries, of institutions of art + and science can be answered. + </p> + <p> + We live in a very low state of the world, and pay unwilling tribute to + governments founded on force. There is not, among the most religious and + instructed men of the most religious and civil nations, a reliance on the + moral sentiment and a sufficient belief in the unity of things, to + persuade them that society can be maintained without artificial + restraints, as well as the solar system; or that the private citizen might + be reasonable and a good neighbor, without the hint of a jail or a + confiscation. What is strange too, there never was in any man sufficient + faith in the power of rectitude to inspire him with the broad design of + renovating the State on the principle of right and love. All those who + have pretended this design have been partial reformers, and have admitted + in some manner the supremacy of the bad State. I do not call to mind a + single human being who has steadily denied the authority of the laws, on + the simple ground of his own moral nature. Such designs, full of genius + and full of fate as they are, are not entertained except avowedly as + air-pictures. If the individual who exhibits them dare to think them + practicable, he disgusts scholars and churchmen; and men of talent and + women of superior sentiments cannot hide their contempt. Not the less does + nature continue to fill the heart of youth with suggestions of this + enthusiasm, and there are now men,—if indeed I can speak in the + plural number,—more exactly, I will say, I have just been conversing + with one man, to whom no weight of adverse experience will make it for a + moment appear impossible that thousands of human beings might exercise + towards each other the grandest and simplest sentiments, as well as a knot + of friends, or a pair of lovers. + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + NOMINALIST AND REALIST. + + In countless upward-striving waves + The moon-drawn tide-wave strives: + In thousand far-transplanted grafts + The parent fruit survives; + So, in the new-born millions, + The perfect Adam lives. + Not less are summer-mornings dear + To every child they wake, + And each with novel life his sphere + Fills for his proper sake. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII. NONIMALIST AND REALIST. + </h2> + <p> + I CANNOT often enough say that a man is only a relative and representative + nature. Each is a hint of the truth, but far enough from being that truth + which yet he quite newly and inevitably suggests to us. If I seek it in + him I shall not find it. Could any man conduct into me the pure stream of + that which he pretends to be! Long afterwards I find that quality + elsewhere which he promised me. The genius of the Platonists is + intoxicating to the student, yet how few particulars of it can I detach + from all their books. The man momentarily stands for the thought, but will + not bear examination; and a society of men will cursorily represent well + enough a certain quality and culture, for example, chivalry or beauty of + manners; but separate them and there is no gentleman and no lady in the + group. The least hint sets us on the pursuit of a character which no man + realizes. We have such exorbitant eyes that on seeing the smallest arc we + complete the curve, and when the curtain is lifted from the diagram which + it seemed to veil, we are vexed to find that no more was drawn than just + that fragment of an arc which we first beheld. We are greatly too liberal + in our construction of each other's faculty and promise. Exactly what the + parties have already done they shall do again; but that which we inferred + from their nature and inception, they will not do. That is in nature, but + not in them. That happens in the world, which we often witness in a public + debate. Each of the speakers expresses himself imperfectly; no one of them + hears much that another says, such is the preoccupation of mind of each; + and the audience, who have only to hear and not to speak, judge very + wisely and superiorly how wrongheaded and unskilful is each of the + debaters to his own affair. Great men or men of great gifts you shall + easily find, but symmetrical men never. When I meet a pure intellectual + force or a generosity of affection, I believe here then is man; and am + presently mortified by the discovery that this individual is no more + available to his own or to the general ends than his companions; because + the power which drew my respect is not supported by the total symphony of + his talents. All persons exist to society by some shining trait of beauty + or utility which they have. We borrow the proportions of the man from that + one fine feature, and finish the portrait symmetrically; which is false, + for the rest of his body is small or deformed. I observe a person who + makes a good public appearance, and conclude thence the perfection of his + private character, on which this is based; but he has no private + character. He is a graceful cloak or lay-figure for holidays. All our + poets, heroes, and saints, fail utterly in some one or in many parts to + satisfy our idea, fail to draw our spontaneous interest, and so leave us + without any hope of realization but in our own future. Our exaggeration of + all fine characters arises from the fact that we identify each in turn + with the soul. But there are no such men as we fable; no Jesus, nor + Pericles, nor Caesar, nor Angelo, nor Washington, such as we have made. We + consecrate a great deal of nonsense because it was allowed by great men. + There is none without his foible. I verily believe if an angel should come + to chant the chorus of the moral law, he would eat too much gingerbread, + or take liberties with private letters, or do some precious atrocity. It + is bad enough that our geniuses cannot do anything useful, but it is worse + that no man is fit for society who has fine traits. He is admired at a + distance, but he cannot come near without appearing a cripple. The men of + fine parts protect themselves by solitude, or by courtesy, or by satire, + or by an acid worldly manner, each concealing as he best can his + incapacity for useful association, but they want either love or + self-reliance. + </p> + <p> + Our native love of reality joins with this experience to teach us a little + reserve, and to dissuade a too sudden surrender to the brilliant qualities + of persons. Young people admire talents or particular excellences; as we + grow older we value total powers and effects, as the impression, the + quality, the spirit of men and things. The genius is all. The man,—it + is his system: we do not try a solitary word or act, but his habit. The + acts which you praise, I praise not, since they are departures from his + faith, and are mere compliances. The magnetism which arranges tribes and + races in one polarity is alone to be respected; the men are steel-filings. + Yet we unjustly select a particle, and say, 'O steel-filing number one! + what heart-drawings I feel to thee! what prodigious virtues are these of + thine! how constitutional to thee, and incommunicable.' Whilst we speak + the loadstone is withdrawn; down falls our filing in a heap with the rest, + and we continue our mummery to the wretched shaving. Let us go for + universals; for the magnetism, not for the needles. Human life and its + persons are poor empirical pretensions. A personal influence is an ignis + fatuus. If they say it is great, it is great; if they say it is small, it + is small; you see it, and you see it not, by turns; it borrows all its + size from the momentary estimation of the speakers: the Will-of-the-wisp + vanishes if you go too near, vanishes if you go too far, and only blazes + at one angle. Who can tell if Washington be a great man or no? Who can + tell if Franklin be? Yes, or any but the twelve, or six, or three great + gods of fame? And they too loom and fade before the eternal. + </p> + <p> + We are amphibious creatures, weaponed for two elements, having two sets of + faculties, the particular and the catholic. We adjust our instrument for + general observation, and sweep the heavens as easily as we pick out a + single figure in the terrestrial landscape. We are practically skilful in + detecting elements for which we have no place in our theory, and no name. + Thus we are very sensible of an atmospheric influence in men and in bodies + of men, not accounted for in an arithmetical addition of all their + measurable properties. There is a genius of a nation, which is not to be + found in the numerical citizens, but which characterizes the society. + England, strong, punctual, practical, well-spoken England I should not + find if I should go to the island to seek it. In the parliament, in the + play-house, at dinner-tables, I might see a great number of rich, + ignorant, book-read, conventional, proud men,—many old women,—and + not anywhere the Englishman who made the good speeches, combined the + accurate engines, and did the bold and nervous deeds. It is even worse in + America, where, from the intellectual quickness of the race, the genius of + the country is more splendid in its promise and more slight in its + performance. Webster cannot do the work of Webster. We conceive distinctly + enough the French, the Spanish, the German genius, and it is not the less + real that perhaps we should not meet in either of those nations a single + individual who corresponded with the type. We infer the spirit of the + nation in great measure from the language, which is a sort of monument to + which each forcible individual in a course of many hundred years has + contributed a stone. And, universally, a good example of this social force + is the veracity of language, which cannot be debauched. In any controversy + concerning morals, an appeal may be made with safety to the sentiments + which the language of the people expresses. Proverbs, words, and + grammar-inflections convey the public sense with more purity and precision + than the wisest individual. + </p> + <p> + In the famous dispute with the Nominalists, the Realists had a good deal + of reason. General ideas are essences. They are our gods: they round and + ennoble the most partial and sordid way of living. Our proclivity to + details cannot quite degrade our life and divest it of poetry. The + day-laborer is reckoned as standing at the foot of the social scale, yet + he is saturated with the laws of the world. His measures are the hours; + morning and night, solstice and equinox, geometry, astronomy and all the + lovely accidents of nature play through his mind. Money, which represents + the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an + apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses. Property + keeps the accounts of the world, and is always moral. The property will be + found where the labor, the wisdom, and the virtue have been in nations, in + classes, and (the whole life-time considered, with the compensations) in + the individual also. How wise the world appears, when the laws and usages + of nations are largely detailed, and the completeness of the municipal + system is considered! Nothing is left out. If you go into the markets and + the custom-houses, the insurers' and notaries' offices, the offices of + sealers of weights and measures, of inspection of provisions,—it + will appear as if one man had made it all. Wherever you go, a wit like + your own has been before you, and has realized its thought. The Eleusinian + mysteries, the Egyptian architecture, the Indian astronomy, the Greek + sculpture, show that there always were seeing and knowing men in the + planet. The world is full of masonic ties, of guilds, of secret and public + legions of honor; that of scholars, for example; and that of gentlemen, + fraternizing with the upper class of every country and every culture. + </p> + <p> + I am very much struck in literature by the appearance that one person + wrote all the books; as if the editor of a journal planted his body of + reporters in different parts of the field of action, and relieved some by + others from time to time; but there is such equality and identity both of + judgment and point of view in the narrative that it is plainly the work of + one all-seeing, all-hearing gentleman. I looked into Pope's Odyssey + yesterday: it is as correct and elegant after our canon of to-day as if it + were newly written. The modernness of all good books seems to give me an + existence as wide as man. What is well done I feel as if I did; what is + ill done I reck not of. Shakspeare's passages of passion (for example, in + Lear and Hamlet) are in the very dialect of the present year. I am + faithful again to the whole over the members in my use of books. I find + the most pleasure in reading a book in a manner least flattering to the + author. I read Proclus, and sometimes Plato, as I might read a dictionary, + for a mechanical help to the fancy and the imagination. I read for the + lustres, as if one should use a fine picture in a chromatic experiment, + for its rich colors. 'Tis not Proclus, but a piece of nature and fate that + I explore. It is a greater joy to see the author's author, than himself. A + higher pleasure of the same kind I found lately at a concert, where I went + to hear Handel's Messiah. As the master overpowered the littleness and + incapableness of the performers and made them conductors of his + electricity, so it was easy to observe what efforts nature was making, + through so many hoarse, wooden, and imperfect persons, to produce + beautiful voices, fluid and soul-guided men and women. The genius of + nature was paramount at the oratorio. + </p> + <p> + This preference of the genius to the parts is the secret of that + deification of art, which is found in all superior minds. Art, in the + artist, is proportion, or a habitual respect to the whole by an eye loving + beauty in details. And the wonder and charm of it is the sanity in + insanity which it denotes. Proportion is almost impossible to human + beings. There is no one who does not exaggerate. In conversation, men are + encumbered with personality, and talk too much. In modern sculpture, + picture, and poetry, the beauty is miscellaneous; the artist works here + and there and at all points, adding and adding, instead of unfolding the + unit of his thought. Beautiful details we must have, or no artist; but + they must be means and never other. The eye must not lose sight for a + moment of the purpose. Lively boys write to their ear and eye, and the + cool reader finds nothing but sweet jingles in it. When they grow older, + they respect the argument. + </p> + <p> + We obey the same intellectual integrity when we study in exceptions the + law of the world. Anomalous facts, as the never quite obsolete rumors of + magic and demonology, and the new allegations of phrenologists and + neurologists, are of ideal use. They are good indications. Homoeopathy is + insignificant as an art of healing, but of great value as criticism on the + hygeia or medical practice of the time. So with Mesmerism, Swedenborgism, + Fourierism, and the Millennial Church; they are poor pretensions enough, + but good criticism on the science, philosophy, and preaching of the day. + For these abnormal insights of the adepts ought to be normal, and things + of course. + </p> + <p> + All things show us that on every side we are very near to the best. It + seems not worth while to execute with too much pains some one + intellectual, or aesthetical, or civil feat, when presently the dream will + scatter, and we shall burst into universal power. The reason of idleness + and of crime is the deferring of our hopes. Whilst we are waiting we + beguile the time with jokes, with sleep, with eating, and with crimes. + </p> + <p> + Thus we settle it in our cool libraries, that all the agents with which we + deal are subalterns, which we can well afford to let pass, and life will + be simpler when we live at the centre and flout the surfaces. I wish to + speak with all respect of persons, but sometimes I must pinch myself to + keep awake and preserve the due decorum. They melt so fast into each other + that they are like grass and trees, and it needs an effort to treat them + as individuals. Though the uninspired man certainly finds persons a + conveniency in household matters, the divine man does not respect them; he + sees them as a rack of clouds, or a fleet of ripples which the wind drives + over the surface of the water. But this is flat rebellion. Nature will not + be Buddhist: she resents generalizing, and insults the philosopher in + every moment with a million of fresh particulars. It is all idle talking: + as much as a man is a whole, so is he also a part; and it were partial not + to see it. What you say in your pompous distribution only distributes you + into your class and section. You have not got rid of parts by denying + them, but are the more partial. You are one thing, but Nature is one thing + and the other thing, in the same moment. She will not remain orbed in a + thought, but rushes into persons; and when each person, inflamed to a fury + of personality, would conquer all things to his poor crotchet, she raises + up against him another person, and by many persons incarnates again a sort + of whole. She will have all. Nick Bottom cannot play all the parts, work + it how he may; there will be somebody else, and the world will be round. + Everything must have its flower or effort at the beautiful, coarser or + finer according to its stuff. They relieve and recommend each other, and + the sanity of society is a balance of a thousand insanities. She punishes + abstractionists, and will only forgive an induction which is rare and + casual. We like to come to a height of land and see the landscape, just as + we value a general remark in conversation. But it is not the intention of + Nature that we should live by general views. We fetch fire and water, run + about all day among the shops and markets, and get our clothes and shoes + made and mended, and are the victims of these details; and once in a + fortnight we arrive perhaps at a rational moment. If we were not thus + infatuated, if we saw the real from hour to hour, we should not be here to + write and to read, but should have been burned or frozen long ago. She + would never get anything done, if she suffered admirable Crichtons and + universal geniuses. She loves better a wheelwright who dreams all night of + wheels, and a groom who is part of his horse; for she is full of work, and + these are her hands. As the frugal farmer takes care that his cattle shall + eat down the rowen, and swine shall eat the waste of his house, and + poultry shall pick the crumbs,—so our economical mother dispatches a + new genius and habit of mind into every district and condition of + existence, plants an eye wherever a new ray of light can fall, and + gathering up into some man every property in the universe, establishes + thousandfold occult mutual attractions among her offspring, that all this + wash and waste of power may be imparted and exchanged. + </p> + <p> + Great dangers undoubtedly accrue from this incarnation and distribution of + the godhead, and hence Nature has her maligners, as if she were Circe; and + Alphonso of Castille fancied he could have given useful advice. But she + does not go unprovided; she has hellebore at the bottom of the cup. + Solitude would ripen a plentiful crop of despots. The recluse thinks of + men as having his manner, or as not having his manner; and as having + degrees of it, more and less. But when he comes into a public assembly he + sees that men have very different manners from his own, and in their way + admirable. In his childhood and youth he has had many checks and censures, + and thinks modestly enough of his own endowment. When afterwards he comes + to unfold it in propitious circumstance, it seems the only talent; he is + delighted with his success, and accounts himself already the fellow of the + great. But he goes into a mob, into a banking house, into a mechanic's + shop, into a mill, into a laboratory, into a ship, into a camp, and in + each new place he is no better than an idiot; other talents take place, + and rule the hour. The rotation which whirls every leaf and pebble to the + meridian, reaches to every gift of man, and we all take turns at the top. + </p> + <p> + For Nature, who abhors mannerism, has set her heart on breaking up all + styles and tricks, and it is so much easier to do what one has done before + than to do a new thing, that there is a perpetual tendency to a set mode. + In every conversation, even the highest, there is a certain trick, which + may be soon learned by an acute person and then that particular style + continued indefinitely. Each man too is a tyrant in tendency, because he + would impose his idea on others; and their trick is their natural defence. + Jesus would absorb the race; but Tom Paine or the coarsest blasphemer + helps humanity by resisting this exuberance of power. Hence the immense + benefit of party in politics, as it reveals faults of character in a + chief, which the intellectual force of the persons, with ordinary + opportunity and not hurled into aphelion by hatred, could not have seen. + Since we are all so stupid, what benefit that there should be two + stupidities! It is like that brute advantage so essential to astronomy, of + having the diameter of the earth's orbit for a base of its triangles. + Democracy is morose, and runs to anarchy, but in the State and in the + schools it is indispensable to resist the consolidation of all men into a + few men. If John was perfect, why are you and I alive? As long as any man + exists, there is some need of him; let him fight for his own. A new poet + has appeared; a new character approached us; why should we refuse to eat + bread until we have found his regiment and section in our old army-files? + Why not a new man? Here is a new enterprise of Brook Farm, of Skeneateles, + of Northampton: why so impatient to baptize them Essenes, or + Port-Royalists, or Shakers, or by any known and effete name? Let it be a + new way of living. Why have only two or three ways of life, and not + thousands? Every man is wanted, and no man is wanted much. We came this + time for condiments, not for corn. We want the great genius only for joy; + for one star more in our constellation, for one tree more in our grove. + But he thinks we wish to belong to him, as he wishes to occupy us. He + greatly mistakes us. I think I have done well if I have acquired a new + word from a good author; and my business with him is to find my own, + though it were only to melt him down into an epithet or an image for daily + use:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Into paint will I grind thee, my bride!" +</pre> + <p> + To embroil the confusion, and make it impossible to arrive at any general + statement,—when we have insisted on the imperfection of individuals, + our affections and our experience urge that every individual is entitled + to honor, and a very generous treatment is sure to be repaid. A recluse + sees only two or three persons, and allows them all their room; they + spread themselves at large. The statesman looks at many, and compares the + few habitually with others, and these look less. Yet are they not entitled + to this generosity of reception? and is not munificence the means of + insight? For though gamesters say that the cards beat all the players, + though they were never so skilful, yet in the contest we are now + considering, the players are also the game, and share the power of the + cards. If you criticise a fine genius, the odds are that you are out of + your reckoning, and instead of the poet, are censuring your own caricature + of him. For there is somewhat spheral and infinite in every man, + especially in every genius, which, if you can come very near him, sports + with all your limitations. For rightly every man is a channel through + which heaven floweth, and whilst I fancied I was criticising him, I was + censuring or rather terminating my own soul. After taxing Goethe as a + courtier, artificial, unbelieving, worldly,—I took up this book of + Helena, and found him an Indian of the wilderness, a piece of pure nature + like an apple or an oak, large as morning or night, and virtuous as a + brier-rose. + </p> + <p> + But care is taken that the whole tune shall be played. If we were not kept + among surfaces, every thing would be large and universal; now the excluded + attributes burst in on us with the more brightness that they have been + excluded. "Your turn now, my turn next," is the rule of the game. The + universality being hindered in its primary form, comes in the secondary + form of all sides; the points come in succession to the meridian, and by + the speed of rotation a new whole is formed. Nature keeps herself whole + and her representation complete in the experience of each mind. She + suffers no seat to be vacant in her college. It is the secret of the world + that all things subsist and do not die but only retire a little from sight + and afterwards return again. Whatever does not concern us is concealed + from us. As soon as a person is no longer related to our present + well-being, he is concealed, or dies, as we say. Really, all things and + persons are related to us, but according to our nature they act on us not + at once but in succession, and we are made aware of their presence one at + a time. All persons, all things which we have known, are here present, and + many more than we see; the world is full. As the ancient said, the world + is a plenum or solid; and if we saw all things that really surround us we + should be imprisoned and unable to move. For though nothing is impassable + to the soul, but all things are pervious to it and like highways, yet this + is only whilst the soul does not see them. As soon as the soul sees any + object, it stops before that object. Therefore, the divine Providence + which keeps the universe open in every direction to the soul, conceals all + the furniture and all the persons that do not concern a particular soul, + from the senses of that individual. Through solidest eternal things the + man finds his road as if they did not subsist, and does not once suspect + their being. As soon as he needs a new object, suddenly he beholds it, and + no longer attempts to pass through it, but takes another way. When he has + exhausted for the time the nourishment to be drawn from any one person or + thing, that object is withdrawn from his observation, and though still in + his immediate neighborhood, he does not suspect its presence. Nothing is + dead: men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals and mournful + obituaries, and there they stand looking out of the window, sound and + well, in some new and strange disguise. Jesus is not dead; he is very well + alive: nor John, nor Paul, nor Mahomet, nor Aristotle; at times we believe + we have seen them all, and could easily tell the names under which they + go. + </p> + <p> + If we cannot make voluntary and conscious steps in the admirable science + of universals, let us see the parts wisely, and infer the genius of nature + from the best particulars with a becoming charity. What is best in each + kind is an index of what should be the average of that thing. Love shows + me the opulence of nature, by disclosing to me in my friend a hidden + wealth, and I infer an equal depth of good in every other direction. It is + commonly said by farmers that a good pear or apple costs no more time or + pains to rear than a poor one; so I would have no work of art, no speech, + or action, or thought, or friend, but the best. + </p> + <p> + The end and the means, the gamester and the game,—life is made up of + the intermixture and reaction of these two amicable powers, whose marriage + appears beforehand monstrous, as each denies and tends to abolish the + other. We must reconcile the contradictions as we can, but their discord + and their concord introduce wild absurdities into our thinking and speech. + No sentence will hold the whole truth, and the only way in which we can be + just, is by giving ourselves the lie; Speech is better than silence; + silence is better than speech;—All things are in contact; every atom + has a sphere of repulsion;—Things are, and are not, at the same + time;—and the like. All the universe over, there is but one thing, + this old Two-Face, creator-creature, mind-matter, right-wrong, of which + any proposition may be affirmed or denied. Very fitly therefore I assert + that every man is a partialist, that nature secures him as an instrument + by self-conceit, preventing the tendencies to religion and science; and + now further assert, that, each man's genius being nearly and + affectionately explored, he is justified in his individuality, as his + nature is found to be immense; and now I add that every man is a + universalist also, and, as our earth, whilst it spins on its own axis, + spins all the time around the sun through the celestial spaces, so the + least of its rational children, the most dedicated to his private affair, + works out, though as it were under a disguise, the universal problem. We + fancy men are individuals; so are pumpkins; but every pumpkin in the field + goes through every point of pumpkin history. The rabid democrat, as soon + as he is senator and rich man, has ripened beyond possibility of sincere + radicalism, and unless he can resist the sun, he must be conservative the + remainder of his days. Lord Eldon said in his old age that "if he were to + begin life again, he would be damned but he would begin as agitator." + </p> + <p> + We hide this universality if we can, but it appears at all points. We are + as ungrateful as children. There is nothing we cherish and strive to draw + to us but in some hour we turn and rend it. We keep a running fire of + sarcasm at ignorance and the life of the senses; then goes by, perchance, + a fair girl, a piece of life, gay and happy, and making the commonest + offices beautiful by the energy and heart with which she does them; and + seeing this we admire and love her and them, and say, 'Lo! a genuine + creature of the fair earth, not dissipated or too early ripened by books, + philosophy, religion, society, or care!' insinuating a treachery and + contempt for all we had so long loved and wrought in ourselves and others. + </p> + <p> + If we could have any security against moods! If the profoundest prophet + could be holden to his words, and the hearer who is ready to sell all and + join the crusade could have any certificate that tomorrow his prophet + shall not unsay his testimony! But the Truth sits veiled there on the + Bench, and never interposes an adamantine syllable; and the most sincere + and revolutionary doctrine, put as if the ark of God were carried forward + some furlongs, and planted there for the succor of the world, shall in a + few weeks be coldly set aside by the same speaker, as morbid; "I thought I + was right, but I was not,"—and the same immeasurable credulity + demanded for new audacities. If we were not of all opinions! if we did not + in any moment shift the platform on which we stand, and look and speak + from another! if there could be any regulation, any 'one-hour-rule,' that + a man should never leave his point of view without sound of trumpet. I am + always insincere, as always knowing there are other moods. + </p> + <p> + How sincere and confidential we can be, saying all that lies in the mind, + and yet go away feeling that all is yet unsaid, from the incapacity of the + parties to know each other, although they use the same words! My companion + assumes to know my mood and habit of thought, and we go on from + explanation to explanation until all is said which words can, and we leave + matters just as they were at first, because of that vicious assumption. Is + it that every man believes every other to be an incurable partialist, and + himself a universalist? I talked yesterday with a pair of philosophers; I + endeavored to show my good men that I love everything by turns and nothing + long; that I loved the centre, but doated on the superficies; that I loved + man, if men seemed to me mice and rats; that I revered saints, but woke up + glad that the old pagan world stood its ground and died hard; that I was + glad of men of every gift and nobility, but would not live in their arms. + Could they but once understand that I loved to know that they existed, and + heartily wished them God-speed, yet, out of my poverty of life and + thought, had no word or welcome for them when they came to see me, and + could well consent to their living in Oregon, for any claim I felt on + them,—it would be a great satisfaction. + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. + + In the suburb, in the town, + On the railway, in the square, + Came a beam of goodness down + Doubling daylight everywhere: + Peace now each for malice takes, + Beauty for his sinful weeks, + For the angel Hope aye makes + Him an angel whom she leads. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. + </h2> + <p> + A LECTURE READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY IN AMORY HALL, ON SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 1844. + </p> + <p> + WHOEVER has had opportunity of acquaintance with society in New England + during the last twenty-five years, with those middle and with those + leading sections that may constitute any just representation of the + character and aim of the community, will have been struck with the great + activity of thought and experimenting. His attention must be commanded by + the signs that the Church, or religious party, is falling from the Church + nominal, and is appearing in temperance and non-resistance societies; in + movements of abolitionists and of socialists; and in very significant + assemblies called Sabbath and Bible Conventions; composed of ultraists, of + seekers, of all the soul of the soldiery of dissent, and meeting to call + in question the authority of the Sabbath, of the priesthood, and of the + Church. In these movements nothing was more remarkable than the discontent + they begot in the movers. The spirit of protest and of detachment drove + the members of these Conventions to bear testimony against the Church, and + immediately afterward, to declare their discontent with these Conventions, + their independence of their colleagues, and their impatience of the + methods whereby they were working. They defied each other, like a congress + of kings, each of whom had a realm to rule, and a way of his own that made + concert unprofitable. What a fertility of projects for the salvation of + the world! One apostle thought all men should go to farming, and another + that no man should buy or sell, that the use of money was the cardinal + evil; another that the mischief was in our diet, that we eat and drink + damnation. These made unleavened bread, and were foes to the death to + fermentation. It was in vain urged by the housewife that God made yeast, + as well as dough, and loves fermentation just as dearly as he loves + vegetation; that fermentation develops the saccharine element in the + grain, and makes it more palatable and more digestible. No; they wish the + pure wheat, and will die but it shall not ferment. Stop, dear nature, + these incessant advances of thine; let us scotch these ever-rolling + wheels! Others attacked the system of agriculture, the use of animal + manures in farming, and the tyranny of man over brute nature; these abuses + polluted his food. The ox must be taken from the plough and the horse from + the cart, the hundred acres of the farm must be spaded, and the man must + walk, wherever boats and locomotives will not carry him. Even the insect + world was to be defended,—that had been too long neglected, and a + society for the protection of ground-worms, slugs, and mosquitos was to be + incorporated without delay. With these appeared the adepts of homoeopathy, + of hydropathy, of mesmerism, of phrenology, and their wonderful theories + of the Christian miracles! Others assailed particular vocations, as that + of the lawyer, that of the merchant, of the manufacturer, of the + clergyman, of the scholar. Others attacked the institution of marriage as + the fountain of social evils. Others devoted themselves to the worrying of + churches and meetings for public worship; and the fertile forms of + antinomianism among the elder puritans seemed to have their match in the + plenty of the new harvest of reform. + </p> + <p> + With this din of opinion and debate there was a keener scrutiny of + institutions and domestic life than any we had known; there was sincere + protesting against existing evils, and there were changes of employment + dictated by conscience. No doubt there was plentiful vaporing, and cases + of backsliding might occur. But in each of these movements emerged a good + result, a tendency to the adoption of simpler methods, and an assertion of + the sufficiency of the private man. Thus it was directly in the spirit and + genius of the age, what happened in one instance when a church censured + and threatened to excommunicate one of its members on account of the + somewhat hostile part to the church which his conscience led him to take + in the anti-slavery business; the threatened individual immediately + excommunicated the church in a public and formal process. This has been + several times repeated: it was excellent when it was done the first time, + but of course loses all value when it is copied. Every project in the + history of reform, no matter how violent and surprising, is good when it + is the dictate of a man's genius and constitution, but very dull and + suspicious when adopted from another. It is right and beautiful in any man + to say, 'I will take this coat, or this book, or this measure of corn of + yours,'—in whom we see the act to be original, and to flow from the + whole spirit and faith of him; for then that taking will have a giving as + free and divine; but we are very easily disposed to resist the same + generosity of speech when we miss originality and truth to character in + it. + </p> + <p> + There was in all the practical activities of New England for the last + quarter of a century, a gradual withdrawal of tender consciences from the + social organizations. There is observable throughout, the contest between + mechanical and spiritual methods, but with a steady tendency of the + thoughtful and virtuous to a deeper belief and reliance on spiritual + facts. + </p> + <p> + In politics for example it is easy to see the progress of dissent. The + country is full of rebellion; the country is full of kings. Hands off! let + there be no control and no interference in the administration of the + affairs of this kingdom of me. Hence the growth of the doctrine and of the + party of Free Trade, and the willingness to try that experiment, in the + face of what appear incontestable facts. I confess, the motto of the Globe + newspaper is so attractive to me that I can seldom find much appetite to + read what is below it in its columns: "The world is governed too much." So + the country is frequently affording solitary examples of resistance to the + government, solitary nullifiers, who throw themselves on their reserved + rights; nay, who have reserved all their rights; who reply to the assessor + and to the clerk of court that they do not know the State, and embarrass + the courts of law by non-juring and the commander-in-chief of the militia + by non-resistance. + </p> + <p> + The same disposition to scrutiny and dissent appeared in civil, festive, + neighborly, and domestic society. A restless, prying, conscientious + criticism broke out in unexpected quarters. Who gave me the money with + which I bought my coat? Why should professional labor and that of the + counting-house be paid so disproportionately to the labor of the porter + and woodsawyer? This whole business of Trade gives me to pause and think, + as it constitutes false relations between men; inasmuch as I am prone to + count myself relieved of any responsibility to behave well and nobly to + that person whom I pay with money; whereas if I had not that commodity, I + should be put on my good behavior in all companies, and man would be a + benefactor to man, as being himself his only certificate that he had a + right to those aids and services which each asked of the other. Am I not + too protected a person? is there not a wide disparity between the lot of + me and the lot of thee, my poor brother, my poor sister? Am I not + defrauded of my best culture in the loss of those gymnastics which manual + labor and the emergencies of poverty constitute? I find nothing healthful + or exalting in the smooth conventions of society; I do not like the close + air of saloons. I begin to suspect myself to be a prisoner, though treated + with all this courtesy and luxury. I pay a destructive tax in my + conformity. + </p> + <p> + The same insatiable criticism may be traced in the efforts for the reform + of Education. The popular education has been taxed with a want of truth + and nature. It was complained that an education to things was not given. + We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and + recitation-rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a + bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing. We cannot use our + hands, or our legs, or our eyes, or our arms. We do not know an edible + root in the woods, we cannot tell our course by the stars, nor the hour of + the day by the sun. It is well if we can swim and skate. We are afraid of + a horse, of a cow, of a dog, of a snake, of a spider. The Roman rule was + to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing. The old English + rule was, 'All summer in the field, and all winter in the study.' And it + seems as if a man should learn to plant, or to fish, or to hunt, that he + might secure his subsistence at all events, and not be painful to his + friends and fellow-men. The lessons of science should be experimental + also. The sight of the planet through a telescope is worth all the course + on astronomy; the shock of the electric spark in the elbow, outvalues all + the theories; the taste of the nitrous oxide, the firing of an artificial + volcano, are better than volumes of chemistry. + </p> + <p> + One of the traits of the new spirit is the inquisition it fixed on our + scholastic devotion to the dead languages. The ancient languages, with + great beauty of structure, contain wonderful remains of genius, which + draw, and always will draw, certain likeminded men,—Greek men, and + Roman men,—in all countries, to their study; but by a wonderful + drowsiness of usage they had exacted the study of all men. Once (say two + centuries ago), Latin and Greek had a strict relation to all the science + and culture there was in Europe, and the Mathematics had a momentary + importance at some era of activity in physical science. These things + became stereotyped as education, as the manner of men is. But the Good + Spirit never cared for the colleges, and though all men and boys were now + drilled in Latin, Greek, and Mathematics, it had quite left these shells + high and dry on the beach, and was now creating and feeding other matters + at other ends of the world. But in a hundred high schools and colleges + this warfare against common sense still goes on. Four, or six, or ten + years, the pupil is parsing Greek and Latin, and as soon as he leaves the + University, as it is ludicrously called, he shuts those books for the last + time. Some thousands of young men are graduated at our colleges in this + country every year, and the persons who, at forty years, still read Greek, + can all be counted on your hand. I never met with ten. Four or five + persons I have seen who read Plato. + </p> + <p> + But is not this absurd, that the whole liberal talent of this country + should be directed in its best years on studies which lead to nothing? + What was the consequence? Some intelligent persons said or thought, 'Is + that Greek and Latin some spell to conjure with, and not words of reason? + If the physician, the lawyer, the divine, never use it to come at their + ends, I need never learn it to come at mine. Conjuring is gone out of + fashion, and I will omit this conjugating, and go straight to affairs.' So + they jumped the Greek and Latin, and read law, medicine, or sermons, + without it. To the astonishment of all, the self-made men took even ground + at once with the oldest of the regular graduates, and in a few months the + most conservative circles of Boston and New York had quite forgotten who + of their gownsmen was college-bred, and who was not. + </p> + <p> + One tendency appears alike in the philosophical speculation and in the + rudest democratical movements, through all the petulance and all the + puerility, the wish, namely, to cast aside the superfluous and arrive at + short methods; urged, as I suppose, by an intuition that the human spirit + is equal to all emergencies, alone, and that man is more often injured + than helped by the means he uses. + </p> + <p> + I conceive this gradual casting off of material aids, and the indication + of growing trust in the private self-supplied powers of the individual, to + be the affirmative principle of the recent philosophy, and that it is + feeling its own profound truth and is reaching forward at this very hour + to the happiest conclusions. I readily concede that in this, as in every + period of intellectual activity, there has been a noise of denial and + protest; much was to be resisted, much was to be got rid of by those who + were reared in the old, before they could begin to affirm and to + construct. Many a reformer perishes in his removal of rubbish; and that + makes the offensiveness of the class. They are partial; they are not equal + to the work they pretend. They lose their way; in the assault on the + kingdom of darkness they expend all their energy on some accidental evil, + and lose their sanity and power of benefit. It is of little moment that + one or two or twenty errors of our social system be corrected, but of much + that the man be in his senses. + </p> + <p> + The criticism and attack on institutions, which we have witnessed, has + made one thing plain, that society gains nothing whilst a man, not himself + renovated, attempts to renovate things around him: he has become tediously + good in some particular but negligent or narrow in the rest; and hypocrisy + and vanity are often the disgusting result. + </p> + <p> + It is handsomer to remain in the establishment better than the + establishment, and conduct that in the best manner, than to make a sally + against evil by some single improvement, without supporting it by a total + regeneration. Do not be so vain of your one objection. Do you think there + is only one? Alas! my good friend, there is no part of society or of life + better than any other part. All our things are right and wrong together. + The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike. Do you complain of our + Marriage? Our marriage is no worse than our education, our diet, our + trade, our social customs. Do you complain of the laws of Property? It is + a pedantry to give such importance to them. Can we not play the game of + life with these counters, as well as with those? in the institution of + property, as well as out of it? Let into it the new and renewing principle + of love, and property will be universality. No one gives the impression of + superiority to the institution, which he must give who will reform it. It + makes no difference what you say, you must make me feel that you are aloof + from it; by your natural and supernatural advantages do easily see to the + end of it,—do see how man can do without it. Now all men are on one + side. No man deserves to be heard against property. Only Love, only an + Idea, is against property as we hold it. + </p> + <p> + I cannot afford to be irritable and captious, nor to waste all my time in + attacks. If I should go out of church whenever I hear a false sentiment I + could never stay there five minutes. But why come out? the street is as + false as the church, and when I get to my house, or to my manners, or to + my speech, I have not got away from the lie. When we see an eager + assailant of one of these wrongs, a special reformer, we feel like asking + him, What right have you, sir, to your one virtue? Is virtue piecemeal? + This is a jewel amidst the rags of a beggar. + </p> + <p> + In another way the right will be vindicated. In the midst of abuses, in + the heart of cities, in the aisles of false churches, alike in one place + and in another,—wherever, namely, a just and heroic soul finds + itself, there it will do what is next at hand, and by the new quality of + character it shall put forth it shall abrogate that old condition, law or + school in which it stands, before the law of its own mind. + </p> + <p> + If partiality was one fault of the movement party, the other defect was + their reliance on Association. Doubts such as those I have intimated drove + many good persons to agitate the questions of social reform. But the + revolt against the spirit of commerce, the spirit of aristocracy, and the + inveterate abuses of cities, did not appear possible to individuals; and + to do battle against numbers they armed themselves with numbers, and + against concert they relied on new concert. + </p> + <p> + Following or advancing beyond the ideas of St. Simon, of Fourier, and of + Owen, three communities have already been formed in Massachusetts on + kindred plans, and many more in the country at large. They aim to give + every member a share in the manual labor, to give an equal reward to labor + and to talent, and to unite a liberal culture with an education to labor. + The scheme offers, by the economies of associated labor and expense, to + make every member rich, on the same amount of property, that, in separate + families, would leave every member poor. These new associations are + composed of men and women of superior talents and sentiments; yet it may + easily be questioned whether such a community will draw, except in its + beginnings, the able and the good; whether those who have energy will not + prefer their chance of superiority and power in the world, to the humble + certainties of the association; whether such a retreat does not promise to + become an asylum to those who have tried and failed, rather than a field + to the strong; and whether the members will not necessarily be fractions + of men, because each finds that he cannot enter it, without some + compromise. Friendship and association are very fine things, and a grand + phalanx of the best of the human race, banded for some catholic object; + yes, excellent; but remember that no society can ever be so large as one + man. He, in his friendship, in his natural and momentary associations, + doubles or multiplies himself; but in the hour in which he mortgages + himself to two or ten or twenty, he dwarfs himself below the stature of + one. + </p> + <p> + But the men of less faith could not thus believe, and to such, concert + appears the sole specific of strength. I have failed, and you have failed, + but perhaps together we shall not fail. Our housekeeping is not + satisfactory to us, but perhaps a phalanx, a community, might be. Many of + us have differed in opinion, and we could find no man who could make the + truth plain, but possibly a college, or an ecclesiastical council might. I + have not been able either to persuade my brother or to prevail on myself, + to disuse the traffic or the potation of brandy, but perhaps a pledge of + total abstinence might effectually restrain us. The candidate my party + votes for is not to be trusted with a dollar, but he will be honest in the + Senate, for we can bring public opinion to bear on him. Thus concert was + the specific in all cases. But concert is neither better nor worse, + neither more nor less potent than individual force. All the men in the + world cannot make a statue walk and speak, cannot make a drop of blood, or + a blade of grass, any more than one man can. But let there be one man, let + there be truth in two men, in ten men, then is concert for the first time + possible; because the force which moves the world is a new quality, and + can never be furnished by adding whatever quantities of a different kind. + What is the use of the concert of the false and the disunited? There can + be no concert in two, where there is no concert in one. When the + individual is not individual, but is dual; when his thoughts look one way + and his actions another; when his faith is traversed by his habits; when + his will, enlightened by reason, is warped by his sense; when with one + hand he rows and with the other backs water, what concert can be? + </p> + <p> + I do not wonder at the interest these projects inspire. The world is + awaking to the idea of union, and these experiments show what it is + thinking of. It is and will be magic. Men will live and communicate, and + plough, and reap, and govern, as by added ethereal power, when once they + are united; as in a celebrated experiment, by expiration and respiration + exactly together, four persons lift a heavy man from the ground by the + little finger only, and without sense of weight. But this union must be + inward, and not one of covenants, and is to be reached by a reverse of the + methods they use. The union is only perfect when all the uniters are + isolated. It is the union of friends who live in different streets or + towns. Each man, if he attempts to join himself to others, is on all sides + cramped and diminished of his proportion; and the stricter the union the + smaller and the more pitiful he is. But leave him alone, to recognize in + every hour and place the secret soul; he will go up and down doing the + works of a true member, and, to the astonishment of all, the work will be + done with concert, though no man spoke. Government will be adamantine + without any governor. The union must be ideal in actual individualism. + </p> + <p> + I pass to the indication in some particulars of that faith in man, which + the heart is preaching to us in these days, and which engages the more + regard, from the consideration that the speculations of one generation are + the history of the next following. + </p> + <p> + In alluding just now to our system of education, I spoke of the deadness + of its details. But it is open to graver criticism than the palsy of its + members: it is a system of despair. The disease with which the human mind + now labors is want of faith. Men do not believe in a power of education. + We do not think we can speak to divine sentiments in man, and we do not + try. We renounce all high aims. We believe that the defects of so many + perverse and so many frivolous people who make up society, are organic, + and society is a hospital of incurables. A man of good sense but of little + faith, whose compassion seemed to lead him to church as often as he went + there, said to me that "he liked to have concerts, and fairs, and + churches, and other public amusements go on." I am afraid the remark is + too honest, and comes from the same origin as the maxim of the tyrant, "If + you would rule the world quietly, you must keep it amused." I notice too + that the ground on which eminent public servants urge the claims of + popular education is fear; 'This country is filling up with thousands and + millions of voters, and you must educate them to keep them from our + throats.' We do not believe that any education, any system of philosophy, + any influence of genius, will ever give depth of insight to a superficial + mind. Having settled ourselves into this infidelity, our skill is expended + to procure alleviations, diversion, opiates. We adorn the victim with + manual skill, his tongue with languages, his body with inoffensive and + comely manners. So have we cunningly hid the tragedy of limitation and + inner death we cannot avert. Is it strange that society should be devoured + by a secret melancholy which breaks through all its smiles and all its + gayety and games? + </p> + <p> + But even one step farther our infidelity has gone. It appears that some + doubt is felt by good and wise men whether really the happiness and + probity of men is increased by the culture of the mind in those + disciplines to which we give the name of education. Unhappily too the + doubt comes from scholars, from persons who have tried these methods. In + their experience the scholar was not raised by the sacred thoughts amongst + which he dwelt, but used them to selfish ends. He was a profane person, + and became a showman, turning his gifts to a marketable use, and not to + his own sustenance and growth. It was found that the intellect could be + independently developed, that is, in separation from the man, as any + single organ can be invigorated, and the result was monstrous. A canine + appetite for knowledge was generated, which must still be fed but was + never satisfied, and this knowledge, not being directed on action, never + took the character of substantial, humane truth, blessing those whom it + entered. It gave the scholar certain powers of expression, the power of + speech, the power of poetry, of literary art, but it did not bring him to + peace or to beneficence. + </p> + <p> + When the literary class betray a destitution of faith, it is not strange + that society should be disheartened and sensualized by unbelief. What + remedy? Life must be lived on a higher plane. We must go up to a higher + platform, to which we are always invited to ascend; there, the whole + aspect of things changes. I resist the skepticism of our education and of + our educated men. I do not believe that the differences of opinion and + character in men are organic. I do not recognize, beside the class of the + good and the wise, a permanent class of skeptics, or a class of + conservatives, or of malignants, or of materialists. I do not believe in + two classes. You remember the story of the poor woman who importuned King + Philip of Macedon to grant her justice, which Philip refused: the woman + exclaimed, "I appeal:" the king, astonished, asked to whom she appealed: + the woman replied, "From Philip drunk to Philip sober." The text will suit + me very well. I believe not in two classes of men, but in man in two + moods, in Philip drunk and Philip sober. I think, according to the + good-hearted word of Plato, "Unwillingly the soul is deprived of truth." + Iron conservative, miser, or thief, no man is but by a supposed necessity + which he tolerates by shortness or torpidity of sight. The soul lets no + man go without some visitations and holydays of a diviner presence. It + would be easy to show, by a narrow scanning of any man's biography, that + we are not so wedded to our paltry performances of every kind but that + every man has at intervals the grace to scorn his performances, in + comparing them with his belief of what he should do;—that he puts + himself on the side of his enemies, listening gladly to what they say of + him, and accusing himself of the same things. + </p> + <p> + What is it men love in Genius, but its infinite hope, which degrades all + it has done? Genius counts all its miracles poor and short. Its own idea + it never executed. The Iliad, the Hamlet, the Doric column, the Roman + arch, the Gothic minster, the German anthem, when they are ended, the + master casts behind him. How sinks the song in the waves of melody which + the universe pours over his soul! Before that gracious Infinite out of + which he drew these few strokes, how mean they look, though the praises of + the world attend them. From the triumphs of his art he turns with desire + to this greater defeat. Let those admire who will. With silent joy he sees + himself to be capable of a beauty that eclipses all which his hands have + done; all which human hands have ever done. + </p> + <p> + Well, we are all the children of genius, the children of virtue,—and + feel their inspirations in our happier hours. Is not every man sometimes a + radical in politics? Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, + or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner, or + before taking their rest; when they are sick, or aged: in the morning, or + when their intellect or their conscience has been aroused; when they hear + music, or when they read poetry, they are radicals. In the circle of the + rankest tories that could be collected in England, Old or New, let a + powerful and stimulating intellect, a man of great heart and mind, act on + them, and very quickly these frozen conservators will yield to the + friendly influence, these hopeless will begin to hope, these haters will + begin to love, these immovable statues will begin to spin and revolve. I + cannot help recalling the fine anecdote which Warton relates of Bishop + Berkeley, when he was preparing to leave England with his plan of planting + the gospel among the American savages. "Lord Bathurst told me that the + members of the Scriblerus club being met at his house at dinner, they + agreed to rally Berkeley, who was also his guest, on his scheme at + Bermudas. Berkeley, having listened to the many lively things they had to + say, begged to be heard in his turn, and displayed his plan with such an + astonishing and animating force of eloquence and enthusiasm, that they + were struck dumb, and, after some pause, rose up all together with + earnestness, exclaiming, 'Let us set out with him immediately.'" Men in + all ways are better than they seem. They like flattery for the moment, but + they know the truth for their own. It is a foolish cowardice which keeps + us from trusting them and speaking to them rude truth. They resent your + honesty for an instant, they will thank you for it always. What is it we + heartily wish of each other? Is it to be pleased and flattered? No, but to + be convicted and exposed, to be shamed out of our nonsense of all kinds, + and made men of, instead of ghosts and phantoms. We are weary of gliding + ghostlike through the world, which is itself so slight and unreal. We + crave a sense of reality, though it come in strokes of pain. I explain so,—by + this manlike love of truth,—those excesses and errors into which + souls of great vigor, but not equal insight, often fall. They feel the + poverty at the bottom of all the seeming affluence of the world. They know + the speed with which they come straight through the thin masquerade, and + conceive a disgust at the indigence of nature: Rousseau, Mirabeau, Charles + Fox, Napoleon, Byron,—and I could easily add names nearer home, of + raging riders, who drive their steeds so hard, in the violence of living + to forget its illusion: they would know the worst, and tread the floors of + hell. The heroes of ancient and modern fame, Cimon, Themistocles, + Alcibiades, Alexander, Caesar, have treated life and fortune as a game to + be well and skilfully played, but the stake not to be so valued but that + any time it could be held as a trifle light as air, and thrown up. Caesar, + just before the battle of Pharsalia, discourses with the Egyptian priest + concerning the fountains of the Nile, and offers to quit the army, the + empire, and Cleopatra, if he will show him those mysterious sources. + </p> + <p> + The same magnanimity shows itself in our social relations, in the + preference, namely, which each man gives to the society of superiors over + that of his equals. All that a man has will he give for right relations + with his mates. All that he has will he give for an erect demeanor in + every company and on each occasion. He aims at such things as his + neighbors prize, and gives his days and nights, his talents and his heart, + to strike a good stroke, to acquit himself in all men's sight as a man. + The consideration of an eminent citizen, of a noted merchant, of a man of + mark in his profession; a naval and military honor, a general's + commission, a marshal's baton, a ducal coronet, the laurel of poets, and, + anyhow procured, the acknowledgment of eminent merit,—have this + lustre for each candidate that they enable him to walk erect and unashamed + in the presence of some persons before whom he felt himself inferior. + Having raised himself to this rank, having established his equality with + class after class of those with whom he would live well, he still finds + certain others before whom he cannot possess himself, because they have + somewhat fairer, somewhat grander, somewhat purer, which extorts homage of + him. Is his ambition pure? then will his laurels and his possessions seem + worthless: instead of avoiding these men who make his fine gold dim, he + will cast all behind him and seek their society only, woo and embrace this + his humiliation and mortification, until he shall know why his eye sinks, + his voice is husky, and his brilliant talents are paralyzed in this + presence. He is sure that the soul which gives the lie to all things will + tell none. His constitution will not mislead him. If it cannot carry + itself as it ought, high and unmatchable in the presence of any man; if + the secret oracles whose whisper makes the sweetness and dignity of his + life do here withdraw and accompany him no longer,—it is time to + undervalue what he has valued, to dispossess himself of what he has + acquired, and with Caesar to take in his hand the army, the empire, and + Cleopatra, and say, "All these will I relinquish, if you will show me the + fountains of the Nile." Dear to us are those who love us; the swift + moments we spend with them are a compensation for a great deal of misery; + they enlarge our life;—but dearer are those who reject us as + unworthy, for they add another life: they build a heaven before us whereof + we had not dreamed, and thereby supply to us new powers out of the + recesses of the spirit, and urge us to new and unattempted performances. + </p> + <p> + As every man at heart wishes the best and not inferior society, wishes to + be convicted of his error and to come to himself,—so he wishes that + the same healing should not stop in his thought, but should penetrate his + will or active power. The selfish man suffers more from his selfishness + than he from whom that selfishness withholds some important benefit. What + he most wishes is to be lifted to some higher platform, that he may see + beyond his present fear the transalpine good, so that his fear, his + coldness, his custom may be broken up like fragments of ice, melted and + carried away in the great stream of good will. Do you ask my aid? I also + wish to be a benefactor. I wish more to be a benefactor and servant than + you wish to be served by me; and surely the greatest good fortune that + could befall me is precisely to be so moved by you that I should say, + 'Take me and all mine, and use me and mine freely to your ends'! for I + could not say it otherwise than because a great enlargement had come to my + heart and mind, which made me superior to my fortunes. Here we are + paralyzed with fear; we hold on to our little properties, house and land, + office and money, for the bread which they have in our experience yielded + us, although we confess that our being does not flow through them. We + desire to be made great; we desire to be touched with that fire which + shall command this ice to stream, and make our existence a benefit. If + therefore we start objections to your project, O friend of the slave, or + friend of the poor, or of the race, understand well that it is because we + wish to drive you to drive us into your measures. We wish to hear + ourselves confuted. We are haunted with a belief that you have a secret + which it would highliest advantage us to learn, and we would force you to + impart it to us, though it should bring us to prison, or to worse + extremity. + </p> + <p> + Nothing shall warp me from the belief that every man is a lover of truth. + There is no pure lie, no pure malignity in nature. The entertainment of + the proposition of depravity is the last profligacy and profanation. There + is no skepticism, no atheism but that. Could it be received into common + belief, suicide would unpeople the planet. It has had a name to live in + some dogmatic theology, but each man's innocence and his real liking of + his neighbor have kept it a dead letter. I remember standing at the polls + one day when the anger of the political contest gave a certain grimness to + the faces of the independent electors, and a good man at my side, looking + on the people, remarked, "I am satisfied that the largest part of these + men, on either side, mean to vote right." I suppose considerate observers, + looking at the masses of men in their blameless and in their equivocal + actions, will assent, that in spite of selfishness and frivolity, the + general purpose in the great number of persons is fidelity. The reason why + any one refuses his assent to your opinion, or his aid to your benevolent + design, is in you: he refuses to accept you as a bringer of truth, + because, though you think you have it, he feels that you have it not. You + have not given him the authentic sign. + </p> + <p> + If it were worth while to run into details this general doctrine of the + latent but ever soliciting Spirit, it would be easy to adduce illustration + in particulars of a man's equality to the Church, of his equality to the + State, and of his equality to every other man. It is yet in all men's + memory that, a few years ago, the liberal churches complained that the + Calvinistic church denied to them the name of Christian. I think the + complaint was confession: a religious church would not complain. A + religious man like Behmen, Fox, or Swedenborg is not irritated by wanting + the sanction of the Church, but the Church feels the accusation of his + presence and belief. + </p> + <p> + It only needs that a just man should walk in our streets to make it appear + how pitiful and inartificial a contrivance is our legislation. The man + whose part is taken and who does not wait for society in anything, has a + power which society cannot choose but feel. The familiar experiment called + the hydrostatic paradox, in which a capillary column of water balances the + ocean, is a symbol of the relation of one man to the whole family of men. + The wise Dandamis, on hearing the lives of Socrates, Pythagoras and + Diogenes read, "judged them to be great men every way, excepting, that + they were too much subjected to the reverence of the laws, which to second + and authorize, true virtue must abate very much of its original vigor." + </p> + <p> + And as a man is equal to the Church and equal to the State, so he is equal + to every other man. The disparities of power in men are superficial; and + all frank and searching conversation, in which a man lays himself open to + his brother, apprises each of their radical unity. When two persons sit + and converse in a thoroughly good understanding, the remark is sure to be + made, See how we have disputed about words! Let a clear, apprehensive + mind, such as every man knows among his friends, converse with the most + commanding poetic genius, I think it would appear that there was no + inequality such as men fancy, between them; that a perfect understanding, + a like receiving, a like perceiving, abolished differences; and the poet + would confess that his creative imagination gave him no deep advantage, + but only the superficial one that he could express himself and the other + could not; that his advantage was a knack, which might impose on indolent + men but could not impose on lovers of truth; for they know the tax of + talent, or what a price of greatness the power of expression too often + pays. I believe it is the conviction of the purest men, that the net + amount of man and man does not much vary. Each is incomparably superior to + his companion in some faculty. His want of skill in other directions has + added to his fitness for his own work. Each seems to have some + compensation yielded to him by his infirmity, and every hindrance operates + as a concentration of his force. + </p> + <p> + These and the like experiences intimate that man stands in strict + connection with a higher fact never yet manifested. There is power over + and behind us, and we are the channels of its communications. We seek to + say thus and so, and over our head some spirit sits which contradicts what + we say. We would persuade our fellow to this or that; another self within + our eyes dissuades him. That which we keep back, this reveals. In vain we + compose our faces and our words; it holds uncontrollable communication + with the enemy, and he answers civilly to us, but believes the spirit. We + exclaim, 'There's a traitor in the house!' but at last it appears that he + is the true man, and I am the traitor. This open channel to the highest + life is the first and last reality, so subtle, so quiet, yet so tenacious, + that although I have never expressed the truth, and although I have never + heard the expression of it from any other, I know that the whole truth is + here for me. What if I cannot answer your questions? I am not pained that + I cannot frame a reply to the question, What is the operation we call + Providence? There lies the unspoken thing, present, omnipresent. Every + time we converse we seek to translate it into speech, but whether we hit + or whether we miss, we have the fact. Every discourse is an approximate + answer: but it is of small consequence that we do not get it into verbs + and nouns, whilst it abides for contemplation forever. + </p> + <p> + If the auguries of the prophesying heart shall make themselves good in + time, the man who shall be born, whose advent men and events prepare and + foreshow, is one who shall enjoy his connection with a higher life, with + the man within man; shall destroy distrust by his trust, shall use his + native but forgotten methods, shall not take counsel of flesh and blood, + but shall rely on the Law alive and beautiful which works over our heads + and under our feet. Pitiless, it avails itself of our success when we obey + it, and of our ruin when we contravene it. Men are all secret believers in + it, else the word justice would have no meaning: they believe that the + best is the true; that right is done at last; or chaos would come. It + rewards actions after their nature, and not after the design of the agent. + 'Work,' it saith to man, 'in every hour, paid or unpaid, see only that + thou work, and thou canst not escape the reward: whether thy work be fine + or coarse, planting corn or writing epics, so only it be honest work, done + to thine own approbation, it shall earn a reward to the senses as well as + to the thought: no matter how often defeated, you are born to victory. The + reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.' + </p> + <p> + As soon as a man is wonted to look beyond surfaces, and to see how this + high will prevails without an exception or an interval, he settles himself + into serenity. He can already rely on the laws of gravity, that every + stone will fall where it is due; the good globe is faithful, and carries + us securely through the celestial spaces, anxious or resigned, we need not + interfere to help it on: and he will learn one day the mild lesson they + teach, that our own orbit is all our task, and we need not assist the + administration of the universe. Do not be so impatient to set the town + right concerning the unfounded pretensions and the false reputation of + certain men of standing. They are laboring harder to set the town right + concerning themselves, and will certainly succeed. Suppress for a few days + your criticism on the insufficiency of this or that teacher or + experimenter, and he will have demonstrated his insufficiency to all men's + eyes. In like manner, let a man fall into the divine circuits, and he is + enlarged. Obedience to his genius is the only liberating influence. We + wish to escape from subjection and a sense of inferiority, and we make + self-denying ordinances, we drink water, we eat grass, we refuse the laws, + we go to jail: it is all in vain; only by obedience to his genius, only by + the freest activity in the way constitutional to him, does an angel seem + to arise before a man and lead him by the hand out of all the wards of the + prison. + </p> + <p> + That which befits us, embosomed in beauty and wonder as we are, is + cheerfulness and courage, and the endeavor to realize our aspirations. The + life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conducted will + yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction. All around us what + powers are wrapped up under the coarse mattings of custom, and all wonder + prevented. It is so wonderful to our neurologists that a man can see + without his eyes, that it does not occur to them that it is just as + wonderful that he should see with them; and that is ever the difference + between the wise and the unwise: the latter wonders at what is unusual, + the wise man wonders at the usual. Shall not the heart which has received + so much, trust the Power by which it lives? May it not quit other + leadings, and listen to the Soul that has guided it so gently and taught + it so much, secure that the future will be worthy of the past? + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Essays, Second Series, by Ralph Waldo Emerson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS, SECOND SERIES *** + +***** This file should be named 2945-h.htm or 2945-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/4/2945/ + +Produced by Tony Adam, and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Essays, Second Series + +Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson + +Posting Date: December 1, 2008 [EBook #2945] +Release Date: December, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS, SECOND SERIES *** + + + + +Produced by Tony Adam + + + + + +ESSAYS, SECOND SERIES + +By Ralph Waldo Emerson + + + + THE POET. + + A moody child and wildly wise + Pursued the game with joyful eyes, + Which chose, like meteors, their way, + And rived the dark with private ray: + They overleapt the horizon's edge, + Searched with Apollo's privilege; + Through man, and woman, and sea, and star + Saw the dance of nature forward far; + Through worlds, and races, and terms, and times + Saw musical order, and pairing rhymes. + + Olympian bards who sung + Divine ideas below, + Which always find us young, + And always keep us so. + + + + +I. THE POET. + +Those who are esteemed umpires of taste are often persons who have +acquired some knowledge of admired pictures or sculptures, and have an +inclination for whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they are +beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are like fair pictures, you +learn that they are selfish and sensual. Their cultivation is local, as +if you should rub a log of dry wood in one spot to produce fire, all the +rest remaining cold. Their knowledge of the fine arts is some study of +rules and particulars, or some limited judgment of color or form, which +is exercised for amusement or for show. It is a proof of the shallowness +of the doctrine of beauty as it lies in the minds of our amateurs, that +men seem to have lost the perception of the instant dependence of form +upon soul. There is no doctrine of forms in our philosophy. We were +put into our bodies, as fire is put into a pan to be carried about; but +there is no accurate adjustment between the spirit and the organ, much +less is the latter the germination of the former. So in regard to other +forms, the intellectual men do not believe in any essential dependence +of the material world on thought and volition. Theologians think it a +pretty air-castle to talk of the Spiritual meaning of a ship or a cloud, +of a city or a contract, but they prefer to come again to the solid +ground of historical evidence; and even the poets are contented with a +civil and conformed manner of living, and to write poems from the fancy, +at a safe distance from their own experience. But the highest minds of +the world have never ceased to explore the double meaning, or shall +I say the quadruple or the centuple or much more manifold meaning, of +every sensuous fact; Orpheus, Empedocles, Heraclitus, Plato, Plutarch, +Dante, Swedenborg, and the masters of sculpture, picture, and poetry. +For we are not pans and barrows, nor even porters of the fire and +torch-bearers, but children of the fire, made of it, and only the same +divinity transmuted and at two or three removes, when we know least +about it. And this hidden truth, that the fountains whence all this +river of Time and its creatures floweth are intrinsically ideal and +beautiful, draws us to the consideration of the nature and functions of +the Poet, or the man of Beauty; to the means and materials he uses, and +to the general aspect of the art in the present time. + +The breadth of the problem is great, for the poet is representative. He +stands among partial men for the complete man, and apprises us not +of his wealth, but of the common wealth. The young man reveres men of +genius, because, to speak truly, they are more himself than he is. They +receive of the soul as he also receives, but they more. Nature enhances +her beauty, to the eye of loving men, from their belief that the poet +is beholding her shows at the same time. He is isolated among his +contemporaries by truth and by his art, but with this consolation in his +pursuits, that they will draw all men sooner or later. For all men live +by truth and stand in need of expression. In love, in art, in avarice, +in politics, in labor, in games, we study to utter our painful secret. +The man is only half himself, the other half is his expression. + +Notwithstanding this necessity to be published, adequate expression is +rare. I know not how it is that we need an interpreter, but the great +majority of men seem to be minors, who have not yet come into possession +of their own, or mutes, who cannot report the conversation they have +had with nature. There is no man who does not anticipate a supersensual +utility in the sun and stars, earth and water. These stand and wait to +render him a peculiar service. But there is some obstruction or some +excess of phlegm in our constitution, which does not suffer them to +yield the due effect. Too feeble fall the impressions of nature on us to +make us artists. Every touch should thrill. Every man should be so much +an artist that he could report in conversation what had befallen him. +Yet, in our experience, the rays or appulses have sufficient force to +arrive at the senses, but not enough to reach the quick and compel the +reproduction of themselves in speech. The poet is the person in whom +these powers are in balance, the man without impediment, who sees +and handles that which others dream of, traverses the whole scale of +experience, and is representative of man, in virtue of being the largest +power to receive and to impart. + +For the Universe has three children, born at one time, which reappear +under different names in every system of thought, whether they be called +cause, operation, and effect; or, more poetically, Jove, Pluto, Neptune; +or, theologically, the Father, the Spirit, and the Son; but which +we will call here the Knower, the Doer, and the Sayer. These stand +respectively for the love of truth, for the love of good, and for +the love of beauty. These three are equal. Each is that which he is +essentially, so that he cannot be surmounted or analyzed, and each of +these three has the power of the others latent in him, and his own, +patent. + +The poet is the sayer, the namer, and represents beauty. He is a +sovereign, and stands on the centre. For the world is not painted or +adorned, but is from the beginning beautiful; and God has not made some +beautiful things, but Beauty is the creator of the universe. Therefore +the poet is not any permissive potentate, but is emperor in his own +right. Criticism is infested with a cant of materialism, which assumes +that manual skill and activity is the first merit of all men, and +disparages such as say and do not, overlooking the fact that some men, +namely poets, are natural sayers, sent into the world to the end of +expression, and confounds them with those whose province is action but +who quit it to imitate the sayers. But Homer's words are as costly and +admirable to Homer as Agamemnon's victories are to Agamemnon. The poet +does not wait for the hero or the sage, but, as they act and think +primarily, so he writes primarily what will and must be spoken, +reckoning the others, though primaries also, yet, in respect to him, +secondaries and servants; as sitters or models in the studio of a +painter, or as assistants who bring building materials to an architect. + +For poetry was all written before time was, and whenever we are so +finely organized that we can penetrate into that region where the air +is music, we hear those primal warblings and attempt to write them down, +but we lose ever and anon a word or a verse and substitute something of +our own, and thus miswrite the poem. The men of more delicate ear write +down these cadences more faithfully, and these transcripts, though +imperfect, become the songs of the nations. For nature is as truly +beautiful as it is good, or as it is reasonable, and must as much appear +as it must be done, or be known. Words and deeds are quite indifferent +modes of the divine energy. Words are also actions, and actions are a +kind of words. + +The sign and credentials of the poet are that he announces that which no +man foretold. He is the true and only doctor; he knows and tells; he is +the only teller of news, for he was present and privy to the appearance +which he describes. He is a beholder of ideas and an utterer of the +necessary and causal. For we do not speak now of men of poetical +talents, or of industry and skill in metre, but of the true poet. I +took part in a conversation the other day concerning a recent writer of +lyrics, a man of subtle mind, whose head appeared to be a music-box of +delicate tunes and rhythms, and whose skill and command of language, we +could not sufficiently praise. But when the question arose whether he +was not only a lyrist but a poet, we were obliged to confess that he is +plainly a contemporary, not an eternal man. He does not stand out of our +low limitations, like a Chimborazo under the line, running up from the +torrid Base through all the climates of the globe, with belts of the +herbage of every latitude on its high and mottled sides; but this genius +is the landscape-garden of a modern house, adorned with fountains and +statues, with well-bred men and women standing and sitting in the walks +and terraces. We hear, through all the varied music, the ground-tone of +conventional life. Our poets are men of talents who sing, and not the +children of music. The argument is secondary, the finish of the verses +is primary. + +For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem,--a +thought so passionate and alive that like the spirit of a plant or an +animal it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new +thing. The thought and the form are equal in the order of time, but in +the order of genesis the thought is prior to the form. The poet has a +new thought; he has a whole new experience to unfold; he will tell us +how it was with him, and all men will be the richer in his fortune. For +the experience of each new age requires a new confession, and the world +seems always waiting for its poet. I remember when I was young how much +I was moved one morning by tidings that genius had appeared in a youth +who sat near me at table. He had left his work and gone rambling none +knew whither, and had written hundreds of lines, but could not tell +whether that which was in him was therein told; he could tell nothing +but that all was changed,--man, beast, heaven, earth and sea. How gladly +we listened! how credulous! Society seemed to be compromised. We sat +in the aurora of a sunrise which was to put out all the stars. Boston +seemed to be at twice the distance it had the night before, or was much +farther than that. Rome,--what was Rome? Plutarch and Shakspeare were +in the yellow leaf, and Homer no more should be heard of. It is much to +know that poetry has been written this very day, under this very roof, +by your side. What! that wonderful spirit has not expired! These stony +moments are still sparkling and animated! I had fancied that the oracles +were all silent, and nature had spent her fires; and behold! all night, +from every pore, these fine auroras have been streaming. Every one has +some interest in the advent of the poet, and no one knows how much it +may concern him. We know that the secret of the world is profound, but +who or what shall be our interpreter, we know not. A mountain ramble, +a new style of face, a new person, may put the key into our hands. +Of course the value of genius to us is in the veracity of its report. +Talent may frolic and juggle; genius realizes and adds. Mankind in good +earnest have availed so far in understanding themselves and their work, +that the foremost watchman on the peak announces his news. It is the +truest word ever spoken, and the phrase will be the fittest, most +musical, and the unerring voice of the world for that time. + +All that we call sacred history attests that the birth of a poet is +the principal event in chronology. Man, never so often deceived, still +watches for the arrival of a brother who can hold him steady to a truth +until he has made it his own. With what joy I begin to read a poem which +I confide in as an inspiration! And now my chains are to be broken; I +shall mount above these clouds and opaque airs in which I live,--opaque, +though they seem transparent,--and from the heaven of truth I shall see +and comprehend my relations. That will reconcile me to life and renovate +nature, to see trifles animated by a tendency, and to know what I am +doing. Life will no more be a noise; now I shall see men and women, and +know the signs by which they may be discerned from fools and satans. +This day shall be better than my birthday: then I became an animal; now +I am invited into the science of the real. Such is the hope, but the +fruition is postponed. Oftener it falls that this winged man, who will +carry me into the heaven, whirls me into mists, then leaps and frisks +about with me as it were from cloud to cloud, still affirming that he +is bound heavenward; and I, being myself a novice, am slow in perceiving +that he does not know the way into the heavens, and is merely bent that +I should admire his skill to rise like a fowl or a flying fish, a little +way from the ground or the water; but the all-piercing, all-feeding, and +ocular air of heaven that man shall never inhabit. I tumble down again +soon into my old nooks, and lead the life of exaggerations as before, +and have lost my faith in the possibility of any guide who can lead me +thither where I would be. + +But, leaving these victims of vanity, let us, with new hope, observe +how nature, by worthier impulses, has ensured the poet's fidelity to his +office of announcement and affirming, namely by the beauty of things, +which becomes a new and higher beauty when expressed. Nature offers +all her creatures to him as a picture-language. Being used as a type, +a second wonderful value appears in the object, far better than its old +value; as the carpenter's stretched cord, if you hold your ear close +enough, is musical in the breeze. "Things more excellent than every +image," says Jamblichus, "are expressed through images." Things admit of +being used as symbols because nature is a symbol, in the whole, and in +every part. Every line we can draw in the sand has expression; and +there is no body without its spirit or genius. All form is an effect of +character; all condition, of the quality of the life; all harmony, +of health; and for this reason a perception of beauty should be +sympathetic, or proper only to the good. The beautiful rests on the +foundations of the necessary. The soul makes the body, as the wise +Spenser teaches:-- + + "So every spirit, as it is most pure, + And hath in it the more of heavenly light, + So it the fairer body doth procure + To habit in, and it more fairly dight, + With cheerful grace and amiable sight. + For, of the soul, the body form doth take, + For soul is form, and doth the body make." + +Here we find ourselves suddenly not in a critical speculation but in a +holy place, and should go very warily and reverently. We stand before +the secret of the world, there where Being passes into Appearance and +Unity into Variety. + +The Universe is the externization of the soul. Wherever the life is, +that bursts into appearance around it. Our science is sensual, and +therefore superficial. The earth and the heavenly bodies, physics, and +chemistry, we sensually treat, as if they were self-existent; but +these are the retinue of that Being we have. "The mighty heaven," +said Proclus, "exhibits, in its transfigurations, clear images of the +splendor of intellectual perceptions; being moved in conjunction with +the unapparent periods of intellectual natures." Therefore science +always goes abreast with the just elevation of the man, keeping step +with religion and metaphysics; or the state of science is an index of +our self-knowledge. Since everything in nature answers to a moral power, +if any phenomenon remains brute and dark it is that the corresponding +faculty in the observer is not yet active. + +No wonder then, if these waters be so deep, that we hover over them with +a religious regard. The beauty of the fable proves the importance of the +sense; to the poet, and to all others; or, if you please, every man is +so far a poet as to be susceptible of these enchantments of nature; for +all men have the thoughts whereof the universe is the celebration. I +find that the fascination resides in the symbol. Who loves nature? Who +does not? Is it only poets, and men of leisure and cultivation, who live +with her? No; but also hunters, farmers, grooms, and butchers, though +they express their affection in their choice of life and not in their +choice of words. The writer wonders what the coachman or the hunter +values in riding, in horses and dogs. It is not superficial qualities. +When you talk with him he holds these at as slight a rate as you. His +worship is sympathetic; he has no definitions, but he is commanded +in nature, by the living power which he feels to be there present. No +imitation or playing of these things would content him; he loves the +earnest of the north wind, of rain, of stone, and wood, and iron. A +beauty not explicable is dearer than a beauty which we can see to the +end of. It is nature the symbol, nature certifying the supernatural, +body overflowed by life which he worships with coarse but sincere rites. + +The inwardness and mystery of this attachment drives men of every class +to the use of emblems. The schools of poets and philosophers are not +more intoxicated with their symbols than the populace with theirs. In +our political parties, compute the power of badges and emblems. See +the great ball which they roll from Baltimore to Bunker hill! In the +political processions, Lowell goes in a loom, and Lynn in a shoe, +and Salem in a ship. Witness the cider-barrel, the log-cabin, the +hickory-stick, the palmetto, and all the cognizances of party. See the +power of national emblems. Some stars, lilies, leopards, a crescent, a +lion, an eagle, or other figure which came into credit God knows how, on +an old rag of bunting, blowing in the wind on a fort at the ends of +the earth, shall make the blood tingle under the rudest or the most +conventional exterior. The people fancy they hate poetry, and they are +all poets and mystics! + +Beyond this universality of the symbolic language, we are apprised of +the divineness of this superior use of things, whereby the world is a +temple whose walls are covered with emblems, pictures, and commandments +of the Deity,--in this, that there is no fact in nature which does not +carry the whole sense of nature; and the distinctions which we make in +events and in affairs, of low and high, honest and base, disappear when +nature is used as a symbol. Thought makes everything fit for use. The +vocabulary of an omniscient man would embrace words and images excluded +from polite conversation. What would be base, or even obscene, to the +obscene, becomes illustrious, spoken in a new connexion of thought. The +piety of the Hebrew prophets purges their grossness. The circumcision is +an example of the power of poetry to raise the low and offensive. Small +and mean things serve as well as great symbols. The meaner the type by +which a law is expressed, the more pungent it is, and the more lasting +in the memories of men: just as we choose the smallest box or case in +which any needful utensil can be carried. Bare lists of words are found +suggestive to an imaginative and excited mind; as it is related of Lord +Chatham that he was accustomed to read in Bailey's Dictionary when he +was preparing to speak in Parliament. The poorest experience is rich +enough for all the purposes of expressing thought. Why covet a knowledge +of new facts? Day and night, house and garden, a few books, a few +actions, serve us as well as would all trades and all spectacles. We are +far from having exhausted the significance of the few symbols we use. +We can come to use them yet with a terrible simplicity. It does not +need that a poem should be long. Every word was once a poem. Every new +relation is a new word. Also we use defects and deformities to a sacred +purpose, so expressing our sense that the evils of the world are such +only to the evil eye. In the old mythology, mythologists observe, +defects are ascribed to divine natures, as lameness to Vulcan, blindness +to Cupid, and the like,--to signify exuberances. + +For as it is dislocation and detachment from the life of God that +makes things ugly, the poet, who re-attaches things to nature and the +Whole,--re-attaching even artificial things and violations of nature, +to nature, by a deeper insight,--disposes very easily of the most +disagreeable facts. Readers of poetry see the factory-village and the +railway, and fancy that the poetry of the landscape is broken up by +these; for these works of art are not yet consecrated in their reading; +but the poet sees them fall within the great Order not less than the +beehive or the spider's geometrical web. Nature adopts them very fast +into her vital circles, and the gliding train of cars she loves like +her own. Besides, in a centred mind, it signifies nothing how many +mechanical inventions you exhibit. Though you add millions, and never so +surprising, the fact of mechanics has not gained a grain's weight. The +spiritual fact remains unalterable, by many or by few particulars; as no +mountain is of any appreciable height to break the curve of the sphere. +A shrewd country-boy goes to the city for the first time, and the +complacent citizen is not satisfied with his little wonder. It is not +that he does not see all the fine houses and know that he never saw such +before, but he disposes of them as easily as the poet finds place for +the railway. The chief value of the new fact is to enhance the great and +constant fact of Life, which can dwarf any and every circumstance, and +to which the belt of wampum and the commerce of America are alike. + +The world being thus put under the mind for verb and noun, the poet is +he who can articulate it. For though life is great, and fascinates, and +absorbs; and though all men are intelligent of the symbols through which +it is named; yet they cannot originally use them. We are symbols and +inhabit symbols; workmen, work, and tools, words and things, birth and +death, all are emblems; but we sympathize with the symbols, and being +infatuated with the economical uses of things, we do not know that they +are thoughts. The poet, by an ulterior intellectual perception, gives +them a power which makes their old use forgotten, and puts eyes and +a tongue into every dumb and inanimate object. He perceives the +independence of the thought on the symbol, the stability of the thought, +the accidency and fugacity of the symbol. As the eyes of Lyncaeus were +said to see through the earth, so the poet turns the world to glass, and +shows us all things in their right series and procession. For through +that better perception he stands one step nearer to things, and sees +the flowing or metamorphosis; perceives that thought is multiform; that +within the form of every creature is a force impelling it to ascend +into a higher form; and following with his eyes the life, uses the forms +which express that life, and so his speech flows with the flowing of +nature. All the facts of the animal economy, sex, nutriment, gestation, +birth, growth, are symbols of the passage of the world into the soul +of man, to suffer there a change and reappear a new and higher fact. He +uses forms according to the life, and not according to the form. This is +true science. The poet alone knows astronomy, chemistry, vegetation +and animation, for he does not stop at these facts, but employs them as +signs. He knows why the plain or meadow of space was strewn with these +flowers we call suns and moons and stars; why the great deep is adorned +with animals, with men, and gods; for in every word he speaks he rides +on them as the horses of thought. + +By virtue of this science the poet is the Namer or Language-maker, +naming things sometimes after their appearance, sometimes after their +essence, and giving to every one its own name and not another's, thereby +rejoicing the intellect, which delights in detachment or boundary. The +poets made all the words, and therefore language is the archives of +history, and, if we must say it, a sort of tomb of the muses. For though +the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first +a stroke of genius, and obtained currency because for the moment +it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The +etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant +picture. Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone of the continent +consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so language +is made up of images or tropes, which now, in their secondary use, have +long ceased to remind us of their poetic origin. But the poet names the +thing because he sees it, or comes one step nearer to it than any other. +This expression or naming is not art, but a second nature, grown out +of the first, as a leaf out of a tree. What we call nature is a certain +self-regulated motion or change; and nature does all things by her own +hands, and does not leave another to baptize her but baptizes herself; +and this through the metamorphosis again. I remember that a certain poet +described it to me thus: + +Genius is the activity which repairs the decays of things, whether +wholly or partly of a material and finite kind. Nature, through all her +kingdoms, insures herself. Nobody cares for planting the poor fungus; so +she shakes down from the gills of one agaric countless spores, any one +of which, being preserved, transmits new billions of spores to-morrow or +next day. The new agaric of this hour has a chance which the old one had +not. This atom of seed is thrown into a new place, not subject to the +accidents which destroyed its parent two rods off. She makes a man; +and having brought him to ripe age, she will no longer run the risk of +losing this wonder at a blow, but she detaches from him a new self, that +the kind may be safe from accidents to which the individual is exposed. +So when the soul of the poet has come to ripeness of thought, she +detaches and sends away from it its poems or songs,--a fearless, +sleepless, deathless progeny, which is not exposed to the accidents of +the weary kingdom of time; a fearless, vivacious offspring, clad with +wings (such was the virtue of the soul out of which they came) which +carry them fast and far, and infix them irrecoverably into the hearts +of men. These wings are the beauty of the poet's soul. The songs, thus +flying immortal from their mortal parent, are pursued by clamorous +flights of censures, which swarm in far greater numbers and threaten to +devour them; but these last are not winged. At the end of a very short +leap they fall plump down and rot, having received from the souls out of +which they came no beautiful wings. But the melodies of the poet ascend +and leap and pierce into the deeps of infinite time. + +So far the bard taught me, using his freer speech. But nature has a +higher end, in the production of New individuals, than security, namely +ascension, or the passage of the soul into higher forms. I knew in my +younger days the sculptor who made the statue of the youth which stands +in the public garden. He was, as I remember, unable to tell directly, +what made him happy or unhappy, but by wonderful indirections he could +tell. He rose one day, according to his habit, before the dawn, and saw +the morning break, grand as the eternity out of which it came, and for +many days after, he strove to express this tranquillity, and lo! his +chisel had fashioned out of marble the form of a beautiful youth, +Phosphorus, whose aspect is such that it is said all persons who look +on it become silent. The poet also resigns himself to his mood, and that +thought which agitated him is expressed, but alter idem, in a manner +totally new. The expression is organic, or the new type which things +themselves take when liberated. As, in the sun, objects paint their +images on the retina of the eye, so they, sharing the aspiration of the +whole universe, tend to paint a far more delicate copy of their essence +in his mind. Like the metamorphosis of things into higher organic forms +is their change into melodies. Over everything stands its daemon or +soul, and, as the form of the thing is reflected by the eye, so the +soul of the thing is reflected by a melody. The sea, the mountain-ridge, +Niagara, and every flower-bed, pre-exist, or super-exist, in +pre-cantations, which sail like odors in the air, and when any man goes +by with an ear sufficiently fine, he overhears them and endeavors to +write down the notes without diluting or depraving them. And herein is +the legitimation of criticism, in the mind's faith that the poems are a +corrupt version of some text in nature with which they ought to be made +to tally. A rhyme in one of our sonnets should not be less pleasing than +the iterated nodes of a sea-shell, or the resembling difference of a +group of flowers. The pairing of the birds is an idyl, not tedious as +our idyls are; a tempest is a rough ode, without falsehood or rant; +a summer, with its harvest sown, reaped, and stored, is an epic song, +subordinating how many admirably executed parts. Why should not the +symmetry and truth that modulate these, glide into our spirits, and we +participate the invention of nature? + +This insight, which expresses itself by what is called Imagination, is +a very high sort of seeing, which does not come by study, but by the +intellect being where and what it sees; by sharing the path or circuit +of things through forms, and so making them translucid to others. The +path of things is silent. Will they suffer a speaker to go with them? A +spy they will not suffer; a lover, a poet, is the transcendency of their +own nature,--him they will suffer. The condition of true naming, on the +poet's part, is his resigning himself to the divine aura which breathes +through forms, and accompanying that. + +It is a secret which every intellectual man quickly learns, that, beyond +the energy of his possessed and conscious intellect he is capable of a +new energy (as of an intellect doubled on itself), by abandonment to the +nature of things; that beside his privacy of power as an individual man, +there is a great public power on which he can draw, by unlocking, at +all risks, his human doors, and suffering the ethereal tides to roll +and circulate through him; then he is caught up into the life of the +Universe, his speech is thunder, his thought is law, and his words are +universally intelligible as the plants and animals. The poet knows that +he speaks adequately then only when he speaks somewhat wildly, or, "with +the flower of the mind;" not with the intellect used as an organ, but +with the intellect released from all service and suffered to take its +direction from its celestial life; or as the ancients were wont to +express themselves, not with intellect alone but with the intellect +inebriated by nectar. As the traveller who has lost his way throws his +reins on his horse's neck and trusts to the instinct of the animal +to find his road, so must we do with the divine animal who carries us +through this world. For if in any manner we can stimulate this instinct, +new passages are opened for us into nature; the mind flows into and +through things hardest and highest, and the metamorphosis is possible. + +This is the reason why bards love wine, mead, narcotics, coffee, tea, +opium, the fumes of sandal-wood and tobacco, or whatever other procurers +of animal exhilaration. All men avail themselves of such means as they +can, to add this extraordinary power to their normal powers; and to +this end they prize conversation, music, pictures, sculpture, dancing, +theatres, travelling, war, mobs, fires, gaming, politics, or love, or +science, or animal intoxication,--which are several coarser or +finer quasi-mechanical substitutes for the true nectar, which is the +ravishment of the intellect by coming nearer to the fact. These are +auxiliaries to the centrifugal tendency of a man, to his passage out +into free space, and they help him to escape the custody of that body +in which he is pent up, and of that jail-yard of individual relations +in which he is enclosed. Hence a great number of such as were +professionally expressers of Beauty, as painters, poets, musicians, and +actors, have been more than others wont to lead a life of pleasure and +indulgence; all but the few who received the true nectar; and, as it was +a spurious mode of attaining freedom, as it was an emancipation not into +the heavens but into the freedom of baser places, they were punished for +that advantage they won, by a dissipation and deterioration. But never +can any advantage be taken of nature by a trick. The spirit of the +world, the great calm presence of the Creator, comes not forth to the +sorceries of opium or of wine. The sublime vision comes to the pure +and simple soul in a clean and chaste body. That is not an inspiration, +which we owe to narcotics, but some counterfeit excitement and fury. +Milton says that the lyric poet may drink wine and live generously, but +the epic poet, he who shall sing of the gods and their descent unto men, +must drink water out of a wooden bowl. For poetry is not 'Devil's wine,' +but God's wine. It is with this as it is with toys. We fill the hands +and nurseries of our children with all manner of dolls, drums, and +horses; withdrawing their eyes from the plain face and sufficing objects +of nature, the sun, and moon, the animals, the water, and stones, which +should be their toys. So the poet's habit of living should be set on +a key so low that the common influences should delight him. His +cheerfulness should be the gift of the sunlight; the air should suffice +for his inspiration, and he should be tipsy with water. That spirit +which suffices quiet hearts, which seems to come forth to such from +every dry knoll of sere grass, from every pine-stump and half-imbedded +stone on which the dull March sun shines, comes forth to the poor and +hungry, and such as are of simple taste. If thou fill thy brain with +Boston and New York, with fashion and covetousness, and wilt stimulate +thy jaded senses with wine and French coffee, thou shalt find no +radiance of wisdom in the lonely waste of the pinewoods. + +If the imagination intoxicates the poet, it is not inactive in other +men. The metamorphosis excites in the beholder an emotion of joy. The +use of symbols has a certain power of emancipation and exhilaration for +all men. We seem to be touched by a wand which makes us dance and run +about happily, like children. We are like persons who come out of a cave +or cellar into the open air. This is the effect on us of tropes, fables, +oracles, and all poetic forms. Poets are thus liberating gods. Men have +really got a new sense, and found within their world another world, or +nest of worlds; for, the metamorphosis once seen, we divine that it +does not stop. I will not now consider how much this makes the charm +of algebra and the mathematics, which also have their tropes, but it +is felt in every definition; as when Aristotle defines space to be an +immovable vessel in which things are contained;--or when Plato defines +a line to be a flowing point; or figure to be a bound of solid; and +many the like. What a joyful sense of freedom we have when Vitruvius +announces the old opinion of artists that no architect can build any +house well who does not know something of anatomy. When Socrates, in +Charmides, tells us that the soul is cured of its maladies by certain +incantations, and that these incantations are beautiful reasons, from +which temperance is generated in souls; when Plato calls the world an +animal; and Timaeus affirms that the plants also are animals; or affirms +a man to be a heavenly tree, growing with his root, which is his head, +upward; and, as George Chapman, following him, writes,-- + + "So in our tree of man, whose nervie root + Springs in his top;"-- + +when Orpheus speaks of hoariness as "that white flower which marks +extreme old age;" when Proclus calls the universe the statue of the +intellect; when Chaucer, in his praise of 'Gentilesse,' compares good +blood in mean condition to fire, which, though carried to the darkest +house betwixt this and the mount of Caucasus, will yet hold its natural +office and burn as bright as if twenty thousand men did it behold; when +John saw, in the Apocalypse, the ruin of the world through evil, and the +stars fall from heaven as the figtree casteth her untimely fruit; when +Aesop reports the whole catalogue of common daily relations through +the masquerade of birds and beasts;--we take the cheerful hint of the +immortality of our essence and its versatile habit and escapes, as when +the gypsies say "it is in vain to hang them, they cannot die." + +The poets are thus liberating gods. The ancient British bards had for +the title of their order, "Those Who are free throughout the world." +They are free, and they make free. An imaginative book renders us +much more service at first, by stimulating us through its tropes, than +afterward when we arrive at the precise sense of the author. I think +nothing is of any value in books excepting the transcendental and +extraordinary. If a man is inflamed and carried away by his thought, to +that degree that he forgets the authors and the public and heeds only +this one dream which holds him like an insanity, let me read his paper, +and you may have all the arguments and histories and criticism. All +the value which attaches to Pythagoras, Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, +Cardan, Kepler, Swedenborg, Schelling, Oken, or any other who introduces +questionable facts into his cosmogony, as angels, devils, magic, +astrology, palmistry, mesmerism, and so on, is the certificate we have +of departure from routine, and that here is a new witness. That also is +the best success in conversation, the magic of liberty, which puts the +world like a ball in our hands. How cheap even the liberty then seems; +how mean to study, when an emotion communicates to the intellect the +power to sap and upheave nature; how great the perspective! nations, +times, systems, enter and disappear like threads in tapestry of large +figure and many colors; dream delivers us to dream, and while the +drunkenness lasts we will sell our bed, our philosophy, our religion, in +our opulence. + +There is good reason why we should prize this liberation. The fate of +the poor shepherd, who, blinded and lost in the snow-storm, perishes in +a drift within a few feet of his cottage door, is an emblem of the state +of man. On the brink of the waters of life and truth, we are miserably +dying. The inaccessibleness of every thought but that we are in, is +wonderful. What if you come near to it; you are as remote when you are +nearest as when you are farthest. Every thought is also a prison; every +heaven is also a prison. Therefore we love the poet, the inventor, who +in any form, whether in an ode or in an action or in looks and behavior +has yielded us a new thought. He unlocks our chains and admits us to a +new scene. + +This emancipation is dear to all men, and the power to impart it, as +it must come from greater depth and scope of thought, is a measure of +intellect. Therefore all books of the imagination endure, all which +ascend to that truth that the writer sees nature beneath him, and uses +it as his exponent. Every verse or sentence possessing this virtue will +take care of its own immortality. The religions of the world are the +ejaculations of a few imaginative men. + +But the quality of the imagination is to flow, and not to freeze. The +poet did not stop at the color or the form, but read their meaning; +neither may he rest in this meaning, but he makes the same objects +exponents of his new thought. Here is the difference betwixt the poet +and the mystic, that the last nails a symbol to one sense, which was a +true sense for a moment, but soon becomes old and false. For all symbols +are fluxional; all language is vehicular and transitive, and is good, as +ferries and horses are, for conveyance, not as farms and houses are, +for homestead. Mysticism consists in the mistake of an accidental and +individual symbol for an universal one. The morning-redness happens to +be the favorite meteor to the eyes of Jacob Behmen, and comes to stand +to him for truth and faith; and, he believes, should stand for the same +realities to every reader. But the first reader prefers as naturally the +symbol of a mother and child, or a gardener and his bulb, or a jeweller +polishing a gem. Either of these, or of a myriad more, are equally +good to the person to whom they are significant. Only they must be held +lightly, and be very willingly translated into the equivalent terms +which others use. And the mystic must be steadily told,--All that you +say is just as true without the tedious use of that symbol as with it. +Let us have a little algebra, instead of this trite rhetoric,--universal +signs, instead of these village symbols,--and we shall both be gainers. +The history of hierarchies seems to show that all religious error +consisted in making the symbol too stark and solid, and was at last +nothing but an excess of the organ of language. + +Swedenborg, of all men in the recent ages, stands eminently for the +translator of nature into thought. I do not know the man in history to +whom things stood so uniformly for words. Before him the metamorphosis +continually plays. Everything on which his eye rests, obeys the impulses +of moral nature. The figs become grapes whilst he eats them. When +some of his angels affirmed a truth, the laurel twig which they held +blossomed in their hands. The noise which at a distance appeared like +gnashing and thumping, on coming nearer was found to be the voice of +disputants. The men in one of his visions, seen in heavenly light, +appeared like dragons, and seemed in darkness; but to each other they +appeared as men, and when the light from heaven shone into their cabin, +they complained of the darkness, and were compelled to shut the window +that they might see. + +There was this perception in him which makes the poet or seer an object +of awe and terror, namely that the same man or society of men may wear +one aspect to themselves and their companions, and a different aspect to +higher intelligences. Certain priests, whom he describes as conversing +very learnedly together, appeared to the children who were at some +distance, like dead horses; and many the like misappearances. And +instantly the mind inquires whether these fishes under the bridge, +yonder oxen in the pasture, those dogs in the yard, are immutably +fishes, oxen, and dogs, or only so appear to me, and perchance to +themselves appear upright men; and whether I appear as a man to all +eyes. The Bramins and Pythagoras propounded the same question, and +if any poet has witnessed the transformation he doubtless found it +in harmony with various experiences. We have all seen changes as +considerable in wheat and caterpillars. He is the poet and shall draw us +with love and terror, who sees through the flowing vest the firm nature, +and can declare it. + +I look in vain for the poet whom I describe. We do not with sufficient +plainness or sufficient profoundness address ourselves to life, nor dare +we chaunt our own times and social circumstance. If we filled the day +with bravery, we should not shrink from celebrating it. Time and nature +yield us many gifts, but not yet the timely man, the new religion, the +reconciler, whom all things await. Dante's praise is that he dared to +write his autobiography in colossal cipher, or into universality. We +have yet had no genius in America, with tyrannous eye, which knew the +value of our incomparable materials, and saw, in the barbarism and +materialism of the times, another carnival of the same gods whose +picture he so much admires in Homer; then in the Middle Age; then in +Calvinism. Banks and tariffs, the newspaper and caucus, Methodism and +Unitarianism, are flat and dull to dull people, but rest on the same +foundations of wonder as the town of Troy and the temple of Delphi, +and are as swiftly passing away. Our logrolling, our stumps and their +politics, our fisheries, our Negroes and Indians, our boats and our +repudiations, the wrath of rogues and the pusillanimity of honest men, +the northern trade, the southern planting, the western clearing, Oregon +and Texas, are yet unsung. Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample +geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres. +If I have not found that excellent combination of gifts in my countrymen +which I seek, neither could I aid myself to fix the idea of the poet +by reading now and then in Chalmers's collection of five centuries of +English poets. These are wits more than poets, though there have been +poets among them. But when we adhere to the ideal of the poet, we have +our difficulties even with Milton and Homer. Milton is too literary, and +Homer too literal and historical. + +But I am not wise enough for a national criticism, and must use the old +largeness a little longer, to discharge my errand from the muse to the +poet concerning his art. + +Art is the path of the creator to his work. The paths or methods are +ideal and eternal, though few men ever see them; not the artist himself +for years, or for a lifetime, unless he come into the conditions. The +painter, the sculptor, the composer, the epic rhapsodist, the orator, +all partake one desire, namely to express themselves symmetrically +and abundantly, not dwarfishly and fragmentarily. They found or put +themselves in certain conditions, as, the painter and sculptor before +some impressive human figures; the orator, into the assembly of the +people; and the others in such scenes as each has found exciting to his +intellect; and each presently feels the new desire. He hears a voice, +he sees a beckoning. Then he is apprised, with wonder, what herds of +daemons hem him in. He can no more rest; he says, with the old painter, +"By God, it is in me and must go forth of me." He pursues a beauty, +half seen, which flies before him. The poet pours out verses in every +solitude. Most of the things he says are conventional, no doubt; but by +and by he says something which is original and beautiful. That charms +him. He would say nothing else but such things. In our way of talking +we say 'That is yours, this is mine;' but the poet knows well that it is +not his; that it is as strange and beautiful to him as to you; he would +fain hear the like eloquence at length. Once having tasted this immortal +ichor, he cannot have enough of it, and as an admirable creative power +exists in these intellections, it is of the last importance that these +things get spoken. What a little of all we know is said! What drops of +all the sea of our science are baled up! and by what accident it is +that these are exposed, when so many secrets sleep in nature! Hence the +necessity of speech and song; hence these throbs and heart-beatings in +the orator, at the door of the assembly, to the end namely that thought +may be ejaculated as Logos, or Word. + +Doubt not, O poet, but persist. Say 'It is in me, and shall out.' Stand +there, balked and dumb, stuttering and stammering, hissed and hooted, +stand and strive, until at last rage draw out of thee that dream-power +which every night shows thee is thine own; a power transcending all +limit and privacy, and by virtue of which a man is the conductor of +the whole river of electricity. Nothing walks, or creeps, or grows, or +exists, which must not in turn arise and walk before him as exponent +of his meaning. Comes he to that power, his genius is no longer +exhaustible. All the creatures by pairs and by tribes pour into his mind +as into a Noah's ark, to come forth again to people a new world. This is +like the stock of air for our respiration or for the combustion of +our fireplace; not a measure of gallons, but the entire atmosphere if +wanted. And therefore the rich poets, as Homer, Chaucer, Shakspeare, and +Raphael, have obviously no limits to their works except the limits of +their lifetime, and resemble a mirror carried through the street, ready +to render an image of every created thing. + +O poet! a new nobility is conferred in groves and pastures, and not in +castles or by the sword-blade any longer. The conditions are hard, but +equal. Thou shalt leave the world, and know the muse only. Thou shalt +not know any longer the times, customs, graces, politics, or opinions of +men, but shalt take all from the muse. For the time of towns is tolled +from the world by funereal chimes, but in nature the universal hours are +counted by succeeding tribes of animals and plants, and by growth of joy +on joy. God wills also that thou abdicate a manifold and duplex life, +and that thou be content that others speak for thee. Others shall be thy +gentlemen and shall represent all courtesy and worldly life for thee; +others shall do the great and resounding actions also. Thou shalt lie +close hid with nature, and canst not be afforded to the Capitol or the +Exchange. The world is full of renunciations and apprenticeships, and +this is thine: thou must pass for a fool and a churl for a long +season. This is the screen and sheath in which Pan has protected his +well-beloved flower, and thou shalt be known only to thine own, and they +shall console thee with tenderest love. And thou shalt not be able to +rehearse the names of thy friends in thy verse, for an old shame before +the holy ideal. And this is the reward; that the ideal shall be real +to thee, and the impressions of the actual world shall fall like summer +rain, copious, but not troublesome, to thy invulnerable essence. Thou +shalt have the whole land for thy park and manor, the sea for thy bath +and navigation, without tax and without envy; the woods and the rivers +thou shalt own; and thou shalt possess that wherein others are only +tenants and boarders. Thou true land-lord! sea-lord! air-lord! Wherever +snow falls or water flows or birds fly, wherever day and night meet in +twilight, wherever the blue heaven is hung by clouds or sown with stars, +wherever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets +into celestial space, wherever is danger, and awe, and love,--there is +Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for thee, and though thou shouldest walk +the world over, thou shalt not be able to find a condition inopportune +or ignoble. + +***** + + + + EXPERIENCE. + + THE lords of life, the lords of life,-- + I saw them pass, + In their own guise, + Like and unlike, + Portly and grim, + Use and Surprise, + Surface and Dream, + Succession swift, and spectral Wrong, + Temperament without a tongue, + And the inventor of the game + Omnipresent without name;-- + Some to see, some to be guessed, + They marched from east to west: + Little man, least of all, + Among the legs of his guardians tall, + Walked about with puzzled look:-- + Him by the hand dear Nature took; + Dearest Nature, strong and kind, + Whispered, 'Darling, never mind! + Tomorrow they will wear another face, + The founder thou! these are thy race!' + + + + +II. EXPERIENCE. + +WHERE do we find ourselves? In a series of which we do not know the +extremes, and believe that it has none. We wake and find ourselves on a +stair; there are stairs below us, which we seem to have ascended; there +are stairs above us, many a one, which go upward and out of sight. But +the Genius which according to the old belief stands at the door by which +we enter, and gives us the lethe to drink, that we may tell no tales, +mixed the cup too strongly, and we cannot shake off the lethargy now at +noonday. Sleep lingers all our lifetime about our eyes, as night hovers +all day in the boughs of the fir-tree. All things swim and glitter. Our +life is not so much threatened as our perception. Ghostlike we glide +through nature, and should not know our place again. Did our birth +fall in some fit of indigence and frugality in nature, that she was so +sparing of her fire and so liberal of her earth that it appears to us +that we lack the affirmative principle, and though we have health and +reason, yet we have no superfluity of spirit for new creation? We have +enough to live and bring the year about, but not an ounce to impart or +to invest. Ah that our Genius were a little more of a genius! We are +like millers on the lower levels of a stream, when the factories above +them have exhausted the water. We too fancy that the upper people must +have raised their dams. + +If any of us knew what we were doing, or where we are going, then when +we think we best know! We do not know to-day whether we are busy or +idle. In times when we thought ourselves indolent, we have afterwards +discovered that much was accomplished, and much was begun in us. All our +days are so unprofitable while they pass, that 'tis wonderful where or +when we ever got anything of this which we call wisdom, poetry, virtue. +We never got it on any dated calendar day. Some heavenly days must have +been intercalated somewhere, like those that Hermes won with dice of the +Moon, that Osiris might be born. It is said all martyrdoms looked mean +when they were suffered. Every ship is a romantic object, except that +we sail in. Embark, and the romance quits our vessel and hangs on every +other sail in the horizon. Our life looks trivial, and we shun to +record it. Men seem to have learned of the horizon the art of perpetual +retreating and reference. 'Yonder uplands are rich pasturage, and my +neighbor has fertile meadow, but my field,' says the querulous farmer, +'only holds the world together.' I quote another man's saying; unluckily +that other withdraws himself in the same way, and quotes me. 'Tis +the trick of nature thus to degrade to-day; a good deal of buzz, and +somewhere a result slipped magically in. Every roof is agreeable to +the eye until it is lifted; then we find tragedy and moaning women and +hard-eyed husbands and deluges of lethe, and the men ask, 'What's the +news?' as if the old were so bad. How many individuals can we count in +society? how many actions? how many opinions? So much of our time is +preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the pith +of each man's genius contracts itself to a very few hours. The +history of literature--take the net result of Tiraboschi, Warton, or +Schlegel,--is a sum of very few ideas and of very few original tales; +all the rest being variation of these. So in this great society wide +lying around us, a critical analysis would find very few spontaneous +actions. It is almost all custom and gross sense. There are even few +opinions, and these seem organic in the speakers, and do not disturb the +universal necessity. + +What opium is instilled into all disaster! It shows formidable as we +approach it, but there is at last no rough rasping friction, but the +most slippery sliding surfaces. We fall soft on a thought; Ate Dea is +gentle,-- + + "Over men's heads walking aloft, + With tender feet treading so soft." + +People grieve and bemoan themselves, but it is not half so bad with them +as they say. There are moods in which we court suffering, in the hope +that here at least we shall find reality, sharp peaks and edges of +truth. But it turns out to be scene-painting and counterfeit. The only +thing grief has taught me is to know how shallow it is. That, like all +the rest, plays about the surface, and never introduces me into the +reality, for contact with which we would even pay the costly price of +sons and lovers. Was it Boscovich who found out that bodies never come +in contact? Well, souls never touch their objects. An innavigable +sea washes with silent waves between us and the things we aim at and +converse with. Grief too will make us idealists. In the death of my son, +now more than two years ago, I seem to have lost a beautiful estate,--no +more. I cannot get it nearer to me. If to-morrow I should be informed of +the bankruptcy of my principal debtors, the loss of my property would be +a great inconvenience to me, perhaps, for many years; but it would +leave me as it found me,--neither better nor worse. So is it with this +calamity: it does not touch me; something which I fancied was a part of +me, which could not be torn away without tearing me nor enlarged without +enriching me, falls off from me and leaves no scar. It was caducous. I +grieve that grief can teach me nothing, nor carry me one step into real +nature. The Indian who was laid under a curse that the wind should not +blow on him, nor water flow to him, nor fire burn him, is a type of us +all. The dearest events are summer-rain, and we the Para coats that shed +every drop. Nothing is left us now but death. We look to that with a +grim satisfaction, saying There at least is reality that will not dodge +us. + +I take this evanescence and lubricity of all objects, which lets them +slip through our fingers then when we clutch hardest, to be the most +unhandsome part of our condition. Nature does not like to be observed, +and likes that we should be her fools and playmates. We may have the +sphere for our cricket-ball, but not a berry for our philosophy. Direct +strokes she never gave us power to make; all our blows glance, all our +hits are accidents. Our relations to each other are oblique and casual. + +Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion. Life is a +train of moods like a string of beads, and as we pass through them they +prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and +each shows only what lies in its focus. From the mountain you see the +mountain. We animate what we can, and we see only what we animate. +Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them. It depends on the +mood of the man whether he shall see the sunset or the fine poem. There +are always sunsets, and there is always genius; but only a few hours so +serene that we can relish nature or criticism. The more or less depends +on structure or temperament. Temperament is the iron wire on which +the beads are strung. Of what use is fortune or talent to a cold and +defective nature? Who cares what sensibility or discrimination a man has +at some time shown, if he falls asleep in his chair? or if he laugh and +giggle? or if he apologize? or is infected with egotism? or thinks of +his dollar? or cannot go by food? or has gotten a child in his boyhood? +Of what use is genius, if the organ is too convex or too concave and +cannot find a focal distance within the actual horizon of human life? Of +what use, if the brain is too cold or too hot, and the man does not care +enough for results to stimulate him to experiment, and hold him up in +it? or if the web is too finely woven, too irritable by pleasure and +pain, so that life stagnates from too much reception without due +outlet? Of what use to make heroic vows of amendment, if the same old +law-breaker is to keep them? What cheer can the religious sentiment +yield, when that is suspected to be secretly dependent on the seasons of +the year and the state of the blood? I knew a witty physician who found +the creed in the biliary duct, and used to affirm that if there was +disease in the liver, the man became a Calvinist, and if that organ +was sound, he became a Unitarian. Very mortifying is the reluctant +experience that some unfriendly excess or imbecility neutralizes the +promise of genius. We see young men who owe us a new world, so readily +and lavishly they promise, but they never acquit the debt; they die +young and dodge the account; or if they live they lose themselves in the +crowd. + +Temperament also enters fully into the system of illusions and shuts us +in a prison of glass which we cannot see. There is an optical illusion +about every person we meet. In truth they are all creatures of given +temperament, which will appear in a given character, whose boundaries +they will never pass: but we look at them, they seem alive, and we +presume there is impulse in them. In the moment it seems impulse; in the +year, in the lifetime, it turns out to be a certain uniform tune +which the revolving barrel of the music-box must play. Men resist the +conclusion in the morning, but adopt it as the evening wears on, that +temper prevails over everything of time, place, and condition, and is +inconsumable in the flames of religion. Some modifications the moral +sentiment avails to impose, but the individual texture holds its +dominion, if not to bias the moral judgments, yet to fix the measure of +activity and of enjoyment. + +I thus express the law as it is read from the platform of ordinary +life, but must not leave it without noticing the capital exception. For +temperament is a power which no man willingly hears any one praise but +himself. On the platform of physics we cannot resist the contracting +influences of so-called science. Temperament puts all divinity to rout. +I know the mental proclivity of physicians. I hear the chuckle of the +phrenologists. Theoretic kidnappers and slave-drivers, they esteem each +man the victim of another, who winds him round his finger by knowing the +law of his being; and by such cheap signboards as the color of his beard +or the slope of his occiput, reads the inventory of his fortunes and +character. The grossest ignorance does not disgust like this impudent +knowingness. The physicians say they are not materialists; but they +are:--Spirit is matter reduced to an extreme thinness: O so thin!--But +the definition of spiritual should be, that which is its own evidence. +What notions do they attach to love! what to religion! One would not +willingly pronounce these words in their hearing, and give them the +occasion to profane them. I saw a gracious gentleman who adapts his +conversation to the form of the head of the man he talks with! I had +fancied that the value of life lay in its inscrutable possibilities; in +the fact that I never know, in addressing myself to a new individual, +what may befall me. I carry the keys of my castle in my hand, ready to +throw them at the feet of my lord, whenever and in what disguise +soever he shall appear. I know he is in the neighborhood hidden among +vagabonds. Shall I preclude my future by taking a high seat and kindly +adapting my conversation to the shape of heads? When I come to that, the +doctors shall buy me for a cent.--'But, sir, medical history; the report +to the Institute; the proven facts!'--I distrust the facts and +the inferences. Temperament is the veto or limitation-power in the +constitution, very justly applied to restrain an opposite excess in the +constitution, but absurdly offered as a bar to original equity. When +virtue is in presence, all subordinate powers sleep. On its own level, +or in view of nature, temperament is final. I see not, if one be once +caught in this trap of so-called sciences, any escape for the man from +the links of the chain of physical necessity. Given such an embryo, +such a history must follow. On this platform one lives in a sty of +sensualism, and would soon come to suicide. But it is impossible that +the creative power should exclude itself. Into every intelligence there +is a door which is never closed, through which the creator passes. The +intellect, seeker of absolute truth, or the heart, lover of absolute +good, intervenes for our succor, and at one whisper of these high powers +we awake from ineffectual struggles with this nightmare. We hurl it into +its own hell, and cannot again contract ourselves to so base a state. + +The secret of the illusoriness is in the necessity of a succession +of moods or objects. Gladly we would anchor, but the anchorage is +quicksand. This onward trick of nature is too strong for us: Pero si +muove. When at night I look at the moon and stars, I seem stationary, +and they to hurry. Our love of the real draws us to permanence, but +health of body consists in circulation, and sanity of mind in variety +or facility of association. We need change of objects. Dedication to +one thought is quickly odious. We house with the insane, and must humor +them; then conversation dies out. Once I took such delight in Montaigne, +that I thought I should not need any other book; before that, in +Shakspeare; then in Plutarch; then in Plotinus; at one time in Bacon; +afterwards in Goethe; even in Bettine; but now I turn the pages of +either of them languidly, whilst I still cherish their genius. So with +pictures; each will bear an emphasis of attention once, which it cannot +retain, though we fain would continue to be pleased in that manner. How +strongly I have felt of pictures that when you have seen one well, you +must take your leave of it; you shall never see it again. I have had +good lessons from pictures which I have since seen without emotion or +remark. A deduction must be made from the opinion which even the wise +express of a new book or occurrence. Their opinion gives me tidings of +their mood, and some vague guess at the new fact, but is nowise to be +trusted as the lasting relation between that intellect and that thing. +The child asks, 'Mamma, why don't I like the story as well as when +you told it me yesterday?' Alas! child it is even so with the oldest +cherubim of knowledge. But will it answer thy question to say, Because +thou wert born to a whole and this story is a particular? The reason +of the pain this discovery causes us (and we make it late in respect to +works of art and intellect), is the plaint of tragedy which murmurs from +it in regard to persons, to friendship and love. + +That immobility and absence of elasticity which we find in the arts, +we find with more pain in the artist. There is no power of expansion in +men. Our friends early appear to us as representatives of certain ideas +which they never pass or exceed. They stand on the brink of the ocean of +thought and power, but they never take the single step that would bring +them there. A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no lustre as +you turn it in your hand until you come to a particular angle; then it +shows deep and beautiful colors. There is no adaptation or universal +applicability in men, but each has his special talent, and the mastery +of successful men consists in adroitly keeping themselves where and when +that turn shall be oftenest to be practised. We do what we must, and +call it by the best names we can, and would fain have the praise of +having intended the result which ensues. I cannot recall any form of man +who is not superfluous sometimes. But is not this pitiful? Life is not +worth the taking, to do tricks in. + +Of course it needs the whole society to give the symmetry we seek. The +party-colored wheel must revolve very fast to appear white. Something is +earned too by conversing with so much folly and defect. In fine, whoever +loses, we are always of the gaining party. Divinity is behind our +failures and follies also. The plays of children are nonsense, but very +educative nonsense. So it is with the largest and solemnest things, with +commerce, government, church, marriage, and so with the history of every +man's bread, and the ways by which he is to come by it. Like a bird +which alights nowhere, but hops perpetually from bough to bough, is the +Power which abides in no man and in no woman, but for a moment speaks +from this one, and for another moment from that one. + +But what help from these fineries or pedantries? What help from thought? +Life is not dialectics. We, I think, in these times, have had lessons +enough of the futility of criticism. Our young people have thought and +written much on labor and reform, and for all that they have written, +neither the world nor themselves have got on a step. Intellectual +tasting of life will not supersede muscular activity. If a man should +consider the nicety of the passage of a piece of bread down his throat, +he would starve. At Education-Farm, the noblest theory of life sat +on the noblest figures of young men and maidens, quite powerless and +melancholy. It would not rake or pitch a ton of hay; it would not +rub down a horse; and the men and maidens it left pale and hungry. A +political orator wittily compared our party promises to western roads, +which opened stately enough, with planted trees on either side to +tempt the traveller, but soon became narrow and narrower and ended in +a squirrel-track and ran up a tree. So does culture with us; it ends in +headache. Unspeakably sad and barren does life look to those who a few +months ago were dazzled with the splendor of the promise of the times. +"There is now no longer any right course of action nor any self-devotion +left among the Iranis." Objections and criticism we have had our fill +of. There are objections to every course of life and action, and the +practical wisdom infers an indifferency, from the omnipresence of +objection. The whole frame of things preaches indifferency. Do not craze +yourself with thinking, but go about your business anywhere. Life is not +intellectual or critical, but sturdy. Its chief good is for well-mixed +people who can enjoy what they find, without question. Nature hates +peeping, and our mothers speak her very sense when they say, "Children, +eat your victuals, and say no more of it." To fill the hour,--that is +happiness; to fill the hour and leave no crevice for a repentance or an +approval. We live amid surfaces, and the true art of life is to skate +well on them. Under the oldest mouldiest conventions a man of native +force prospers just as well as in the newest world, and that by skill +of handling and treatment. He can take hold anywhere. Life itself is a +mixture of power and form, and will not bear the least excess of either. +To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the +road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom. It is not +the part of men, but of fanatics, or of mathematicians if you will, +to say that the shortness of life considered, it is not worth caring +whether for so short a duration we were sprawling in want or sitting +high. Since our office is with moments, let us husband them. Five +minutes of today are worth as much to me as five minutes in the next +millennium. Let us be poised, and wise, and our own, today. Let us treat +the men and women well; treat them as if they were real; perhaps they +are. Men live in their fancy, like drunkards whose hands are too soft +and tremulous for successful labor. It is a tempest of fancies, and the +only ballast I know is a respect to the present hour. Without any shadow +of doubt, amidst this vertigo of shows and politics, I settle myself +ever the firmer in the creed that we should not postpone and refer and +wish, but do broad justice where we are, by whomsoever we deal with, +accepting our actual companions and circumstances, however humble or +odious as the mystic officials to whom the universe has delegated +its whole pleasure for us. If these are mean and malignant, their +contentment, which is the last victory of justice, is a more satisfying +echo to the heart than the voice of poets and the casual sympathy of +admirable persons. I think that however a thoughtful man may suffer +from the defects and absurdities of his company, he cannot without +affectation deny to any set of men and women a sensibility to +extraordinary merit. The coarse and frivolous have an instinct of +superiority, if they have not a sympathy, and honor it in their blind +capricious way with sincere homage. + +The fine young people despise life, but in me, and in such as with me +are free from dyspepsia, and to whom a day is a sound and solid good, it +is a great excess of politeness to look scornful and to cry for company. +I am grown by sympathy a little eager and sentimental, but leave me +alone and I should relish every hour and what it brought me, the potluck +of the day, as heartily as the oldest gossip in the bar-room. I am +thankful for small mercies. I compared notes with one of my friends who +expects everything of the universe and is disappointed when anything +is less than the best, and I found that I begin at the other extreme, +expecting nothing, and am always full of thanks for moderate goods. I +accept the clangor and jangle of contrary tendencies. I find my account +in sots and bores also. They give a reality to the circumjacent picture +which such a vanishing meteorous appearance can ill spare. In the +morning I awake and find the old world, wife, babes, and mother, Concord +and Boston, the dear old spiritual world and even the dear old devil not +far off. If we will take the good we find, asking no questions, we +shall have heaping measures. The great gifts are not got by analysis. +Everything good is on the highway. The middle region of our being is +the temperate zone. We may climb into the thin and cold realm of pure +geometry and lifeless science, or sink into that of sensation. Between +these extremes is the equator of life, of thought, of spirit, of +poetry,--a narrow belt. Moreover, in popular experience everything +good is on the highway. A collector peeps into all the picture-shops of +Europe for a landscape of Poussin, a crayon-sketch of Salvator; but the +Transfiguration, the Last Judgment, the Communion of St. Jerome, and +what are as transcendent as these, are on the walls of the Vatican, the +Uffizii, or the Louvre, where every footman may see them; to say nothing +of Nature's pictures in every street, of sunsets and sunrises every day, +and the sculpture of the human body never absent. A collector recently +bought at public auction, in London, for one hundred and fifty-seven +guineas, an autograph of Shakspeare; but for nothing a school-boy +can read Hamlet and can detect secrets of highest concernment yet +unpublished therein. I think I will never read any but the commonest +books,--the Bible, Homer, Dante, Shakspeare, and Milton. Then we are +impatient of so public a life and planet, and run hither and thither for +nooks and secrets. The imagination delights in the woodcraft of Indians, +trappers, and bee-hunters. We fancy that we are strangers, and not so +intimately domesticated in the planet as the wild man and the wild beast +and bird. But the exclusion reaches them also; reaches the climbing, +flying, gliding, feathered and four-footed man. Fox and woodchuck, hawk +and snipe and bittern, when nearly seen, have no more root in the deep +world than man, and are just such superficial tenants of the globe. Then +the new molecular philosophy shows astronomical interspaces betwixt atom +and atom, shows that the world is all outside; it has no inside. + +The mid-world is best. Nature, as we know her, is no saint. The lights +of the church, the ascetics, Gentoos, and corn-eaters, she does not +distinguish by any favor. She comes eating and drinking and sinning. Her +darlings, the great, the strong, the beautiful, are not children of our +law; do not come out of the Sunday School, nor weigh their food, nor +punctually keep the commandments. If we will be strong with her strength +we must not harbor such disconsolate consciences, borrowed too from the +consciences of other nations. We must set up the strong present tense +against all the rumors of wrath, past or to come. So many things are +unsettled which it is of the first importance to settle;--and, pending +their settlement, we will do as we do. Whilst the debate goes forward on +the equity of commerce, and will not be closed for a century or two, +New and Old England may keep shop. Law of copyright and international +copyright is to be discussed, and in the interim we will sell our books +for the most we can. Expediency of literature, reason of literature, +lawfulness of writing down a thought, is questioned; much is to say on +both sides, and, while the fight waxes hot, thou, dearest scholar, stick +to thy foolish task, add a line every hour, and between whiles add +a line. Right to hold land, right of property, is disputed, and the +conventions convene, and before the vote is taken, dig away in your +garden, and spend your earnings as a waif or godsend to all serene and +beautiful purposes. Life itself is a bubble and a skepticism, and a +sleep within a sleep. Grant it, and as much more as they will,--but +thou, God's darling! heed thy private dream; thou wilt not be missed in +the scorning and skepticism; there are enough of them; stay there in +thy closet and toil until the rest are agreed what to do about it. Thy +sickness, they say, and thy puny habit require that thou do this or +avoid that, but know that thy life is a flitting state, a tent for a +night, and do thou, sick or well, finish that stint. Thou art sick, but +shalt not be worse, and the universe, which holds thee dear, shall be +the better. + +Human life is made up of the two elements, power and form, and the +proportion must be invariably kept if we would have it sweet and sound. +Each of these elements in excess makes a mischief as hurtful as its +defect. Everything runs to excess; every good quality is noxious if +unmixed, and, to carry the danger to the edge of ruin, nature causes +each man's peculiarity to superabound. Here, among the farms, we adduce +the scholars as examples of this treachery. They are nature's victims of +expression. You who see the artist, the orator, the poet, too near, and +find their life no more excellent than that of mechanics or farmers, and +themselves victims of partiality, very hollow and haggard, and pronounce +them failures, not heroes, but quacks,--conclude very reasonably that +these arts are not for man, but are disease. Yet nature will not bear +you out. Irresistible nature made men such, and makes legions more +of such, every day. You love the boy reading in a book, gazing at a +drawing, or a cast; yet what are these millions who read and behold, but +incipient writers and sculptors? Add a little more of that quality which +now reads and sees, and they will seize the pen and chisel. And if one +remembers how innocently he began to be an artist, he perceives that +nature joined with his enemy. A man is a golden impossibility. The line +he must walk is a hair's breadth. The wise through excess of wisdom is +made a fool. + +How easily, if fate would suffer it, we might keep forever these +beautiful limits, and adjust ourselves, once for all, to the perfect +calculation of the kingdom of known cause and effect. In the street +and in the newspapers, life appears so plain a business that manly +resolution and adherence to the multiplication-table through all +weathers will insure success. But ah! presently comes a day, or is +it only a half-hour, with its angel-whispering,--which discomfits the +conclusions of nations and of years! Tomorrow again everything looks +real and angular, the habitual standards are reinstated, common sense is +as rare as genius,--is the basis of genius, and experience is hands and +feet to every enterprise;--and yet, he who should do his business on +this understanding would be quickly bankrupt. Power keeps quite another +road than the turnpikes of choice and will; namely the subterranean and +invisible tunnels and channels of life. It is ridiculous that we are +diplomatists, and doctors, and considerate people: there are no dupes +like these. Life is a series of surprises, and would not be worth taking +or keeping if it were not. God delights to isolate us every day, and +hide from us the past and the future. We would look about us, but with +grand politeness he draws down before us an impenetrable screen +of purest sky, and another behind us of purest sky. 'You will not +remember,' he seems to say, `and you will not expect.' All good +conversation, manners, and action, come from a spontaneity which forgets +usages and makes the moment great. Nature hates calculators; her methods +are saltatory and impulsive. Man lives by pulses; our organic movements +are such; and the chemical and ethereal agents are undulatory and +alternate; and the mind goes antagonizing on, and never prospers but by +fits. We thrive by casualties. Our chief experiences have been casual. +The most attractive class of people are those who are powerful obliquely +and not by the direct stroke; men of genius, but not yet accredited; one +gets the cheer of their light without paying too great a tax. Theirs +is the beauty of the bird or the morning light, and not of art. In the +thought of genius there is always a surprise; and the moral sentiment is +well called "the newness," for it is never other; as new to the oldest +intelligence as to the young child;--"the kingdom that cometh without +observation." In like manner, for practical success, there must not be +too much design. A man will not be observed in doing that which he +can do best. There is a certain magic about his properest action which +stupefies your powers of observation, so that though it is done before +you, you wist not of it. The art of life has a pudency, and will not +be exposed. Every man is an impossibility until he is born; every thing +impossible until we see a success. The ardors of piety agree at last +with the coldest skepticism,--that nothing is of us or our works,--that +all is of God. Nature will not spare us the smallest leaf of laurel. +All writing comes by the grace of God, and all doing and having. I would +gladly be moral and keep due metes and bounds, which I dearly love, and +allow the most to the will of man; but I have set my heart on honesty in +this chapter, and I can see nothing at last, in success or failure, than +more or less of vital force supplied from the Eternal. The results of +life are uncalculated and uncalculable. The years teach much which the +days never know. The persons who compose our company, converse, and come +and go, and design and execute many things, and somewhat comes of it +all, but an unlooked-for result. The individual is always mistaken. +He designed many things, and drew in other persons as coadjutors, +quarrelled with some or all, blundered much, and something is done; all +are a little advanced, but the individual is always mistaken. It turns +out somewhat new and very unlike what he promised himself. + +The ancients, struck with this irreducibleness of the elements of human +life to calculation, exalted Chance into a divinity; but that is to +stay too long at the spark, which glitters truly at one point, but the +universe is warm with the latency of the same fire. The miracle of life +which will not be expounded but will remain a miracle, introduces a new +element. In the growth of the embryo, Sir Everard Home I think noticed +that the evolution was not from one central point, but coactive from +three or more points. Life has no memory. That which proceeds in +succession might be remembered, but that which is coexistent, or +ejaculated from a deeper cause, as yet far from being conscious, knows +not its own tendency. So is it with us, now skeptical or without unity, +because immersed in forms and effects all seeming to be of equal yet +hostile value, and now religious, whilst in the reception of spiritual +law. Bear with these distractions, with this coetaneous growth of the +parts; they will one day be members, and obey one will. On that one +will, on that secret cause, they nail our attention and hope. Life +is hereby melted into an expectation or a religion. Underneath the +inharmonious and trivial particulars, is a musical perfection; the +Ideal journeying always with us, the heaven without rent or seam. Do but +observe the mode of our illumination. When I converse with a profound +mind, or if at any time being alone I have good thoughts, I do not at +once arrive at satisfactions, as when, being thirsty, I drink water; +or go to the fire, being cold; no! but I am at first apprised of my +vicinity to a new and excellent region of life. By persisting to read +or to think, this region gives further sign of itself, as it were in +flashes of light, in sudden discoveries of its profound beauty and +repose, as if the clouds that covered it parted at intervals and showed +the approaching traveller the inland mountains, with the tranquil +eternal meadows spread at their base, whereon flocks graze and shepherds +pipe and dance. But every insight from this realm of thought is felt as +initial, and promises a sequel. I do not make it; I arrive there, +and behold what was there already. I make! O no! I clap my hands in +infantine joy and amazement before the first opening to me of this +august magnificence, old with the love and homage of innumerable ages, +young with the life of life, the sunbright Mecca of the desert. And what +a future it opens! I feel a new heart beating with the love of the new +beauty. I am ready to die out of nature and be born again into this new +yet unapproachable America I have found in the West:-- + + "Since neither now nor yesterday began + These thoughts, which have been ever, nor yet can + A man be found who their first entrance knew." + +If I have described life as a flux of moods, I must now add that there +is that in us which changes not and which ranks all sensations and +states of mind. The consciousness in each man is a sliding scale, which +identifies him now with the First Cause, and now with the flesh of his +body; life above life, in infinite degrees. The sentiment from which it +sprung determines the dignity of any deed, and the question ever is, not +what you have done or forborne, but at whose command you have done or +forborne it. + +Fortune, Minerva, Muse, Holy Ghost,--these are quaint names, too narrow +to cover this unbounded substance. The baffled intellect must still +kneel before this cause, which refuses to be named,--ineffable cause, +which every fine genius has essayed to represent by some emphatic +symbol, as, Thales by water, Anaximenes by air, Anaxagoras by (Nous) +thought, Zoroaster by fire, Jesus and the moderns by love; and the +metaphor of each has become a national religion. The Chinese Mencius has +not been the least successful in his generalization. "I fully understand +language," he said, "and nourish well my vast-flowing vigor."--"I beg +to ask what you call vast-flowing vigor?"--said his companion. "The +explanation," replied Mencius, "is difficult. This vigor is supremely +great, and in the highest degree unbending. Nourish it correctly and do +it no injury, and it will fill up the vacancy between heaven and earth. +This vigor accords with and assists justice and reason, and leaves no +hunger."--In our more correct writing we give to this generalization the +name of Being, and thereby confess that we have arrived as far as we can +go. Suffice it for the joy of the universe that we have not arrived at a +wall, but at interminable oceans. Our life seems not present so much as +prospective; not for the affairs on which it is wasted, but as a hint of +this vast-flowing vigor. Most of life seems to be mere advertisement of +faculty; information is given us not to sell ourselves cheap; that +we are very great. So, in particulars, our greatness is always in a +tendency or direction, not in an action. It is for us to believe in the +rule, not in the exception. The noble are thus known from the ignoble. +So in accepting the leading of the sentiments, it is not what we believe +concerning the immortality of the soul or the like, but the universal +impulse to believe, that is the material circumstance and is the +principal fact in the history of the globe. Shall we describe this cause +as that which works directly? The spirit is not helpless or needful +of mediate organs. It has plentiful powers and direct effects. I am +explained without explaining, I am felt without acting, and where I am +not. Therefore all just persons are satisfied with their own praise. +They refuse to explain themselves, and are content that new actions +should do them that office. They believe that we communicate without +speech and above speech, and that no right action of ours is quite +unaffecting to our friends, at whatever distance; for the influence of +action is not to be measured by miles. Why should I fret myself because +a circumstance has occurred which hinders my presence where I was +expected? If I am not at the meeting, my presence where I am should be +as useful to the commonwealth of friendship and wisdom, as would be my +presence in that place. I exert the same quality of power in all places. +Thus journeys the mighty Ideal before us; it never was known to fall +into the rear. No man ever came to an experience which was satiating, +but his good is tidings of a better. Onward and onward! In liberated +moments we know that a new picture of life and duty is already possible; +the elements already exist in many minds around you of a doctrine of +life which shall transcend any written record we have. The new statement +will comprise the skepticisms as well as the faiths of society, and out +of unbeliefs a creed shall be formed. For skepticisms are not gratuitous +or lawless, but are limitations of the affirmative statement, and the +new philosophy must take them in and make affirmations outside of them, +just as much as it must include the oldest beliefs. + +It is very unhappy, but too late to be helped, the discovery we have +made that we exist. That discovery is called the Fall of Man. Ever +afterwards we suspect our instruments. We have learned that we do not +see directly, but mediately, and that we have no means of correcting +these colored and distorting lenses which we are, or of computing the +amount of their errors. Perhaps these subject-lenses have a creative +power; perhaps there are no objects. Once we lived in what we saw; +now, the rapaciousness of this new power, which threatens to absorb all +things, engages us. Nature, art, persons, letters, religions, objects, +successively tumble in, and God is but one of its ideas. Nature and +literature are subjective phenomena; every evil and every good thing is +a shadow which we cast. The street is full of humiliations to the proud. +As the fop contrived to dress his bailiffs in his livery and make them +wait on his guests at table, so the chagrins which the bad heart gives +off as bubbles, at once take form as ladies and gentlemen in the street, +shopmen or bar-keepers in hotels, and threaten or insult whatever is +threatenable and insultable in us. 'Tis the same with our idolatries. +People forget that it is the eye which makes the horizon, and +the rounding mind's eye which makes this or that man a type or +representative of humanity, with the name of hero or saint. Jesus, the +"providential man," is a good man on whom many people are agreed +that these optical laws shall take effect. By love on one part and +by forbearance to press objection on the other part, it is for a time +settled, that we will look at him in the centre of the horizon, and +ascribe to him the properties that will attach to any man so seen. But +the longest love or aversion has a speedy term. The great and crescive +self, rooted in absolute nature, supplants all relative existence and +ruins the kingdom of mortal friendship and love. Marriage (in what is +called the spiritual world) is impossible, because of the inequality +between every subject and every object. The subject is the receiver of +Godhead, and at every comparison must feel his being enhanced by that +cryptic might. Though not in energy, yet by presence, this magazine of +substance cannot be otherwise than felt; nor can any force of intellect +attribute to the object the proper deity which sleeps or wakes forever +in every subject. Never can love make consciousness and ascription +equal in force. There will be the same gulf between every me and thee as +between the original and the picture. The universe is the bride of the +soul. All private sympathy is partial. Two human beings are like globes, +which can touch only in a point, and whilst they remain in contact, +all other points of each of the spheres are inert; their turn must +also come, and the longer a particular union lasts the more energy of +appetency the parts not in union acquire. + +Life will be imaged, but cannot be divided nor doubled. Any invasion +of its unity would be chaos. The soul is not twin-born but the only +begotten, and though revealing itself as child in time, child in +appearance, is of a fatal and universal power, admitting no co-life. +Every day, every act betrays the ill-concealed deity. We believe in +ourselves as we do not believe in others. We permit all things to +ourselves, and that which we call sin in others is experiment for us. It +is an instance of our faith in ourselves that men never speak of crime +as lightly as they think; or every man thinks a latitude safe for +himself which is nowise to be indulged to another. The act looks very +differently on the inside and on the outside; in its quality and in its +consequences. Murder in the murderer is no such ruinous thought as poets +and romancers will have it; it does not unsettle him or fright him +from his ordinary notice of trifles; it is an act quite easy to be +contemplated; but in its sequel it turns out to be a horrible jangle +and confounding of all relations. Especially the crimes that spring from +love seem right and fair from the actor's point of view, but when acted +are found destructive of society. No man at last believes that he can be +lost, nor that the crime in him is as black as in the felon. Because the +intellect qualifies in our own case the moral judgments. For there is +no crime to the intellect. That is antinomian or hypernomian, and judges +law as well as fact. "It is worse than a crime, it is a blunder," said +Napoleon, speaking the language of the intellect. To it, the world is +a problem in mathematics or the science of quantity, and it leaves out +praise and blame and all weak emotions. All stealing is comparative. If +you come to absolutes, pray who does not steal? Saints are sad, because +they behold sin (even when they speculate), from the point of view of +the conscience, and not of the intellect; a confusion of thought. +Sin, seen from the thought, is a diminution, or less: seen from the +conscience or will, it is pravity or bad. The intellect names it +shade, absence of light, and no essence. The conscience must feel it as +essence, essential evil. This it is not; it has an objective existence, +but no subjective. + +Thus inevitably does the universe wear our color, and every object fall +successively into the subject itself. The subject exists, the subject +enlarges; all things sooner or later fall into place. As I am, so I see; +use what language we will, we can never say anything but what we are; +Hermes, Cadmus, Columbus, Newton, Bonaparte, are the mind's ministers. +Instead of feeling a poverty when we encounter a great man, let us treat +the new comer like a travelling geologist who passes through our estate +and shows us good slate, or limestone, or anthracite, in our brush +pasture. The partial action of each strong mind in one direction is a +telescope for the objects on which it is pointed. But every other part +of knowledge is to be pushed to the same extravagance, ere the soul +attains her due sphericity. Do you see that kitten chasing so prettily +her own tail? If you could look with her eyes you might see her +surrounded with hundreds of figures performing complex dramas, with +tragic and comic issues, long conversations, many characters, many ups +and downs of fate,--and meantime it is only puss and her tail. How long +before our masquerade will end its noise of tambourines, laughter, and +shouting, and we shall find it was a solitary performance? A subject and +an object,--it takes so much to make the galvanic circuit complete, but +magnitude adds nothing. What imports it whether it is Kepler and the +sphere, Columbus and America, a reader and his book, or puss with her +tail? + +It is true that all the muses and love and religion hate these +developments, and will find a way to punish the chemist who publishes in +the parlor the secrets of the laboratory. And we cannot say too little +of our constitutional necessity of seeing things under private aspects, +or saturated with our humors. And yet is the God the native of these +bleak rocks. That need makes in morals the capital virtue of self-trust. +We must hold hard to this poverty, however scandalous, and by more +vigorous self-recoveries, after the sallies of action, possess our axis +more firmly. The life of truth is cold and so far mournful; but it +is not the slave of tears, contritions and perturbations. It does not +attempt another's work, nor adopt another's facts. It is a main lesson +of wisdom to know your own from another's. I have learned that I cannot +dispose of other people's facts; but I possess such a key to my own as +persuades me, against all their denials, that they also have a key to +theirs. A sympathetic person is placed in the dilemma of a swimmer among +drowning men, who all catch at him, and if he give so much as a leg or a +finger they will drown him. They wish to be saved from the mischiefs of +their vices, but not from their vices. Charity would be wasted on this +poor waiting on the symptoms. A wise and hardy physician will say, Come +out of that, as the first condition of advice. + +In this our talking America we are ruined by our good nature and +listening on all sides. This compliance takes away the power of being +greatly useful. A man should not be able to look other than directly +and forthright. A preoccupied attention is the only answer to the +importunate frivolity of other people; an attention, and to an aim which +makes their wants frivolous. This is a divine answer, and leaves no +appeal and no hard thoughts. In Flaxman's drawing of the Eumenides of +Aeschylus, Orestes supplicates Apollo, whilst the Furies sleep on +the threshold. The face of the god expresses a shade of regret and +compassion, but is calm with the conviction of the irreconcilableness +of the two spheres. He is born into other politics, into the eternal and +beautiful. The man at his feet asks for his interest in turmoils of the +earth, into which his nature cannot enter. And the Eumenides there +lying express pictorially this disparity. The god is surcharged with his +divine destiny. + +Illusion, Temperament, Succession, Surface, Surprise, Reality, +Subjectiveness,--these are threads on the loom of time, these are the +lords of life. I dare not assume to give their order, but I name them as +I find them in my way. I know better than to claim any completeness for +my picture. I am a fragment, and this is a fragment of me. I can very +confidently announce one or another law, which throws itself into relief +and form, but I am too young yet by some ages to compile a code. I +gossip for my hour concerning the eternal politics. I have seen many +fair pictures not in vain. A wonderful time I have lived in. I am not +the novice I was fourteen, nor yet seven years ago. Let who will +ask Where is the fruit? I find a private fruit sufficient. This is +a fruit,--that I should not ask for a rash effect from meditations, +counsels and the hiving of truths. I should feel it pitiful to demand a +result on this town and county, an overt effect on the instant month and +year. The effect is deep and secular as the cause. It works on periods +in which mortal lifetime is lost. All I know is reception; I am and I +have: but I do not get, and when I have fancied I had gotten anything, +I found I did not. I worship with wonder the great Fortune. My reception +has been so large, that I am not annoyed by receiving this or that +superabundantly. I say to the Genius, if he will pardon the proverb, +In for a mill, in for a million. When I receive a new gift, I do not +macerate my body to make the account square, for if I should die I could +not make the account square. The benefit overran the merit the first +day, and has overrun the merit ever since. The merit itself, so-called, +I reckon part of the receiving. + +Also that hankering after an overt or practical effect seems to me an +apostasy. In good earnest I am willing to spare this most unnecessary +deal of doing. Life wears to me a visionary face. Hardest roughest +action is visionary also. It is but a choice between soft and turbulent +dreams. People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, and urge +doing. I am very content with knowing, if only I could know. That is +an august entertainment, and would suffice me a great while. To know a +little would be worth the expense of this world. I hear always the law +of Adrastia, "that every soul which had acquired any truth, should be +safe from harm until another period." + +I know that the world I converse with in the city and in the farms, is +not the world I think. I observe that difference, and shall observe it. +One day I shall know the value and law of this discrepance. But I have +not found that much was gained by manipular attempts to realize the +world of thought. Many eager persons successively make an experiment +in this way, and make themselves ridiculous. They acquire democratic +manners, they foam at the mouth, they hate and deny. Worse, I observe +that in the history of mankind there is never a solitary example of +success,--taking their own tests of success. I say this polemically, or +in reply to the inquiry, Why not realize your world? But far be from me +the despair which prejudges the law by a paltry empiricism;--since there +never was a right endeavor but it succeeded. Patience and patience, we +shall win at the last. We must be very suspicious of the deceptions of +the element of time. It takes a good deal of time to eat or to sleep, +or to earn a hundred dollars, and a very little time to entertain a hope +and an insight which becomes the light of our life. We dress our garden, +eat our dinners, discuss the household with our wives, and these things +make no impression, are forgotten next week; but, in the solitude to +which every man is always returning, he has a sanity and revelations +which in his passage into new worlds he will carry with him. Never mind +the ridicule, never mind the defeat; up again, old heart!