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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END* + + + + + +This Project Gutenberg Etext Prepared by Tony Adam +anthony-adam@tamu.edu + + + + + +Essays, Second Series + +by Ralph Waldo Emerson + + + + +THE POET. + +A moody child and wildly wise +Pursued the game with joyful eyes, +Which chose, like meteors, their way, +And rived the dark with private ray: +They overleapt the horizon's edge, +Searched with Apollo's privilege; +Through man, and woman, and sea, and star +Saw the dance of nature forward far; +Through worlds, and races, and terms, and times +Saw musical order, and pairing rhymes. + +Olympian bards who sung + Divine ideas below, +Which always find us young, + And always keep us so. + +I. +THE POET. + +Those who are esteemed umpires of taste are often +persons who have acquired some knowledge of admired +pictures or sculptures, and have an inclination for +whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they +are beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are +like fair pictures, you learn that they are selfish +and sensual. Their cultivation is local, as if you +should rub a log of dry wood in one spot to produce +fire, all the rest remaining cold. Their knowledge +of the fine arts is some study of rules and particulars, +or some limited judgment of color or form, which is +exercised for amusement or for show. It is a proof of +the shallowness of the doctrine of beauty as it lies +in the minds of our amateurs, that men seem to have +lost the perception of the instant dependence of form +upon soul. There is no doctrine of forms in our philosophy. +We were put into our bodies, as fire is put into a pan to +be carried about; but there is no accurate adjustment +between the spirit and the organ, much less is the latter +the germination of the former. So in regard to other forms, +the intellectual men do not believe in any essential +dependence of the material world on thought and volition. +Theologians think it a pretty air-castle to talk of the +Spiritual meaning of a ship or a cloud, of a city or a +contract, but they prefer to come again to the solid +ground of historical evidence; and even the poets are +contented with a civil and conformed manner of living, +and to write poems from the fancy, at a safe distance +from their own experience. But the highest minds of the +world have never ceased to explore the double meaning, +or shall I say the quadruple or the centuple or much more +manifold meaning, of every sensuous fact; Orpheus, +Empedocles, Heraclitus, Plato, Plutarch, Dante, Swedenborg, +and the masters of sculpture, picture, and poetry. For we +are not pans and barrows, nor even porters of the fire +and torch-bearers, but children of the fire, made of it, +and only the same divinity transmuted and at two or three +removes, when we know least about it. And this hidden +truth, that the fountains whence all this river of Time +and its creatures floweth are intrinsically ideal and +beautiful, draws us to the consideration of the nature +and functions of the Poet, or the man of Beauty; to the +means and materials he uses, and to the general aspect +of the art in the present time. + +The breadth of the problem is great, for the poet +is representative. He stands among partial men for +the complete man, and apprises us not of his wealth, +but of the common wealth. The young man reveres men +of genius, because, to speak truly, they are more +himself than he is. They receive of the soul as he +also receives, but they more. Nature enhances her +beauty, to the eye of loving men, from their belief +that the poet is beholding her shows at the same time. +He is isolated among his contemporaries by truth and +by his art, but with this consolation in his pursuits, +that they will draw all men sooner or later. For all +men live by truth and stand in need of expression. In +love, in art, in avarice, in politics, in labor, in +games, we study to utter our painful secret. The man +is only half himself, the other half is his expression. + +Notwithstanding this necessity to be published, +adequate expression is rare. I know not how it is +that we need an interpreter, but the great majority +of men seem to be minors, who have not yet come into +possession of their own, or mutes, who cannot report +the conversation they have had with nature. There is +no man who does not anticipate a supersensual utility +in the sun and stars, earth and water. These stand +and wait to render him a peculiar service. But there +is some obstruction or some excess of phlegm in our +constitution, which does not suffer them to yield the +due effect. Too feeble fall the impressions of nature +on us to make us artists. Every touch should thrill. +Every man should be so much an artist that he could +report in conversation what had befallen him. Yet, in +our experience, the rays or appulses have sufficient +force to arrive at the senses, but not enough to reach +the quick and compel the reproduction of themselves in +speech. The poet is the person in whom these powers are +in balance, the man without impediment, who sees and +handles that which others dream of, traverses the whole +scale of experience, and is representative of man, in +virtue of being the largest power to receive and to +impart. + +For the Universe has three children, born at one +time, which reappear under different names in every +system of thought, whether they be called cause, +operation, and effect; or, more poetically, Jove, +Pluto, Neptune; or, theologically, the Father, the +Spirit, and the Son; but which we will call here +the Knower, the Doer, and the Sayer. These stand +respectively for the love of truth, for the love +of good, and for the love of beauty. These three +are equal. Each is that which he is essentially, +so that he cannot be surmounted or analyzed, and +each of these three has the power of the others +latent in him, and his own, patent. + +The poet is the sayer, the namer, and represents +beauty. He is a sovereign, and stands on the centre. +For the world is not painted or adorned, but is from +the beginning beautiful; and God has not made some +beautiful things, but Beauty is the creator of the +universe. Therefore the poet is not any permissive +potentate, but is emperor in his own right. Criticism +is infested with a cant of materialism, which assumes +that manual skill and activity is the first merit of +all men, and disparages such as say and do not, +overlooking the fact that some men, namely poets, are +natural sayers, sent into the world to the end of +expression, and confounds them with those whose province +is action but who quit it to imitate the sayers. But +Homer's words are as costly and admirable to Homer as +Agamemnon's victories are to Agamemnon. The poet does +not wait for the hero or the sage, but, as they act and +think primarily, so he writes primarily what will and +must be spoken, reckoning the others, though primaries +also, yet, in respect to him, secondaries and servants; +as sitters or models in the studio of a painter, or as +assistants who bring building materials to an architect. + +For poetry was all written before time was, and +whenever we are so finely organized that we can +penetrate into that region where the air is music, +we hear those primal warblings and attempt to write +them down, but we lose ever and anon a word or a +verse and substitute something of our own, and thus +miswrite the poem. The men of more delicate ear +write down these cadences more faithfully, and +these transcripts, though imperfect, become the songs +of the nations. For nature is as truly beautiful as +it is good, or as it is reasonable, and must as much +appear as it must be done, or be known. Words and +deeds are quite indifferent modes of the divine energy. +Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words. + +The sign and credentials of the poet are that he +announces that which no man foretold. He is the +true and only doctor; he knows and tells; he is +the only teller of news, for he was present and +privy to the appearance which he describes. He is +a beholder of ideas and an utterer of the necessary +and causal. For we do not speak now of men of +poetical talents, or of industry and skill in metre, +but of the true poet. I took part in a conversation +the other day concerning a recent writer of lyrics, +a man of subtle mind, whose head appeared to be a +music-box of delicate tunes and rhythms, and whose +skill and command of language, we could not sufficiently +praise. But when the question arose whether he was not +only a lyrist but a poet, we were obliged to confess +that he is plainly a contemporary, not an eternal man. +He does not stand out of our low limitations, like a +Chimborazo under the line, running up from the torrid +Base through all the climates of the globe, with belts +of the herbage of every latitude on its high and mottled +sides; but this genius is the landscape-garden of a +modern house, adorned with fountains and statues, with +well-bred men and women standing and sitting in the +walks and terraces. We hear, through all the varied +music, the ground-tone of conventional life. Our poets +are men of talents who sing, and not the children of +music. The argument is secondary, the finish of the +verses is primary. + +For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument +that makes a poem,--a thought so passionate and +alive that like the spirit of a plant or an animal +it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature +with a new thing. The thought and the form are equal +in the order of time, but in the order of genesis +the thought is prior to the form. The poet has a new +thought; he has a whole new experience to unfold; he +will tell us how it was with him, and all men will be +the richer in his fortune. For the experience of each +new age requires a new confession, and the world seems +always waiting for its poet. I remember when I was +young how much I was moved one morning by tidings that +genius had appeared in a youth who sat near me at +table. He had left his work and gone rambling none +knew whither, and had written hundreds of lines, but +could not tell whether that which was in him was +therein told; he could tell nothing but that all was +changed,--man, beast, heaven, earth and sea. How gladly +we listened! how credulous! Society seemed to be +compromised. We sat in the aurora of a sunrise which +was to put out all the stars. Boston seemed to be at +twice the distance it had the night before, or was +much farther than that. Rome,--what was Rome? Plutarch +and Shakspeare were in the yellow leaf, and Homer no +more should be heard of. It is much to know that poetry +has been written this very day, under this very roof, +by your side. What! that wonderful spirit has not +expired! These stony moments are still sparkling and +animated! I had fancied that the oracles were all silent, +and nature had spent her fires; and behold! all night, +from every pore, these fine auroras have been streaming. +Every one has some interest in the advent of the poet, +and no one knows how much it may concern him. We know +that the secret of the world is profound, but who or +what shall be our interpreter, we know not. A mountain +ramble, a new style of face, a new person, may put the +key into our hands. Of course the value of genius to us +is in the veracity of its report. Talent may frolic and +juggle; genius realizes and adds. Mankind in good +earnest have availed so far in understanding themselves +and their work, that the foremost watchman on the peak +announces his news. It is the truest word ever spoken, +and the phrase will be the fittest, most musical, and +the unerring voice of the world for that time. + +All that we call sacred history attests that the +birth of a poet is the principal event in chronology. +Man, never so often deceived, still watches for the +arrival of a brother who can hold him steady to a +truth until he has made it his own. With what joy I +begin to read a poem which I confide in as an +inspiration! And now my chains are to be broken; I +shall mount above these clouds and opaque airs in +which I live,--opaque, though they seem transparent, +--and from the heaven of truth I shall see and +comprehend my relations. That will reconcile me to +life and renovate nature, to see trifles animated +by a tendency, and to know what I am doing. Life will +no more be a noise; now I shall see men and women, +and know the signs by which they may be discerned +from fools and satans. This day shall be better than +my birthday: then I became an animal; now I am +invited into the science of the real. Such is the +hope, but the fruition is postponed. Oftener it falls +that this winged man, who will carry me into the heaven, +whirls me into mists, then leaps and frisks about with +me as it were from cloud to cloud, still affirming that +he is bound heavenward; and I, being myself a novice, +am slow in perceiving that he does not know the way +into the heavens, and is merely bent that I should admire +his skill to rise like a fowl or a flying fish, a little +way from the ground or the water; but the all-piercing, +all-feeding, and ocular air of heaven that man shall +never inhabit. I tumble down again soon into my old nooks, +and lead the life of exaggerations as before, and have +lost my faith in the possibility of any guide who can +lead me thither where I would be. + +But, leaving these victims of vanity, let us, with +new hope, observe how nature, by worthier impulses, +has ensured the poet's fidelity to his office of +announcement and affirming, namely by the beauty of +things, which becomes a new and higher beauty when +expressed. Nature offers all her creatures to him as +a picture-language. Being used as a type, a second +wonderful value appears in the object, far better +than its old value; as the carpenter's stretched +cord, if you hold your ear close enough, is musical +in the breeze. "Things more excellent than every +image," says Jamblichus, "are expressed through +images." Things admit of being used as symbols +because nature is a symbol, in the whole, and in +every part. Every line we can draw in the sand has +expression; and there is no body without its spirit +or genius. All form is an effect of character; all +condition, of the quality of the life; all harmony, +of health; and for this reason a perception of beauty +should be sympathetic, or proper only to the good. +The beautiful rests on the foundations of the necessary. +The soul makes the body, as the wise Spenser teaches:-- + + "So every spirit, as it is most pure, + And hath in it the more of heavenly light, + So it the fairer body doth procure + To habit in, and it more fairly dight, + With cheerful grace and amiable sight. + For, of the soul, the body form doth take, + For soul is form, and doth the body make." + +Here we find ourselves suddenly not in a critical +speculation but in a holy place, and should go very +warily and reverently. We stand before the secret +of the world, there where Being passes into Appearance +and Unity into Variety. + +The Universe is the externization of the soul. +Wherever the life is, that bursts into appearance +around it. Our science is sensual, and therefore +superficial. The earth and the heavenly bodies, +physics, and chemistry, we sensually treat, as if +they were self-existent; but these are the retinue +of that Being we have. "The mighty heaven," said +Proclus, "exhibits, in its transfigurations, clear +images of the splendor of intellectual perceptions; +being moved in conjunction with the unapparent periods +of intellectual natures." Therefore science always +goes abreast with the just elevation of the man, +keeping step with religion and metaphysics; or the +state of science is an index of our self-knowledge. +Since everything in nature answers to a moral power, +if any phenomenon remains brute and dark it is that +the corresponding faculty in the observer is not yet +active. + +No wonder then, if these waters be so deep, that we +hover over them with a religious regard. The beauty +of the fable proves the importance of the sense; to +the poet, and to all others; or, if you please, every +man is so far a poet as to be susceptible of these +enchantments of nature; for all men have the thoughts +whereof the universe is the celebration. I find that +the fascination resides in the symbol. Who loves +nature? Who does not? Is it only poets, and men of +leisure and cultivation, who live with her? No; but +also hunters, farmers, grooms, and butchers, though +they express their affection in their choice of life +and not in their choice of words. The writer wonders +what the coachman or the hunter values in riding, in +horses and dogs. It is not superficial qualities. When +you talk with him he holds these at as slight a rate as +you. His worship is sympathetic; he has no definitions, +but he is commanded in nature, by the living power +which he feels to be there present. No imitation or +playing of these things would content him; he loves +the earnest of the north wind, of rain, of stone, and +wood, and iron. A beauty not explicable is dearer than +a beauty which we can see to the end of. It is nature +the symbol, nature certifying the supernatural, body +overflowed by life which he worships with coarse but +sincere rites. + +The inwardness and mystery of this attachment +drives men of every class to the use of emblems. +The schools of poets and philosophers are not more +intoxicated with their symbols than the populace +with theirs. In our political parties, compute the +power of badges and emblems. See the great ball +which they roll from Baltimore to Bunker hill! In +the political processions, Lowell goes in a loom, +and Lynn in a shoe, and Salem in a ship. Witness +the cider-barrel, the log-cabin, the hickory-stick, +the palmetto, and all the cognizances of party. See +the power of national emblems. Some stars, lilies, +leopards, a crescent, a lion, an eagle, or other +figure which came into credit God knows how, on an +old rag of bunting, blowing in the wind on a fort +at the ends of the earth, shall make the blood tingle +under the rudest or the most conventional exterior. +The people fancy they hate poetry, and they are all +poets and mystics! + +Beyond this universality of the symbolic language, +we are apprised of the divineness of this superior +use of things, whereby the world is a temple whose +walls are covered with emblems, pictures, and +commandments of the Deity,--in this, that there is +no fact in nature which does not carry the whole +sense of nature; and the distinctions which we make +in events and in affairs, of low and high, honest +and base, disappear when nature is used as a symbol. +Thought makes everything fit for use. The vocabulary +of an omniscient man would embrace words and images +excluded from polite conversation. What would be +base, or even obscene, to the obscene, becomes +illustrious, spoken in a new connexion of thought. +The piety of the Hebrew prophets purges their grossness. +The circumcision is an example of the power of poetry +to raise the low and offensive. Small and mean things +serve as well as great symbols. The meaner the type by +which a law is expressed, the more pungent it is, and +the more lasting in the memories of men: just as we +choose the smallest box or case in which any needful +utensil can be carried. Bare lists of words are found +suggestive to an imaginative and excited mind; as it +is related of Lord Chatham that he was accustomed to +read in Bailey's Dictionary when he was preparing to +speak in Parliament. The poorest experience is rich +enough for all the purposes of expressing thought. Why +covet a knowledge of new facts? Day and night, house +and garden, a few books, a few actions, serve us as +well as would all trades and all spectacles. We are +far from having exhausted the significance of the few +symbols we use. We can come to use them yet with a +terrible simplicity. It does not need that a poem +should be long. Every word was once a poem. Every +new relation is a new word. Also we use defects and +deformities to a sacred purpose, so expressing our +sense that the evils of the world are such only to +the evil eye. In the old mythology, mythologists +observe, defects are ascribed to divine natures, as +lameness to Vulcan, blindness to Cupid, and the like, +--to signify exuberances. + +For as it is dislocation and detachment from the +life of God that makes things ugly, the poet, who +re-attaches things to nature and the Whole,-- +re-attaching even artificial things and violations +of nature, to nature, by a deeper insight,--disposes +very easily of the most disagreeable facts. Readers +of poetry see the factory-village and the railway, +and fancy that the poetry of the landscape is broken +up by these; for these works of art are not yet +consecrated in their reading; but the poet sees them +fall within the great Order not less than the beehive +or the spider's geometrical web. Nature adopts them +very fast into her vital circles, and the gliding +train of cars she loves like her own. Besides, in a +centred mind, it signifies nothing how many mechanical +inventions you exhibit. Though you add millions, and +never so surprising, the fact of mechanics has not +gained a grain's weight. The spiritual fact remains +unalterable, by many or by few particulars; as no +mountain is of any appreciable height to break the +curve of the sphere. A shrewd country-boy goes to the +city for the first time, and the complacent citizen +is not satisfied with his little wonder. It is not +that he does not see all the fine houses and know that +he never saw such before, but he disposes of them as +easily as the poet finds place for the railway. The +chief value of the new fact is to enhance the great +and constant fact of Life, which can dwarf any and +every circumstance, and to which the belt of wampum +and the commerce of America are alike. + +The world being thus put under the mind for verb +and noun, the poet is he who can articulate it. +For though life is great, and fascinates, and absorbs; +and though all men are intelligent of the symbols +through which it is named; yet they cannot originally +use them. We are symbols and inhabit symbols; workmen, +work, and tools, words and things, birth and death, +all are emblems; but we sympathize with the symbols, +and being infatuated with the economical uses of +things, we do not know that they are thoughts. The +poet, by an ulterior intellectual perception, gives +them a power which makes their old use forgotten, and +puts eyes and a tongue into every dumb and inanimate +object. He perceives the independence of the thought +on the symbol, the stability of the thought, the +accidency and fugacity of the symbol. As the eyes of +Lyncaeus were said to see through the earth, so the +poet turns the world to glass, and shows us all +things in their right series and procession. For +through that better perception he stands one step +nearer to things, and sees the flowing or metamorphosis; +perceives that thought is multiform; that within the +form of every creature is a force impelling it to ascend +into a higher form; and following with his eyes the life, +uses the forms which express that life, and so his speech +flows with the flowing of nature. All the facts of the +animal economy, sex, nutriment, gestation, birth, growth, +are symbols of the passage of the world into the soul of +man, to suffer there a change and reappear a new and +higher fact. He uses forms according to the life, and +not according to the form. This is true science. The +poet alone knows astronomy, chemistry, vegetation and +animation, for he does not stop at these facts, but +employs them as signs. He knows why the plain or meadow +of space was strewn with these flowers we call suns and +moons and stars; why the great deep is adorned with +animals, with men, and gods; for in every word he speaks +he rides on them as the horses of thought. + +By virtue of this science the poet is the Namer +or Language-maker, naming things sometimes after +their appearance, sometimes after their essence, +and giving to every one its own name and not +another's, thereby rejoicing the intellect, which +delights in detachment or boundary. The poets made +all the words, and therefore language is the +archives of history, and, if we must say it, a +sort of tomb of the muses. For though the origin +of most of our words is forgotten, each word was +at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency +because for the moment it symbolized the world to +the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist +finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant +picture. Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone +of the continent consists of infinite masses of the +shells of animalcules, so language is made up of +images or tropes, which now, in their secondary use, +have long ceased to remind us of their poetic origin. +But the poet names the thing because he sees it, or +comes one step nearer to it than any other. This +expression or naming is not art, but a second nature, +grown out of the first, as a leaf out of a tree. What +we call nature is a certain self-regulated motion or +change; and nature does all things by her own hands, +and does not leave another to baptize her but baptizes +herself; and this through the metamorphosis again. I +remember that a certain poet described it to me thus: + +Genius is the activity which repairs the decays +of things, whether wholly or partly of a material +and finite kind. Nature, through all her kingdoms, +insures herself. Nobody cares for planting the +poor fungus; so she shakes down from the gills of +one agaric countless spores, any one of which, +being preserved, transmits new billions of spores +to-morrow or next day. The new agaric of this hour +has a chance which the old one had not. This atom +of seed is thrown into a new place, not subject to +the accidents which destroyed its parent two rods +off. She makes a man; and having brought him to +ripe age, she will no longer run the risk of losing +this wonder at a blow, but she detaches from him a +new self, that the kind may be safe from accidents +to which the individual is exposed. So when the +soul of the poet has come to ripeness of thought, +she detaches and sends away from it its poems or +songs,--a fearless, sleepless, deathless progeny, +which is not exposed to the accidents of the weary +kingdom of time; a fearless, vivacious offspring, +clad with wings (such was the virtue of the soul out +of which they came) which carry them fast and far, +and infix them irrecoverably into the hearts of men. +These wings are the beauty of the poet's soul. The +songs, thus flying immortal from their mortal parent, +are pursued by clamorous flights of censures, which +swarm in far greater numbers and threaten to devour +them; but these last are not winged. At the end of a +very short leap they fall plump down and rot, having +received from the souls out of which they came no +beautiful wings. But the melodies of the poet ascend +and leap and pierce into the deeps of infinite time. + +So far the bard taught me, using his freer speech. +But nature has a higher end, in the production of +New individuals, than security, namely ascension, +or the passage of the soul into higher forms. I knew +in my younger days the sculptor who made the statue +of the youth which stands in the public garden. He +was, as I remember, unable to tell directly, what +made him happy or unhappy, but by wonderful +indirections he could tell. He rose one day, according +to his habit, before the dawn, and saw the morning +break, grand as the eternity out of which it came, +and for many days after, he strove to express this +tranquillity, and lo! his chisel had fashioned out +of marble the form of a beautiful youth, Phosphorus, +whose aspect is such that it is said all persons who +look on it become silent. The poet also resigns +himself to his mood, and that thought which agitated +him is expressed, but alter idem, in a manner totally +new. The expression is organic, or the new type which +things themselves take when liberated. As, in the sun, +objects paint their images on the retina of the eye, +so they, sharing the aspiration of the whole universe, +tend to paint a far more delicate copy of their essence +in his mind. Like the metamorphosis of things into +higher organic forms is their change into melodies. +Over everything stands its daemon or soul, and, as +the form of the thing is reflected by the eye, so the +soul of the thing is reflected by a melody. The sea, +the mountain-ridge, Niagara, and every flower-bed, +pre-exist, or super-exist, in pre-cantations, which +sail like odors in the air, and when any man goes by +with an ear sufficiently fine, he overhears them and +endeavors to write down the notes without diluting or +depraving them. And herein is the legitimation of +criticism, in the mind's faith that the poems are a +corrupt version of some text in nature with which they +ought to be made to tally. A rhyme in one of our sonnets +should not be less pleasing than the iterated nodes of +a sea-shell, or the resembling difference of a group +of flowers. The pairing of the birds is an idyl, not +tedious as our idyls are; a tempest is a rough ode, +without falsehood or rant; a summer, with its harvest +sown, reaped, and stored, is an epic song, subordinating +how many admirably executed parts. Why should not the +symmetry and truth that modulate these, glide into our +spirits, and we participate the invention of nature? + +This insight, which expresses itself by what is +called Imagination, is a very high sort of seeing, +which does not come by study, but by the intellect +being where and what it sees; by sharing the path +or circuit of things through forms, and so making +them translucid to others. The path of things is +silent. Will they suffer a speaker to go with them? +A spy they will not suffer; a lover, a poet, is the +transcendency of their own nature,--him they will +suffer. The condition of true naming, on the poet's +part, is his resigning himself to the divine aura +which breathes through forms, and accompanying that. + +It is a secret which every intellectual man quickly +learns, that, beyond the energy of his possessed and +conscious intellect he is capable of a new energy +(as of an intellect doubled on itself), by abandonment +to the nature of things; that beside his privacy of +power as an individual man, there is a great public +power on which he can draw, by unlocking, at all risks, +his human doors, and suffering the ethereal tides to +roll and circulate through him; then he is caught up +into the life of the Universe, his speech is thunder, +his thought is law, and his words are universally +intelligible as the plants and animals. The poet knows +that he speaks adequately then only when he speaks +somewhat wildly, or, "with the flower of the mind;" +not with the intellect used as an organ, but with the +intellect released from all service and suffered to +take its direction from its celestial life; or as the +ancients were wont to express themselves, not with +intellect alone but with the intellect inebriated by +nectar. As the traveller who has lost his way throws +his reins on his horse's neck and trusts to the +instinct of the animal to find his road, so must we +do with the divine animal who carries us through this +world. For if in any manner we can stimulate this +instinct, new passages are opened for us into nature; +the mind flows into and through things hardest and +highest, and the metamorphosis is possible. + +This is the reason why bards love wine, mead, +narcotics, coffee, tea, opium, the fumes of sandal +-wood and tobacco, or whatever other procurers of +animal exhilaration. All men avail themselves of +such means as they can, to add this extraordinary +power to their normal powers; and to this end they +prize conversation, music, pictures, sculpture, +dancing, theatres, travelling, war, mobs, fires, +gaming, politics, or love, or science, or animal +intoxication,--which are several coarser or finer +quasi-mechanical substitutes for the true nectar, +which is the ravishment of the intellect by coming +nearer to the fact. These are auxiliaries to the +centrifugal tendency of a man, to his passage out +into free space, and they help him to escape the +custody of that body in which he is pent up, and +of that jail-yard of individual relations in which +he is enclosed. Hence a great number of such as were +professionally expressers of Beauty, as painters, +poets, musicians, and actors, have been more than +others wont to lead a life of pleasure and indulgence; +all but the few who received the true nectar; and, as +it was a spurious mode of attaining freedom, as it was +an emancipation not into the heavens but into the +freedom of baser places, they were punished for that +advantage they won, by a dissipation and deterioration. +But never can any advantage be taken of nature by a +trick. The spirit of the world, the great calm presence +of the Creator, comes not forth to the sorceries of +opium or of wine. The sublime vision comes to the pure +and simple soul in a clean and chaste body. That is not +an inspiration, which we owe to narcotics, but some +counterfeit excitement and fury. Milton says that the +lyric poet may drink wine and live generously, but the +epic poet, he who shall sing of the gods and their +descent unto men, must drink water out of a wooden +bowl. For poetry is not 'Devil's wine,' but God's wine. +It is with this as it is with toys. We fill the hands +and nurseries of our children with all manner of dolls, +drums, and horses; withdrawing their eyes from the +plain face and sufficing objects of nature, the sun, +and moon, the animals, the water, and stones, which +should be their toys. So the poet's habit of living +should be set on a key so low that the common +influences should delight him. His cheerfulness should +be the gift of the sunlight; the air should suffice +for his inspiration, and he should be tipsy with water. +That spirit which suffices quiet hearts, which seems to +come forth to such from every dry knoll of sere grass, +from every pine-stump and half-imbedded stone on which +the dull March sun shines, comes forth to the poor and +hungry, and such as are of simple taste. If thou fill +thy brain with Boston and New York, with fashion and +covetousness, and wilt stimulate thy jaded senses with +wine and French coffee, thou shalt find no radiance of +wisdom in the lonely waste of the pinewoods. + +If the imagination intoxicates the poet, it is +not inactive in other men. The metamorphosis +excites in the beholder an emotion of joy. The +use of symbols has a certain power of emancipation +and exhilaration for all men. We seem to be touched +by a wand which makes us dance and run about happily, +like children. We are like persons who come out of +a cave or cellar into the open air. This is the +effect on us of tropes, fables, oracles, and all +poetic forms. Poets are thus liberating gods. Men +have really got a new sense, and found within their +world another world, or nest of worlds; for, the +metamorphosis once seen, we divine that it does not +stop. I will not now consider how much this makes +the charm of algebra and the mathematics, which +also have their tropes, but it is felt in every +definition; as when Aristotle defines space to be +an immovable vessel in which things are contained; +--or when Plato defines a line to be a flowing +point; or figure to be a bound of solid; and many +the like. What a joyful sense of freedom we have +when Vitruvius announces the old opinion of artists +that no architect can build any house well who does +not know something of anatomy. When Socrates, in +Charmides, tells us that the soul is cured of its +maladies by certain incantations, and that these +incantations are beautiful reasons, from which +temperance is generated in souls; when Plato calls +the world an animal; and Timaeus affirms that the +plants also are animals; or affirms a man to be a +heavenly tree, growing with his root, which is his +head, upward; and, as George Chapman, following him, +writes,-- + + "So in our tree of man, whose nervie root + Springs in his top;" -- + +when Orpheus speaks of hoariness as "that white +flower which marks extreme old age;" when Proclus +calls the universe the statue of the intellect; +when Chaucer, in his praise of 'Gentilesse,' compares +good blood in mean condition to fire, which, though +carried to the darkest house betwixt this and the +mount of Caucasus, will yet hold its natural office +and burn as bright as if twenty thousand men did it +behold; when John saw, in the Apocalypse, the ruin +of the world through evil, and the stars fall from +heaven as the figtree casteth her untimely fruit; +when Aesop reports the whole catalogue of common +daily relations through the masquerade of birds and +beasts;--we take the cheerful hint of the immortality +of our essence and its versatile habit and escapes, +as when the gypsies say "it is in vain to hang them, +they cannot die." + +The poets are thus liberating gods. The ancient +British bards had for the title of their order, "Those +Who are free throughout the world." They are free, and +they make free. An imaginative book renders us much +more service at first, by stimulating us through its +tropes, than afterward when we arrive at the precise +sense of the author. I think nothing is of any value +in books excepting the transcendental and extraordinary. +If a man is inflamed and carried away by his thought, +to that degree that he forgets the authors and the +public and heeds only this one dream which holds him +like an insanity, let me read his paper, and you may +have all the arguments and histories and criticism. +All the value which attaches to Pythagoras, Paracelsus, +Cornelius Agrippa, Cardan, Kepler, Swedenborg, Schelling, +Oken, or any other who introduces questionable facts +into his cosmogony, as angels, devils, magic, astrology, +palmistry, mesmerism, and so on, is the certificate we +have of departure from routine, and that here is a new +witness. That also is the best success in conversation, +the magic of liberty, which puts the world like a ball +in our hands. How cheap even the liberty then seems; +how mean to study, when an emotion communicates to the +intellect the power to sap and upheave nature; how great +the perspective! nations, times, systems, enter and +disappear like threads in tapestry of large figure and +many colors; dream delivers us to dream, and while the +drunkenness lasts we will sell our bed, our philosophy, +our religion, in our opulence. + +There is good reason why we should prize this +liberation. The fate of the poor shepherd, who, +blinded and lost in the snow-storm, perishes in a +drift within a few feet of his cottage door, is an +emblem of the state of man. On the brink of the +waters of life and truth, we are miserably dying. +The inaccessibleness of every thought but that we +are in, is wonderful. What if you come near to it; +you are as remote when you are nearest as when you +are farthest. Every thought is also a prison; every +heaven is also a prison. Therefore we love the poet, +the inventor, who in any form, whether in an ode or +in an action or in looks and behavior has yielded +us a new thought. He unlocks our chains and admits +us to a new scene. + +This emancipation is dear to all men, and the power +to impart it, as it must come from greater depth and +scope of thought, is a measure of intellect. Therefore +all books of the imagination endure, all which ascend +to that truth that the writer sees nature beneath him, +and uses it as his exponent. Every verse or sentence +possessing this virtue will take care of its own +immortality. The religions of the world are the +ejaculations of a few imaginative men. + +But the quality of the imagination is to flow, +and not to freeze. The poet did not stop at the +color or the form, but read their meaning; neither +may he rest in this meaning, but he makes the same +objects exponents of his new thought. Here is the +difference betwixt the poet and the mystic, that +the last nails a symbol to one sense, which was a +true sense for a moment, but soon becomes old and +false. For all symbols are fluxional; all language +is vehicular and transitive, and is good, as ferries +and horses are, for conveyance, not as farms and +houses are, for homestead. Mysticism consists in +the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol +for an universal one. The morning-redness happens +to be the favorite meteor to the eyes of Jacob Behmen, +and comes to stand to him for truth and faith; and, +he believes, should stand for the same realities to +every reader. But the first reader prefers as +naturally the symbol of a mother and child, or a +gardener and his bulb, or a jeweller polishing a +gem. Either of these, or of a myriad more, are equally +good to the person to whom they are significant. Only +they must be held lightly, and be very willingly +translated into the equivalent terms which others use. +And the mystic must be steadily told,--All that you +say is just as true without the tedious use of that +symbol as with it. Let us have a little algebra, +instead of this trite rhetoric,--universal signs, +instead of these village symbols,--and we shall both +be gainers. The history of hierarchies seems to show +that all religious error consisted in making the +symbol too stark and solid, and was at last nothing +but an excess of the organ of language. + +Swedenborg, of all men in the recent ages, stands +eminently for the translator of nature into thought. +I do not know the man in history to whom things +stood so uniformly for words. Before him the +metamorphosis continually plays. Everything on which +his eye rests, obeys the impulses of moral nature. +The figs become grapes whilst he eats them. When +some of his angels affirmed a truth, the laurel twig +which they held blossomed in their hands. The noise +which at a distance appeared like gnashing and +thumping, on coming nearer was found to be the voice +of disputants. The men in one of his visions, seen in +heavenly light, appeared like dragons, and seemed in +darkness; but to each other they appeared as men, and +when the light from heaven shone into their cabin, +they complained of the darkness, and were compelled +to shut the window that they might see. + +There was this perception in him which makes the poet +or seer an object of awe and terror, namely that the +same man or society of men may wear one aspect to +themselves and their companions, and a different aspect +to higher intelligences. Certain priests, whom he +describes as conversing very learnedly together, +appeared to the children who were at some distance, +like dead horses; and many the like misappearances. And +instantly the mind inquires whether these fishes under +the bridge, yonder