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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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