--it seems to +say,--there is victory yet for all justice; and the true romance which +the world exists to realize will be the transformation of genius into +practical power. + +***** + + + + CHARACTER. + + The sun set; but set not his hope: + Stars rose; his faith was earlier up: + Fixed on the enormous galaxy, + Deeper and older seemed his eye: + And matched his sufferance sublime + The taciturnity of time. + He spoke, and words more soft than rain + Brought the Age of Gold again: + His action won such reverence sweet, + As hid all measure of the feat. + + Work of his hand + He nor commends nor grieves + Pleads for itself the fact; + As unrepenting Nature leaves + Her every act. + + + + +III. CHARACTER. + +I HAVE read that those who listened to Lord Chatham felt that there was +something finer in the man than any thing which he said. It has been +complained of our brilliant English historian of the French Revolution +that when he has told all his facts about Mirabeau, they do not justify +his estimate of his genius. The Gracchi, Agis, Cleomenes, and others of +Plutarch's heroes, do not in the record of facts equal their own fame. +Sir Philip Sidney, the Earl of Essex, Sir Walter Raleigh, are men of +great figure and of few deeds. We cannot find the smallest part of the +personal weight of Washington in the narrative of his exploits. The +authority of the name of Schiller is too great for his books. This +inequality of the reputation to the works or the anecdotes is not +accounted for by saying that the reverberation is longer than the +thunder-clap, but somewhat resided in these men which begot an +expectation that outran all their performance. The largest part of their +power was latent. This is that which we call Character,--a reserved +force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is +conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a Familiar or Genius, +by whose impulses the man is guided but whose counsels he cannot impart; +which is company for him, so that such men are often solitary, or +if they chance to be social, do not need society but can entertain +themselves very well alone. The purest literary talent appears at one +time great, at another time small, but character is of a stellar and +undiminishable greatness. What others effect by talent or by eloquence, +this man accomplishes by some magnetism. "Half his strength he put not +forth." His victories are by demonstration of superiority, and not by +crossing of bayonets. He conquers because his arrival alters the face of +affairs. "O Iole! how did you know that Hercules was a god?" "Because," +answered Iole, "I was content the moment my eyes fell on him. When I +beheld Theseus, I desired that I might see him offer battle, or at least +guide his horses in the chariot-race; but Hercules did not wait for a +contest; he conquered whether he stood, or walked, or sat, or whatever +thing he did." Man, ordinarily a pendant to events, only half attached, +and that awkwardly, to the world he lives in, in these examples appears +to share the life of things, and to be an expression of the same laws +which control the tides and the sun, numbers and quantities. + +But to use a more modest illustration and nearer home, I observe that in +our political elections, where this element, if it appears at all, +can only occur in its coarsest form, we sufficiently understand +its incomparable rate. The people know that they need in their +representative much more than talent, namely the power to make his +talent trusted. They cannot come at their ends by sending to Congress a +learned, acute, and fluent speaker, if he be not one who, before he was +appointed by the people to represent them, was appointed by Almighty God +to stand for a fact,--invincibly persuaded of that fact in himself,--so +that the most confident and the most violent persons learn that here is +resistance on which both impudence and terror are wasted, namely faith +in a fact. The men who carry their points do not need to inquire of +their constituents what they should say, but are themselves the country +which they represent; nowhere are its emotions or opinions so instant +and true as in them; nowhere so pure from a selfish infusion. The +constituency at home hearkens to their words, watches the color of +their cheek, and therein, as in a glass, dresses its own. Our public +assemblies are pretty good tests of manly force. Our frank countrymen of +the west and south have a taste for character, and like to know whether +the New Englander is a substantial man, or whether the hand can pass +through him. + +The same motive force appears in trade. There are geniuses in trade, +as well as in war, or the State, or letters; and the reason why this or +that man is fortunate is not to be told. It lies in the man; that is all +anybody can tell you about it. See him and you will know as easily why +he succeeds, as, if you see Napoleon, you would comprehend his fortune. +In the new objects we recognize the old game, the Habit of fronting the +fact, and not dealing with it at second hand, through the perceptions of +somebody else. Nature seems to authorize trade, as soon as you see the +natural merchant, who appears not so much a private agent as her factor +and Minister of Commerce. His natural probity combines with his insight +into the fabric of society to put him above tricks, and he communicates +to all his own faith that contracts are of no private interpretation. +The habit of his mind is a reference to standards of natural equity and +public advantage; and he inspires respect and the wish to deal with +him, both for the quiet spirit of honor which attends him, and for the +intellectual pastime which the spectacle of so much ability affords. +This immensely stretched trade, which makes the capes of the Southern +Ocean his wharves, and the Atlantic Sea his familiar port, centres in +his brain only; and nobody in the universe can make his place good. In +his parlor I see very well that he has been at hard work this morning, +with that knitted brow and that settled humor, which all his desire to +be courteous cannot shake off. I see plainly how many firm acts have +been done; how many valiant noes have this day been spoken, when others +would have uttered ruinous yeas. I see, with the pride of art and +skill of masterly arithmetic and power of remote combination, the +consciousness of being an agent and playfellow of the original laws of +the world. He too believes that none can supply him, and that a man must +be born to trade or he cannot learn it. + +This virtue draws the mind more when it appears in action to ends not +so mixed. It works with most energy in the smallest companies and in +private relations. In all cases it is an extraordinary and incomputable +agent. The excess of physical strength is paralyzed by it. Higher +natures overpower lower ones by affecting them with a certain sleep. The +faculties are locked up, and offer no resistance. Perhaps that is the +universal law. When the high cannot bring up the low to itself, it +benumbs it, as man charms down the resistance of the lower animals. Men +exert on each other a similar occult power. How often has the influence +of a true master realized all the tales of magic! A river of command +seemed to run down from his eyes into all those who beheld him, a +torrent of strong sad light, like an Ohio or Danube, which pervaded them +with his thoughts and colored all events with the hue of his mind. "What +means did you employ?" was the question asked of the wife of Concini, +in regard to her treatment of Mary of Medici; and the answer was, "Only +that influence which every strong mind has over a weak one." Cannot +Caesar in irons shuffle off the irons and transfer them to the person +of Hippo or Thraso the turnkey? Is an iron handcuff so immutable a bond? +Suppose a slaver on the coast of Guinea should take on board a gang +of negroes which should contain persons of the stamp of Toussaint +L'Ouverture: or, let us fancy, under these swarthy masks he has a gang +of Washingtons in chains. When they arrive at Cuba, will the relative +order of the ship's company be the same? Is there nothing but rope and +iron? Is there no love, no reverence? Is there never a glimpse of right +in a poor slave-captain's mind; and cannot these be supposed available +to break or elude or in any manner overmatch the tension of an inch or +two of iron ring? + +This is a natural power, like light and heat, and all nature cooperates +with it. The reason why we feel one man's presence and do not feel +another's is as simple as gravity. Truth is the summit of being; justice +is the application of it to affairs. All individual natures stand in a +scale, according to the purity of this element in them. The will of the +pure runs down from them into other natures as water runs down from +a higher into a lower vessel. This natural force is no more to be +withstood than any other natural force. We can drive a stone upward for +a moment into the air, but it is yet true that all stones will forever +fall; and whatever instances can be quoted of unpunished theft, or of +a lie which somebody credited, justice must prevail, and it is the +privilege of truth to make itself believed. Character is this moral +order seen through the medium of an individual nature. An individual is +an encloser. Time and space, liberty and necessity, truth and thought, +are left at large no longer. Now, the universe is a close or pound. All +things exist in the man tinged with the manners of his soul. With what +quality is in him he infuses all nature that he can reach; nor does he +tend to lose himself in vastness, but, at how long a curve soever, all +his regards return into his own good at last. He animates all he can, +and he sees only what he animates. He encloses the world, as the patriot +does his country, as a material basis for his character, and a theatre +for action. A healthy soul stands united with the Just and the True, +as the magnet arranges itself with the pole; so that he stands to all +beholders like a transparent object betwixt them and the sun, and whoso +journeys towards the sun, journeys towards that person. He is thus the +medium of the highest influence to all who are not on the same level. +Thus, men of character are the conscience of the society to which they +belong. + +The natural measure of this power is the resistance of circumstances. +Impure men consider life as it is reflected in opinions, events, and +persons. They cannot see the action until it is done. Yet its moral +element preexisted in the actor, and its quality as right or wrong it +was easy to predict. Everything in nature is bipolar, or has a positive +and negative pole. There is a male and a female, a spirit and a fact, +a north and a south. Spirit is the positive, the event is the negative. +Will is the north, action the south pole. Character may be ranked as +having its natural place in the north. It shares the magnetic currents +of the system. The feeble souls are drawn to the south or negative +pole. They look at the profit or hurt of the action. They never behold a +principle until it is lodged in a person. They do not wish to be lovely, +but to be loved. Men of character like to hear of their faults; the +other class do not like to hear of faults; they worship events; secure +to them a fact, a connection, a certain chain of circumstances, and they +will ask no more. The hero sees that the event is ancillary; it must +follow him. A given order of events has no power to secure to him the +satisfaction which the imagination attaches to it; the soul of goodness +escapes from any set of circumstances; whilst prosperity belongs to a +certain mind, and will introduce that power and victory which is its +natural fruit, into any order of events. No change of circumstances +can repair a defect of character. We boast our emancipation from many +superstitions; but if we have broken any idols it is through a transfer +of the idolatry. What have I gained, that I no longer immolate a bull to +Jove or to Neptune, or a mouse to Hecate; that I do not tremble +before the Eumenides, or the Catholic Purgatory, or the Calvinistic +Judgment-day,--if I quake at opinion, the public opinion, as we call it; +or at the threat of assault, or contumely, or bad neighbors, or poverty, +or mutilation, or at the rumor of revolution, or of murder? If I quake, +what matters it what I quake at? Our proper vice takes form in one or +another shape, according to the sex, age, or temperament of the +person, and, if we are capable of fear, will readily find terrors. The +covetousness or the malignity which saddens me when I ascribe it to +society, is my own. I am always environed by myself. On the other part, +rectitude is a perpetual victory, celebrated not by cries of joy but by +serenity, which is joy fixed or habitual. It is disgraceful to fly to +events for confirmation of our truth and worth. The capitalist does not +run every hour to the broker to coin his advantages into current money +of the realm; he is satisfied to read in the quotations of the market +that his stocks have risen. The same transport which the occurrence of +the best events in the best order would occasion me, I must learn to +taste purer in the perception that my position is every hour meliorated, +and does already command those events I desire. That exultation is only +to be checked by the foresight of an order of things so excellent as to +throw all our prosperities into the deepest shade. + +The face which character wears to me is self-sufficingness. I revere the +person who is riches; so that I cannot think of him as alone, or poor, +or exiled, or unhappy, or a client, but as perpetual patron, benefactor, +and beatified man. Character is centrality, the impossibility of being +displaced or overset. A man should give us a sense of mass. Society +is frivolous, and shreds its day into scraps, its conversation into +ceremonies and escapes. But if I go to see an ingenious man I shall +think myself poorly entertained if he give me nimble pieces of +benevolence and etiquette; rather he shall stand stoutly in his place +and let me apprehend if it were only his resistance; know that I have +encountered a new and positive quality;--great refreshment for both of +us. It is much that he does not accept the conventional opinions and +practices. That nonconformity will remain a goad and remembrancer, and +every inquirer will have to dispose of him, in the first place. There is +nothing real or useful that is not a seat of war. Our houses ring with +laughter and personal and critical gossip, but it helps little. But the +uncivil, unavailable man, who is a problem and a threat to society, whom +it cannot let pass in silence but must either worship or hate,--and +to whom all parties feel related, both the leaders of opinion and the +obscure and eccentric,--he helps; he puts America and Europe in the +wrong, and destroys the skepticism which says, 'man is a doll, let us +eat and drink, 'tis the best we can do,' by illuminating the untried +and unknown. Acquiescence in the establishment and appeal to the public, +indicate infirm faith, heads which are not clear, and which must see a +house built, before they can comprehend the plan of it. The wise man +not only leaves out of his thought the many, but leaves out the few. +Fountains, the self-moved, the absorbed, the commander because he is +commanded, the assured, the primary,--they are good; for these announce +the instant presence of supreme power. + +Our action should rest mathematically on our substance. In nature, there +are no false valuations. A pound of water in the ocean-tempest has no +more gravity than in a midsummer pond. All things work exactly according +to their quality and according to their quantity; attempt nothing they +cannot do, except man only. He has pretension; he wishes and attempts +things beyond his force. I read in a book of English memoirs, "Mr. Fox +(afterwards Lord Holland) said, he must have the Treasury; he had served +up to it, and would have it." Xenophon and his Ten Thousand were quite +equal to what they attempted, and did it; so equal, that it was not +suspected to be a grand and inimitable exploit. Yet there stands that +fact unrepeated, a high-water mark in military history. Many have +attempted it since, and not been equal to it. It is only on reality that +any power of action can be based. No institution will be better than the +institutor. I knew an amiable and accomplished person who undertook a +practical reform, yet I was never able to find in him the enterprise of +love he took in hand. He adopted it by ear and by the understanding from +the books he had been reading. All his action was tentative, a piece of +the city carried out into the fields, and was the city still, and no new +fact, and could not inspire enthusiasm. Had there been something latent +in the man, a terrible undemonstrated genius agitating and embarrassing +his demeanor, we had watched for its advent. It is not enough that the +intellect should see the evils and their remedy. We shall still postpone +our existence, nor take the ground to which we are entitled, whilst +it is only a thought and not a spirit that incites us. We have not yet +served up to it. + +These are properties of life, and another trait is the notice of +incessant growth. Men should be intelligent and earnest. They must also +make us feel that they have a controlling happy future opening before +them, whose early twilights already kindle in the passing hour. The hero +is misconceived and misreported; he cannot therefore wait to unravel any +man's blunders; he is again on his road, adding new powers and honors to +his domain and new claims on your heart, which will bankrupt you if you +have loitered about the old things and have not kept your relation to +him by adding to your wealth. New actions are the only apologies +and explanations of old ones which the noble can bear to offer or to +receive. If your friend has displeased you, you shall not sit down to +consider it, for he has already lost all memory of the passage, and +has doubled his power to serve you, and ere you can rise up again will +burden you with blessings. + +We have no pleasure in thinking of a benevolence that is only measured +by its works. Love is inexhaustible, and if its estate is wasted, its +granary emptied, still cheers and enriches, and the man, though he +sleep, seems to purify the air and his house to adorn the landscape and +strengthen the laws. People always recognize this difference. We know +who is benevolent, by quite other means than the amount of subscription +to soup-societies. It is only low merits that can be enumerated. +Fear, when your friends say to you what you have done well, and say it +through; but when they stand with uncertain timid looks of respect and +half-dislike, and must suspend their judgment for years to come, you may +begin to hope. Those who live to the future must always appear selfish +to those who live to the present. Therefore it was droll in the good +Riemer, who has written memoirs of Goethe, to make out a list of his +donations and good deeds, as, so many hundred thalers given to Stilling, +to Hegel, to Tischbein; a lucrative place found for Professor Voss, +a post under the Grand Duke for Herder, a pension for Meyer, two +professors recommended to foreign universities; &c., &c. The longest +list of specifications of benefit would look very short. A man is a +poor creature if he is to be measured so. For all these of course +are exceptions, and the rule and hodiernal life of a good man is +benefaction. The true charity of Goethe is to be inferred from the +account he gave Dr. Eckermann of the way in which he had spent his +fortune. "Each bon-mot of mine has cost a purse of gold. Half a million +of my own money, the fortune I inherited, my salary and the large income +derived from my writings for fifty years back, have been expended to +instruct me in what I now know. I have besides seen," &c. + +I own it is but poor chat and gossip to go to enumerate traits of this +simple and rapid power, and we are painting the lightning with charcoal; +but in these long nights and vacations I like to console myself so. +Nothing but itself can copy it. A word warm from the heart enriches me. +I surrender at discretion. How death-cold is literary genius before this +fire of life! These are the touches that reanimate my heavy soul and +give it eyes to pierce the dark of nature. I find, where I thought +myself poor, there was I most rich. Thence comes a new intellectual +exaltation, to be again rebuked by some new exhibition of character. +Strange alternation of attraction and repulsion! Character repudiates +intellect, yet excites it; and character passes into thought, is +published so, and then is ashamed before new flashes of moral worth. + +Character is nature in the highest form. It is of no use to ape it or to +contend with it. Somewhat is possible of resistance, and of persistence, +and of creation, to this power, which will foil all emulation. + +This masterpiece is best where no hands but nature's have been laid on +it. Care is taken that the greatly-destined shall slip up into life in +the shade, with no thousand-eyed Athens to watch and blazon every new +thought, every blushing emotion of young genius. Two persons lately, +very young children of the most high God, have given me occasion for +thought. When I explored the source of their sanctity and charm for the +imagination, it seemed as if each answered, 'From my nonconformity; I +never listened to your people's law, or to what they call their gospel, +and wasted my time. I was content with the simple rural poverty of my +own; hence this sweetness; my work never reminds you of that;--is pure +of that.' And nature advertises me in such persons that in +democratic America she will not be democratized. How cloistered and +constitutionally sequestered from the market and from scandal! It was +only this morning that I sent away some wild flowers of these wood-gods. +They are a relief from literature,--these fresh draughts from the +sources of thought and sentiment; as we read, in an age of polish and +criticism, the first lines of written prose and verse of a nation. +How captivating is their devotion to their favorite books, whether +Aeschylus, Dante, Shakspeare, or Scott, as feeling that they have a +stake in that book; who touches that, touches them;--and especially +the total solitude of the critic, the Patmos of thought from which +he writes, in unconsciousness of any eyes that shall ever read +this writing. Could they dream on still, as angels, and not wake to +comparisons, and to be flattered! Yet some natures are too good to be +spoiled by praise, and wherever the vein of thought reaches down into +the profound, there is no danger from vanity. Solemn friends will +warn them of the danger of the head's being turned by the flourish of +trumpets, but they can afford to smile. I remember the indignation of an +eloquent Methodist at the kind admonitions of a Doctor of Divinity,--'My +friend, a man can neither be praised nor insulted.' But forgive the +counsels; they are very natural. I remember the thought which occurred +to me when some ingenious and spiritual foreigners came to America, was, +Have you been victimized in being brought hither?--or, prior to that, +answer me this, 'Are you victimizable?' + +As I have said, Nature keeps these sovereignties in her own hands, and +however pertly our sermons and disciplines would divide some share of +credit, and teach that the laws fashion the citizen, she goes her own +gait and puts the wisest in the wrong. She makes very light of gospels +and prophets, as one who has a great many more to produce and no excess +of time to spare on any one. There is a class of men, individuals of +which appear at long intervals, so eminently endowed with insight and +virtue that they have been unanimously saluted as divine, and who seem +to be an accumulation of that power we consider. Divine persons are +character born, or, to borrow a phrase from Napoleon, they are victory +organized. They are usually received with ill-will, because they are new +and because they set a bound to the exaggeration that has been made +of the personality of the last divine person. Nature never rhymes her +children, nor makes two men alike. When we see a great man we fancy a +resemblance to some historical person, and predict the sequel of his +character and fortune; a result which he is sure to disappoint. None +will ever solve the problem of his character according to our prejudice, +but only in his own high unprecedented way. Character wants room; must +not be crowded on by persons nor be judged from glimpses got in the +press of affairs or on few occasions. It needs perspective, as a great +building. It may not, probably does not, form relations rapidly; and we +should not require rash explanation, either on the popular ethics, or on +our own, of its action. + +I look on Sculpture as history. I do not think the Apollo and the Jove +impossible in flesh and blood. Every trait which the artist recorded in +stone he had seen in life, and better than his copy. We have seen many +counterfeits, but we are born believers in great men. How easily we +read in old books, when men were few, of the smallest action of the +patriarchs. We require that a man should be so large and columnar in +the landscape, that it should deserve to be recorded that he arose, and +girded up his loins, and departed to such a place. The most credible +pictures are those of majestic men who prevailed at their entrance, and +convinced the senses; as happened to the eastern magian who was sent to +test the merits of Zertusht or Zoroaster. When the Yunani sage arrived +at Balkh, the Persians tell us, Gushtasp appointed a day on which the +Mobeds of every country should assemble, and a golden chair was placed +for the Yunani sage. Then the beloved of Yezdam, the prophet Zertusht, +advanced into the midst of the assembly. The Yunani sage, on seeing that +chief, said, "This form and this gait cannot lie, and nothing but truth +can proceed from them." Plato said it was impossible not to believe in +the children of the gods, "though they should speak without probable +or necessary arguments." I should think myself very unhappy in my +associates if I could not credit the best things in history. "John +Bradshaw," says Milton, "appears like a consul, from whom the fasces +are not to depart with the year; so that not on the tribunal only, but +throughout his life, you would regard him as sitting in judgment upon +kings." I find it more credible, since it is anterior information, that +one man should know heaven, as the Chinese say, than that so many men +should know the world. "The virtuous prince confronts the gods, without +any misgiving. He waits a hundred ages till a sage comes, and does not +doubt. He who confronts the gods, without any misgiving, knows heaven; +he who waits a hundred ages until a sage comes, without doubting, knows +men. Hence the virtuous prince moves, and for ages shows empire the +way." But there is no need to seek remote examples. He is a dull +observer whose experience has not taught him the reality and force of +magic, as well as of chemistry. The coldest precisian cannot go abroad +without encountering inexplicable influences. One man fastens an eye on +him and the graves of the memory render up their dead; the secrets that +make him wretched either to keep or to betray must be yielded;--another, +and he cannot speak, and the bones of his body seem to lose their +cartilages; the entrance of a friend adds grace, boldness, and eloquence +to him; and there are persons he cannot choose but remember, who gave a +transcendent expansion to his thought, and kindled another life in his +bosom. + +What is so excellent as strict relations of amity, when they spring from +this deep root? The sufficient reply to the skeptic who doubts the power +and the furniture of man, is in that possibility of joyful intercourse +with persons, which makes the faith and practice of all reasonable men. +I know nothing which life has to offer so satisfying as the profound +good understanding which can subsist after much exchange of good +offices, between two virtuous men, each of whom is sure of himself +and sure of his friend. It is a happiness which postpones all other +gratifications, and makes politics, and commerce, and churches, cheap. +For when men shall meet as they ought, each a benefactor, a shower +of stars, clothed with thoughts, with deeds, with accomplishments, it +should be the festival of nature which all things announce. Of such +friendship, love in the sexes is the first symbol, as all other things +are symbols of love. Those relations to the best men, which, at one +time, we reckoned the romances of youth, become, in the progress of the +character, the most solid enjoyment. + +If it were possible to live in right relations with men!--if we could +abstain from asking anything of them, from asking their praise, or help, +or pity, and content us with compelling them through the virtue of +the eldest laws! Could we not deal with a few persons,--with one +person,--after the unwritten statutes, and make an experiment of their +efficacy? Could we not pay our friend the compliment of truth, of +silence, of forbearing? Need we be so eager to seek him? If we are +related, we shall meet. It was a tradition of the ancient world that no +metamorphosis could hide a god from a god; and there is a Greek verse +which runs,-- + + "The Gods are to each other not unknown." + +Friends also follow the laws of divine necessity; they gravitate to each +other, and cannot otherwise:-- + + When each the other shall avoid, + Shall each by each be most enjoyed. + +Their relation is not made, but allowed. The gods must seat themselves +without seneschal in our Olympus, and as they can instal themselves +by seniority divine. Society is spoiled if pains are taken, if the +associates are brought a mile to meet. And if it be not society, it is a +mischievous, low, degrading jangle, though made up of the best. All the +greatness of each is kept back and every foible in painful activity, as +if the Olympians should meet to exchange snuff-boxes. + +Life goes headlong. We chase some flying scheme, or we are hunted by +some fear or command behind us. But if suddenly we encounter a friend, +we pause; our heat and hurry look foolish enough; now pause, now +possession is required, and the power to swell the moment from the +resources of the heart. The moment is all, in all noble relations. + +A divine person is the prophecy of the mind; a friend is the hope of the +heart. Our beatitude waits for the fulfilment of these two in one. The +ages are opening this moral force. All force is the shadow or symbol of +that. Poetry is joyful and strong as it draws its inspiration thence. +Men write their names on the world as they are filled with this. History +has been mean; our nations have been mobs; we have never seen a man: +that divine form we do not yet know, but only the dream and prophecy +of such: we do not know the majestic manners which belong to him, which +appease and exalt the beholder. We shall one day see that the most +private is the most public energy, that quality atones for quantity, and +grandeur of character acts in the dark, and succors them who never saw +it. What greatness has yet appeared is beginnings and encouragements +to us in this direction. The history of those gods and saints which the +world has written and then worshipped, are documents of character. The +ages have exulted in the manners of a youth who owed nothing to fortune, +and who was hanged at the Tyburn of his nation, who, by the pure quality +of his nature, shed an epic splendor around the facts of his death which +has transfigured every particular into an universal symbol for the eyes +of mankind. This great defeat is hitherto our highest fact. But the +mind requires a victory to the senses; a force of character which will +convert judge, jury, soldier, and king; which will rule animal and +mineral virtues, and blend with the courses of sap, of rivers, of winds, +of stars, and of moral agents. + +If we cannot attain at a bound to these grandeurs, at least let us do +them homage. In society, high advantages are set down to the possessor +as disadvantages. It requires the more wariness in our private +estimates. I do not forgive in my friends the failure to know a fine +character and to entertain it with thankful hospitality. When at last +that which we have always longed for is arrived and shines on us with +glad rays out of that far celestial land, then to be coarse, then to be +critical and treat such a visitant with the jabber and suspicion of the +streets, argues a vulgarity that seems to shut the doors of heaven. This +is confusion, this the right insanity, when the soul no longer knows +its own, nor where its allegiance, its religion, are due. Is there any +religion but this, to know that wherever in the wide desert of being the +holy sentiment we cherish has opened into a flower, it blooms for me? if +none sees it, I see it; I am aware, if I alone, of the greatness of the +fact. Whilst it blooms, I will keep sabbath or holy time, and suspend my +gloom and my folly and jokes. Nature is indulged by the presence of this +guest. There are many eyes that can detect and honor the prudent and +household virtues; there are many that can discern Genius on his +starry track, though the mob is incapable; but when that love which is +all-suffering, all-abstaining, all-aspiring, which has vowed to itself +that it will be a wretch and also a fool in this world sooner than +soil its white hands by any compliances, comes into our streets and +houses,--only the pure and aspiring can know its face, and the only +compliment they can pay it is to own it. + +***** + + + + MANNERS. + + "HOW near to good is what is fair! + Which we no sooner see, + But with the lines and outward air + Our senses taken be. + + Again yourselves compose, + And now put all the aptness on + Of Figure, that Proportion + Or Color can disclose; + That if those silent arts were lost, + Design and Picture, they might boast + From you a newer ground, + Instructed by the heightening sense + Of dignity and reverence + In their true motions found." + BEN JONSON + + + + +IV. MANNERS. + +HALF the world, it is said, knows not how the other half live. Our +Exploring Expedition saw the Feejee islanders getting their dinner off +human bones; and they are said to eat their own wives and children. The +husbandry of the modern inhabitants of Gournou (west of old Thebes) +is philosophical to a fault. To set up their housekeeping nothing is +requisite but two or three earthen pots, a stone to grind meal, and a +mat which is the bed. The house, namely a tomb, is ready without rent +or taxes. No rain can pass through the roof, and there is no door, for +there is no want of one, as there is nothing to lose. If the house do +not please them, they walk out and enter another, as there are several +hundreds at their command. "It is somewhat singular," adds Belzoni, to +whom we owe this account, "to talk of happiness among people who live in +sepulchres, among the corpses and rags of an ancient nation which they +know nothing of." In the deserts of Borgoo the rock-Tibboos still dwell +in caves, like cliff-swallows, and the language of these negroes +is compared by their neighbors to the shrieking of bats and to the +whistling of birds. Again, the Bornoos have no proper names; individuals +are called after their height, thickness, or other accidental quality, +and have nicknames merely. But the salt, the dates, the ivory, and the +gold, for which these horrible regions are visited, find their way into +countries where the purchaser and consumer can hardly be ranked in one +race with these cannibals and man-stealers; countries where man serves +himself with metals, wood, stone, glass, gum, cotton, silk, and wool; +honors himself with architecture; writes laws, and contrives to execute +his will through the hands of many nations; and, especially, establishes +a select society, running through all the countries of intelligent +men, a self-constituted aristocracy, or fraternity of the best, which, +without written law or exact usage of any kind, perpetuates itself, +colonizes every new-planted island and adopts and makes its own whatever +personal beauty or extraordinary native endowment anywhere appears. + +What fact more conspicuous in modern history than the creation of +the gentleman? Chivalry is that, and loyalty is that, and, in English +literature, half the drama, and all the novels, from Sir Philip Sidney +to Sir Walter Scott, paint this figure. The word gentleman, which, like +the word Christian, must hereafter characterize the present and the few +preceding centuries by the importance attached to it, is a homage +to personal and incommunicable properties. Frivolous and fantastic +additions have got associated with the name, but the steady interest +of mankind in it must be attributed to the valuable properties which +it designates. An element which unites all the most forcible persons of +every country; makes them intelligible and agreeable to each other, and +is somewhat so precise that it is at once felt if an individual lack +the masonic sign,--cannot be any casual product, but must be an average +result of the character and faculties universally found in men. It +seems a certain permanent average; as the atmosphere is a permanent +composition, whilst so many gases are combined only to be decompounded. +Comme il faut, is the Frenchman's description of good Society: as we +must be. It is a spontaneous fruit of talents and feelings of precisely +that class who have most vigor, who take the lead in the world of this +hour, and though far from pure, far from constituting the gladdest and +highest tone of human feeling, is as good as the whole society permits +it to be. It is made of the spirit, more than of the talent of men, +and is a compound result into which every great force enters as an +ingredient, namely virtue, wit, beauty, wealth, and power. + +There is something equivocal in all the words in use to express the +excellence of manners and social cultivation, because the quantities are +fluxional, and the last effect is assumed by the senses as the cause. +The word gentleman has not any correlative abstract to express the +quality. Gentility is mean, and gentilesse is obsolete. But we must +keep alive in the vernacular the distinction between fashion, a word of +narrow and often sinister meaning, and the heroic character which the +gentleman imports. The usual words, however, must be respected; +they will be found to contain the root of the matter. The point of +distinction in all this class of names, as courtesy, chivalry, fashion, +and the like, is that the flower and fruit, not the grain of the tree, +are contemplated. It is beauty which is the aim this time, and not +worth. The result is now in question, although our words intimate well +enough the popular feeling that the appearance supposes a substance. +The gentleman is a man of truth, lord of his own actions, and expressing +that lordship in his behavior, not in any manner dependent and servile, +either on persons, or opinions, or possessions. Beyond this fact of +truth and real force, the word denotes good-nature or benevolence: +manhood first, and then gentleness. The popular notion certainly adds a +condition of ease and fortune; but that is a natural result of personal +force and love, that they should possess and dispense the goods of the +world. In times of violence, every eminent person must fall in with many +opportunities to approve his stoutness and worth; therefore every man's +name that emerged at all from the mass in the feudal ages, rattles in +our ear like a flourish of trumpets. But personal force never goes out +of fashion. That is still paramount to-day, and in the moving crowd of +good society the men of valor and reality are known and rise to their +natural place. The competition is transferred from war to politics +and trade, but the personal force appears readily enough in these new +arenas. + +Power first, or no leading class. In politics and in trade, bruisers and +pirates are of better promise than talkers and clerks. God knows +that all sorts of gentlemen knock at the door; but whenever used in +strictness and with any emphasis, the name will be found to point +at original energy. It describes a man standing in his own right and +working after untaught methods. In a good lord there must first be +a good animal, at least to the extent of yielding the incomparable +advantage of animal spirits. The ruling class must have more, but they +must have these, giving in every company the sense of power, which +makes things easy to be done which daunt the wise. The society of the +energetic class, in their friendly and festive meetings, is full of +courage and of attempts which intimidate the pale scholar. The courage +which girls exhibit is like a battle of Lundy's Lane, or a sea-fight. +The intellect relies on memory to make some supplies to face these +extemporaneous squadrons. But memory is a base mendicant with basket and +badge, in the presence of these sudden masters. The rulers of society +must be up to the work of the world, and equal to their versatile +office: men of the right Caesarian pattern, who have great range of +affinity. I am far from believing the timid maxim of Lord Falkland +("that for ceremony there must go two to it; since a bold fellow will go +through the cunningest forms"), and am of opinion that the gentleman is +the bold fellow whose forms are not to be broken through; and only that +plenteous nature is rightful master which is the complement of whatever +person it converses with. My gentleman gives the law where he is; he +will outpray saints in chapel, outgeneral veterans in the field, and +outshine all courtesy in the hall. He is good company for pirates +and good with academicians; so that it is useless to fortify yourself +against him; he has the private entrance to all minds, and I could as +easily exclude myself, as him. The famous gentlemen of Asia and Europe +have been of this strong type; Saladin, Sapor, the Cid, Julius Caesar, +Scipio, Alexander, Pericles, and the lordliest personages. They sat very +carelessly in their chairs, and were too excellent themselves, to value +any condition at a high rate. + +A plentiful fortune is reckoned necessary, in the popular judgment, to +the completion of this man of the world; and it is a material deputy +which walks through the dance which the first has led. Money is not +essential, but this wide affinity is, which transcends the habits of +clique and caste and makes itself felt by men of all classes. If the +aristocrat is only valid in fashionable circles and not with truckmen, +he will never be a leader in fashion; and if the man of the people +cannot speak on equal terms with the gentleman, so that the gentleman +shall perceive that he is already really of his own order, he is not +to be feared. Diogenes, Socrates, and Epaminondas, are gentlemen of the +best blood who have chosen the condition of poverty when that of wealth +was equally open to them. I use these old names, but the men I speak of +are my contemporaries. Fortune will not supply to every generation one +of these well-appointed knights, but every collection of men furnishes +some example of the class; and the politics of this country, and the +trade of every town, are controlled by these hardy and irresponsible +doers, who have invention to take the lead, and a broad sympathy which +puts them in fellowship with crowds, and makes their action popular. + +The manners of this class are observed and caught with devotion by men +of taste. The association of these masters with each other and with men +intelligent of their merits, is mutually agreeable and stimulating. The +good forms, the happiest expressions of each, are repeated and adopted. +By swift consent everything superfluous is dropped, everything graceful +is renewed. Fine manners show themselves formidable to the uncultivated +man. They are a subtler science of defence to parry and intimidate; but +once matched by the skill of the other party, they drop the point of the +sword,--points and fences disappear, and the youth finds himself in a +more transparent atmosphere, wherein life is a less troublesome game, +and not a misunderstanding rises between the players. Manners aim to +facilitate life, to get rid of impediments and bring the man pure +to energize. They aid our dealing and conversation as a railway aids +travelling, by getting rid of all avoidable obstructions of the road and +leaving nothing to be conquered but pure space. These forms very soon +become fixed, and a fine sense of propriety is cultivated with the more +heed that it becomes a badge of social and civil distinctions. Thus +grows up Fashion, an equivocal semblance, the most puissant, the most +fantastic and frivolous, the most feared and followed, and which morals +and violence assault in vain. + +There exists a strict relation between the class of power and the +exclusive and polished circles. The last are always filled or filling +from the first. The strong men usually give some allowance even to the +petulances of fashion, for that affinity they find in it. Napoleon, +child of the revolution, destroyer of the old noblesse, never ceased to +court the Faubourg St. Germain; doubtless with the feeling that fashion +is a homage to men of his stamp. Fashion, though in a strange way, +represents all manly virtue. It is virtue gone to seed: it is a kind of +posthumous honor. It does not often caress the great, but the children +of the great: it is a hall of the Past. It usually sets its face against +the great of this hour. Great men are not commonly in its halls; they +are absent in the field: they are working, not triumphing. Fashion is +made up of their children; of those who through the value and virtue +of somebody, have acquired lustre to their name, marks of distinction, +means of cultivation and generosity, and, in their physical organization +a certain health and excellence which secures to them, if not the +highest power to work, yet high power to enjoy. The class of power, the +working heroes, the Cortez, the Nelson, the Napoleon, see that this is +the festivity and permanent celebration of such as they; that fashion is +funded talent; is Mexico, Marengo, and Trafalgar beaten out thin; that +the brilliant names of fashion run back to just such busy names as their +own, fifty or sixty years ago. They are the sowers, their sons shall +be the reapers, and their sons, in the ordinary course of things, must +yield the possession of the harvest to new competitors with keener eyes +and stronger frames. The city is recruited from the country. In the year +1805, it is said, every legitimate monarch in Europe was imbecile. The +city would have died out, rotted, and exploded, long ago, but that it +was reinforced from the fields. It is only country which came to town +day before yesterday that is city and court today. + +Aristocracy and fashion are certain inevitable results. These mutual +selections are indestructible. If they provoke anger in the least +favored class, and the excluded majority revenge themselves on the +excluding minority by the strong hand and kill them, at once a new class +finds itself at the top, as certainly as cream rises in a bowl of milk: +and if the people should destroy class after class, until two men only +were left, one of these would be the leader and would be involuntarily +served and copied by the other. You may keep this minority out of sight +and out of mind, but it is tenacious of life, and is one of the estates +of the realm. I am the more struck with this tenacity, when I see its +work. It respects the administration of such unimportant matters, that +we should not look for any durability in its rule. We sometimes meet +men under some strong moral influence, as a patriotic, a literary, a +religious movement, and feel that the moral sentiment rules man and +nature. We think all other distinctions and ties will be slight and +fugitive, this of caste or fashion for example; yet come from year to +year and see how permanent that is, in this Boston or New York life +of man, where too it has not the least countenance from the law of the +land. Not in Egypt or in India a firmer or more impassable line. Here +are associations whose ties go over and under and through it, a +meeting of merchants, a military corps, a college class, a fire-club, +a professional association, a political, a religious convention;--the +persons seem to draw inseparably near; yet, that assembly once +dispersed, its members will not in the year meet again. Each returns to +his degree in the scale of good society, porcelain remains porcelain, +and earthen earthen. The objects of fashion may be frivolous, or fashion +may be objectless, but the nature of this union and selection can +be neither frivolous nor accidental. Each man's rank in that perfect +graduation depends on some symmetry in his structure or some +agreement in his structure to the symmetry of society. Its doors +unbar instantaneously to a natural claim of their own kind. A natural +gentleman finds his way in, and will keep the oldest patrician out who +has lost his intrinsic rank. Fashion understands itself; good-breeding +and personal superiority of whatever country readily fraternize with +those of every other. The chiefs of savage tribes have distinguished +themselves in London and Paris, by the purity of their tournure. + +To say what good of fashion we can, it rests on reality, and hates +nothing so much as pretenders; to exclude and mystify pretenders and +send them into everlasting 'Coventry,' is its delight. We contemn in +turn every other gift of men of the world; but the habit even in little +and the least matters of not appealing to any but our own sense of +propriety, constitutes the foundation of all chivalry. There is almost +no kind of self-reliance, so it be sane and proportioned, which fashion +does not occasionally adopt and give it the freedom of its saloons. A +sainted soul is always elegant, and, if it will, passes unchallenged +into the most guarded ring. But so will Jock the teamster pass, in some +crisis that brings him thither, and find favor, as long as his head is +not giddy with the new circumstance, and the iron shoes do not wish to +dance in waltzes and cotillons. For there is nothing settled in manners, +but the laws of behavior yield to the energy of the individual. The +maiden at her first ball, the country-man at a city dinner, believes +that there is a ritual according to which every act and compliment must +be performed, or the failing party must be cast out of this presence. +Later they learn that good sense and character make their own forms +every moment, and speak or abstain, take wine or refuse it, stay or go, +sit in a chair or sprawl with children on the floor, or stand on their +head, or what else soever, in a new and aboriginal way; and that strong +will is always in fashion, let who will be unfashionable. All that +fashion demands is composure and self-content. A circle of men perfectly +well-bred would be a company of sensible persons in which every man's +native manners and character appeared. If the fashionist have not this +quality, he is nothing. We are such lovers of self-reliance that we +excuse in a man many sins if he will show us a complete satisfaction +in his position, which asks no leave to be, of mine, or any man's good +opinion. But any deference to some eminent man or woman of the world, +forfeits all privilege of nobility. He is an underling: I have nothing +to do with him; I will speak with his master. A man should not go where +he cannot carry his whole sphere or society with him,--not bodily, the +whole circle of his friends, but atmospherically. He should preserve in +a new company the same attitude of mind and reality of relation which +his daily associates draw him to, else he is shorn of his best beams, +and will be an orphan in the merriest club. "If you could see Vich +Ian Vohr with his tail on!--" But Vich Ian Vohr must always carry his +belongings in some fashion, if not added as honor, then severed as +disgrace. + +There will always be in society certain persons who are mercuries of its +approbation, and whose glance will at any time determine for the curious +their standing in the world. These are the chamberlains of the lesser +gods. Accept their coldness as an omen of grace with the loftier +deities, and allow them all their privilege. They are clear in their +office, nor could they be thus formidable without their own merits. +But do not measure the importance of this class by their pretension, or +imagine that a fop can be the dispenser of honor and shame. They pass +also at their just rate; for how can they otherwise, in circles which +exist as a sort of herald's office for the sifting of character? + +As the first thing man requires of man is reality, so that appears +in all the forms of society. We pointedly, and by name, introduce the +parties to each other. Know you before all heaven and earth, that this +is Andrew, and this is Gregory,--they look each other in the eye; they +grasp each other's hand, to identify and signalize each other. It is +a great satisfaction. A gentleman never dodges; his eyes look straight +forward, and he assures the other party, first of all, that he has been +met. For what is it that we seek, in so many visits and hospitalities? +Is it your draperies, pictures, and decorations? Or do we not insatiably +ask, Was a man in the house? I may easily go into a great household +where there is much substance, excellent provision for comfort, +luxury, and taste, and yet not encounter there any Amphitryon who shall +subordinate these appendages. I may go into a cottage, and find a +farmer who feels that he is the man I have come to see, and fronts +me accordingly. It was therefore a very natural point of old feudal +etiquette that a gentleman who received a visit, though it were of his +sovereign, should not leave his roof, but should wait his arrival at +the door of his house. No house, though it were the Tuileries or the +Escurial, is good for anything without a master. And yet we are not +often gratified by this hospitality. Every body we know surrounds +himself with a fine house, fine books, conservatory, gardens, equipage +and all manner of toys, as screens to interpose between himself and his +guest. Does it not seem as if man was of a very sly, elusive nature, +and dreaded nothing so much as a full rencontre front to front with his +fellow? It were unmerciful, I know, quite to abolish the use of these +screens, which are of eminent convenience, whether the guest is too +great or too little. We call together many friends who keep each other +in play, or by luxuries and ornaments we amuse the young people, and +guard our retirement. Or if perchance a searching realist comes to our +gate, before whose eye we have no care to stand, then again we run to +our curtain, and hide ourselves as Adam at the voice of the Lord God +in the garden. Cardinal Caprara, the Pope's legate at Paris, defended +himself from the glances of Napoleon by an immense pair of green +spectacles. Napoleon remarked them, and speedily managed to rally them +off: and yet Napoleon, in his turn, was not great enough with eight +hundred thousand troops at his back, to face a pair of freeborn eyes, +but fenced himself with etiquette and within triple barriers of reserve; +and, as all the world knows from Madame de Stael, was wont, when he +found himself observed, to discharge his face of all expression. But +emperors and rich men are by no means the most skilful masters of +good manners. No rentroll nor army-list can dignify skulking and +dissimulation; and the first point of courtesy must always be truth, as +really all the forms of good-breeding point that way. + +I have just been reading, in Mr. Hazlitt's translation, Montaigne's +account of his journey into Italy, and am struck with nothing more +agreeably than the self-respecting fashions of the time. His arrival in +each place, the arrival of a gentleman of France, is an event of some +consequence. Wherever he goes he pays a visit to whatever prince or +gentleman of note resides upon his road, as a duty to himself and to +civilization. When he leaves any house in which he has lodged for a few +weeks, he causes his arms to be painted and hung up as a perpetual sign +to the house, as was the custom of gentlemen. + +The complement of this graceful self-respect, and that of all the points +of good breeding I most require and insist upon, is deference. I +like that every chair should be a throne, and hold a king. I prefer +a tendency to stateliness to an excess of fellowship. Let the +incommunicable objects of nature and the metaphysical isolation of man +teach us independence. Let us not be too much acquainted. I would have +a man enter his house through a hall filled with heroic and sacred +sculptures, that he might not want the hint of tranquillity and +self-poise. We should meet each morning as from foreign countries, +and, spending the day together, should depart at night, as into foreign +countries. In all things I would have the island of a man inviolate. Let +us sit apart as the gods, talking from peak to peak all round Olympus. +No degree of affection need invade this religion. This is myrrh and +rosemary to keep the other sweet. Lovers Should guard their strangeness. +If they forgive too much, all slides into confusion and meanness. It +is easy to push this deference to a Chinese etiquette; but coolness and +absence of heat and haste indicate fine qualities. A gentleman makes no +noise; a lady is serene. Proportionate is our disgust at those invaders +who fill a studious house with blast and running, to secure some +paltry convenience. Not less I dislike a low sympathy of each with his +neighbor's needs. Must we have a good understanding with one another's +palates? as foolish people who have lived long together know when each +wants salt or sugar. I pray my companion, if he wishes for bread, to ask +me for bread, and if he wishes for sassafras or arsenic, to ask me for +them, and not to hold out his plate as if I knew already. Every natural +function can be dignified by deliberation and privacy. Let us leave +hurry to slaves. The compliments and ceremonies of our breeding should +signify, however remotely, the recollection of the grandeur of our +destiny. + +The flower of courtesy does not very well bide handling, but if we dare +to open another leaf and explore what parts go to its conformation, +we shall find also an intellectual quality. To the leaders of men, the +brain as well as the flesh and the heart must furnish a proportion. +Defect in manners is usually the defect of fine perceptions. Men are too +coarsely made for the delicacy of beautiful carriage and customs. It +is not quite sufficient to good-breeding, a union of kindness and +independence. We imperatively require a perception of, and a homage to +beauty in our companions. Other virtues are in request in the field and +workyard, but a certain degree of taste is not to be spared in those we +sit with. I could better eat with one who did not respect the truth or +the laws than with a sloven and unpresentable person. Moral qualities +rule the world, but at short distances the senses are despotic. The same +discrimination of fit and fair runs out, if with less rigor, into all +parts of life. The average spirit of the energetic class is good sense, +acting under certain limitations and to certain ends. It entertains +every natural gift. Social in its nature, it respects everything which +tends to unite men. It delights in measure. The love of beauty is mainly +the love of measure or proportion. The person who screams, or uses the +superlative degree, or converses with heat, puts whole drawing-rooms to +flight. If you wish to be loved, love measure. You must have genius or +a prodigious usefulness if you will hide the want of measure. This +perception comes in to polish and perfect the parts of the social +instrument. Society will pardon much to genius and special gifts, but, +being in its nature a convention, it loves what is conventional, or +what belongs to coming together. That makes the good and bad of manners, +namely what helps or hinders fellowship. For fashion is not good +sense absolute, but relative; not good sense private, but good sense +entertaining company. It hates corners and sharp points of character, +hates quarrelsome, egotistical, solitary, and gloomy people; hates +whatever can interfere with total blending of parties; whilst it values +all peculiarities as in the highest degree refreshing, which can +consist with good fellowship. And besides the general infusion of wit +to heighten civility, the direct splendor of intellectual power is ever +welcome in fine society as the costliest addition to its rule and its +credit. + +The dry light must shine in to adorn our festival, but it must be +tempered and shaded, or that will also offend. Accuracy is essential +to beauty, and quick perceptions to politeness, but not too quick +perceptions. One may be too punctual and too precise. He must leave the +omniscience of business at the door, when he comes into the palace of +beauty. Society loves creole natures, and sleepy languishing manners, so +that they cover sense, grace and good-will: the air of drowsy strength, +which disarms criticism; perhaps because such a person seems to reserve +himself for the best of the game, and not spend himself on surfaces; +an ignoring eye, which does not see the annoyances, shifts, and +inconveniences that cloud the brow and smother the voice of the +sensitive. + +Therefore besides personal force and so much perception as constitutes +unerring taste, society demands in its patrician class another element +already intimated, which it significantly terms good-nature,--expressing +all degrees of generosity, from the lowest willingness and faculty to +oblige, up to the heights of magnanimity and love. Insight we must have, +or we shall run against one another and miss the way to our food; but +intellect is selfish and barren. The secret of success in society is a +certain heartiness and sympathy. A man who is not happy in the company +cannot find any word in his memory that will fit the occasion. All his +information is a little impertinent. A man who is happy there, finds +in every turn of the conversation equally lucky occasions for the +introduction of that which he has to say. The favorites of society, and +what it calls whole souls, are able men and of more spirit than wit, +who have no uncomfortable egotism, but who exactly fill the hour and the +company; contented and contenting, at a marriage or a funeral, a ball +or a jury, a water-party or a shooting-match. England, which is rich in +gentlemen, furnished, in the beginning of the present century, a good +model of that genius which the world loves, in Mr. Fox, who added to +his great abilities the most social disposition and real love of men. +Parliamentary history has few better passages than the debate in which +Burke and Fox separated in the House of Commons; when Fox urged on his +old friend the claims of old friendship with such tenderness that the +house was moved to tears. Another anecdote is so close to my matter, +that I must hazard the story. A tradesman who had long dunned him for +a note of three hundred guineas, found him one day counting gold, and +demanded payment:--"No," said Fox, "I owe this money to Sheridan; it is +a debt of honor; if an accident should happen to me, he has nothing +to show." "Then," said the creditor, "I change my debt into a debt +of honor," and tore the note in pieces. Fox thanked the man for his +confidence and paid him, saying, "his debt was of older standing, and +Sheridan must wait." Lover of liberty, friend of the Hindoo, friend +of the African slave, he possessed a great personal popularity; and +Napoleon said of him on the occasion of his visit to Paris, in 1805, +"Mr. Fox will always hold the first place in an assembly at the +Tuileries." + +We may easily seem ridiculous in our eulogy of courtesy, whenever we +insist on benevolence as its foundation. The painted phantasm Fashion +rises to cast a species of derision on what we say. But I will neither +be driven from some allowance to Fashion as a symbolic institution, nor +from the belief that love is the basis of courtesy. We must obtain that, +if we can; but by all means we must affirm this. Life owes much of its +spirit to these sharp contrasts. Fashion, which affects to be honor, is +often, in all men's experience, only a ballroom-code. Yet so long as +it is the highest circle in the imagination of the best heads on the +planet, there is something necessary and excellent in it; for it is +not to be supposed that men have agreed to be the dupes of anything +preposterous; and the respect which these mysteries inspire in the most +rude and sylvan characters, and the curiosity with which details of +high life are read, betray the universality of the love of cultivated +manners. I know that a comic disparity would be felt, if we should enter +the acknowledged 'first circles' and apply these terrific standards of +justice, beauty, and benefit to the individuals actually found there. +Monarchs and heroes, sages and lovers, these gallants are not. Fashion +has many classes and many rules of probation and admission, and not +the best alone. There is not only the right of conquest, which genius +pretends,--the individual demonstrating his natural aristocracy best +of the best;--but less claims will pass for the time; for Fashion loves +lions, and points like Circe to her horned company. This gentleman is +this afternoon arrived from Denmark; and that is my Lord Ride, who came +yesterday from Bagdat; here is Captain Friese, from Cape Turnagain; and +Captain Symmes, from the interior of the earth; and Monsieur Jovaire, +who came down this morning in a balloon; Mr. Hobnail, the reformer; and +Reverend Jul Bat, who has converted the whole torrid zone in his Sunday +school; and Signor Torre del Greco, who extinguished Vesuvius by pouring +into it the Bay of Naples; Spahi, the Persian ambassador; and Tul Wil +Shan, the exiled nabob of Nepaul, whose saddle is the new moon.--But +these are monsters of one day, and to-morrow will be dismissed to +their holes and dens; for in these rooms every chair is waited for. The +artist, the scholar, and, in general, the clerisy, wins their way up +into these places and get represented here, somewhat on this footing of +conquest. Another mode is to pass through all the degrees, spending a +year and a day in St. Michael's Square, being steeped in Cologne water, +and perfumed, and dined, and introduced, and properly grounded in all +the biography and politics and anecdotes of the boudoirs. + +Yet these fineries may have grace and wit. Let there be grotesque +sculpture about the gates and offices of temples. Let the creed +and commandments even have the saucy homage of parody. The forms of +politeness universally express benevolence in superlative degrees. +What if they are in the mouths of selfish men, and used as means of +selfishness? What if the false gentleman almost bows the true out Of the +world? What if the false gentleman contrives so to address his companion +as civilly to exclude all others from his discourse, and also to make +them feel excluded? Real service will not lose its nobleness. All +generosity is not merely French and sentimental; nor is it to be +concealed that living blood and a passion of kindness does at last +distinguish God's gentleman from Fashion's. The epitaph of Sir Jenkin +Grout is not wholly unintelligible to the present age: "Here lies Sir +Jenkin Grout, who loved his friend and persuaded his enemy: what his +mouth ate, his hand paid for: what his servants robbed, he restored: if +a woman gave him pleasure, he supported her in pain: he never forgot his +children; and whoso touched his finger, drew after it his whole body." +Even the line of heroes is not utterly extinct. There is still ever some +admirable person in plain clothes, standing on the wharf, who jumps +in to rescue a drowning man; there is still some absurd inventor of +charities; some guide and comforter of runaway slaves; some friend of +Poland; some Philhellene; some fanatic who plants shade-trees for the +second and third generation, and orchards when he is grown old; some +well-concealed piety; some just man happy in an ill fame; some youth +ashamed of the favors of fortune and impatiently casting them on other +shoulders. And these are the centres of society, on which it returns for +fresh impulses. These are the creators of Fashion, which is an attempt +to organize beauty of behavior. The beautiful and the generous are, in +the theory, the doctors and apostles of this church: Scipio, and the +Cid, and Sir Philip Sidney, and Washington, and every pure and valiant +heart who worshipped Beauty by word and by deed. The persons who +constitute the natural aristocracy are not found in the actual +aristocracy, or only on its edge; as the chemical energy of the spectrum +is found to be greatest just outside of the spectrum. Yet that is the +infirmity of the seneschals, who do not know their sovereign when he +appears. The theory of society supposes the existence and sovereignty of +these. It divines afar off their coming. It says with the elder gods,-- + + "As Heaven and Earth are fairer far + Than Chaos and blank Darkness, though once chiefs; + And as we show beyond that Heaven and Earth, + In form and shape compact and beautiful; + So, on our heels a fresh perfection treads; + A power, more strong in beauty, born of us, + And fated to excel us, as we pass + In glory that old Darkness: + -------- for, 'tis the eternal law, + That first in beauty shall be first in might." + +Therefore, within the ethnical circle of good society there is a +narrower and higher circle, concentration of its light, and flower +of courtesy, to which there is always a tacit appeal of pride and +reference, as to its inner and imperial court; the parliament of love +and chivalry. And this is constituted of those persons in whom heroic +dispositions are native; with the love of beauty, the delight in +society, and the power to embellish the passing day. If the individuals +who compose the purest circles of aristocracy in Europe, the guarded +blood of centuries, should pass in review, in such manner as that we +could at leisure and critically inspect their behavior, we might find no +gentleman and no lady; for although excellent specimens of courtesy and +high-breeding would gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars +we should detect offence. Because elegance comes of no breeding, but +of birth. There must be romance of character, or the most fastidious +exclusion of impertinencies will not avail. It must be genius which +takes that direction: it must be not courteous, but courtesy. High +behavior is as rare in fiction as it is in fact. Scott is praised for +the fidelity with which he painted the demeanor and conversation of the +superior classes. Certainly, kings and queens, nobles and great ladies, +had some right to complain of the absurdity that had been put in their +mouths before the days of Waverley; but neither does Scott's dialogue +bear criticism. His lords brave each other in smart epigramatic +speeches, but the dialogue is in costume, and does not please on the +second reading: it is not warm with life. In Shakspeare alone the +speakers do not strut and bridle, the dialogue is easily great, and he +adds to so many titles that of being the best-bred man in England and in +Christendom. Once or twice in a lifetime we are permitted to enjoy the +charm of noble manners, in the presence of a man or woman who have no +bar in their nature, but whose character emanates freely in their +word and gesture. A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face; a +beautiful behavior is better than a beautiful form: it gives a higher +pleasure than statues or pictures; it is the finest of the fine arts. A +man is but a little thing in the midst of the objects of nature, yet, +by the moral quality radiating from his countenance he may abolish all +considerations of magnitude, and in his manners equal the majesty of the +world. I have seen an individual whose manners, though wholly within +the conventions of elegant society, were never learned there, but were +original and commanding and held out protection and prosperity; one who +did not need the aid of a court-suit, but carried the holiday in his +eye; who exhilarated the fancy by flinging wide the doors of new modes +of existence; who shook off the captivity of etiquette, with happy, +spirited bearing, good-natured and free as Robin Hood; yet with the port +of an emperor, if need be,--calm, serious, and fit to stand the gaze of +millions. + +The open air and the fields, the street and public chambers are the +places where Man executes his will; let him yield or divide the +sceptre at the door of the house. Woman, with her instinct of behavior, +instantly detects in man a love of trifles, any coldness or imbecility, +or, in short, any want of that large, flowing, and magnanimous +deportment which is indispensable as an exterior in the hall. Our +American institutions have been friendly to her, and at this moment I +esteem it a chief felicity of this country, that it excels in women. A +certain awkward consciousness of inferiority in the men may give rise +to the new chivalry in behalf of Woman's Rights. Certainly let her be as +much better placed in the laws and in social forms as the most zealous +reformer can ask, but I confide so entirely in her inspiring and musical +nature, that I believe only herself can show us how she shall be served. +The wonderful generosity of her sentiments raises her at times into +heroical and godlike regions, and verifies the pictures of Minerva, +Juno, or Polymnia; and by the firmness with which she treads her upward +path, she convinces the coarsest calculators that another road exists +than that which their feet know. But besides those who make good in +our imagination the place of muses and of Delphic Sibyls, are there not +women who fill our vase with wine and roses to the brim, so that the +wine runs over and fills the house with perfume; who inspire us with +courtesy; who unloose our tongues and we speak; who anoint our eyes and +we see? We say things we never thought to have said; for once, our walls +of habitual reserve vanished and left us at large; we were children +playing with children in a wide field of flowers. Steep us, we cried, in +these influences, for days, for weeks, and we shall be sunny poets and +will write out in many-colored words the romance that you are. Was it +Hafiz or Firdousi that said of his Persian Lilla, She was an elemental +force, and astonished me by her amount of life, when I saw her day after +day radiating, every instant, redundant joy and grace on all around her. +She was a solvent powerful to reconcile all heterogeneous persons into +one society: like air or water, an element of such a great range of +affinities that it combines readily with a thousand substances. Where +she is present all others will be more than they are wont. She was a +unit and whole, so that whatsoever she did, became her. She had too much +sympathy and desire to please, than that you could say her manners were +marked with dignity, yet no princess could surpass her clear and erect +demeanor on each occasion. She did not study the Persian grammar, nor +the books of the seven poets, but all the poems of the seven seemed +to be written upon her. For though the bias of her nature was not to +thought, but to sympathy, yet was she so perfect in her own nature as to +meet intellectual persons by the fulness of her heart, warming them by +her sentiments; believing, as she did, that by dealing nobly with all, +all would show themselves noble. + +I know that this Byzantine pile of chivalry or Fashion, which seems so +fair and picturesque to those who look at the contemporary facts for +science or for entertainment, is not equally pleasant to all spectators. +The constitution of our society makes it a giant's castle to the +ambitious youth who have not found their names enrolled in its Golden +Book, and whom it has excluded from its coveted honors and privileges. +They have yet to learn that its seeming grandeur is shadowy and +relative: it is great by their allowance; its proudest gates will +fly open at the approach of their courage and virtue. For the present +distress, however, of those who are predisposed to suffer from the +tyrannies of this caprice, there are easy remedies. To remove your +residence a couple of miles, or at most four, will commonly relieve the +most extreme susceptibility. For the advantages which fashion values +are plants which thrive in very confined localities, in a few streets +namely. Out of this precinct they go for nothing; are of no use in the +farm, in the forest, in the market, in war, in the nuptial society, in +the literary or scientific circle, at sea, in friendship, in the heaven +of thought or virtue. + +But we have lingered long enough in these painted courts. The worth of +the thing signified must vindicate our taste for the emblem. Everything +that is called fashion and courtesy humbles itself before the cause and +fountain of honor, creator of titles and dignities, namely the heart of +love. This is the royal blood, this the fire, which, in all countries +and contingencies, will work after its kind and conquer and expand +all that approaches it. This gives new meanings to every fact. This +impoverishes the rich, suffering no grandeur but its own. What is rich? +Are you rich enough to help anybody? to succor the unfashionable and the +eccentric? rich enough to make the Canadian in his wagon, the itinerant +with his consul's paper which commends him "To the charitable," the +swarthy Italian with his few broken words of English, the lame pauper +hunted by overseers from town to town, even the poor insane or besotted +wreck of man or woman, feel the noble exception of your presence and +your house from the general bleakness and stoniness; to make such feel +that they were greeted with a voice which made them both remember and +hope? What is vulgar but to refuse the claim on acute and conclusive +reasons? What is gentle, but to allow it, and give their heart and yours +one holiday from the national caution? Without the rich heart, wealth is +an ugly beggar. The king of Schiraz could not afford to be so bountiful +as the poor Osman who dwelt at his gate. Osman had a humanity so broad +and deep that although his speech was so bold and free with the Koran +as to disgust all the dervishes, yet was there never a poor outcast, +eccentric, or insane man, some fool who had cut off his beard, or who +had been mutilated under a vow, or had a pet madness in his brain, but +fled at once to him; that great heart lay there so sunny and hospitable +in the centre of the country, that it seemed as if the instinct of all +sufferers drew them to his side. And the madness which he harbored he +did not share. Is not this to be rich? this only to be rightly rich? + +But I shall hear without pain that I play the courtier very ill, and +talk of that which I do not well understand. It is easy to see, that +what is called by distinction society and fashion has good laws as well +as bad, has much that is necessary, and much that is absurd. Too good +for banning, and too bad for blessing, it reminds us of a tradition +of the pagan mythology, in any attempt to settle its character. 'I +overheard Jove, one day,' said Silenus, 'talking of destroying the +earth; he said it had failed; they were all rogues and vixens, who went +from bad to worse, as fast as the days succeeded each other. Minerva +said she hoped not; they were only ridiculous little creatures, with +this odd circumstance, that they had a blur, or indeterminate aspect, +seen far or seen near; if you called them bad, they would appear so; if +you called them good, they would appear so; and there was no one person +or action among them, which would not puzzle her owl, much more all +Olympus, to know whether it was fundamentally bad or good.' + +***** + + + + GIFTS. + + Gifts of one who loved me,-- + 'T was high time they came; + When he ceased to love me, + Time they stopped for shame. + + + + +V. GIFTS. + +IT is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy; that the world +owes the world more than the world can pay, and ought to go into +chancery and be sold. I do not think this general insolvency, which +involves in some sort all the population, to be the reason of the +difficulty experienced at Christmas and New Year and other times, in +bestowing gifts; since it is always so pleasant to be generous, though +very vexatious to pay debts. But the impediment lies in the choosing. +If at any time it comes into my head that a present is due from me to +somebody, I am puzzled what to give, until the opportunity is gone. +Flowers and fruits are always fit presents; flowers, because they are a +proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the +world. These gay natures contrast with the somewhat stern countenance of +ordinary nature: they are like music heard out of a work-house. +Nature does not cocker us; we are children, not pets; she is not fond; +everything is dealt to us without fear or favor, after severe universal +laws. Yet these delicate flowers look like the frolic and interference +of love and beauty. Men use to tell us that we love flattery even though +we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance +enough to be courted. Something like that pleasure, the flowers give us: +what am I to whom these sweet hints are addressed? Fruits are acceptable +gifts, because they are the flower of commodities, and admit of +fantastic values being attached to them. If a man should send to me to +come a hundred miles to visit him and should set before me a basket of +fine summer-fruit, I should think there was some proportion between the +labor and the reward. + +For common gifts, necessity makes pertinences and beauty every day, and +one is glad when an imperative leaves him no option; since if the man +at the door have no shoes, you have not to consider whether you could +procure him a paint-box. And as it is always pleasing to see a man eat +bread, or drink water, in the house or out of doors, so it is always +a great satisfaction to supply these first wants. Necessity does +everything well. In our condition of universal dependence it seems +heroic to let the petitioner be the judge of his necessity, and to give +all that is asked, though at great inconvenience. If it be a fantastic +desire, it is better to leave to others the office of punishing him. I +can think of many parts I should prefer playing to that of the Furies. +Next to things of necessity, the rule for a gift, which one of my +friends prescribed, is that we might convey to some person that which +properly belonged to his character, and was easily associated with him +in thought. But our tokens of compliment and love are for the most +part barbarous. Rings and other jewels are not gifts, but apologies for +gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me. +Therefore the poet brings his poem; the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, +corn; the miner, a gem; the sailor, coral and shells; the painter, his +picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing. This is right and +pleasing, for it restores society in so far to its primary basis, when +a man's biography is conveyed in his gift, and every man's wealth is an +index of his merit. But it is a cold lifeless business when you go to +the shops to buy me something which does not represent your life and +talent, but a goldsmith's. This is fit for kings, and rich men who +represent kings, and a false state of property, to make presents of gold +and silver stuffs, as a kind of symbolical sin-offering, or payment of +black-mail. + +The law of benefits is a difficult channel, which requires careful +sailing, or rude boats. It is not the office of a man to receive gifts. +How dare you give them? We wish to be self-sustained. We do not quite +forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being +bitten. We can receive anything from love, for that is a way of +receiving it from ourselves; but not from any one who assumes to bestow. +We sometimes hate the meat which we eat, because there seems something +of degrading dependence in living by it:-- + + "Brother, if Jove to thee a present make, + Take heed that from his hands thou nothing take." + +We ask the whole. Nothing less will content us. We arraign society if +it do not give us, besides earth and fire and water, opportunity, love, +reverence, and objects of veneration. + +He is a good man who can receive a gift well. We are either glad or +sorry at a gift, and both emotions are unbecoming. Some violence I think +is done, some degradation borne, when I rejoice or grieve at a gift. I +am sorry when my independence is invaded, or when a gift comes from such +as do not know my spirit, and so the act is not supported; and if the +gift pleases me overmuch, then I should be ashamed that the donor should +read my heart, and see that I love his commodity, and not him. The gift, +to be true, must be the flowing of the giver unto me, correspondent to +my flowing unto him. When the waters are at level, then my goods pass +to him, and his to me. All his are mine, all mine his. I say to him, How +can you give me this pot of oil or this flagon of wine when all your oil +and wine is mine, which belief of mine this gift seems to deny? Hence +the fitness of beautiful, not useful things, for gifts. This giving is +flat usurpation, and therefore when the beneficiary is ungrateful, as +all beneficiaries hate all Timons, not at all considering the value of +the gift but looking back to the greater store it was taken from,--I +rather sympathize with the beneficiary than with the anger of my lord +Timon. For the expectation of gratitude is mean, and is continually +punished by the total insensibility of the obliged person. It is a great +happiness to get off without injury and heart-burning from one who has +had the ill-luck to be served by you. It is a very onerous business, +this of being served, and the debtor naturally wishes to give you a +slap. A golden text for these gentlemen is that which I so admire in +the Buddhist, who never thanks, and who says, "Do not flatter your +benefactors." + +The reason of these discords I conceive to be that there is no +commensurability between a man and any gift. You cannot give anything to +a magnanimous person. After you have served him he at once puts you in +debt by his magnanimity. The service a man renders his friend is trivial +and selfish compared with the service he knows his friend stood in +readiness to yield him, alike before he had begun to serve his friend, +and now also. Compared with that good-will I bear my friend, the benefit +it is in my power to render him seems small. Besides, our action on each +other, good as well as evil, is so incidental and at random that we can +seldom hear the acknowledgments of any person who would thank us for +a benefit, without some shame and humiliation. We can rarely strike a +direct stroke, but must be content with an oblique one; we seldom +have the satisfaction of yielding a direct benefit which is directly +received. But rectitude scatters favors on every side without knowing +it, and receives with wonder the thanks of all people. + +I fear to breathe any treason against the majesty of love, which is the +genius and god of gifts, and to whom we must not affect to prescribe. +Let him give kingdoms or flower-leaves indifferently. There are persons +from whom we always expect fairy-tokens; let us not cease to expect +them. This is prerogative, and not to be limited by our municipal rules. +For the rest, I like to see that we cannot be bought and sold. The best +of hospitality and of generosity is also not in the will, but in fate. I +find that I am not much to you; you do not need me; you do not feel me; +then am I thrust out of doors, though you proffer me house and lands. No +services are of any value, but only likeness. When I have attempted to +join myself to others by services, it proved an intellectual trick,--no +more. They eat your service like apples, and leave you out. But love +them, and they feel you and delight in you all the time. + +***** + + + NATURE. + + The rounded world is fair to see, + Nine times folded in mystery: + Though baffled seers cannot impart + The secret of its laboring heart, + Throb thine with Nature's throbbing breast, + And all is clear from east to west. + Spirit that lurks each form within + Beckons to spirit of its kin; + Self-kindled every atom glows, + And hints the future which it owes. + + + + +VI. NATURE. + +THERE are days which occur in this climate, at almost any season of +the year, wherein the world reaches its perfection; when the air, +the heavenly bodies and the earth, make a harmony, as if nature would +indulge her offspring; when, in these bleak upper sides of the planet, +nothing is to desire that we have heard of the happiest latitudes, and +we bask in the shining hours of Florida and Cuba; when everything that +has life gives sign of satisfaction, and the cattle that lie on the +ground seem to have great and tranquil thoughts. These halcyons may be +looked for with a little more assurance in that pure October weather +which we distinguish by the name of the Indian summer. The day, +immeasurably long, sleeps over the broad hills and warm wide fields. +To have lived through all its sunny hours, seems longevity enough. The +solitary places do not seem quite lonely. At the gates of the forest, +the surprised man of the world is forced to leave his city estimates of +great and small, wise and foolish. The knapsack of custom falls off his +back with the first step he makes into these precincts. Here is sanctity +which shames our religions, and reality which discredits our heroes. +Here we find Nature to be the circumstance which dwarfs every other +circumstance, and judges like a god all men that come to her. We have +crept out of our close and crowded houses into the night and morning, +and we see what majestic beauties daily wrap us in their bosom. How +willingly we would escape the barriers which render them comparatively +impotent, escape the sophistication and second thought, and suffer +nature to intrance us. The tempered light of the woods is like a +perpetual morning, and is stimulating and heroic. The anciently reported +spells of these places creep on us. The stems of pines, hemlocks, and +oaks almost gleam like iron on the excited eye. The incommunicable trees +begin to persuade us to live with them, and quit our life of solemn +trifles. Here no history, or church, or state, is interpolated on the +divine sky and the immortal year. How easily we might walk onward into +the opening landscape, absorbed by new pictures and by thoughts fast +succeeding each other, until by degrees the recollection of home was +crowded out of the mind, all memory obliterated by the tyranny of the +present, and we were led in triumph by nature. + +These enchantments are medicinal, they sober and heal us. These are +plain pleasures, kindly and native to us. We come to our own, and make +friends with matter, which the ambitious chatter of the schools would +persuade us to despise. We never can part with it; the mind loves its +old home: as water to our thirst, so is the rock, the ground, to our +eyes and hands and feet. It is firm water; it is cold flame; what +health, what affinity! Ever an old friend, ever like a dear friend and +brother when we chat affectedly with strangers, comes in this honest +face, and takes a grave liberty with us, and shames us out of our +nonsense. Cities give not the human senses room enough. We go out daily +and nightly to feed the eyes on the horizon, and require so much scope, +just as we need water for our bath. There are all degrees of natural +influence, from these quarantine powers of nature, up to her dearest +and gravest ministrations to the imagination and the soul. There is the +bucket of cold water from the spring, the wood-fire to which the chilled +traveller rushes for safety,--and there is the sublime moral of autumn +and of noon. We nestle in nature, and draw our living as parasites from +her roots and grains, and we receive glances from the heavenly bodies, +which call us to solitude and foretell the remotest future. The blue +zenith is the point in which romance and reality meet. I think if +we should be rapt away into all that we dream of heaven, and should +converse with Gabriel and Uriel, the upper sky would be all that would +remain of our furniture. + +It seems as if the day was not wholly profane in which we have given +heed to some natural object. The fall of snowflakes in a still air, +preserving to each crystal its perfect form; the blowing of sleet over +a wide sheet of water, and over plains; the waving ryefield; the mimic +waving of acres of houstonia, whose innumerable florets whiten and +ripple before the eye; the reflections of trees and flowers in glassy +lakes; the musical steaming odorous south wind, which converts all trees +to windharps; the crackling and spurting of hemlock in the flames, or +of pine logs, which yield glory to the walls and faces in the +sittingroom,--these are the music and pictures of the most ancient +religion. My house stands in low land, with limited outlook, and on the +skirt of the village. But I go with my friend to the shore of our little +river, and with one stroke of the paddle I leave the village politics +and personalities, yes, and the world of villages and personalities +behind, and pass into a delicate realm of sunset and moonlight, too +bright almost for spotted man to enter without novitiate and probation. +We penetrate bodily this incredible beauty; we dip our hands in this +painted element; our eyes are bathed in these lights and forms. +A holiday, a villeggiatura, a royal revel, the proudest, most +heart-rejoicing festival that valor and beauty, power and taste, ever +decked and enjoyed, establishes itself on the instant. These sunset +clouds, these delicately emerging stars, with their private and +ineffable glances, signify it and proffer it. I am taught the poorness +of our invention, the ugliness of towns and palaces. Art and luxury +have early learned that they must work as enhancement and sequel to this +original beauty. I am overinstructed for my return. Henceforth I shall +be hard to please. I cannot go back to toys. I am grown expensive and +sophisticated. I can no longer live without elegance, but a countryman +shall be my master of revels. He who knows the most; he who knows +what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the waters, the plants, the +heavens, and how to come at these enchantments,--is the rich and royal +man. Only as far as the masters of the world have called in nature +to their aid, can they reach the height of magnificence. This is the +meaning of their hanging-gardens, villas, garden-houses, islands, +parks and preserves, to back their faulty personality with these +strong accessories. I do not wonder that the landed interest should be +invincible in the State with these dangerous auxiliaries. These bribe +and invite; not kings, not palaces, not men, not women, but these tender +and poetic stars, eloquent of secret promises. We heard what the rich +man said, we knew of his villa, his grove, his wine and his company, but +the provocation and point of the invitation came out of these beguiling +stars. In their soft glances I see what men strove to realize in some +Versailles, or Paphos, or Ctesiphon. Indeed, it is the magical lights of +the horizon and the blue sky for the background which save all our works +of art, which were otherwise bawbles. When the rich tax the poor with +servility and obsequiousness, they should consider the effect of men +reputed to be the possessors of nature, on imaginative minds. Ah! if +the rich were rich as the poor fancy riches! A boy hears a military +band play on the field at night, and he has kings and queens and famous +chivalry palpably before him. He hears the echoes of a horn in a +hill country, in the Notch Mountains, for example, which converts the +mountains into an Aeolian harp,--and this supernatural tiralira restores +to him the Dorian mythology, Apollo, Diana, and all divine hunters and +huntresses. Can a musical note be so lofty, so haughtily beautiful! +To the poor young poet, thus fabulous is his picture of society; he +is loyal; he respects the rich; they are rich for the sake of his +imagination; how poor his fancy would be, if they were not rich! That +they have some high-fenced grove which they call a park; that they live +in larger and better-garnished saloons than he has visited, and go in +coaches, keeping only the society of the elegant, to watering-places +and to distant cities,--these make the groundwork from which he +has delineated estates of romance, compared with which their actual +possessions are shanties and paddocks. The muse herself betrays her son, +and enhances the gifts of wealth and well-born beauty by a radiation +out of the air, and clouds, and forests that skirt the road,--a certain +haughty favor, as if from patrician genii to patricians, a kind of +aristocracy in nature, a prince of the power of the air. + +The moral sensibility which makes Edens and Tempes so easily, may not be +always found, but the material landscape is never far off. We can +find these enchantments without visiting the Como Lake, or the Madeira +Islands. We exaggerate the praises of local scenery. In every landscape +the point of astonishment is the meeting of the sky and the earth, +and that is seen from the first hillock as well as from the top of the +Alleghanies. The stars at night stoop down over the brownest, homeliest +common with all the spiritual magnificence which they shed on the +Campagna, or on the marble deserts of Egypt. The uprolled clouds and the +colors of morning and evening will transfigure maples and alders. The +difference between landscape and landscape is small, but there is +great difference in the beholders. There is nothing so wonderful in any +particular landscape as the necessity of being beautiful under which +every landscape lies. Nature cannot be surprised in undress. Beauty +breaks in everywhere. + +But it is very easy to outrun the sympathy of readers on this topic, +which schoolmen called natura naturata, or nature passive. One can +hardly speak directly of it without excess. It is as easy to broach in +mixed companies what is called "the subject of religion." A susceptible +person does not like to indulge his tastes in this kind without the +apology of some trivial necessity: he goes to see a wood-lot, or to look +at the crops, or to fetch a plant or a mineral from a remote locality, +or he carries a fowling-piece or a fishing-rod. I suppose this shame +must have a good reason. A dilettantism in nature is barren and +unworthy. The fop of fields is no better than his brother of Broadway. +Men are naturally hunters and inquisitive of wood-craft, and I suppose +that such a gazetteer as wood-cutters and Indians should furnish facts +for, would take place in the most sumptuous drawing-rooms of all the +"Wreaths" and "Flora's chaplets" of the bookshops; yet ordinarily, +whether we are too clumsy for so subtle a topic, or from whatever +cause, as soon as men begin to write on nature, they fall into euphuism. +Frivolity is a most unfit tribute to Pan, who ought to be represented +in the mythology as the most continent of gods. I would not be frivolous +before the admirable reserve and prudence of time, yet I cannot renounce +the right of returning often to this old topic. The multitude of false +churches accredits the true religion. Literature, poetry, science are +the homage of man to this unfathomed secret, concerning which no sane +man can affect an indifference or incuriosity. Nature is loved by what +is best in us. It is loved as the city of God, although, or rather +because there is no citizen. The sunset is unlike anything that is +underneath it: it wants men. And the beauty of nature must always seem +unreal and mocking, until the landscape has human figures that are +as good as itself. If there were good men, there would never be this +rapture in nature. If the king is in the palace, nobody looks at the +walls. It is when he is gone, and the house is filled with grooms and +gazers, that we turn from the people to find relief in the majestic men +that are suggested by the pictures and the architecture. The critics who +complain of the sickly separation of the beauty of nature from the +thing to be done, must consider that our hunting of the picturesque +is inseparable from our protest against false society. Man is fallen; +nature is erect, and serves as a differential thermometer, detecting +the presence or absence of the divine sentiment in man. By fault of our +dulness and selfishness we are looking up to nature, but when we are +convalescent, nature will look up to us. We see the foaming brook with +compunction: if our own life flowed with the right energy, we should +shame the brook. The stream of zeal sparkles with real fire, and not +with reflex rays of sun and moon. Nature may be as selfishly studied as +trade. Astronomy to the selfish becomes astrology; psychology, mesmerism +(with intent to show where our spoons are gone); and anatomy and +physiology become phrenology and palmistry. + +But taking timely warning, and leaving many things unsaid on this +topic, let us not longer omit our homage to the Efficient Nature, natura +naturans, the quick cause before which all forms flee as the driven +snows; itself secret, its works driven before it in flocks and +multitudes, (as the ancient represented nature by Proteus, a shepherd,) +and in undescribable variety. It publishes itself in creatures, reaching +from particles and spiculae through transformation on transformation to +the highest symmetries, arriving at consummate results without a +shock or a leap. A little heat, that is a little motion, is all that +differences the bald, dazzling white and deadly cold poles of the earth +from the prolific tropical climates. All changes pass without violence, +by reason of the two cardinal conditions of boundless space and +boundless time. Geology has initiated us into the secularity of nature, +and taught us to disuse our dame-school measures, and exchange our +Mosaic and Ptolemaic schemes for her large style. We knew nothing +rightly, for want of perspective. Now we learn what patient periods +must round themselves before the rock is formed; then before the rock +is broken, and the first lichen race has disintegrated the thinnest +external plate into soil, and opened the door for the remote Flora, +Fauna, Ceres, and Pomona to come in. How far off yet is the trilobite! +how far the quadruped! how inconceivably remote is man! All duly arrive, +and then race after race of men. It is a long way from granite to the +oyster; farther yet to Plato and the preaching of the immortality of the +soul. Yet all must come, as surely as the first atom has two sides. + +Motion or change and identity or rest are the first and second secrets +of nature:--Motion and Rest. The whole code of her laws may be written +on the thumbnail, or the signet of a ring. The whirling bubble on the +surface of a brook admits us to the secret of the mechanics of the sky. +Every shell on the beach is a key to it. A little water made to rotate +in a cup explains the formation of the simpler shells; the addition of +matter from year to year, arrives at last at the most complex forms; and +yet so poor is nature with all her craft, that from the beginning to the +end of the universe she has but one stuff,--but one stuff with its two +ends, to serve up all her dream-like variety. Compound it how she will, +star, sand, fire, water, tree, man, it is still one stuff, and betrays +the same properties. + +Nature is always consistent, though she feigns to contravene her own +laws. She keeps her laws, and seems to transcend them. She arms and +equips an animal to find its place and living in the earth, and at the +same time she arms and equips another animal to destroy it. Space exists +to divide creatures; but by clothing the sides of a bird with a few +feathers she gives him a petty omnipresence. The direction is forever +onward, but the artist still goes back for materials and begins again +with the first elements on the most advanced stage: otherwise all goes +to ruin. If we look at her work, we seem to catch a glance of a system +in transition. Plants are the young of the world, vessels of health and +vigor; but they grope ever upward towards consciousness; the trees are +imperfect men, and seem to bemoan their imprisonment, rooted in the +ground. The animal is the novice and probationer of a more advanced +order. The men, though young, having tasted the first drop from the +cup of thought, are already dissipated: the maples and ferns are still +uncorrupt; yet no doubt when they come to consciousness they too will +curse and swear. Flowers so strictly belong to youth that we adult men +soon come to feel that their beautiful generations concern not us: we +have had our day; now let the children have theirs. The flowers jilt us, +and we are old bachelors with our ridiculous tenderness. + +Things are so strictly related, that according to the skill of the +eye, from any one object the parts and properties of any other may be +predicted. If we had eyes to see it, a bit of stone from the city wall +would certify us of the necessity that man must exist, as readily as +the city. That identity makes us all one, and reduces to nothing great +intervals on our customary scale. We talk of deviations from natural +life, as if artificial life were not also natural. The smoothest curled +courtier in the boudoirs of a palace has an animal nature, rude and +aboriginal as a white bear, omnipotent to its own ends, and is +directly related, there amid essences and billetsdoux, to Himmaleh +mountain-chains and the axis of the globe. If we consider how much +we are nature's, we need not be superstitious about towns, as if that +terrific or benefic force did not find us there also, and fashion +cities. Nature, who made the mason, made the house. We may easily hear +too much of rural influences. The cool disengaged air of natural objects +makes them enviable to us, chafed and irritable creatures with red +faces, and we think we shall be as grand as they if we camp out and eat +roots; but let us be men instead of woodchucks and the oak and the elm +shall gladly serve us, though we sit in chairs of ivory on carpets of +silk. + +This guiding identity runs through all the surprises and contrasts of +the piece, and characterizes every law. Man carries the world in his +head, the whole astronomy and chemistry suspended in a thought. Because +the history of nature is charactered in his brain, therefore is he +the prophet and discoverer of her secrets. Every known fact in natural +science was divined by the presentiment of somebody, before it was +actually verified. A man does not tie his shoe without recognizing laws +which bind the farthest regions of nature: moon, plant, gas, crystal, +are concrete geometry and numbers. Common sense knows its own, and +recognizes the fact at first sight in chemical experiment. The common +sense of Franklin, Dalton, Davy and Black, is the same common sense +which made the arrangements which now it discovers. + +If the identity expresses organized rest, the counter action runs also +into organization. The astronomers said, 'Give us matter and a little +motion and we will construct the universe. It is not enough that we +should have matter, we must also have a single impulse, one shove +to launch the mass and generate the harmony of the centrifugal and +centripetal forces. Once heave the ball from the hand, and we can show +how all this mighty order grew.'