oxen in the pasture, those dogs in +the yard, are immutably fishes, oxen, and dogs, or only +so appear to me, and perchance to themselves appear +upright men; and whether I appear as a man to all eyes. +The Bramins and Pythagoras propounded the same question, +and if any poet has witnessed the transformation he +doubtless found it in harmony with various experiences. +We have all seen changes as considerable in wheat and +caterpillars. He is the poet and shall draw us with +love and terror, who sees through the flowing vest the +firm nature, and can declare it. + +I look in vain for the poet whom I describe. We do +not with sufficient plainness or sufficient +profoundness address ourselves to life, nor dare we +chaunt our own times and social circumstance. If we +filled the day with bravery, we should not shrink +from celebrating it. Time and nature yield us many +gifts, but not yet the timely man, the new religion, +the reconciler, whom all things await. Dante's praise +is that he dared to write his autobiography in colossal +cipher, or into universality. We have yet had no genius +in America, with tyrannous eye, which knew the value of +our incomparable materials, and saw, in the barbarism +and materialism of the times, another carnival of the +same gods whose picture he so much admires in Homer; +then in the Middle Age; then in Calvinism. Banks and +tariffs, the newspaper and caucus, Methodism and +Unitarianism, are flat and dull to dull people, but +rest on the same foundations of wonder as the town of +Troy and the temple of Delphi, and are as swiftly passing +away. Our logrolling, our stumps and their politics, our +fisheries, our Negroes and Indians, our boats and our +repudiations, the wrath of rogues and the pusillanimity +of honest men, the northern trade, the southern planting, +the western clearing, Oregon and Texas, are yet unsung. +Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography +dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for +metres. If I have not found that excellent combination +of gifts in my countrymen which I seek, neither could +I aid myself to fix the idea of the poet by reading now +and then in Chalmers's collection of five centuries of +English poets. These are wits more than poets, though +there have been poets among them. But when we adhere +to the ideal of the poet, we have our difficulties even +with Milton and Homer. Milton is too literary, and Homer +too literal and historical. + +But I am not wise enough for a national criticism, +and must use the old largeness a little longer, to +discharge my errand from the muse to the poet +concerning his art. + +Art is the path of the creator to his work. The +paths or methods are ideal and eternal, though few +men ever see them; not the artist himself for years, +or for a lifetime, unless he come into the conditions. +The painter, the sculptor, the composer, the epic +rhapsodist, the orator, all partake one desire, namely +to express themselves symmetrically and abundantly, +not dwarfishly and fragmentarily. They found or put +themselves in certain conditions, as, the painter and +sculptor before some impressive human figures; the +orator, into the assembly of the people; and the others +in such scenes as each has found exciting to his +intellect; and each presently feels the new desire. +He hears a voice, he sees a beckoning. Then he is +apprised, with wonder, what herds of daemons hem him +in. He can no more rest; he says, with the old painter, +"By God, it is in me and must go forth of me." He +pursues a beauty, half seen, which flies before him. +The poet pours out verses in every solitude. Most of +the things he says are conventional, no doubt; but by +and by he says something which is original and beautiful. +That charms him. He would say nothing else but such +things. In our way of talking we say 'That is yours, +this is mine;' but the poet knows well that it is not +his; that it is as strange and beautiful to him as to +you; he would fain hear the like eloquence at length. +Once having tasted this immortal ichor, he cannot have +enough of it, and as an admirable creative power exists +in these intellections, it is of the last importance +that these things get spoken. What a little of all we +know is said! What drops of all the sea of our science +are baled up! and by what accident it is that these are +exposed, when so many secrets sleep in nature! Hence the +necessity of speech and song; hence these throbs and +heart-beatings in the orator, at the door of the assembly, +to the end namely that thought may be ejaculated as Logos, +or Word. + +Doubt not, O poet, but persist. Say 'It is in me, +and shall out.' Stand there, balked and dumb, +stuttering and stammering, hissed and hooted, stand +and strive, until at last rage draw out of thee that +dream-power which every night shows thee is thine +own; a power transcending all limit and privacy, and +by virtue of which a man is the conductor of the +whole river of electricity. Nothing walks, or creeps, +or grows, or exists, which must not in turn arise +and walk before him as exponent of his meaning. Comes +he to that power, his genius is no longer exhaustible. +All the creatures by pairs and by tribes pour into +his mind as into a Noah's ark, to come forth again +to people a new world. This is like the stock of air +for our respiration or for the combustion of our +fireplace; not a measure of gallons, but the entire +atmosphere if wanted. And therefore the rich poets, +as Homer, Chaucer, Shakspeare, and Raphael, have +obviously no limits to their works except the limits +of their lifetime, and resemble a mirror carried +through the street, ready to render an image of every +created thing. + +O poet! a new nobility is conferred in groves and +pastures, and not in castles or by the sword-blade +any longer. The conditions are hard, but equal. +Thou shalt leave the world, and know the muse only. +Thou shalt not know any longer the times, customs, +graces, politics, or opinions of men, but shalt take +all from the muse. For the time of towns is tolled +from the world by funereal chimes, but in nature the +universal hours are counted by succeeding tribes of +animals and plants, and by growth of joy on joy. God +wills also that thou abdicate a manifold and duplex +life, and that thou be content that others speak for +thee. Others shall be thy gentlemen and shall +represent all courtesy and worldly life for thee; +others shall do the great and resounding actions also. +Thou shalt lie close hid with nature, and canst not +be afforded to the Capitol or the Exchange. The world +is full of renunciations and apprenticeships, and this +is thine: thou must pass for a fool and a churl for a +long season. This is the screen and sheath in which +Pan has protected his well-beloved flower, and thou +shalt be known only to thine own, and they shall +console thee with tenderest love. And thou shalt not +be able to rehearse the names of thy friends in thy +verse, for an old shame before the holy ideal. And +this is the reward; that the ideal shall be real to +thee, and the impressions of the actual world shall +fall like summer rain, copious, but not troublesome, +to thy invulnerable essence. Thou shalt have the whole +land for thy park and manor, the sea for thy bath and +navigation, without tax and without envy; the woods +and the rivers thou shalt own; and thou shalt possess +that wherein others are only tenants and boarders. +Thou true land-lord! sea-lord! air-lord! Wherever +snow falls or water flows or birds fly, wherever day +and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue heaven +is hung by clouds or sown with stars, wherever are +forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets +into celestial space, wherever is danger, and awe, and +love,--there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for thee, +and though thou shouldest walk the world over, thou shalt +not be able to find a condition inopportune or ignoble. + + + + +EXPERIENCE. + +THE lords of life, the lords of life,-- +I saw them pass, +In their own guise, +Like and unlike, +Portly and grim, +Use and Surprise, +Surface and Dream, +Succession swift, and spectral Wrong, +Temperament without a tongue, +And the inventor of the game +Omnipresent without name;-- +Some to see, some to be guessed, +They marched from east to west: +Little man, least of all, +Among the legs of his guardians tall, +Walked about with puzzled look:-- +Him by the hand dear Nature took; +Dearest Nature, strong and kind, +Whispered, 'Darling, never mind! +Tomorrow they will wear another face, +The founder thou! these are thy race!' + +II. +EXPERIENCE. + +WHERE do we find ourselves? In a series of which +we do not know the extremes, and believe that it +has none. We wake and find ourselves on a stair; +there are stairs below us, which we seem to have +ascended; there are stairs above us, many a one, +which go upward and out of sight. But the Genius +which according to the old belief stands at the +door by which we enter, and gives us the lethe to +drink, that we may tell no tales, mixed the cup +too strongly, and we cannot shake off the lethargy +now at noonday. Sleep lingers all our lifetime +about our eyes, as night hovers all day in the +boughs of the fir-tree. All things swim and glitter. +Our life is not so much threatened as our perception. +Ghostlike we glide through nature, and should not +know our place again. Did our birth fall in some +fit of indigence and frugality in nature, that she +was so sparing of her fire and so liberal of her +earth that it appears to us that we lack the +affirmative principle, and though we have health +and reason, yet we have no superfluity of spirit +for new creation? We have enough to live and bring +the year about, but not an ounce to impart or to +invest. Ah that our Genius were a little more of a +genius! We are like millers on the lower levels of +a stream, when the factories above them have +exhausted the water. We too fancy that the upper +people must have raised their dams. + +If any of us knew what we were doing, or where we +are going, then when we think we best know! We do +not know to-day whether we are busy or idle. In +times when we thought ourselves indolent, we have +afterwards discovered that much was accomplished, +and much was begun in us. All our days are so +unprofitable while they pass, that 'tis wonderful +where or when we ever got anything of this which +we call wisdom, poetry, virtue. We never got it on +any dated calendar day. Some heavenly days must have +been intercalated somewhere, like those that Hermes +won with dice of the Moon, that Osiris might be born. +It is said all martyrdoms looked mean when they were +suffered. Every ship is a romantic object, except +that we sail in. Embark, and the romance quits our +vessel and hangs on every other sail in the horizon. +Our life looks trivial, and we shun to record it. Men +seem to have learned of the horizon the art of +perpetual retreating and reference. 'Yonder uplands +are rich pasturage, and my neighbor has fertile +meadow, but my field,' says the querulous farmer, +'only holds the world together.' I quote another man's +saying; unluckily that other withdraws himself in the +same way, and quotes me. 'Tis the trick of nature +thus to degrade to-day; a good deal of buzz, and +somewhere a result slipped magically in. Every roof is +agreeable to the eye until it is lifted; then we find +tragedy and moaning women and hard-eyed husbands and +deluges of lethe, and the men ask, 'What's the news?' +as if the old were so bad. How many individuals can we +count in society? how many actions? how many opinions? +So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, +and so much retrospect, that the pith of each man's +genius contracts itself to a very few hours. The history +of literature--take the net result of Tiraboschi, Warton, +or Schlegel,--is a sum of very few ideas and of very few +original tales; all the rest being variation of these. +So in this great society wide lying around us, a critical +analysis would find very few spontaneous actions. It is +almost all custom and gross sense. There are even few +opinions, and these seem organic in the speakers, and do +not disturb the universal necessity. + +What opium is instilled into all disaster! It shows +formidable as we approach it, but there is at last no +rough rasping friction, but the most slippery sliding +surfaces. We fall soft on a thought; Ate Dea is gentle,-- + + "Over men's heads walking aloft, + With tender feet treading so soft." + +People grieve and bemoan themselves, but it is not +half so bad with them as they say. There are moods +in which we court suffering, in the hope that here +at least we shall find reality, sharp peaks and +edges of truth. But it turns out to be scene-painting +and counterfeit. The only thing grief has taught me +is to know how shallow it is. That, like all the rest, +plays about the surface, and never introduces me into +the reality, for contact with which we would even pay +the costly price of sons and lovers. Was it Boscovich +who found out that bodies never come in contact? Well, +souls never touch their objects. An innavigable sea +washes with silent waves between us and the things we +aim at and converse with. Grief too will make us +idealists. In the death of my son, now more than two +years ago, I seem to have lost a beautiful estate,--no +more. I cannot get it nearer to me. If to-morrow I +should be informed of the bankruptcy of my principal +debtors, the loss of my property would be a great +inconvenience to me, perhaps, for many years; but it +would leave me as it found me,--neither better nor +worse. So is it with this calamity: it does not touch +me; something which I fancied was a part of me, which +could not be torn away without tearing me nor enlarged +without enriching me, falls off from me and leaves no +scar. It was caducous. I grieve that grief can teach +me nothing, nor carry me one step into real nature. +The Indian who was laid under a curse that the wind +should not blow on him, nor water flow to him, nor +fire burn him, is a type of us all. The dearest events +are summer-rain, and we the Para coats that shed every +drop. Nothing is left us now but death. We look to that +with a grim satisfaction, saying There at least is +reality that will not dodge us. + +I take this evanescence and lubricity of all objects, +which lets them slip through our fingers then when +we clutch hardest, to be the most unhandsome part of +our condition. Nature does not like to be observed, +and likes that we should be her fools and playmates. +We may have the sphere for our cricket-ball, but not +a berry for our philosophy. Direct strokes she never +gave us power to make; all our blows glance, all our +hits are accidents. Our relations to each other are +oblique and casual. + +Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to +illusion. Life is a train of moods like a string of +beads, and as we pass through them they prove to be +many-colored lenses which paint the world their own +hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus. From +the mountain you see the mountain. We animate what we +can, and we see only what we animate. Nature and books +belong to the eyes that see them. It depends on the +mood of the man whether he shall see the sunset or the +fine poem. There are always sunsets, and there is +always genius; but only a few hours so serene that we +can relish nature or criticism. The more or less +depends on structure or temperament. Temperament is the +iron wire on which the beads are strung. Of what use is +fortune or talent to a cold and defective nature? Who +cares what sensibility or discrimination a man has at +some time shown, if he falls asleep in his chair? or if +he laugh and giggle? or if he apologize? or is infected +with egotism? or thinks of his dollar? or cannot go by +food? or has gotten a child in his boyhood? Of what use +is genius, if the organ is too convex or too concave +and cannot find a focal distance within the actual +horizon of human life? Of what use, if the brain is too +cold or too hot, and the man does not care enough for +results to stimulate him to experiment, and hold him up +in it? or if the web is too finely woven, too irritable +by pleasure and pain, so that life stagnates from too +much reception without due outlet? Of what use to make +heroic vows of amendment, if the same old law-breaker +is to keep them? What cheer can the religious sentiment +yield, when that is suspected to be secretly dependent +on the seasons of the year and the state of the blood? +I knew a witty physician who found the creed in the +biliary duct, and used to affirm that if there was +disease in the liver, the man became a Calvinist, and +if that organ was sound, he became a Unitarian. Very +mortifying is the reluctant experience that some +unfriendly excess or imbecility neutralizes the promise +of genius. We see young men who owe us a new world, so +readily and lavishly they promise, but they never acquit +the debt; they die young and dodge the account; or if +they live they lose themselves in the crowd. + +Temperament also enters fully into the system of +illusions and shuts us in a prison of glass which +we cannot see. There is an optical illusion about +every person we meet. In truth they are all +creatures of given temperament, which will appear +in a given character, whose boundaries they will +never pass: but we look at them, they seem alive, +and we presume there is impulse in them. In the +moment it seems impulse; in the year, in the lifetime, +it turns out to be a certain uniform tune which the +revolving barrel of the music-box must play. Men +resist the conclusion in the morning, but adopt it +as the evening wears on, that temper prevails over +everything of time, place, and condition, and is +inconsumable in the flames of religion. Some +modifications the moral sentiment avails to impose, +but the individual texture holds its dominion, if not +to bias the moral judgments, yet to fix the measure +of activity and of enjoyment. + +I thus express the law as it is read from the +platform of ordinary life, but must not leave +it without noticing the capital exception. For +temperament is a power which no man willingly +hears any one praise but himself. On the platform +of physics we cannot resist the contracting +influences of so-called science. Temperament puts +all divinity to rout. I know the mental proclivity +of physicians. I hear the chuckle of the phrenologists. +Theoretic kidnappers and slave-drivers, they esteem +each man the victim of another, who winds him round +his finger by knowing the law of his being; and by +such cheap signboards as the color of his beard or +the slope of his occiput, reads the inventory of his +fortunes and character. The grossest ignorance does +not disgust like this impudent knowingness. The +physicians say they are not materialists; but they +are:--Spirit is matter reduced to an extreme thinness: +O so thin!--But the definition of spiritual should be, +that which is its own evidence. What notions do they +attach to love! what to religion! One would not +willingly pronounce these words in their hearing, +and give them the occasion to profane them. I saw a +gracious gentleman who adapts his conversation to the +form of the head of the man he talks with! I had +fancied that the value of life lay in its inscrutable +possibilities; in the fact that I never know, in +addressing myself to a new individual, what may befall +me. I carry the keys of my castle in my hand, ready to +throw them at the feet of my lord, whenever and in what +disguise soever he shall appear. I know he is in the +neighborhood hidden among vagabonds. Shall I preclude +my future by taking a high seat and kindly adapting my +conversation to the shape of heads? When I come to that, +the doctors shall buy me for a cent.