--'A very unreasonable postulate,' said +the metaphysicians, 'and a plain begging of the question. Could you not +prevail to know the genesis of projection, as well as the continuation +of it?' Nature, meanwhile, had not waited for the discussion, but, right +or wrong, bestowed the impulse, and the balls rolled. It was no great +affair, a mere push, but the astronomers were right in making much of +it, for there is no end to the consequences of the act. That famous +aboriginal push propagates itself through all the balls of the +system, and through every atom of every ball; through all the races of +creatures, and through the history and performances of every individual. +Exaggeration is in the course of things. Nature sends no creature, no +man into the world without adding a small excess of his proper quality. +Given the planet, it is still necessary to add the impulse; so to every +creature nature added a little violence of direction in its proper path, +a shove to put it on its way; in every instance a slight generosity, a +drop too much. Without electricity the air would rot, and without this +violence of direction which men and women have, without a spice of bigot +and fanatic, no excitement, no efficiency. We aim above the mark to hit +the mark. Every act hath some falsehood of exaggeration in it. And when +now and then comes along some sad, sharp-eyed man, who sees how paltry a +game is played, and refuses to play, but blabs the secret;--how then? Is +the bird flown? O no, the wary Nature sends a new troop of fairer forms, +of lordlier youths, with a little more excess of direction to hold +them fast to their several aim; makes them a little wrongheaded in that +direction in which they are rightest, and on goes the game again with +new whirl, for a generation or two more. The child with his sweet +pranks, the fool of his senses, commanded by every sight and sound, +without any power to compare and rank his sensations, abandoned to +a whistle or a painted chip, to a lead dragoon or a gingerbread-dog, +individualizing everything, generalizing nothing, delighted with every +new thing, lies down at night overpowered by the fatigue which this day +of continual pretty madness has incurred. But Nature has answered her +purpose with the curly, dimpled lunatic. She has tasked every faculty, +and has secured the symmetrical growth of the bodily frame by all these +attitudes and exertions,--an end of the first importance, which could +not be trusted to any care less perfect than her own. This glitter, this +opaline lustre plays round the top of every toy to his eye to insure +his fidelity, and he is deceived to his good. We are made alive and kept +alive by the same arts. Let the stoics say what they please, we do +not eat for the good of living, but because the meat is savory and +the appetite is keen. The vegetable life does not content itself with +casting from the flower or the tree a single seed, but it fills the +air and earth with a prodigality of seeds, that, if thousands perish, +thousands may plant themselves; that hundreds may come up, that tens may +live to maturity; that at least one may replace the parent. All things +betray the same calculated profusion. The excess of fear with which the +animal frame is hedged round, shrinking from cold, starting at sight +of a snake, or at a sudden noise, protects us, through a multitude of +groundless alarms, from some one real danger at last. The lover seeks in +marriage his private felicity and perfection, with no prospective end; +and nature hides in his happiness her own end, namely, progeny, or the +perpetuity of the race. + +But the craft with which the world is made, runs also into the mind and +character of men. No man is quite sane; each has a vein of folly in his +composition, a slight determination of blood to the head, to make sure +of holding him hard to some one point which nature had taken to heart. +Great causes are never tried on their merits; but the cause is reduced +to particulars to suit the size of the partisans, and the contention is +ever hottest on minor matters. Not less remarkable is the overfaith of +each man in the importance of what he has to do or say. The poet, the +prophet, has a higher value for what he utters than any hearer, and +therefore it gets spoken. The strong, self-complacent Luther declares +with an emphasis not to be mistaken, that "God himself cannot do without +wise men." Jacob Behmen and George Fox betray their egotism in the +pertinacity of their controversial tracts, and James Naylor once +suffered himself to be worshipped as the Christ. Each prophet comes +presently to identify himself with his thought, and to esteem his hat +and shoes sacred. However this may discredit such persons with the +judicious, it helps them with the people, as it gives heat, pungency, +and publicity to their words. A similar experience is not infrequent +in private life. Each young and ardent person writes a diary, in which, +when the hours of prayer and penitence arrive, he inscribes his soul. +The pages thus written are to him burning and fragrant; he reads them +on his knees by midnight and by the morning star; he wets them with his +tears; they are sacred; too good for the world, and hardly yet to be +shown to the dearest friend. This is the man-child that is born to the +soul, and her life still circulates in the babe. The umbilical cord +has not yet been cut. After some time has elapsed, he begins to wish to +admit his friend to this hallowed experience, and with hesitation, yet +with firmness, exposes the pages to his eye. Will they not burn his +eyes? The friend coldly turns them over, and passes from the writing to +conversation, with easy transition, which strikes the other party with +astonishment and vexation. He cannot suspect the writing itself. Days +and nights of fervid life, of communion with angels of darkness and of +light have engraved their shadowy characters on that tear-stained book. +He suspects the intelligence or the heart of his friend. Is there then +no friend? He cannot yet credit that one may have impressive experience +and yet may not know how to put his private fact into literature; and +perhaps the discovery that wisdom has other tongues and ministers than +we, that though we should hold our peace the truth would not the less be +spoken, might check injuriously the flames of our zeal. A man can +only speak so long as he does not feel his speech to be partial and +inadequate. It is partial, but he does not see it to be so whilst he +utters it. As soon as he is released from the instinctive and particular +and sees its partiality, he shuts his mouth in disgust. For no man can +write anything who does not think that what he writes is for the time +the history of the world; or do anything well who does not esteem his +work to be of importance. My work may be of none, but I must not think +it of none, or I shall not do it with impunity. + +In like manner, there is throughout nature something mocking, something +that leads us on and on, but arrives nowhere; keeps no faith with +us. All promise outruns the performance. We live in a system of +approximations. Every end is prospective of some other end, which is +also temporary; a round and final success nowhere. We are encamped in +nature, not domesticated. Hunger and thirst lead us on to eat and to +drink; but bread and wine, mix and cook them how you will, leave us +hungry and thirsty, after the stomach is full. It is the same with all +our arts and performances. Our music, our poetry, our language itself +are not satisfactions, but suggestions. The hunger for wealth, which +reduces the planet to a garden, fools the eager pursuer. What is the end +sought? Plainly to secure the ends of good sense and beauty, from the +intrusion of deformity or vulgarity of any kind. But what an operose +method! What a train of means to secure a little conversation! This +palace of brick and stone, these servants, this kitchen, these stables, +horses and equipage, this bank-stock and file of mortgages; trade to all +the world, country-house and cottage by the waterside, all for a little +conversation, high, clear, and spiritual! Could it not be had as well +by beggars on the highway? No, all these things came from successive +efforts of these beggars to remove friction from the wheels of life, and +give opportunity. Conversation, character, were the avowed ends; wealth +was good as it appeased the animal cravings, cured the smoky chimney, +silenced the creaking door, brought friends together in a warm and +quiet room, and kept the children and the dinner-table in a different +apartment. Thought, virtue, beauty, were the ends; but it was known that +men of thought and virtue sometimes had the headache, or wet feet, or +could lose good time whilst the room was getting warm in winter days. +Unluckily, in the exertions necessary to remove these inconveniences, +the main attention has been diverted to this object; the old aims have +been lost sight of, and to remove friction has come to be the end. That +is the ridicule of rich men, and Boston, London, Vienna, and now the +governments generally of the world are cities and governments of the +rich; and the masses are not men, but poor men, that is, men who would +be rich; this is the ridicule of the class, that they arrive with pains +and sweat and fury nowhere; when all is done, it is for nothing. They +are like one who has interrupted the conversation of a company to make +his speech, and now has forgotten what he went to say. The appearance +strikes the eye everywhere of an aimless society, of aimless nations. +Were the ends of nature so great and cogent as to exact this immense +sacrifice of men? + +Quite analogous to the deceits in life, there is, as might be expected, +a similar effect on the eye from the face of external nature. There is +in woods and waters a certain enticement and flattery, together with a +failure to yield a present satisfaction. This disappointment is felt +in every landscape. I have seen the softness and beauty of the summer +clouds floating feathery overhead, enjoying, as it seemed, their height +and privilege of motion, whilst yet they appeared not so much the +drapery of this place and hour, as forelooking to some pavilions and +gardens of festivity beyond. It is an odd jealousy, but the poet finds +himself not near enough to his object. The pine-tree, the river, the +bank of flowers before him, does not seem to be nature. Nature is still +elsewhere. This or this is but outskirt and far-off reflection and echo +of the triumph that has passed by and is now at its glancing splendor +and heyday, perchance in the neighboring fields, or, if you stand in +the field, then in the adjacent woods. The present object shall give you +this sense of stillness that follows a pageant which has just gone by. +What splendid distance, what recesses of ineffable pomp and loveliness +in the sunset! But who can go where they are, or lay his hand or plant +his foot thereon? Off they fall from the round world forever and ever. +It is the same among the men and women as among the silent trees; always +a referred existence, an absence, never a presence and satisfaction. +Is it that beauty can never be grasped? in persons and in landscape +is equally inaccessible? The accepted and betrothed lover has lost the +wildest charm of his maiden in her acceptance of him. She was heaven +whilst he pursued her as a star: she cannot be heaven if she stoops to +such a one as he. + +What shall we say of this omnipresent appearance of that first +projectile impulse, of this flattery and balking of so many well-meaning +creatures? Must we not suppose somewhere in the universe a slight +treachery and derision? Are we not engaged to a serious resentment of +this use that is made of us? Are we tickled trout, and fools of nature? +One look at the face of heaven and earth lays all petulance at rest, +and soothes us to wiser convictions. To the intelligent, nature converts +itself into a vast promise, and will not be rashly explained. Her secret +is untold. Many and many an Oedipus arrives; he has the whole mystery +teeming in his brain. Alas! the same sorcery has spoiled his skill; +no syllable can he shape on his lips. Her mighty orbit vaults like the +fresh rainbow into the deep, but no archangel's wing was yet strong +enough to follow it and report of the return of the curve. But it +also appears that our actions are seconded and disposed to greater +conclusions than we designed. We are escorted on every hand through life +by spiritual agents, and a beneficent purpose lies in wait for us. +We cannot bandy words with Nature, or deal with her as we deal with +persons. If we measure our individual forces against hers we may easily +feel as if we were the sport of an insuperable destiny. But if, instead +of identifying ourselves with the work, we feel that the soul of the +workman streams through us, we shall find the peace of the morning +dwelling first in our hearts, and the fathomless powers of gravity +and chemistry, and, over them, of life, preexisting within us in their +highest form. + +The uneasiness which the thought of our helplessness in the chain of +causes occasions us, results from looking too much at one condition +of nature, namely, Motion. But the drag is never taken from the wheel. +Wherever the impulse exceeds, the Rest or Identity insinuates its +compensation. All over the wide fields of earth grows the prunella or +self-heal. After every foolish day we sleep off the fumes and furies of +its hours; and though we are always engaged with particulars, and +often enslaved to them, we bring with us to every experiment the innate +universal laws. These, while they exist in the mind as ideas, stand +around us in nature forever embodied, a present sanity to expose and +cure the insanity of men. Our servitude to particulars betrays into a +hundred foolish expectations. We anticipate a new era from the invention +of a locomotive, or a balloon; the new engine brings with it the old +checks. They say that by electro-magnetism your salad shall be grown +from the seed whilst your fowl is roasting for dinner; it is a symbol of +our modern aims and endeavors, of our condensation and acceleration of +objects;--but nothing is gained; nature cannot be cheated; man's life +is but seventy salads long, grow they swift or grow they slow. In these +checks and impossibilities however we find our advantage, not less than +in the impulses. Let the victory fall where it will, we are on that +side. And the knowledge that we traverse the whole scale of being, +from the centre to the poles of nature, and have some stake in every +possibility, lends that sublime lustre to death, which philosophy and +religion have too outwardly and literally striven to express in the +popular doctrine of the immortality of the soul. The reality is more +excellent than the report. Here is no ruin, no discontinuity, no spent +ball. The divine circulations never rest nor linger. Nature is the +incarnation of a thought, and turns to a thought again, as ice becomes +water and gas. The world is mind precipitated, and the volatile essence +is forever escaping again into the state of free thought. Hence the +virtue and pungency of the influence on the mind of natural objects, +whether inorganic or organized. Man imprisoned, man crystallized, +man vegetative, speaks to man impersonated. That power which does not +respect quantity, which makes the whole and the particle its equal +channel, delegates its smile to the morning, and distils its essence +into every drop of rain. Every moment instructs, and every object: for +wisdom is infused into every form. It has been poured into us as blood; +it convulsed us as pain; it slid into us as pleasure; it enveloped us +in dull, melancholy days, or in days of cheerful labor; we did not guess +its essence until after a long time. + +***** + + + + POLITICS. + + Gold and iron are good + To buy iron and gold; + All earth's fleece and food + For their like are sold. + Boded Merlin wise, + Proved Napoleon great,-- + Nor kind nor coinage buys + Aught above its rate. + Fear, Craft, and Avarice + Cannot rear a State. + Out of dust to build + What is more than dust,-- + Walls Amphion piled + Phoebus stablish must. + When the Muses nine + With the Virtues meet, + Find to their design + An Atlantic seat, + By green orchard boughs + Fended from the heat, + Where the statesman ploughs + Furrow for the wheat; + When the Church is social worth, + When the state-house is the hearth, + Then the perfect State is come, + The republican at home. + + + + +VII. POLITICS. + +In dealing with the State we ought to remember that its institution are +not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born; that they are +not superior to the citizen; that every one of them was once the act +of a single man; every law and usage was a man's expedient to meet a +particular case; that they all are imitable, all alterable; we may +make as good, we may make better. Society is an illusion to the young +citizen. It lies before him in rigid repose, with certain names, men +and institutions rooted like oak-trees to the centre, round which all +arrange themselves the best they can. But the old statesman knows that +society is fluid; there are no such roots and centres, but any particle +may suddenly become the centre of the movement and compel the system +to gyrate round it; as every man of strong will, like Pisistratus, or +Cromwell, does for a time, and every man of truth, like Plato or Paul, +does forever. But politics rest on necessary foundations, and cannot be +treated with levity. Republics abound in young civilians, who believe +that the laws make the city, that grave modifications of the policy +and modes of living and employments of the population, that commerce, +education, and religion, may be voted in or out; and that any measure, +though it were absurd, may be imposed on a people if only you can get +sufficient voices to make it a law. But the wise know that foolish +legislation is a rope of sand which perishes in the twisting; that +the State must follow and not lead the character and progress of the +citizen; the strongest usurper is quickly got rid of; and they only +who build on Ideas, build for eternity; and that the form of government +which prevails is the expression of what cultivation exists in the +population which permits it. The law is only a memorandum. We are +superstitious, and esteem the statute somewhat: so much life as it has +in the character of living men is its force. The statute stands there to +say, Yesterday we agreed so and so, but how feel ye this article to-day? +Our statute is a currency which we stamp with our own portrait: it soon +becomes unrecognizable, and in process of time will return to the mint. +Nature is not democratic, nor limited-monarchical, but despotic, and +will not be fooled or abated of any jot of her authority by the +pertest of her sons; and as fast as the public mind is opened to more +intelligence, the code is seen to be brute and stammering. It speaks not +articulately, and must be made to. Meantime the education of the general +mind never stops. The reveries of the true and simple are prophetic. +What the tender poetic youth dreams, and prays, and paints to-day, but +shuns the ridicule of saying aloud, shall presently be the resolutions +of public bodies; then shall be carried as grievance and bill of +rights through conflict and war, and then shall be triumphant law and +establishment for a hundred years, until it gives place in turn to +new prayers and pictures. The history of the State sketches in coarse +outline the progress of thought, and follows at a distance the delicacy +of culture and of aspiration. + +The theory of politics which has possessed the mind of men, and which +they have expressed the best they could in their laws and in their +revolutions, considers persons and property as the two objects for whose +protection government exists. Of persons, all have equal rights, in +virtue of being identical in nature. This interest of course with its +whole power demands a democracy. Whilst the rights of all as persons are +equal, in virtue of their access to reason, their rights in property are +very unequal. One man owns his clothes, and another owns a county. This +accident, depending primarily on the skill and virtue of the parties, +of which there is every degree, and secondarily on patrimony, falls +unequally, and its rights of course are unequal. Personal rights, +universally the same, demand a government framed on the ratio of the +census; property demands a government framed on the ratio of owners and +of owning. Laban, who has flocks and herds, wishes them looked after by +an officer on the frontiers, lest the Midianites shall drive them off; +and pays a tax to that end. Jacob has no flocks or herds and no fear of +the Midianites, and pays no tax to the officer. It seemed fit that Laban +and Jacob should have equal rights to elect the officer who is to defend +their persons, but that Laban and not Jacob should elect the officer +who is to guard the sheep and cattle. And if question arise whether +additional officers or watch-towers should be provided, must not Laban +and Isaac, and those who must sell part of their herds to buy protection +for the rest, judge better of this, and with more right, than Jacob, +who, because he is a youth and a traveller, eats their bread and not his +own? + +In the earliest society the proprietors made their own wealth, and so +long as it comes to the owners in the direct way, no other opinion would +arise in any equitable community than that property should make the law +for property, and persons the law for persons. + +But property passes through donation or inheritance to those who do not +create it. Gift, in one case, makes it as really the new owner's, as +labor made it the first owner's: in the other case, of patrimony, the +law makes an ownership which will be valid in each man's view according +to the estimate which he sets on the public tranquillity. + +It was not however found easy to embody the readily admitted principle +that property should make law for property, and persons for persons; +since persons and property mixed themselves in every transaction. +At last it seemed settled that the rightful distinction was that the +proprietors should have more elective franchise than non-proprietors, +on the Spartan principle of "calling that which is just, equal; not that +which is equal, just." + +That principle no longer looks so self-evident as it appeared in former +times, partly, because doubts have arisen whether too much weight had +not been allowed in the laws to property, and such a structure given to +our usages as allowed the rich to encroach on the poor, and to keep them +poor; but mainly because there is an instinctive sense, however obscure +and yet inarticulate, that the whole constitution of property, on +its present tenures, is injurious, and its influence on persons +deteriorating and degrading; that truly the only interest for the +consideration of the State is persons; that property will always follow +persons; that the highest end of government is the culture of men; and +if men can be educated, the institutions will share their improvement +and the moral sentiment will write the law of the land. + +If it be not easy to settle the equity of this question, the peril is +less when we take note of our natural defences. We are kept by better +guards than the vigilance of such magistrates as we commonly elect. +Society always consists in greatest part of young and foolish persons. +The old, who have seen through the hypocrisy of courts and statesmen, +die and leave no wisdom to their sons. They believe their own newspaper, +as their fathers did at their age. With such an ignorant and deceivable +majority, States would soon run to ruin, but that there are limitations +beyond which the folly and ambition of governors cannot go. Things +have their laws, as well as men; and things refuse to be trifled with. +Property will be protected. Corn will not grow unless it is planted and +manured; but the farmer will not plant or hoe it unless the chances +are a hundred to one that he will cut and harvest it. Under any forms, +persons and property must and will have their just sway. They exert +their power, as steadily as matter its attraction. Cover up a pound of +earth never so cunningly, divide and subdivide it; melt it to liquid, +convert it to gas; it will always weigh a pound; it will always attract +and resist other matter by the full virtue of one pound weight:--and +the attributes of a person, his wit and his moral energy, will exercise, +under any law or extinguishing tyranny, their proper force,--if not +overtly, then covertly; if not for the law, then against it; if not +wholesomely, then poisonously; with right, or by might. + +The boundaries of personal influence it is impossible to fix, as persons +are organs of moral or supernatural force. Under the dominion of an +idea which possesses the minds of multitudes, as civil freedom, or the +religious sentiment, the powers of persons are no longer subjects of +calculation. A nation of men unanimously bent on freedom or conquest +can easily confound the arithmetic of statists, and achieve extravagant +actions, out of all proportion to their means; as the Greeks, the +Saracens, the Swiss, the Americans, and the French have done. + +In like manner to every particle of property belongs its own attraction. +A cent is the representative of a certain quantity of corn or other +commodity. Its value is in the necessities of the animal man. It is so +much warmth, so much bread, so much water, so much land. The law may +do what it will with the owner of property; its just power will still +attach to the cent. The law may in a mad freak say that all shall +have power except the owners of property; they shall have no vote. +Nevertheless, by a higher law, the property will, year after year, write +every statute that respects property. The non-proprietor will be the +scribe of the proprietor. What the owners wish to do, the whole power of +property will do, either through the law or else in defiance of it. Of +course I speak of all the property, not merely of the great estates. +When the rich are outvoted, as frequently happens, it is the joint +treasury of the poor which exceeds their accumulations. Every man owns +something, if it is only a cow, or a wheel-barrow, or his arms, and so +has that property to dispose of. + +The same necessity which secures the rights of person and property +against the malignity or folly of the magistrate, determines the form +and methods of governing, which are proper to each nation and to its +habit of thought, and nowise transferable to other states of society. In +this country we are very vain of our political institutions, which are +singular in this, that they sprung, within the memory of living men, +from the character and condition of the people, which they still express +with sufficient fidelity,--and we ostentatiously prefer them to any +other in history. They are not better, but only fitter for us. We may be +wise in asserting the advantage in modern times of the democratic +form, but to other states of society, in which religion consecrated the +monarchical, that and not this was expedient. Democracy is better for +us, because the religious sentiment of the present time accords better +with it. Born democrats, we are nowise qualified to judge of monarchy, +which, to our fathers living in the monarchical idea, was also +relatively right. But our institutions, though in coincidence with the +spirit of the age, have not any exemption from the practical defects +which have discredited other forms. Every actual State is corrupt. Good +men must not obey the laws too well. What satire on government can equal +the severity of censure conveyed in the word politic, which now for ages +has signified cunning, intimating that the State is a trick? + +The same benign necessity and the same practical abuse appear in +the parties, into which each State divides itself, of opponents and +defenders of the administration of the government. Parties are also +founded on instincts, and have better guides to their own humble aims +than the sagacity of their leaders. They have nothing perverse in their +origin, but rudely mark some real and lasting relation. We might as +wisely reprove the east wind or the frost, as a political party, whose +members, for the most part, could give no account of their position, but +stand for the defence of those interests in which they find themselves. +Our quarrel with them begins when they quit this deep natural ground at +the bidding of some leader, and obeying personal considerations, throw +themselves into the maintenance and defence of points nowise belonging +to their system. A party is perpetually corrupted by personality. Whilst +we absolve the association from dishonesty, we cannot extend the same +charity to their leaders. They reap the rewards of the docility and zeal +of the masses which they direct. Ordinarily our parties are parties of +circumstance, and not of principle; as the planting interest in conflict +with the commercial; the party of capitalists and that of operatives; +parties which are identical in their moral character, and which can +easily change ground with each other in the support of many of their +measures. Parties of principle, as, religious sects, or the party of +free-trade, of universal suffrage, of abolition of slavery, of abolition +of capital punishment,--degenerate into personalities, or would inspire +enthusiasm. The vice of our leading parties in this country (which may +be cited as a fair specimen of these societies of opinion) is that they +do not plant themselves on the deep and necessary grounds to which they +are respectively entitled, but lash themselves to fury in the carrying +of some local and momentary measure, nowise useful to the commonwealth. +Of the two great parties which at this hour almost share the nation +between them, I should say that one has the best cause, and the other +contains the best men. The philosopher, the poet, or the religious man +will of course wish to cast his vote with the democrat, for free-trade, +for wide suffrage, for the abolition of legal cruelties in the penal +code, and for facilitating in every manner the access of the young and +the poor to the sources of wealth and power. But he can rarely +accept the persons whom the so-called popular party propose to him as +representatives of these liberalities. They have not at heart the ends +which give to the name of democracy what hope and virtue are in it. The +spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless: it is not +loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends, but is destructive only out +of hatred and selfishness. On the other side, the conservative party, +composed of the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the +population, is timid, and merely defensive of property. It vindicates +no right, it aspires to no real good, it brands no crime, it proposes no +generous policy; it does not build, nor write, nor cherish the arts, +nor foster religion, nor establish schools, nor encourage science, +nor emancipate the slave, nor befriend the poor, or the Indian, or the +immigrant. From neither party, when in power, has the world any benefit +to expect in science, art, or humanity, at all commensurate with the +resources of the nation. + +I do not for these defects despair of our republic. We are not at the +mercy of any waves of chance. In the strife of ferocious parties, human +nature always finds itself cherished; as the children of the convicts +at Botany Bay are found to have as healthy a moral sentiment as other +children. Citizens of feudal states are alarmed at our democratic +institutions lapsing into anarchy, and the older and more cautious among +ourselves are learning from Europeans to look with some terror at our +turbulent freedom. It is said that in our license of construing the +Constitution, and in the despotism of public opinion, we have no anchor; +and one foreign observer thinks he has found the safeguard in the +sanctity of Marriage among us; and another thinks he has found it in our +Calvinism. Fisher Ames expressed the popular security more wisely, +when he compared a monarchy and a republic, saying that a monarchy is a +merchantman, which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock and +go to the bottom; whilst a republic is a raft, which would never sink, +but then your feet are always in water. No forms can have any dangerous +importance whilst we are befriended by the laws of things. It makes no +difference how many tons weight of atmosphere presses on our heads, so +long as the same pressure resists it within the lungs. Augment the mass +a thousand fold, it cannot begin to crush us, as long as reaction is +equal to action. The fact of two poles, of two forces, centripetal and +centrifugal, is universal, and each force by its own activity develops +the other. Wild liberty develops iron conscience. Want of liberty, +by strengthening law and decorum, stupefies conscience. 'Lynch-law' +prevails only where there is greater hardihood and self-subsistency in +the leaders. A mob cannot be a permanency; everybody's interest requires +that it should not exist, and only justice satisfies all. + +We must trust infinitely to the beneficent necessity which +shines through all laws. Human nature expresses itself in them as +characteristically as in statues, or songs, or railroads; and an +abstract of the codes of nations would be a transcript of the common +conscience. Governments have their origin in the moral identity of men. +Reason for one is seen to be reason for another, and for every other. +There is a middle measure which satisfies all parties, be they never so +many or so resolute for their own. Every man finds a sanction for his +simplest claims and deeds in decisions of his own mind, which he calls +Truth and Holiness. In these decisions all the citizens find a perfect +agreement, and only in these; not in what is good to eat, good to wear, +good use of time, or what amount of land or of public aid, each is +entitled to claim. This truth and justice men presently endeavor to make +application of to the measuring of land, the apportionment of service, +the protection of life and property. Their first endeavors, no doubt, +are very awkward. Yet absolute right is the first governor; or, every +government is an impure theocracy. The idea after which each community +is aiming to make and mend its law, is the will of the wise man. The +wise man it cannot find in nature, and it makes awkward but earnest +efforts to secure his government by contrivance; as by causing the +entire people to give their voices on every measure; or by a double +choice to get the representation of the whole; or, by a selection of the +best citizens; or to secure the advantages of efficiency and internal +peace by confiding the government to one, who may himself select his +agents. All forms of government symbolize an immortal government, common +to all dynasties and independent of numbers, perfect where two men +exist, perfect where there is only one man. + +Every man's nature is a sufficient advertisement to him of the character +of his fellows. My right and my wrong is their right and their wrong. +Whilst I do what is fit for me, and abstain from what is unfit, my +neighbor and I shall often agree in our means, and work together for +a time to one end. But whenever I find my dominion over myself not +sufficient for me, and undertake the direction of him also, I overstep +the truth, and come into false relations to him. I may have so much more +skill or strength than he that he cannot express adequately his sense of +wrong, but it is a lie, and hurts like a lie both him and me. Love +and nature cannot maintain the assumption; it must be executed by a +practical lie, namely by force. This undertaking for another is the +blunder which stands in colossal ugliness in the governments of the +world. It is the same thing in numbers, as in a pair, only not quite +so intelligible. I can see well enough a great difference between my +setting myself down to a self-control, and my going to make somebody +else act after my views; but when a quarter of the human race assume to +tell me what I must do, I may be too much disturbed by the circumstances +to see so clearly the absurdity of their command. Therefore all public +ends look vague and quixotic beside private ones. For any laws but those +which men make for themselves, are laughable. If I put myself in the +place of my child, and we stand in one thought and see that things are +thus or thus, that perception is law for him and me. We are both there, +both act. But if, without carrying him into the thought, I look over +into his plot, and, guessing how it is with him, ordain this or that, +he will never obey me. This is the history of governments,--one man does +something which is to bind another. A man who cannot be acquainted with +me, taxes me; looking from afar at me ordains that a part of my labor +shall go to this or that whimsical end,--not as I, but as he happens to +fancy. Behold the consequence. Of all debts men are least willing to pay +the taxes. What a satire is this on government! Everywhere they think +they get their money's worth, except for these. + +Hence the less government we have the better,--the fewer laws, and the +less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of formal Government is +the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual; the +appearance of the principal to supersede the proxy; the appearance of +the wise man; of whom the existing government is, it must be owned, but +a shabby imitation. That which all things tend to educe; which freedom, +cultivation, intercourse, revolutions, go to form and deliver, is +character; that is the end of Nature, to reach unto this coronation +of her king. To educate the wise man the State exists, and with +the appearance of the wise man the State expires. The appearance of +character makes the State unnecessary. The wise man is the State. He +needs no army, fort, or navy,--he loves men too well; no bribe, +or feast, or palace, to draw friends to him; no vantage ground, no +favorable circumstance. He needs no library, for he has not done +thinking; no church, for he is a prophet; no statute book, for he has +the lawgiver; no money, for he is value; no road, for he is at home +where he is; no experience, for the life of the creator shoots through +him, and looks from his eyes. He has no personal friends, for he who +has the spell to draw the prayer and piety of all men unto him needs not +husband and educate a few to share with him a select and poetic life. +His relation to men is angelic; his memory is myrrh to them; his +presence, frankincense and flowers. + +We think our civilization near its meridian, but we are yet only at +the cock-crowing and the morning star. In our barbarous society the +influence of character is in its infancy. As a political power, as +the rightful lord who is to tumble all rulers from their chairs, its +presence is hardly yet suspected. Malthus and Ricardo quite omit it; the +Annual Register is silent; in the Conversations' Lexicon it is not set +down; the President's Message, the Queen's Speech, have not mentioned +it; and yet it is never nothing. Every thought which genius and piety +throw into the world, alters the world. The gladiators in the lists +of power feel, through all their frocks of force and simulation, the +presence of worth. I think the very strife of trade and ambition are +confession of this divinity; and successes in those fields are the poor +amends, the fig-leaf with which the shamed soul attempts to hide its +nakedness. I find the like unwilling homage in all quarters. It is +because we know how much is due from us that we are impatient to +show some petty talent as a substitute for worth. We are haunted by a +conscience of this right to grandeur of character, and are false to it. +But each of us has some talent, can do somewhat useful, or graceful, +or formidable, or amusing, or lucrative. That we do, as an apology to +others and to ourselves for not reaching the mark of a good and equal +life. But it does not satisfy us, whilst we thrust it on the notice of +our companions. It may throw dust in their eyes, but does not smooth our +own brow, or give us the tranquillity of the strong when we walk abroad. +We do penance as we go. Our talent is a sort of expiation, and we +are constrained to reflect on our splendid moment with a certain +humiliation, as somewhat too fine, and not as one act of many acts, a +fair expression of our permanent energy. Most persons of ability meet +in society with a kind of tacit appeal. Each seems to say, 'I am not all +here.' Senators and presidents have climbed so high with pain enough, +not because they think the place specially agreeable, but as an apology +for real worth, and to vindicate their manhood in our eyes. This +conspicuous chair is their compensation to themselves for being of a +poor, cold, hard nature. They must do what they can. Like one class +of forest animals, they have nothing but a prehensile tail; climb they +must, or crawl. If a man found himself so rich-natured that he could +enter into strict relations with the best persons and make life serene +around him by the dignity and sweetness of his behavior, could he afford +to circumvent the favor of the caucus and the press, and covet relations +so hollow and pompous as those of a politician? Surely nobody would be a +charlatan who could afford to be sincere. + +The tendencies of the times favor the idea of self-government, and leave +the individual, for all code, to the rewards and penalties of his own +constitution; which work with more energy than we believe whilst we +depend on artificial restraints. The movement in this direction has been +very marked in modern history. Much has been blind and discreditable, +but the nature of the revolution is not affected by the vices of the +revolters; for this is a purely moral force. It was never adopted by any +party in history, neither can be. It separates the individual from +all party, and unites him at the same time to the race. It promises +a recognition of higher rights than those of personal freedom, or the +security of property. A man has a right to be employed, to be trusted, +to be loved, to be revered. The power of love, as the basis of a State, +has never been tried. We must not imagine that all things are lapsing +into confusion if every tender protestant be not compelled to bear his +part in certain social conventions; nor doubt that roads can be built, +letters carried, and the fruit of labor secured, when the government +of force is at an end. Are our methods now so excellent that all +competition is hopeless? could not a nation of friends even devise +better ways? On the other hand, let not the most conservative and timid +fear anything from a premature surrender of the bayonet and the system +of force. For, according to the order of nature, which is quite superior +to our will, it stands thus; there will always be a government of force +where men are selfish; and when they are pure enough to abjure the code +of force they will be wise enough to see how these public ends of the +post-office, of the highway, of commerce and the exchange of property, +of museums and libraries, of institutions of art and science can be +answered. + +We live in a very low state of the world, and pay unwilling tribute to +governments founded on force. There is not, among the most religious and +instructed men of the most religious and civil nations, a reliance on +the moral sentiment and a sufficient belief in the unity of things, +to persuade them that society can be maintained without artificial +restraints, as well as the solar system; or that the private citizen +might be reasonable and a good neighbor, without the hint of a jail or a +confiscation. What is strange too, there never was in any man sufficient +faith in the power of rectitude to inspire him with the broad design of +renovating the State on the principle of right and love. All those +who have pretended this design have been partial reformers, and have +admitted in some manner the supremacy of the bad State. I do not call to +mind a single human being who has steadily denied the authority of the +laws, on the simple ground of his own moral nature. Such designs, full +of genius and full of fate as they are, are not entertained except +avowedly as air-pictures. If the individual who exhibits them dare to +think them practicable, he disgusts scholars and churchmen; and men of +talent and women of superior sentiments cannot hide their contempt. +Not the less does nature continue to fill the heart of youth with +suggestions of this enthusiasm, and there are now men,--if indeed I can +speak in the plural number,--more exactly, I will say, I have just been +conversing with one man, to whom no weight of adverse experience will +make it for a moment appear impossible that thousands of human beings +might exercise towards each other the grandest and simplest sentiments, +as well as a knot of friends, or a pair of lovers. + +***** + + + + NOMINALIST AND REALIST. + + In countless upward-striving waves + The moon-drawn tide-wave strives: + In thousand far-transplanted grafts + The parent fruit survives; + So, in the new-born millions, + The perfect Adam lives. + Not less are summer-mornings dear + To every child they wake, + And each with novel life his sphere + Fills for his proper sake. + + + + +VIII. NONIMALIST AND REALIST. + +I CANNOT often enough say that a man is only a relative and +representative nature. Each is a hint of the truth, but far enough from +being that truth which yet he quite newly and inevitably suggests to us. +If I seek it in him I shall not find it. Could any man conduct into me +the pure stream of that which he pretends to be! Long afterwards I +find that quality elsewhere which he promised me. The genius of the +Platonists is intoxicating to the student, yet how few particulars of +it can I detach from all their books. The man momentarily stands for +the thought, but will not bear examination; and a society of men will +cursorily represent well enough a certain quality and culture, for +example, chivalry or beauty of manners; but separate them and there is +no gentleman and no lady in the group. The least hint sets us on the +pursuit of a character which no man realizes. We have such exorbitant +eyes that on seeing the smallest arc we complete the curve, and when the +curtain is lifted from the diagram which it seemed to veil, we are vexed +to find that no more was drawn than just that fragment of an arc which +we first beheld. We are greatly too liberal in our construction of each +other's faculty and promise. Exactly what the parties have already done +they shall do again; but that which we inferred from their nature and +inception, they will not do. That is in nature, but not in them. That +happens in the world, which we often witness in a public debate. Each +of the speakers expresses himself imperfectly; no one of them hears much +that another says, such is the preoccupation of mind of each; and the +audience, who have only to hear and not to speak, judge very wisely and +superiorly how wrongheaded and unskilful is each of the debaters to his +own affair. Great men or men of great gifts you shall easily find, +but symmetrical men never. When I meet a pure intellectual force or a +generosity of affection, I believe here then is man; and am presently +mortified by the discovery that this individual is no more available to +his own or to the general ends than his companions; because the power +which drew my respect is not supported by the total symphony of his +talents. All persons exist to society by some shining trait of beauty or +utility which they have. We borrow the proportions of the man from that +one fine feature, and finish the portrait symmetrically; which is false, +for the rest of his body is small or deformed. I observe a person who +makes a good public appearance, and conclude thence the perfection of +his private character, on which this is based; but he has no private +character. He is a graceful cloak or lay-figure for holidays. All our +poets, heroes, and saints, fail utterly in some one or in many parts to +satisfy our idea, fail to draw our spontaneous interest, and so leave us +without any hope of realization but in our own future. Our exaggeration +of all fine characters arises from the fact that we identify each in +turn with the soul. But there are no such men as we fable; no Jesus, nor +Pericles, nor Caesar, nor Angelo, nor Washington, such as we have made. +We consecrate a great deal of nonsense because it was allowed by great +men. There is none without his foible. I verily believe if an angel +should come to chant the chorus of the moral law, he would eat too much +gingerbread, or take liberties with private letters, or do some precious +atrocity. It is bad enough that our geniuses cannot do anything useful, +but it is worse that no man is fit for society who has fine traits. He +is admired at a distance, but he cannot come near without appearing a +cripple. The men of fine parts protect themselves by solitude, or by +courtesy, or by satire, or by an acid worldly manner, each concealing as +he best can his incapacity for useful association, but they want either +love or self-reliance. + +Our native love of reality joins with this experience to teach us a +little reserve, and to dissuade a too sudden surrender to the brilliant +qualities of persons. Young people admire talents or particular +excellences; as we grow older we value total powers and effects, as the +impression, the quality, the spirit of men and things. The genius is +all. The man,--it is his system: we do not try a solitary word or act, +but his habit. The acts which you praise, I praise not, since they are +departures from his faith, and are mere compliances. The magnetism which +arranges tribes and races in one polarity is alone to be respected; the +men are steel-filings. Yet we unjustly select a particle, and say, +'O steel-filing number one! what heart-drawings I feel to thee! what +prodigious virtues are these of thine! how constitutional to thee, and +incommunicable.' Whilst we speak the loadstone is withdrawn; down falls +our filing in a heap with the rest, and we continue our mummery to the +wretched shaving. Let us go for universals; for the magnetism, not for +the needles. Human life and its persons are poor empirical pretensions. +A personal influence is an ignis fatuus. If they say it is great, it is +great; if they say it is small, it is small; you see it, and you see it +not, by turns; it borrows all its size from the momentary estimation of +the speakers: the Will-of-the-wisp vanishes if you go too near, vanishes +if you go too far, and only blazes at one angle. Who can tell if +Washington be a great man or no? Who can tell if Franklin be? Yes, or +any but the twelve, or six, or three great gods of fame? And they too +loom and fade before the eternal. + +We are amphibious creatures, weaponed for two elements, having two sets +of faculties, the particular and the catholic. We adjust our instrument +for general observation, and sweep the heavens as easily as we pick out +a single figure in the terrestrial landscape. We are practically skilful +in detecting elements for which we have no place in our theory, and no +name. Thus we are very sensible of an atmospheric influence in men and +in bodies of men, not accounted for in an arithmetical addition of all +their measurable properties. There is a genius of a nation, which is +not to be found in the numerical citizens, but which characterizes the +society. England, strong, punctual, practical, well-spoken England +I should not find if I should go to the island to seek it. In the +parliament, in the play-house, at dinner-tables, I might see a great +number of rich, ignorant, book-read, conventional, proud men,--many +old women,--and not anywhere the Englishman who made the good speeches, +combined the accurate engines, and did the bold and nervous deeds. It +is even worse in America, where, from the intellectual quickness of the +race, the genius of the country is more splendid in its promise and more +slight in its performance. Webster cannot do the work of Webster. We +conceive distinctly enough the French, the Spanish, the German genius, +and it is not the less real that perhaps we should not meet in either +of those nations a single individual who corresponded with the type. We +infer the spirit of the nation in great measure from the language, which +is a sort of monument to which each forcible individual in a course of +many hundred years has contributed a stone. And, universally, a good +example of this social force is the veracity of language, which cannot +be debauched. In any controversy concerning morals, an appeal may be +made with safety to the sentiments which the language of the people +expresses. Proverbs, words, and grammar-inflections convey the public +sense with more purity and precision than the wisest individual. + +In the famous dispute with the Nominalists, the Realists had a good deal +of reason. General ideas are essences. They are our gods: they round +and ennoble the most partial and sordid way of living. Our proclivity +to details cannot quite degrade our life and divest it of poetry. The +day-laborer is reckoned as standing at the foot of the social scale, yet +he is saturated with the laws of the world. His measures are the hours; +morning and night, solstice and equinox, geometry, astronomy and all +the lovely accidents of nature play through his mind. Money, which +represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors +without an apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses. +Property keeps the accounts of the world, and is always moral. The +property will be found where the labor, the wisdom, and the virtue have +been in nations, in classes, and (the whole life-time considered, with +the compensations) in the individual also. How wise the world appears, +when the laws and usages of nations are largely detailed, and the +completeness of the municipal system is considered! Nothing is left +out. If you go into the markets and the custom-houses, the insurers' and +notaries' offices, the offices of sealers of weights and measures, of +inspection of provisions,--it will appear as if one man had made it +all. Wherever you go, a wit like your own has been before you, and +has realized its thought. The Eleusinian mysteries, the Egyptian +architecture, the Indian astronomy, the Greek sculpture, show that there +always were seeing and knowing men in the planet. The world is full of +masonic ties, of guilds, of secret and public legions of honor; that +of scholars, for example; and that of gentlemen, fraternizing with the +upper class of every country and every culture. + +I am very much struck in literature by the appearance that one person +wrote all the books; as if the editor of a journal planted his body of +reporters in different parts of the field of action, and relieved some +by others from time to time; but there is such equality and identity +both of judgment and point of view in the narrative that it is plainly +the work of one all-seeing, all-hearing gentleman. I looked into Pope's +Odyssey yesterday: it is as correct and elegant after our canon of +to-day as if it were newly written. The modernness of all good books +seems to give me an existence as wide as man. What is well done I feel +as if I did; what is ill done I reck not of. Shakspeare's passages of +passion (for example, in Lear and Hamlet) are in the very dialect of the +present year. I am faithful again to the whole over the members in my +use of books. I find the most pleasure in reading a book in a manner +least flattering to the author. I read Proclus, and sometimes Plato, as +I might read a dictionary, for a mechanical help to the fancy and the +imagination. I read for the lustres, as if one should use a fine picture +in a chromatic experiment, for its rich colors. 'Tis not Proclus, but a +piece of nature and fate that I explore. It is a greater joy to see +the author's author, than himself. A higher pleasure of the same kind I +found lately at a concert, where I went to hear Handel's Messiah. As the +master overpowered the littleness and incapableness of the performers +and made them conductors of his electricity, so it was easy to observe +what efforts nature was making, through so many hoarse, wooden, and +imperfect persons, to produce beautiful voices, fluid and soul-guided +men and women. The genius of nature was paramount at the oratorio. + +This preference of the genius to the parts is the secret of that +deification of art, which is found in all superior minds. Art, in the +artist, is proportion, or a habitual respect to the whole by an eye +loving beauty in details. And the wonder and charm of it is the sanity +in insanity which it denotes. Proportion is almost impossible to human +beings. There is no one who does not exaggerate. In conversation, men +are encumbered with personality, and talk too much. In modern sculpture, +picture, and poetry, the beauty is miscellaneous; the artist works here +and there and at all points, adding and adding, instead of unfolding the +unit of his thought. Beautiful details we must have, or no artist; but +they must be means and never other. The eye must not lose sight for a +moment of the purpose. Lively boys write to their ear and eye, and the +cool reader finds nothing but sweet jingles in it. When they grow older, +they respect the argument. + +We obey the same intellectual integrity when we study in exceptions the +law of the world. Anomalous facts, as the never quite obsolete rumors +of magic and demonology, and the new allegations of phrenologists and +neurologists, are of ideal use. They are good indications. Homoeopathy +is insignificant as an art of healing, but of great value as criticism +on the hygeia or medical practice of the time. So with Mesmerism, +Swedenborgism, Fourierism, and the Millennial Church; they are poor +pretensions enough, but good criticism on the science, philosophy, and +preaching of the day. For these abnormal insights of the adepts ought to +be normal, and things of course. + +All things show us that on every side we are very near to the best. +It seems not worth while to execute with too much pains some one +intellectual, or aesthetical, or civil feat, when presently the dream +will scatter, and we shall burst into universal power. The reason of +idleness and of crime is the deferring of our hopes. Whilst we are +waiting we beguile the time with jokes, with sleep, with eating, and +with crimes. + +Thus we settle it in our cool libraries, that all the agents with which +we deal are subalterns, which we can well afford to let pass, and life +will be simpler when we live at the centre and flout the surfaces. I +wish to speak with all respect of persons, but sometimes I must pinch +myself to keep awake and preserve the due decorum. They melt so fast +into each other that they are like grass and trees, and it needs an +effort to treat them as individuals. Though the uninspired man certainly +finds persons a conveniency in household matters, the divine man does +not respect them; he sees them as a rack of clouds, or a fleet of +ripples which the wind drives over the surface of the water. But this is +flat rebellion. Nature will not be Buddhist: she resents generalizing, +and insults the philosopher in every moment with a million of fresh +particulars. It is all idle talking: as much as a man is a whole, so is +he also a part; and it were partial not to see it. What you say in your +pompous distribution only distributes you into your class and section. +You have not got rid of parts by denying them, but are the more partial. +You are one thing, but Nature is one thing and the other thing, in the +same moment. She will not remain orbed in a thought, but rushes into +persons; and when each person, inflamed to a fury of personality, would +conquer all things to his poor crotchet, she raises up against him +another person, and by many persons incarnates again a sort of whole. +She will have all. Nick Bottom cannot play all the parts, work it how +he may; there will be somebody else, and the world will be round. +Everything must have its flower or effort at the beautiful, coarser or +finer according to its stuff. They relieve and recommend each other, +and the sanity of society is a balance of a thousand insanities. She +punishes abstractionists, and will only forgive an induction which +is rare and casual. We like to come to a height of land and see the +landscape, just as we value a general remark in conversation. But it +is not the intention of Nature that we should live by general views. We +fetch fire and water, run about all day among the shops and markets, and +get our clothes and shoes made and mended, and are the victims of these +details; and once in a fortnight we arrive perhaps at a rational moment. +If we were not thus infatuated, if we saw the real from hour to hour, we +should not be here to write and to read, but should have been burned +or frozen long ago. She would never get anything done, if she suffered +admirable Crichtons and universal geniuses. She loves better a +wheelwright who dreams all night of wheels, and a groom who is part +of his horse; for she is full of work, and these are her hands. As the +frugal farmer takes care that his cattle shall eat down the rowen, +and swine shall eat the waste of his house, and poultry shall pick the +crumbs,--so our economical mother dispatches a new genius and habit +of mind into every district and condition of existence, plants an eye +wherever a new ray of light can fall, and gathering up into some man +every property in the universe, establishes thousandfold occult mutual +attractions among her offspring, that all this wash and waste of power +may be imparted and exchanged. + +Great dangers undoubtedly accrue from this incarnation and distribution +of the godhead, and hence Nature has her maligners, as if she were +Circe; and Alphonso of Castille fancied he could have given useful +advice. But she does not go unprovided; she has hellebore at the bottom +of the cup. Solitude would ripen a plentiful crop of despots. The +recluse thinks of men as having his manner, or as not having his manner; +and as having degrees of it, more and less. But when he comes into a +public assembly he sees that men have very different manners from his +own, and in their way admirable. In his childhood and youth he has +had many checks and censures, and thinks modestly enough of his +own endowment. When afterwards he comes to unfold it in propitious +circumstance, it seems the only talent; he is delighted with his +success, and accounts himself already the fellow of the great. But he +goes into a mob, into a banking house, into a mechanic's shop, into a +mill, into a laboratory, into a ship, into a camp, and in each new place +he is no better than an idiot; other talents take place, and rule the +hour. The rotation which whirls every leaf and pebble to the meridian, +reaches to every gift of man, and we all take turns at the top. + +For Nature, who abhors mannerism, has set her heart on breaking up all +styles and tricks, and it is so much easier to do what one has done +before than to do a new thing, that there is a perpetual tendency to a +set mode. In every conversation, even the highest, there is a certain +trick, which may be soon learned by an acute person and then that +particular style continued indefinitely. Each man too is a tyrant in +tendency, because he would impose his idea on others; and their trick is +their natural defence. Jesus would absorb the race; but Tom Paine or +the coarsest blasphemer helps humanity by resisting this exuberance of +power. Hence the immense benefit of party in politics, as it reveals +faults of character in a chief, which the intellectual force of the +persons, with ordinary opportunity and not hurled into aphelion by +hatred, could not have seen. Since we are all so stupid, what benefit +that there should be two stupidities! It is like that brute advantage so +essential to astronomy, of having the diameter of the earth's orbit for +a base of its triangles. Democracy is morose, and runs to anarchy, +but in the State and in the schools it is indispensable to resist the +consolidation of all men into a few men. If John was perfect, why are +you and I alive? As long as any man exists, there is some need of him; +let him fight for his own. A new poet has appeared; a new character +approached us; why should we refuse to eat bread until we have found his +regiment and section in our old army-files? Why not a new man? Here is +a new enterprise of Brook Farm, of Skeneateles, of Northampton: why so +impatient to baptize them Essenes, or Port-Royalists, or Shakers, or by +any known and effete name? Let it be a new way of living. Why have only +two or three ways of life, and not thousands? Every man is wanted, and +no man is wanted much. We came this time for condiments, not for +corn. We want the great genius only for joy; for one star more in our +constellation, for one tree more in our grove. But he thinks we wish +to belong to him, as he wishes to occupy us. He greatly mistakes us. I +think I have done well if I have acquired a new word from a good author; +and my business with him is to find my own, though it were only to melt +him down into an epithet or an image for daily use:-- + + "Into paint will I grind thee, my bride!" + +To embroil the confusion, and make it impossible to arrive at any +general statement,--when we have insisted on the imperfection of +individuals, our affections and our experience urge that every +individual is entitled to honor, and a very generous treatment is sure +to be repaid. A recluse sees only two or three persons, and allows them +all their room; they spread themselves at large. The statesman looks at +many, and compares the few habitually with others, and these look less. +Yet are they not entitled to this generosity of reception? and is not +munificence the means of insight? For though gamesters say that the +cards beat all the players, though they were never so skilful, yet in +the contest we are now considering, the players are also the game, and +share the power of the cards. If you criticise a fine genius, the odds +are that you are out of your reckoning, and instead of the poet, are +censuring your own caricature of him. For there is somewhat spheral and +infinite in every man, especially in every genius, which, if you can +come very near him, sports with all your limitations. For rightly every +man is a channel through which heaven floweth, and whilst I fancied I +was criticising him, I was censuring or rather terminating my own soul. +After taxing Goethe as a courtier, artificial, unbelieving, worldly,--I +took up this book of Helena, and found him an Indian of the wilderness, +a piece of pure nature like an apple or an oak, large as morning or +night, and virtuous as a brier-rose. + +But care is taken that the whole tune shall be played. If we were not +kept among surfaces, every thing would be large and universal; now the +excluded attributes burst in on us with the more brightness that they +have been excluded. "Your turn now, my turn next," is the rule of the +game. The universality being hindered in its primary form, comes in +the secondary form of all sides; the points come in succession to the +meridian, and by the speed of rotation a new whole is formed. Nature +keeps herself whole and her representation complete in the experience +of each mind. She suffers no seat to be vacant in her college. It is +the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die but only +retire a little from sight and afterwards return again. Whatever does +not concern us is concealed from us. As soon as a person is no longer +related to our present well-being, he is concealed, or dies, as we say. +Really, all things and persons are related to us, but according to our +nature they act on us not at once but in succession, and we are made +aware of their presence one at a time. All persons, all things which we +have known, are here present, and many more than we see; the world is +full. As the ancient said, the world is a plenum or solid; and if we saw +all things that really surround us we should be imprisoned and unable to +move. For though nothing is impassable to the soul, but all things are +pervious to it and like highways, yet this is only whilst the soul does +not see them. As soon as the soul sees any object, it stops before that +object. Therefore, the divine Providence which keeps the universe open +in every direction to the soul, conceals all the furniture and all the +persons that do not concern a particular soul, from the senses of that +individual. Through solidest eternal things the man finds his road as if +they did not subsist, and does not once suspect their being. As soon as +he needs a new object, suddenly he beholds it, and no longer attempts +to pass through it, but takes another way. When he has exhausted for +the time the nourishment to be drawn from any one person or thing, +that object is withdrawn from his observation, and though still in his +immediate neighborhood, he does not suspect its presence. Nothing is +dead: men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals and mournful +obituaries, and there they stand looking out of the window, sound and +well, in some new and strange disguise. Jesus is not dead; he is very +well alive: nor John, nor Paul, nor Mahomet, nor Aristotle; at times +we believe we have seen them all, and could easily tell the names under +which they go. + +If we cannot make voluntary and conscious steps in the admirable science +of universals, let us see the parts wisely, and infer the genius of +nature from the best particulars with a becoming charity. What is best +in each kind is an index of what should be the average of that thing. +Love shows me the opulence of nature, by disclosing to me in my friend +a hidden wealth, and I infer an equal depth of good in every other +direction. It is commonly said by farmers that a good pear or apple +costs no more time or pains to rear than a poor one; so I would have no +work of art, no speech, or action, or thought, or friend, but the best. + +The end and the means, the gamester and the game,--life is made up +of the intermixture and reaction of these two amicable powers, whose +marriage appears beforehand monstrous, as each denies and tends to +abolish the other. We must reconcile the contradictions as we can, but +their discord and their concord introduce wild absurdities into our +thinking and speech. No sentence will hold the whole truth, and the only +way in which we can be just, is by giving ourselves the lie; Speech is +better than silence; silence is better than speech;--All things are in +contact; every atom has a sphere of repulsion;--Things are, and are not, +at the same time;--and the like. All the universe over, there is but one +thing, this old Two-Face, creator-creature, mind-matter, right-wrong, of +which any proposition may be affirmed or denied. Very fitly therefore +I assert that every man is a partialist, that nature secures him as an +instrument by self-conceit, preventing the tendencies to religion and +science; and now further assert, that, each man's genius being nearly +and affectionately explored, he is justified in his individuality, as +his nature is found to be immense; and now I add that every man is a +universalist also, and, as our earth, whilst it spins on its own axis, +spins all the time around the sun through the celestial spaces, so +the least of its rational children, the most dedicated to his private +affair, works out, though as it were under a disguise, the universal +problem. We fancy men are individuals; so are pumpkins; but every +pumpkin in the field goes through every point of pumpkin history. The +rabid democrat, as soon as he is senator and rich man, has ripened +beyond possibility of sincere radicalism, and unless he can resist the +sun, he must be conservative the remainder of his days. Lord Eldon said +in his old age that "if he were to begin life again, he would be damned +but he would begin as agitator." + +We hide this universality if we can, but it appears at all points. We +are as ungrateful as children. There is nothing we cherish and strive to +draw to us but in some hour we turn and rend it. We keep a running +fire of sarcasm at ignorance and the life of the senses; then goes by, +perchance, a fair girl, a piece of life, gay and happy, and making the +commonest offices beautiful by the energy and heart with which she does +them; and seeing this we admire and love her and them, and say, 'Lo! a +genuine creature of the fair earth, not dissipated or too early ripened +by books, philosophy, religion, society, or care!' insinuating a +treachery and contempt for all we had so long loved and wrought in +ourselves and others. + +If we could have any security against moods! If the profoundest prophet +could be holden to his words, and the hearer who is ready to sell +all and join the crusade could have any certificate that tomorrow his +prophet shall not unsay his testimony! But the Truth sits veiled there +on the Bench, and never interposes an adamantine syllable; and the +most sincere and revolutionary doctrine, put as if the ark of God were +carried forward some furlongs, and planted there for the succor of the +world, shall in a few weeks be coldly set aside by the same speaker, +as morbid; "I thought I was right, but I was not,"--and the same +immeasurable credulity demanded for new audacities. If we were not of +all opinions! if we did not in any moment shift the platform on which +we stand, and look and speak from another! if there could be any +regulation, any 'one-hour-rule,' that a man should never leave his +point of view without sound of trumpet. I am always insincere, as always +knowing there are other moods. + +How sincere and confidential we can be, saying all that lies in +the mind, and yet go away feeling that all is yet unsaid, from the +incapacity of the parties to know each other, although they use the same +words! My companion assumes to know my mood and habit of thought, and we +go on from explanation to explanation until all is said which words can, +and we leave matters just as they were at first, because of that vicious +assumption. Is it that every man believes every other to be an incurable +partialist, and himself a universalist? I talked yesterday with a pair +of philosophers; I endeavored to show my good men that I love everything +by turns and nothing long; that I loved the centre, but doated on the +superficies; that I loved man, if men seemed to me mice and rats; that +I revered saints, but woke up glad that the old pagan world stood its +ground and died hard; that I was glad of men of every gift and nobility, +but would not live in their arms. Could they but once understand that +I loved to know that they existed, and heartily wished them God-speed, +yet, out of my poverty of life and thought, had no word or welcome for +them when they came to see me, and could well consent to their living in +Oregon, for any claim I felt on them,--it would be a great satisfaction. + +***** + + + + NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. + + In the suburb, in the town, + On the railway, in the square, + Came a beam of goodness down + Doubling daylight everywhere: + Peace now each for malice takes, + Beauty for his sinful weeks, + For the angel Hope aye makes + Him an angel whom she leads. + + + + +NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. + +A LECTURE READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY IN AMORY HALL, ON SUNDAY, MARCH 3, +1844. + +WHOEVER has had opportunity of acquaintance with society in New England +during the last twenty-five years, with those middle and with those +leading sections that may constitute any just representation of the +character and aim of the community, will have been struck with the great +activity of thought and experimenting. His attention must be commanded +by the signs that the Church, or religious party, is falling from +the Church nominal, and is appearing in temperance and non-resistance +societies; in movements of abolitionists and of socialists; and in very +significant assemblies called Sabbath and Bible Conventions; composed of +ultraists, of seekers, of all the soul of the soldiery of dissent, +and meeting to call in question the authority of the Sabbath, of the +priesthood, and of the Church. In these movements nothing was more +remarkable than the discontent they begot in the movers. The spirit of +protest and of detachment drove the members of these Conventions to +bear testimony against the Church, and immediately afterward, to declare +their discontent with these Conventions, their independence of their +colleagues, and their impatience of the methods whereby they were +working. They defied each other, like a congress of kings, each of +whom had a realm to rule, and a way of his own that made concert +unprofitable. What a fertility of projects for the salvation of the +world! One apostle thought all men should go to farming, and another +that no man should buy or sell, that the use of money was the cardinal +evil; another that the mischief was in our diet, that we eat and drink +damnation. These made unleavened bread, and were foes to the death to +fermentation. It was in vain urged by the housewife that God made yeast, +as well as dough, and loves fermentation just as dearly as he loves +vegetation; that fermentation develops the saccharine element in the +grain, and makes it more palatable and more digestible. No; they wish +the pure wheat, and will die but it shall not ferment. Stop, dear +nature, these incessant advances of thine; let us scotch these +ever-rolling wheels! Others attacked the system of agriculture, the use +of animal manures in farming, and the tyranny of man over brute nature; +these abuses polluted his food. The ox must be taken from the plough and +the horse from the cart, the hundred acres of the farm must be spaded, +and the man must walk, wherever boats and locomotives will not carry +him. Even the insect world was to be defended,--that had been too long +neglected, and a society for the protection of ground-worms, slugs, and +mosquitos was to be incorporated without delay. With these appeared the +adepts of homoeopathy, of hydropathy, of mesmerism, of phrenology, and +their wonderful theories of the Christian miracles! Others assailed +particular vocations, as that of the lawyer, that of the merchant, of +the manufacturer, of the clergyman, of the scholar. Others attacked the +institution of marriage as the fountain of social evils. Others devoted +themselves to the worrying of churches and meetings for public worship; +and the fertile forms of antinomianism among the elder puritans seemed +to have their match in the plenty of the new harvest of reform. + +With this din of opinion and debate there was a keener scrutiny of +institutions and domestic life than any we had known; there was sincere +protesting against existing evils, and there were changes of employment +dictated by conscience. No doubt there was plentiful vaporing, and cases +of backsliding might occur. But in each of these movements emerged +a good result, a tendency to the adoption of simpler methods, and an +assertion of the sufficiency of the private man. Thus it was directly in +the spirit and genius of the age, what happened in one instance when a +church censured and threatened to excommunicate one of its members on +account of the somewhat hostile part to the church which his conscience +led him to take in the anti-slavery business; the threatened individual +immediately excommunicated the church in a public and formal process. +This has been several times repeated: it was excellent when it was done +the first time, but of course loses all value when it is copied. Every +project in the history of reform, no matter how violent and surprising, +is good when it is the dictate of a man's genius and constitution, but +very dull and suspicious when adopted from another. It is right and +beautiful in any man to say, 'I will take this coat, or this book, or +this measure of corn of yours,'--in whom we see the act to be original, +and to flow from the whole spirit and faith of him; for then that taking +will have a giving as free and divine; but we are very easily disposed +to resist the same generosity of speech when we miss originality and +truth to character in it. + +There was in all the practical activities of New England for the last +quarter of a century, a gradual withdrawal of tender consciences from +the social organizations. There is observable throughout, the contest +between mechanical and spiritual methods, but with a steady tendency of +the thoughtful and virtuous to a deeper belief and reliance on spiritual +facts. + +In politics for example it is easy to see the progress of dissent. The +country is full of rebellion; the country is full of kings. Hands off! +let there be no control and no interference in the administration of the +affairs of this kingdom of me. Hence the growth of the doctrine and of +the party of Free Trade, and the willingness to try that experiment, in +the face of what appear incontestable facts. I confess, the motto of +the Globe newspaper is so attractive to me that I can seldom find much +appetite to read what is below it in its columns: "The world is governed +too much." So the country is frequently affording solitary examples of +resistance to the government, solitary nullifiers, who throw themselves +on their reserved rights; nay, who have reserved all their rights; who +reply to the assessor and to the clerk of court that they do not +know the State, and embarrass the courts of law by non-juring and the +commander-in-chief of the militia by non-resistance. + +The same disposition to scrutiny and dissent appeared in civil, festive, +neighborly, and domestic society. A restless, prying, conscientious +criticism broke out in unexpected quarters. Who gave me the money with +which I bought my coat? Why should professional labor and that of the +counting-house be paid so disproportionately to the labor of the porter +and woodsawyer? This whole business of Trade gives me to pause and +think, as it constitutes false relations between men; inasmuch as I am +prone to count myself relieved of any responsibility to behave well and +nobly to that person whom I pay with money; whereas if I had not that +commodity, I should be put on my good behavior in all companies, and man +would be a benefactor to man, as being himself his only certificate that +he had a right to those aids and services which each asked of the other. +Am I not too protected a person? is there not a wide disparity between +the lot of me and the lot of thee, my poor brother, my poor sister? Am +I not defrauded of my best culture in the loss of those gymnastics which +manual labor and the emergencies of poverty constitute? I find nothing +healthful or exalting in the smooth conventions of society; I do +not like the close air of saloons. I begin to suspect myself to be a +prisoner, though treated with all this courtesy and luxury. I pay a +destructive tax in my conformity. + +The same insatiable criticism may be traced in the efforts for the +reform of Education. The popular education has been taxed with a want of +truth and nature. It was complained that an education to things was +not given. We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and +colleges, and recitation-rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out +at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing. +We cannot use our hands, or our legs, or our eyes, or our arms. We do +not know an edible root in the woods, we cannot tell our course by the +stars, nor the hour of the day by the sun. It is well if we can swim and +skate. We are afraid of a horse, of a cow, of a dog, of a snake, of +a spider. The Roman rule was to teach a boy nothing that he could not +learn standing. The old English rule was, 'All summer in the field, +and all winter in the study.' And it seems as if a man should learn to +plant, or to fish, or to hunt, that he might secure his subsistence +at all events, and not be painful to his friends and fellow-men. The +lessons of science should be experimental also. The sight of the planet +through a telescope is worth all the course on astronomy; the shock of +the electric spark in the elbow, outvalues all the theories; the taste +of the nitrous oxide, the firing of an artificial volcano, are better +than volumes of chemistry. + +One of the traits of the new spirit is the inquisition it fixed on our +scholastic devotion to the dead languages. The ancient languages, with +great beauty of structure, contain wonderful remains of genius, which +draw, and always will draw, certain likeminded men,--Greek men, and +Roman men,--in all countries, to their study; but by a wonderful +drowsiness of usage they had exacted the study of all men. Once (say two +centuries ago), Latin and Greek had a strict relation to all the science +and culture there was in Europe, and the Mathematics had a momentary +importance at some era of activity in physical science. These things +became stereotyped as education, as the manner of men is. But the Good +Spirit never cared for the colleges, and though all men and boys were +now drilled in Latin, Greek, and Mathematics, it had quite left these +shells high and dry on the beach, and was now creating and feeding other +matters at other ends of the world. But in a hundred high schools and +colleges this warfare against common sense still goes on. Four, or six, +or ten years, the pupil is parsing Greek and Latin, and as soon as he +leaves the University, as it is ludicrously called, he shuts those books +for the last time. Some thousands of young men are graduated at our +colleges in this country every year, and the persons who, at forty +years, still read Greek, can all be counted on your hand. I never met +with ten. Four or five persons I have seen who read Plato. + +But is not this absurd, that the whole liberal talent of this country +should be directed in its best years on studies which lead to nothing? +What was the consequence? Some intelligent persons said or thought, +'Is that Greek and Latin some spell to conjure with, and not words of +reason? If the physician, the lawyer, the divine, never use it to come +at their ends, I need never learn it to come at mine. Conjuring is gone +out of fashion, and I will omit this conjugating, and go straight to +affairs.' So they jumped the Greek and Latin, and read law, medicine, or +sermons, without it. To the astonishment of all, the self-made men took +even ground at once with the oldest of the regular graduates, and in +a few months the most conservative circles of Boston and New York had +quite forgotten who of their gownsmen was college-bred, and who was not. + +One tendency appears alike in the philosophical speculation and in the +rudest democratical movements, through all the petulance and all the +puerility, the wish, namely, to cast aside the superfluous and arrive +at short methods; urged, as I suppose, by an intuition that the human +spirit is equal to all emergencies, alone, and that man is more often +injured than helped by the means he uses. + +I conceive this gradual casting off of material aids, and the indication +of growing trust in the private self-supplied powers of the individual, +to be the affirmative principle of the recent philosophy, and that it is +feeling its own profound truth and is reaching forward at this very hour +to the happiest conclusions. I readily concede that in this, as in every +period of intellectual activity, there has been a noise of denial and +protest; much was to be resisted, much was to be got rid of by those +who were reared in the old, before they could begin to affirm and to +construct. Many a reformer perishes in his removal of rubbish; and that +makes the offensiveness of the class. They are partial; they are not +equal to the work they pretend. They lose their way; in the assault on +the kingdom of darkness they expend all their energy on some accidental +evil, and lose their sanity and power of benefit. It is of little moment +that one or two or twenty errors of our social system be corrected, but +of much that the man be in his senses. + +The criticism and attack on institutions, which we have witnessed, +has made one thing plain, that society gains nothing whilst a man, not +himself renovated, attempts to renovate things around him: he has become +tediously good in some particular but negligent or narrow in the rest; +and hypocrisy and vanity are often the disgusting result. + +It is handsomer to remain in the establishment better than the +establishment, and conduct that in the best manner, than to make a sally +against evil by some single improvement, without supporting it by a +total regeneration. Do not be so vain of your one objection. Do you +think there is only one? Alas! my good friend, there is no part of +society or of life better than any other part. All our things are right +and wrong together. The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike. +Do you complain of our Marriage? Our marriage is no worse than our +education, our diet, our trade, our social customs. Do you complain of +the laws of Property? It is a pedantry to give such importance to them. +Can we not play the game of life with these counters, as well as with +those? in the institution of property, as well as out of it? Let into +it the new and renewing principle of love, and property will be +universality. No one gives the impression of superiority to the +institution, which he must give who will reform it. It makes no +difference what you say, you must make me feel that you are aloof from +it; by your natural and supernatural advantages do easily see to the end +of it,--do see how man can do without it. Now all men are on one side. +No man deserves to be heard against property. Only Love, only an Idea, +is against property as we hold it. + +I cannot afford to be irritable and captious, nor to waste all my +time in attacks. If I should go out of church whenever I hear a false +sentiment I could never stay there five minutes. But why come out? the +street is as false as the church, and when I get to my house, or to my +manners, or to my speech, I have not got away from the lie. When we see +an eager assailant of one of these wrongs, a special reformer, we feel +like asking him, What right have you, sir, to your one virtue? Is virtue +piecemeal? This is a jewel amidst the rags of a beggar. + +In another way the right will be vindicated. In the midst of abuses, in +the heart of cities, in the aisles of false churches, alike in one place +and in another,--wherever, namely, a just and heroic soul finds itself, +there it will do what is next at hand, and by the new quality of +character it shall put forth it shall abrogate that old condition, law +or school in which it stands, before the law of its own mind. + +If partiality was one fault of the movement party, the other defect was +their reliance on Association. Doubts such as those I have intimated +drove many good persons to agitate the questions of social reform. But +the revolt against the spirit of commerce, the spirit of aristocracy, +and the inveterate abuses of cities, did not appear possible to +individuals; and to do battle against numbers they armed themselves with +numbers, and against concert they relied on new concert. + +Following or advancing beyond the ideas of St. Simon, of Fourier, and +of Owen, three communities have already been formed in Massachusetts on +kindred plans, and many more in the country at large. They aim to give +every member a share in the manual labor, to give an equal reward to +labor and to talent, and to unite a liberal culture with an education +to labor. The scheme offers, by the economies of associated labor and +expense, to make every member rich, on the same amount of property, +that, in separate families, would leave every member poor. These new +associations are composed of men and women of superior talents and +sentiments; yet it may easily be questioned whether such a community +will draw, except in its beginnings, the able and the good; whether +those who have energy will not prefer their chance of superiority +and power in the world, to the humble certainties of the association; +whether such a retreat does not promise to become an asylum to those who +have tried and failed, rather than a field to the strong; and whether +the members will not necessarily be fractions of men, because each +finds that he cannot enter it, without some compromise. Friendship and +association are very fine things, and a grand phalanx of the best of +the human race, banded for some catholic object; yes, excellent; but +remember that no society can ever be so large as one man. He, in his +friendship, in his natural and momentary associations, doubles or +multiplies himself; but in the hour in which he mortgages himself to two +or ten or twenty, he dwarfs himself below the stature of one. + +But the men of less faith could not thus believe, and to such, concert +appears the sole specific of strength. I have failed, and you have +failed, but perhaps together we shall not fail. Our housekeeping is not +satisfactory to us, but perhaps a phalanx, a community, might be. Many +of us have differed in opinion, and we could find no man who could make +the truth plain, but possibly a college, or an ecclesiastical council +might. I have not been able either to persuade my brother or to prevail +on myself, to disuse the traffic or the potation of brandy, but +perhaps a pledge of total abstinence might effectually restrain us. The +candidate my party votes for is not to be trusted with a dollar, but he +will be honest in the Senate, for we can bring public opinion to bear on +him. Thus concert was the specific in all cases. But concert is neither +better nor worse, neither more nor less potent than individual force. +All the men in the world cannot make a statue walk and speak, cannot +make a drop of blood, or a blade of grass, any more than one man can. +But let there be one man, let there be truth in two men, in ten men, +then is concert for the first time possible; because the force which +moves the world is a new quality, and can never be furnished by adding +whatever quantities of a different kind. What is the use of the concert +of the false and the disunited? There can be no concert in two, where +there is no concert in one. When the individual is not individual, but +is dual; when his thoughts look one way and his actions another; when +his faith is traversed by his habits; when his will, enlightened by +reason, is warped by his sense; when with one hand he rows and with the +other backs water, what concert can be? + +I do not wonder at the interest these projects inspire. The world is +awaking to the idea of union, and these experiments show what it is +thinking of. It is and will be magic. Men will live and communicate, and +plough, and reap, and govern, as by added ethereal power, when once they +are united; as in a celebrated experiment, by expiration and respiration +exactly together, four persons lift a heavy man from the ground by the +little finger only, and without sense of weight. But this union must be +inward, and not one of covenants, and is to be reached by a reverse of +the methods they use. The union is only perfect when all the uniters are +isolated. It is the union of friends who live in different streets or +towns. Each man, if he attempts to join himself to others, is on all +sides cramped and diminished of his proportion; and the stricter the +union the smaller and the more pitiful he is. But leave him alone, to +recognize in every hour and place the secret soul; he will go up and +down doing the works of a true member, and, to the astonishment of all, +the work will be done with concert, though no man spoke. Government will +be adamantine without any governor. The union must be ideal in actual +individualism. + +I pass to the indication in some particulars of that faith in man, which +the heart is preaching to us in these days, and which engages the more +regard, from the consideration that the speculations of one generation +are the history of the next following. + +In alluding just now to our system of education, I spoke of the deadness +of its details. But it is open to graver criticism than the palsy of +its members: it is a system of despair. The disease with which the +human mind now labors is want of faith. Men do not believe in a power of +education. We do not think we can speak to divine sentiments in man, and +we do not try. We renounce all high aims. We believe that the defects of +so many perverse and so many frivolous people who make up society, are +organic, and society is a hospital of incurables. A man of good sense +but of little faith, whose compassion seemed to lead him to church as +often as he went there, said to me that "he liked to have concerts, and +fairs, and churches, and other public amusements go on." I am afraid the +remark is too honest, and comes from the same origin as the maxim of the +tyrant, "If you would rule the world quietly, you must keep it amused." +I notice too that the ground on which eminent public servants urge the +claims of popular education is fear; 'This country is filling up with +thousands and millions of voters, and you must educate them to keep them +from our throats.' We do not believe that any education, any system of +philosophy, any influence of genius, will ever give depth of insight to +a superficial mind. Having settled ourselves into this infidelity, our +skill is expended to procure alleviations, diversion, opiates. We adorn +the victim with manual skill, his tongue with languages, his body with +inoffensive and comely manners. So have we cunningly hid the tragedy of +limitation and inner death we cannot avert. Is it strange that society +should be devoured by a secret melancholy which breaks through all its +smiles and all its gayety and games? + +But even one step farther our infidelity has gone. It appears that some +doubt is felt by good and wise men whether really the happiness +and probity of men is increased by the culture of the mind in those +disciplines to which we give the name of education. Unhappily too the +doubt comes from scholars, from persons who have tried these methods. +In their experience the scholar was not raised by the sacred thoughts +amongst which he dwelt, but used them to selfish ends. He was a profane +person, and became a showman, turning his gifts to a marketable use, and +not to his own sustenance and growth. It was found that the intellect +could be independently developed, that is, in separation from the man, +as any single organ can be invigorated, and the result was monstrous. A +canine appetite for knowledge was generated, which must still be fed but +was never satisfied, and this knowledge, not being directed on action, +never took the character of substantial, humane truth, blessing those +whom it entered. It gave the scholar certain powers of expression, the +power of speech, the power of poetry, of literary art, but it did not +bring him to peace or to beneficence. + +When the literary class betray a destitution of faith, it is not strange +that society should be disheartened and sensualized by unbelief. What +remedy? Life must be lived on a higher plane. We must go up to a higher +platform, to which we are always invited to ascend; there, the whole +aspect of things changes. I resist the skepticism of our education and +of our educated men. I do not believe that the differences of opinion +and character in men are organic. I do not recognize, beside the class +of the good and the wise, a permanent class of skeptics, or a class of +conservatives, or of malignants, or of materialists. I do not believe +in two classes. You remember the story of the poor woman who importuned +King Philip of Macedon to grant her justice, which Philip refused: the +woman exclaimed, "I appeal:" the king, astonished, asked to whom she +appealed: the woman replied, "From Philip drunk to Philip sober." The +text will suit me very well. I believe not in two classes of men, but in +man in two moods, in Philip drunk and Philip sober. I think, according +to the good-hearted word of Plato, "Unwillingly the soul is deprived of +truth." Iron conservative, miser, or thief, no man is but by a supposed +necessity which he tolerates by shortness or torpidity of sight. The +soul lets no man go without some visitations and holydays of a diviner +presence. It would be easy to show, by a narrow scanning of any man's +biography, that we are not so wedded to our paltry performances of +every kind but that every man has at intervals the grace to scorn +his performances, in comparing them with his belief of what he should +do;--that he puts himself on the side of his enemies, listening gladly +to what they say of him, and accusing himself of the same things. + +What is it men love in Genius, but its infinite hope, which degrades all +it has done? Genius counts all its miracles poor and short. Its own idea +it never executed. The Iliad, the Hamlet, the Doric column, the Roman +arch, the Gothic minster, the German anthem, when they are ended, the +master casts behind him. How sinks the song in the waves of melody which +the universe pours over his soul! Before that gracious Infinite out of +which he drew these few strokes, how mean they look, though the praises +of the world attend them. From the triumphs of his art he turns with +desire to this greater defeat. Let those admire who will. With silent +joy he sees himself to be capable of a beauty that eclipses all which +his hands have done; all which human hands have ever done. + +Well, we are all the children of genius, the children of virtue,--and +feel their inspirations in our happier hours. Is not every man sometimes +a radical in politics? Men are conservatives when they are least +vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after +dinner, or before taking their rest; when they are sick, or aged: in the +morning, or when their intellect or their conscience has been aroused; +when they hear music, or when they read poetry, they are radicals. In +the circle of the rankest tories that could be collected in England, Old +or New, let a powerful and stimulating intellect, a man of great heart +and mind, act on them, and very quickly these frozen conservators will +yield to the friendly influence, these hopeless will begin to hope, +these haters will begin to love, these immovable statues will begin to +spin and revolve. I cannot help recalling the fine anecdote which Warton +relates of Bishop Berkeley, when he was preparing to leave England +with his plan of planting the gospel among the American savages. "Lord +Bathurst told me that the members of the Scriblerus club being met at +his house at dinner, they agreed to rally Berkeley, who was also his +guest, on his scheme at Bermudas. Berkeley, having listened to the +many lively things they had to say, begged to be heard in his turn, +and displayed his plan with such an astonishing and animating force of +eloquence and enthusiasm, that they were struck dumb, and, after some +pause, rose up all together with earnestness, exclaiming, 'Let us set +out with him immediately.'" Men in all ways are better than they seem. +They like flattery for the moment, but they know the truth for their +own. It is a foolish cowardice which keeps us from trusting them and +speaking to them rude truth. They resent your honesty for an instant, +they will thank you for it always. What is it we heartily wish of each +other? Is it to be pleased and flattered? No, but to be convicted and +exposed, to be shamed out of our nonsense of all kinds, and made men +of, instead of ghosts and phantoms. We are weary of gliding ghostlike +through the world, which is itself so slight and unreal. We crave a +sense of reality, though it come in strokes of pain. I explain so,--by +this manlike love of truth,--those excesses and errors into which souls +of great vigor, but not equal insight, often fall. They feel the poverty +at the bottom of all the seeming affluence of the world. They know the +speed with which they come straight through the thin masquerade, and +conceive a disgust at the indigence of nature: Rousseau, Mirabeau, +Charles Fox, Napoleon, Byron,--and I could easily add names nearer home, +of raging riders, who drive their steeds so hard, in the violence of +living to forget its illusion: they would know the worst, and tread +the floors of hell. The heroes of ancient and modern fame, Cimon, +Themistocles, Alcibiades, Alexander, Caesar, have treated life and +fortune as a game to be well and skilfully played, but the stake not +to be so valued but that any time it could be held as a trifle light +as air, and thrown up. Caesar, just before the battle of Pharsalia, +discourses with the Egyptian priest concerning the fountains of the +Nile, and offers to quit the army, the empire, and Cleopatra, if he will +show him those mysterious sources. + +The same magnanimity shows itself in our social relations, in the +preference, namely, which each man gives to the society of superiors +over that of his equals. All that a man has will he give for right +relations with his mates. All that he has will he give for an erect +demeanor in every company and on each occasion. He aims at such things +as his neighbors prize, and gives his days and nights, his talents and +his heart, to strike a good stroke, to acquit himself in all men's sight +as a man. The consideration of an eminent citizen, of a noted merchant, +of a man of mark in his profession; a naval and military honor, a +general's commission, a marshal's baton, a ducal coronet, the laurel of +poets, and, anyhow procured, the acknowledgment of eminent merit,--have +this lustre for each candidate that they enable him to walk erect and +unashamed in the presence of some persons before whom he felt himself +inferior. Having raised himself to this rank, having established his +equality with class after class of those with whom he would live well, +he still finds certain others before whom he cannot possess himself, +because they have somewhat fairer, somewhat grander, somewhat purer, +which extorts homage of him. Is his ambition pure? then will his laurels +and his possessions seem worthless: instead of avoiding these men who +make his fine gold dim, he will cast all behind him and seek their +society only, woo and embrace this his humiliation and mortification, +until he shall know why his eye sinks, his voice is husky, and his +brilliant talents are paralyzed in this presence. He is sure that the +soul which gives the lie to all things will tell none. His constitution +will not mislead him. If it cannot carry itself as it ought, high and +unmatchable in the presence of any man; if the secret oracles whose +whisper makes the sweetness and dignity of his life do here withdraw and +accompany him no longer,--it is time to undervalue what he has valued, +to dispossess himself of what he has acquired, and with Caesar to take +in his hand the army, the empire, and Cleopatra, and say, "All these +will I relinquish, if you will show me the fountains of the Nile." Dear +to us are those who love us; the swift moments we spend with them are +a compensation for a great deal of misery; they enlarge our life;--but +dearer are those who reject us as unworthy, for they add another life: +they build a heaven before us whereof we had not dreamed, and thereby +supply to us new powers out of the recesses of the spirit, and urge us +to new and unattempted performances. + +As every man at heart wishes the best and not inferior society, wishes +to be convicted of his error and to come to himself,--so he wishes that +the same healing should not stop in his thought, but should penetrate +his will or active power. The selfish man suffers more from his +selfishness than he from whom that selfishness withholds some important +benefit. What he most wishes is to be lifted to some higher platform, +that he may see beyond his present fear the transalpine good, so that +his fear, his coldness, his custom may be broken up like fragments of +ice, melted and carried away in the great stream of good will. Do +you ask my aid? I also wish to be a benefactor. I wish more to be a +benefactor and servant than you wish to be served by me; and surely the +greatest good fortune that could befall me is precisely to be so moved +by you that I should say, 'Take me and all mine, and use me and mine +freely to your ends'! for I could not say it otherwise than because a +great enlargement had come to my heart and mind, which made me superior +to my fortunes. Here we are paralyzed with fear; we hold on to our +little properties, house and land, office and money, for the bread which +they have in our experience yielded us, although we confess that our +being does not flow through them. We desire to be made great; we desire +to be touched with that fire which shall command this ice to stream, and +make our existence a benefit. If therefore we start objections to your +project, O friend of the slave, or friend of the poor, or of the race, +understand well that it is because we wish to drive you to drive us into +your measures. We wish to hear ourselves confuted. We are haunted with +a belief that you have a secret which it would highliest advantage us to +learn, and we would force you to impart it to us, though it should bring +us to prison, or to worse extremity. + +Nothing shall warp me from the belief that every man is a lover +of truth. There is no pure lie, no pure malignity in nature. The +entertainment of the proposition of depravity is the last profligacy and +profanation. There is no skepticism, no atheism but that. Could it be +received into common belief, suicide would unpeople the planet. It has +had a name to live in some dogmatic theology, but each man's innocence +and his real liking of his neighbor have kept it a dead letter. I +remember standing at the polls one day when the anger of the political +contest gave a certain grimness to the faces of the independent +electors, and a good man at my side, looking on the people, remarked, "I +am satisfied that the largest part of these men, on either side, mean to +vote right." I suppose considerate observers, looking at the masses of +men in their blameless and in their equivocal actions, will assent, that +in spite of selfishness and frivolity, the general purpose in the great +number of persons is fidelity. The reason why any one refuses his assent +to your opinion, or his aid to your benevolent design, is in you: he +refuses to accept you as a bringer of truth, because, though you think +you have it, he feels that you have it not. You have not given him the +authentic sign. + +If it were worth while to run into details this general doctrine of +the latent but ever soliciting Spirit, it would be easy to adduce +illustration in particulars of a man's equality to the Church, of his +equality to the State, and of his equality to every other man. It is +yet in all men's memory that, a few years ago, the liberal churches +complained that the Calvinistic church denied to them the name of +Christian. I think the complaint was confession: a religious church +would not complain. A religious man like Behmen, Fox, or Swedenborg +is not irritated by wanting the sanction of the Church, but the Church +feels the accusation of his presence and belief. + +It only needs that a just man should walk in our streets to make it +appear how pitiful and inartificial a contrivance is our legislation. +The man whose part is taken and who does not wait for society in +anything, has a power which society cannot choose but feel. The familiar +experiment called the hydrostatic paradox, in which a capillary column +of water balances the ocean, is a symbol of the relation of one man +to the whole family of men. The wise Dandamis, on hearing the lives of +Socrates, Pythagoras and Diogenes read, "judged them to be great men +every way, excepting, that they were too much subjected to the reverence +of the laws, which to second and authorize, true virtue must abate very +much of its original vigor." + +And as a man is equal to the Church and equal to the State, so he +is equal to every other man. The disparities of power in men are +superficial; and all frank and searching conversation, in which a man +lays himself open to his brother, apprises each of their radical unity. +When two persons sit and converse in a thoroughly good understanding, +the remark is sure to be made, See how we have disputed about words! Let +a clear, apprehensive mind, such as every man knows among his friends, +converse with the most commanding poetic genius, I think it would appear +that there was no inequality such as men fancy, between them; that a +perfect understanding, a like receiving, a like perceiving, abolished +differences; and the poet would confess that his creative imagination +gave him no deep advantage, but only the superficial one that he could +express himself and the other could not; that his advantage was a knack, +which might impose on indolent men but could not impose on lovers of +truth; for they know the tax of talent, or what a price of greatness the +power of expression too often pays. I believe it is the conviction of +the purest men, that the net amount of man and man does not much vary. +Each is incomparably superior to his companion in some faculty. His want +of skill in other directions has added to his fitness for his own work. +Each seems to have some compensation yielded to him by his infirmity, +and every hindrance operates as a concentration of his force. + +These and the like experiences intimate that man stands in strict +connection with a higher fact never yet manifested. There is power over +and behind us, and we are the channels of its communications. We seek +to say thus and so, and over our head some spirit sits which contradicts +what we say. We would persuade our fellow to this or that; another self +within our eyes dissuades him. That which we keep back, this reveals. +In vain we compose our faces and our words; it holds uncontrollable +communication with the enemy, and he answers civilly to us, but believes +the spirit. We exclaim, 'There's a traitor in the house!' but at last it +appears that he is the true man, and I am the traitor. This open channel +to the highest life is the first and last reality, so subtle, so quiet, +yet so tenacious, that although I have never expressed the truth, and +although I have never heard the expression of it from any other, I +know that the whole truth is here for me. What if I cannot answer your +questions? I am not pained that I cannot frame a reply to the question, +What is the operation we call Providence? There lies the unspoken thing, +present, omnipresent. Every time we converse we seek to translate it +into speech, but whether we hit or whether we miss, we have the fact. +Every discourse is an approximate answer: but it is of small consequence +that we do not get it into verbs and nouns, whilst it abides for +contemplation forever. + +If the auguries of the prophesying heart shall make themselves good in +time, the man who shall be born, whose advent men and events prepare and +foreshow, is one who shall enjoy his connection with a higher life, with +the man within man; shall destroy distrust by his trust, shall use his +native but forgotten methods, shall not take counsel of flesh and blood, +but shall rely on the Law alive and beautiful which works over our heads +and under our feet. Pitiless, it avails itself of our success when +we obey it, and of our ruin when we contravene it. Men are all secret +believers in it, else the word justice would have no meaning: they +believe that the best is the true; that right is done at last; or chaos +would come. It rewards actions after their nature, and not after the +design of the agent. 'Work,' it saith to man, 'in every hour, paid or +unpaid, see only that thou work, and thou canst not escape the reward: +whether thy work be fine or coarse, planting corn or writing epics, so +only it be honest work, done to thine own approbation, it shall earn +a reward to the senses as well as to the thought: no matter how often +defeated, you are born to victory. The reward of a thing well done, is +to have done it.' + +As soon as a man is wonted to look beyond surfaces, and to see how +this high will prevails without an exception or an interval, he settles +himself into serenity. He can already rely on the laws of gravity, that +every stone will fall where it is due; the good globe is faithful, and +carries us securely through the celestial spaces, anxious or resigned, +we need not interfere to help it on: and he will learn one day the mild +lesson they teach, that our own orbit is all our task, and we need not +assist the administration of the universe. Do not be so impatient to +set the town right concerning the unfounded pretensions and the false +reputation of certain men of standing. They are laboring harder to +set the town right concerning themselves, and will certainly succeed. +Suppress for a few days your criticism on the insufficiency of this +or that teacher or experimenter, and he will have demonstrated his +insufficiency to all men's eyes. In like manner, let a man fall into the +divine circuits, and he is enlarged. Obedience to his genius is the only +liberating influence. We wish to escape from subjection and a sense of +inferiority, and we make self-denying ordinances, we drink water, we +eat grass, we refuse the laws, we go to jail: it is all in vain; only +by obedience to his genius, only by the freest activity in the way +constitutional to him, does an angel seem to arise before a man and lead +him by the hand out of all the wards of the prison. + +That which befits us, embosomed in beauty and wonder as we are, is +cheerfulness and courage, and the endeavor to realize our aspirations. +The life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly +conducted will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction. +All around us what powers are wrapped up under the coarse mattings of +custom, and all wonder prevented. It is so wonderful to our neurologists +that a man can see without his eyes, that it does not occur to them that +it is just as wonderful that he should see with them; and that is ever +the difference between the wise and the unwise: the latter wonders at +what is unusual, the wise man wonders at the usual. Shall not the heart +which has received so much, trust the Power by which it lives? May it +not quit other leadings, and listen to the Soul that has guided it so +gently and taught it so much, secure that the future will be worthy of +the past? + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Essays, Second Series, by Ralph Waldo Emerson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS, SECOND SERIES *** + +***** This file should be named 2945.txt or 2945.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/4/2945/ + +Produced by Tony Adam + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END* + + + + + +This Project Gutenberg Etext Prepared by Tony Adam +anthony-adam@tamu.edu + + + + + +Essays, Second Series + +by Ralph Waldo Emerson + + + + +THE POET. + +A moody child and wildly wise +Pursued the game with joyful eyes, +Which chose, like meteors, their way, +And rived the dark with private ray: +They overleapt the horizon's edge, +Searched with Apollo's privilege; +Through man, and woman, and sea, and star +Saw the dance of nature forward far; +Through worlds, and races, and terms, and times +Saw musical order, and pairing rhymes. + +Olympian bards who sung + Divine ideas below, +Which always find us young, + And always keep us so. + +I. +THE POET. + +Those who are esteemed umpires of taste are often +persons who have acquired some knowledge of admired +pictures or sculptures, and have an inclination for +whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they +are beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are +like fair pictures, you learn that they are selfish +and sensual. Their cultivation is local, as if you +should rub a log of dry wood in one spot to produce +fire, all the rest remaining cold. Their knowledge +of the fine arts is some study of rules and particulars, +or some limited judgment of color or form, which is +exercised for amusement or for show. It is a proof of +the shallowness of the doctrine of beauty as it lies +in the minds of our amateurs, that men seem to have +lost the perception of the instant dependence of form +upon soul. There is no doctrine of forms in our philosophy. +We were put into our bodies, as fire is put into a pan to +be carried about; but there is no accurate adjustment +between the spirit and the organ, much less is the latter +the germination of the former. So in regard to other forms, +the intellectual men do not believe in any essential +dependence of the material world on thought and volition. +Theologians think it a pretty air-castle to talk of the +Spiritual meaning of a ship or a cloud, of a city or a +contract, but they prefer to come again to the solid +ground of historical evidence; and even the poets are +contented with a civil and conformed manner of living, +and to write poems from the fancy, at a safe distance +from their own experience. But the highest minds of the +world have never ceased to explore the double meaning, +or shall I say the quadruple or the centuple or much more +manifold meaning, of every sensuous fact; Orpheus, +Empedocles, Heraclitus, Plato, Plutarch, Dante, Swedenborg, +and the masters of sculpture, picture, and poetry. For we +are not pans and barrows, nor even porters of the fire +and torch-bearers, but children of the fire, made of it, +and only the same divinity transmuted and at two or three +removes, when we know least about it. And this hidden +truth, that the fountains whence all this river of Time +and its creatures floweth are intrinsically ideal and +beautiful, draws us to the consideration of the nature +and functions of the Poet, or the man of Beauty; to the +means and materials he uses, and to the general aspect +of the art in the present time. + +The breadth of the problem is great, for the poet +is representative. He stands among partial men for +the complete man, and apprises us not of his wealth, +but of the common wealth. The young man reveres men +of genius, because, to speak truly, they are more +himself than he is. They receive of the soul as he +also receives, but they more. Nature enhances her +beauty, to the eye of loving men, from their belief +that the poet is beholding her shows at the same time. +He is isolated among his contemporaries by truth and +by his art, but with this consolation in his pursuits, +that they will draw all men sooner or later. For all +men live by truth and stand in need of expression. In +love, in art, in avarice, in politics, in labor, in +games, we study to utter our painful secret. The man +is only half himself, the other half is his expression. + +Notwithstanding this necessity to be published, +adequate expression is rare. I know not how it is +that we need an interpreter, but the great majority +of men seem to be minors, who have not yet come into +possession of their own, or mutes, who cannot report +the conversation they have had with nature. There is +no man who does not anticipate a supersensual utility +in the sun and stars, earth and water. These stand +and wait to render him a peculiar service. But there +is some obstruction or some excess of phlegm in our +constitution, which does not suffer them to yield the +due effect. Too feeble fall the impressions of nature +on us to make us artists. Every touch should thrill. +Every man should be so much an artist that he could +report in conversation what had befallen him. Yet, in +our experience, the rays or appulses have sufficient +force to arrive at the senses, but not enough to reach +the quick and compel the reproduction of themselves in +speech. The poet is the person in whom these powers are +in balance, the man without impediment, who sees and +handles that which others dream of, traverses the whole +scale of experience, and is representative of man, in +virtue of being the largest power to receive and to +impart. + +For the Universe has three children, born at one +time, which reappear under different names in every +system of thought, whether they be called cause, +operation, and effect; or, more poetically, Jove, +Pluto, Neptune; or, theologically, the Father, the +Spirit, and the Son; but which we will call here +the Knower, the Doer, and the Sayer. These stand +respectively for the love of truth, for the love +of good, and for the love of beauty. These three +are equal. Each is that which he is essentially, +so that he cannot be surmounted or analyzed, and +each of these three has the power of the others +latent in him, and his own, patent. + +The poet is the sayer, the namer, and represents +beauty. He is a sovereign, and stands on the centre. +For the world is not painted or adorned, but is from +the beginning beautiful; and God has not made some +beautiful things, but Beauty is the creator of the +universe. Therefore the poet is not any permissive +potentate, but is emperor in his own right. Criticism +is infested with a cant of materialism, which assumes +that manual skill and activity is the first merit of +all men, and disparages such as say and do not, +overlooking the fact that some men, namely poets, are +natural sayers, sent into the world to the end of +expression, and confounds them with those whose province +is action but who quit it to imitate the sayers. But +Homer's words are as costly and admirable to Homer as +Agamemnon's victories are to Agamemnon. The poet does +not wait for the hero or the sage, but, as they act and +think primarily, so he writes primarily what will and +must be spoken, reckoning the others, though primaries +also, yet, in respect to him, secondaries and servants; +as sitters or models in the studio of a painter, or as +assistants who bring building materials to an architect. + +For poetry was all written before time was, and +whenever we are so finely organized that we can +penetrate into that region where the air is music, +we hear those primal warblings and attempt to write +them down, but we lose ever and anon a word or a +verse and substitute something of our own, and thus +miswrite the poem. The men of more delicate ear +write down these cadences more faithfully, and +these transcripts, though imperfect, become the songs +of the nations. For nature is as truly beautiful as +it is good, or as it is reasonable, and must as much +appear as it must be done, or be known. Words and +deeds are quite indifferent modes of the divine energy. +Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words. + +The sign and credentials of the poet are that he +announces that which no man foretold. He is the +true and only doctor; he knows and tells; he is +the only teller of news, for he was present and +privy to the appearance which he describes. He is +a beholder of ideas and an utterer of the necessary +and causal. For we do not speak now of men of +poetical talents, or of industry and skill in metre, +but of the true poet. I took part in a conversation +the other day concerning a recent writer of lyrics, +a man of subtle mind, whose head appeared to be a +music-box of delicate tunes and rhythms, and whose +skill and command of language, we could not sufficiently +praise. But when the question arose whether he was not +only a lyrist but a poet, we were obliged to confess +that he is plainly a contemporary, not an eternal man. +He does not stand out of our low limitations, like a +Chimborazo under the line, running up from the torrid +Base through all the climates of the globe, with belts +of the herbage of every latitude on its high and mottled +sides; but this genius is the landscape-garden of a +modern house, adorned with fountains and statues, with +well-bred men and women standing and sitting in the +walks and terraces. We hear, through all the varied +music, the ground-tone of conventional life. Our poets +are men of talents who sing, and not the children of +music. The argument is secondary, the finish of the +verses is primary. + +For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument +that makes a poem,--a thought so passionate and +alive that like the spirit of a plant or an animal +it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature +with a new thing. The thought and the form are equal +in the order of time, but in the order of genesis +the thought is prior to the form. The poet has a new +thought; he has a whole new experience to unfold; he +will tell us how it was with him, and all men will be +the richer in his fortune. For the experience of each +new age requires a new confession, and the world seems +always waiting for its poet. I remember when I was +young how much I was moved one morning by tidings that +genius had appeared in a youth who sat near me at +table. He had left his work and gone rambling none +knew whither, and had written hundreds of lines, but +could not tell whether that which was in him was +therein told; he could tell nothing but that all was +changed,--man, beast, heaven, earth and sea. How gladly +we listened! how credulous! Society seemed to be +compromised. We sat in the aurora of a sunrise which +was to put out all the stars. Boston seemed to be at +twice the distance it had the night before, or was +much farther than that. Rome,--what was Rome? Plutarch +and Shakspeare were in the yellow leaf, and Homer no +more should be heard of. It is much to know that poetry +has been written this very day, under this very roof, +by your side. What! that wonderful spirit has not +expired! These stony moments are still sparkling and +animated! I had fancied that the oracles were all silent, +and nature had spent her fires; and behold! all night, +from every pore, these fine auroras have been streaming. +Every one has some interest in the advent of the poet, +and no one knows how much it may concern him. We know +that the secret of the world is profound, but who or +what shall be our interpreter, we know not. A mountain +ramble, a new style of face, a new person, may put the +key into our hands. Of course the value of genius to us +is in the veracity of its report. Talent may frolic and +juggle; genius realizes and adds. Mankind in good +earnest have availed so far in understanding themselves +and their work, that the foremost watchman on the peak +announces his news. It is the truest word ever spoken, +and the phrase will be the fittest, most musical, and +the unerring voice of the world for that time. + +All that we call sacred history attests that the +birth of a poet is the principal event in chronology. +Man, never so often deceived, still watches for the +arrival of a brother who can hold him steady to a +truth until he has made it his own. With what joy I +begin to read a poem which I confide in as an +inspiration! And now my chains are to be broken; I +shall mount above these clouds and opaque airs in +which I live,--opaque, though they seem transparent, +--and from the heaven of truth I shall see and +comprehend my relations. That will reconcile me to +life and renovate nature, to see trifles animated +by a tendency, and to know what I am doing. Life will +no more be a noise; now I shall see men and women, +and know the signs by which they may be discerned +from fools and satans. This day shall be better than +my birthday: then I became an animal; now I am +invited into the science of the real. Such is the +hope, but the fruition is postponed. Oftener it falls +that this winged man, who will carry me into the heaven, +whirls me into mists, then leaps and frisks about with +me as it were from cloud to cloud, still affirming that +he is bound heavenward; and I, being myself a novice, +am slow in perceiving that he does not know the way +into the heavens, and is merely bent that I should admire +his skill to rise like a fowl or a flying fish, a little +way from the ground or the water; but the all-piercing, +all-feeding, and ocular air of heaven that man shall +never inhabit. I tumble down again soon into my old nooks, +and lead the life of exaggerations as before, and have +lost my faith in the possibility of any guide who can +lead me thither where I would be. + +But, leaving these victims of vanity, let us, with +new hope, observe how nature, by worthier impulses, +has ensured the poet's fidelity to his office of +announcement and affirming, namely by the beauty of +things, which becomes a new and higher beauty when +expressed. Nature offers all her creatures to him as +a picture-language. Being used as a type, a second +wonderful value appears in the object, far better +than its old value; as the carpenter's stretched +cord, if you hold your ear close enough, is musical +in the breeze. "Things more excellent than every +image," says Jamblichus, "are expressed through +images." Things admit of being used as symbols +because nature is a symbol, in the whole, and in +every part. Every line we can draw in the sand has +expression; and there is no body without its spirit +or genius. All form is an effect of character; all +condition, of the quality of the life; all harmony, +of health; and for this reason a perception of beauty +should be sympathetic, or proper only to the good. +The beautiful rests on the foundations of the necessary. +The soul makes the body, as the wise Spenser teaches:-- + + "So every spirit, as it is most pure, + And hath in it the more of heavenly light, + So it the fairer body doth procure + To habit in, and it more fairly dight, + With cheerful grace and amiable sight. + For, of the soul, the body form doth take, + For soul is form, and doth the body make." + +Here we find ourselves suddenly not in a critical +speculation but in a holy place, and should go very +warily and reverently. We stand before the secret +of the world, there where Being passes into Appearance +and Unity into Variety. + +The Universe is the externization of the soul. +Wherever the life is, that bursts into appearance +around it. Our science is sensual, and therefore +superficial. The earth and the heavenly bodies, +physics, and chemistry, we sensually treat, as if +they were self-existent; but these are the retinue +of that Being we have. "The mighty heaven," said +Proclus, "exhibits, in its transfigurations, clear +images of the splendor of intellectual perceptions; +being moved in conjunction with the unapparent periods +of intellectual natures." Therefore science always +goes abreast with the just elevation of the man, +keeping step with religion and metaphysics; or the +state of science is an index of our self-knowledge. +Since everything in nature answers to a moral power, +if any phenomenon remains brute and dark it is that +the corresponding faculty in the observer is not yet +active. + +No wonder then, if these waters be so deep, that we +hover over them with a religious regard. The beauty +of the fable proves the importance of the sense; to +the poet, and to all others; or, if you please, every +man is so far a poet as to be susceptible of these +enchantments of nature; for all men have the thoughts +whereof the universe is the celebration. I find that +the fascination resides in the symbol. Who loves +nature? Who does not? Is it only poets, and men of +leisure and cultivation, who live with her? No; but +also hunters, farmers, grooms, and butchers, though +they express their affection in their choice of life +and not in their choice of words. The writer wonders +what the coachman or the hunter values in riding, in +horses and dogs. It is not superficial qualities. When +you talk with him he holds these at as slight a rate as +you. His worship is sympathetic; he has no definitions, +but he is commanded in nature, by the living power +which he feels to be there present. No imitation or +playing of these things would content him; he loves +the earnest of the north wind, of rain, of stone, and +wood, and iron. A beauty not explicable is dearer than +a beauty which we can see to the end of. It is nature +the symbol, nature certifying the supernatural, body +overflowed by life which he worships with coarse but +sincere rites. + +The inwardness and mystery of this attachment +drives men of every class to the use of emblems. +The schools of poets and philosophers are not more +intoxicated with their symbols than the populace +with theirs. In our political parties, compute the +power of badges and emblems. See the great ball +which they roll from Baltimore to Bunker hill! In +the political processions, Lowell goes in a loom, +and Lynn in a shoe, and Salem in a ship. Witness +the cider-barrel, the log-cabin, the hickory-stick, +the palmetto, and all the cognizances of party. See +the power of national emblems. Some stars, lilies, +leopards, a crescent, a lion, an eagle, or other +figure which came into credit God knows how, on an +old rag of bunting, blowing in the wind on a fort +at the ends of the earth, shall make the blood tingle +under the rudest or the most conventional exterior. +The people fancy they hate poetry, and they are all +poets and mystics! + +Beyond this universality of the symbolic language, +we are apprised of the divineness of this superior +use of things, whereby the world is a temple whose +walls are covered with emblems, pictures, and +commandments of the Deity,--in this, that there is +no fact in nature which does not carry the whole +sense of nature; and the distinctions which we make +in events and in affairs, of low and high, honest +and base, disappear when nature is used as a symbol. +Thought makes everything fit for use. The vocabulary +of an omniscient man would embrace words and images +excluded from polite conversation. What would be +base, or even obscene, to the obscene, becomes +illustrious, spoken in a new connexion of thought. +The piety of the Hebrew prophets purges their grossness. +The circumcision is an example of the power of poetry +to raise the low and offensive. Small and mean things +serve as well as great symbols. The meaner the type by +which a law is expressed, the more pungent it is, and +the more lasting in the memories of men: just as we +choose the smallest box or case in which any needful +utensil can be carried. Bare lists of words are found +suggestive to an imaginative and excited mind; as it +is related of Lord Chatham that he was accustomed to +read in Bailey's Dictionary when he was preparing to +speak in Parliament. The poorest experience is rich +enough for all the purposes of expressing thought. Why +covet a knowledge of new facts? Day and night, house +and garden, a few books, a few actions, serve us as +well as would all trades and all spectacles. We are +far from having exhausted the significance of the few +symbols we use. We can come to use them yet with a +terrible simplicity. It does not need that a poem +should be long. Every word was once a poem. Every +new relation is a new word. Also we use defects and +deformities to a sacred purpose, so expressing our +sense that the evils of the world are such only to +the evil eye. In the old mythology, mythologists +observe, defects are ascribed to divine natures, as +lameness to Vulcan, blindness to Cupid, and the like, +--to signify exuberances. + +For as it is dislocation and detachment from the +life of God that makes things ugly, the poet, who +re-attaches things to nature and the Whole,-- +re-attaching even artificial things and violations +of nature, to nature, by a deeper insight,--disposes +very easily of the most disagreeable facts. Readers +of poetry see the factory-village and the railway, +and fancy that the poetry of the landscape is broken +up by these; for these works of art are not yet +consecrated in their reading; but the poet sees them +fall within the great Order not less than the beehive +or the spider's geometrical web. Nature adopts them +very fast into her vital circles, and the gliding +train of cars she loves like her own. Besides, in a +centred mind, it signifies nothing how many mechanical +inventions you exhibit. Though you add millions, and +never so surprising, the fact of mechanics has not +gained a grain's weight. The spiritual fact remains +unalterable, by many or by few particulars; as no +mountain is of any appreciable height to break the +curve of the sphere. A shrewd country-boy goes to the +city for the first time, and the complacent citizen +is not satisfied with his little wonder. It is not +that he does not see all the fine houses and know that +he never saw such before, but he disposes of them as +easily as the poet finds place for the railway. The +chief value of the new fact is to enhance the great +and constant fact of Life, which can dwarf any and +every circumstance, and to which the belt of wampum +and the commerce of America are alike. + +The world being thus put under the mind for verb +and noun, the poet is he who can articulate it. +For though life is great, and fascinates, and absorbs; +and though all men are intelligent of the symbols +through which it is named; yet they cannot originally +use them. We are symbols and inhabit symbols; workmen, +work, and tools, words and things, birth and death, +all are emblems; but we sympathize with the symbols, +and being infatuated with the economical uses of +things, we do not know that they are thoughts. The +poet, by an ulterior intellectual perception, gives +them a power which makes their old use forgotten, and +puts eyes and a tongue into every dumb and inanimate +object. He perceives the independence of the thought +on the symbol, the stability of the thought, the +accidency and fugacity of the symbol. As the eyes of +Lyncaeus were said to see through the earth, so the +poet turns the world to glass, and shows us all +things in their right series and procession. For +through that better perception he stands one step +nearer to things, and sees the flowing or metamorphosis; +perceives that thought is multiform; that within the +form of every creature is a force impelling it to ascend +into a higher form; and following with his eyes the life, +uses the forms which express that life, and so his speech +flows with the flowing of nature. All the facts of the +animal economy, sex, nutriment, gestation, birth, growth, +are symbols of the passage of the world into the soul of +man, to suffer there a change and reappear a new and +higher fact. He uses forms according to the life, and +not according to the form. This is true science. The +poet alone knows astronomy, chemistry, vegetation and +animation, for he does not stop at these facts, but +employs them as signs. He knows why the plain or meadow +of space was strewn with these flowers we call suns and +moons and stars; why the great deep is adorned with +animals, with men, and gods; for in every word he speaks +he rides on them as the horses of thought. + +By virtue of this science the poet is the Namer +or Language-maker, naming things sometimes after +their appearance, sometimes after their essence, +and giving to every one its own name and not +another's, thereby rejoicing the intellect, which +delights in detachment or boundary. The poets made +all the words, and therefore language is the +archives of history, and, if we must say it, a +sort of tomb of the muses. For though the origin +of most of our words is forgotten, each word was +at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency +because for the moment it symbolized the world to +the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist +finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant +picture. Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone +of the continent consists of infinite masses of the +shells of animalcules, so language is made up of +images or tropes, which now, in their secondary use, +have long ceased to remind us of their poetic origin. +But the poet names the thing because he sees it, or +comes one step nearer to it than any other. This +expression or naming is not art, but a second nature, +grown out of the first, as a leaf out of a tree. What +we call nature is a certain self-regulated motion or +change; and nature does all things by her own hands, +and does not leave another to baptize her but baptizes +herself; and this through the metamorphosis again. I +remember that a certain poet described it to me thus: + +Genius is the activity which repairs the decays +of things, whether wholly or partly of a material +and finite kind. Nature, through all her kingdoms, +insures herself. Nobody cares for planting the +poor fungus; so she shakes down from the gills of +one agaric countless spores, any one of which, +being preserved, transmits new billions of spores +to-morrow or next day. The new agaric of this hour +has a chance which the old one had not. This atom +of seed is thrown into a new place, not subject to +the accidents which destroyed its parent two rods +off. She makes a man; and having brought him to +ripe age, she will no longer run the risk of losing +this wonder at a blow, but she detaches from him a +new self, that the kind may be safe from accidents +to which the individual is exposed. So when the +soul of the poet has come to ripeness of thought, +she detaches and sends away from it its poems or +songs,--a fearless, sleepless, deathless progeny, +which is not exposed to the accidents of the weary +kingdom of time; a fearless, vivacious offspring, +clad with wings (such was the virtue of the soul out +of which they came) which carry them fast and far, +and infix them irrecoverably into the hearts of men. +These wings are the beauty of the poet's soul. The +songs, thus flying immortal from their mortal parent, +are pursued by clamorous flights of censures, which +swarm in far greater numbers and threaten to devour +them; but these last are not winged. At the end of a +very short leap they fall plump down and rot, having +received from the souls out of which they came no +beautiful wings. But the melodies of the poet ascend +and leap and pierce into the deeps of infinite time. + +So far the bard taught me, using his freer speech. +But nature has a higher end, in the production of +New individuals, than security, namely ascension, +or the passage of the soul into higher forms. I knew +in my younger days the sculptor who made the statue +of the youth which stands in the public garden. He +was, as I remember, unable to tell directly, what +made him happy or unhappy, but by wonderful +indirections he could tell. He rose one day, according +to his habit, before the dawn, and saw the morning +break, grand as the eternity out of which it came, +and for many days after, he strove to express this +tranquillity, and lo! his chisel had fashioned out +of marble the form of a beautiful youth, Phosphorus, +whose aspect is such that it is said all persons who +look on it become silent. The poet also resigns +himself to his mood, and that thought which agitated +him is expressed, but alter idem, in a manner totally +new. The expression is organic, or the new type which +things themselves take when liberated. As, in the sun, +objects paint their images on the retina of the eye, +so they, sharing the aspiration of the whole universe, +tend to paint a far more delicate copy of their essence +in his mind. Like the metamorphosis of things into +higher organic forms is their change into melodies. +Over everything stands its daemon or soul, and, as +the form of the thing is reflected by the eye, so the +soul of the thing is reflected by a melody. The sea, +the mountain-ridge, Niagara, and every flower-bed, +pre-exist, or super-exist, in pre-cantations, which +sail like odors in the air, and when any man goes by +with an ear sufficiently fine, he overhears them and +endeavors to write down the notes without diluting or +depraving them. And herein is the legitimation of +criticism, in the mind's faith that the poems are a +corrupt version of some text in nature with which they +ought to be made to tally. A rhyme in one of our sonnets +should not be less pleasing than the iterated nodes of +a sea-shell, or the resembling difference of a group +of flowers. The pairing of the birds is an idyl, not +tedious as our idyls are; a tempest is a rough ode, +without falsehood or rant; a summer, with its harvest +sown, reaped, and stored, is an epic song, subordinating +how many admirably executed parts. Why should not the +symmetry and truth that modulate these, glide into our +spirits, and we participate the invention of nature? + +This insight, which expresses itself by what is +called Imagination, is a very high sort of seeing, +which does not come by study, but by the intellect +being where and what it sees; by sharing the path +or circuit of things through forms, and so making +them translucid to others. The path of things is +silent. Will they suffer a speaker to go with them? +A spy they will not suffer; a lover, a poet, is the +transcendency of their own nature,--him they will +suffer. The condition of true naming, on the poet's +part, is his resigning himself to the divine aura +which breathes through forms, and accompanying that. + +It is a secret which every intellectual man quickly +learns, that, beyond the energy of his possessed and +conscious intellect he is capable of a new energy +(as of an intellect doubled on itself), by abandonment +to the nature of things; that beside his privacy of +power as an individual man, there is a great public +power on which he can draw, by unlocking, at all risks, +his human doors, and suffering the ethereal tides to +roll and circulate through him; then he is caught up +into the life of the Universe, his speech is thunder, +his thought is law, and his words are universally +intelligible as the plants and animals. The poet knows +that he speaks adequately then only when he speaks +somewhat wildly, or, "with the flower of the mind;" +not with the intellect used as an organ, but with the +intellect released from all service and suffered to +take its direction from its celestial life; or as the +ancients were wont to express themselves, not with +intellect alone but with the intellect inebriated by +nectar. As the traveller who has lost his way throws +his reins on his horse's neck and trusts to the +instinct of the animal to find his road, so must we +do with the divine animal who carries us through this +world. For if in any manner we can stimulate this +instinct, new passages are opened for us into nature; +the mind flows into and through things hardest and +highest, and the metamorphosis is possible. + +This is the reason why bards love wine, mead, +narcotics, coffee, tea, opium, the fumes of sandal +-wood and tobacco, or whatever other procurers of +animal exhilaration. All men avail themselves of +such means as they can, to add this extraordinary +power to their normal powers; and to this end they +prize conversation, music, pictures, sculpture, +dancing, theatres, travelling, war, mobs, fires, +gaming, politics, or love, or science, or animal +intoxication,--which are several coarser or finer +quasi-mechanical substitutes for the true nectar, +which is the ravishment of the intellect by coming +nearer to the fact. These are auxiliaries to the +centrifugal tendency of a man, to his passage out +into free space, and they help him to escape the +custody of that body in which he is pent up, and +of that jail-yard of individual relations in which +he is enclosed. Hence a great number of such as were +professionally expressers of Beauty, as painters, +poets, musicians, and actors, have been more than +others wont to lead a life of pleasure and indulgence; +all but the few who received the true nectar; and, as +it was a spurious mode of attaining freedom, as it was +an emancipation not into the heavens but into the +freedom of baser places, they were punished for that +advantage they won, by a dissipation and deterioration. +But never can any advantage be taken of nature by a +trick. The spirit of the world, the great calm presence +of the Creator, comes not forth to the sorceries of +opium or of wine. The sublime vision comes to the pure +and simple soul in a clean and chaste body. That is not +an inspiration, which we owe to narcotics, but some +counterfeit excitement and fury. Milton says that the +lyric poet may drink wine and live generously, but the +epic poet, he who shall sing of the gods and their +descent unto men, must drink water out of a wooden +bowl. For poetry is not 'Devil's wine,' but God's wine. +It is with this as it is with toys. We fill the hands +and nurseries of our children with all manner of dolls, +drums, and horses; withdrawing their eyes from the +plain face and sufficing objects of nature, the sun, +and moon, the animals, the water, and stones, which +should be their toys. So the poet's habit of living +should be set on a key so low that the common +influences should delight him. His cheerfulness should +be the gift of the sunlight; the air should suffice +for his inspiration, and he should be tipsy with water. +That spirit which suffices quiet hearts, which seems to +come forth to such from every dry knoll of sere grass, +from every pine-stump and half-imbedded stone on which +the dull March sun shines, comes forth to the poor and +hungry, and such as are of simple taste. If thou fill +thy brain with Boston and New York, with fashion and +covetousness, and wilt stimulate thy jaded senses with +wine and French coffee, thou shalt find no radiance of +wisdom in the lonely waste of the pinewoods. + +If the imagination intoxicates the poet, it is +not inactive in other men. The metamorphosis +excites in the beholder an emotion of joy. The +use of symbols has a certain power of emancipation +and exhilaration for all men. We seem to be touched +by a wand which makes us dance and run about happily, +like children. We are like persons who come out of +a cave or cellar into the open air. This is the +effect on us of tropes, fables, oracles, and all +poetic forms. Poets are thus liberating gods. Men +have really got a new sense, and found within their +world another world, or nest of worlds; for, the +metamorphosis once seen, we divine that it does not +stop. I will not now consider how much this makes +the charm of algebra and the mathematics, which +also have their tropes, but it is felt in every +definition; as when Aristotle defines space to be +an immovable vessel in which things are contained; +--or when Plato defines a line to be a flowing +point; or figure to be a bound of solid; and many +the like. What a joyful sense of freedom we have +when Vitruvius announces the old opinion of artists +that no architect can build any house well who does +not know something of anatomy. When Socrates, in +Charmides, tells us that the soul is cured of its +maladies by certain incantations, and that these +incantations are beautiful reasons, from which +temperance is generated in souls; when Plato calls +the world an animal; and Timaeus affirms that the +plants also are animals; or affirms a man to be a +heavenly tree, growing with his root, which is his +head, upward; and, as George Chapman, following him, +writes,-- + + "So in our tree of man, whose nervie root + Springs in his top;" -- + +when Orpheus speaks of hoariness as "that white +flower which marks extreme old age;" when Proclus +calls the universe the statue of the intellect; +when Chaucer, in his praise of 'Gentilesse,' compares +good blood in mean condition to fire, which, though +carried to the darkest house betwixt this and the +mount of Caucasus, will yet hold its natural office +and burn as bright as if twenty thousand men did it +behold; when John saw, in the Apocalypse, the ruin +of the world through evil, and the stars fall from +heaven as the figtree casteth her untimely fruit; +when Aesop reports the whole catalogue of common +daily relations through the masquerade of birds and +beasts;--we take the cheerful hint of the immortality +of our essence and its versatile habit and escapes, +as when the gypsies say "it is in vain to hang them, +they cannot die." + +The poets are thus liberating gods. The ancient +British bards had for the title of their order, "Those +Who are free throughout the world." They are free, and +they make free. An imaginative book renders us much +more service at first, by stimulating us through its +tropes, than afterward when we arrive at the precise +sense of the author. I think nothing is of any value +in books excepting the transcendental and extraordinary. +If a man is inflamed and carried away by his thought, +to that degree that he forgets the authors and the +public and heeds only this one dream which holds him +like an insanity, let me read his paper, and you may +have all the arguments and histories and criticism. +All the value which attaches to Pythagoras, Paracelsus, +Cornelius Agrippa, Cardan, Kepler, Swedenborg, Schelling, +Oken, or any other who introduces questionable facts +into his cosmogony, as angels, devils, magic, astrology, +palmistry, mesmerism, and so on, is the certificate we +have of departure from routine, and that here is a new +witness. That also is the best success in conversation, +the magic of liberty, which puts the world like a ball +in our hands. How cheap even the liberty then seems; +how mean to study, when an emotion communicates to the +intellect the power to sap and upheave nature; how great +the perspective! nations, times, systems, enter and +disappear like threads in tapestry of large figure and +many colors; dream delivers us to dream, and while the +drunkenness lasts we will sell our bed, our philosophy, +our religion, in our opulence. + +There is good reason why we should prize this +liberation. The fate of the poor shepherd, who, +blinded and lost in the snow-storm, perishes in a +drift within a few feet of his cottage door, is an +emblem of the state of man. On the brink of the +waters of life and truth, we are miserably dying. +The inaccessibleness of every thought but that we +are in, is wonderful. What if you come near to it; +you are as remote when you are nearest as when you +are farthest. Every thought is also a prison; every +heaven is also a prison. Therefore we love the poet, +the inventor, who in any form, whether in an ode or +in an action or in looks and behavior has yielded +us a new thought. He unlocks our chains and admits +us to a new scene. + +This emancipation is dear to all men, and the power +to impart it, as it must come from greater depth and +scope of thought, is a measure of intellect. Therefore +all books of the imagination endure, all which ascend +to that truth that the writer sees nature beneath him, +and uses it as his exponent. Every verse or sentence +possessing this virtue will take care of its own +immortality. The religions of the world are the +ejaculations of a few imaginative men. + +But the quality of the imagination is to flow, +and not to freeze. The poet did not stop at the +color or the form, but read their meaning; neither +may he rest in this meaning, but he makes the same +objects exponents of his new thought. Here is the +difference betwixt the poet and the mystic, that +the last nails a symbol to one sense, which was a +true sense for a moment, but soon becomes old and +false. For all symbols are fluxional; all language +is vehicular and transitive, and is good, as ferries +and horses are, for conveyance, not as farms and +houses are, for homestead. Mysticism consists in +the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol +for an universal one. The morning-redness happens +to be the favorite meteor to the eyes of Jacob Behmen, +and comes to stand to him for truth and faith; and, +he believes, should stand for the same realities to +every reader. But the first reader prefers as +naturally the symbol of a mother and child, or a +gardener and his bulb, or a jeweller polishing a +gem. Either of these, or of a myriad more, are equally +good to the person to whom they are significant. Only +they must be held lightly, and be very willingly +translated into the equivalent terms which others use. +And the mystic must be steadily told,--All that you +say is just as true without the tedious use of that +symbol as with it. Let us have a little algebra, +instead of this trite rhetoric,--universal signs, +instead of these village symbols,--and we shall both +be gainers. The history of hierarchies seems to show +that all religious error consisted in making the +symbol too stark and solid, and was at last nothing +but an excess of the organ of language. + +Swedenborg, of all men in the recent ages, stands +eminently for the translator of nature into thought. +I do not know the man in history to whom things +stood so uniformly for words. Before him the +metamorphosis continually plays. Everything on which +his eye rests, obeys the impulses of moral nature. +The figs become grapes whilst he eats them. When +some of his angels affirmed a truth, the laurel twig +which they held blossomed in their hands. The noise +which at a distance appeared like gnashing and +thumping, on coming nearer was found to be the voice +of disputants. The men in one of his visions, seen in +heavenly light, appeared like dragons, and seemed in +darkness; but to each other they appeared as men, and +when the light from heaven shone into their cabin, +they complained of the darkness, and were compelled +to shut the window that they might see. + +There was this perception in him which makes the poet +or seer an object of awe and terror, namely that the +same man or society of men may wear one aspect to +themselves and their companions, and a different aspect +to higher intelligences. Certain priests, whom he +describes as conversing very learnedly together, +appeared to the children who were at some distance, +like dead horses; and many the like misappearances. And +instantly the mind inquires whether these fishes under +the bridge, yonder oxen in the pasture, those dogs in +the yard, are immutably fishes, oxen, and dogs, or only +so appear to me, and perchance to themselves appear +upright men; and whether I appear as a man to all eyes. +The Bramins and Pythagoras propounded the same question, +and if any poet has witnessed the transformation he +doubtless found it in harmony with various experiences. +We have all seen changes as considerable in wheat and +caterpillars. He is the poet and shall draw us with +love and terror, who sees through the flowing vest the +firm nature, and can declare it. + +I look in vain for the poet whom I describe. We do +not with sufficient plainness or sufficient +profoundness address ourselves to life, nor dare we +chaunt our own times and social circumstance. If we +filled the day with bravery, we should not shrink +from celebrating it. Time and nature yield us many +gifts, but not yet the timely man, the new religion, +the reconciler, whom all things await. Dante's praise +is that he dared to write his autobiography in colossal +cipher, or into universality. We have yet had no genius +in America, with tyrannous eye, which knew the value of +our incomparable materials, and saw, in the barbarism +and materialism of the times, another carnival of the +same gods whose picture he so much admires in Homer; +then in the Middle Age; then in Calvinism. Banks and +tariffs, the newspaper and caucus, Methodism and +Unitarianism, are flat and dull to dull people, but +rest on the same foundations of wonder as the town of +Troy and the temple of Delphi, and are as swiftly passing +away. Our logrolling, our stumps and their politics, our +fisheries, our Negroes and Indians, our boats and our +repudiations, the wrath of rogues and the pusillanimity +of honest men, the northern trade, the southern planting, +the western clearing, Oregon and Texas, are yet unsung. +Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography +dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for +metres. If I have not found that excellent combination +of gifts in my countrymen which I seek, neither could +I aid myself to fix the idea of the poet by reading now +and then in Chalmers's collection of five centuries of +English poets. These are wits more than poets, though +there have been poets among them. But when we adhere +to the ideal of the poet, we have our difficulties even +with Milton and Homer. Milton is too literary, and Homer +too literal and historical. + +But I am not wise enough for a national criticism, +and must use the old largeness a little longer, to +discharge my errand from the muse to the poet +concerning his art. + +Art is the path of the creator to his work. The +paths or methods are ideal and eternal, though few +men ever see them; not the artist himself for years, +or for a lifetime, unless he come into the conditions. +The painter, the sculptor, the composer, the epic +rhapsodist, the orator, all partake one desire, namely +to express themselves symmetrically and abundantly, +not dwarfishly and fragmentarily. They found or put +themselves in certain conditions, as, the painter and +sculptor before some impressive human figures; the +orator, into the assembly of the people; and the others +in such scenes as each has found exciting to his +intellect; and each presently feels the new desire. +He hears a voice, he sees a beckoning. Then he is +apprised, with wonder, what herds of daemons hem him +in. He can no more rest; he says, with the old painter, +"By God, it is in me and must go forth of me." He +pursues a beauty, half seen, which flies before him. +The poet pours out verses in every solitude. Most of +the things he says are conventional, no doubt; but by +and by he says something which is original and beautiful. +That charms him. He would say nothing else but such +things. In our way of talking we say 'That is yours, +this is mine;' but the poet knows well that it is not +his; that it is as strange and beautiful to him as to +you; he would fain hear the like eloquence at length. +Once having tasted this immortal ichor, he cannot have +enough of it, and as an admirable creative power exists +in these intellections, it is of the last importance +that these things get spoken. What a little of all we +know is said! What drops of all the sea of our science +are baled up! and by what accident it is that these are +exposed, when so many secrets sleep in nature! Hence the +necessity of speech and song; hence these throbs and +heart-beatings in the orator, at the door of the assembly, +to the end namely that thought may be ejaculated as Logos, +or Word. + +Doubt not, O poet, but persist. Say 'It is in me, +and shall out.' Stand there, balked and dumb, +stuttering and stammering, hissed and hooted, stand +and strive, until at last rage draw out of thee that +dream-power which every night shows thee is thine +own; a power transcending all limit and privacy, and +by virtue of which a man is the conductor of the +whole river of electricity. Nothing walks, or creeps, +or grows, or exists, which must not in turn arise +and walk before him as exponent of his meaning. Comes +he to that power, his genius is no longer exhaustible. +All the creatures by pairs and by tribes pour into +his mind as into a Noah's ark, to come forth again +to people a new world. This is like the stock of air +for our respiration or for the combustion of our +fireplace; not a measure of gallons, but the entire +atmosphere if wanted. And therefore the rich poets, +as Homer, Chaucer, Shakspeare, and Raphael, have +obviously no limits to their works except the limits +of their lifetime, and resemble a mirror carried +through the street, ready to render an image of every +created thing. + +O poet! a new nobility is conferred in groves and +pastures, and not in castles or by the sword-blade +any longer. The conditions are hard, but equal. +Thou shalt leave the world, and know the muse only. +Thou shalt not know any longer the times, customs, +graces, politics, or opinions of men, but shalt take +all from the muse. For the time of towns is tolled +from the world by funereal chimes, but in nature the +universal hours are counted by succeeding tribes of +animals and plants, and by growth of joy on joy. God +wills also that thou abdicate a manifold and duplex +life, and that thou be content that others speak for +thee. Others shall be thy gentlemen and shall +represent all courtesy and worldly life for thee; +others shall do the great and resounding actions also. +Thou shalt lie close hid with nature, and canst not +be afforded to the Capitol or the Exchange. The world +is full of renunciations and apprenticeships, and this +is thine: thou must pass for a fool and a churl for a +long season. This is the screen and sheath in which +Pan has protected his well-beloved flower, and thou +shalt be known only to thine own, and they shall +console thee with tenderest love. And thou shalt not +be able to rehearse the names of thy friends in thy +verse, for an old shame before the holy ideal. And +this is the reward; that the ideal shall be real to +thee, and the impressions of the actual world shall +fall like summer rain, copious, but not troublesome, +to thy invulnerable essence. Thou shalt have the whole +land for thy park and manor, the sea for thy bath and +navigation, without tax and without envy; the woods +and the rivers thou shalt own; and thou shalt possess +that wherein others are only tenants and boarders. +Thou true land-lord! sea-lord! air-lord! Wherever +snow falls or water flows or birds fly, wherever day +and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue heaven +is hung by clouds or sown with stars, wherever are +forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets +into celestial space, wherever is danger, and awe, and +love,--there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for thee, +and though thou shouldest walk the world over, thou shalt +not be able to find a condition inopportune or ignoble. + + + + +EXPERIENCE. + +THE lords of life, the lords of life,-- +I saw them pass, +In their own guise, +Like and unlike, +Portly and grim, +Use and Surprise, +Surface and Dream, +Succession swift, and spectral Wrong, +Temperament without a tongue, +And the inventor of the game +Omnipresent without name;-- +Some to see, some to be guessed, +They marched from east to west: +Little man, least of all, +Among the legs of his guardians tall, +Walked about with puzzled look:-- +Him by the hand dear Nature took; +Dearest Nature, strong and kind, +Whispered, 'Darling, never mind! +Tomorrow they will wear another face, +The founder thou! these are thy race!' + +II. +EXPERIENCE. + +WHERE do we find ourselves? In a series of which +we do not know the extremes, and believe that it +has none. We wake and find ourselves on a stair; +there are stairs below us, which we seem to have +ascended; there are stairs above us, many a one, +which go upward and out of sight. But the Genius +which according to the old belief stands at the +door by which we enter, and gives us the lethe to +drink, that we may tell no tales, mixed the cup +too strongly, and we cannot shake off the lethargy +now at noonday. Sleep lingers all our lifetime +about our eyes, as night hovers all day in the +boughs of the fir-tree. All things swim and glitter. +Our life is not so much threatened as our perception. +Ghostlike we glide through nature, and should not +know our place again. Did our birth fall in some +fit of indigence and frugality in nature, that she +was so sparing of her fire and so liberal of her +earth that it appears to us that we lack the +affirmative principle, and though we have health +and reason, yet we have no superfluity of spirit +for new creation? We have enough to live and bring +the year about, but not an ounce to impart or to +invest. Ah that our Genius were a little more of a +genius! We are like millers on the lower levels of +a stream, when the factories above them have +exhausted the water. We too fancy that the upper +people must have raised their dams. + +If any of us knew what we were doing, or where we +are going, then when we think we best know! We do +not know to-day whether we are busy or idle. In +times when we thought ourselves indolent, we have +afterwards discovered that much was accomplished, +and much was begun in us. All our days are so +unprofitable while they pass, that 'tis wonderful +where or when we ever got anything of this which +we call wisdom, poetry, virtue. We never got it on +any dated calendar day. Some heavenly days must have +been intercalated somewhere, like those that Hermes +won with dice of the Moon, that Osiris might be born. +It is said all martyrdoms looked mean when they were +suffered. Every ship is a romantic object, except +that we sail in. Embark, and the romance quits our +vessel and hangs on every other sail in the horizon. +Our life looks trivial, and we shun to record it. Men +seem to have learned of the horizon the art of +perpetual retreating and reference. 'Yonder uplands +are rich pasturage, and my neighbor has fertile +meadow, but my field,' says the querulous farmer, +'only holds the world together.' I quote another man's +saying; unluckily that other withdraws himself in the +same way, and quotes me. 