--'But, sir, medical +history; the report to the Institute; the proven facts!' +--I distrust the facts and the inferences. Temperament +is the veto or limitation-power in the constitution, +very justly applied to restrain an opposite excess in +the constitution, but absurdly offered as a bar to +original equity. When virtue is in presence, all +subordinate powers sleep. On its own level, or in +view of nature, temperament is final. I see not, if +one be once caught in this trap of so-called sciences, +any escape for the man from the links of the chain of +physical necessity. Given such an embryo, such a +history must follow. On this platform one lives in a +sty of sensualism, and would soon come to suicide. +But it is impossible that the creative power should +exclude itself. Into every intelligence there is a door +which is never closed, through which the creator passes. +The intellect, seeker of absolute truth, or the heart, +lover of absolute good, intervenes for our succor, and +at one whisper of these high powers we awake from +ineffectual struggles with this nightmare. We hurl it +into its own hell, and cannot again contract ourselves +to so base a state. + +The secret of the illusoriness is in the necessity +of a succession of moods or objects. Gladly we would +anchor, but the anchorage is quicksand. This onward +trick of nature is too strong for us: Pero si muove. +When at night I look at the moon and stars, I seem +stationary, and they to hurry. Our love of the real +draws us to permanence, but health of body consists +in circulation, and sanity of mind in variety or +facility of association. We need change of objects. +Dedication to one thought is quickly odious. We house +with the insane, and must humor them; then conversation +dies out. Once I took such delight in Montaigne, that +I thought I should not need any other book; before that, +in Shakspeare; then in Plutarch; then in Plotinus; at +one time in Bacon; afterwards in Goethe; even in Bettine; +but now I turn the pages of either of them languidly, +whilst I still cherish their genius. So with pictures; +each will bear an emphasis of attention once, which it +cannot retain, though we fain would continue to be +pleased in that manner. How strongly I have felt of +pictures that when you have seen one well, you must +take your leave of it; you shall never see it again. +I have had good lessons from pictures which I have +since seen without emotion or remark. A deduction must +be made from the opinion which even the wise express +of a new book or occurrence. Their opinion gives me +tidings of their mood, and some vague guess at the +new fact, but is nowise to be trusted as the lasting +relation between that intellect and that thing. The +child asks, 'Mamma, why don't I like the story as well +as when you told it me yesterday?' Alas! child it is +even so with the oldest cherubim of knowledge. But +will it answer thy question to say, Because thou wert +born to a whole and this story is a particular? The +reason of the pain this discovery causes us (and we +make it late in respect to works of art and intellect), +is the plaint of tragedy which murmurs from it in regard +to persons, to friendship and love. + +That immobility and absence of elasticity which +we find in the arts, we find with more pain in the +artist. There is no power of expansion in men. Our +friends early appear to us as representatives of +certain ideas which they never pass or exceed. They +stand on the brink of the ocean of thought and power, +but they never take the single step that would bring +them there. A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, +which has no lustre as you turn it in your hand until +you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep +and beautiful colors. There is no adaptation or +universal applicability in men, but each has his +special talent, and the mastery of successful men +consists in adroitly keeping themselves where and +when that turn shall be oftenest to be practised. +We do what we must, and call it by the best names +we can, and would fain have the praise of having +intended the result which ensues. I cannot recall +any form of man who is not superfluous sometimes. +But is not this pitiful? Life is not worth the +taking, to do tricks in. + +Of course it needs the whole society to give the +symmetry we seek. The party-colored wheel must +revolve very fast to appear white. Something is +earned too by conversing with so much folly and +defect. In fine, whoever loses, we are always of +the gaining party. Divinity is behind our failures +and follies also. The plays of children are nonsense, +but very educative nonsense. So it is with the largest +and solemnest things, with commerce, government, +church, marriage, and so with the history of every +man's bread, and the ways by which he is to come by +it. Like a bird which alights nowhere, but hops +perpetually from bough to bough, is the Power which +abides in no man and in no woman, but for a moment +speaks from this one, and for another moment from +that one. + +But what help from these fineries or pedantries? +What help from thought? Life is not dialectics. +We, I think, in these times, have had lessons +enough of the futility of criticism. Our young +people have thought and written much on labor and +reform, and for all that they have written, neither +the world nor themselves have got on a step. +Intellectual tasting of life will not supersede +muscular activity. If a man should consider the +nicety of the passage of a piece of bread down his +throat, he would starve. At Education-Farm, the +noblest theory of life sat on the noblest figures +of young men and maidens, quite powerless and +melancholy. It would not rake or pitch a ton of hay; +it would not rub down a horse; and the men and +maidens it left pale and hungry. A political orator +wittily compared our party promises to western roads, +which opened stately enough, with planted trees on +either side to tempt the traveller, but soon became +narrow and narrower and ended in a squirrel-track +and ran up a tree. So does culture with us; it ends +in headache. Unspeakably sad and barren does life +look to those who a few months ago were dazzled with +the splendor of the promise of the times. "There is +now no longer any right course of action nor any +self-devotion left among the Iranis." Objections and +criticism we have had our fill of. There are objections +to every course of life and action, and the practical +wisdom infers an indifferency, from the omnipresence +of objection. The whole frame of things preaches +indifferency. Do not craze yourself with thinking, but +go about your business anywhere. Life is not intellectual +or critical, but sturdy. Its chief good is for well-mixed +people who can enjoy what they find, without question. +Nature hates peeping, and our mothers speak her very +sense when they say, "Children, eat your victuals, and +say no more of it." To fill the hour,--that is happiness; +to fill the hour and leave no crevice for a repentance +or an approval. We live amid surfaces, and the true art +of life is to skate well on them. Under the oldest +mouldiest conventions a man of native force prospers +just as well as in the newest world, and that by skill +of handling and treatment. He can take hold anywhere. +Life itself is a mixture of power and form, and will +not bear the least excess of either. To finish the +moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the +road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is +wisdom. It is not the part of men, but of fanatics, +or of mathematicians if you will, to say that the +shortness of life considered, it is not worth caring +whether for so short a duration we were sprawling in +want or sitting high. Since our office is with moments, +let us husband them. Five minutes of today are worth +as much to me as five minutes in the next millennium. +Let us be poised, and wise, and our own, today. Let us +treat the men and women well; treat them as if they +were real; perhaps they are. Men live in their fancy, +like drunkards whose hands are too soft and tremulous +for successful labor. It is a tempest of fancies, and +the only ballast I know is a respect to the present +hour. Without any shadow of doubt, amidst this vertigo +of shows and politics, I settle myself ever the firmer +in the creed that we should not postpone and refer and +wish, but do broad justice where we are, by whomsoever +we deal with, accepting our actual companions and +circumstances, however humble or odious as the mystic +officials to whom the universe has delegated its +whole pleasure for us. If these are mean and malignant, +their contentment, which is the last victory of justice, +is a more satisfying echo to the heart than the voice +of poets and the casual sympathy of admirable persons. +I think that however a thoughtful man may suffer from +the defects and absurdities of his company, he cannot +without affectation deny to any set of men and women +a sensibility to extraordinary merit. The coarse and +frivolous have an instinct of superiority, if they have +not a sympathy, and honor it in their blind capricious +way with sincere homage. + +The fine young people despise life, but in me, +and in such as with me are free from dyspepsia, +and to whom a day is a sound and solid good, it +is a great excess of politeness to look scornful +and to cry for company. I am grown by sympathy a +little eager and sentimental, but leave me alone +and I should relish every hour and what it brought +me, the potluck of the day, as heartily as the oldest +gossip in the bar-room. I am thankful for small +mercies. I compared notes with one of my friends +who expects everything of the universe and is +disappointed when anything is less than the best, +and I found that I begin at the other extreme, +expecting nothing, and am always full of thanks for +moderate goods. I accept the clangor and jangle of +contrary tendencies. I find my account in sots and +bores also. They give a reality to the circumjacent +picture which such a vanishing meteorous appearance +can ill spare. In the morning I awake and find the +old world, wife, babes, and mother, Concord and +Boston, the dear old spiritual world and even the +dear old devil not far off. If we will take the good +we find, asking no questions, we shall have heaping +measures. The great gifts are not got by analysis. +Everything good is on the highway. The middle region +of our being is the temperate zone. We may climb +into the thin and cold realm of pure geometry and +lifeless science, or sink into that of sensation. +Between these extremes is the equator of life, of +thought, of spirit, of poetry,--a narrow belt. +Moreover, in popular experience everything good is +on the highway. A collector peeps into all the +picture-shops of Europe for a landscape of Poussin, +a crayon-sketch of Salvator; but the Transfiguration, +the Last Judgment, the Communion of St. Jerome, and +what are as transcendent as these, are on the walls +of the Vatican, the Uffizii, or the Louvre, where +every footman may see them; to say nothing of Nature's +pictures in every street, of sunsets and sunrises +every day, and the sculpture of the human body never +absent. A collector recently bought at public auction, +in London, for one hundred and fifty-seven guineas, +an autograph of Shakspeare; but for nothing a school-boy +can read Hamlet and can detect secrets of highest +concernment yet unpublished therein. I think I will +never read any but the commonest books,--the Bible, +Homer, Dante, Shakspeare, and Milton. Then we are +impatient of so public a life and planet, and run +hither and thither for nooks and secrets. The +imagination delights in the woodcraft of Indians, +trappers, and bee-hunters. We fancy that we are +strangers, and not so intimately domesticated in the +planet as the wild man and the wild beast and bird. +But the exclusion reaches them also; reaches the +climbing, flying, gliding, feathered and four-footed +man. Fox and woodchuck, hawk and snipe and bittern, +when nearly seen, have no more root in the deep world +than man, and are just such superficial tenants of the +globe. Then the new molecular philosophy shows +astronomical interspaces betwixt atom and atom, shows +that the world is all outside; it has no inside. + +The mid-world is best. Nature, as we know her, is +no saint. The lights of the church, the ascetics, +Gentoos, and corn-eaters, she does not distinguish +by any favor. She comes eating and drinking and +sinning. Her darlings, the great, the strong, the +beautiful, are not children of our law; do not come +out of the Sunday School, nor weigh their food, nor +punctually keep the commandments. If we will be +strong with her strength we must not harbor such +disconsolate consciences, borrowed too from the +consciences of other nations. We must set up the +strong present tense against all the rumors of +wrath, past or to come. So many things are unsettled +which it is of the first importance to settle;--and, +pending their settlement, we will do as we do. Whilst +the debate goes forward on the equity of commerce, +and will not be closed for a century or two, New and +Old England may keep shop. Law of copyright and +international copyright is to be discussed, and in +the interim we will sell our books for the most we +can. Expediency of literature, reason of literature, +lawfulness of writing down a thought, is questioned; +much is to say on both sides, and, while the fight +waxes hot, thou, dearest scholar, stick to thy +foolish task, add a line every hour, and between +whiles add a line. Right to hold land, right of +property, is disputed, and the conventions convene, +and before the vote is taken, dig away in your garden, +and spend your earnings as a waif or godsend to all +serene and beautiful purposes. Life itself is a bubble +and a skepticism, and a sleep within a sleep. Grant it, +and as much more as they will,--but thou, God's darling! +heed thy private dream; thou wilt not be missed in the +scorning and skepticism; there are enough of them; +stay there in thy closet and toil until the rest are +agreed what to do about it. Thy sickness, they say, +and thy puny habit require that thou do this or avoid +that, but know that thy life is a flitting state, a +tent for a night, and do thou, sick or well, finish +that stint. Thou art sick, but shalt not be worse, +and the universe, which holds thee dear, shall be the +better. + +Human life is made up of the two elements, power +and form, and the proportion must be invariably +kept if we would have it sweet and sound. Each +of these elements in excess makes a mischief as +hurtful as its defect. Everything runs to excess; +every good quality is noxious if unmixed, and, to +carry the danger to the edge of ruin, nature +causes each man's peculiarity to superabound. Here, +among the farms, we adduce the scholars as examples +of this treachery. They are nature's victims of +expression. You who see the artist, the orator, +the poet, too near, and find their life no more +excellent than that of mechanics or farmers, and +themselves victims of partiality, very hollow and +haggard, and pronounce them failures, not heroes, +but quacks,--conclude very reasonably that these +arts are not for man, but are disease. Yet nature +will not bear you out. Irresistible nature made +men such, and makes legions more of such, every +day. You love the boy reading in a book, gazing +at a drawing, or a cast; yet what are these millions +who read and behold, but incipient writers and +sculptors? Add a little more of that quality which +now reads and sees, and they will seize the pen and +chisel. And if one remembers how innocently he began +to be an artist, he perceives that nature joined with +his enemy. A man is a golden impossibility. The line +he must walk is a hair's breadth. The wise through +excess of wisdom is made a fool. + +How easily, if fate would suffer it, we might +keep forever these beautiful limits, and adjust +ourselves, once for all, to the perfect calculation +of the kingdom of known cause and effect. In the +street and in the newspapers, life appears so plain +a business that manly resolution and adherence to +the multiplication-table through all weathers will +insure success. But ah! presently comes a day, or +is it only a half-hour, with its angel-whispering, +--which discomfits the conclusions of nations and +of years! Tomorrow again everything looks real and +angular, the habitual standards are reinstated, +common sense is as rare as genius,--is the basis of +genius, and experience is hands and feet to every +enterprise;--and yet, he who should do his business +on this understanding would be quickly bankrupt. +Power keeps quite another road than the turnpikes +of choice and will; namely the subterranean and +invisible tunnels and channels of life. It is +ridiculous that we are diplomatists, and doctors, +and considerate people: there are no dupes like +these. Life is a series of surprises, and would not +be worth taking or keeping if it were not. God +delights to isolate us every day, and hide from us +the past and the future. We would look about us, +but with grand politeness he draws down before us +an impenetrable screen of purest sky, and another +behind us of purest sky. 'You will not remember,' +he seems to say, `and you will not expect.' All +good conversation, manners, and action, come from +a spontaneity which forgets usages and makes the +moment great. Nature hates calculators; her methods +are saltatory and impulsive. Man lives by pulses; +our organic movements are such; and the chemical +and ethereal agents are undulatory and alternate; +and the mind goes antagonizing on, and never +prospers but by fits. We thrive by casualties. Our +chief experiences have been casual. The most +attractive class of people are those who are +powerful obliquely and not by the direct stroke; +men of genius, but not yet accredited; one gets the +cheer of their light without paying too great a tax. +Theirs is the beauty of the bird or the morning +light, and not of art. In the thought of genius +there is always a surprise; and the moral sentiment +is well called "the newness," for it is never other; +as new to the oldest intelligence as to the young +child;--"the kingdom that cometh without observation." +In like manner, for practical success, there must not +be too much design. A man will not be observed in +doing that which he can do best. There is a certain +magic about his properest action which stupefies +your powers of observation, so that though it is done +before you, you wist not of it. The art of life has a +pudency, and will not be exposed. Every man is an +impossibility until he is born; every thing impossible +until we see a success. The ardors of piety agree at +last with the coldest skepticism,--that nothing is of +us or our works,--that all is of God. Nature will not +spare us the smallest leaf of laurel. All writing +comes by the grace of God, and all doing and having. +I would gladly be moral and keep due metes and bounds, +which I dearly love, and allow the most to the will of +man; but I have set my heart on honesty in this chapter, +and I can see nothing at last, in success or failure, +than more or less of vital force supplied from the +Eternal. The results of life are uncalculated and +uncalculable. The years teach much which the days +never know. The persons who compose our company, +converse, and come and go, and design and execute +many things, and somewhat comes of it all, but an +unlooked-for result. The individual is always mistaken. +He designed many things, and drew in other persons as +coadjutors, quarrelled with some or all, blundered much, +and something is done; all are a little advanced, but +the individual is always mistaken. It turns out somewhat +new and very unlike what he promised himself. + +The ancients, struck with this irreducibleness of +the elements of human life to calculation, exalted +Chance into a divinity; but that is to stay too +long at the spark, which glitters truly at one +point, but the universe is warm with the latency +of the same fire. The miracle of life which will +not be expounded but will remain a miracle, +introduces a new element. In the growth of the +embryo, Sir Everard Home I think noticed that the +evolution was not from one central point, but +coactive from three or more points. Life has no +memory. That which proceeds in succession might be +remembered, but that which is coexistent, or +ejaculated from a deeper cause, as yet far from +being conscious, knows not its own tendency. So is +it with us, now skeptical or without unity, because +immersed in forms and effects all seeming to be of +equal yet hostile value, and now religious, whilst +in the reception of spiritual law. Bear with these +distractions, with this coetaneous growth of the +parts; they will one day be members, and obey one +will. On that one will, on that secret cause, they +nail our attention and hope. Life is hereby melted +into an expectation or a religion. Underneath the +inharmonious and trivial particulars, is a musical +perfection; the Ideal journeying always with us, the +heaven without rent or seam. Do but observe the mode +of our illumination. When I converse with a profound +mind, or if at any time being alone I have good +thoughts, I do not at once arrive at satisfactions, +as when, being thirsty, I drink water; or go to the +fire, being cold; no! but I am at first apprised of +my vicinity to a new and excellent region of life. +By persisting to read or to think, this region gives +further sign of itself, as it were in flashes of light, +in sudden discoveries of its profound beauty and repose, +as if the clouds that covered it parted at intervals +and showed the approaching traveller the inland +mountains, with the tranquil eternal meadows spread at +their base, whereon flocks graze and shepherds pipe and +dance. But every insight from this realm of thought is +felt as initial, and promises a sequel. I do not make +it; I arrive there, and behold what was there already. +I make! O no! I clap my hands in infantine joy and +amazement before the first opening to me of this august +magnificence, old with the love and homage of innumerable +ages, young with the life of life, the sunbright Mecca +of the desert. And what a future it opens! I feel a new +heart beating with the love of the new beauty. I am +ready to die out of nature and be born again into this +new yet unapproachable America I have found in the West:-- + + "Since neither now nor yesterday began + These thoughts, which have been ever, nor yet can + A man be found who their first entrance knew." + +If I have described life as a flux of moods, I must +now add that there is that in us which changes not +and which ranks all sensations and states of mind. +The consciousness in each man is a sliding scale, +which identifies him now with the First Cause, and +now with the flesh of his body; life above life, in +infinite degrees. The sentiment from which it sprung +determines the dignity of any deed, and the question +ever is, not what you have done or forborne, but at +whose command you have done or forborne it. + +Fortune, Minerva, Muse, Holy Ghost,--these are +quaint names, too narrow to cover this unbounded +substance. The baffled intellect must still kneel +before this cause, which refuses to be named,-- +ineffable cause, which every fine genius has essayed +to represent by some emphatic symbol, as, Thales by +water, Anaximenes by air, Anaxagoras by (Nous) +thought, Zoroaster by fire, Jesus and the moderns by +love; and the metaphor of each has become a national +religion. The Chinese Mencius has not been the least +successful in his generalization. "I fully understand +language," he said, "and nourish well my vast-flowing +vigor."