'Tis the trick of nature +thus to degrade to-day; a good deal of buzz, and +somewhere a result slipped magically in. Every roof is +agreeable to the eye until it is lifted; then we find +tragedy and moaning women and hard-eyed husbands and +deluges of lethe, and the men ask, 'What's the news?' +as if the old were so bad. How many individuals can we +count in society? how many actions? how many opinions? +So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, +and so much retrospect, that the pith of each man's +genius contracts itself to a very few hours. The history +of literature--take the net result of Tiraboschi, Warton, +or Schlegel,--is a sum of very few ideas and of very few +original tales; all the rest being variation of these. +So in this great society wide lying around us, a critical +analysis would find very few spontaneous actions. It is +almost all custom and gross sense. There are even few +opinions, and these seem organic in the speakers, and do +not disturb the universal necessity. + +What opium is instilled into all disaster! It shows +formidable as we approach it, but there is at last no +rough rasping friction, but the most slippery sliding +surfaces. We fall soft on a thought; Ate Dea is gentle,-- + + "Over men's heads walking aloft, + With tender feet treading so soft." + +People grieve and bemoan themselves, but it is not +half so bad with them as they say. There are moods +in which we court suffering, in the hope that here +at least we shall find reality, sharp peaks and +edges of truth. But it turns out to be scene-painting +and counterfeit. The only thing grief has taught me +is to know how shallow it is. That, like all the rest, +plays about the surface, and never introduces me into +the reality, for contact with which we would even pay +the costly price of sons and lovers. Was it Boscovich +who found out that bodies never come in contact? Well, +souls never touch their objects. An innavigable sea +washes with silent waves between us and the things we +aim at and converse with. Grief too will make us +idealists. In the death of my son, now more than two +years ago, I seem to have lost a beautiful estate,--no +more. I cannot get it nearer to me. If to-morrow I +should be informed of the bankruptcy of my principal +debtors, the loss of my property would be a great +inconvenience to me, perhaps, for many years; but it +would leave me as it found me,--neither better nor +worse. So is it with this calamity: it does not touch +me; something which I fancied was a part of me, which +could not be torn away without tearing me nor enlarged +without enriching me, falls off from me and leaves no +scar. It was caducous. I grieve that grief can teach +me nothing, nor carry me one step into real nature. +The Indian who was laid under a curse that the wind +should not blow on him, nor water flow to him, nor +fire burn him, is a type of us all. The dearest events +are summer-rain, and we the Para coats that shed every +drop. Nothing is left us now but death. We look to that +with a grim satisfaction, saying There at least is +reality that will not dodge us. + +I take this evanescence and lubricity of all objects, +which lets them slip through our fingers then when +we clutch hardest, to be the most unhandsome part of +our condition. Nature does not like to be observed, +and likes that we should be her fools and playmates. +We may have the sphere for our cricket-ball, but not +a berry for our philosophy. Direct strokes she never +gave us power to make; all our blows glance, all our +hits are accidents. Our relations to each other are +oblique and casual. + +Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to +illusion. Life is a train of moods like a string of +beads, and as we pass through them they prove to be +many-colored lenses which paint the world their own +hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus. From +the mountain you see the mountain. We animate what we +can, and we see only what we animate. Nature and books +belong to the eyes that see them. It depends on the +mood of the man whether he shall see the sunset or the +fine poem. There are always sunsets, and there is +always genius; but only a few hours so serene that we +can relish nature or criticism. The more or less +depends on structure or temperament. Temperament is the +iron wire on which the beads are strung. Of what use is +fortune or talent to a cold and defective nature? Who +cares what sensibility or discrimination a man has at +some time shown, if he falls asleep in his chair? or if +he laugh and giggle? or if he apologize? or is infected +with egotism? or thinks of his dollar? or cannot go by +food? or has gotten a child in his boyhood? Of what use +is genius, if the organ is too convex or too concave +and cannot find a focal distance within the actual +horizon of human life? Of what use, if the brain is too +cold or too hot, and the man does not care enough for +results to stimulate him to experiment, and hold him up +in it? or if the web is too finely woven, too irritable +by pleasure and pain, so that life stagnates from too +much reception without due outlet? Of what use to make +heroic vows of amendment, if the same old law-breaker +is to keep them? What cheer can the religious sentiment +yield, when that is suspected to be secretly dependent +on the seasons of the year and the state of the blood? +I knew a witty physician who found the creed in the +biliary duct, and used to affirm that if there was +disease in the liver, the man became a Calvinist, and +if that organ was sound, he became a Unitarian. Very +mortifying is the reluctant experience that some +unfriendly excess or imbecility neutralizes the promise +of genius. We see young men who owe us a new world, so +readily and lavishly they promise, but they never acquit +the debt; they die young and dodge the account; or if +they live they lose themselves in the crowd. + +Temperament also enters fully into the system of +illusions and shuts us in a prison of glass which +we cannot see. There is an optical illusion about +every person we meet. In truth they are all +creatures of given temperament, which will appear +in a given character, whose boundaries they will +never pass: but we look at them, they seem alive, +and we presume there is impulse in them. In the +moment it seems impulse; in the year, in the lifetime, +it turns out to be a certain uniform tune which the +revolving barrel of the music-box must play. Men +resist the conclusion in the morning, but adopt it +as the evening wears on, that temper prevails over +everything of time, place, and condition, and is +inconsumable in the flames of religion. Some +modifications the moral sentiment avails to impose, +but the individual texture holds its dominion, if not +to bias the moral judgments, yet to fix the measure +of activity and of enjoyment. + +I thus express the law as it is read from the +platform of ordinary life, but must not leave +it without noticing the capital exception. For +temperament is a power which no man willingly +hears any one praise but himself. On the platform +of physics we cannot resist the contracting +influences of so-called science. Temperament puts +all divinity to rout. I know the mental proclivity +of physicians. I hear the chuckle of the phrenologists. +Theoretic kidnappers and slave-drivers, they esteem +each man the victim of another, who winds him round +his finger by knowing the law of his being; and by +such cheap signboards as the color of his beard or +the slope of his occiput, reads the inventory of his +fortunes and character. The grossest ignorance does +not disgust like this impudent knowingness. The +physicians say they are not materialists; but they +are:--Spirit is matter reduced to an extreme thinness: +O so thin!--But the definition of spiritual should be, +that which is its own evidence. What notions do they +attach to love! what to religion! One would not +willingly pronounce these words in their hearing, +and give them the occasion to profane them. I saw a +gracious gentleman who adapts his conversation to the +form of the head of the man he talks with! I had +fancied that the value of life lay in its inscrutable +possibilities; in the fact that I never know, in +addressing myself to a new individual, what may befall +me. I carry the keys of my castle in my hand, ready to +throw them at the feet of my lord, whenever and in what +disguise soever he shall appear. I know he is in the +neighborhood hidden among vagabonds. Shall I preclude +my future by taking a high seat and kindly adapting my +conversation to the shape of heads? When I come to that, +the doctors shall buy me for a cent.--'But, sir, medical +history; the report to the Institute; the proven facts!' +--I distrust the facts and the inferences. Temperament +is the veto or limitation-power in the constitution, +very justly applied to restrain an opposite excess in +the constitution, but absurdly offered as a bar to +original equity. When virtue is in presence, all +subordinate powers sleep. On its own level, or in +view of nature, temperament is final. I see not, if +one be once caught in this trap of so-called sciences, +any escape for the man from the links of the chain of +physical necessity. Given such an embryo, such a +history must follow. On this platform one lives in a +sty of sensualism, and would soon come to suicide. +But it is impossible that the creative power should +exclude itself. Into every intelligence there is a door +which is never closed, through which the creator passes. +The intellect, seeker of absolute truth, or the heart, +lover of absolute good, intervenes for our succor, and +at one whisper of these high powers we awake from +ineffectual struggles with this nightmare. We hurl it +into its own hell, and cannot again contract ourselves +to so base a state. + +The secret of the illusoriness is in the necessity +of a succession of moods or objects. Gladly we would +anchor, but the anchorage is quicksand. This onward +trick of nature is too strong for us: Pero si muove. +When at night I look at the moon and stars, I seem +stationary, and they to hurry. Our love of the real +draws us to permanence, but health of body consists +in circulation, and sanity of mind in variety or +facility of association. We need change of objects. +Dedication to one thought is quickly odious. We house +with the insane, and must humor them; then conversation +dies out. Once I took such delight in Montaigne, that +I thought I should not need any other book; before that, +in Shakspeare; then in Plutarch; then in Plotinus; at +one time in Bacon; afterwards in Goethe; even in Bettine; +but now I turn the pages of either of them languidly, +whilst I still cherish their genius. So with pictures; +each will bear an emphasis of attention once, which it +cannot retain, though we fain would continue to be +pleased in that manner. How strongly I have felt of +pictures that when you have seen one well, you must +take your leave of it; you shall never see it again. +I have had good lessons from pictures which I have +since seen without emotion or remark. A deduction must +be made from the opinion which even the wise express +of a new book or occurrence. Their opinion gives me +tidings of their mood, and some vague guess at the +new fact, but is nowise to be trusted as the lasting +relation between that intellect and that thing. The +child asks, 'Mamma, why don't I like the story as well +as when you told it me yesterday?' Alas! child it is +even so with the oldest cherubim of knowledge. But +will it answer thy question to say, Because thou wert +born to a whole and this story is a particular? The +reason of the pain this discovery causes us (and we +make it late in respect to works of art and intellect), +is the plaint of tragedy which murmurs from it in regard +to persons, to friendship and love. + +That immobility and absence of elasticity which +we find in the arts, we find with more pain in the +artist. There is no power of expansion in men. Our +friends early appear to us as representatives of +certain ideas which they never pass or exceed. They +stand on the brink of the ocean of thought and power, +but they never take the single step that would bring +them there. A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, +which has no lustre as you turn it in your hand until +you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep +and beautiful colors. There is no adaptation or +universal applicability in men, but each has his +special talent, and the mastery of successful men +consists in adroitly keeping themselves where and +when that turn shall be oftenest to be practised. +We do what we must, and call it by the best names +we can, and would fain have the praise of having +intended the result which ensues. I cannot recall +any form of man who is not superfluous sometimes. +But is not this pitiful? Life is not worth the +taking, to do tricks in. + +Of course it needs the whole society to give the +symmetry we seek. The party-colored wheel must +revolve very fast to appear white. Something is +earned too by conversing with so much folly and +defect. In fine, whoever loses, we are always of +the gaining party. Divinity is behind our failures +and follies also. The plays of children are nonsense, +but very educative nonsense. So it is with the largest +and solemnest things, with commerce, government, +church, marriage, and so with the history of every +man's bread, and the ways by which he is to come by +it. Like a bird which alights nowhere, but hops +perpetually from bough to bough, is the Power which +abides in no man and in no woman, but for a moment +speaks from this one, and for another moment from +that one. + +But what help from these fineries or pedantries? +What help from thought? Life is not dialectics. +We, I think, in these times, have had lessons +enough of the futility of criticism. Our young +people have thought and written much on labor and +reform, and for all that they have written, neither +the world nor themselves have got on a step. +Intellectual tasting of life will not supersede +muscular activity. If a man should consider the +nicety of the passage of a piece of bread down his +throat, he would starve. At Education-Farm, the +noblest theory of life sat on the noblest figures +of young men and maidens, quite powerless and +melancholy. It would not rake or pitch a ton of hay; +it would not rub down a horse; and the men and +maidens it left pale and hungry. A political orator +wittily compared our party promises to western roads, +which opened stately enough, with planted trees on +either side to tempt the traveller, but soon became +narrow and narrower and ended in a squirrel-track +and ran up a tree. So does culture with us; it ends +in headache. Unspeakably sad and barren does life +look to those who a few months ago were dazzled with +the splendor of the promise of the times. "There is +now no longer any right course of action nor any +self-devotion left among the Iranis." Objections and +criticism we have had our fill of. There are objections +to every course of life and action, and the practical +wisdom infers an indifferency, from the omnipresence +of objection. The whole frame of things preaches +indifferency. Do not craze yourself with thinking, but +go about your business anywhere. Life is not intellectual +or critical, but sturdy. Its chief good is for well-mixed +people who can enjoy what they find, without question. +Nature hates peeping, and our mothers speak her very +sense when they say, "Children, eat your victuals, and +say no more of it." To fill the hour,--that is happiness; +to fill the hour and leave no crevice for a repentance +or an approval. We live amid surfaces, and the true art +of life is to skate well on them. Under the oldest +mouldiest conventions a man of native force prospers +just as well as in the newest world, and that by skill +of handling and treatment. He can take hold anywhere. +Life itself is a mixture of power and form, and will +not bear the least excess of either. To finish the +moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the +road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is +wisdom. It is not the part of men, but of fanatics, +or of mathematicians if you will, to say that the +shortness of life considered, it is not worth caring +whether for so short a duration we were sprawling in +want or sitting high. Since our office is with moments, +let us husband them. Five minutes of today are worth +as much to me as five minutes in the next millennium. +Let us be poised, and wise, and our own, today. Let us +treat the men and women well; treat them as if they +were real; perhaps they are. Men live in their fancy, +like drunkards whose hands are too soft and tremulous +for successful labor. It is a tempest of fancies, and +the only ballast I know is a respect to the present +hour. Without any shadow of doubt, amidst this vertigo +of shows and politics, I settle myself ever the firmer +in the creed that we should not postpone and refer and +wish, but do broad justice where we are, by whomsoever +we deal with, accepting our actual companions and +circumstances, however humble or odious as the mystic +officials to whom the universe has delegated its +whole pleasure for us. If these are mean and malignant, +their contentment, which is the last victory of justice, +is a more satisfying echo to the heart than the voice +of poets and the casual sympathy of admirable persons. +I think that however a thoughtful man may suffer from +the defects and absurdities of his company, he cannot +without affectation deny to any set of men and women +a sensibility to extraordinary merit. The coarse and +frivolous have an instinct of superiority, if they have +not a sympathy, and honor it in their blind capricious +way with sincere homage. + +The fine young people despise life, but in me, +and in such as with me are free from dyspepsia, +and to whom a day is a sound and solid good, it +is a great excess of politeness to look scornful +and to cry for company. I am grown by sympathy a +little eager and sentimental, but leave me alone +and I should relish every hour and what it brought +me, the potluck of the day, as heartily as the oldest +gossip in the bar-room. I am thankful for small +mercies. I compared notes with one of my friends +who expects everything of the universe and is +disappointed when anything is less than the best, +and I found that I begin at the other extreme, +expecting nothing, and am always full of thanks for +moderate goods. I accept the clangor and jangle of +contrary tendencies. I find my account in sots and +bores also. They give a reality to the circumjacent +picture which such a vanishing meteorous appearance +can ill spare. In the morning I awake and find the +old world, wife, babes, and mother, Concord and +Boston, the dear old spiritual world and even the +dear old devil not far off. If we will take the good +we find, asking no questions, we shall have heaping +measures. The great gifts are not got by analysis. +Everything good is on the highway. The middle region +of our being is the temperate zone. We may climb +into the thin and cold realm of pure geometry and +lifeless science, or sink into that of sensation. +Between these extremes is the equator of life, of +thought, of spirit, of poetry,--a narrow belt. +Moreover, in popular experience everything good is +on the highway. A collector peeps into all the +picture-shops of Europe for a landscape of Poussin, +a crayon-sketch of Salvator; but the Transfiguration, +the Last Judgment, the Communion of St. Jerome, and +what are as transcendent as these, are on the walls +of the Vatican, the Uffizii, or the Louvre, where +every footman may see them; to say nothing of Nature's +pictures in every street, of sunsets and sunrises +every day, and the sculpture of the human body never +absent. A collector recently bought at public auction, +in London, for one hundred and fifty-seven guineas, +an autograph of Shakspeare; but for nothing a school-boy +can read Hamlet and can detect secrets of highest +concernment yet unpublished therein. I think I will +never read any but the commonest books,--the Bible, +Homer, Dante, Shakspeare, and Milton. Then we are +impatient of so public a life and planet, and run +hither and thither for nooks and secrets. The +imagination delights in the woodcraft of Indians, +trappers, and bee-hunters. We fancy that we are +strangers, and not so intimately domesticated in the +planet as the wild man and the wild beast and bird. +But the exclusion reaches them also; reaches the +climbing, flying, gliding, feathered and four-footed +man. Fox and woodchuck, hawk and snipe and bittern, +when nearly seen, have no more root in the deep world +than man, and are just such superficial tenants of the +globe. Then the new molecular philosophy shows +astronomical interspaces betwixt atom and atom, shows +that the world is all outside; it has no inside. + +The mid-world is best. Nature, as we know her, is +no saint. The lights of the church, the ascetics, +Gentoos, and corn-eaters, she does not distinguish +by any favor. She comes eating and drinking and +sinning. Her darlings, the great, the strong, the +beautiful, are not children of our law; do not come +out of the Sunday School, nor weigh their food, nor +punctually keep the commandments. If we will be +strong with her strength we must not harbor such +disconsolate consciences, borrowed too from the +consciences of other nations. We must set up the +strong present tense against all the rumors of +wrath, past or to come. So many things are unsettled +which it is of the first importance to settle;--and, +pending their settlement, we will do as we do. Whilst +the debate goes forward on the equity of commerce, +and will not be closed for a century or two, New and +Old England may keep shop. Law of copyright and +international copyright is to be discussed, and in +the interim we will sell our books for the most we +can. Expediency of literature, reason of literature, +lawfulness of writing down a thought, is questioned; +much is to say on both sides, and, while the fight +waxes hot, thou, dearest scholar, stick to thy +foolish task, add a line every hour, and between +whiles add a line. Right to hold land, right of +property, is disputed, and the conventions convene, +and before the vote is taken, dig away in your garden, +and spend your earnings as a waif or godsend to all +serene and beautiful purposes. Life itself is a bubble +and a skepticism, and a sleep within a sleep. Grant it, +and as much more as they will,--but thou, God's darling! +heed thy private dream; thou wilt not be missed in the +scorning and skepticism; there are enough of them; +stay there in thy closet and toil until the rest are +agreed what to do about it. Thy sickness, they say, +and thy puny habit require that thou do this or avoid +that, but know that thy life is a flitting state, a +tent for a night, and do thou, sick or well, finish +that stint. Thou art sick, but shalt not be worse, +and the universe, which holds thee dear, shall be the +better. + +Human life is made up of the two elements, power +and form, and the proportion must be invariably +kept if we would have it sweet and sound. Each +of these elements in excess makes a mischief as +hurtful as its defect. Everything runs to excess; +every good quality is noxious if unmixed, and, to +carry the danger to the edge of ruin, nature +causes each man's peculiarity to superabound. Here, +among the farms, we adduce the scholars as examples +of this treachery. They are nature's victims of +expression. You who see the artist, the orator, +the poet, too near, and find their life no more +excellent than that of mechanics or farmers, and +themselves victims of partiality, very hollow and +haggard, and pronounce them failures, not heroes, +but quacks,--conclude very reasonably that these +arts are not for man, but are disease. Yet nature +will not bear you out. Irresistible nature made +men such, and makes legions more of such, every +day. You love the boy reading in a book, gazing +at a drawing, or a cast; yet what are these millions +who read and behold, but incipient writers and +sculptors? Add a little more of that quality which +now reads and sees, and they will seize the pen and +chisel. And if one remembers how innocently he began +to be an artist, he perceives that nature joined with +his enemy. A man is a golden impossibility. The line +he must walk is a hair's breadth. The wise through +excess of wisdom is made a fool. + +How easily, if fate would suffer it, we might +keep forever these beautiful limits, and adjust +ourselves, once for all, to the perfect calculation +of the kingdom of known cause and effect. In the +street and in the newspapers, life appears so plain +a business that manly resolution and adherence to +the multiplication-table through all weathers will +insure success. But ah! presently comes a day, or +is it only a half-hour, with its angel-whispering, +--which discomfits the conclusions of nations and +of years! Tomorrow again everything looks real and +angular, the habitual standards are reinstated, +common sense is as rare as genius,--is the basis of +genius, and experience is hands and feet to every +enterprise;--and yet, he who should do his business +on this understanding would be quickly bankrupt. +Power keeps quite another road than the turnpikes +of choice and will; namely the subterranean and +invisible tunnels and channels of life. It is +ridiculous that we are diplomatists, and doctors, +and considerate people: there are no dupes like +these. Life is a series of surprises, and would not +be worth taking or keeping if it were not. God +delights to isolate us every day, and hide from us +the past and the future. We would look about us, +but with grand politeness he draws down before us +an impenetrable screen of purest sky, and another +behind us of purest sky. 'You will not remember,' +he seems to say, `and you will not expect.' All +good conversation, manners, and action, come from +a spontaneity which forgets usages and makes the +moment great. Nature hates calculators; her methods +are saltatory and impulsive. Man lives by pulses; +our organic movements are such; and the chemical +and ethereal agents are undulatory and alternate; +and the mind goes antagonizing on, and never +prospers but by fits. We thrive by casualties. Our +chief experiences have been casual. The most +attractive class of people are those who are +powerful obliquely and not by the direct stroke; +men of genius, but not yet accredited; one gets the +cheer of their light without paying too great a tax. +Theirs is the beauty of the bird or the morning +light, and not of art. In the thought of genius +there is always a surprise; and the moral sentiment +is well called "the newness," for it is never other; +as new to the oldest intelligence as to the young +child;--"the kingdom that cometh without observation." +In like manner, for practical success, there must not +be too much design. A man will not be observed in +doing that which he can do best. There is a certain +magic about his properest action which stupefies +your powers of observation, so that though it is done +before you, you wist not of it. The art of life has a +pudency, and will not be exposed. Every man is an +impossibility until he is born; every thing impossible +until we see a success. The ardors of piety agree at +last with the coldest skepticism,--that nothing is of +us or our works,--that all is of God. Nature will not +spare us the smallest leaf of laurel. All writing +comes by the grace of God, and all doing and having. +I would gladly be moral and keep due metes and bounds, +which I dearly love, and allow the most to the will of +man; but I have set my heart on honesty in this chapter, +and I can see nothing at last, in success or failure, +than more or less of vital force supplied from the +Eternal. The results of life are uncalculated and +uncalculable. The years teach much which the days +never know. The persons who compose our company, +converse, and come and go, and design and execute +many things, and somewhat comes of it all, but an +unlooked-for result. The individual is always mistaken. +He designed many things, and drew in other persons as +coadjutors, quarrelled with some or all, blundered much, +and something is done; all are a little advanced, but +the individual is always mistaken. It turns out somewhat +new and very unlike what he promised himself. + +The ancients, struck with this irreducibleness of +the elements of human life to calculation, exalted +Chance into a divinity; but that is to stay too +long at the spark, which glitters truly at one +point, but the universe is warm with the latency +of the same fire. The miracle of life which will +not be expounded but will remain a miracle, +introduces a new element. In the growth of the +embryo, Sir Everard Home I think noticed that the +evolution was not from one central point, but +coactive from three or more points. Life has no +memory. That which proceeds in succession might be +remembered, but that which is coexistent, or +ejaculated from a deeper cause, as yet far from +being conscious, knows not its own tendency. So is +it with us, now skeptical or without unity, because +immersed in forms and effects all seeming to be of +equal yet hostile value, and now religious, whilst +in the reception of spiritual law. Bear with these +distractions, with this coetaneous growth of the +parts; they will one day be members, and obey one +will. On that one will, on that secret cause, they +nail our attention and hope. Life is hereby melted +into an expectation or a religion. Underneath the +inharmonious and trivial particulars, is a musical +perfection; the Ideal journeying always with us, the +heaven without rent or seam. Do but observe the mode +of our illumination. When I converse with a profound +mind, or if at any time being alone I have good +thoughts, I do not at once arrive at satisfactions, +as when, being thirsty, I drink water; or go to the +fire, being cold; no! but I am at first apprised of +my vicinity to a new and excellent region of life. +By persisting to read or to think, this region gives +further sign of itself, as it were in flashes of light, +in sudden discoveries of its profound beauty and repose, +as if the clouds that covered it parted at intervals +and showed the approaching traveller the inland +mountains, with the tranquil eternal meadows spread at +their base, whereon flocks graze and shepherds pipe and +dance. But every insight from this realm of thought is +felt as initial, and promises a sequel. I do not make +it; I arrive there, and behold what was there already. +I make! O no! I clap my hands in infantine joy and +amazement before the first opening to me of this august +magnificence, old with the love and homage of innumerable +ages, young with the life of life, the sunbright Mecca +of the desert. And what a future it opens! I feel a new +heart beating with the love of the new beauty. I am +ready to die out of nature and be born again into this +new yet unapproachable America I have found in the West:-- + + "Since neither now nor yesterday began + These thoughts, which have been ever, nor yet can + A man be found who their first entrance knew." + +If I have described life as a flux of moods, I must +now add that there is that in us which changes not +and which ranks all sensations and states of mind. +The consciousness in each man is a sliding scale, +which identifies him now with the First Cause, and +now with the flesh of his body; life above life, in +infinite degrees. The sentiment from which it sprung +determines the dignity of any deed, and the question +ever is, not what you have done or forborne, but at +whose command you have done or forborne it. + +Fortune, Minerva, Muse, Holy Ghost,--these are +quaint names, too narrow to cover this unbounded +substance. The baffled intellect must still kneel +before this cause, which refuses to be named,-- +ineffable cause, which every fine genius has essayed +to represent by some emphatic symbol, as, Thales by +water, Anaximenes by air, Anaxagoras by (Nous) +thought, Zoroaster by fire, Jesus and the moderns by +love; and the metaphor of each has become a national +religion. The Chinese Mencius has not been the least +successful in his generalization. "I fully understand +language," he said, "and nourish well my vast-flowing +vigor."--"I beg to ask what you call vast-flowing +vigor?"--said his companion. "The explanation," replied +Mencius, "is difficult. This vigor is supremely great, +and in the highest degree unbending. Nourish it +correctly and do it no injury, and it will fill up +the vacancy between heaven and earth. This vigor +accords with and assists justice and reason, and +leaves no hunger."--In our more correct writing we +give to this generalization the name of Being, and +thereby confess that we have arrived as far as we can +go. Suffice it for the joy of the universe that we +have not arrived at a wall, but at interminable oceans. +Our life seems not present so much as prospective; not +for the affairs on which it is wasted, but as a hint +of this vast-flowing vigor. Most of life seems to be +mere advertisement of faculty; information is given us +not to sell ourselves cheap; that we are very great. So, +in particulars, our greatness is always in a tendency +or direction, not in an action. It is for us to believe +in the rule, not in the exception. The noble are thus +known from the ignoble. So in accepting the leading of +the sentiments, it is not what we believe concerning the +immortality of the soul or the like, but the universal +impulse to believe, that is the material circumstance +and is the principal fact in the history of the globe. +Shall we describe this cause as that which works +directly? The spirit is not helpless or needful of +mediate organs. It has plentiful powers and direct +effects. I am explained without explaining, I am felt +without acting, and where I am not. Therefore all just +persons are satisfied with their own praise. They refuse +to explain themselves, and are content that new actions +should do them that office. They believe that we +communicate without speech and above speech, and that +no right action of ours is quite unaffecting to our +friends, at whatever distance; for the influence of +action is not to be measured by miles. Why should I +fret myself because a circumstance has occurred which +hinders my presence where I was expected? If I am not +at the meeting, my presence where I am should be as +useful to the commonwealth of friendship and wisdom, +as would be my presence in that place. I exert the +same quality of power in all places. Thus journeys +the mighty Ideal before us; it never was known to fall +into the rear. No man ever came to an experience which +was satiating, but his good is tidings of a better. +Onward and onward! In liberated moments we know that +a new picture of life and duty is already possible; +the elements already exist in many minds around you +of a doctrine of life which shall transcend any +written record we have. The new statement will comprise +the skepticisms as well as the faiths of society, and +out of unbeliefs a creed shall be formed. For skepticisms +are not gratuitous or lawless, but are limitations of the +affirmative statement, and the new philosophy must take +them in and make affirmations outside of them, just as +much as it must include the oldest beliefs. + +It is very unhappy, but too late to be helped, +the discovery we have made that we exist. That +discovery is called the Fall of Man. Ever afterwards +we suspect our instruments. We have learned that we +do not see directly, but mediately, and that we have +no means of correcting these colored and distorting +lenses which we are, or of computing the amount of +their errors. Perhaps these subject-lenses have a +creative power; perhaps there are no objects. Once +we lived in what we saw; now, the rapaciousness of +this new power, which threatens to absorb all things, +engages us. Nature, art, persons, letters, religions, +objects, successively tumble in, and God is but one +of its ideas. Nature and literature are subjective +phenomena; every evil and every good thing is a shadow +which we cast. The street is full of humiliations to +the proud. As the fop contrived to dress his bailiffs +in his livery and make them wait on his guests at +table, so the chagrins which the bad heart gives off +as bubbles, at once take form as ladies and gentlemen +in the street, shopmen or bar-keepers in hotels, and +threaten or insult whatever is threatenable and +insultable in us. 'Tis the same with our idolatries. +People forget that it is the eye which makes the +horizon, and the rounding mind's eye which makes this +or that man a type or representative of humanity, with +the name of hero or saint. Jesus, the "providential +man," is a good man on whom many people are agreed that +these optical laws shall take effect. By love on one +part and by forbearance to press objection on the other +part, it is for a time settled, that we will look at +him in the centre of the horizon, and ascribe to him +the properties that will attach to any man so seen. But +the longest love or aversion has a speedy term. The great +and crescive self, rooted in absolute nature, supplants +all relative existence and ruins the kingdom of mortal +friendship and love. Marriage (in what is called the +spiritual world) is impossible, because of the inequality +between every subject and every object. The subject is +the receiver of Godhead, and at every comparison must +feel his being enhanced by that cryptic might. Though not +in energy, yet by presence, this magazine of substance +cannot be otherwise than felt; nor can any force of +intellect attribute to the object the proper deity which +sleeps or wakes forever in every subject. Never can love +make consciousness and ascription equal in force. There +will be the same gulf between every me and thee as +between the original and the picture. The universe is +the bride of the soul. All private sympathy is partial. +Two human beings are like globes, which can touch only +in a point, and whilst they remain in contact, all other +points of each of the spheres are inert; their turn must +also come, and the longer a particular union lasts the +more energy of appetency the parts not in union acquire. + +Life will be imaged, but cannot be divided nor +doubled. Any invasion of its unity would be chaos. +The soul is not twin-born but the only begotten, +and though revealing itself as child in time, child +in appearance, is of a fatal and universal power, +admitting no co-life. Every day, every act betrays +the ill-concealed deity. We believe in ourselves as +we do not believe in others. We permit all things to +ourselves, and that which we call sin in others is +experiment for us. It is an instance of our faith in +ourselves that men never speak of crime as lightly +as they think; or every man thinks a latitude safe +for himself which is nowise to be indulged to another. +The act looks very differently on the inside and on +the outside; in its quality and in its consequences. +Murder in the murderer is no such ruinous thought as +poets and romancers will have it; it does not unsettle +him or fright him from his ordinary notice of trifles; +it is an act quite easy to be contemplated; but in +its sequel it turns out to be a horrible jangle and +confounding of all relations. Especially the crimes +that spring from love seem right and fair from the +actor's point of view, but when acted are found +destructive of society. No man at last believes that +he can be lost, nor that the crime in him is as black +as in the felon. Because the intellect qualifies in +our own case the moral judgments. For there is no +crime to the intellect. That is antinomian or hypernomian, +and judges law as well as fact. "It is worse than a +crime, it is a blunder," said Napoleon, speaking the +language of the intellect. To it, the world is a problem +in mathematics or the science of quantity, and it +leaves out praise and blame and all weak emotions. All +stealing is comparative. If you come to absolutes, +pray who does not steal? Saints are sad, because they +behold sin (even when they speculate), from the point +of view of the conscience, and not of the intellect; +a confusion of thought. Sin, seen from the thought, +is a diminution, or less: seen from the conscience or +will, it is pravity or bad. The intellect names it +shade, absence of light, and no essence. The conscience +must feel it as essence, essential evil. This it is +not; it has an objective existence, but no subjective. + +Thus inevitably does the universe wear our color, +and every object fall successively into the subject +itself. The subject exists, the subject enlarges; +all things sooner or later fall into place. As I am, +so I see; use what language we will, we can never +say anything but what we are; Hermes, Cadmus, Columbus, +Newton, Bonaparte, are the mind's ministers. Instead +of feeling a poverty when we encounter a great man, +let us treat the new comer like a travelling geologist +who passes through our estate and shows us good slate, +or limestone, or anthracite, in our brush pasture. +The partial action of each strong mind in one direction +is a telescope for the objects on which it is pointed. +But every other part of knowledge is to be pushed to +the same extravagance, ere the soul attains her due +sphericity. Do you see that kitten chasing so prettily +her own tail? If you could look with her eyes you +might see her surrounded with hundreds of figures +performing complex dramas, with tragic and comic +issues, long conversations, many characters, many ups +and downs of fate,--and meantime it is only puss and +her tail. How long before our masquerade will end its +noise of tambourines, laughter, and shouting, and we +shall find it was a solitary performance? A subject +and an object,--it takes so much to make the galvanic +circuit complete, but magnitude adds nothing. What +imports it whether it is Kepler and the sphere, Columbus +and America, a reader and his book, or puss with her tail? + +It is true that all the muses and love and religion +hate these developments, and will find a way to +punish the chemist who publishes in the parlor the +secrets of the laboratory. And we cannot say too +little of our constitutional necessity of seeing +things under private aspects, or saturated with our +humors. And yet is the God the native of these bleak +rocks. That need makes in morals the capital virtue +of self-trust. We must hold hard to this poverty, +however scandalous, and by more vigorous self-recoveries, +after the sallies of action, possess our axis more +firmly. The life of truth is cold and so far mournful; +but it is not the slave of tears, contritions and +perturbations. It does not attempt another's work, +nor adopt another's facts. It is a main lesson of +wisdom to know your own from another's. I have learned +that I cannot dispose of other people's facts; but I +possess such a key to my own as persuades me, against +all their denials, that they also have a key to theirs. +A sympathetic person is placed in the dilemma of a +swimmer among drowning men, who all catch at him, and +if he give so much as a leg or a finger they will drown +him. They wish to be saved from the mischiefs of their +vices, but not from their vices. Charity would be +wasted on this poor waiting on the symptoms. A wise and +hardy physician will say, Come out of that, as the first +condition of advice. + +In this our talking America we are ruined by our good +nature and listening on all sides. This compliance +takes away the power of being greatly useful. A man +should not be able to look other than directly and +forthright. A preoccupied attention is the only answer +to the importunate frivolity of other people; an +attention, and to an aim which makes their wants +frivolous. This is a divine answer, and leaves no +appeal and no hard thoughts. In Flaxman's drawing +of the Eumenides of Aeschylus, Orestes supplicates +Apollo, whilst the Furies sleep on the threshold. +The face of the god expresses a shade of regret and +compassion, but is calm with the conviction of the +irreconcilableness of the two spheres. He is born +into other politics, into the eternal and beautiful. +The man at his feet asks for his interest in turmoils +of the earth, into which his nature cannot enter. And +the Eumenides there lying express pictorially this +disparity. The god is surcharged with his divine destiny. + +Illusion, Temperament, Succession, Surface, Surprise, +Reality, Subjectiveness,--these are threads on the +loom of time, these are the lords of life. I dare not +assume to give their order, but I name them as I find +them in my way. I know better than to claim any +completeness for my picture. I am a fragment, and this +is a fragment of me. I can very confidently announce +one or another law, which throws itself into relief +and form, but I am too young yet by some ages to +compile a code. I gossip for my hour concerning the +eternal politics. I have seen many fair pictures not +in vain. A wonderful time I have lived in. I am not +the novice I was fourteen, nor yet seven years ago. +Let who will ask Where is the fruit? I find a private +fruit sufficient. This is a fruit,--that I should not +ask for a rash effect from meditations, counsels and +the hiving of truths. I should feel it pitiful to +demand a result on this town and county, an overt +effect on the instant month and year. The effect is +deep and secular as the cause. It works on periods in +which mortal lifetime is lost. All I know is reception; +I am and I have: but I do not get, and when I have +fancied I had gotten anything, I found I did not. I +worship with wonder the great Fortune. My reception has +been so large, that I am not annoyed by receiving this +or that superabundantly. I say to the Genius, if he will +pardon the proverb, In for a mill, in for a million. When +I receive a new gift, I do not macerate my body to make +the account square, for if I should die I could not make +the account square. The benefit overran the merit the +first day, and has overrun the merit ever since. The +merit itself, so-called, I reckon part of the receiving. + +Also that hankering after an overt or practical +effect seems to me an apostasy. In good earnest +I am willing to spare this most unnecessary deal +of doing. Life wears to me a visionary face. +Hardest roughest action is visionary also. It is +but a choice between soft and turbulent dreams. +People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, +and urge doing. I am very content with knowing, if +only I could know. That is an august entertainment, +and would suffice me a great while. To know a little +would be worth the expense of this world. I hear +always the law of Adrastia, "that every soul which +had acquired any truth, should be safe from harm +until another period." + +I know that the world I converse with in the city +and in the farms, is not the world I think. I observe +that difference, and shall observe it. One day I shall +know the value and law of this discrepance. But I have +not found that much was gained by manipular attempts +to realize the world of thought. Many eager persons +successively make an experiment in this way, and make +themselves ridiculous. They acquire democratic manners, +they foam at the mouth, they hate and deny. Worse, I +observe that in the history of mankind there is never +a solitary example of success,--taking their own tests +of success. I say this polemically, or in reply to the +inquiry, Why not realize your world? But far be from +me the despair which prejudges the law by a paltry +empiricism;--since there never was a right endeavor +but it succeeded. Patience and patience, we shall win +at the last. We must be very suspicious of the deceptions +of the element of time. It takes a good deal of time to +eat or to sleep, or to earn a hundred dollars, and a +very little time to entertain a hope and an insight +which becomes the light of our life. We dress our garden, +eat our dinners, discuss the household with our wives, +and these things make no impression, are forgotten next +week; but, in the solitude to which every man is always +returning, he has a sanity and revelations which in his +passage into new worlds he will carry with him. Never +mind the ridicule, never mind the defeat; up again, old +heart!--it seems to say,--there is victory yet for all +justice; and the true romance which the world exists to +realize will be the transformation of genius into +practical power. + + + + +CHARACTER. + +The sun set; but set not his hope: +Stars rose; his faith was earlier up: +Fixed on the enormous galaxy, +Deeper and older seemed his eye: +And matched his sufferance sublime +The taciturnity of time. +He spoke, and words more soft than rain +Brought the Age of Gold again: +His action won such reverence sweet, +As hid all measure of the feat. + +Work of his hand +He nor commends nor grieves +Pleads for itself the fact; +As unrepenting Nature leaves +Her every act. + +III. +CHARACTER. + +I HAVE read that those who listened to Lord Chatham +felt that there was something finer in the man than +any thing which he said. It has been complained of +our brilliant English historian of the French +Revolution that when he has told all his facts about +Mirabeau, they do not justify his estimate of his +genius. The Gracchi, Agis, Cleomenes, and others of +Plutarch's heroes, do not in the record of facts equal +their own fame. Sir Philip Sidney, the Earl of Essex, +Sir Walter Raleigh, are men of great figure and of +few deeds. We cannot find the smallest part of the +personal weight of Washington in the narrative of his +exploits. The authority of the name of Schiller is +too great for his books. This inequality of the +reputation to the works or the anecdotes is not +accounted for by saying that the reverberation is +longer than the thunder-clap, but somewhat resided +in these men which begot an expectation that outran +all their performance. The largest part of their power +was latent. This is that which we call Character,--a +reserved force which acts directly by presence, and +without means. It is conceived of as a certain +undemonstrable force, a Familiar or Genius, by whose +impulses the man is guided but whose counsels he +cannot impart; which is company for him, so that such +men are often solitary, or if they chance to be social, +do not need society but can entertain themselves very +well alone. The purest literary talent appears at one +time great, at another time small, but character is of +a stellar and undiminishable greatness. What others +effect by talent or by eloquence, this man accomplishes +by some magnetism. "Half his strength he put not forth." +His victories are by demonstration of superiority, and +not by crossing of bayonets. He conquers because his +arrival alters the face of affairs. "O Iole! how did +you know that Hercules was a god?" "Because," answered +Iole, "I was content the moment my eyes fell on him. +When I beheld Theseus, I desired that I might see him +offer battle, or at least guide his horses in the +chariot-race; but Hercules did not wait for a contest; +he conquered whether he stood, or walked, or sat, or +whatever thing he did." Man, ordinarily a pendant to +events, only half attached, and that awkwardly, to the +world he lives in, in these examples appears to share +the life of things, and to be an expression of the same +laws which control the tides and the sun, numbers and +quantities. + +But to use a more modest illustration and nearer +home, I observe that in our political elections, +where this element, if it appears at all, can only +occur in its coarsest form, we sufficiently understand +its incomparable rate. The people know that they need +in their representative much more than talent, namely +the power to make his talent trusted. They cannot come +at their ends by sending to Congress a learned, acute, +and fluent speaker, if he be not one who, before he +was appointed by the people to represent them, was +appointed by Almighty God to stand for a fact,-- +invincibly persuaded of that fact in himself,--so +that the most confident and the most violent persons +learn that here is resistance on which both impudence +and terror are wasted, namely faith in a fact. The men +who carry their points do not need to inquire of their +constituents what they should say, but are themselves +the country which they represent; nowhere are its +emotions or opinions so instant and true as in them; +nowhere so pure from a selfish infusion. The constituency +at home hearkens to their words, watches the color of +their cheek, and therein, as in a glass, dresses its +own. Our public assemblies are pretty good tests of +manly force. Our frank countrymen of the west and south +have a taste for character, and like to know whether +the New Englander is a substantial man, or whether the +hand can pass through him. + +The same motive force appears in trade. There are +geniuses in trade, as well as in war, or the State, +or letters; and the reason why this or that man is +fortunate is not to be told. It lies in the man; +that is all anybody can tell you about it. See him +and you will know as easily why he succeeds, as, if +you see Napoleon, you would comprehend his fortune. +In the new objects we recognize the old game, the +Habit of fronting the fact, and not dealing with it +at second hand, through the perceptions of somebody +else. Nature seems to authorize trade, as soon as +you see the natural merchant, who appears not so much +a private agent as her factor and Minister of Commerce. +His natural probity combines with his insight into +the fabric of society to put him above tricks, and he +communicates to all his own faith that contracts are +of no private interpretation. The habit of his mind is +a reference to standards of natural equity and public +advantage; and he inspires respect and the wish to +deal with him, both for the quiet spirit of honor +which attends him, and for the intellectual pastime +which the spectacle of so much ability affords. This +immensely stretched trade, which makes the capes of +the Southern Ocean his wharves, and the Atlantic Sea +his familiar port, centres in his brain only; and +nobody in the universe can make his place good. In his +parlor I see very well that he has been at hard work +this morning, with that knitted brow and that settled +humor, which all his desire to be courteous cannot +shake off. I see plainly how many firm acts have been +done; how many valiant noes have this day been spoken, +when others would have uttered ruinous yeas. I see, +with the pride of art and skill of masterly arithmetic +and power of remote combination, the consciousness of +being an agent and playfellow of the original laws of +the world. He too believes that none can supply him, +and that a man must be born to trade or he cannot learn it. + +This virtue draws the mind more when it appears +in action to ends not so mixed. It works with most +energy in the smallest companies and in private +relations. In all cases it is an extraordinary and +incomputable agent. The excess of physical strength +is paralyzed by it. Higher natures overpower lower +ones by affecting them with a certain sleep. The +faculties are locked up, and offer no resistance. +Perhaps that is the universal law. When the high +cannot bring up the low to itself, it benumbs it, +as man charms down the resistance of the lower animals. +Men exert on each other a similar occult power. How +often has the influence of a true master realized all +the tales of magic! A river of command seemed to run +down from his eyes into all those who beheld him, a +torrent of strong sad light, like an Ohio or Danube, +which pervaded them with his thoughts and colored all +events with the hue of his mind. "What means did you +employ?" was the question asked of the wife of Concini, +in regard to her treatment of Mary of Medici; and the +answer was, "Only that influence which every strong +mind has over a weak one." Cannot Caesar in irons +shuffle off the irons and transfer them to the person +of Hippo or Thraso the turnkey? Is an iron handcuff so +immutable a bond? Suppose a slaver on the coast of +Guinea should take on board a gang of negroes which +should contain persons of the stamp of Toussaint +L'Ouverture: or, let us fancy, under these swarthy +masks he has a gang of Washingtons in chains. When +they arrive at Cuba, will the relative order of the +ship's company be the same? Is there nothing but rope +and iron? Is there no love, no reverence? Is there +never a glimpse of right in a poor slave-captain's +mind; and cannot these be supposed available to break +or elude or in any manner overmatch the tension of an +inch or two of iron ring? + +This is a natural power, like light and heat, and all +nature cooperates with it. The reason why we feel +one man's presence and do not feel another's is as +simple as gravity. Truth is the summit of being; +justice is the application of it to affairs. All +individual natures stand in a scale, according to +the purity of this element in them. The will of the +pure runs down from them into other natures as water +runs down from a higher into a lower vessel. This +natural force is no more to be withstood than any +other natural force. We can drive a stone upward for +a moment into the air, but it is yet true that all +stones will forever fall; and whatever instances can +be quoted of unpunished theft, or of a lie which +somebody credited, justice must prevail, and it is the +privilege of truth to make itself believed. Character +is this moral order seen through the medium of an +individual nature. An individual is an encloser. Time +and space, liberty and necessity, truth and thought, +are left at large no longer. Now, the universe is a +close or pound. All things exist in the man tinged with +the manners of his soul. With what quality is in him he +infuses all nature that he can reach; nor does he tend +to lose himself in vastness, but, at how long a curve +soever, all his regards return into his own good at +last. He animates all he can, and he sees only what he +animates. He encloses the world, as the patriot does his +country, as a material basis for his character, and a +theatre for action. A healthy soul stands united with +the Just and the True, as the magnet arranges itself with +the pole; so that he stands to all beholders like a +transparent object betwixt them and the sun, and whoso +journeys towards the sun, journeys towards that person. +He is thus the medium of the highest influence to all +who are not on the same level. Thus, men of character +are the conscience of the society to which they belong. + +The natural measure of this power is the resistance +of circumstances. Impure men consider life as it is +reflected in opinions, events, and persons. They cannot +see the action until it is done. Yet its moral element +preexisted in the actor, and its quality as right or +wrong it was easy to predict. Everything in nature is +bipolar, or has a positive and negative pole. There is +a male and a female, a spirit and a fact, a north and a +south. Spirit is the positive, the event is the negative. +Will is the north, action the south pole. Character may +be ranked as having its natural place in the north. It +shares the magnetic currents of the system. The feeble +souls are drawn to the south or negative pole. They look +at the profit or hurt of the action. They never behold a +principle until it is lodged in a person. They do not +wish to be lovely, but to be loved. Men of character +like to hear of their faults; the other class do not +like to hear of faults; they worship events; secure to +them a fact, a connection, a certain chain of circumstances, +and they will ask no more. The hero sees that the event +is ancillary; it must follow him. A given order of events +has no power to secure to him the satisfaction which the +imagination attaches to it; the soul of goodness escapes +from any set of circumstances; whilst prosperity belongs +to a certain mind, and will introduce that power and +victory which is its natural fruit, into any order of +events. No change of circumstances can repair a defect +of character. We boast our emancipation from many +superstitions; but if we have broken any idols it is +through a transfer of the idolatry. What have I gained, +that I no longer immolate a bull to Jove or to Neptune, +or a mouse to Hecate; that I do not tremble before the +Eumenides, or the Catholic Purgatory, or the Calvinistic +Judgment-day,--if I quake at opinion, the public opinion, +as we call it; or at the threat of assault, or contumely, +or bad neighbors, or poverty, or mutilation, or at the +rumor of revolution, or of murder? If I quake, what matters +it what I quake at? Our proper vice takes form in one or +another shape, according to the sex, age, or temperament +of the person, and, if we are capable of fear, will readily +find terrors. The covetousness or the malignity which +saddens me when I ascribe it to society, is my own. I am +always environed by myself. On the other part, rectitude +is a perpetual victory, celebrated not by cries of joy +but by serenity, which is joy fixed or habitual. It is +disgraceful to fly to events for confirmation of our truth +and worth. The capitalist does not run every hour to the +broker to coin his advantages into current money of the +realm; he is satisfied to read in the quotations of the +market that his stocks have risen. The same transport +which the occurrence of the best events in the best order +would occasion me, I must learn to taste purer in the +perception that my position is every hour meliorated, and +does already command those events I desire. That exultation +is only to be checked by the foresight of an order of +things so excellent as to throw all our prosperities into +the deepest shade. + +The face which character wears to me is self- +sufficingness. I revere the person who is riches; +so that I cannot think of him as alone, or poor, +or exiled, or unhappy, or a client, but as perpetual +patron, benefactor, and beatified man. Character is +centrality, the impossibility of being displaced or +overset. A man should give us a sense of mass. Society +is frivolous, and shreds its day into scraps, its +conversation into ceremonies and escapes. But if I go +to see an ingenious man I shall think myself poorly +entertained if he give me nimble pieces of benevolence +and etiquette; rather he shall stand stoutly in his +place and let me apprehend if it were only his +resistance; know that I have encountered a new and +positive quality;--great refreshment for both of us. +It is much that he does not accept the conventional +opinions and practices. That nonconformity will remain +a goad and remembrancer, and every inquirer will have +to dispose of him, in the first place. There is nothing +real or useful that is not a seat of war. Our houses +ring with laughter and personal and critical gossip, +but it helps little. But the uncivil, unavailable man, +who is a problem and a threat to society, whom it cannot +let pass in silence but must either worship or hate,--and +to whom all parties feel related, both the leaders of +opinion and the obscure and eccentric,--he helps; he +puts America and Europe in the wrong, and destroys the +skepticism which says, 'man is a doll, let us eat and +drink, 'tis the best we can do,' by illuminating the +untried and unknown. Acquiescence in the establishment +and appeal to the public, indicate infirm faith, heads +which are not clear, and which must see a house built, +before they can comprehend the plan of it. The wise man +not only leaves out of his thought the many, but leaves +out the few. Fountains, the self-moved, the absorbed, +the commander because he is commanded, the assured, the +primary,--they are good; for these announce the instant +presence of supreme power. + +Our action should rest mathematically on our +substance. In nature, there are no false valuations. +A pound of water in the ocean-tempest has no more +gravity than in a midsummer pond. All things work +exactly according to their quality and according to +their quantity; attempt nothing they cannot do, except +man only. He has pretension; he wishes and attempts +things beyond his force. I read in a book of English +memoirs, "Mr. Fox (afterwards Lord Holland) said, he +must have the Treasury; he had served up to it, and +would have it." Xenophon and his Ten Thousand were +quite equal to what they attempted, and did it; so +equal, that it was not suspected to be a grand and +inimitable exploit. Yet there stands that fact +unrepeated, a high-water mark in military history. +Many have attempted it since, and not been equal to +it. It is only on reality that any power of action +can be based. No institution will be better than the +institutor. I knew an amiable and accomplished person +who undertook a practical reform, yet I was never able +to find in him the enterprise of love he took in hand. +He adopted it by ear and by the understanding from the +books he had been reading. All his action was tentative, +a piece of the city carried out into the fields, and +was the city still, and no new fact, and could not +inspire enthusiasm. Had there been something latent in +the man, a terrible undemonstrated genius agitating and +embarrassing his demeanor, we had watched for its advent. +It is not enough that the intellect should see the evils +and their remedy. We shall still postpone our existence, +nor take the ground to which we are entitled, whilst it +is only a thought and not a spirit that incites us. We +have not yet served up to it. + +These are properties of life, and another trait +is the notice of incessant growth. Men should be +intelligent and earnest. They must also make us +feel that they have a controlling happy future +opening before them, whose early twilights already +kindle in the passing hour. The hero is misconceived +and misreported; he cannot therefore wait to unravel +any man's blunders; he is again on his road, adding +new powers and honors to his domain and new claims +on your heart, which will bankrupt you if you have +loitered about the old things and have not kept your +relation to him by adding to your wealth. New actions +are the only apologies and explanations of old ones +which the noble can bear to offer or to receive. If +your friend has displeased you, you shall not sit +down to consider it, for he has already lost all +memory of the passage, and has doubled his power to +serve you, and ere you can rise up again will burden +you with blessings. + +We have no pleasure in thinking of a benevolence +that is only measured by its works. Love is +inexhaustible, and if its estate is wasted, its +granary emptied, still cheers and enriches, and +the man, though he sleep, seems to purify the air +and his house to adorn the landscape and strengthen +the laws. People always recognize this difference. +We know who is benevolent, by quite other means than +the amount of subscription to soup-societies. It is +only low merits that can be enumerated. Fear, when +your friends say to you what you have done well, and +say it through; but when they stand with uncertain +timid looks of respect and half-dislike, and must +suspend their judgment for years to come, you may +begin to hope. Those who live to the future must +always appear selfish to those who live to the present. +Therefore it was droll in the good Riemer, who has +written memoirs of Goethe, to make out a list of his +donations and good deeds, as, so many hundred thalers +given to Stilling, to Hegel, to Tischbein; a lucrative +place found for Professor Voss, a post under the Grand +Duke for Herder, a pension for Meyer, two professors +recommended to foreign universities; &c., &c. The +longest list of specifications of benefit would look +very short. A man is a poor creature if he is to be +measured so. For all these of course are exceptions, +and the rule and hodiernal life of a good man is +benefaction. The true charity of Goethe is to be +inferred from the account he gave Dr. Eckermann of the +way in which he had spent his fortune. "Each bon-mot +of mine has cost a purse of gold. Half a million of my +own money, the fortune I inherited, my salary and +the large income derived from my writings for fifty +years back, have been expended to instruct me in +what I now know. I have besides seen," &c. + +I own it is but poor chat and gossip to go to +enumerate traits of this simple and rapid power, +and we are painting the lightning with charcoal; +but in these long nights and vacations I like to +console myself so. Nothing but itself can copy +it. A word warm from the heart enriches me. I +surrender at discretion. How death-cold is literary +genius before this fire of life! These are the +touches that reanimate my heavy soul and give it +eyes to pierce the dark of nature. I find, where I +thought myself poor, there was I most rich. Thence +comes a new intellectual exaltation, to be again +rebuked by some new exhibition of character. +Strange alternation of attraction and repulsion! +Character repudiates intellect, yet excites it; and +character passes into thought, is published so, and +then is ashamed before new flashes of moral worth. + +Character is nature in the highest form. It is of no +use to ape it or to contend with it. Somewhat is +possible of resistance, and of persistence, and of +creation, to this power, which will foil all emulation. + +This masterpiece is best where no hands but nature's +have been laid on it. Care is taken that the greatly- +destined shall slip up into life in the shade, with no +thousand-eyed Athens to watch and blazon every new +thought, every blushing emotion of young genius. Two +persons lately, very young children of the most high +God, have given me occasion for thought. When I explored +the source of their sanctity and charm for the imagination, +it seemed as if each answered, 'From my nonconformity; I +never listened to your people's law, or to what they call +their gospel, and wasted my time. I was content with the +simple rural poverty of my own; hence this sweetness; my +work never reminds you of that;--is pure of that.' And +nature advertises me in such persons that in democratic +America she will not be democratized. How cloistered and +constitutionally sequestered from the market and from +scandal! It was only this morning that I sent away some +wild flowers of these wood-gods. They are a relief from +literature,--these fresh draughts from the sources of +thought and sentiment; as we read, in an age of polish +and criticism, the first lines of written prose and verse +of a nation. How captivating is their devotion to their +favorite books, whether Aeschylus, Dante, Shakspeare, or +Scott, as feeling that they have a stake in that book; +who touches that, touches them;--and especially the total +solitude of the critic, the Patmos of thought from which +he writes, in unconsciousness of any eyes that shall ever +read this writing. Could they dream on still, as angels, +and not wake to comparisons, and to be flattered! Yet some +natures are too good to be spoiled by praise, and wherever +the vein of thought reaches down into the profound, there +is no danger from vanity. Solemn friends will warn them of +the danger of the head's being turned by the flourish of +trumpets, but they can afford to smile. I remember the +indignation of an eloquent Methodist at the kind admonitions +of a Doctor of Divinity,--'My friend, a man can neither be +praised nor insulted.' But forgive the counsels; they are +very natural. I remember the thought which occurred to me +when some ingenious and spiritual foreigners came to +America, was, Have you been victimized in being brought +hither?--or, prior to that, answer me this, 'Are you +victimizable?' + +As I have said, Nature keeps these sovereignties +in her own hands, and however pertly our sermons +and disciplines would divide some share of credit, +and teach that the laws fashion the citizen, she +goes her own gait and puts the wisest in the wrong. +She makes very light of gospels and prophets, as +one who has a great many more to produce and no +excess of time to spare on any one. There is a class +of men, individuals of which appear at long intervals, +so eminently endowed with insight and virtue that +they have been unanimously saluted as divine, and who +seem to be an accumulation of that power we consider. +Divine persons are character born, or, to borrow a +phrase from Napoleon, they are victory organized. +They are usually received with ill-will, because they +are new and because they set a bound to the exaggeration +that has been made of the personality of the last divine +person. Nature never rhymes her children, nor makes two +men alike. When we see a great man we fancy a resemblance +to some historical person, and predict the sequel of his +character and fortune; a result which he is sure to +disappoint. None will ever solve the problem of his +character according to our prejudice, but only in his +own high unprecedented way. Character wants room; must +not be crowded on by persons nor be judged from glimpses +got in the press of affairs or on few occasions. It +needs perspective, as a great building. It may not, +probably does not, form relations rapidly; and we should +not require rash explanation, either on the popular +ethics, or on our own, of its action. + +I look on Sculpture as history. I do not think the +Apollo and the Jove impossible in flesh and blood. +Every trait which the artist recorded in stone he +had seen in life, and better than his copy. We have +seen many counterfeits, but we are born believers in +great men. How easily we read in old books, when men +were few, of the smallest action of the patriarchs. +We require that a man should be so large and columnar +in the landscape, that it should deserve to be +recorded that he arose, and girded up his loins, and +departed to such a place. The most credible pictures +are those of majestic men who prevailed at their +entrance, and convinced the senses; as happened to +the eastern magian who was sent to test the merits +of Zertusht or Zoroaster. When the Yunani sage arrived +at Balkh, the Persians tell us, Gushtasp appointed a +day on which the Mobeds of every country should +assemble, and a golden chair was placed for the Yunani +sage. Then the beloved of Yezdam, the prophet Zertusht, +advanced into the midst of the assembly. The Yunani +sage, on seeing that chief, said, "This form and this +gait cannot lie, and nothing but truth can proceed +from them." Plato said it was impossible not to +believe in the children of the gods, "though they +should speak without probable or necessary arguments." +I should think myself very unhappy in my associates if +I could not credit the best things in history. "John +Bradshaw," says Milton, "appears like a consul, from +whom the fasces are not to depart with the year; so +that not on the tribunal only, but throughout his life, +you would regard him as sitting in judgment upon kings." +I find it more credible, since it is anterior information, +that one man should know heaven, as the Chinese say, than +that so many men should know the world. "The virtuous +prince confronts the gods, without any misgiving. He +waits a hundred ages till a sage comes, and does not +doubt. He who confronts the gods, without any misgiving, +knows heaven; he who waits a hundred ages until a sage +comes, without doubting, knows men. Hence the virtuous +prince moves, and for ages shows empire the way." But +there is no need to seek remote examples. He is a dull +observer whose experience has not taught him the reality +and force of magic, as well as of chemistry. The coldest +precisian cannot go abroad without encountering +inexplicable influences. One man fastens an eye on him +and the graves of the memory render up their dead; the +secrets that make him wretched either to keep or to +betray must be yielded;--another, and he cannot speak, +and the bones of his body seem to lose their cartilages; +the entrance of a friend adds grace, boldness, and +eloquence to him; and there are persons he cannot choose +but remember, who gave a transcendent expansion to his +thought, and kindled another life in his bosom. + +What is so excellent as strict relations of amity, +when they spring from this deep root? The sufficient +reply to the skeptic who doubts the power and the +furniture of man, is in that possibility of joyful +intercourse with persons, which makes the faith and +practice of all reasonable men. I know nothing which +life has to offer so satisfying as the profound good +understanding which can subsist after much exchange of +good offices, between two virtuous men, each of whom +is sure of himself and sure of his friend. It is a +happiness which postpones all other gratifications, +and makes politics, and commerce, and churches, cheap. +For when men shall meet as they ought, each a benefactor, +a shower of stars, clothed with thoughts, with deeds, +with accomplishments, it should be the festival of +nature which all things announce. Of such friendship, +love in the sexes is the first symbol, as all other +things are symbols of love. Those relations to the best +men, which, at one time, we reckoned the romances of +youth, become, in the progress of the character, the +most solid enjoyment. + +If it were possible to live in right relations with +men!--if we could abstain from asking anything of +them, from asking their praise, or help, or pity, +and content us with compelling them through the +virtue of the eldest laws! Could we not deal with +a few persons,--with one person,--after the unwritten +statutes, and make an experiment of their efficacy? +Could we not pay our friend the compliment of truth, +of silence, of forbearing? Need we be so eager to +seek him? If we are related, we shall meet. It was a +tradition of the ancient world that no metamorphosis +could hide a god from a god; and there is a Greek +verse which runs,-- + + "The Gods are to each other not unknown." + +Friends also follow the laws of divine necessity; +they gravitate to each other, and cannot otherwise:-- + + When each the other shall avoid, + Shall each by each be most enjoyed. + +Their relation is not made, but allowed. The gods +must seat themselves without seneschal in our +Olympus, and as they can instal themselves by +seniority divine. Society is spoiled if pains are +taken, if the associates are brought a mile to meet. +And if it be not society, it is a mischievous, low, +degrading jangle, though made up of the best. All the +greatness of each is kept back and every foible in +painful activity, as if the Olympians should meet to +exchange snuff-boxes. + +Life goes headlong. We chase some flying scheme, or +we are hunted by some fear or command behind us. But +if suddenly we encounter a friend, we pause; our heat +and hurry look foolish enough; now pause, now possession +is required, and the power to swell the moment from the +resources of the heart. The moment is all, in all noble +relations. + +A divine person is the prophecy of the mind; a +friend is the hope of the heart. Our beatitude +waits for the fulfilment of these two in one. The +ages are opening this moral force. All force is +the shadow or symbol of that. Poetry is joyful +and strong as it draws its inspiration thence. Men +write their names on the world as they are filled +with this. History has been mean; our nations have +been mobs; we have never seen a man: that divine +form we do not yet know, but only the dream and +prophecy of such: we do not know the majestic manners +which belong to him, which appease and exalt the +beholder. We shall one day see that the most private +is the most public energy, that quality atones for +quantity, and grandeur of character acts in the dark, +and succors them who never saw it. What greatness has +yet appeared is beginnings and encouragements to us +in this direction. The history of those gods and saints +which the world has written and then worshipped, are +documents of character. The ages have exulted in the +manners of a youth who owed nothing to fortune, and +who was hanged at the Tyburn of his nation, who, by +the pure quality of his nature, shed an epic splendor +around the facts of his death which has transfigured +every particular into an universal symbol for the +eyes of mankind. This great defeat is hitherto our +highest fact. But the mind requires a victory to the +senses; a force of character which will convert judge, +jury, soldier, and king; which will rule animal and +mineral virtues, and blend with the courses of sap, +of rivers, of winds, of stars, and of moral agents. + +If we cannot attain at a bound to these grandeurs, +at least let us do them homage. In society, high +advantages are set down to the possessor as +disadvantages. It requires the more wariness in +our private estimates. I do not forgive in my +friends the failure to know a fine character and +to entertain it with thankful hospitality. When +at last that which we have always longed for is +arrived and shines on us with glad rays out of +that far celestial land, then to be coarse, then +to be critical and treat such a visitant with the +jabber and suspicion of the streets, argues a +vulgarity that seems to shut the doors of heaven. +This is confusion, this the right insanity, when +the soul no longer knows its own, nor where its +allegiance, its religion, are due. Is there any +religion but this, to know that wherever in the +wide desert of being the holy sentiment we cherish +has opened into a flower, it blooms for me? if none +sees it, I see it; I am aware, if I alone, of the +greatness of the fact. Whilst it blooms, I will +keep sabbath or holy time, and suspend my gloom +and my folly and jokes. Nature is indulged by the +presence of this guest. There are many eyes that +can detect and honor the prudent and household +virtues; there are many that can discern Genius on +his starry track, though the mob is incapable; but +when that love which is all-suffering, all-abstaining, +all-aspiring, which has vowed to itself that it will +be a wretch and also a fool in this world sooner than +soil its white hands by any compliances, comes into +our streets and houses,--only the pure and aspiring +can know its face, and the only compliment they can +pay it is to own it. + + + + +MANNERS. + +"HOW near to good is what is fair! +Which we no sooner see, +But with the lines and outward air +Our senses taken be. + +Again yourselves compose, +And now put all the aptness on +Of Figure, that Proportion +Or Color can disclose; +That if those silent arts were lost, +Design and Picture, they might boast +From you a newer ground, +Instructed by the heightening sense +Of dignity and reverence +In their true motions found." + BEN JONSON + +IV. +MANNERS. + +HALF the world, it is said, knows not how the other +half live. Our Exploring Expedition saw the Feejee +islanders getting their dinner off human bones; and +they are said to eat their own wives and children. +The husbandry of the modern inhabitants of Gournou +(west of old Thebes) is philosophical to a fault. To +set up their housekeeping nothing is requisite but +two or three earthen pots, a stone to grind meal, and +a mat which is the bed. The house, namely a tomb, is +ready without rent or taxes. No rain can pass through +the roof, and there is no door, for there is no want +of one, as there is nothing to lose. If the house do +not please them, they walk out and enter another, as +there are several hundreds at their command. "It is +somewhat singular," adds Belzoni, to whom we owe this +account, "to talk of happiness among people who live +in sepulchres, among the corpses and rags of an ancient +nation which they know nothing of." In the deserts of +Borgoo the rock-Tibboos still dwell in caves, like +cliff-swallows, and the language of these negroes is +compared by their neighbors to the shrieking of bats +and to the whistling of birds. Again, the Bornoos have +no proper names; individuals are called after their +height, thickness, or other accidental quality, and +have nicknames merely. But the salt, the dates, the +ivory, and the gold, for which these horrible regions +are visited, find their way into countries where the +purchaser and consumer can hardly be ranked in one +race with these cannibals and man-stealers; countries +where man serves himself with metals, wood, stone, +glass, gum, cotton, silk, and wool; honors himself with +architecture; writes laws, and contrives to execute his +will through the hands of many nations; and, especially, +establishes a select society, running through all the +countries of intelligent men, a self-constituted +aristocracy, or fraternity of the best, which, without +written law or exact usage of any kind, perpetuates +itself, colonizes every new-planted island and adopts +and makes its own whatever personal beauty or extraordinary +native endowment anywhere appears. + +What fact more conspicuous in modern history than +the creation of the gentleman? Chivalry is that, +and loyalty is that, and, in English literature, +half the drama, and all the novels, from Sir Philip +Sidney to Sir Walter Scott, paint this figure. The +word gentleman, which, like the word Christian, must +hereafter characterize the present and the few +preceding centuries by the importance attached to +it, is a homage to personal and incommunicable +properties. Frivolous and fantastic additions have +got associated with the name, but the steady interest +of mankind in it must be attributed to the valuable +properties which it designates. An element which +unites all the most forcible persons of every +country; makes them intelligible and agreeable to +each other, and is somewhat so precise that it is +at once felt if an individual lack the masonic sign,-- +cannot be any casual product, but must be an average +result of the character and faculties universally +found in men. It seems a certain permanent average; +as the atmosphere is a permanent composition, whilst +so many gases are combined only to be decompounded. +Comme il faut, is the Frenchman's description of good +Society: as we must be. It is a spontaneous fruit of +talents and feelings of precisely that class who have +most vigor, who take the lead in the world of this +hour, and though far from pure, far from constituting +the gladdest and highest tone of human feeling, is as +good as the whole society permits it to be. It is made +of the spirit, more than of the talent of men, and is +a compound result into which every great force enters +as an ingredient, namely virtue, wit, beauty, wealth, +and power. + +There is something equivocal in all the words in +use to express the excellence of manners and social +cultivation, because the quantities are fluxional, +and the last effect is assumed by the senses as the +cause. The word gentleman has not any correlative +abstract to express the quality. Gentility is mean, +and gentilesse is obsolete. But we must keep alive +in the vernacular the distinction between fashion, +a word of narrow and often sinister meaning, and the +heroic character which the gentleman imports. The +usual words, however, must be respected; they will +be found to contain the root of the matter. The point +of distinction in all this class of names, as courtesy, +chivalry, fashion, and the like, is that the flower +and fruit, not the grain of the tree, are contemplated. +It is beauty which is the aim this time, and not worth. +The result is now in question, although our words +intimate well enough the popular feeling that the +appearance supposes a substance. The gentleman is a +man of truth, lord of his own actions, and expressing +that lordship in his behavior, not in any manner +dependent and servile, either on persons, or opinions, +or possessions. Beyond this fact of truth and real +force, the word denotes good-nature or benevolence: +manhood first, and then gentleness. The popular notion +certainly adds a condition of ease and fortune; but +that is a natural result of personal force and love, +that they should possess and dispense the goods of the +world. In times of violence, every eminent person must +fall in with many opportunities to approve his stoutness +and worth; therefore every man's name that emerged at +all from the mass in the feudal ages, rattles in our +ear like a flourish of trumpets. But personal force +never goes out of fashion. That is still paramount +to-day, and in the moving crowd of good society the +men of valor and reality are known and rise to their +natural place. The competition is transferred from war +to politics and trade, but the personal force appears +readily enough in these new arenas. + +Power first, or no leading class. In politics and +in trade, bruisers and pirates are of better promise +than talkers and clerks. God knows that all sorts of +gentlemen knock at the door; but whenever used in +strictness and with any emphasis, the name will be +found to point at original energy. It describes a man +standing in his own right and working after untaught +methods. In a good lord there must first be a good +animal, at least to the extent of yielding the +incomparable advantage of animal spirits. The ruling +class must have more, but they must have these, giving +in every company the sense of power, which makes things +easy to be done which daunt the wise. The society of +the energetic class, in their friendly and festive +meetings, is full of courage and of attempts which +intimidate the pale scholar. The courage which girls +exhibit is like a battle of Lundy's Lane, or a sea- +fight. The intellect relies on memory to make some +supplies to face these extemporaneous squadrons. But +memory is a base mendicant with basket and badge, in +the presence of these sudden masters. The rulers of +society must be up to the work of the world, and equal +to their versatile office: men of the right Caesarian +pattern, who have great range of affinity. I am far +from believing the timid maxim of Lord Falkland ("that +for ceremony there must go two to it; since a bold +fellow will go through the cunningest forms"), and am +of opinion that the gentleman is the bold fellow whose +forms are not to be broken through; and only that +plenteous nature is rightful master which is the +complement of whatever person it converses with. My +gentleman gives the law where he is; he will outpray +saints in chapel, outgeneral veterans in the field, and +outshine all courtesy in the hall. He is good company +for pirates and good with academicians; so that it is +useless to fortify yourself against him; he has the +private entrance to all minds, and I could as easily +exclude myself, as him. The famous gentlemen of Asia +and Europe have been of this strong type; Saladin, Sapor, +the Cid, Julius Caesar, Scipio, Alexander, Pericles, and +the lordliest personages. They sat very carelessly in +their chairs, and were too excellent themselves, to value +any condition at a high rate. + +A plentiful fortune is reckoned necessary, in the +popular judgment, to the completion of this man of +the world; and it is a material deputy which walks +through the dance which the first has led. Money is +not essential, but this wide affinity is, which +transcends the habits of clique and caste and makes +itself felt by men of all classes. If the aristocrat +is only valid in fashionable circles and not with +truckmen, he will never be a leader in fashion; and +if the man of the people cannot speak on equal terms +with the gentleman, so that the gentleman shall +perceive that he is already really of his own order, +he is not to be feared. Diogenes, Socrates, and +Epaminondas, are gentlemen of the best blood who have +chosen the condition of poverty when that of wealth +was equally open to them. I use these old names, but +the men I speak of are my contemporaries. Fortune will +not supply to every generation one of these well- +appointed knights, but every collection of men furnishes +some example of the class; and the politics of this +country, and the trade of every town, are controlled by +these hardy and irresponsible doers, who have invention +to take the lead, and a broad sympathy which puts them +in fellowship with crowds, and makes their action +popular. + +The manners of this class are observed and caught +with devotion by men of taste. The association of +these masters with each other and with men intelligent +of their merits, is mutually agreeable and stimulating. +The good forms, the happiest expressions of each, are +repeated and adopted. By swift consent everything +superfluous is dropped, everything graceful is renewed. +Fine manners show themselves formidable to the +uncultivated man. They are a subtler science of defence +to parry and intimidate; but once matched by the skill +of the other party, they drop the point of the sword, +--points and fences disappear, and the youth finds +himself in a more transparent atmosphere, wherein life +is a less troublesome game, and not a misunderstanding +rises between the players. Manners aim to facilitate +life, to get rid of impediments and bring the man pure +to energize. They aid our dealing and conversation as a +railway aids travelling, by getting rid of all avoidable +obstructions of the road and leaving nothing to be +conquered but pure space. These forms very soon become +fixed, and a fine sense of propriety is cultivated with +the more heed that it becomes a badge of social and +civil distinctions. Thus grows up Fashion, an equivocal +semblance, the most puissant, the most fantastic and +frivolous, the most feared and followed, and which morals +and violence assault in vain. + +There exists a strict relation between the class +of power and the exclusive and polished circles. +The last are always filled or filling from the +first. The strong men usually give some allowance +even to the petulances of fashion, for that affinity +they find in it. Napoleon, child of the revolution, +destroyer of the old noblesse, never ceased to court +the Faubourg St. Germain; doubtless with the feeling +that fashion is a homage to men of his stamp. Fashion, +though in a strange way, represents all manly virtue. +It is virtue gone to seed: it is a kind of posthumous +honor. It does not often caress the great, but the +children of the great: it is a hall of the Past. It +usually sets its face against the great of this hour. +Great men are not commonly in its halls; they are +absent in the field: they are working, not triumphing. +Fashion is made up of their children; of those who +through the value and virtue of somebody, have acquired +lustre to their name, marks of distinction, means of +cultivation and generosity, and, in their physical +organization a certain health and excellence which +secures to them, if not the highest power to work, yet +high power to enjoy. The class of power, the working +heroes, the Cortez, the Nelson, the Napoleon, see that +this is the festivity and permanent celebration of such +as they; that fashion is funded talent; is Mexico, +Marengo, and Trafalgar beaten out thin; that the +brilliant names of fashion run back to just such busy +names as their own, fifty or sixty years ago. They are +the sowers, their sons shall be the reapers, and their +sons, in the ordinary course of things, must yield the +possession of the harvest to new competitors with keener +eyes and stronger frames. The city is recruited from the +country. In the year 1805, it is said, every legitimate +monarch in Europe was imbecile. The city would have died +out, rotted, and exploded, long ago, but that it was +reinforced from the fields. It is only country which +came to town day before yesterday that is city and court +today. + +Aristocracy and fashion are certain inevitable +results. These mutual selections are indestructible. +If they provoke anger in the least favored class, +and the excluded majority revenge themselves on the +excluding minority by the strong hand and kill them, +at once a new class finds itself at the top, as +certainly as cream rises in a bowl of milk: and if +the people should destroy class after class, until +two men only were left, one of these would be the +leader and would be involuntarily served and copied +by the other. You may keep this minority out of sight +and out of mind, but it is tenacious of life, and is +one of the estates of the realm. I am the more struck +with this tenacity, when I see its work. It respects +the administration of such unimportant matters, that +we should not look for any durability in its rule. We +sometimes meet men under some strong moral influence, +as a patriotic, a literary, a religious movement, and +feel that the moral sentiment rules man and nature. +We think all other distinctions and ties will be slight +and fugitive, this of caste or fashion for example; +yet come from year to year and see how permanent that +is, in this Boston or New York life of man, where too +it has not the least countenance from the law of the +land. Not in Egypt or in India a firmer or more +impassable line. Here are associations whose ties go +over and under and through it, a meeting of merchants, +a military corps, a college class, a fire-club, a +professional association, a political, a religious +convention;--the persons seem to draw inseparably near; +yet, that assembly once dispersed, its members will not +in the year meet again. Each returns to his degree in +the scale of good society, porcelain remains porcelain, +and earthen earthen. The objects of fashion may be +frivolous, or fashion may be objectless, but the nature +of this union and selection can be neither frivolous +nor accidental. Each man's rank in that perfect +graduation depends on some symmetry in his structure or +some agreement in his structure to the symmetry of society. +Its doors unbar instantaneously to a natural claim of +their own kind. A natural gentleman finds his way in, and +will keep the oldest patrician out who has lost his +intrinsic rank. Fashion understands itself; good-breeding +and personal superiority of whatever country readily +fraternize with those of every other. The chiefs of savage +tribes have distinguished themselves in London and Paris, +by the purity of their tournure. + +To say what good of fashion we can, it rests on +reality, and hates nothing so much as pretenders; +to exclude and mystify pretenders and send them +into everlasting 'Coventry,' is its delight. We +contemn in turn every other gift of men of the +world; but the habit even in little and the least +matters of not appealing to any but our own sense +of propriety, constitutes the foundation of all +chivalry. There is almost no kind of self-reliance, +so it be sane and proportioned, which fashion does +not occasionally adopt and give it the freedom of +its saloons. A sainted soul is always elegant, and, +if it will, passes unchallenged into the most guarded +ring. But so will Jock the teamster pass, in some +crisis that brings him thither, and find favor, as +long as his head is not giddy with the new circumstance, +and the iron shoes do not wish to dance in waltzes and +cotillons. For there is nothing settled in manners, +but the laws of behavior yield to the energy of the +individual. The maiden at her first ball, the country- +man at a city dinner, believes that there is a ritual +according to which every act and compliment must be +performed, or the failing party must be cast out of +this presence. Later they learn that good sense and +character make their own forms every moment, and speak +or abstain, take wine or refuse it, stay or go, sit in +a chair or sprawl with children on the floor, or stand +on their head, or what else soever, in a new and +aboriginal way; and that strong will is always in fashion, +let who will be unfashionable. All that fashion demands +is composure and self-content. A circle of men perfectly +well-bred would be a company of sensible persons in which +every man's native manners and character appeared. If the +fashionist have not this quality, he is nothing. We are +such lovers of self-reliance that we excuse in a man many +sins if he will show us a complete satisfaction in his +position, which asks no leave to be, of mine, or any +man's good opinion. But any deference to some eminent +man or woman of the world, forfeits all privilege of +nobility. He is an underling: I have nothing to do with +him; I will speak with his master. A man should not go +where he cannot carry his whole sphere or society with +him,--not bodily, the whole circle of his friends, but +atmospherically. He should preserve in a new company the +same attitude of mind and reality of relation which his +daily associates draw him to, else he is shorn of his +best beams, and will be an orphan in the merriest club. +"If you could see Vich Ian Vohr with his tail on!