--"I beg to ask what you call vast-flowing +vigor?"--said his companion. "The explanation," replied +Mencius, "is difficult. This vigor is supremely great, +and in the highest degree unbending. Nourish it +correctly and do it no injury, and it will fill up +the vacancy between heaven and earth. This vigor +accords with and assists justice and reason, and +leaves no hunger."--In our more correct writing we +give to this generalization the name of Being, and +thereby confess that we have arrived as far as we can +go. Suffice it for the joy of the universe that we +have not arrived at a wall, but at interminable oceans. +Our life seems not present so much as prospective; not +for the affairs on which it is wasted, but as a hint +of this vast-flowing vigor. Most of life seems to be +mere advertisement of faculty; information is given us +not to sell ourselves cheap; that we are very great. So, +in particulars, our greatness is always in a tendency +or direction, not in an action. It is for us to believe +in the rule, not in the exception. The noble are thus +known from the ignoble. So in accepting the leading of +the sentiments, it is not what we believe concerning the +immortality of the soul or the like, but the universal +impulse to believe, that is the material circumstance +and is the principal fact in the history of the globe. +Shall we describe this cause as that which works +directly? The spirit is not helpless or needful of +mediate organs. It has plentiful powers and direct +effects. I am explained without explaining, I am felt +without acting, and where I am not. Therefore all just +persons are satisfied with their own praise. They refuse +to explain themselves, and are content that new actions +should do them that office. They believe that we +communicate without speech and above speech, and that +no right action of ours is quite unaffecting to our +friends, at whatever distance; for the influence of +action is not to be measured by miles. Why should I +fret myself because a circumstance has occurred which +hinders my presence where I was expected? If I am not +at the meeting, my presence where I am should be as +useful to the commonwealth of friendship and wisdom, +as would be my presence in that place. I exert the +same quality of power in all places. Thus journeys +the mighty Ideal before us; it never was known to fall +into the rear. No man ever came to an experience which +was satiating, but his good is tidings of a better. +Onward and onward! In liberated moments we know that +a new picture of life and duty is already possible; +the elements already exist in many minds around you +of a doctrine of life which shall transcend any +written record we have. The new statement will comprise +the skepticisms as well as the faiths of society, and +out of unbeliefs a creed shall be formed. For skepticisms +are not gratuitous or lawless, but are limitations of the +affirmative statement, and the new philosophy must take +them in and make affirmations outside of them, just as +much as it must include the oldest beliefs. + +It is very unhappy, but too late to be helped, +the discovery we have made that we exist. That +discovery is called the Fall of Man. Ever afterwards +we suspect our instruments. We have learned that we +do not see directly, but mediately, and that we have +no means of correcting these colored and distorting +lenses which we are, or of computing the amount of +their errors. Perhaps these subject-lenses have a +creative power; perhaps there are no objects. Once +we lived in what we saw; now, the rapaciousness of +this new power, which threatens to absorb all things, +engages us. Nature, art, persons, letters, religions, +objects, successively tumble in, and God is but one +of its ideas. Nature and literature are subjective +phenomena; every evil and every good thing is a shadow +which we cast. The street is full of humiliations to +the proud. As the fop contrived to dress his bailiffs +in his livery and make them wait on his guests at +table, so the chagrins which the bad heart gives off +as bubbles, at once take form as ladies and gentlemen +in the street, shopmen or bar-keepers in hotels, and +threaten or insult whatever is threatenable and +insultable in us. 'Tis the same with our idolatries. +People forget that it is the eye which makes the +horizon, and the rounding mind's eye which makes this +or that man a type or representative of humanity, with +the name of hero or saint. Jesus, the "providential +man," is a good man on whom many people are agreed that +these optical laws shall take effect. By love on one +part and by forbearance to press objection on the other +part, it is for a time settled, that we will look at +him in the centre of the horizon, and ascribe to him +the properties that will attach to any man so seen. But +the longest love or aversion has a speedy term. The great +and crescive self, rooted in absolute nature, supplants +all relative existence and ruins the kingdom of mortal +friendship and love. Marriage (in what is called the +spiritual world) is impossible, because of the inequality +between every subject and every object. The subject is +the receiver of Godhead, and at every comparison must +feel his being enhanced by that cryptic might. Though not +in energy, yet by presence, this magazine of substance +cannot be otherwise than felt; nor can any force of +intellect attribute to the object the proper deity which +sleeps or wakes forever in every subject. Never can love +make consciousness and ascription equal in force. There +will be the same gulf between every me and thee as +between the original and the picture. The universe is +the bride of the soul. All private sympathy is partial. +Two human beings are like globes, which can touch only +in a point, and whilst they remain in contact, all other +points of each of the spheres are inert; their turn must +also come, and the longer a particular union lasts the +more energy of appetency the parts not in union acquire. + +Life will be imaged, but cannot be divided nor +doubled. Any invasion of its unity would be chaos. +The soul is not twin-born but the only begotten, +and though revealing itself as child in time, child +in appearance, is of a fatal and universal power, +admitting no co-life. Every day, every act betrays +the ill-concealed deity. We believe in ourselves as +we do not believe in others. We permit all things to +ourselves, and that which we call sin in others is +experiment for us. It is an instance of our faith in +ourselves that men never speak of crime as lightly +as they think; or every man thinks a latitude safe +for himself which is nowise to be indulged to another. +The act looks very differently on the inside and on +the outside; in its quality and in its consequences. +Murder in the murderer is no such ruinous thought as +poets and romancers will have it; it does not unsettle +him or fright him from his ordinary notice of trifles; +it is an act quite easy to be contemplated; but in +its sequel it turns out to be a horrible jangle and +confounding of all relations. Especially the crimes +that spring from love seem right and fair from the +actor's point of view, but when acted are found +destructive of society. No man at last believes that +he can be lost, nor that the crime in him is as black +as in the felon. Because the intellect qualifies in +our own case the moral judgments. For there is no +crime to the intellect. That is antinomian or hypernomian, +and judges law as well as fact. "It is worse than a +crime, it is a blunder," said Napoleon, speaking the +language of the intellect. To it, the world is a problem +in mathematics or the science of quantity, and it +leaves out praise and blame and all weak emotions. All +stealing is comparative. If you come to absolutes, +pray who does not steal? Saints are sad, because they +behold sin (even when they speculate), from the point +of view of the conscience, and not of the intellect; +a confusion of thought. Sin, seen from the thought, +is a diminution, or less: seen from the conscience or +will, it is pravity or bad. The intellect names it +shade, absence of light, and no essence. The conscience +must feel it as essence, essential evil. This it is +not; it has an objective existence, but no subjective. + +Thus inevitably does the universe wear our color, +and every object fall successively into the subject +itself. The subject exists, the subject enlarges; +all things sooner or later fall into place. As I am, +so I see; use what language we will, we can never +say anything but what we are; Hermes, Cadmus, Columbus, +Newton, Bonaparte, are the mind's ministers. Instead +of feeling a poverty when we encounter a great man, +let us treat the new comer like a travelling geologist +who passes through our estate and shows us good slate, +or limestone, or anthracite, in our brush pasture. +The partial action of each strong mind in one direction +is a telescope for the objects on which it is pointed. +But every other part of knowledge is to be pushed to +the same extravagance, ere the soul attains her due +sphericity. Do you see that kitten chasing so prettily +her own tail? If you could look with her eyes you +might see her surrounded with hundreds of figures +performing complex dramas, with tragic and comic +issues, long conversations, many characters, many ups +and downs of fate,--and meantime it is only puss and +her tail. How long before our masquerade will end its +noise of tambourines, laughter, and shouting, and we +shall find it was a solitary performance? A subject +and an object,--it takes so much to make the galvanic +circuit complete, but magnitude adds nothing. What +imports it whether it is Kepler and the sphere, Columbus +and America, a reader and his book, or puss with her tail? + +It is true that all the muses and love and religion +hate these developments, and will find a way to +punish the chemist who publishes in the parlor the +secrets of the laboratory. And we cannot say too +little of our constitutional necessity of seeing +things under private aspects, or saturated with our +humors. And yet is the God the native of these bleak +rocks. That need makes in morals the capital virtue +of self-trust. We must hold hard to this poverty, +however scandalous, and by more vigorous self-recoveries, +after the sallies of action, possess our axis more +firmly. The life of truth is cold and so far mournful; +but it is not the slave of tears, contritions and +perturbations. It does not attempt another's work, +nor adopt another's facts. It is a main lesson of +wisdom to know your own from another's. I have learned +that I cannot dispose of other people's facts; but I +possess such a key to my own as persuades me, against +all their denials, that they also have a key to theirs. +A sympathetic person is placed in the dilemma of a +swimmer among drowning men, who all catch at him, and +if he give so much as a leg or a finger they will drown +him. They wish to be saved from the mischiefs of their +vices, but not from their vices. Charity would be +wasted on this poor waiting on the symptoms. A wise and +hardy physician will say, Come out of that, as the first +condition of advice. + +In this our talking America we are ruined by our good +nature and listening on all sides. This compliance +takes away the power of being greatly useful. A man +should not be able to look other than directly and +forthright. A preoccupied attention is the only answer +to the importunate frivolity of other people; an +attention, and to an aim which makes their wants +frivolous. This is a divine answer, and leaves no +appeal and no hard thoughts. In Flaxman's drawing +of the Eumenides of Aeschylus, Orestes supplicates +Apollo, whilst the Furies sleep on the threshold. +The face of the god expresses a shade of regret and +compassion, but is calm with the conviction of the +irreconcilableness of the two spheres. He is born +into other politics, into the eternal and beautiful. +The man at his feet asks for his interest in turmoils +of the earth, into which his nature cannot enter. And +the Eumenides there lying express pictorially this +disparity. The god is surcharged with his divine destiny. + +Illusion, Temperament, Succession, Surface, Surprise, +Reality, Subjectiveness,--these are threads on the +loom of time, these are the lords of life. I dare not +assume to give their order, but I name them as I find +them in my way. I know better than to claim any +completeness for my picture. I am a fragment, and this +is a fragment of me. I can very confidently announce +one or another law, which throws itself into relief +and form, but I am too young yet by some ages to +compile a code. I gossip for my hour concerning the +eternal politics. I have seen many fair pictures not +in vain. A wonderful time I have lived in. I am not +the novice I was fourteen, nor yet seven years ago. +Let who will ask Where is the fruit? I find a private +fruit sufficient. This is a fruit,--that I should not +ask for a rash effect from meditations, counsels and +the hiving of truths. I should feel it pitiful to +demand a result on this town and county, an overt +effect on the instant month and year. The effect is +deep and secular as the cause. It works on periods in +which mortal lifetime is lost. All I know is reception; +I am and I have: but I do not get, and when I have +fancied I had gotten anything, I found I did not. I +worship with wonder the great Fortune. My reception has +been so large, that I am not annoyed by receiving this +or that superabundantly. I say to the Genius, if he will +pardon the proverb, In for a mill, in for a million. When +I receive a new gift, I do not macerate my body to make +the account square, for if I should die I could not make +the account square. The benefit overran the merit the +first day, and has overrun the merit ever since. The +merit itself, so-called, I reckon part of the receiving. + +Also that hankering after an overt or practical +effect seems to me an apostasy. In good earnest +I am willing to spare this most unnecessary deal +of doing. Life wears to me a visionary face. +Hardest roughest action is visionary also. It is +but a choice between soft and turbulent dreams. +People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, +and urge doing. I am very content with knowing, if +only I could know. That is an august entertainment, +and would suffice me a great while. To know a little +would be worth the expense of this world. I hear +always the law of Adrastia, "that every soul which +had acquired any truth, should be safe from harm +until another period." + +I know that the world I converse with in the city +and in the farms, is not the world I think. I observe +that difference, and shall observe it. One day I shall +know the value and law of this discrepance. But I have +not found that much was gained by manipular attempts +to realize the world of thought. Many eager persons +successively make an experiment in this way, and make +themselves ridiculous. They acquire democratic manners, +they foam at the mouth, they hate and deny. Worse, I +observe that in the history of mankind there is never +a solitary example of success,--taking their own tests +of success. I say this polemically, or in reply to the +inquiry, Why not realize your world? But far be from +me the despair which prejudges the law by a paltry +empiricism;--since there never was a right endeavor +but it succeeded. Patience and patience, we shall win +at the last. We must be very suspicious of the deceptions +of the element of time. It takes a good deal of time to +eat or to sleep, or to earn a hundred dollars, and a +very little time to entertain a hope and an insight +which becomes the light of our life. We dress our garden, +eat our dinners, discuss the household with our wives, +and these things make no impression, are forgotten next +week; but, in the solitude to which every man is always +returning, he has a sanity and revelations which in his +passage into new worlds he will carry with him. Never +mind the ridicule, never mind the defeat; up again, old +heart!--it seems to say,--there is victory yet for all +justice; and the true romance which the world exists to +realize will be the transformation of genius into +practical power. + + + + +CHARACTER. + +The sun set; but set not his hope: +Stars rose; his faith was earlier up: +Fixed on the enormous galaxy, +Deeper and older seemed his eye: +And matched his sufferance sublime +The taciturnity of time. +He spoke, and words more soft than rain +Brought the Age of Gold again: +His action won such reverence sweet, +As hid all measure of the feat. + +Work of his hand +He nor commends nor grieves +Pleads for itself the fact; +As unrepenting Nature leaves +Her every act. + +III. +CHARACTER. + +I HAVE read that those who listened to Lord Chatham +felt that there was something finer in the man than +any thing which he said. It has been complained of +our brilliant English historian of the French +Revolution that when he has told all his facts about +Mirabeau, they do not justify his estimate of his +genius. The Gracchi, Agis, Cleomenes, and others of +Plutarch's heroes, do not in the record of facts equal +their own fame. Sir Philip Sidney, the Earl of Essex, +Sir Walter Raleigh, are men of great figure and of +few deeds. We cannot find the smallest part of the +personal weight of Washington in the narrative of his +exploits. The authority of the name of Schiller is +too great for his books. This inequality of the +reputation to the works or the anecdotes is not +accounted for by saying that the reverberation is +longer than the thunder-clap, but somewhat resided +in these men which begot an expectation that outran +all their performance. The largest part of their power +was latent. This is that which we call Character,--a +reserved force which acts directly by presence, and +without means. It is conceived of as a certain +undemonstrable force, a Familiar or Genius, by whose +impulses the man is guided but whose counsels he +cannot impart; which is company for him, so that such +men are often solitary, or if they chance to be social, +do not need society but can entertain themselves very +well alone. The purest literary talent appears at one +time great, at another time small, but character is of +a stellar and undiminishable greatness. What others +effect by talent or by eloquence, this man accomplishes +by some magnetism. "Half his strength he put not forth." +His victories are by demonstration of superiority, and +not by crossing of bayonets. He conquers because his +arrival alters the face of affairs. "O Iole! how did +you know that Hercules was a god?" "Because," answered +Iole, "I was content the moment my eyes fell on him. +When I beheld Theseus, I desired that I might see him +offer battle, or at least guide his horses in the +chariot-race; but Hercules did not wait for a contest; +he conquered whether he stood, or walked, or sat, or +whatever thing he did." Man, ordinarily a pendant to +events, only half attached, and that awkwardly, to the +world he lives in, in these examples appears to share +the life of things, and to be an expression of the same +laws which control the tides and the sun, numbers and +quantities. + +But to use a more modest illustration and nearer +home, I observe that in our political elections, +where this element, if it appears at all, can only +occur in its coarsest form, we sufficiently understand +its incomparable rate. The people know that they need +in their representative much more than talent, namely +the power to make his talent trusted. They cannot come +at their ends by sending to Congress a learned, acute, +and fluent speaker, if he be not one who, before he +was appointed by the people to represent them, was +appointed by Almighty God to stand for a fact,-- +invincibly persuaded of that fact in himself,--so +that the most confident and the most violent persons +learn that here is resistance on which both impudence +and terror are wasted, namely faith in a fact. The men +who carry their points do not need to inquire of their +constituents what they should say, but are themselves +the country which they represent; nowhere are its +emotions or opinions so instant and true as in them; +nowhere so pure from a selfish infusion. The constituency +at home hearkens to their words, watches the color of +their cheek, and therein, as in a glass, dresses its +own. Our public assemblies are pretty good tests of +manly force. Our frank countrymen of the west and south +have a taste for character, and like to know whether +the New Englander is a substantial man, or whether the +hand can pass through him. + +The same motive force appears in trade. There are +geniuses in trade, as well as in war, or the State, +or letters; and the reason why this or that man