--" But +Vich Ian Vohr must always carry his belongings in some +fashion, if not added as honor, then severed as disgrace. + +There will always be in society certain persons who +are mercuries of its approbation, and whose glance +will at any time determine for the curious their +standing in the world. These are the chamberlains of +the lesser gods. Accept their coldness as an omen of +grace with the loftier deities, and allow them all their +privilege. They are clear in their office, nor could +they be thus formidable without their own merits. But +do not measure the importance of this class by their +pretension, or imagine that a fop can be the dispenser +of honor and shame. They pass also at their just rate; +for how can they otherwise, in circles which exist as +a sort of herald's office for the sifting of character? + +As the first thing man requires of man is reality, +so that appears in all the forms of society. We +pointedly, and by name, introduce the parties to +each other. Know you before all heaven and earth, +that this is Andrew, and this is Gregory,--they +look each other in the eye; they grasp each other's +hand, to identify and signalize each other. It is a +great satisfaction. A gentleman never dodges; his +eyes look straight forward, and he assures the other +party, first of all, that he has been met. For what +is it that we seek, in so many visits and hospitalities? +Is it your draperies, pictures, and decorations? Or do +we not insatiably ask, Was a man in the house? I may +easily go into a great household where there is much +substance, excellent provision for comfort, luxury, +and taste, and yet not encounter there any Amphitryon +who shall subordinate these appendages. I may go into +a cottage, and find a farmer who feels that he is the +man I have come to see, and fronts me accordingly. It +was therefore a very natural point of old feudal +etiquette that a gentleman who received a visit, +though it were of his sovereign, should not leave his +roof, but should wait his arrival at the door of his +house. No house, though it were the Tuileries or the +Escurial, is good for anything without a master. And +yet we are not often gratified by this hospitality. +Every body we know surrounds himself with a fine house, +fine books, conservatory, gardens, equipage and all +manner of toys, as screens to interpose between himself +and his guest. Does it not seem as if man was of a very +sly, elusive nature, and dreaded nothing so much as a +full rencontre front to front with his fellow? It were +unmerciful, I know, quite to abolish the use of these +screens, which are of eminent convenience, whether the +guest is too great or too little. We call together many +friends who keep each other in play, or by luxuries and +ornaments we amuse the young people, and guard our +retirement. Or if perchance a searching realist comes +to our gate, before whose eye we have no care to stand, +then again we run to our curtain, and hide ourselves as +Adam at the voice of the Lord God in the garden. Cardinal +Caprara, the Pope's legate at Paris, defended himself +from the glances of Napoleon by an immense pair of green +spectacles. Napoleon remarked them, and speedily managed +to rally them off: and yet Napoleon, in his turn, was not +great enough with eight hundred thousand troops at his +back, to face a pair of freeborn eyes, but fenced himself +with etiquette and within triple barriers of reserve; and, +as all the world knows from Madame de Stael, was wont, +when he found himself observed, to discharge his face of +all expression. But emperors and rich men are by no means +the most skilful masters of good manners. No rentroll nor +army-list can dignify skulking and dissimulation; and the +first point of courtesy must always be truth, as really +all the forms of good-breeding point that way. + +I have just been reading, in Mr. Hazlitt's translation, +Montaigne's account of his journey into Italy, and am +struck with nothing more agreeably than the self- +respecting fashions of the time. His arrival in each +place, the arrival of a gentleman of France, is an event +of some consequence. Wherever he goes he pays a visit +to whatever prince or gentleman of note resides upon his +road, as a duty to himself and to civilization. When he +leaves any house in which he has lodged for a few weeks, +he causes his arms to be painted and hung up as a +perpetual sign to the house, as was the custom of gentlemen. + +The complement of this graceful self-respect, and +that of all the points of good breeding I most require +and insist upon, is deference. I like that every chair +should be a throne, and hold a king. I prefer a tendency +to stateliness to an excess of fellowship. Let the +incommunicable objects of nature and the metaphysical +isolation of man teach us independence. Let us not be +too much acquainted. I would have a man enter his house +through a hall filled with heroic and sacred sculptures, +that he might not want the hint of tranquillity and +self-poise. We should meet each morning as from foreign +countries, and, spending the day together, should depart +at night, as into foreign countries. In all things I +would have the island of a man inviolate. Let us sit +apart as the gods, talking from peak to peak all round +Olympus. No degree of affection need invade this religion. +This is myrrh and rosemary to keep the other sweet. Lovers +Should guard their strangeness. If they forgive too much, +all slides into confusion and meanness. It is easy to +push this deference to a Chinese etiquette; but coolness +and absence of heat and haste indicate fine qualities. A +gentleman makes no noise; a lady is serene. Proportionate +is our disgust at those invaders who fill a studious +house with blast and running, to secure some paltry +convenience. Not less I dislike a low sympathy of each with +his neighbor's needs. Must we have a good understanding +with one another's palates? as foolish people who have +lived long together know when each wants salt or sugar. +I pray my companion, if he wishes for bread, to ask me +for bread, and if he wishes for sassafras or arsenic, to +ask me for them, and not to hold out his plate as if I +knew already. Every natural function can be dignified by +deliberation and privacy. Let us leave hurry to slaves. +The compliments and ceremonies of our breeding should +signify, however remotely, the recollection of the grandeur +of our destiny. + +The flower of courtesy does not very well bide +handling, but if we dare to open another leaf and +explore what parts go to its conformation, we shall +find also an intellectual quality. To the leaders +of men, the brain as well as the flesh and the heart +must furnish a proportion. Defect in manners is +usually the defect of fine perceptions. Men are too +coarsely made for the delicacy of beautiful carriage +and customs. It is not quite sufficient to good- +breeding, a union of kindness and independence. We +imperatively require a perception of, and a homage +to beauty in our companions. Other virtues are in +request in the field and workyard, but a certain +degree of taste is not to be spared in those we sit +with. I could better eat with one who did not respect +the truth or the laws than with a sloven and +unpresentable person. Moral qualities rule the world, +but at short distances the senses are despotic. The +same discrimination of fit and fair runs out, if with +less rigor, into all parts of life. The average spirit +of the energetic class is good sense, acting under +certain limitations and to certain ends. It entertains +every natural gift. Social in its nature, it respects +everything which tends to unite men. It delights in +measure. The love of beauty is mainly the love of +measure or proportion. The person who screams, or uses +the superlative degree, or converses with heat, puts +whole drawing-rooms to flight. If you wish to be loved, +love measure. You must have genius or a prodigious +usefulness if you will hide the want of measure. This +perception comes in to polish and perfect the parts of +the social instrument. Society will pardon much to +genius and special gifts, but, being in its nature a +convention, it loves what is conventional, or what +belongs to coming together. That makes the good and bad +of manners, namely what helps or hinders fellowship. +For fashion is not good sense absolute, but relative; +not good sense private, but good sense entertaining +company. It hates corners and sharp points of character, +hates quarrelsome, egotistical, solitary, and gloomy +people; hates whatever can interfere with total blending +of parties; whilst it values all peculiarities as in the +highest degree refreshing, which can consist with good +fellowship. And besides the general infusion of wit to +heighten civility, the direct splendor of intellectual +power is ever welcome in fine society as the costliest +addition to its rule and its credit. + +The dry light must shine in to adorn our festival, +but it must be tempered and shaded, or that will +also offend. Accuracy is essential to beauty, and +quick perceptions to politeness, but not too quick +perceptions. One may be too punctual and too precise. +He must leave the omniscience of business at the +door, when he comes into the palace of beauty. Society +loves creole natures, and sleepy languishing manners, +so that they cover sense, grace and good-will: the air +of drowsy strength, which disarms criticism; perhaps +because such a person seems to reserve himself for the +best of the game, and not spend himself on surfaces; +an ignoring eye, which does not see the annoyances, +shifts, and inconveniences that cloud the brow and +smother the voice of the sensitive. + +Therefore besides personal force and so much +perception as constitutes unerring taste, society +demands in its patrician class another element +already intimated, which it significantly terms +good-nature,--expressing all degrees of generosity, +from the lowest willingness and faculty to oblige, +up to the heights of magnanimity and love. Insight +we must have, or we shall run against one another +and miss the way to our food; but intellect is +selfish and barren. The secret of success in society +is a certain heartiness and sympathy. A man who is +not happy in the company cannot find any word in his +memory that will fit the occasion. All his information +is a little impertinent. A man who is happy there, +finds in every turn of the conversation equally lucky +occasions for the introduction of that which he has +to say. The favorites of society, and what it calls +whole souls, are able men and of more spirit than wit, +who have no uncomfortable egotism, but who exactly +fill the hour and the company; contented and contenting, +at a marriage or a funeral, a ball or a jury, a water- +party or a shooting-match. England, which is rich in +gentlemen, furnished, in the beginning of the present +century, a good model of that genius which the world +loves, in Mr. Fox, who added to his great abilities +the most social disposition and real love of men. +Parliamentary history has few better passages than the +debate in which Burke and Fox separated in the House +of Commons; when Fox urged on his old friend the claims +of old friendship with such tenderness that the house +was moved to tears. Another anecdote is so close to my +matter, that I must hazard the story. A tradesman who +had long dunned him for a note of three hundred guineas, +found him one day counting gold, and demanded payment: +--"No," said Fox, "I owe this money to Sheridan; it is +a debt of honor; if an accident should happen to me, +he has nothing to show." "Then," said the creditor, "I +change my debt into a debt of honor," and tore the note +in pieces. Fox thanked the man for his confidence and +paid him, saying, "his debt was of older standing, and +Sheridan must wait." Lover of liberty, friend of the +Hindoo, friend of the African slave, he possessed a +great personal popularity; and Napoleon said of him on +the occasion of his visit to Paris, in 1805, "Mr. Fox +will always hold the first place in an assembly at +the Tuileries." + +We may easily seem ridiculous in our eulogy of +courtesy, whenever we insist on benevolence as its +foundation. The painted phantasm Fashion rises to +cast a species of derision on what we say. But I +will neither be driven from some allowance to +Fashion as a symbolic institution, nor from the +belief that love is the basis of courtesy. We must +obtain that, if we can; but by all means we must +affirm this. Life owes much of its spirit to these +sharp contrasts. Fashion, which affects to be honor, +is often, in all men's experience, only a ballroom- +code. Yet so long as it is the highest circle in the +imagination of the best heads on the planet, there +is something necessary and excellent in it; for it +is not to be supposed that men have agreed to be the +dupes of anything preposterous; and the respect which +these mysteries inspire in the most rude and sylvan +characters, and the curiosity with which details of +high life are read, betray the universality of the +love of cultivated manners. I know that a comic +disparity would be felt, if we should enter the +acknowledged 'first circles' and apply these terrific +standards of justice, beauty, and benefit to the +individuals actually found there. Monarchs and heroes, +sages and lovers, these gallants are not. Fashion has +many classes and many rules of probation and admission, +and not the best alone. There is not only the right of +conquest, which genius pretends,--the individual +demonstrating his natural aristocracy best of the best; +--but less claims will pass for the time; for Fashion +loves lions, and points like Circe to her horned company. +This gentleman is this afternoon arrived from Denmark; +and that is my Lord Ride, who came yesterday from Bagdat; +here is Captain Friese, from Cape Turnagain; and Captain +Symmes, from the interior of the earth; and Monsieur +Jovaire, who came down this morning in a balloon; Mr. +Hobnail, the reformer; and Reverend Jul Bat, who has +converted the whole torrid zone in his Sunday school; +and Signor Torre del Greco, who extinguished Vesuvius +by pouring into it the Bay of Naples; Spahi, the Persian +ambassador; and Tul Wil Shan, the exiled nabob of Nepaul, +whose saddle is the new moon.--But these are monsters of +one day, and to-morrow will be dismissed to their holes +and dens; for in these rooms every chair is waited for. +The artist, the scholar, and, in general, the clerisy, +wins their way up into these places and get represented +here, somewhat on this footing of conquest. Another mode +is to pass through all the degrees, spending a year and a +day in St. Michael's Square, being steeped in Cologne +water, and perfumed, and dined, and introduced, and +properly grounded in all the biography and politics and +anecdotes of the boudoirs. + +Yet these fineries may have grace and wit. Let +there be grotesque sculpture about the gates and +offices of temples. Let the creed and commandments +even have the saucy homage of parody. The forms of +politeness universally express benevolence in +superlative degrees. What if they are in the mouths +of selfish men, and used as means of selfishness? +What if the false gentleman almost bows the true out +Of the world? What if the false gentleman contrives +so to address his companion as civilly to exclude +all others from his discourse, and also to make them +feel excluded? Real service will not lose its nobleness. +All generosity is not merely French and sentimental; +nor is it to be concealed that living blood and a +passion of kindness does at last distinguish God's +gentleman from Fashion's. The epitaph of Sir Jenkin +Grout is not wholly unintelligible to the present age: +"Here lies Sir Jenkin Grout, who loved his friend and +persuaded his enemy: what his mouth ate, his hand paid +for: what his servants robbed, he restored: if a woman +gave him pleasure, he supported her in pain: he never +forgot his children; and whoso touched his finger, +drew after it his whole body." Even the line of heroes +is not utterly extinct. There is still ever some +admirable person in plain clothes, standing on the +wharf, who jumps in to rescue a drowning man; there +is still some absurd inventor of charities; some guide +and comforter of runaway slaves; some friend of Poland; +some Philhellene; some fanatic who plants shade-trees +for the second and third generation, and orchards when +he is grown old; some well-concealed piety; some just +man happy in an ill fame; some youth ashamed of the +favors of fortune and impatiently casting them on other +shoulders. And these are the centres of society, on +which it returns for fresh impulses. These are the +creators of Fashion, which is an attempt to organize +beauty of behavior. The beautiful and the generous are, +in the theory, the doctors and apostles of this church: +Scipio, and the Cid, and Sir Philip Sidney, and +Washington, and every pure and valiant heart who +worshipped Beauty by word and by deed. The persons who +constitute the natural aristocracy are not found in the +actual aristocracy, or only on its edge; as the chemical +energy of the spectrum is found to be greatest just +outside of the spectrum. Yet that is the infirmity of +the seneschals, who do not know their sovereign when he +appears. The theory of society supposes the existence +and sovereignty of these. It divines afar off their +coming. It says with the elder gods,-- + + "As Heaven and Earth are fairer far + Than Chaos and blank Darkness, though once chiefs; + And as we show beyond that Heaven and Earth, + In form and shape compact and beautiful; + So, on our heels a fresh perfection treads; + A power, more strong in beauty, born of us, + And fated to excel us, as we pass + In glory that old Darkness: + -------- for, 'tis the eternal law, + That first in beauty shall be first in might." + +Therefore, within the ethnical circle of good +society there is a narrower and higher circle, +concentration of its light, and flower of courtesy, +to which there is always a tacit appeal of pride +and reference, as to its inner and imperial court; +the parliament of love and chivalry. And this is +constituted of those persons in whom heroic +dispositions are native; with the love of beauty, +the delight in society, and the power to embellish +the passing day. If the individuals who compose +the purest circles of aristocracy in Europe, the +guarded blood of centuries, should pass in review, +in such manner as that we could at leisure and +critically inspect their behavior, we might find +no gentleman and no lady; for although excellent +specimens of courtesy and high-breeding would +gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars we +should detect offence. Because elegance comes of no +breeding, but of birth. There must be romance of +character, or the most fastidious exclusion of +impertinencies will not avail. It must be genius which +takes that direction: it must be not courteous, but +courtesy. High behavior is as rare in fiction as it is +in fact. Scott is praised for the fidelity with which +he painted the demeanor and conversation of the superior +classes. Certainly, kings and queens, nobles and great +ladies, had some right to complain of the absurdity +that had been put in their mouths before the days of +Waverley; but neither does Scott's dialogue bear +criticism. His lords brave each other in smart +epigramatic speeches, but the dialogue is in costume, +and does not please on the second reading: it is not +warm with life. In Shakspeare alone the speakers do not +strut and bridle, the dialogue is easily great, and he +adds to so many titles that of being the best-bred man +in England and in Christendom. Once or twice in a +lifetime we are permitted to enjoy the charm of noble +manners, in the presence of a man or woman who have no +bar in their nature, but whose character emanates freely +in their word and gesture. A beautiful form is better +than a beautiful face; a beautiful behavior is better +than a beautiful form: it gives a higher pleasure than +statues or pictures; it is the finest of the fine arts. +A man is but a little thing in the midst of the objects +of nature, yet, by the moral quality radiating from his +countenance he may abolish all considerations of +magnitude, and in his manners equal the majesty of the +world. I have seen an individual whose manners, though +wholly within the conventions of elegant society, were +never learned there, but were original and commanding +and held out protection and prosperity; one who did not +need the aid of a court-suit, but carried the holiday +in his eye; who exhilarated the fancy by flinging wide +the doors of new modes of existence; who shook off the +captivity of etiquette, with happy, spirited bearing, +good-natured and free as Robin Hood; yet with the port +of an emperor, if need be,--calm, serious, and fit to +stand the gaze of millions. + +The open air and the fields, the street and public +chambers are the places where Man executes his will; +let him yield or divide the sceptre at the door of +the house. Woman, with her instinct of behavior, +instantly detects in man a love of trifles, any +coldness or imbecility, or, in short, any want of +that large, flowing, and magnanimous deportment +which is indispensable as an exterior in the hall. +Our American institutions have been friendly to her, +and at this moment I esteem it a chief felicity of +this country, that it excels in women. A certain +awkward consciousness of inferiority in the men may +give rise to the new chivalry in behalf of Woman's +Rights. Certainly let her be as much better placed +in the laws and in social forms as the most zealous +reformer can ask, but I confide so entirely in her +inspiring and musical nature, that I believe only +herself can show us how she shall be served. The +wonderful generosity of her sentiments raises her at +times into heroical and godlike regions, and verifies +the pictures of Minerva, Juno, or Polymnia; and by +the firmness with which she treads her upward path, +she convinces the coarsest calculators that another +road exists than that which their feet know. But +besides those who make good in our imagination the +place of muses and of Delphic Sibyls, are there not +women who fill our vase with wine and roses to the +brim, so that the wine runs over and fills the house +with perfume; who inspire us with courtesy; who unloose +our tongues and we speak; who anoint our eyes and we +see? We say things we never thought to have said; for +once, our walls of habitual reserve vanished and left +us at large; we were children playing with children +in a wide field of flowers. Steep us, we cried, in these +influences, for days, for weeks, and we shall be sunny +poets and will write out in many-colored words the +romance that you are. Was it Hafiz or Firdousi that +said of his Persian Lilla, She was an elemental force, +and astonished me by her amount of life, when I saw her +day after day radiating, every instant, redundant joy +and grace on all around her. She was a solvent powerful +to reconcile all heterogeneous persons into one society: +like air or water, an element of such a great range of +affinities that it combines readily with a thousand +substances. Where she is present all others will be +more than they are wont. She was a unit and whole, so +that whatsoever she did, became her. She had too much +sympathy and desire to please, than that you could say +her manners were marked with dignity, yet no princess +could surpass her clear and erect demeanor on each +occasion. She did not study the Persian grammar, nor +the books of the seven poets, but all the poems of the +seven seemed to be written upon her. For though the +bias of her nature was not to thought, but to sympathy, +yet was she so perfect in her own nature as to meet +intellectual persons by the fulness of her heart, +warming them by her sentiments; believing, as she did, +that by dealing nobly with all, all would show +themselves noble. + +I know that this Byzantine pile of chivalry or +Fashion, which seems so fair and picturesque to +those who look at the contemporary facts for +science or for entertainment, is not equally +pleasant to all spectators. The constitution of +our society makes it a giant's castle to the +ambitious youth who have not found their names +enrolled in its Golden Book, and whom it has +excluded from its coveted honors and privileges. +They have yet to learn that its seeming grandeur +is shadowy and relative: it is great by their +allowance; its proudest gates will fly open at the +approach of their courage and virtue. For the +present distress, however, of those who are +predisposed to suffer from the tyrannies of this +caprice, there are easy remedies. To remove your +residence a couple of miles, or at most four, will +commonly relieve the most extreme susceptibility. +For the advantages which fashion values are plants +which thrive in very confined localities, in a few +streets namely. Out of this precinct they go for +nothing; are of no use in the farm, in the forest, +in the market, in war, in the nuptial society, in +the literary or scientific circle, at sea, in +friendship, in the heaven of thought or virtue. + +But we have lingered long enough in these painted +courts. The worth of the thing signified must +vindicate our taste for the emblem. Everything that +is called fashion and courtesy humbles itself before +the cause and fountain of honor, creator of titles +and dignities, namely the heart of love. This is the +royal blood, this the fire, which, in all countries +and contingencies, will work after its kind and +conquer and expand all that approaches it. This gives +new meanings to every fact. This impoverishes the +rich, suffering no grandeur but its own. What is rich? +Are you rich enough to help anybody? to succor the +unfashionable and the eccentric? rich enough to make +the Canadian in his wagon, the itinerant with his +consul's paper which commends him "To the charitable," +the swarthy Italian with his few broken words of +English, the lame pauper hunted by overseers from town +to town, even the poor insane or besotted wreck of man +or woman, feel the noble exception of your presence and +your house from the general bleakness and stoniness; to +make such feel that they were greeted with a voice +which made them both remember and hope? What is vulgar +but to refuse the claim on acute and conclusive reasons? +What is gentle, but to allow it, and give their heart +and yours one holiday from the national caution? Without +the rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar. The king of +Schiraz could not afford to be so bountiful as the poor +Osman who dwelt at his gate. Osman had a humanity so +broad and deep that although his speech was so bold and +free with the Koran as to disgust all the dervishes, +yet was there never a poor outcast, eccentric, or insane +man, some fool who had cut off his beard, or who had +been mutilated under a vow, or had a pet madness in his +brain, but fled at once to him; that great heart lay +there so sunny and hospitable in the centre of the +country, that it seemed as if the instinct of all +sufferers drew them to his side. And the madness which +he harbored he did not share. Is not this to be rich? +this only to be rightly rich? + +But I shall hear without pain that I play the +courtier very ill, and talk of that which I do not +well understand. It is easy to see, that what is +called by distinction society and fashion has good +laws as well as bad, has much that is necessary, +and much that is absurd. Too good for banning, and +too bad for blessing, it reminds us of a tradition +of the pagan mythology, in any attempt to settle +its character. 'I overheard Jove, one day,' said +Silenus, 'talking of destroying the earth; he said +it had failed; they were all rogues and vixens, who +went from bad to worse, as fast as the days succeeded +each other. Minerva said she hoped not; they were +only ridiculous little creatures, with this odd +circumstance, that they had a blur, or indeterminate +aspect, seen far or seen near; if you called them bad, +they would appear so; if you called them good, they +would appear so; and there was no one person or action +among them, which would not puzzle her owl, much more +all Olympus, to know whether it was fundamentally bad +or good.' + + + + +GIFTS. + +Gifts of one who loved me,-- +'T was high time they came; +When he ceased to love me, +Time they stopped for shame. + +V. +GIFTS. + +IT is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy; +that the world owes the world more than the world can +pay, and ought to go into chancery and be sold. I do +not think this general insolvency, which involves in +some sort all the population, to be the reason of the +difficulty experienced at Christmas and New Year and +other times, in bestowing gifts; since it is always +so pleasant to be generous, though very vexatious to +pay debts. But the impediment lies in the choosing. +If at any time it comes into my head that a present +is due from me to somebody, I am puzzled what to give, +until the opportunity is gone. Flowers and fruits are +always fit presents; flowers, because they are a proud +assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the +utilities of the world. These gay natures contrast with +the somewhat stern countenance of ordinary nature: they +are like music heard out of a work-house. Nature does +not cocker us; we are children, not pets; she is not +fond; everything is dealt to us without fear or favor, +after severe universal laws. Yet these delicate flowers +look like the frolic and interference of love and beauty. +Men use to tell us that we love flattery even though we +are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of +importance enough to be courted. Something like that +pleasure, the flowers give us: what am I to whom these +sweet hints are addressed? Fruits are acceptable gifts, +because they are the flower of commodities, and admit +of fantastic values being attached to them. If a man +should send to me to come a hundred miles to visit him +and should set before me a basket of fine summer-fruit, +I should think there was some proportion between the +labor and the reward. + +For common gifts, necessity makes pertinences and +beauty every day, and one is glad when an imperative +leaves him no option; since if the man at the door +have no shoes, you have not to consider whether you +could procure him a paint-box. And as it is always +pleasing to see a man eat bread, or drink water, in +the house or out of doors, so it is always a great +satisfaction to supply these first wants. Necessity +does everything well. In our condition of universal +dependence it seems heroic to let the petitioner be +the judge of his necessity, and to give all that is +asked, though at great inconvenience. If it be a +fantastic desire, it is better to leave to others +the office of punishing him. I can think of many +parts I should prefer playing to that of the Furies. +Next to things of necessity, the rule for a gift, +which one of my friends prescribed, is that we might +convey to some person that which properly belonged +to his character, and was easily associated with +him in thought. But our tokens of compliment and +love are for the most part barbarous. Rings and +other jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. +The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must +bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem; +the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, +a gem; the sailor, coral and shells; the painter, +his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own +sewing. This is right and pleasing, for it restores +society in so far to its primary basis, when a man's +biography is conveyed in his gift, and every man's +wealth is an index of his merit. But it is a cold +lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy me +something which does not represent your life and +talent, but a goldsmith's. This is fit for kings, +and rich men who represent kings, and a false state +of property, to make presents of gold and silver +stuffs, as a kind of symbolical sin-offering, or +payment of black-mail. + +The law of benefits is a difficult channel, which +requires careful sailing, or rude boats. It is not +the office of a man to receive gifts. How dare you +give them? We wish to be self-sustained. We do not +quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in +some danger of being bitten. We can receive anything +from love, for that is a way of receiving it from +ourselves; but not from any one who assumes to bestow. +We sometimes hate the meat which we eat, because there +seems something of degrading dependence in living +by it:-- + + "Brother, if Jove to thee a present make, + Take heed that from his hands thou nothing take." + +We ask the whole. Nothing less will content us. We +arraign society if it do not give us, besides earth +and fire and water, opportunity, love, reverence, +and objects of veneration. + +He is a good man who can receive a gift well. We +are either glad or sorry at a gift, and both emotions +are unbecoming. Some violence I think is done, some +degradation borne, when I rejoice or grieve at a gift. +I am sorry when my independence is invaded, or when a +gift comes from such as do not know my spirit, and so +the act is not supported; and if the gift pleases me +overmuch, then I should be ashamed that the donor +should read my heart, and see that I love his commodity, +and not him. The gift, to be true, must be the flowing +of the giver unto me, correspondent to my flowing unto +him. When the waters are at level, then my goods pass +to him, and his to me. All his are mine, all mine his. +I say to him, How can you give me this pot of oil or +this flagon of wine when all your oil and wine is mine, +which belief of mine this gift seems to deny? Hence +the fitness of beautiful, not useful things, for gifts. +This giving is flat usurpation, and therefore when the +beneficiary is ungrateful, as all beneficiaries hate +all Timons, not at all considering the value of the +gift but looking back to the greater store it was taken +from,--I rather sympathize with the beneficiary than +with the anger of my lord Timon. For the expectation of +gratitude is mean, and is continually punished by the +total insensibility of the obliged person. It is a great +happiness to get off without injury and heart-burning +from one who has had the ill-luck to be served by you. +It is a very onerous business, this of being served, and +the debtor naturally wishes to give you a slap. A golden +text for these gentlemen is that which I so admire in the +Buddhist, who never thanks, and who says, "Do not flatter +your benefactors." + +The reason of these discords I conceive to be that +there is no commensurability between a man and any +gift. You cannot give anything to a magnanimous +person. After you have served him he at once puts +you in debt by his magnanimity. The service a man +renders his friend is trivial and selfish compared +with the service he knows his friend stood in +readiness to yield him, alike before he had begun +to serve his friend, and now also. Compared with +that good-will I bear my friend, the benefit it is +in my power to render him seems small. Besides, our +action on each other, good as well as evil, is so +incidental and at random that we can seldom hear +the acknowledgments of any person who would thank +us for a benefit, without some shame and humiliation. +We can rarely strike a direct stroke, but must be +content with an oblique one; we seldom have the +satisfaction of yielding a direct benefit which is +directly received. But rectitude scatters favors on +every side without knowing it, and receives with +wonder the thanks of all people. + +I fear to breathe any treason against the majesty +of love, which is the genius and god of gifts, and +to whom we must not affect to prescribe. Let him +give kingdoms or flower-leaves indifferently. There +are persons from whom we always expect fairy-tokens; +let us not cease to expect them. This is prerogative, +and not to be limited by our municipal rules. For +the rest, I like to see that we cannot be bought and +sold. The best of hospitality and of generosity is +also not in the will, but in fate. I find that I am +not much to you; you do not need me; you do not feel +me; then am I thrust out of doors, though you proffer +me house and lands. No services are of any value, but +only likeness. When I have attempted to join myself to +others by services, it proved an intellectual trick,-- +no more. They eat your service like apples, and leave +you out. But love them, and they feel you and delight +in you all the time. + + + + +NATURE. + +The rounded world is fair to see, +Nine times folded in mystery: +Though baffled seers cannot impart +The secret of its laboring heart, +Throb thine with Nature's throbbing breast, +And all is clear from east to west. +Spirit that lurks each form within +Beckons to spirit of its kin; +Self-kindled every atom glows, +And hints the future which it owes. + +VI. +NATURE. + +THERE are days which occur in this climate, at +almost any season of the year, wherein the world +reaches its perfection; when the air, the heavenly +bodies and the earth, make a harmony, as if nature +would indulge her offspring; when, in these bleak +upper sides of the planet, nothing is to desire +that we have heard of the happiest latitudes, and +we bask in the shining hours of Florida and Cuba; +when everything that has life gives sign of +satisfaction, and the cattle that lie on the ground +seem to have great and tranquil thoughts. These +halcyons may be looked for with a little more +assurance in that pure October weather which we +distinguish by the name of the Indian summer. The +day, immeasurably long, sleeps over the broad hills +and warm wide fields. To have lived through all its +sunny hours, seems longevity enough. The solitary +places do not seem quite lonely. At the gates of the +forest, the surprised man of the world is forced to +leave his city estimates of great and small, wise +and foolish. The knapsack of custom falls off his +back with the first step he makes into these precincts. +Here is sanctity which shames our religions, and +reality which discredits our heroes. Here we find +Nature to be the circumstance which dwarfs every other +circumstance, and judges like a god all men that come +to her. We have crept out of our close and crowded +houses into the night and morning, and we see what +majestic beauties daily wrap us in their bosom. How +willingly we would escape the barriers which render +them comparatively impotent, escape the sophistication +and second thought, and suffer nature to intrance us. +The tempered light of the woods is like a perpetual +morning, and is stimulating and heroic. The anciently +reported spells of these places creep on us. The +stems of pines, hemlocks, and oaks almost gleam like +iron on the excited eye. The incommunicable trees +begin to persuade us to live with them, and quit our +life of solemn trifles. Here no history, or church, +or state, is interpolated on the divine sky and the +immortal year. How easily we might walk onward into +the opening landscape, absorbed by new pictures and +by thoughts fast succeeding each other, until by +degrees the recollection of home was crowded out of +the mind, all memory obliterated by the tyranny of +the present, and we were led in triumph by nature. + +These enchantments are medicinal, they sober and +heal us. These are plain pleasures, kindly and native +to us. We come to our own, and make friends with matter, +which the ambitious chatter of the schools would +persuade us to despise. We never can part with it; the +mind loves its old home: as water to our thirst, so is +the rock, the ground, to our eyes and hands and feet. +It is firm water; it is cold flame; what health, what +affinity! Ever an old friend, ever like a dear friend +and brother when we chat affectedly with strangers, +comes in this honest face, and takes a grave liberty +with us, and shames us out of our nonsense. Cities give +not the human senses room enough. We go out daily and +nightly to feed the eyes on the horizon, and require +so much scope, just as we need water for our bath. +There are all degrees of natural influence, from these +quarantine powers of nature, up to her dearest and +gravest ministrations to the imagination and the soul. +There is the bucket of cold water from the spring, the +wood-fire to which the chilled traveller rushes for +safety,--and there is the sublime moral of autumn and +of noon. We nestle in nature, and draw our living as +parasites from her roots and grains, and we receive +glances from the heavenly bodies, which call us to +solitude and foretell the remotest future. The blue +zenith is the point in which romance and reality meet. +I think if we should be rapt away into all that we +dream of heaven, and should converse with Gabriel and +Uriel, the upper sky would be all that would remain of +our furniture. + +It seems as if the day was not wholly profane in +which we have given heed to some natural object. +The fall of snowflakes in a still air, preserving +to each crystal its perfect form; the blowing of +sleet over a wide sheet of water, and over plains; +the waving ryefield; the mimic waving of acres of +houstonia, whose innumerable florets whiten and +ripple before the eye; the reflections of trees +and flowers in glassy lakes; the musical steaming +odorous south wind, which converts all trees to +windharps; the crackling and spurting of hemlock +in the flames, or of pine logs, which yield glory +to the walls and faces in the sittingroom,--these +are the music and pictures of the most ancient +religion. My house stands in low land, with limited +outlook, and on the skirt of the village. But I go +with my friend to the shore of our little river, +and with one stroke of the paddle I leave the village +politics and personalities, yes, and the world of +villages and personalities behind, and pass into a +delicate realm of sunset and moonlight, too bright +almost for spotted man to enter without novitiate +and probation. We penetrate bodily this incredible +beauty; we dip our hands in this painted element; +our eyes are bathed in these lights and forms. A +holiday, a villeggiatura, a royal revel, the proudest, +most heart-rejoicing festival that valor and beauty, +power and taste, ever decked and enjoyed, establishes +itself on the instant. These sunset clouds, these +delicately emerging stars, with their private and +ineffable glances, signify it and proffer it. I am +taught the poorness of our invention, the ugliness of +towns and palaces. Art and luxury have early learned +that they must work as enhancement and sequel to this +original beauty. I am overinstructed for my return. +Henceforth I shall be hard to please. I cannot go back +to toys. I am grown expensive and sophisticated. I can +no longer live without elegance, but a countryman shall +be my master of revels. He who knows the most; he who +knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the +waters, the plants, the heavens, and how to come at +these enchantments,--is the rich and royal man. Only +as far as the masters of the world have called in +nature to their aid, can they reach the height of +magnificence. This is the meaning of their hanging- +gardens, villas, garden-houses, islands, parks and +preserves, to back their faulty personality with these +strong accessories. I do not wonder that the landed +interest should be invincible in the State with these +dangerous auxiliaries. These bribe and invite; not +kings, not palaces, not men, not women, but these +tender and poetic stars, eloquent of secret promises. +We heard what the rich man said, we knew of his villa, +his grove, his wine and his company, but the provocation +and point of the invitation came out of these beguiling +stars. In their soft glances I see what men strove to +realize in some Versailles, or Paphos, or Ctesiphon. +Indeed, it is the magical lights of the horizon and the +blue sky for the background which save all our works of +art, which were otherwise bawbles. When the rich tax the +poor with servility and obsequiousness, they should +consider the effect of men reputed to be the possessors +of nature, on imaginative minds. Ah! if the rich were +rich as the poor fancy riches! A boy hears a military +band play on the field at night, and he has kings and +queens and famous chivalry palpably before him. He hears +the echoes of a horn in a hill country, in the Notch +Mountains, for example, which converts the mountains +into an Aeolian harp,--and this supernatural tiralira +restores to him the Dorian mythology, Apollo, Diana, +and all divine hunters and huntresses. Can a musical +note be so lofty, so haughtily beautiful! To the poor +young poet, thus fabulous is his picture of society; he +is loyal; he respects the rich; they are rich for the +sake of his imagination; how poor his fancy would be, +if they were not rich! That they have some high-fenced +grove which they call a park; that they live in larger +and better-garnished saloons than he has visited, and +go in coaches, keeping only the society of the elegant, +to watering-places and to distant cities,--these make +the groundwork from which he has delineated estates of +romance, compared with which their actual possessions +are shanties and paddocks. The muse herself betrays +her son, and enhances the gifts of wealth and well-born +beauty by a radiation out of the air, and clouds, and +forests that skirt the road,--a certain haughty favor, +as if from patrician genii to patricians, a kind of +aristocracy in nature, a prince of the power of the air. + +The moral sensibility which makes Edens and Tempes +so easily, may not be always found, but the material +landscape is never far off. We can find these +enchantments without visiting the Como Lake, or the +Madeira Islands. We exaggerate the praises of local +scenery. In every landscape the point of astonishment +is the meeting of the sky and the earth, and that is +seen from the first hillock as well as from the top +of the Alleghanies. The stars at night stoop down +over the brownest, homeliest common with all the +spiritual magnificence which they shed on the Campagna, +or on the marble deserts of Egypt. The uprolled clouds +and the colors of morning and evening will transfigure +maples and alders. The difference between landscape and +landscape is small, but there is great difference in +the beholders. There is nothing so wonderful in any +particular landscape as the necessity of being beautiful +under which every landscape lies. Nature cannot be +surprised in undress. Beauty breaks in everywhere. + +But it is very easy to outrun the sympathy of +readers on this topic, which schoolmen called +natura naturata, or nature passive. One can hardly +speak directly of it without excess. It is as easy +to broach in mixed companies what is called "the +subject of religion." A susceptible person does not +like to indulge his tastes in this kind without the +apology of some trivial necessity: he goes to see a +wood-lot, or to look at the crops, or to fetch a +plant or a mineral from a remote locality, or he +carries a fowling-piece or a fishing-rod. I suppose +this shame must have a good reason. A dilettantism +in nature is barren and unworthy. The fop of fields +is no better than his brother of Broadway. Men are +naturally hunters and inquisitive of wood-craft, +and I suppose that such a gazetteer as wood-cutters +and Indians should furnish facts for, would take +place in the most sumptuous drawing-rooms of all the +"Wreaths" and "Flora's chaplets" of the bookshops; +yet ordinarily, whether we are too clumsy for so +subtle a topic, or from whatever cause, as soon as +men begin to write on nature, they fall into euphuism. +Frivolity is a most unfit tribute to Pan, who ought +to be represented in the mythology as the most +continent of gods. I would not be frivolous before +the admirable reserve and prudence of time, yet I +cannot renounce the right of returning often to this +old topic. The multitude of false churches accredits +the true religion. Literature, poetry, science are +the homage of man to this unfathomed secret, concerning +which no sane man can affect an indifference or +incuriosity. Nature is loved by what is best in us. It +is loved as the city of God, although, or rather because +there is no citizen. The sunset is unlike anything that +is underneath it: it wants men. And the beauty of nature +must always seem unreal and mocking, until the landscape +has human figures that are as good as itself. If there +were good men, there would never be this rapture in +nature. If the king is in the palace, nobody looks at +the walls. It is when he is gone, and the house is filled +with grooms and gazers, that we turn from the people to +find relief in the majestic men that are suggested by the +pictures and the architecture. The critics who complain +of the sickly separation of the beauty of nature from +the thing to be done, must consider that our hunting of +the picturesque is inseparable from our protest against +false society. Man is fallen; nature is erect, and serves +as a differential thermometer, detecting the presence or +absence of the divine sentiment in man. By fault of our +dulness and selfishness we are looking up to nature, but +when we are convalescent, nature will look up to us. We +see the foaming brook with compunction: if our own life +flowed with the right energy, we should shame the brook. +The stream of zeal sparkles with real fire, and not with +reflex rays of sun and moon. Nature may be as selfishly +studied as trade. Astronomy to the selfish becomes +astrology; psychology, mesmerism (with intent to show +where our spoons are gone); and anatomy and physiology +become phrenology and palmistry. + +But taking timely warning, and leaving many things +unsaid on this topic, let us not longer omit our +homage to the Efficient Nature, natura naturans, +the quick cause before which all forms flee as the +driven snows; itself secret, its works driven +before it in flocks and multitudes, (as the ancient +represented nature by Proteus, a shepherd,) and in +undescribable variety. It publishes itself in +creatures, reaching from particles and spiculae +through transformation on transformation to the +highest symmetries, arriving at consummate results +without a shock or a leap. A little heat, that is +a little motion, is all that differences the bald, +dazzling white and deadly cold poles of the earth +from the prolific tropical climates. All changes +pass without violence, by reason of the two cardinal +conditions of boundless space and boundless time. +Geology has initiated us into the secularity of +nature, and taught us to disuse our dame-school +measures, and exchange our Mosaic and Ptolemaic +schemes for her large style. We knew nothing rightly, +for want of perspective. Now we learn what patient +periods must round themselves before the rock is +formed; then before the rock is broken, and the first +lichen race has disintegrated the thinnest external +plate into soil, and opened the door for the remote +Flora, Fauna, Ceres, and Pomona to come in. How far +off yet is the trilobite! how far the quadruped! how +inconceivably remote is man! All duly arrive, and +then race after race of men. It is a long way from +granite to the oyster; farther yet to Plato and the +preaching of the immortality of the soul. Yet all +must come, as surely as the first atom has two sides. + +Motion or change and identity or rest are the first +and second secrets of nature:--Motion and Rest. The +whole code of her laws may be written on the thumbnail, +or the signet of a ring. The whirling bubble on the +surface of a brook admits us to the secret of the +mechanics of the sky. Every shell on the beach is a +key to it. A little water made to rotate in a cup +explains the formation of the simpler shells; the +addition of matter from year to year, arrives at last +at the most complex forms; and yet so poor is nature +with all her craft, that from the beginning to the end +of the universe she has but one stuff, -- but one stuff +with its two ends, to serve up all her dream-like +variety. Compound it how she will, star, sand, fire, +water, tree, man, it is still one stuff, and betrays +the same properties. + +Nature is always consistent, though she feigns to +contravene her own laws. She keeps her laws, and +seems to transcend them. She arms and equips an +animal to find its place and living in the earth, +and at the same time she arms and equips another +animal to destroy it. Space exists to divide +creatures; but by clothing the sides of a bird with +a few feathers she gives him a petty omnipresence. +The direction is forever onward, but the artist +still goes back for materials and begins again with +the first elements on the most advanced stage: +otherwise all goes to ruin. If we look at her work, +we seem to catch a glance of a system in transition. +Plants are the young of the world, vessels of health +and vigor; but they grope ever upward towards +consciousness; the trees are imperfect men, and seem +to bemoan their imprisonment, rooted in the ground. +The animal is the novice and probationer of a more +advanced order. The men, though young, having tasted +the first drop from the cup of thought, are already +dissipated: the maples and ferns are still uncorrupt; +yet no doubt when they come to consciousness they too +will curse and swear. Flowers so strictly belong to +youth that we adult men soon come to feel that their +beautiful generations concern not us: we have had our +day; now let the children have theirs. The flowers jilt +us, and we are old bachelors with our ridiculous tenderness. + +Things are so strictly related, that according to +the skill of the eye, from any one object the parts +and properties of any other may be predicted. If we +had eyes to see it, a bit of stone from the city wall +would certify us of the necessity that man must exist, +as readily as the city. That identity makes us all +one, and reduces to nothing great intervals on our +customary scale. We talk of deviations from natural +life, as if artificial life were not also natural. The +smoothest curled courtier in the boudoirs of a palace +has an animal nature, rude and aboriginal as a white +bear, omnipotent to its own ends, and is directly +related, there amid essences and billetsdoux, to +Himmaleh mountain-chains and the axis of the globe. If +we consider how much we are nature's, we need not be +superstitious about towns, as if that terrific or +benefic force did not find us there also, and fashion +cities. Nature, who made the mason, made the house. +We may easily hear too much of rural influences. The +cool disengaged air of natural objects makes them +enviable to us, chafed and irritable creatures with +red faces, and we think we shall be as grand as they +if we camp out and eat roots; but let us be men +instead of woodchucks and the oak and the elm shall +gladly serve us, though we sit in chairs of ivory on +carpets of silk. + +This guiding identity runs through all the surprises +and contrasts of the piece, and characterizes every +law. Man carries the world in his head, the whole +astronomy and chemistry suspended in a thought. +Because the history of nature is charactered in his +brain, therefore is he the prophet and discoverer of +her secrets. Every known fact in natural science was +divined by the presentiment of somebody, before it was +actually verified. A man does not tie his shoe without +recognizing laws which bind the farthest regions of +nature: moon, plant, gas, crystal, are concrete geometry +and numbers. Common sense knows its own, and recognizes +the fact at first sight in chemical experiment. The +common sense of Franklin, Dalton, Davy and Black, is the +same common sense which made the arrangements which now +it discovers. + +If the identity expresses organized rest, the counter +action runs also into organization. The astronomers +said, 'Give us matter and a little motion and we will +construct the universe. It is not enough that we should +have matter, we must also have a single impulse, one +shove to launch the mass and generate the harmony of +the centrifugal and centripetal forces. Once heave the +ball from the hand, and we can show how all this mighty +order grew.'--'A very unreasonable postulate,' said the +metaphysicians, 'and a plain begging of the question. +Could you not prevail to know the genesis of projection, +as well as the continuation of it?' Nature, meanwhile, +had not waited for the discussion, but, right or wrong, +bestowed the impulse, and the balls rolled. It was no +great affair, a mere push, but the astronomers were +right in making much of it, for there is no end to the +consequences of the act. That famous aboriginal push +propagates itself through all the balls of the system, +and through every atom of every ball; through all the +races of creatures, and through the history and +performances of every individual. Exaggeration is in +the course of things. Nature sends no creature, no man +into the world without adding a small excess of his +proper quality. Given the planet, it is still necessary +to add the impulse; so to every creature nature added +a little violence of direction in its proper path, a +shove to put it on its way; in every instance a slight +generosity, a drop too much. Without electricity the air +would rot, and without this violence of direction which +men and women have, without a spice of bigot and fanatic, +no excitement, no efficiency. We aim above the mark to +hit the mark. Every act hath some falsehood of exaggeration +in it. And when now and then comes along some sad, sharp- +eyed man, who sees how paltry a game is played, and refuses +to play, but blabs the secret;--how then? Is the bird flown? +O no, the wary Nature sends a new troop of fairer forms, of +lordlier youths, with a little more excess of direction to +hold them fast to their several aim; makes them a little +wrongheaded in that direction in which they are rightest, +and on goes the game again with new whirl, for a generation +or two more. The child with his sweet pranks, the fool of +his senses, commanded by every sight and sound, without any +power to compare and rank his sensations, abandoned to a +whistle or a painted chip, to a lead dragoon or a +gingerbread-dog, individualizing everything, generalizing +nothing, delighted with every new thing, lies down at night +overpowered by the fatigue which this day of continual +pretty madness has incurred. But Nature has answered her +purpose with the curly, dimpled lunatic. She has tasked +every faculty, and has secured the symmetrical growth of +the bodily frame by all these attitudes and exertions,-- +an end of the first importance, which could not be trusted +to any care less perfect than her own. This glitter, this +opaline lustre plays round the top of every toy to his +eye to insure his fidelity, and he is deceived to his good. +We are made alive and kept alive by the same arts. Let the +stoics say what they please, we do not eat for the good of +living, but because the meat is savory and the appetite is +keen. The vegetable life does not content itself with +casting from the flower or the tree a single seed, but it +fills the air and earth with a prodigality of seeds, that, +if thousands perish, thousands may plant themselves; that +hundreds may come up, that tens may live to maturity; that +at least one may replace the parent. All things betray the +same calculated profusion. The excess of fear with which +the animal frame is hedged round, shrinking from cold, +starting at sight of a snake, or at a sudden noise, protects +us, through a multitude of groundless alarms, from some one +real danger at last. The lover seeks in marriage his private +felicity and perfection, with no prospective end; and nature +hides in his happiness her own end, namely, progeny, or the +perpetuity of the race. + +But the craft with which the world is made, runs +also into the mind and character of men. No man +is quite sane; each has a vein of folly in his +composition, a slight determination of blood to +the head, to make sure of holding him hard to some +one point which nature had taken to heart. Great +causes are never tried on their merits; but the +cause is reduced to particulars to suit the size +of the partisans, and the contention is ever hottest +on minor matters. Not less remarkable is the overfaith +of each man in the importance of what he has to do or +say. The poet, the prophet, has a higher value for +what he utters than any hearer, and therefore it gets +spoken. The strong, self-complacent Luther declares +with an emphasis not to be mistaken, that "God himself +cannot do without wise men." Jacob Behmen and George +Fox betray their egotism in the pertinacity of their +controversial tracts, and James Naylor once suffered +himself to be worshipped as the Christ. Each prophet +comes presently to identify himself with his thought, +and to esteem his hat and shoes sacred. However this +may discredit such persons with the judicious, it helps +them with the people, as it gives heat, pungency, and +publicity to their words. A similar experience is not +infrequent in private life. Each young and ardent +person writes a diary, in which, when the hours of +prayer and penitence arrive, he inscribes his soul. The +pages thus written are to him burning and fragrant; he +reads them on his knees by midnight and by the morning +star; he wets them with his tears; they are sacred; too +good for the world, and hardly yet to be shown to the +dearest friend. This is the man-child that is born to +the soul, and her life still circulates in the babe. +The umbilical cord has not yet been cut. After some +time has elapsed, he begins to wish to admit his friend +to this hallowed experience, and with hesitation, yet +with firmness, exposes the pages to his eye. Will they +not burn his eyes? The friend coldly turns them over, +and passes from the writing to conversation, with easy +transition, which strikes the other party with +astonishment and vexation. He cannot suspect the writing +itself. Days and nights of fervid life, of communion +with angels of darkness and of light have engraved +their shadowy characters on that tear-stained book. He +suspects the intelligence or the heart of his friend. +Is there then no friend? He cannot yet credit that one +may have impressive experience and yet may not know how +to put his private fact into literature; and perhaps +the discovery that wisdom has other tongues and ministers +than we, that though we should hold our peace the truth +would not the less be spoken, might check injuriously +the flames of our zeal. A man can only speak so long as +he does not feel his speech to be partial and inadequate. +It is partial, but he does not see it to be so whilst he +utters it. As soon as he is released from the instinctive +and particular and sees its partiality, he shuts his +mouth in disgust. For no man can write anything who does +not think that what he writes is for the time the history +of the world; or do anything well who does not esteem his +work to be of importance. My work may be of none, but I +must not think it of none, or I shall not do it with +impunity. + +In like manner, there is throughout nature something +mocking, something that leads us on and on, but +arrives nowhere; keeps no faith with us. All promise +outruns the performance. We live in a system of +approximations. Every end is prospective of some other +end, which is also temporary; a round and final success +nowhere. We are encamped in nature, not domesticated. +Hunger and thirst lead us on to eat and to drink; but +bread and wine, mix and cook them how you will, leave +us hungry and thirsty, after the stomach is full. It +is the same with all our arts and performances. Our +music, our poetry, our language itself are not +satisfactions, but suggestions. The hunger for wealth, +which reduces the planet to a garden, fools the eager +pursuer. What is the end sought? Plainly to secure the +ends of good sense and beauty, from the intrusion of +deformity or vulgarity of any kind. But what an operose +method! What a train of means to secure a little +conversation! This palace of brick and stone, these +servants, this kitchen, these stables, horses and +equipage, this bank-stock and file of mortgages; trade +to all the world, country-house and cottage by the +waterside, all for a little conversation, high, clear, +and spiritual! Could it not be had as well by beggars +on the highway? No, all these things came from successive +efforts of these beggars to remove friction from the +wheels of life, and give opportunity. Conversation, +character, were the avowed ends; wealth was good as it +appeased the animal cravings, cured the smoky chimney, +silenced the creaking door, brought friends together in +a warm and quiet room, and kept the children and the +dinner-table in a different apartment. Thought, virtue, +beauty, were the ends; but it was known that men of +thought and virtue sometimes had the headache, or wet +feet, or could lose good time whilst the room was getting +warm in winter days. Unluckily, in the exertions necessary +to remove these inconveniences, the main attention has +been diverted to this object; the old aims have been lost +sight of, and to remove friction has come to be the end. +That is the ridicule of rich men, and Boston, London, +Vienna, and now the governments generally of the world +are cities and governments of the rich; and the masses +are not men, but poor men, that is, men who would be rich; +this is the ridicule of the class, that they arrive with +pains and sweat and fury nowhere; when all is done, it is +for nothing. They are like one who has interrupted the +conversation of a company to make his speech, and now has +forgotten what he went to say. The appearance strikes the +eye everywhere of an aimless society, of aimless nations. +Were the ends of nature so great and cogent as to exact +this immense sacrifice of men? + +Quite analogous to the deceits in life, there is, +as might be expected, a similar effect on the eye +from the face of external nature. There is in woods +and waters a certain enticement and flattery, together +with a failure to yield a present satisfaction. This +disappointment is felt in every landscape. I have seen +the softness and beauty of the summer clouds floating +feathery overhead, enjoying, as it seemed, their height +and privilege of motion, whilst yet they appeared not +so much the drapery of this place and hour, as +forelooking to some pavilions and gardens of festivity +beyond. It is an odd jealousy, but the poet finds +himself not near enough to his object. The pine-tree, +the river, the bank of flowers before him, does not +seem to be nature. Nature is still elsewhere. This or +this is but outskirt and far-off reflection and echo of +the triumph that has passed by and is now at its glancing +splendor and heyday, perchance in the neighboring fields, +or, if you stand in the field, then in the adjacent woods. +The present object shall give you this sense of stillness +that follows a pageant which has just gone by. What +splendid distance, what recesses of ineffable pomp and +loveliness in the sunset! But who can go where they are, +or lay his hand or plant his foot thereon? Off they fall +from the round world forever and ever. It is the same +among the men and women as among the silent trees; always +a referred existence, an absence, never a presence and +satisfaction. Is it that beauty can never be grasped? in +persons and in landscape is equally inaccessible? The +accepted and betrothed lover has lost the wildest charm +of his maiden in her acceptance of him. She was heaven +whilst he pursued her as a star: she cannot be heaven if +she stoops to such a one as he. + +What shall we say of this omnipresent appearance +of that first projectile impulse, of this flattery +and balking of so many well-meaning creatures? Must +we not suppose somewhere in the universe a slight +treachery and derision? Are we not engaged to a +serious resentment of this use that is made of us? +Are we tickled trout, and fools of nature? One look +at the face of heaven and earth lays all petulance +at rest, and soothes us to wiser convictions. To the +intelligent, nature converts itself into a vast +promise, and will not be rashly explained. Her secret +is untold. Many and many an Oedipus arrives; he has +the whole mystery teeming in his brain. Alas! the +same sorcery has spoiled his skill; no syllable can +he shape on his lips. Her mighty orbit vaults like +the fresh rainbow into the deep, but no archangel's +wing was yet strong enough to follow it and report +of the return of the curve. But it also appears that +our actions are seconded and disposed to greater +conclusions than we designed. We are escorted on +every hand through life by spiritual agents, and a +beneficent purpose lies in wait for us. We cannot +bandy words with Nature, or deal with her as we deal +with persons. If we measure our individual forces +against hers we may easily feel as if we were the +sport of an insuperable destiny. But if, instead of +identifying ourselves with the work, we feel that the +soul of the workman streams through us, we shall find +the peace of the morning dwelling first in our hearts, +and the fathomless powers of gravity and chemistry, +and, over them, of life, preexisting within us in +their highest form. + +The uneasiness which the thought of our helplessness +in the chain of causes occasions us, results from +looking too much at one condition of nature, namely, +Motion. But the drag is never taken from the wheel. +Wherever the impulse exceeds, the Rest or Identity +insinuates its compensation. All over the wide fields +of earth grows the prunella or self-heal. After every +foolish day we sleep off the fumes and furies of its +hours; and though we are always engaged with particulars, +and often enslaved to them, we bring with us to every +experiment the innate universal laws. These, while they +exist in the mind as ideas, stand around us in nature +forever embodied, a present sanity to expose and cure +the insanity of men. Our servitude to particulars betrays +into a hundred foolish expectations. We anticipate a new +era from the invention of a locomotive, or a balloon; +the new engine brings with it the old checks. They say +that by electro-magnetism your salad shall be grown from +the seed whilst your fowl is roasting for dinner; it is +a symbol of our modern aims and endeavors, of our +condensation and acceleration of objects;--but nothing +is gained; nature cannot be cheated; man's life is but +seventy salads long, grow they swift or grow they slow. +In these checks and impossibilities however we find our +advantage, not less than in the impulses. Let the +victory fall where it will, we are on that side. And the +knowledge that we traverse the whole scale of being, +from the centre to the poles of nature, and have some +stake in every possibility, lends that sublime lustre to +death, which philosophy and religion have too outwardly +and literally striven to express in the popular doctrine +of the immortality of the soul. The reality is more +excellent than the report. Here is no ruin, no discontinuity, +no spent ball. The divine circulations never rest nor linger. +Nature is the incarnation of a thought, and turns to a +thought again, as ice becomes water and gas. The world is +mind precipitated, and the volatile essence is forever +escaping again into the state of free thought. Hence the +virtue and pungency of the influence on the mind of natural +objects, whether inorganic or organized. Man imprisoned, +man crystallized, man vegetative, speaks to man impersonated. +That power which does not respect quantity, which makes the +whole and the particle its equal channel, delegates its smile +to the morning, and distils its essence into every drop of +rain. Every moment instructs, and every object: for wisdom +is infused into every form. It has been poured into us as +blood; it convulsed us as pain; it slid into us as pleasure; +it enveloped us in dull, melancholy days, or in days of +cheerful labor; we did not guess its essence until after a +long time. + + + + +POLITICS. + +Gold and iron are good +To buy iron and gold; +All earth's fleece and food +For their like are sold. +Boded Merlin wise, +Proved Napoleon great,-- +Nor kind nor coinage buys +Aught above its rate. +Fear, Craft, and Avarice +Cannot rear a State. +Out of dust to build +What is more than dust,-- +Walls Amphion piled +Phoebus stablish must. +When the Muses nine +With the Virtues meet, +Find to their design +An Atlantic seat, +By green orchard boughs +Fended from the heat, +Where the statesman ploughs +Furrow for the wheat; +When the Church is social worth, +When the state-house is the hearth, +Then the perfect State is come, +The republican at home. + +VII. +POLITICS. + +In dealing with the State we ought to remember +that its institution are not aboriginal, though +they existed before we were born; that they are +not superior to the citizen; that every one of +them was once the act of a single man; every law +and usage was a man's expedient to meet a particular +case; that they all are imitable, all alterable; +we may make as good, we may make better. Society +is an illusion to the young citizen. It lies before +him in rigid repose, with certain names, men and +institutions rooted like oak-trees to the centre, +round which all arrange themselves the best they +can. But the old statesman knows that society is +fluid; there are no such roots and centres, but +any particle may suddenly become the centre of the +movement and compel the system to gyrate round it; +as every man of strong will, like Pisistratus, or +Cromwell, does for a time, and every man of truth, +like Plato or Paul, does forever. But politics rest +on necessary foundations, and cannot be treated with +levity. Republics abound in young civilians, who +believe that the laws make the city, that grave +modifications of the policy and modes of living and +employments of the population, that commerce, +education, and religion, may be voted in or out; and +that any measure, though it were absurd, may be +imposed on a people if only you can get sufficient +voices to make it a law. But the wise know that +foolish legislation is a rope of sand which perishes +in the twisting; that the State must follow and not +lead the character and progress of the citizen; the +strongest usurper is quickly got rid of; and they +only who build on Ideas, build for eternity; and that +the form of government which prevails is the expression +of what cultivation exists in the population which +permits it. The law is only a memorandum. We are +superstitious, and esteem the statute somewhat: so much +life as it has in the character of living men is its +force. The statute stands there to say, Yesterday we +agreed so and so, but how feel ye this article to-day? +Our statute is a currency which we stamp with our own +portrait: it soon becomes unrecognizable, and in process +of time will return to the mint. Nature is not democratic, +nor limited-monarchical, but despotic, and will not be +fooled or abated of any jot of her authority by the +pertest of her sons; and as fast as the public mind is +opened to more intelligence, the code is seen to be +brute and stammering. It speaks not articulately, and +must be made to. Meantime the education of the general +mind never stops. The reveries of the true and simple +are prophetic. What the tender poetic youth dreams, and +prays, and paints to-day, but shuns the ridicule of +saying aloud, shall presently be the resolutions of +public bodies; then shall be carried as grievance and +bill of rights through conflict and war, and then shall +be triumphant law and establishment for a hundred years, +until it gives place in turn to new prayers and pictures. +The history of the State sketches in coarse outline the +progress of thought, and follows at a distance the +delicacy of culture and of aspiration. + +The theory of politics which has possessed the +mind of men, and which they have expressed the +best they could in their laws and in their +revolutions, considers persons and property as +the two objects for whose protection government +exists. Of persons, all have equal rights, in +virtue of being identical in nature. This interest +of course with its whole power demands a democracy. +Whilst the rights of all as persons are equal, in +virtue of their access to reason, their rights in +property are very unequal. One man owns his clothes, +and another owns a county. This accident, depending +primarily on the skill and virtue of the parties, +of which there is every degree, and secondarily on +patrimony, falls unequally, and its rights of course +are unequal. Personal rights, universally the same, +demand a government framed on the ratio of the +census; property demands a government framed on the +ratio of owners and of owning. Laban, who has +flocks and herds, wishes them looked after by an +officer on the frontiers, lest the Midianites shall +drive them off; and pays a tax to that end. Jacob +has no flocks or herds and no fear of the Midianites, +and pays no tax to the officer. It seemed fit that +Laban and Jacob should have equal rights to elect +the officer who is to defend their persons, but that +Laban and not Jacob should elect the officer who is +to guard the sheep and cattle. And if question arise +whether additional officers or watch-towers should be +provided, must not Laban and Isaac, and those who must +sell part of their herds to buy protection for the +rest, judge better of this, and with more right, than +Jacob, who, because he is a youth and a traveller, eats +their bread and not his own? + +In the earliest society the proprietors made their +own wealth, and so long as it comes to the owners +in the direct way, no other opinion would arise in +any equitable community than that property should +make the law for property, and persons the law for +persons. + +But property passes through donation or inheritance +to those who do not create it. Gift, in one case, +makes it as really the new owner's, as labor made it +the first owner's: in the other case, of patrimony, +the law makes an ownership which will be valid in +each man's view according to the estimate which he +sets on the public tranquillity. + +It was not however found easy to embody the readily +admitted principle that property should make law +for property, and persons for persons; since persons +and property mixed themselves in every transaction. +At last it seemed settled that the rightful +distinction was that the proprietors should have more +elective franchise than non-proprietors, on the Spartan +principle of "calling that which is just, equal; not +that which is equal, just." + +That principle no longer looks so self-evident as +it appeared in former times, partly, because doubts +have arisen whether too much weight had not been +allowed in the laws to property, and such a structure +given to our usages as allowed the rich to encroach +on the poor, and to keep them poor; but mainly because +there is an instinctive sense, however obscure and yet +inarticulate, that the whole constitution of property, +on its present tenures, is injurious, and its influence +on persons deteriorating and degrading; that truly the +only interest for the consideration of the State is +persons; that property will always follow persons; that +the highest end of government is the culture of men; +and if men can be educated, the institutions will share +their improvement and the moral sentiment will write +the law of the land. + +If it be not easy to settle the equity of this +question, the peril is less when we take note of +our natural defences. We are kept by better guards +than the vigilance of such magistrates as we +commonly elect. Society always consists in greatest +part of young and foolish persons. The old, who have +seen through the hypocrisy of courts and statesmen, +die and leave no wisdom to their sons. They believe +their own newspaper, as their fathers did at their +age. With such an ignorant and deceivable majority, +States would soon run to ruin, but that there are +limitations beyond which the folly and ambition of +governors cannot go. Things have their laws, as well +as men; and things refuse to be trifled with. +Property will be protected. Corn will not grow unless +it is planted and manured; but the farmer will not +plant or hoe it unless the chances are a hundred to +one that he will cut and harvest it. Under any forms, +persons and property must and will have their just +sway. They exert their power, as steadily as matter +its attraction. Cover up a pound of earth never so +cunningly, divide and subdivide it; melt it to liquid, +convert it to gas; it will always weigh a pound; it +will always attract and resist other matter by the +full virtue of one pound weight:--and the attributes +of a person, his wit and his moral energy, will +exercise, under any law or extinguishing tyranny, their +proper force,--if not overtly, then covertly; if not +for the law, then against it; if not wholesomely, then +poisonously; with right, or by might. + +The boundaries of personal influence it is impossible +to fix, as persons are organs of moral or supernatural +force. Under the dominion of an idea which possesses +the minds of multitudes, as civil freedom, or the +religious sentiment, the powers of persons are no +longer subjects of calculation. A nation of men +unanimously bent on freedom or conquest can easily +confound the arithmetic of statists, and achieve +extravagant actions, out of all proportion to their +means; as the Greeks, the Saracens, the Swiss, the +Americans, and the French have done. + +In like manner to every particle of property belongs +its own attraction. A cent is the representative of +a certain quantity of corn or other commodity. Its +value is in the necessities of the animal man. It is +so much warmth, so much bread, so much water, so much +land. The law may do what it will with the owner of +property; its just power will still attach to the +cent. The law may in a mad freak say that all shall +have power except the owners of property; they shall +have no vote. Nevertheless, by a higher law, the +property will, year after year, write every statute +that respects property. The non-proprietor will be +the scribe of the proprietor. What the owners wish to +do, the whole power of property will do, either +through the law or else in defiance of it. Of course +I speak of all the property, not merely of the great +estates. When the rich are outvoted, as frequently +happens, it is the joint treasury of the poor which +exceeds their accumulations. Every man owns something, +if it is only a cow, or a wheel-barrow, or his arms, +and so has that property to dispose of. + +The same necessity which secures the rights of +person and property against the malignity or folly +of the magistrate, determines the form and methods +of governing, which are proper to each nation and +to its habit of thought, and nowise transferable to +other states of society. In this country we are very +vain of our political institutions, which are singular +in this, that they sprung, within the memory of living +men, from the character and condition of the people, +which they still express with sufficient fidelity,-- +and we ostentatiously prefer them to any other in +history. They are not better, but only fitter for us. +We may be wise in asserting the advantage in modern +times of the democratic form, but to other states of +society, in which religion consecrated the monarchical, +that and not this was expedient. Democracy is better +for us, because the religious sentiment of the present +time accords better with it. Born democrats, we are +nowise qualified to judge of monarchy, which, to our +fathers living in the monarchical idea, was also +relatively right. But our institutions, though in +coincidence with the spirit of the age, have not any +exemption from the practical defects which have +discredited other forms. Every actual State is corrupt. +Good men must not obey the laws too well. What satire +on government can equal the severity of censure conveyed +in the word politic, which now for ages has signified +cunning, intimating that the State is a trick? + +The same benign necessity and the same practical +abuse appear in the parties, into which each State +divides itself, of opponents and defenders of the +administration of the government. Parties are also +founded on instincts, and have better guides to +their own humble aims than the sagacity of their +leaders. They have nothing perverse in their origin, +but rudely mark some real and lasting relation. We +might as wisely reprove the east wind or the frost, +as a political party, whose members, for the most +part, could give no account of their position, but +stand for the defence of those interests in which +they find themselves. Our quarrel with them begins +when they quit this deep natural ground at the bidding +of some leader, and obeying personal considerations, +throw themselves into the maintenance and defence of +points nowise belonging to their system. A party is +perpetually corrupted by personality. Whilst we +absolve the association from dishonesty, we cannot +extend the same charity to their leaders. They reap +the rewards of the docility and zeal of the masses +which they direct. Ordinarily our parties are parties +of circumstance, and not of principle; as the planting +interest in conflict with the commercial; the party of +capitalists and that of operatives; parties which are +identical in their moral character, and which can +easily change ground with each other in the support of +many of their measures. Parties of principle, as, +religious sects, or the party of free-trade, of universal +suffrage, of abolition of slavery, of abolition of +capital punishment,--degenerate into personalities, or +would inspire enthusiasm. The vice of our leading +parties in this country (which may be cited as a fair +specimen of these societies of opinion) is that they do +not plant themselves on the deep and necessary grounds +to which they are respectively entitled, but lash +themselves to fury in the carrying of some local and +momentary measure, nowise useful to the commonwealth. +Of the two great parties which at this hour almost +share the nation between them, I should say that one +has the best cause, and the other contains the best men. +The philosopher, the poet, or the religious man will of +course wish to cast his vote with the democrat, for +free-trade, for wide suffrage, for the abolition of +legal cruelties in the penal code, and for facilitating +in every manner the access of the young and the poor to +the sources of wealth and power. But he can rarely accept +the persons whom the so-called popular party propose to +him as representatives of these liberalities. They have +not at heart the ends which give to the name of democracy +what hope and virtue are in it. The spirit of our American +radicalism is destructive and aimless: it is not loving; +it has no ulterior and divine ends, but is destructive +only out of hatred and selfishness. On the other side, +the conservative party, composed of the most moderate, +able, and cultivated part of the population, is timid, +and merely defensive of property. It vindicates no right, +it aspires to no real good, it brands no crime, it +proposes no generous policy; it does not build, nor write, +nor cherish the arts, nor foster religion, nor establish +schools, nor encourage science, nor emancipate the slave, +nor befriend the poor, or the Indian, or the immigrant. +From neither party, when in power, has the world any +benefit to expect in science, art, or humanity, at all +commensurate with the resources of the nation. + +I do not for these defects despair of our republic. +We are not at the mercy of any waves of chance. In +the strife of ferocious parties, human nature always +finds itself cherished; as the children of the +convicts at Botany Bay are found to have as healthy +a moral sentiment as other children. Citizens of +feudal states are alarmed at our democratic institutions +lapsing into anarchy, and the older and more cautious +among ourselves are learning from Europeans to look +with some terror at our turbulent freedom. It is said +that in our license of construing the Constitution, +and in the despotism of public opinion, we have no +anchor; and one foreign observer thinks he has found +the safeguard in the sanctity of Marriage among us; +and another thinks he has found it in our Calvinism. +Fisher Ames expressed the popular security more wisely, +when he compared a monarchy and a republic, saying that +a monarchy is a merchantman, which sails well, but will +sometimes strike on a rock and go to the bottom; whilst +a republic is a raft, which would never sink, but then +your feet are always in water. No forms can have any +dangerous importance whilst we are befriended by the +laws of things. It makes no difference how many tons +weight of atmosphere presses on our heads, so long as +the same pressure resists it within the lungs. Augment +the mass a thousand fold, it cannot begin to crush us, +as long as reaction is equal to action. The fact of two +poles, of two forces, centripetal and centrifugal, is +universal, and each force by its own activity develops +the other. Wild liberty develops iron conscience. Want +of liberty, by strengthening law and decorum, stupefies +conscience. 