is +fortunate is not to be told. It lies in the man; +that is all anybody can tell you about it. See him +and you will know as easily why he succeeds, as, if +you see Napoleon, you would comprehend his fortune. +In the new objects we recognize the old game, the +Habit of fronting the fact, and not dealing with it +at second hand, through the perceptions of somebody +else. Nature seems to authorize trade, as soon as +you see the natural merchant, who appears not so much +a private agent as her factor and Minister of Commerce. +His natural probity combines with his insight into +the fabric of society to put him above tricks, and he +communicates to all his own faith that contracts are +of no private interpretation. The habit of his mind is +a reference to standards of natural equity and public +advantage; and he inspires respect and the wish to +deal with him, both for the quiet spirit of honor +which attends him, and for the intellectual pastime +which the spectacle of so much ability affords. This +immensely stretched trade, which makes the capes of +the Southern Ocean his wharves, and the Atlantic Sea +his familiar port, centres in his brain only; and +nobody in the universe can make his place good. In his +parlor I see very well that he has been at hard work +this morning, with that knitted brow and that settled +humor, which all his desire to be courteous cannot +shake off. I see plainly how many firm acts have been +done; how many valiant noes have this day been spoken, +when others would have uttered ruinous yeas. I see, +with the pride of art and skill of masterly arithmetic +and power of remote combination, the consciousness of +being an agent and playfellow of the original laws of +the world. He too believes that none can supply him, +and that a man must be born to trade or he cannot learn it. + +This virtue draws the mind more when it appears +in action to ends not so mixed. It works with most +energy in the smallest companies and in private +relations. In all cases it is an extraordinary and +incomputable agent. The excess of physical strength +is paralyzed by it. Higher natures overpower lower +ones by affecting them with a certain sleep. The +faculties are locked up, and offer no resistance. +Perhaps that is the universal law. When the high +cannot bring up the low to itself, it benumbs it, +as man charms down the resistance of the lower animals. +Men exert on each other a similar occult power. How +often has the influence of a true master realized all +the tales of magic! A river of command seemed to run +down from his eyes into all those who beheld him, a +torrent of strong sad light, like an Ohio or Danube, +which pervaded them with his thoughts and colored all +events with the hue of his mind. "What means did you +employ?" was the question asked of the wife of Concini, +in regard to her treatment of Mary of Medici; and the +answer was, "Only that influence which every strong +mind has over a weak one." Cannot Caesar in irons +shuffle off the irons and transfer them to the person +of Hippo or Thraso the turnkey? Is an iron handcuff so +immutable a bond? Suppose a slaver on the coast of +Guinea should take on board a gang of negroes which +should contain persons of the stamp of Toussaint +L'Ouverture: or, let us fancy, under these swarthy +masks he has a gang of Washingtons in chains. When +they arrive at Cuba, will the relative order of the +ship's company be the same? Is there nothing but rope +and iron? Is there no love, no reverence? Is there +never a glimpse of right in a poor slave-captain's +mind; and cannot these be supposed available to break +or elude or in any manner overmatch the tension of an +inch or two of iron ring? + +This is a natural power, like light and heat, and all +nature cooperates with it. The reason why we feel +one man's presence and do not feel another's is as +simple as gravity. Truth is the summit of being; +justice is the application of it to affairs. All +individual natures stand in a scale, according to +the purity of this element in them. The will of the +pure runs down from them into other natures as water +runs down from a higher into a lower vessel. This +natural force is no more to be withstood than any +other natural force. We can drive a stone upward for +a moment into the air, but it is yet true that all +stones will forever fall; and whatever instances can +be quoted of unpunished theft, or of a lie which +somebody credited, justice must prevail, and it is the +privilege of truth to make itself believed. Character +is this moral order seen through the medium of an +individual nature. An individual is an encloser. Time +and space, liberty and necessity, truth and thought, +are left at large no longer. Now, the universe is a +close or pound. All things exist in the man tinged with +the manners of his soul. With what quality is in him he +infuses all nature that he can reach; nor does he tend +to lose himself in vastness, but, at how long a curve +soever, all his regards return into his own good at +last. He animates all he can, and he sees only what he +animates. He encloses the world, as the patriot does his +country, as a material basis for his character, and a +theatre for action. A healthy soul stands united with +the Just and the True, as the magnet arranges itself with +the pole; so that he stands to all beholders like a +transparent object betwixt them and the sun, and whoso +journeys towards the sun, journeys towards that person. +He is thus the medium of the highest influence to all +who are not on the same level. Thus, men of character +are the conscience of the society to which they belong. + +The natural measure of this power is the resistance +of circumstances. Impure men consider life as it is +reflected in opinions, events, and persons. They cannot +see the action until it is done. Yet its moral element +preexisted in the actor, and its quality as right or +wrong it was easy to predict. Everything in nature is +bipolar, or has a positive and negative pole. There is +a male and a female, a spirit and a fact, a north and a +south. Spirit is the positive, the event is the negative. +Will is the north, action the south pole. Character may +be ranked as having its natural place in the north. It +shares the magnetic currents of the system. The feeble +souls are drawn to the south or negative pole. They look +at the profit or hurt of the action. They never behold a +principle until it is lodged in a person. They do not +wish to be lovely, but to be loved. Men of character +like to hear of their faults; the other class do not +like to hear of faults; they worship events; secure to +them a fact, a connection, a certain chain of circumstances, +and they will ask no more. The hero sees that the event +is ancillary; it must follow him. A given order of events +has no power to secure to him the satisfaction which the +imagination attaches to it; the soul of goodness escapes +from any set of circumstances; whilst prosperity belongs +to a certain mind, and will introduce that power and +victory which is its natural fruit, into any order of +events. No change of circumstances can repair a defect +of character. We boast our emancipation from many +superstitions; but if we have broken any idols it is +through a transfer of the idolatry. What have I gained, +that I no longer immolate a bull to Jove or to Neptune, +or a mouse to Hecate; that I do not tremble before the +Eumenides, or the Catholic Purgatory, or the Calvinistic +Judgment-day,--if I quake at opinion, the public opinion, +as we call it; or at the threat of assault, or contumely, +or bad neighbors, or poverty, or mutilation, or at the +rumor of revolution, or of murder? If I quake, what matters +it what I quake at? Our proper vice takes form in one or +another shape, according to the sex, age, or temperament +of the person, and, if we are capable of fear, will readily +find terrors. The covetousness or the malignity which +saddens me when I ascribe it to society, is my own. I am +always environed by myself. On the other part, rectitude +is a perpetual victory, celebrated not by cries of joy +but by serenity, which is joy fixed or habitual. It is +disgraceful to fly to events for confirmation of our truth +and worth. The capitalist does not run every hour to the +broker to coin his advantages into current money of the +realm; he is satisfied to read in the quotations of the +market that his stocks have risen. The same transport +which the occurrence of the best events in the best order +would occasion me, I must learn to taste purer in the +perception that my position is every hour meliorated, and +does already command those events I desire. That exultation +is only to be checked by the foresight of an order of +things so excellent as to throw all our prosperities into +the deepest shade. + +The face which character wears to me is self- +sufficingness. I revere the person who is riches; +so that I cannot think of him as alone, or poor, +or exiled, or unhappy, or a client, but as perpetual +patron, benefactor, and beatified man. Character is +centrality, the impossibility of being displaced or +overset. A man should give us a sense of mass. Society +is frivolous, and shreds its day into scraps, its +conversation into ceremonies and escapes. But if I go +to see an ingenious man I shall think myself poorly +entertained if he give me nimble pieces of benevolence +and etiquette; rather he shall stand stoutly in his +place and let me apprehend if it were only his +resistance; know that I have encountered a new and +positive quality;--great refreshment for both of us. +It is much that he does not accept the conventional +opinions and practices. That nonconformity will remain +a goad and remembrancer, and every inquirer will have +to dispose of him, in the first place. There is nothing +real or useful that is not a seat of war. Our houses +ring with laughter and personal and critical gossip, +but it helps little. But the uncivil, unavailable man, +who is a problem and a threat to society, whom it cannot +let pass in silence but must either worship or hate,--and +to whom all parties feel related, both the leaders of +opinion and the obscure and eccentric,--he helps; he +puts America and Europe in the wrong, and destroys the +skepticism which says, 'man is a doll, let us eat and +drink, 'tis the best we can do,' by illuminating the +untried and unknown. Acquiescence in the establishment +and appeal to the public, indicate infirm faith, heads +which are not clear, and which must see a house built, +before they can comprehend the plan of it. The wise man +not only leaves out of his thought the many, but leaves +out the few. Fountains, the self-moved, the absorbed, +the commander because he is commanded, the assured, the +primary,--they are good; for these announce the instant +presence of supreme power. + +Our action should rest mathematically on our +substance. In nature, there are no false valuations. +A pound of water in the ocean-tempest has no more +gravity than in a midsummer pond. All things work +exactly according to their quality and according to +their quantity; attempt nothing they cannot do, except +man only. He has pretension; he wishes and attempts +things beyond his force. I read in a book of English +memoirs, "Mr. Fox (afterwards Lord Holland) said, he +must have the Treasury; he had served up to it, and +would have it." Xenophon and his Ten Thousand were +quite equal to what they attempted, and did it; so +equal, that it was not suspected to be a grand and +inimitable exploit. Yet there stands that fact +unrepeated, a high-water mark in military history. +Many have attempted it since, and not been equal to +it. It is only on reality that any power of action +can be based. No institution will be better than the +institutor. I knew an amiable and accomplished person +who undertook a practical reform, yet I was never able +to find in him the enterprise of love he took in hand. +He adopted it by ear and by the understanding from the +books he had been reading. All his action was tentative, +a piece of the city carried out into the fields, and +was the city still, and no new fact, and could not +inspire enthusiasm. Had there been something latent in +the man, a terrible undemonstrated genius agitating and +embarrassing his demeanor, we had watched for its advent. +It is not enough that the intellect should see the evils +and their remedy. We shall still postpone our existence, +nor take the ground to which we are entitled, whilst it +is only a thought and not a spirit that incites us. We +have not yet served up to it. + +These are properties of life, and another trait +is the notice of incessant growth. Men should be +intelligent and earnest. They must also make us +feel that they have a controlling happy future +opening before them, whose early twilights already +kindle in the passing hour. The hero is misconceived +and misreported; he cannot therefore wait to unravel +any man's blunders; he is again on his road, adding +new powers and honors to his domain and new claims +on your heart, which will bankrupt you if you have +loitered about the old things and have not kept your +relation to him by adding to your wealth. New actions +are the only apologies and explanations of old ones +which the noble can bear to offer or to receive. If +your friend has displeased you, you shall not sit +down to consider it, for he has already lost all +memory of the passage, and has doubled his power to +serve you, and ere you can rise up again will burden +you with blessings. + +We have no pleasure in thinking of a benevolence +that is only measured by its works. Love is +inexhaustible, and if its estate is wasted, its +granary emptied, still cheers and enriches, and +the man, though he sleep, seems to purify the air +and his house to adorn the landscape and strengthen +the laws. People always recognize this difference. +We know who is benevolent, by quite other means than +the amount of subscription to soup-societies. It is +only low merits that can be enumerated. Fear, when +your friends say to you what you have done well, and +say it through; but when they stand with uncertain +timid looks of respect and half-dislike, and must +suspend their judgment for years to come, you may +begin to hope. Those who live to the future must +always appear selfish to those who live to the present. +Therefore it was droll in the good Riemer, who has +written memoirs of Goethe, to make out a list of his +donations and good deeds, as, so many hundred thalers +given to Stilling, to Hegel, to Tischbein; a lucrative +place found for Professor Voss, a post under the Grand +Duke for Herder, a pension for Meyer, two professors +recommended to foreign universities; &c., &c. The +longest list of specifications of benefit would look +very short. A man is a poor creature if he is to be +measured so. For all these of course are exceptions, +and the rule and hodiernal life of a good man is +benefaction. The true charity of Goethe is to be +inferred from the account he gave Dr. Eckermann of the +way in which he had spent his fortune. "Each bon-mot +of mine has cost a purse of gold. Half a million of my +own money, the fortune I inherited, my salary and +the large income derived from my writings for fifty +years back, have been expended to instruct me in +what I now know. I have besides seen," &c. + +I own it is but poor chat and gossip to go to +enumerate traits of this simple and rapid power, +and we are painting the lightning with charcoal; +but in these long nights and vacations I like to +console myself so. Nothing but itself can copy +it. A word warm from the heart enriches me. I +surrender at discretion. How death-cold is literary +genius before this fire of life! These are the +touches that reanimate my heavy soul and give it +eyes to pierce the dark of nature. I find, where I +thought myself poor, there was I most rich. Thence +comes a new intellectual exaltation, to be again +rebuked by some new exhibition of character. +Strange alternation of attraction and repulsion! +Character repudiates intellect, yet excites it; and +character passes into thought, is published so, and +then is ashamed before new flashes of moral worth. + +Character is nature in the highest form. It is of no +use to ape it or to contend with it. Somewhat is +possible of resistance, and of persistence, and of +creation, to this power, which will foil all emulation. + +This masterpiece is best where no hands but nature's +have been laid on it. Care is taken that the greatly- +destined shall slip up into life in the shade, with no +thousand-eyed Athens to watch and blazon every new +thought, every blushing emotion of young genius. Two +persons lately, very young children of the most high +God, have given me occasion for thought. When I explored +the source of their sanctity and charm for the imagination, +it seemed as if each answered, 'From my nonconformity; I +never listened to your people's law, or to what they call +their gospel, and wasted my time. I was content with the +simple rural poverty of my own; hence this sweetness; my +work never reminds you of that;--is pure of that.' And +nature advertises me in such persons that in democratic +America she will not be democratized. How cloistered and +constitutionally sequestered from the market and from +scandal! It was only this morning that I sent away some +wild flowers of these wood-gods. They are a relief from +literature,--these fresh draughts from the sources of +thought and sentiment; as we read, in an age of polish +and criticism, the first lines of written prose and verse +of a nation. How captivating is their devotion to their +favorite books, whether Aeschylus, Dante, Shakspeare, or +Scott, as feeling that they have a stake in that book; +who touches that, touches them;--and especially the total +solitude of the critic, the Patmos of thought from which +he writes, in unconsciousness of any eyes that shall ever +read this writing. Could they dream on still, as angels, +and not wake to comparisons, and to be flattered! Yet some +natures are too good to be spoiled by praise, and wherever +the vein of thought reaches down into the profound, there +is no danger from vanity. Solemn friends will warn them of +the danger of the head's being turned by the flourish of +trumpets, but they can afford to smile. I remember the +indignation of an eloquent Methodist at the kind admonitions +of a Doctor of Divinity,--'My friend, a man can neither be +praised nor insulted.' But forgive the counsels; they are +very natural. I remember the thought which occurred to me +when some ingenious and spiritual foreigners came to +America, was, Have you been victimized in being brought +hither?