'Lynch-law' prevails only where there is +greater hardihood and self-subsistency in the leaders. +A mob cannot be a permanency; everybody's interest +requires that it should not exist, and only justice +satisfies all. + +We must trust infinitely to the beneficent necessity +which shines through all laws. Human nature expresses +itself in them as characteristically as in statues, +or songs, or railroads; and an abstract of the codes +of nations would be a transcript of the common +conscience. Governments have their origin in the +moral identity of men. Reason for one is seen to be +reason for another, and for every other. There is a +middle measure which satisfies all parties, be they +never so many or so resolute for their own. Every +man finds a sanction for his simplest claims and deeds +in decisions of his own mind, which he calls Truth and +Holiness. In these decisions all the citizens find a +perfect agreement, and only in these; not in what is +good to eat, good to wear, good use of time, or what +amount of land or of public aid, each is entitled to +claim. This truth and justice men presently endeavor +to make application of to the measuring of land, the +apportionment of service, the protection of life and +property. Their first endeavors, no doubt, are very +awkward. Yet absolute right is the first governor; or, +every government is an impure theocracy. The idea +after which each community is aiming to make and mend +its law, is the will of the wise man. The wise man it +cannot find in nature, and it makes awkward but earnest +efforts to secure his government by contrivance; as by +causing the entire people to give their voices on every +measure; or by a double choice to get the representation +of the whole; or, by a selection of the best citizens; +or to secure the advantages of efficiency and internal +peace by confiding the government to one, who may himself +select his agents. All forms of government symbolize an +immortal government, common to all dynasties and +independent of numbers, perfect where two men exist, +perfect where there is only one man. + +Every man's nature is a sufficient advertisement +to him of the character of his fellows. My right +and my wrong is their right and their wrong. Whilst +I do what is fit for me, and abstain from what is +unfit, my neighbor and I shall often agree in our +means, and work together for a time to one end. But +whenever I find my dominion over myself not sufficient +for me, and undertake the direction of him also, I +overstep the truth, and come into false relations to +him. I may have so much more skill or strength than +he that he cannot express adequately his sense of +wrong, but it is a lie, and hurts like a lie both him +and me. Love and nature cannot maintain the assumption; +it must be executed by a practical lie, namely by force. +This undertaking for another is the blunder which stands +in colossal ugliness in the governments of the world. +It is the same thing in numbers, as in a pair, only not +quite so intelligible. I can see well enough a great +difference between my setting myself down to a self- +control, and my going to make somebody else act after +my views; but when a quarter of the human race assume +to tell me what I must do, I may be too much disturbed +by the circumstances to see so clearly the absurdity +of their command. Therefore all public ends look vague +and quixotic beside private ones. For any laws but +those which men make for themselves, are laughable. If +I put myself in the place of my child, and we stand in +one thought and see that things are thus or thus, that +perception is law for him and me. We are both there, +both act. But if, without carrying him into the thought, +I look over into his plot, and, guessing how it is with +him, ordain this or that, he will never obey me. This +is the history of governments,--one man does something +which is to bind another. A man who cannot be acquainted +with me, taxes me; looking from afar at me ordains that +a part of my labor shall go to this or that whimsical +end,--not as I, but as he happens to fancy. Behold the +consequence. Of all debts men are least willing to pay +the taxes. What a satire is this on government! Everywhere +they think they get their money's worth, except for these. + +Hence the less government we have the better,-- +the fewer laws, and the less confided power. The +antidote to this abuse of formal Government is +the influence of private character, the growth of +the Individual; the appearance of the principal to +supersede the proxy; the appearance of the wise +man; of whom the existing government is, it must +be owned, but a shabby imitation. That which all +things tend to educe; which freedom, cultivation, +intercourse, revolutions, go to form and deliver, +is character; that is the end of Nature, to reach +unto this coronation of her king. To educate the +wise man the State exists, and with the appearance +of the wise man the State expires. The appearance +of character makes the State unnecessary. The wise +man is the State. He needs no army, fort, or navy, +--he loves men too well; no bribe, or feast, or +palace, to draw friends to him; no vantage ground, +no favorable circumstance. He needs no library, for +he has not done thinking; no church, for he is a +prophet; no statute book, for he has the lawgiver; +no money, for he is value; no road, for he is at +home where he is; no experience, for the life of the +creator shoots through him, and looks from his eyes. +He has no personal friends, for he who has the spell +to draw the prayer and piety of all men unto him +needs not husband and educate a few to share with +him a select and poetic life. His relation to men is +angelic; his memory is myrrh to them; his presence, +frankincense and flowers. + +We think our civilization near its meridian, but +we are yet only at the cock-crowing and the morning +star. In our barbarous society the influence of +character is in its infancy. As a political power, +as the rightful lord who is to tumble all rulers +from their chairs, its presence is hardly yet +suspected. Malthus and Ricardo quite omit it; the +Annual Register is silent; in the Conversations' +Lexicon it is not set down; the President's Message, +the Queen's Speech, have not mentioned it; and yet +it is never nothing. Every thought which genius and +piety throw into the world, alters the world. The +gladiators in the lists of power feel, through all +their frocks of force and simulation, the presence +of worth. I think the very strife of trade and +ambition are confession of this divinity; and +successes in those fields are the poor amends, the +fig-leaf with which the shamed soul attempts to hide +its nakedness. I find the like unwilling homage in +all quarters. It is because we know how much is due +from us that we are impatient to show some petty +talent as a substitute for worth. We are haunted by +a conscience of this right to grandeur of character, +and are false to it. But each of us has some talent, +can do somewhat useful, or graceful, or formidable, +or amusing, or lucrative. That we do, as an apology +to others and to ourselves for not reaching the mark +of a good and equal life. But it does not satisfy us, +whilst we thrust it on the notice of our companions. +It may throw dust in their eyes, but does not smooth +our own brow, or give us the tranquillity of the +strong when we walk abroad. We do penance as we go. +Our talent is a sort of expiation, and we are +constrained to reflect on our splendid moment with +a certain humiliation, as somewhat too fine, and not +as one act of many acts, a fair expression of our +permanent energy. Most persons of ability meet in +society with a kind of tacit appeal. Each seems to +say, 'I am not all here.' Senators and presidents +have climbed so high with pain enough, not because +they think the place specially agreeable, but as an +apology for real worth, and to vindicate their manhood +in our eyes. This conspicuous chair is their compensation +to themselves for being of a poor, cold, hard nature. +They must do what they can. Like one class of forest +animals, they have nothing but a prehensile tail; climb +they must, or crawl. If a man found himself so rich- +natured that he could enter into strict relations with +the best persons and make life serene around him by the +dignity and sweetness of his behavior, could he afford +to circumvent the favor of the caucus and the press, and +covet relations so hollow and pompous as those of a +politician? Surely nobody would be a charlatan who could +afford to be sincere. + +The tendencies of the times favor the idea of +self-government, and leave the individual, for all +code, to the rewards and penalties of his own +constitution; which work with more energy than we +believe whilst we depend on artificial restraints. +The movement in this direction has been very marked +in modern history. Much has been blind and +discreditable, but the nature of the revolution is +not affected by the vices of the revolters; for this +is a purely moral force. It was never adopted by any +party in history, neither can be. It separates the +individual from all party, and unites him at the +same time to the race. It promises a recognition of +higher rights than those of personal freedom, or the +security of property. A man has a right to be employed, +to be trusted, to be loved, to be revered. The power +of love, as the basis of a State, has never been tried. +We must not imagine that all things are lapsing into +confusion if every tender protestant be not compelled +to bear his part in certain social conventions; nor +doubt that roads can be built, letters carried, and +the fruit of labor secured, when the government of +force is at an end. Are our methods now so excellent +that all competition is hopeless? could not a nation +of friends even devise better ways? On the other hand, +let not the most conservative and timid fear anything +from a premature surrender of the bayonet and the +system of force. For, according to the order of nature, +which is quite superior to our will, it stands thus; +there will always be a government of force where men +are selfish; and when they are pure enough to abjure +the code of force they will be wise enough to see how +these public ends of the post-office, of the highway, +of commerce and the exchange of property, of museums +and libraries, of institutions of art and science can +be answered. + +We live in a very low state of the world, and pay +unwilling tribute to governments founded on force. +There is not, among the most religious and instructed +men of the most religious and civil nations, a +reliance on the moral sentiment and a sufficient +belief in the unity of things, to persuade them that +society can be maintained without artificial restraints, +as well as the solar system; or that the private citizen +might be reasonable and a good neighbor, without the +hint of a jail or a confiscation. What is strange too, +there never was in any man sufficient faith in the power +of rectitude to inspire him with the broad design of +renovating the State on the principle of right and love. +All those who have pretended this design have been +partial reformers, and have admitted in some manner the +supremacy of the bad State. I do not call to mind a +single human being who has steadily denied the authority +of the laws, on the simple ground of his own moral +nature. Such designs, full of genius and full of fate as +they are, are not entertained except avowedly as air- +pictures. If the individual who exhibits them dare to +think them practicable, he disgusts scholars and churchmen; +and men of talent and women of superior sentiments cannot +hide their contempt. Not the less does nature continue to +fill the heart of youth with suggestions of this enthusiasm, +and there are now men,--if indeed I can speak in the plural +number,--more exactly, I will say, I have just been +conversing with one man, to whom no weight of adverse +experience will make it for a moment appear impossible that +thousands of human beings might exercise towards each other +the grandest and simplest sentiments, as well as a knot of +friends, or a pair of lovers. + + + + +NOMINALIST AND REALIST. + +In countless upward-striving waves +The moon-drawn tide-wave strives: +In thousand far-transplanted grafts +The parent fruit survives; +So, in the new-born millions, +The perfect Adam lives. +Not less are summer-mornings dear +To every child they wake, +And each with novel life his sphere +Fills for his proper sake. + +VIII. +NONIMALIST AND REALIST. + +I CANNOT often enough say that a man is only a +relative and representative nature. Each is a hint +of the truth, but far enough from being that truth +which yet he quite newly and inevitably suggests +to us. If I seek it in him I shall not find it. +Could any man conduct into me the pure stream of +that which he pretends to be! Long afterwards I +find that quality elsewhere which he promised me. +The genius of the Platonists is intoxicating to the +student, yet how few particulars of it can I detach +from all their books. The man momentarily stands +for the thought, but will not bear examination; and +a society of men will cursorily represent well enough +a certain quality and culture, for example, chivalry +or beauty of manners; but separate them and there is +no gentleman and no lady in the group. The least hint +sets us on the pursuit of a character which no man +realizes. We have such exorbitant eyes that on seeing +the smallest arc we complete the curve, and when the +curtain is lifted from the diagram which it seemed to +veil, we are vexed to find that no more was drawn than +just that fragment of an arc which we first beheld. We +are greatly too liberal in our construction of each +other's faculty and promise. Exactly what the parties +have already done they shall do again; but that which +we inferred from their nature and inception, they will +not do. That is in nature, but not in them. That happens +in the world, which we often witness in a public debate. +Each of the speakers expresses himself imperfectly; no +one of them hears much that another says, such is the +preoccupation of mind of each; and the audience, who +have only to hear and not to speak, judge very wisely +and superiorly how wrongheaded and unskilful is each of +the debaters to his own affair. Great men or men of great +gifts you shall easily find, but symmetrical men never. +When I meet a pure intellectual force or a generosity of +affection, I believe here then is man; and am presently +mortified by the discovery that this individual is no +more available to his own or to the general ends than +his companions; because the power which drew my respect +is not supported by the total symphony of his talents. +All persons exist to society by some shining trait of +beauty or utility which they have. We borrow the +proportions of the man from that one fine feature, and +finish the portrait symmetrically; which is false, for +the rest of his body is small or deformed. I observe a +person who makes a good public appearance, and conclude +thence the perfection of his private character, on which +this is based; but he has no private character. He is a +graceful cloak or lay-figure for holidays. All our poets, +heroes, and saints, fail utterly in some one or in many +parts to satisfy our idea, fail to draw our spontaneous +interest, and so leave us without any hope of realization +but in our own future. Our exaggeration of all fine +characters arises from the fact that we identify each in +turn with the soul. But there are no such men as we fable; +no Jesus, nor Pericles, nor Caesar, nor Angelo, nor +Washington, such as we have made. We consecrate a great +deal of nonsense because it was allowed by great men. +There is none without his foible. I verily believe if an +angel should come to chant the chorus of the moral law, +he would eat too much gingerbread, or take liberties with +private letters, or do some precious atrocity. It is bad +enough that our geniuses cannot do anything useful, but +it is worse that no man is fit for society who has fine +traits. He is admired at a distance, but he cannot come +near without appearing a cripple. The men of fine parts +protect themselves by solitude, or by courtesy, or by +satire, or by an acid worldly manner, each concealing as +he best can his incapacity for useful association, but +they want either love or self-reliance. + +Our native love of reality joins with this experience +to teach us a little reserve, and to dissuade a too +sudden surrender to the brilliant qualities of persons. +Young people admire talents or particular excellences; +as we grow older we value total powers and effects, as +the impression, the quality, the spirit of men and +things. The genius is all. The man,--it is his system: +we do not try a solitary word or act, but his habit. +The acts which you praise, I praise not, since they are +departures from his faith, and are mere compliances. +The magnetism which arranges tribes and races in one +polarity is alone to be respected; the men are steel- +filings. Yet we unjustly select a particle, and say, +'O steel-filing number one! what heart-drawings I feel +to thee! what prodigious virtues are these of thine! how +constitutional to thee, and incommunicable.' Whilst we +speak the loadstone is withdrawn; down falls our filing +in a heap with the rest, and we continue our mummery to +the wretched shaving. Let us go for universals; for the +magnetism, not for the needles. Human life and its +persons are poor empirical pretensions. A personal +influence is an ignis fatuus. If they say it is great, +it is great; if they say it is small, it is small; you +see it, and you see it not, by turns; it borrows all its +size from the momentary estimation of the speakers: the +Will-of-the-wisp vanishes if you go too near, vanishes +if you go too far, and only blazes at one angle. Who +can tell if Washington be a great man or no? Who can +tell if Franklin be? Yes, or any but the twelve, or six, +or three great gods of fame? And they too loom and fade +before the eternal. + +We are amphibious creatures, weaponed for two +elements, having two sets of faculties, the particular +and the catholic. We adjust our instrument for general +observation, and sweep the heavens as easily as we +pick out a single figure in the terrestrial landscape. +We are practically skilful in detecting elements for +which we have no place in our theory, and no name. Thus +we are very sensible of an atmospheric influence in men +and in bodies of men, not accounted for in an arithmetical +addition of all their measurable properties. There is a +genius of a nation, which is not to be found in the +numerical citizens, but which characterizes the society. +England, strong, punctual, practical, well-spoken England +I should not find if I should go to the island to seek it. +In the parliament, in the play-house, at dinner-tables, I +might see a great number of rich, ignorant, book-read, +conventional, proud men,--many old women,--and not anywhere +the Englishman who made the good speeches, combined the +accurate engines, and did the bold and nervous deeds. It +is even worse in America, where, from the intellectual +quickness of the race, the genius of the country is more +splendid in its promise and more slight in its performance. +Webster cannot do the work of Webster. We conceive distinctly +enough the French, the Spanish, the German genius, and it +is not the less real that perhaps we should not meet in +either of those nations a single individual who corresponded +with the type. We infer the spirit of the nation in great +measure from the language, which is a sort of monument to +which each forcible individual in a course of many hundred +years has contributed a stone. And, universally, a good +example of this social force is the veracity of language, +which cannot be debauched. In any controversy concerning +morals, an appeal may be made with safety to the sentiments +which the language of the people expresses. Proverbs, words, +and grammar-inflections convey the public sense with more +purity and precision than the wisest individual. + +In the famous dispute with the Nominalists, the +Realists had a good deal of reason. General ideas +are essences. They are our gods: they round and +ennoble the most partial and sordid way of living. +Our proclivity to details cannot quite degrade our +life and divest it of poetry. The day-laborer is +reckoned as standing at the foot of the social scale, +yet he is saturated with the laws of the world. His +measures are the hours; morning and night, solstice +and equinox, geometry, astronomy and all the lovely +accidents of nature play through his mind. Money, +which represents the prose of life, and which is +hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology, is, +in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses. +Property keeps the accounts of the world, and is +always moral. The property will be found where the +labor, the wisdom, and the virtue have been in nations, +in classes, and (the whole life-time considered, with +the compensations) in the individual also. How wise +the world appears, when the laws and usages of nations +are largely detailed, and the completeness of the +municipal system is considered! Nothing is left out. +If you go into the markets and the custom-houses, the +insurers' and notaries' offices, the offices of sealers +of weights and measures, of inspection of provisions,-- +it will appear as if one man had made it all. Wherever +you go, a wit like your own has been before you, and +has realized its thought. The Eleusinian mysteries, the +Egyptian architecture, the Indian astronomy, the Greek +sculpture, show that there always were seeing and knowing +men in the planet. The world is full of masonic ties, of +guilds, of secret and public legions of honor; that of +scholars, for example; and that of gentlemen, fraternizing +with the upper class of every country and every culture. + +I am very much struck in literature by the appearance +that one person wrote all the books; as if the editor +of a journal planted his body of reporters in different +parts of the field of action, and relieved some by +others from time to time; but there is such equality +and identity both of judgment and point of view in +the narrative that it is plainly the work of one all- +seeing, all-hearing gentleman. I looked into Pope's +Odyssey yesterday: it is as correct and elegant after +our canon of to-day as if it were newly written. The +modernness of all good books seems to give me an +existence as wide as man. What is well done I feel as +if I did; what is ill done I reck not of. Shakspeare's +passages of passion (for example, in Lear and Hamlet) +are in the very dialect of the present year. I am +faithful again to the whole over the members in my +use of books. I find the most pleasure in reading a +book in a manner least flattering to the author. I +read Proclus, and sometimes Plato, as I might read a +dictionary, for a mechanical help to the fancy and +the imagination. I read for the lustres, as if one +should use a fine picture in a chromatic experiment, +for its rich colors. 'Tis not Proclus, but a piece +of nature and fate that I explore. It is a greater +joy to see the author's author, than himself. A higher +pleasure of the same kind I found lately at a concert, +where I went to hear Handel's Messiah. As the master +overpowered the littleness and incapableness of the +performers and made them conductors of his electricity, +so it was easy to observe what efforts nature was +making, through so many hoarse, wooden, and imperfect +persons, to produce beautiful voices, fluid and soul- +guided men and women. The genius of nature was paramount +at the oratorio. + +This preference of the genius to the parts is the +secret of that deification of art, which is found +in all superior minds. Art, in the artist, is +proportion, or a habitual respect to the whole by +an eye loving beauty in details. And the wonder and +charm of it is the sanity in insanity which it denotes. +Proportion is almost impossible to human beings. There +is no one who does not exaggerate. In conversation, +men are encumbered with personality, and talk too much. +In modern sculpture, picture, and poetry, the beauty is +miscellaneous; the artist works here and there and at +all points, adding and adding, instead of unfolding +the unit of his thought. Beautiful details we must have, +or no artist; but they must be means and never other. +The eye must not lose sight for a moment of the purpose. +Lively boys write to their ear and eye, and the cool +reader finds nothing but sweet jingles in it. When they +grow older, they respect the argument. + +We obey the same intellectual integrity when we +study in exceptions the law of the world. Anomalous +facts, as the never quite obsolete rumors of magic +and demonology, and the new allegations of phrenologists +and neurologists, are of ideal use. They are good +indications. Homoeopathy is insignificant as an art +of healing, but of great value as criticism on the +hygeia or medical practice of the time. So with +Mesmerism, Swedenborgism, Fourierism, and the Millennial +Church; they are poor pretensions enough, but good +criticism on the science, philosophy, and preaching +of the day. For these abnormal insights of the adepts +ought to be normal, and things of course. + +All things show us that on every side we are very +near to the best. It seems not worth while to execute +with too much pains some one intellectual, or +aesthetical, or civil feat, when presently the dream +will scatter, and we shall burst into universal power. +The reason of idleness and of crime is the deferring +of our hopes. Whilst we are waiting we beguile the +time with jokes, with sleep, with eating, and with +crimes. + +Thus we settle it in our cool libraries, that all +the agents with which we deal are subalterns, which +we can well afford to let pass, and life will be +simpler when we live at the centre and flout the +surfaces. I wish to speak with all respect of +persons, but sometimes I must pinch myself to keep +awake and preserve the due decorum. They melt so +fast into each other that they are like grass and +trees, and it needs an effort to treat them as +individuals. Though the uninspired man certainly +finds persons a conveniency in household matters, +the divine man does not respect them; he sees them +as a rack of clouds, or a fleet of ripples which +the wind drives over the surface of the water. But +this is flat rebellion. Nature will not be Buddhist: +she resents generalizing, and insults the philosopher +in every moment with a million of fresh particulars. +It is all idle talking: as much as a man is a whole, +so is he also a part; and it were partial not to +see it. What you say in your pompous distribution +only distributes you into your class and section. You +have not got rid of parts by denying them, but are the +more partial. You are one thing, but Nature is one +thing and the other thing, in the same moment. She will +not remain orbed in a thought, but rushes into persons; +and when each person, inflamed to a fury of personality, +would conquer all things to his poor crotchet, she +raises up against him another person, and by many persons +incarnates again a sort of whole. She will have all. Nick +Bottom cannot play all the parts, work it how he may; +there will be somebody else, and the world will be round. +Everything must have its flower or effort at the beautiful, +coarser or finer according to its stuff. They relieve and +recommend each other, and the sanity of society is a +balance of a thousand insanities. She punishes +abstractionists, and will only forgive an induction which +is rare and casual. We like to come to a height of land +and see the landscape, just as we value a general remark +in conversation. But it is not the intention of Nature +that we should live by general views. We fetch fire and +water, run about all day among the shops and markets, and +get our clothes and shoes made and mended, and are the +victims of these details; and once in a fortnight we arrive +perhaps at a rational moment. If we were not thus infatuated, +if we saw the real from hour to hour, we should not be here +to write and to read, but should have been burned or frozen +long ago. She would never get anything done, if she suffered +admirable Crichtons and universal geniuses. She loves better +a wheelwright who dreams all night of wheels, and a groom +who is part of his horse; for she is full of work, and these +are her hands. As the frugal farmer takes care that his +cattle shall eat down the rowen, and swine shall eat the +waste of his house, and poultry shall pick the crumbs,--so +our economical mother dispatches a new genius and habit of +mind into every district and condition of existence, plants +an eye wherever a new ray of light can fall, and gathering +up into some man every property in the universe, establishes +thousandfold occult mutual attractions among her offspring, +that all this wash and waste of power may be imparted and +exchanged. + +Great dangers undoubtedly accrue from this incarnation +and distribution of the godhead, and hence Nature has +her maligners, as if she were Circe; and Alphonso of +Castille fancied he could have given useful advice. +But she does not go unprovided; she has hellebore at +the bottom of the cup. Solitude would ripen a plentiful +crop of despots. The recluse thinks of men as having +his manner, or as not having his manner; and as having +degrees of it, more and less. But when he comes into a +public assembly he sees that men have very different +manners from his own, and in their way admirable. In +his childhood and youth he has had many checks and +censures, and thinks modestly enough of his own endowment. +When afterwards he comes to unfold it in propitious +circumstance, it seems the only talent; he is delighted +with his success, and accounts himself already the fellow +of the great. But he goes into a mob, into a banking +house, into a mechanic's shop, into a mill, into a +laboratory, into a ship, into a camp, and in each new +place he is no better than an idiot; other talents take +place, and rule the hour. The rotation which whirls every +leaf and pebble to the meridian, reaches to every gift of +man, and we all take turns at the top. + +For Nature, who abhors mannerism, has set her heart +on breaking up all styles and tricks, and it is so +much easier to do what one has done before than to +do a new thing, that there is a perpetual tendency +to a set mode. In every conversation, even the highest, +there is a certain trick, which may be soon learned +by an acute person and then that particular style +continued indefinitely. Each man too is a tyrant in +tendency, because he would impose his idea on others; +and their trick is their natural defence. Jesus would +absorb the race; but Tom Paine or the coarsest +blasphemer helps humanity by resisting this exuberance +of power. Hence the immense benefit of party in politics, +as it reveals faults of character in a chief, which the +intellectual force of the persons, with ordinary +opportunity and not hurled into aphelion by hatred, +could not have seen. Since we are all so stupid, what +benefit that there should be two stupidities! It is +like that brute advantage so essential to astronomy, +of having the diameter of the earth's orbit for a base +of its triangles. Democracy is morose, and runs to +anarchy, but in the State and in the schools it is +indispensable to resist the consolidation of all men +into a few men. If John was perfect, why are you and +I alive? As long as any man exists, there is some need +of him; let him fight for his own. A new poet has +appeared; a new character approached us; why should we +refuse to eat bread until we have found his regiment +and section in our old army-files? Why not a new man? +Here is a new enterprise of Brook Farm, of Skeneateles, +of Northampton: why so impatient to baptize them Essenes, +or Port-Royalists, or Shakers, or by any known and effete +name? Let it be a new way of living. Why have only two +or three ways of life, and not thousands? Every man is +wanted, and no man is wanted much. We came this time +for condiments, not for corn. We want the great genius +only for joy; for one star more in our constellation, +for one tree more in our grove. But he thinks we wish +to belong to him, as he wishes to occupy us. He greatly +mistakes us. I think I have done well if I have acquired +a new word from a good author; and my business with him +is to find my own, though it were only to melt him down +into an epithet or an image for daily use:-- + + "Into paint will I grind thee, my bride!" + +To embroil the confusion, and make it impossible +to arrive at any general statement,--when we have +insisted on the imperfection of individuals, our +affections and our experience urge that every +individual is entitled to honor, and a very generous +treatment is sure to be repaid. A recluse sees only +two or three persons, and allows them all their room; +they spread themselves at large. The statesman looks +at many, and compares the few habitually with others, +and these look less. Yet are they not entitled to this +generosity of reception? and is not munificence the +means of insight? For though gamesters say that the +cards beat all the players, though they were never so +skilful, yet in the contest we are now considering, +the players are also the game, and share the power of +the cards. If you criticise a fine genius, the odds +are that you are out of your reckoning, and instead +of the poet, are censuring your own caricature of +him. For there is somewhat spheral and infinite in +every man, especially in every genius, which, if you +can come very near him, sports with all your +limitations. For rightly every man is a channel through +which heaven floweth, and whilst I fancied I was +criticising him, I was censuring or rather terminating +my own soul. After taxing Goethe as a courtier, +artificial, unbelieving, worldly,--I took up this book +of Helena, and found him an Indian of the wilderness, +a piece of pure nature like an apple or an oak, large +as morning or night, and virtuous as a brier-rose. + +But care is taken that the whole tune shall be +played. If we were not kept among surfaces, every +thing would be large and universal; now the excluded +attributes burst in on us with the more brightness +that they have been excluded. "Your turn now, my +turn next," is the rule of the game. The universality +being hindered in its primary form, comes in the +secondary form of all sides; the points come in +succession to the meridian, and by the speed of +rotation a new whole is formed. Nature keeps herself +whole and her representation complete in the experience +of each mind. She suffers no seat to be vacant in her +college. It is the secret of the world that all things +subsist and do not die but only retire a little from +sight and afterwards return again. Whatever does not +concern us is concealed from us. As soon as a person +is no longer related to our present well-being, he is +concealed, or dies, as we say. Really, all things and +persons are related to us, but according to our nature +they act on us not at once but in succession, and we +are made aware of their presence one at a time. All +persons, all things which we have known, are here +present, and many more than we see; the world is full. +As the ancient said, the world is a plenum or solid; +and if we saw all things that really surround us we +should be imprisoned and unable to move. For though +nothing is impassable to the soul, but all things are +pervious to it and like highways, yet this is only +whilst the soul does not see them. As soon as the soul +sees any object, it stops before that object. Therefore, +the divine Providence which keeps the universe open in +every direction to the soul, conceals all the furniture +and all the persons that do not concern a particular +soul, from the senses of that individual. Through +solidest eternal things the man finds his road as if +they did not subsist, and does not once suspect their +being. As soon as he needs a new object, suddenly he +beholds it, and no longer attempts to pass through it, +but takes another way. When he has exhausted for the +time the nourishment to be drawn from any one person +or thing, that object is withdrawn from his observation, +and though still in his immediate neighborhood, he does +not suspect its presence. Nothing is dead: men feign +themselves dead, and endure mock funerals and mournful +obituaries, and there they stand looking out of the +window, sound and well, in some new and strange disguise. +Jesus is not dead; he is very well alive: nor John, nor +Paul, nor Mahomet, nor Aristotle; at times we believe +we have seen them all, and could easily tell the names +under which they go. + +If we cannot make voluntary and conscious steps +in the admirable science of universals, let us see +the parts wisely, and infer the genius of nature +from the best particulars with a becoming charity. +What is best in each kind is an index of what +should be the average of that thing. Love shows me +the opulence of nature, by disclosing to me in my +friend a hidden wealth, and I infer an equal depth +of good in every other direction. It is commonly +said by farmers that a good pear or apple costs no +more time or pains to rear than a poor one; so I +would have no work of art, no speech, or action, or +thought, or friend, but the best. + +The end and the means, the gamester and the game, +--life is made up of the intermixture and reaction +of these two amicable powers, whose marriage appears +beforehand monstrous, as each denies and tends to +abolish the other. We must reconcile the contradictions +as we can, but their discord and their concord +introduce wild absurdities into our thinking and speech. +No sentence will hold the whole truth, and the only way +in which we can be just, is by giving ourselves the lie; +Speech is better than silence; silence is better than +speech;--All things are in contact; every atom has a +sphere of repulsion;--Things are, and are not, at the +same time;--and the like. All the universe over, there +is but one thing, this old Two-Face, creator-creature, +mind-matter, right-wrong, of which any proposition may +be affirmed or denied. Very fitly therefore I assert +that every man is a partialist, that nature secures him +as an instrument by self-conceit, preventing the +tendencies to religion and science; and now further +assert, that, each man's genius being nearly and +affectionately explored, he is justified in his +individuality, as his nature is found to be immense; +and now I add that every man is a universalist also, +and, as our earth, whilst it spins on its own axis, +spins all the time around the sun through the celestial +spaces, so the least of its rational children, the most +dedicated to his private affair, works out, though as it +were under a disguise, the universal problem. We fancy +men are individuals; so are pumpkins; but every pumpkin +in the field goes through every point of pumpkin history. +The rabid democrat, as soon as he is senator and rich man, +has ripened beyond possibility of sincere radicalism, and +unless he can resist the sun, he must be conservative the +remainder of his days. Lord Eldon said in his old age that +"if he were to begin life again, he would be damned but he +would begin as agitator." + +We hide this universality if we can, but it appears +at all points. We are as ungrateful as children. +There is nothing we cherish and strive to draw to us +but in some hour we turn and rend it. We keep a running +fire of sarcasm at ignorance and the life of the senses; +then goes by, perchance, a fair girl, a piece of life, +gay and happy, and making the commonest offices beautiful +by the energy and heart with which she does them; and +seeing this we admire and love her and them, and say, +'Lo! a genuine creature of the fair earth, not dissipated +or too early ripened by books, philosophy, religion, +society, or care!' insinuating a treachery and contempt +for all we had so long loved and wrought in ourselves +and others. + +If we could have any security against moods! If +the profoundest prophet could be holden to his +words, and the hearer who is ready to sell all +and join the crusade could have any certificate +that tomorrow his prophet shall not unsay his +testimony! But the Truth sits veiled there on the +Bench, and never interposes an adamantine syllable; +and the most sincere and revolutionary doctrine, +put as if the ark of God were carried forward some +furlongs, and planted there for the succor of the +world, shall in a few weeks be coldly set aside by +the same speaker, as morbid; "I thought I was right, +but I was not,"--and the same immeasurable credulity +demanded for new audacities. If we were not of all +opinions! if we did not in any moment shift the +platform on which we stand, and look and speak from +another! if there could be any regulation, any 'one- +hour-rule,' that a man should never leave his point +of view without sound of trumpet. I am always insincere, +as always knowing there are other moods. + +How sincere and confidential we can be, saying +all that lies in the mind, and yet go away feeling +that all is yet unsaid, from the incapacity of the +parties to know each other, although they use the +same words! My companion assumes to know my mood +and habit of thought, and we go on from explanation +to explanation until all is said which words can, +and we leave matters just as they were at first, +because of that vicious assumption. Is it that every +man believes every other to be an incurable partialist, +and himself a universalist? I talked yesterday with a +pair of philosophers; I endeavored to show my good +men that I love everything by turns and nothing long; +that I loved the centre, but doated on the superficies; +that I loved man, if men seemed to me mice and rats; +that I revered saints, but woke up glad that the old +pagan world stood its ground and died hard; that I was +glad of men of every gift and nobility, but would not +live in their arms. Could they but once understand +that I loved to know that they existed, and heartily +wished them God-speed, yet, out of my poverty of life +and thought, had no word or welcome for them when they +came to see me, and could well consent to their living +in Oregon, for any claim I felt on them,--it would be +a great satisfaction. + + + + +NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. + +In the suburb, in the town, +On the railway, in the square, +Came a beam of goodness down +Doubling daylight everywhere: +Peace now each for malice takes, +Beauty for his sinful weeks, +For the angel Hope aye makes +Him an angel whom she leads. + +NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. + +A LECTURE READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY IN AMORY HALL, ON +SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 1844. + +WHOEVER has had opportunity of acquaintance with +society in New England during the last twenty-five +years, with those middle and with those leading +sections that may constitute any just representation +of the character and aim of the community, will have +been struck with the great activity of thought and +experimenting. His attention must be commanded by +the signs that the Church, or religious party, is +falling from the Church nominal, and is appearing +in temperance and non-resistance societies; in +movements of abolitionists and of socialists; and +in very significant assemblies called Sabbath and +Bible Conventions; composed of ultraists, of seekers, +of all the soul of the soldiery of dissent, and meeting +to call in question the authority of the Sabbath, of +the priesthood, and of the Church. In these movements +nothing was more remarkable than the discontent they +begot in the movers. The spirit of protest and of +detachment drove the members of these Conventions to +bear testimony against the Church, and immediately +afterward, to declare their discontent with these +Conventions, their independence of their colleagues, +and their impatience of the methods whereby they were +working. They defied each other, like a congress of +kings, each of whom had a realm to rule, and a way of +his own that made concert unprofitable. What a fertility +of projects for the salvation of the world! One apostle +thought all men should go to farming, and another that +no man should buy or sell, that the use of money was the +cardinal evil; another that the mischief was in our diet, +that we eat and drink damnation. These made unleavened +bread, and were foes to the death to fermentation. It was +in vain urged by the housewife that God made yeast, as +well as dough, and loves fermentation just as dearly as +he loves vegetation; that fermentation develops the +saccharine element in the grain, and makes it more +palatable and more digestible. No; they wish the pure +wheat, and will die but it shall not ferment. Stop, dear +nature, these incessant advances of thine; let us scotch +these ever-rolling wheels! Others attacked the system +of agriculture, the use of animal manures in farming, +and the tyranny of man over brute nature; these abuses +polluted his food. The ox must be taken from the plough +and the horse from the cart, the hundred acres of the +farm must be spaded, and the man must walk, wherever +boats and locomotives will not carry him. Even the insect +world was to be defended,--that had been too long neglected, +and a society for the protection of ground-worms, slugs, +and mosquitos was to be incorporated without delay. With +these appeared the adepts of homoeopathy, of hydropathy, +of mesmerism, of phrenology, and their wonderful theories +of the Christian miracles! Others assailed particular +vocations, as that of the lawyer, that of the merchant, +of the manufacturer, of the clergyman, of the scholar. +Others attacked the institution of marriage as the fountain +of social evils. Others devoted themselves to the worrying +of churches and meetings for public worship; and the fertile +forms of antinomianism among the elder puritans seemed to +have their match in the plenty of the new harvest of reform. + +With this din of opinion and debate there was a +keener scrutiny of institutions and domestic life +than any we had known; there was sincere protesting +against existing evils, and there were changes of +employment dictated by conscience. No doubt there +was plentiful vaporing, and cases of backsliding +might occur. But in each of these movements emerged +a good result, a tendency to the adoption of simpler +methods, and an assertion of the sufficiency of the +private man. Thus it was directly in the spirit and +genius of the age, what happened in one instance +when a church censured and threatened to excommunicate +one of its members on account of the somewhat hostile +part to the church which his conscience led him to +take in the anti-slavery business; the threatened +individual immediately excommunicated the church in a +public and formal process. This has been several times +repeated: it was excellent when it was done the first +time, but of course loses all value when it is copied. +Every project in the history of reform, no matter how +violent and surprising, is good when it is the dictate +of a man's genius and constitution, but very dull and +suspicious when adopted from another. It is right and +beautiful in any man to say, 'I will take this coat, +or this book, or this measure of corn of yours,'--in +whom we see the act to be original, and to flow from +the whole spirit and faith of him; for then that taking +will have a giving as free and divine; but we are very +easily disposed to resist the same generosity of speech +when we miss originality and truth to character in it. + +There was in all the practical activities of New +England for the last quarter of a century, a gradual +withdrawal of tender consciences from the social +organizations. There is observable throughout, the +contest between mechanical and spiritual methods, but +with a steady tendency of the thoughtful and virtuous +to a deeper belief and reliance on spiritual facts. + +In politics for example it is easy to see the progress +of dissent. The country is full of rebellion; the +country is full of kings. Hands off! let there be no +control and no interference in the administration of +the affairs of this kingdom of me. Hence the growth of +the doctrine and of the party of Free Trade, and the +willingness to try that experiment, in the face of what +appear incontestable facts. I confess, the motto of +the Globe newspaper is so attractive to me that I can +seldom find much appetite to read what is below it in +its columns: "The world is governed too much." So the +country is frequently affording solitary examples of +resistance to the government, solitary nullifiers, who +throw themselves on their reserved rights; nay, who +have reserved all their rights; who reply to the assessor +and to the clerk of court that they do not know the +State, and embarrass the courts of law by non-juring and +the commander-in-chief of the militia by non-resistance. + +The same disposition to scrutiny and dissent appeared +in civil, festive, neighborly, and domestic society. +A restless, prying, conscientious criticism broke out +in unexpected quarters. Who gave me the money with +which I bought my coat? Why should professional labor +and that of the counting-house be paid so disproportionately +to the labor of the porter and woodsawyer? This whole +business of Trade gives me to pause and think, as it +constitutes false relations between men; inasmuch as I +am prone to count myself relieved of any responsibility +to behave well and nobly to that person whom I pay with +money; whereas if I had not that commodity, I should be +put on my good behavior in all companies, and man would +be a benefactor to man, as being himself his only +certificate that he had a right to those aids and services +which each asked of the other. Am I not too protected a +person? is there not a wide disparity between the lot of +me and the lot of thee, my poor brother, my poor sister? +Am I not defrauded of my best culture in the loss of +those gymnastics which manual labor and the emergencies +of poverty constitute? I find nothing healthful or exalting +in the smooth conventions of society; I do not like the +close air of saloons. I begin to suspect myself to be a +prisoner, though treated with all this courtesy and luxury. +I pay a destructive tax in my conformity. + +The same insatiable criticism may be traced in the +efforts for the reform of Education. The popular +education has been taxed with a want of truth and +nature. It was complained that an education to things +was not given. We are students of words: we are shut +up in schools, and colleges, and recitation-rooms, +for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with +a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a +thing. We cannot use our hands, or our legs, or our +eyes, or our arms. We do not know an edible root in +the woods, we cannot tell our course by the stars, +nor the hour of the day by the sun. It is well if we +can swim and skate. We are afraid of a horse, of a cow, +of a dog, of a snake, of a spider. The Roman rule was +to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing. +The old English rule was, 'All summer in the field, and +all winter in the study.' And it seems as if a man +should learn to plant, or to fish, or to hunt, that he +might secure his subsistence at all events, and not be +painful to his friends and fellow-men. The lessons of +science should be experimental also. The sight of the +planet through a telescope is worth all the course on +astronomy; the shock of the electric spark in the elbow, +outvalues all the theories; the taste of the nitrous +oxide, the firing of an artificial volcano, are better +than volumes of chemistry. + +One of the traits of the new spirit is the inquisition +it fixed on our scholastic devotion to the dead +languages. The ancient languages, with great beauty of +structure, contain wonderful remains of genius, which +draw, and always will draw, certain likeminded men,-- +Greek men, and Roman men,--in all countries, to their +study; but by a wonderful drowsiness of usage they had +exacted the study of all men. Once (say two centuries +ago), Latin and Greek had a strict relation to all the +science and culture there was in Europe, and the +Mathematics had a momentary importance at some era of +activity in physical science. These things became +stereotyped as education, as the manner of men is. But +the Good Spirit never cared for the colleges, and though +all men and boys were now drilled in Latin, Greek, and +Mathematics, it had quite left these shells high and dry +on the beach, and was now creating and feeding other +matters at other ends of the world. But in a hundred +high schools and colleges this warfare against common +sense still goes on. Four, or six, or ten years, the +pupil is parsing Greek and Latin, and as soon as he +leaves the University, as it is ludicrously called, he +shuts those books for the last time. Some thousands of +young men are graduated at our colleges in this country +every year, and the persons who, at forty years, still +read Greek, can all be counted on your hand. I never met +with ten. Four or five persons I have seen who read Plato. + +But is not this absurd, that the whole liberal talent +of this country should be directed in its best years +on studies which lead to nothing? What was the +consequence? Some intelligent persons said or thought, +'Is that Greek and Latin some spell to conjure with, +and not words of reason? If the physician, the lawyer, +the divine, never use it to come at their ends, I need +never learn it to come at mine. Conjuring is gone out +of fashion, and I will omit this conjugating, and go +straight to affairs.' So they jumped the Greek and Latin, +and read law, medicine, or sermons, without it. To the +astonishment of all, the self-made men took even ground +at once with the oldest of the regular graduates, and in +a few months the most conservative circles of Boston and +New York had quite forgotten who of their gownsmen was +college-bred, and who was not. + +One tendency appears alike in the philosophical +speculation and in the rudest democratical movements, +through all the petulance and all the puerility, the +wish, namely, to cast aside the superfluous and +arrive at short methods; urged, as I suppose, by an +intuition that the human spirit is equal to all +emergencies, alone, and that man is more often injured +than helped by the means he uses. + +I conceive this gradual casting off of material aids, +and the indication of growing trust in the private +self-supplied powers of the individual, to be the +affirmative principle of the recent philosophy, and +that it is feeling its own profound truth and is +reaching forward at this very hour to the happiest +conclusions. I readily concede that in this, as in +every period of intellectual activity, there has been +a noise of denial and protest; much was to be resisted, +much was to be got rid of by those who were reared in +the old, before they could begin to affirm and to +construct. Many a reformer perishes in his removal of +rubbish; and that makes the offensiveness of the class. +They are partial; they are not equal to the work they +pretend. They lose their way; in the assault on the +kingdom of darkness they expend all their energy on +some accidental evil, and lose their sanity and power +of benefit. It is of little moment that one or two or +twenty errors of our social system be corrected, but +of much that the man be in his senses. + +The criticism and attack on institutions, which we +have witnessed, has made one thing plain, that +society gains nothing whilst a man, not himself +renovated, attempts to renovate things around him: +he has become tediously good in some particular but +negligent or narrow in the rest; and hypocrisy and +vanity are often the disgusting result. + +It is handsomer to remain in the establishment better +than the establishment, and conduct that in the best +manner, than to make a sally against evil by some +single improvement, without supporting it by a total +regeneration. Do not be so vain of your one objection. +Do you think there is only one? Alas! my good friend, +there is no part of society or of life better than +any other part. All our things are right and wrong +together. The wave of evil washes all our institutions +alike. Do you complain of our Marriage? Our marriage is +no worse than our education, our diet, our trade, our +social customs. Do you complain of the laws of Property? +It is a pedantry to give such importance to them. Can we +not play the game of life with these counters, as well +as with those? in the institution of property, as well +as out of it? Let into it the new and renewing principle +of love, and property will be universality. No one gives +the impression of superiority to the institution, which +he must give who will reform it. It makes no difference +what you say, you must make me feel that you are aloof +from it; by your natural and supernatural advantages do +easily see to the end of it,--do see how man can do +without it. Now all men are on one side. No man deserves +to be heard against property. Only Love, only an Idea, +is against property as we hold it. + +I cannot afford to be irritable and captious, nor +to waste all my time in attacks. If I should go out +of church whenever I hear a false sentiment I could +never stay there five minutes. But why come out? the +street is as false as the church, and when I get to +my house, or to my manners, or to my speech, I have +not got away from the lie. When we see an eager +assailant of one of these wrongs, a special reformer, +we feel like asking him, What right have you, sir, to +your one virtue? Is virtue piecemeal? This is a jewel +amidst the rags of a beggar. + +In another way the right will be vindicated. In +the midst of abuses, in the heart of cities, in +the aisles of false churches, alike in one place +and in another,--wherever, namely, a just and +heroic soul finds itself, there it will do what +is next at hand, and by the new quality of character +it shall put forth it shall abrogate that old +condition, law or school in which it stands, before +the law of its own mind. + +If partiality was one fault of the movement party, +the other defect was their reliance on Association. +Doubts such as those I have intimated drove many +good persons to agitate the questions of social +reform. But the revolt against the spirit of commerce, +the spirit of aristocracy, and the inveterate abuses +of cities, did not appear possible to individuals; +and to do battle against numbers they armed themselves +with numbers, and against concert they relied on new +concert. + +Following or advancing beyond the ideas of St. Simon, +of Fourier, and of Owen, three communities have +already been formed in Massachusetts on kindred plans, +and many more in the country at large. They aim to +give every member a share in the manual labor, to give +an equal reward to labor and to talent, and to unite a +liberal culture with an education to labor. The scheme +offers, by the economies of associated labor and expense, +to make every member rich, on the same amount of property, +that, in separate families, would leave every member poor. +These new associations are composed of men and women of +superior talents and sentiments; yet it may easily be +questioned whether such a community will draw, except in +its beginnings, the able and the good; whether those who +have energy will not prefer their chance of superiority +and power in the world, to the humble certainties of the +association; whether such a retreat does not promise to +become an asylum to those who have tried and failed, +rather than a field to the strong; and whether the members +will not necessarily be fractions of men, because each +finds that he cannot enter it, without some compromise. +Friendship and association are very fine things, and a +grand phalanx of the best of the human race, banded for +some catholic object; yes, excellent; but remember that +no society can ever be so large as one man. He, in his +friendship, in his natural and momentary associations, +doubles or multiplies himself; but in the hour in which +he mortgages himself to two or ten or twenty, he dwarfs +himself below the stature of one. + +But the men of less faith could not thus believe, +and to such, concert appears the sole specific of +strength. I have failed, and you have failed, but +perhaps together we shall not fail. Our housekeeping +is not satisfactory to us, but perhaps a phalanx, a +community, might be. Many of us have differed in +opinion, and we could find no man who could make the +truth plain, but possibly a college, or an ecclesiastical +council might. I have not been able either to persuade +my brother or to prevail on myself, to disuse the traffic +or the potation of brandy, but perhaps a pledge of total +abstinence might effectually restrain us. The candidate +my party votes for is not to be trusted with a dollar, +but he will be honest in the Senate, for we can bring +public opinion to bear on him. Thus concert was the +specific in all cases. But concert is neither better +nor worse, neither more nor less potent than individual +force. All the men in the world cannot make a statue +walk and speak, cannot make a drop of blood, or a blade +of grass, any more than one man can. But let there be +one man, let there be truth in two men, in ten men, then +is concert for the first time possible; because the force +which moves the world is a new quality, and can never be +furnished by adding whatever quantities of a different +kind. What is the use of the concert of the false and +the disunited? There can be no concert in two, where +there is no concert in one. When the individual is not +individual, but is dual; when his thoughts look one way +and his actions another; when his faith is traversed by +his habits; when his will, enlightened by reason, is +warped by his sense; when with one hand he rows and with +the other backs water, what concert can be? + +I do not wonder at the interest these projects +inspire. The world is awaking to the idea of union, +and these experiments show what it is thinking of. +It is and will be magic. Men will live and communicate, +and plough, and reap, and govern, as by added ethereal +power, when once they are united; as in a celebrated +experiment, by expiration and respiration exactly +together, four persons lift a heavy man from the ground +by the little finger only, and without sense of weight. +But this union must be inward, and not one of covenants, +and is to be reached by a reverse of the methods they +use. The union is only perfect when all the uniters +are isolated. It is the union of friends who live in +different streets or towns. Each man, if he attempts +to join himself to others, is on all sides cramped and +diminished of his proportion; and the stricter the union +the smaller and the more pitiful he is. But leave him +alone, to recognize in every hour and place the secret +soul; he will go up and down doing the works of a true +member, and, to the astonishment of all, the work will +be done with concert, though no man spoke. Government +will be adamantine without any governor. The union must +be ideal in actual individualism. + +I pass to the indication in some particulars of +that faith in man, which the heart is preaching +to us in these days, and which engages the more +regard, from the consideration that the speculations +of one generation are the history of the next +following. + +In alluding just now to our system of education, I +spoke of the deadness of its details. But it is open +to graver criticism than the palsy of its members: +it is a system of despair. The disease with which the +human mind now labors is want of faith. Men do not +believe in a power of education. We do not think we +can speak to divine sentiments in man, and we do not +try. We renounce all high aims. We believe that the +defects of so many perverse and so many frivolous +people who make up society, are organic, and society +is a hospital of incurables. A man of good sense but +of little faith, whose compassion seemed to lead him +to church as often as he went there, said to me that +"he liked to have concerts, and fairs, and churches, +and other public amusements go on." I am afraid the +remark is too honest, and comes from the same origin +as the maxim of the tyrant, "If you would rule the +world quietly, you must keep it amused." I notice too +that the ground on which eminent public servants urge +the claims of popular education is fear; 'This country +is filling up with thousands and millions of voters, +and you must educate them to keep them from our throats.' +We do not believe that any education, any system of +philosophy, any influence of genius, will ever give +depth of insight to a superficial mind. Having settled +ourselves into this infidelity, our skill is expended +to procure alleviations, diversion, opiates. We adorn +the victim with manual skill, his tongue with languages, +his body with inoffensive and comely manners. So have we +cunningly hid the tragedy of limitation and inner death +we cannot avert. Is it strange that society should be +devoured by a secret melancholy which breaks through all +its smiles and all its gayety and games? + +But even one step farther our infidelity has gone. +It appears that some doubt is felt by good and wise +men whether really the happiness and probity of men +is increased by the culture of the mind in those +disciplines to which we give the name of education. +Unhappily too the doubt comes from scholars, from +persons who have tried these methods. In their +experience the scholar was not raised by the sacred +thoughts amongst which he dwelt, but used them to +selfish ends. He was a profane person, and became a +showman, turning his gifts to a marketable use, and +not to his own sustenance and growth. It was found +that the intellect could be independently developed, +that is, in separation from the man, as any single +organ can be invigorated, and the result was monstrous. +A canine appetite for knowledge was generated, which +must still be fed but was never satisfied, and this +knowledge, not being directed on action, never took +the character of substantial, humane truth, blessing +those whom it entered. It gave the scholar certain +powers of expression, the power of speech, the power +of poetry, of literary art, but it did not bring him +to peace or to beneficence. + +When the literary class betray a destitution of +faith, it is not strange that society should be +disheartened and sensualized by unbelief. What +remedy? Life must be lived on a higher plane. We +must go up to a higher platform, to which we are +always invited to ascend; there, the whole aspect +of things changes. I resist the skepticism of our +education and of our educated men. I do not believe +that the differences of opinion and character in +men are organic. I do not recognize, beside the +class of the good and the wise, a permanent class of +skeptics, or a class of conservatives, or of malignants, +or of materialists. I do not believe in two classes. +You remember the story of the poor woman who importuned +King Philip of Macedon to grant her justice, which +Philip refused: the woman exclaimed, "I appeal:" the +king, astonished, asked to whom she appealed: the woman +replied, "From Philip drunk to Philip sober." The text +will suit me very well. I believe not in two classes +of men, but in man in two moods, in Philip drunk and +Philip sober. I think, according to the good-hearted +word of Plato, "Unwillingly the soul is deprived of +truth." Iron conservative, miser, or thief, no man is +but by a supposed necessity which he tolerates by +shortness or torpidity of sight. The soul lets no man +go without some visitations and holydays of a diviner +presence. It would be easy to show, by a narrow scanning +of any man's biography, that we are not so wedded to our +paltry performances of every kind but that every man +has at intervals the grace to scorn his performances, +in comparing them with his belief of what he should do; +--that he puts himself on the side of his enemies, +listening gladly to what they say of him, and accusing +himself of the same things. + +What is it men love in Genius, but its infinite +hope, which degrades all it has done? Genius +counts all its miracles poor and short. Its own +idea it never executed. The Iliad, the Hamlet, +the Doric column, the Roman arch, the Gothic minster, +the German anthem, when they are ended, the master +casts behind him. How sinks the song in the waves +of melody which the universe pours over his soul! +Before that gracious Infinite out of which he drew +these few strokes, how mean they look, though the +praises of the world attend them. From the triumphs +of his art he turns with desire to this greater +defeat. Let those admire who will. With silent joy +he sees himself to be capable of a beauty that +eclipses all which his hands have done; all which +human hands have ever done. + +Well, we are all the children of genius, the +children of virtue,--and feel their inspirations +in our happier hours. Is not every man sometimes +a radical in politics? Men are conservatives when +they are least vigorous, or when they are most +luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner, +or before taking their rest; when they are sick, +or aged: in the morning, or when their intellect +or their conscience has been aroused; when they +hear music, or when they read poetry, they are +radicals. In the circle of the rankest tories that +could be collected in England, Old or New, let a +powerful and stimulating intellect, a man of great +heart and mind, act on them, and very quickly these +frozen conservators will yield to the friendly +influence, these hopeless will begin to hope, these +haters will begin to love, these immovable statues +will begin to spin and revolve. I cannot help +recalling the fine anecdote which Warton relates of +Bishop Berkeley, when he was preparing to leave +England with his plan of planting the gospel among +the American savages. "Lord Bathurst told me that +the members of the Scriblerus club being met at his +house at dinner, they agreed to rally Berkeley, who +was also his guest, on his scheme at Bermudas. +Berkeley, having listened to the many lively things +they had to say, begged to be heard in his turn, and +displayed his plan with such an astonishing and +animating force of eloquence and enthusiasm, that +they were struck dumb, and, after some pause, rose +up all together with earnestness, exclaiming, 'Let +us set out with him immediately.'" Men in all ways +are better than they seem. They like flattery for the +moment, but they know the truth for their own. It is +a foolish cowardice which keeps us from trusting them +and speaking to them rude truth. They resent your +honesty for an instant, they will thank you for it +always. What is it we heartily wish of each other? Is +it to be pleased and flattered? No, but to be convicted +and exposed, to be shamed out of our nonsense of all +kinds, and made men of, instead of ghosts and phantoms. +We are weary of gliding ghostlike through the world, +which is itself so slight and unreal. We crave a sense +of reality, though it come in strokes of pain. I explain +so,--by this manlike love of truth,--those excesses and +errors into which souls of great vigor, but not equal +insight, often fall. They feel the poverty at the bottom +of all the seeming affluence of the world. They know +the speed with which they come straight through the thin +masquerade, and conceive a disgust at the indigence of +nature: Rousseau, Mirabeau, Charles Fox, Napoleon, Byron, +--and I could easily add names nearer home, of raging +riders, who drive their steeds so hard, in the violence +of living to forget its illusion: they would know the +worst, and tread the floors of hell. The heroes of +ancient and modern fame, Cimon, Themistocles, Alcibiades, +Alexander, Caesar, have treated life and fortune as a +game to be well and skilfully played, but the stake not +to be so valued but that any time it could be held as a +trifle light as air, and thrown up. Caesar, just before +the battle of Pharsalia, discourses with the Egyptian +priest concerning the fountains of the Nile, and offers +to quit the army, the empire, and Cleopatra, if he will +show him those mysterious sources. + +The same magnanimity shows itself in our social +relations, in the preference, namely, which each +man gives to the society of superiors over that +of his equals. All that a man has will he give for +right relations with his mates. All that he has +will he give for an erect demeanor in every company +and on each occasion. He aims at such things as his +neighbors prize, and gives his days and nights, his +talents and his heart, to strike a good stroke, to +acquit himself in all men's sight as a man. The +consideration of an eminent citizen, of a noted +merchant, of a man of mark in his profession; a naval +and military honor, a general's commission, a marshal's +baton, a ducal coronet, the laurel of poets, and, +anyhow procured, the acknowledgment of eminent merit, +--have this lustre for each candidate that they enable +him to walk erect and unashamed in the presence of some +persons before whom he felt himself inferior. Having +raised himself to this rank, having established his +equality with class after class of those with whom +he would live well, he still finds certain others +before whom he cannot possess himself, because they +have somewhat fairer, somewhat grander, somewhat purer, +which extorts homage of him. Is his ambition pure? then +will his laurels and his possessions seem worthless: +instead of avoiding these men who make his fine gold +dim, he will cast all behind him and seek their society +only, woo and embrace this his humiliation and +mortification, until he shall know why his eye sinks, +his voice is husky, and his brilliant talents are +paralyzed in this presence. He is sure that the soul +which gives the lie to all things will tell none. His +constitution will not mislead him. If it cannot carry +itself as it ought, high and unmatchable in the presence +of any man; if the secret oracles whose whisper makes +the sweetness and dignity of his life do here withdraw +and accompany him no longer,--it is time to undervalue +what he has valued, to dispossess himself of what he has +acquired, and with Caesar to take in his hand the army, +the empire, and Cleopatra, and say, "All these will I +relinquish, if you will show me the fountains of the +Nile." Dear to us are those who love us; the swift +moments we spend with them are a compensation for a great +deal of misery; they enlarge our life;--but dearer are +those who reject us as unworthy, for they add another +life: they build a heaven before us whereof we had not +dreamed, and thereby supply to us new powers out of the +recesses of the spirit, and urge us to new and unattempted +performances. + +As every man at heart wishes the best and not +inferior society, wishes to be convicted of his +error and to come to himself,--so he wishes that +the same healing should not stop in his thought, +but should penetrate his will or active power. +The selfish man suffers more from his selfishness +than he from whom that selfishness withholds some +important benefit. What he most wishes is to be +lifted to some higher platform, that he may see +beyond his present fear the transalpine good, so +that his fear, his coldness, his custom may be +broken up like fragments of ice, melted and carried +away in the great stream of good will. Do you ask +my aid? I also wish to be a benefactor. I wish more +to be a benefactor and servant than you wish to be +served by me; and surely the greatest good fortune +that could befall me is precisely to be so moved by +you that I should say, 'Take me and all mine, and +use me and mine freely to your ends'! for I could +not say it otherwise than because a great enlargement +had come to my heart and mind, which made me superior +to my fortunes. Here we are paralyzed with fear; we +hold on to our little properties, house and land, +office and money, for the bread which they have in +our experience yielded us, although we confess that +our being does not flow through them. We desire to be +made great; we desire to be touched with that fire +which shall command this ice to stream, and make our +existence a benefit. If therefore we start objections +to your project, O friend of the slave, or friend of +the poor, or of the race, understand well that it is +because we wish to drive you to drive us into your +measures. We wish to hear ourselves confuted. We are +haunted with a belief that you have a secret which it +would highliest advantage us to learn, and we would +force you to impart it to us, though it should bring +us to prison, or to worse extremity. + +Nothing shall warp me from the belief that every +man is a lover of truth. There is no pure lie, no +pure malignity in nature. The entertainment of the +proposition of depravity is the last profligacy +and profanation. There is no skepticism, no atheism +but that. Could it be received into common belief, +suicide would unpeople the planet. It has had a name +to live in some dogmatic theology, but each man's +innocence and his real liking of his neighbor have +kept it a dead letter. I remember standing at the +polls one day when the anger of the political contest +gave a certain grimness to the faces of the independent +electors, and a good man at my side, looking on the +people, remarked, "I am satisfied that the largest +part of these men, on either side, mean to vote right." +I suppose considerate observers, looking at the masses +of men in their blameless and in their equivocal actions, +will assent, that in spite of selfishness and frivolity, +the general purpose in the great number of persons is +fidelity. The reason why any one refuses his assent to +your opinion, or his aid to your benevolent design, is +in you: he refuses to accept you as a bringer of truth, +because, though you think you have it, he feels that +you have it not. You have not given him the authentic +sign. + +If it were worth while to run into details this +general doctrine of the latent but ever soliciting +Spirit, it would be easy to adduce illustration in +particulars of a man's equality to the Church, of +his equality to the State, and of his equality to +every other man. It is yet in all men's memory that, +a few years ago, the liberal churches complained +that the Calvinistic church denied to them the name +of Christian. I think the complaint was confession: +a religious church would not complain. A religious +man like Behmen, Fox, or Swedenborg is not irritated +by wanting the sanction of the Church, but the Church +feels the accusation of his presence and belief. + +It only needs that a just man should walk in our +streets to make it appear how pitiful and inartificial +a contrivance is our legislation. The man whose part +is taken and who does not wait for society in anything, +has a power which society cannot choose but feel. The +familiar experiment called the hydrostatic paradox, in +which a capillary column of water balances the ocean, +is a symbol of the relation of one man to the whole +family of men. The wise Dandamis, on hearing the lives +of Socrates, Pythagoras and Diogenes read, "judged them +to be great men every way, excepting, that they were +too much subjected to the reverence of the laws, which +to second and authorize, true virtue must abate very +much of its original vigor." + +And as a man is equal to the Church and equal to +the State, so he is equal to every other man. The +disparities of power in men are superficial; and +all frank and searching conversation, in which a +man lays himself open to his brother, apprises each +of their radical unity. When two persons sit and +converse in a thoroughly good understanding, the +remark is sure to be made, See how we have disputed +about words! Let a clear, apprehensive mind, such +as every man knows among his friends, converse with +the most commanding poetic genius, I think it would +appear that there was no inequality such as men +fancy, between them; that a perfect understanding, +a like receiving, a like perceiving, abolished +differences; and the poet would confess that his +creative imagination gave him no deep advantage, +but only the superficial one that he could express +himself and the other could not; that his advantage +was a knack, which might impose on indolent men but +could not impose on lovers of truth; for they know +the tax of talent, or what a price of greatness the +power of expression too often pays. I believe it is +the conviction of the purest men, that the net amount +of man and man does not much vary. Each is incomparably +superior to his companion in some faculty. His want of +skill in other directions has added to his fitness for +his own work. Each seems to have some compensation +yielded to him by his infirmity, and every hindrance +operates as a concentration of his force. + +These and the like experiences intimate that man +stands in strict connection with a higher fact never +yet manifested. There is power over and behind us, +and we are the channels of its communications. We +seek to say thus and so, and over our head some +spirit sits which contradicts what we say. We would +persuade our fellow to this or that; another self +within our eyes dissuades him. That which we keep +back, this reveals. In vain we compose our faces and +our words; it holds uncontrollable communication with +the enemy, and he answers civilly to us, but believes +the spirit. We exclaim, 'There's a traitor in the +house!' but at last it appears that he is the true +man, and I am the traitor. This open channel to the +highest life is the first and last reality, so subtle, +so quiet, yet so tenacious, that although I have never +expressed the truth, and although I have never heard +the expression of it from any other, I know that the +whole truth is here for me. What if I cannot answer +your questions? I am not pained that I cannot frame a +reply to the question, What is the operation we call +Providence? There lies the unspoken thing, present, +omnipresent. Every time we converse we seek to +translate it into speech, but whether we hit or whether +we miss, we have the fact. Every discourse is an +approximate answer: but it is of small consequence +that we do not get it into verbs and nouns, whilst it +abides for contemplation forever. + +If the auguries of the prophesying heart shall make +themselves good in time, the man who shall be born, +whose advent men and events prepare and foreshow, +is one who shall enjoy his connection with a higher +life, with the man within man; shall destroy distrust +by his trust, shall use his native but forgotten +methods, shall not take counsel of flesh and blood, +but shall rely on the Law alive and beautiful which +works over our heads and under our feet. Pitiless, +it avails itself of our success when we obey it, and +of our ruin when we contravene it. Men are all secret +believers in it, else the word justice would have no +meaning: they believe that the best is the true; that +right is done at last; or chaos would come. It rewards +actions after their nature, and not after the design +of the agent. 'Work,' it saith to man, 'in every hour, +paid or unpaid, see only that thou work, and thou canst +not escape the reward: whether thy work be fine or +coarse, planting corn or writing epics, so only it be +honest work, done to thine own approbation, it shall +earn a reward to the senses as well as to the thought: +no matter how often defeated, you are born to victory. +The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.' + +As soon as a man is wonted to look beyond surfaces, +and to see how this high will prevails without an +exception or an interval, he settles himself into +serenity. He can already rely on the laws of gravity, +that every stone will fall where it is due; the good +globe is faithful, and carries us securely through +the celestial spaces, anxious or resigned, we need +not interfere to help it on: and he will learn one +day the mild lesson they teach, that our own orbit +is all our task, and we need not assist the +administration of the universe. Do not be so impatient +to set the town right concerning the unfounded +pretensions and the false reputation of certain men +of standing. They are laboring harder to set the town +right concerning themselves, and will certainly succeed. +Suppress for a few days your criticism on the +insufficiency of this or that teacher or experimenter, +and he will have demonstrated his insufficiency to all +men's eyes. In like manner, let a man fall into the +divine circuits, and he is enlarged. Obedience to his +genius is the only liberating influence. We wish to +escape from subjection and a sense of inferiority, and +we make self-denying ordinances, we drink water, we eat +grass, we refuse the laws, we go to jail: it is all in +vain; only by obedience to his genius, only by the +freest activity in the way constitutional to him, does +an angel seem to arise before a man and lead him by the +hand out of all the wards of the prison. + +That which befits us, embosomed in beauty and wonder +as we are, is cheerfulness and courage, and the endeavor +to realize our aspirations. The life of man is the true +romance, which when it is valiantly conducted will yield +the imagination a higher joy than any fiction. All around +us what powers are wrapped up under the coarse mattings +of custom, and all wonder prevented. It is so wonderful +to our neurologists that a man can see without his eyes, +that it does not occur to them that it is just as +wonderful that he should see with them; and that is ever +the difference between the wise and the unwise: the +latter wonders at what is unusual, the wise man wonders +at the usual. Shall not the heart which has received so +much, trust the Power by which it lives? May it not quit +other leadings, and listen to the Soul that has guided +it so gently and taught it so much, secure that the +future will be worthy of the past? + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Essays, 2nd Series, by Ralph Waldo Emerson + diff --git a/old/2srwe10.zip b/old/2srwe10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f38db5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2srwe10.zip |