--or, prior to that, answer me this, 'Are you +victimizable?' + +As I have said, Nature keeps these sovereignties +in her own hands, and however pertly our sermons +and disciplines would divide some share of credit, +and teach that the laws fashion the citizen, she +goes her own gait and puts the wisest in the wrong. +She makes very light of gospels and prophets, as +one who has a great many more to produce and no +excess of time to spare on any one. There is a class +of men, individuals of which appear at long intervals, +so eminently endowed with insight and virtue that +they have been unanimously saluted as divine, and who +seem to be an accumulation of that power we consider. +Divine persons are character born, or, to borrow a +phrase from Napoleon, they are victory organized. +They are usually received with ill-will, because they +are new and because they set a bound to the exaggeration +that has been made of the personality of the last divine +person. Nature never rhymes her children, nor makes two +men alike. When we see a great man we fancy a resemblance +to some historical person, and predict the sequel of his +character and fortune; a result which he is sure to +disappoint. None will ever solve the problem of his +character according to our prejudice, but only in his +own high unprecedented way. Character wants room; must +not be crowded on by persons nor be judged from glimpses +got in the press of affairs or on few occasions. It +needs perspective, as a great building. It may not, +probably does not, form relations rapidly; and we should +not require rash explanation, either on the popular +ethics, or on our own, of its action. + +I look on Sculpture as history. I do not think the +Apollo and the Jove impossible in flesh and blood. +Every trait which the artist recorded in stone he +had seen in life, and better than his copy. We have +seen many counterfeits, but we are born believers in +great men. How easily we read in old books, when men +were few, of the smallest action of the patriarchs. +We require that a man should be so large and columnar +in the landscape, that it should deserve to be +recorded that he arose, and girded up his loins, and +departed to such a place. The most credible pictures +are those of majestic men who prevailed at their +entrance, and convinced the senses; as happened to +the eastern magian who was sent to test the merits +of Zertusht or Zoroaster. When the Yunani sage arrived +at Balkh, the Persians tell us, Gushtasp appointed a +day on which the Mobeds of every country should +assemble, and a golden chair was placed for the Yunani +sage. Then the beloved of Yezdam, the prophet Zertusht, +advanced into the midst of the assembly. The Yunani +sage, on seeing that chief, said, "This form and this +gait cannot lie, and nothing but truth can proceed +from them." Plato said it was impossible not to +believe in the children of the gods, "though they +should speak without probable or necessary arguments." +I should think myself very unhappy in my associates if +I could not credit the best things in history. "John +Bradshaw," says Milton, "appears like a consul, from +whom the fasces are not to depart with the year; so +that not on the tribunal only, but throughout his life, +you would regard him as sitting in judgment upon kings." +I find it more credible, since it is anterior information, +that one man should know heaven, as the Chinese say, than +that so many men should know the world. "The virtuous +prince confronts the gods, without any misgiving. He +waits a hundred ages till a sage comes, and does not +doubt. He who confronts the gods, without any misgiving, +knows heaven; he who waits a hundred ages until a sage +comes, without doubting, knows men. Hence the virtuous +prince moves, and for ages shows empire the way." But +there is no need to seek remote examples. He is a dull +observer whose experience has not taught him the reality +and force of magic, as well as of chemistry. The coldest +precisian cannot go abroad without encountering +inexplicable influences. One man fastens an eye on him +and the graves of the memory render up their dead; the +secrets that make him wretched either to keep or to +betray must be yielded;--another, and he cannot speak, +and the bones of his body seem to lose their cartilages; +the entrance of a friend adds grace, boldness, and +eloquence to him; and there are persons he cannot choose +but remember, who gave a transcendent expansion to his +thought, and kindled another life in his bosom. + +What is so excellent as strict relations of amity, +when they spring from this deep root? The sufficient +reply to the skeptic who doubts the power and the +furniture of man, is in that possibility of joyful +intercourse with persons, which makes the faith and +practice of all reasonable men. I know nothing which +life has to offer so satisfying as the profound good +understanding which can subsist after much exchange of +good offices, between two virtuous men, each of whom +is sure of himself and sure of his friend. It is a +happiness which postpones all other gratifications, +and makes politics, and commerce, and churches, cheap. +For when men shall meet as they ought, each a benefactor, +a shower of stars, clothed with thoughts, with deeds, +with accomplishments, it should be the festival of +nature which all things announce. Of such friendship, +love in the sexes is the first symbol, as all other +things are symbols of love. Those relations to the best +men, which, at one time, we reckoned the romances of +youth, become, in the progress of the character, the +most solid enjoyment. + +If it were possible to live in right relations with +men!--if we could abstain from asking anything of +them, from asking their praise, or help, or pity, +and content us with compelling them through the +virtue of the eldest laws! Could we not deal with +a few persons,--with one person,--after the unwritten +statutes, and make an experiment of their efficacy? +Could we not pay our friend the compliment of truth, +of silence, of forbearing? Need we be so eager to +seek him? If we are related, we shall meet. It was a +tradition of the ancient world that no metamorphosis +could hide a god from a god; and there is a Greek +verse which runs,-- + + "The Gods are to each other not unknown." + +Friends also follow the laws of divine necessity; +they gravitate to each other, and cannot otherwise:-- + + When each the other shall avoid, + Shall each by each be most enjoyed. + +Their relation is not made, but allowed. The gods +must seat themselves without seneschal in our +Olympus, and as they can instal themselves by +seniority divine. Society is spoiled if pains are +taken, if the associates are brought a mile to meet. +And if it be not society, it is a mischievous, low, +degrading jangle, though made up of the best. All the +greatness of each is kept back and every foible in +painful activity, as if the Olympians should meet to +exchange snuff-boxes. + +Life goes headlong. We chase some flying scheme, or +we are hunted by some fear or command behind us. But +if suddenly we encounter a friend, we pause; our heat +and hurry look foolish enough; now pause, now possession +is required, and the power to swell the moment from the +resources of the heart. The moment is all, in all noble +relations. + +A divine person is the prophecy of the mind; a +friend is the hope of the heart. Our beatitude +waits for the fulfilment of these two in one. The +ages are opening this moral force. All force is +the shadow or symbol of that. Poetry is joyful +and strong as it draws its inspiration thence. Men +write their names on the world as they are filled +with this. History has been mean; our nations have +been mobs; we have never seen a man: that divine +form we do not yet know, but only the dream and +prophecy of such: we do not know the majestic manners +which belong to him, which appease and exalt the +beholder. We shall one day see that the most private +is the most public energy, that quality atones for +quantity, and grandeur of character acts in the dark, +and succors them who never saw it. What greatness has +yet appeared is beginnings and encouragements to us +in this direction. The history of those gods and saints +which the world has written and then worshipped, are +documents of character. The ages have exulted in the +manners of a youth who owed nothing to fortune, and +who was hanged at the Tyburn of his nation, who, by +the pure quality of his nature, shed an epic splendor +around the facts of his death which has transfigured +every particular into an universal symbol for the +eyes of mankind. This great defeat is hitherto our +highest fact. But the mind requires a victory to the +senses; a force of character which will convert judge, +jury, soldier, and king; which will rule animal and +mineral virtues, and blend with the courses of sap, +of rivers, of winds, of stars, and of moral agents. + +If we cannot attain at a bound to these grandeurs, +at least let us do them homage. In society, high +advantages are set down to the possessor as +disadvantages. It requires the more wariness in +our private estimates. I do not forgive in my +friends the failure to know a fine character and +to entertain it with thankful hospitality. When +at last that which we have always longed for is +arrived and shines on us with glad rays out of +that far celestial land, then to be coarse, then +to be critical and treat such a visitant with the +jabber and suspicion of the streets, argues a +vulgarity that seems to shut the doors of heaven. +This is confusion, this the right insanity, when +the soul no longer knows its own, nor where its +allegiance, its religion, are due. Is there any +religion but this, to know that wherever in the +wide desert of being the holy sentiment we cherish +has opened into a flower, it blooms for me? if none +sees it, I see it; I am aware, if I alone, of the +greatness of the fact. Whilst it blooms, I will +keep sabbath or holy time, and suspend my gloom +and my folly and jokes. Nature is indulged by the +presence of this guest. There are many eyes that +can detect and honor the prudent and household +virtues; there are many that can discern Genius on +his starry track, though the mob is incapable; but +when that love which is all-suffering, all-abstaining, +all-aspiring, which has vowed to itself that it will +be a wretch and also a fool in this world sooner than +soil its white hands by any compliances, comes into +our streets and houses,--only the pure and aspiring +can know its face, and the only compliment they can +pay it is to own it. + + + + +MANNERS. + +"HOW near to good is what is fair! +Which we no sooner see, +But with the lines and outward air +Our senses taken be. + +Again yourselves compose, +And now put all the aptness on +Of Figure, that Proportion +Or Color can disclose; +That if those silent arts were lost, +Design and Picture, they might boast +From you a newer ground, +Instructed by the heightening sense +Of dignity and reverence +In their true motions found." + BEN JONSON + +IV. +MANNERS. + +HALF the world, it is said, knows not how the other +half live. Our Exploring Expedition saw the Feejee +islanders getting their dinner off human bones; and +they are said to eat their own wives and children. +The husbandry of the modern inhabitants of Gournou +(west of old Thebes) is philosophical to a fault. To +set up their housekeeping nothing is requisite but +two or three earthen pots, a stone to grind meal, and +a mat which is the bed. The house, namely a tomb, is +ready without rent or taxes. No rain can pass through +the roof, and there is no door, for there is no want +of one, as there is nothing to lose. If the house do +not please them, they walk out and enter another, as +there are several hundreds at their command. "It is +somewhat singular," adds Belzoni, to whom we owe this +account, "to talk of happiness among people who live +in sepulchres, among the corpses and rags of an ancient +nation which they know nothing of." In the deserts of +Borgoo the rock-Tibboos still dwell in caves, like +cliff-swallows, and the language of these negroes is +compared by their neighbors to the shrieking of bats +and to the whistling of birds. Again, the Bornoos have +no proper names; individuals are called after their +height, thickness, or other accidental quality, and +have nicknames merely. But the salt, the dates, the +ivory, and the gold, for which these horrible regions +are visited, find their way into countries where the +purchaser and consumer can hardly be ranked in one +race with these cannibals and man-stealers; countries +where man serves himself with metals, wood, stone, +glass, gum, cotton, silk, and wool; honors himself with +architecture; writes laws, and contrives to execute his +will through the hands of many nations; and, especially, +establishes a select society, running through all the +countries of intelligent men, a self-constituted +aristocracy, or fraternity of the best, which, without +written law or exact usage of any kind, perpetuates +itself, colonizes every new-planted island and adopts +and makes its own whatever personal beauty or extraordinary +native endowment anywhere appears. + +What fact more conspicuous in modern history than +the creation of the gentleman? Chivalry is that, +and loyalty is that, and, in English literature, +half the drama, and all the novels, from Sir Philip +Sidney to Sir Walter Scott, paint this figure. The +word gentleman, which, like the word Christian, must +hereafter characterize the present and the few +preceding centuries by the importance attached to +it, is a homage to personal and incommunicable +properties. Frivolous and fantastic additions have +got associated with the name, but the steady interest +of mankind in it must be attributed to the valuable +properties which it designates. An element which +unites all the most forcible persons of every +country; makes them intelligible and agreeable to +each other, and is somewhat so precise that it is +at once felt if an individual lack the masonic sign,-- +cannot be any casual product, but must be an average +result of the character and faculties universally +found in men. It seems a certain permanent average; +as the atmosphere is a permanent composition, whilst +so many gases are combined only to be decompounded. +Comme il faut, is the Frenchman's description of good +Society: as we must be. It is a spontaneous fruit of +talents and feelings of precisely that class who have +most vigor, who take the lead in the world of this +hour, and though far from pure, far from constituting +the gladdest and highest tone of human feeling, is as +good as the whole society permits it to be. It is made +of the spirit, more than of the talent of men, and is +a compound result into which every great force enters +as an ingredient, namely virtue, wit, beauty, wealth, +and power. + +There is something equivocal in all the words in +use to express the excellence of manners and social +cultivation, because the quantities are fluxional, +and the last effect is assumed by the senses as the +cause. The word gentleman has not any correlative +abstract to express the quality. Gentility is mean, +and gentilesse is obsolete. But we must keep alive +in the vernacular the distinction between fashion, +a word of narrow and often sinister meaning, and the +heroic character which the gentleman imports. The +usual words, however, must be respected; they will +be found to contain the root of the matter. The point +of distinction in all this class of names, as courtesy, +chivalry, fashion, and the like, is that the flower +and fruit, not the grain of the tree, are contemplated. +It is beauty which is the aim this time, and not worth. +The result is now in question, although our words +intimate well enough the popular feeling that the +appearance supposes a substance. The gentleman is a +man of truth, lord of his own actions, and expressing +that lordship in his behavior, not in any manner +dependent and servile, either on persons, or opinions, +or possessions. Beyond this fact of truth and real +force, the word denotes good-nature or benevolence: +manhood first, and then gentleness. The popular notion +certainly adds a condition of ease and fortune; but +that is a natural result of personal force and love, +that they should possess and dispense the goods of the +world. In times of violence, every eminent person must +fall in with many opportunities to approve his stoutness +and worth; therefore every man's name that emerged at +all from the mass in the feudal ages, rattles in our +ear like a flourish of trumpets. But personal force +never goes out of fashion. That is still paramount +to-day, and in the moving crowd of good society the +men of valor and reality are known and rise to their +natural place. The competition is transferred from war +to politics and trade, but the personal force appears +readily enough in these new arenas. + +Power first, or no leading class. In politics and +in trade, bruisers and pirates are of better promise +than talkers and clerks. God knows that all sorts of +gentlemen knock at the door; but whenever used in +strictness and with any emphasis, the name will be +found to point at original energy. It describes a man +standing in his own right and working after untaught +methods. In a good lord there must first be a good +animal, at least to the extent of yielding the +incomparable advantage of animal spirits. The ruling +class must have more, but they must have these, giving +in every company the sense of power, which makes things +easy to be done which daunt the wise. The society of +the energetic class, in their friendly and festive +meetings, is full of courage and of attempts which +intimidate the pale scholar. The courage which girls +exhibit is like a battle of Lundy's Lane, or a sea- +fight. The intellect relies on memory to make some +supplies to face these extemporaneous squadrons. But +memory is a base mendicant with basket and badge, in +the presence of these sudden masters. The rulers of +society must be up to the work of the world, and equal +to their versatile office: men of the right Caesarian +pattern, who have great range of affinity. I am far +from believing the timid maxim of Lord Falkland ("that +for ceremony there must go two to it; since a bold +fellow will go through the cunningest forms"), and am +of opinion that the gentleman is the bold fellow whose +forms are not to be broken through; and only that +plenteous nature is rightful master which is the +complement of whatever person it converses with. My +gentleman gives the law where he is; he will outpray +saints in chapel, outgeneral veterans in the field, and +outshine all courtesy in the hall. He is good company +for pirates and good with academicians; so that it is +useless to fortify yourself against him; he has the +private entrance to all minds, and I could as easily +exclude myself, as him. The famous gentlemen of Asia +and Europe have been of this strong type; Saladin, Sapor, +the Cid, Julius Caesar, Scipio, Alexander, Pericles, and +the lordliest personages. They sat very carelessly in +their chairs, and were too excellent themselves, to value +any condition at a high rate. + +A plentiful fortune is reckoned necessary, in the +popular judgment, to the completion of this man of +the world; and it is a material deputy which walks +through the dance which the first has led. Money is +not essential, but this wide affinity is, which +transcends the habits of clique and caste and makes +itself felt by men of all classes. If the aristocrat +is only valid in fashionable circles and not with +truckmen, he will never be a leader in fashion; and +if the man of the people cannot speak on equal terms +with the gentleman, so that the gentleman shall +perceive that he is already really of his own order, +he is not to be feared. Diogenes, Socrates, and +Epaminondas, are gentlemen of the best blood who have +chosen the condition of poverty when that of wealth +was equally open to them. I use these old names, but +the men I speak of are my contemporaries. Fortune will +not supply to every generation one of these well- +appointed knights, but every collection of men furnishes +some example of the class; and the politics of this +country, and the trade of every town, are controlled by +these hardy and irresponsible doers, who have invention +to take the lead, and a broad sympathy which puts them +in fellowship with crowds, and makes their action +popular. + +The manners of this class are observed and caught +with devotion by men of taste. The association of +these masters with each other and with men intelligent +of their merits, is mutually agreeable and stimulating. +The good forms, the happiest expressions of each, are +repeated and adopted. By swift consent everything +superfluous is dropped, everything graceful is renewed. +Fine manners show themselves formidable to the +uncultivated man. They are a subtler science of defence +to parry and intimidate; but once matched by the skill +of the other party, they drop the point of the sword, +--points and fences disappear, and the youth finds +himself in a more transparent atmosphere, wherein life +is a less troublesome game, and not a misunderstanding +rises between the players. Manners aim to facilitate +life, to get rid of impediments and bring the man pure +to energize. They aid our dealing and conversation as a +railway aids travelling, by getting rid of all avoidable +obstructions of the road and leaving nothing to be +conquered but pure space. These forms very soon become +fixed, and a fine sense of propriety is cultivated with +the more heed that it becomes a badge of social and +civil distinctions. Thus grows up Fashion, an equivocal +semblance, the most puissant, the most fantastic and +frivolous, the most feared and followed, and which morals +and violence assault in vain. + +There exists a strict relation between the class +of power and the exclusive and polished circles. +The last are always filled or filling from the +first. The strong men usually give some allowance +even to the petulances of fashion, for that affinity +they find in it. Napoleon, child of the revolution, +destroyer of the old noblesse, never ceased to court +the Faubourg St. Germain; doubtless with the feeling +that fashion is a homage to men of his stamp. Fashion, +though in a strange way, represents all manly virtue. +It is virtue gone to seed: it is a kind of posthumous +honor. It does not often caress the great, but the +children of the great: it is a hall of the Past. It +usually sets its face against the great of this hour. +Great men are not commonly in its halls; they are +absent in the field: they are working, not triumphing. +Fashion is made up of their children; of those who +through the value and virtue of somebody, have acquired +lustre to their name, marks of distinction, means of +cultivation and generosity, and, in their physical +organization a certain health and excellence which +secures to them, if not the highest power to work, yet +high power to enjoy. The class of power, the working +heroes, the Cortez, the Nelson, the Napoleon, see that +this is the festivity and permanent celebration of such +as they; that fashion is funded talent; is Mexico, +Marengo, and Trafalgar beaten out thin; that the +brilliant names of fashion run back to just such busy +names as their own, fifty or sixty years ago. They are +the sowers, their sons shall be the reapers, and their +sons, in the ordinary course of things, must yield the +possession of the harvest to new competitors with keener +eyes and stronger frames. The city is recruited from the +country. In the year 1805, it is said, every legitimate +monarch in Europe was imbecile. The city would have died +out, rotted, and exploded, long ago, but that it was +reinforced from the fields. It is only country which +came to town day before yesterday that is city and court +today. + +Aristocracy and fashion are certain inevitable +results. These mutual selections are indestructible. +If they provoke anger in the least favored class, +and the excluded majority revenge themselves on the +excluding minority by the strong hand and kill them, +at once a new class finds itself at the top, as +certainly as cream rises in a bowl of milk: and if +the people should destroy class after class, until +two men only were left, one of these would be the +leader and would be involuntarily served and copied +by the other. You may keep this minority out of sight +and out of mind, but it is tenacious of life, and is +one of the estates of the realm. I am the more struck +with this tenacity, when I see its work. It respects +the administration of such unimportant matters, that +we should not look for any durability in its rule. We +sometimes meet men under some strong moral influence, +as a patriotic, a literary, a religious movement, and +feel that the moral sentiment rules man and nature. +We think all other distinctions and ties will be slight +and fugitive, this of caste or fashion for example; +yet come from year to year and see how permanent that +is, in this Boston or New York life of man, where too +it has not the least countenance from the law of the +land. Not in Egypt or in India a firmer or more +impassable line. Here are associations whose ties go +over and under and through it, a meeting of merchants, +a military corps, a college class, a fire-club, a +professional association, a political, a religious +convention;--the persons seem to draw inseparably near; +yet, that assembly once dispersed, its members will not +in the year meet again. Each returns to his degree in +the scale of good society, porcelain remains porcelain, +and earthen earthen. The objects of fashion may be +frivolous, or fashion may be objectless, but the nature +of this union and selection can be neither frivolous +nor accidental. Each man's rank in that perfect +graduation depends on some symmetry in his structure or +some agreement in his structure to the symmetry of society. +Its doors unbar instantaneously to a natural claim of +their own kind. A natural gentleman finds his way in, and +will keep the oldest patrician out who has lost his +intrinsic rank. Fashion understands itself; good-breeding +and personal superiority of whatever country readily +fraternize with those of every other. The chiefs of savage +tribes have distinguished themselves in London and Paris, +by the purity of their tournure. + +To say what good of fashion we can, it rests on +reality, and hates nothing so much as pretenders; +to exclude and mystify pretenders and send them +into everlasting 'Coventry,' is its delight. We +contemn in turn every other gift of men of the +world; but the habit even in little and the least +matters of not appealing to any but our own sense +of propriety, constitutes the foundation of all +chivalry. There is almost no kind of self-reliance, +so it be sane and proportioned, which fashion does +not occasionally adopt and give it the freedom of +its saloons. A sainted soul is always elegant, and, +if it will, passes unchallenged into the most guarded +ring. But so will Jock the teamster pass, in some +crisis that brings him thither, and find favor, as +long as his head is not giddy with the new circumstance, +and the iron shoes do not wish to dance in waltzes and +cotillons. For there is nothing settled in manners, +but the laws of behavior yield to the energy of the +individual. The maiden at her first ball, the country- +man at a city dinner, believes that there is a ritual +according to which every act and compliment must be +performed, or the failing party must be cast out of +this presence. Later they learn that good sense and +character make their own forms every moment, and speak +or abstain, take wine or refuse it, stay or go, sit in +a chair or sprawl with children on the floor, or stand +on their head, or what else soever, in a new and +aboriginal way; and that strong will is always in fashion, +let who will be unfashionable. All that fashion demands +is composure and self-content. A circle of men perfectly +well-bred would be a company of sensible persons in which +every man's native manners and character appeared. If the +fashionist have not this quality, he is nothing. We are +such lovers of self-reliance that we excuse in a man many +sins if he will show us a complete satisfaction in his +position, which asks no leave to be, of mine, or any +man's good opinion. But any deference to some eminent +man or woman of the world, forfeits all privilege of +nobility. He is an underling: I have nothing to do with +him; I will speak with his master. A man should not go +where he cannot carry his whole sphere or society with +him,--not bodily, the whole circle of his friends, but +atmospherically. He should preserve in a new company the +same attitude of mind and reality of relation which his +daily associates draw him to, else he is shorn of his +best beams, and will be an orphan in the merriest club. +"If you could see Vich Ian Vohr with his tail on!--" But +Vich Ian Vohr must always carry his belongings in some +fashion, if not added as honor, then severed as disgrace. + +There will always be in society certain persons who +are mercuries of its approbation, and whose glance +will at any time determine for the curious their +standing in the world. These are the chamberlains of +the lesser gods. Accept their coldness as an omen of +grace with the loftier deities, and allow them all their +privilege. They are clear in their office, nor could +they be thus formidable without their own merits. But +do not measure the importance of this class by their +pretension, or imagine that a fop can be the dispenser +of honor and shame. They pass also at their just rate; +for how can they otherwise, in circles which exist as +a sort of herald's office for the sifting of character? + +As the first thing man requires of man is reality, +so that appears in all the forms of society. We +pointedly, and by name, introduce the parties to +each other. Know you before all heaven and earth, +that this is Andrew, and this is Gregory,--they +look each other in the eye; they grasp each other's +hand, to identify and signalize each other. It is a +great satisfaction. A gentleman never dodges; his +eyes look straight forward, and he assures the other +party, first of all, that he has been met. For what +is it that we seek, in so many visits and hospitalities? +Is it your draperies, pictures, and decorations? Or do +we not insatiably ask, Was a man in the house? I may +easily go into a great household where there is much +substance, excellent provision for comfort, luxury, +and taste, and yet not encounter there any Amphitryon +who shall subordinate these appendages. I may go into +a cottage, and find a farmer who feels that he is the +man I have come to see, and fronts me accordingly. It +was therefore a very natural point of old feudal +etiquette that a gentleman who received a visit, +though it were of his sovereign, should not leave his +roof, but should wait his arrival at the door of his +house. No house, though it were the Tuileries or the +Escurial, is good for anything without a master. And +yet we are not often gratified by this hospitality. +Every body we know surrounds himself with a fine house, +fine books, conservatory, gardens, equipage and all +manner of toys, as screens to interpose between himself +and his guest. Does it not seem as if man was of a very +sly, elusive nature, and dreaded nothing so much as a +full rencontre front to front with his fellow? It were +unmerciful, I know, quite to abolish the use of these +screens, which are of eminent convenience, whether the +guest is too great or too little. We call together many +friends who keep each other in play, or by luxuries and +ornaments we amuse the young people, and guard our +retirement. Or if perchance a searching realist comes +to our gate, before whose eye we have no care to stand, +then again we run to our curtain, and hide ourselves as +Adam at the voice of the Lord God in the garden. Cardinal +Caprara, the Pope's legate at Paris, defended himself +from the glances of Napoleon by an immense pair of green +spectacles. Napoleon remarked them, and speedily managed +to rally them off: and yet Napoleon, in his turn, was not +great enough with eight hundred thousand troops at his +back, to face a pair of freeborn eyes, but fenced himself +with etiquette and within triple barriers of reserve; and, +as all the world knows from Madame de Stael, was wont, +when he found himself observed, to discharge his face of +all expression. But emperors and rich men are by no means +the most skilful masters of good manners. No rentroll nor +army-list can dignify skulking and dissimulation; and the +first point of courtesy must always be truth, as really +all the forms of good-breeding point that way. + +I have just been reading, in Mr. Hazlitt's translation, +Montaigne's account of his journey into Italy, and am +struck with nothing more agreeably than the self- +respecting fashions of the time. His arrival in each +place, the arrival of a gentleman of France, is an event +of some consequence. Wherever he goes he pays a visit +to whatever prince or gentleman of note resides upon his +road, as a duty to himself and to civilization. When he +leaves any house in which he has lodged for a few weeks, +he causes his arms to be painted and hung up as a +perpetual sign to the house, as was the custom of gentlemen. + +The complement of this graceful self-respect, and +that of all the points of good breeding I most require +and insist upon, is deference. I like that every chair +should be a throne, and hold a king. I prefer a tendency +to stateliness to an excess of fellowship. Let the +incommunicable objects of nature and the metaphysical +isolation of man teach us independence. Let us not be +too much acquainted. I would have a man enter his house +through a hall filled with heroic and sacred sculptures, +that he might not want the hint of tranquillity and +self-poise. We should meet each morning as from foreign +countries, and, spending the day together, should depart +at night, as into foreign countries. In all things I +would have the island of a man inviolate. Let us sit +apart as the gods, talking from peak to peak all round +Olympus. No degree of affection need invade this religion. +This is myrrh and rosemary to keep the other sweet. Lovers +Should guard their strangeness. If they forgive too much, +all slides into confusion and meanness. It is easy to +push this deference to a Chinese etiquette; but coolness +and absence of heat and haste indicate fine qualities. A +gentleman makes no noise; a lady is serene. Proportionate +is our disgust at those invaders who fill a studious +house with blast and running, to secure some paltry +convenience. Not less I dislike a low sympathy of each with +his neighbor's needs. Must we have a good understanding +with one another's palates? as foolish people who have +lived long together know when each wants salt or sugar. +I pray my companion, if he wishes for bread, to ask me +for bread, and if he wishes for sassafras or arsenic, to +ask me for them, and not to hold out his plate as if I +knew already. Every natural function can be dignified by +deliberation and privacy. Let us leave hurry to slaves. +The compliments and ceremonies of our breeding should +signify, however remotely, the recollection of the grandeur +of our destiny. + +The flower of courtesy does not very well bide +handling, but if we dare to open another leaf and +explore what parts go to its conformation, we shall +find also an intellectual quality. To the leaders +of men, the brain as well as the flesh and the heart +must furnish a proportion. Defect in manners is +usually the defect of fine perceptions. Men are too +coarsely made for the delicacy of beautiful carriage +and customs. It is not quite sufficient to good- +breeding, a union of kindness and independence. We +imperatively require a perception of, and a homage +to beauty in our companions. Other virtues are in +request in the field and workyard, but a certain +degree of taste is not to be spared in those we sit +with. I could better eat with one who did not respect +the truth or the laws than with a sloven and +unpresentable person. Moral qualities rule the world, +but at short distances the senses are despotic. The +same discrimination of fit and fair runs out, if with +less rigor, into all parts of life. The average spirit +of the energetic class is good sense, acting under +certain limitations and to certain ends. It entertains +every natural gift. Social in its nature, it respects +everything which tends to unite men. It delights in +measure. The love of beauty is mainly the love of +measure or proportion. The person who screams, or uses +the superlative degree, or converses with heat, puts +whole drawing-rooms to flight. If you wish to be loved, +love measure. You must have genius or a prodigious +usefulness if you will hide the want of measure. This +perception comes in to polish and perfect the parts of +the social instrument. Society will pardon much to +genius and special gifts, but, being in its nature a +convention, it loves what is conventional, or what +belongs to coming together. That makes the good and bad +of manners, namely what helps or hinders fellowship. +For fashion is not good sense absolute, but relative; +not good sense private, but good sense entertaining +company. It hates corners and sharp points of character, +hates quarrelsome, egotistical, solitary, and gloomy +people; hates whatever can interfere with total blending +of parties; whilst it values all peculiarities as in the +highest degree refreshing, which can consist with good +fellowship. And besides the general infusion of wit to +heighten civility, the direct splendor of intellectual +power is ever welcome in fine society as the costliest +addition to its rule and its credit. + +The dry light must shine in to adorn our festival, +but it must be tempered and shaded, or that will +also offend. Accuracy is essential to beauty, and +quick perceptions to politeness, but not too quick +perceptions. One may be too punctual and too precise. +He must leave the omniscience of business at the +door, when he comes into the palace of beauty. Society +loves creole natures, and sleepy languishing manners, +so that they cover sense, grace and good-will: the air +of drowsy strength, which disarms criticism; perhaps +because such a person seems to reserve himself for the +best of the game, and not spend himself on surfaces; +an ignoring eye, which does not see the annoyances, +shifts, and inconveniences that cloud the brow and +smother the voice of the sensitive. + +Therefore besides personal force and so much +perception as constitutes unerring taste, society +demands in its patrician class another element +already intimated, which it significantly terms +good-nature,--expressing all degrees of generosity, +from the lowest willingness and faculty to oblige, +up to the heights of magnanimity and love. Insight +we must have, or we shall run against one another +and miss the way to our food; but intellect is +selfish and barren. The secret of success in society +is a certain heartiness and sympathy. A man who is +not happy in the company cannot find any word in his +memory that will fit the occasion. All his information +is a little impertinent. A man who is happy there, +finds in every turn of the conversation equally lucky +occasions for the introduction of that which he has +to say. The favorites of society, and what it calls +whole souls, are able men and of more spirit than wit, +who have no uncomfortable egotism, but who exactly +fill the hour and the company; contented and contenting, +at a marriage or a funeral, a ball or a jury, a water- +party or a shooting-match. England, which is rich in +gentlemen, furnished, in the beginning of the present +century, a good model of that genius which the world +loves, in Mr. Fox, who added to his great abilities +the most social disposition and real love of men. +Parliamentary history has few better passages than the +debate in which Burke and Fox separated in the House +of Commons; when Fox urged on his old friend the claims +of old friendship with such tenderness that the house +was moved to tears. Another anecdote is so close to my +matter, that I must hazard the story. A tradesman who +had long dunned him for a note of three hundred guineas, +found him one day counting gold, and demanded payment: +--"No," said Fox, "I owe this money to Sheridan; it is +a debt of honor; if an accident should happen to me, +he has nothing to show." "Then," said the creditor, "I +change my debt into a debt of honor," and tore the note +in pieces. Fox thanked the man for his confidence and +paid him, saying, "his debt was of older standing, and +Sheridan must wait." Lover of liberty, friend of the +Hindoo, friend of the African slave, he possessed a +great personal popularity; and Napoleon said of him on +the occasion of his visit to Paris, in 1805, "Mr. Fox +will always hold the first place in an assembly at +the Tuileries." + +We may easily seem ridiculous in our eulogy of +courtesy, whenever we insist on benevolence as its +foundation. The painted phantasm Fashion rises to +cast a species of derision on what we say. But I +will neither be driven from some allowance to +Fashion as a symbolic institution, nor from the +belief that love is the basis of courtesy. We must +obtain that, if we can; but by all means we must +affirm this. Life owes much of its spirit to these +sharp contrasts. Fashion, which affects to be honor, +is often, in all men's experience, only a ballroom- +code. Yet so long as it is the highest circle in the +imagination of the best heads on the planet, there +is something necessary and excellent in it; for it +is not to be supposed that men have agreed to be the +dupes of anything preposterous; and the respect which +these mysteries inspire in the most rude and sylvan +characters, and the curiosity with which details of +high life are read, betray the universality of the +love of cultivated manners. I know that a comic +disparity would be felt, if we should enter the +acknowledged 'first circles' and apply these terrific +standards of justice, beauty, and benefit to the +individuals actually found there. Monarchs and heroes, +sages and lovers, these gallants are not. Fashion has +many classes and many rules of probation and admission, +and not the best alone. There is not only the right of +conquest, which genius pretends,--the individual +demonstrating his natural aristocracy best of the best; +--but less claims will pass for the time; for Fashion +loves lions, and points like Circe to her horned company. +This gentleman is this afternoon arrived from Denmark; +and that is my Lord Ride, who came yesterday from Bagdat; +here is Captain Friese, from Cape Turnagain; and Captain +Symmes, from the interior of the earth; and Monsieur +Jovaire, who came down this morning in a balloon; Mr. +Hobnail, the reformer; and Reverend Jul Bat, who has +converted the whole torrid zone in his Sunday school; +and Signor Torre del Greco, who extinguished Vesuvius +by pouring into it the Bay of Naples; Spahi, the Persian +ambassador; and Tul Wil Shan, the exiled nabob of Nepaul, +whose saddle is the new moon.--But these are monsters of +one day, and to-morrow will be dismissed to their holes +and dens; for in these rooms every chair is waited for. +The artist, the scholar, and, in general, the clerisy, +wins their way up into these places and get represented +here, somewhat on this footing of conquest. Another mode +is to pass through all the degrees, spending a year and a +day in St. Michael's Square, being steeped in Cologne +water, and perfumed, and dined, and introduced, and +properly grounded in all the biography and politics and +anecdotes of the boudoirs. + +Yet these fineries may have grace and wit. Let +there be grotesque sculpture about the gates and +offices of temples. Let the creed and commandments +even have the saucy homage of parody. The forms of +politeness universally express benevolence in +superlative degrees. What if they are in the mouths +of selfish men, and used as means of selfishness? +What if the false gentleman almost bows the true out +Of the world? What if the false gentleman contrives +so to address his companion as civilly to exclude +all others from his discourse, and also to make them +feel excluded? Real service will not lose its nobleness. +All generosity is not merely French and sentimental; +nor is it to be concealed that living blood and a +passion of kindness does at last distinguish God's +gentleman from Fashion's. The epitaph of Sir Jenkin +Grout is not wholly unintelligible to the present age: +"Here lies Sir Jenkin Grout, who loved his friend and +persuaded his enemy: what his mouth ate, his hand paid +for: what his servants robbed, he restored: if a woman +gave him pleasure, he supported her in pain: he never +forgot his children; and whoso touched his finger, +drew after it his whole body." Even the line of heroes +is not utterly extinct. There is still ever some +admirable person in plain clothes, standing on the +wharf, who jumps in to rescue a drowning man; there +is still some absurd inventor of charities; some guide +and comforter of runaway slaves; some friend of Poland; +some Philhellene; some fanatic who plants shade-trees +for the second and third generation, and orchards when +he is grown old; some well-concealed piety; some just +man happy in an ill fame; some youth ashamed of the +favors of fortune and impatiently casting them on other +shoulders. And these are the centres of society, on +which it returns for fresh impulses. These are the +creators of Fashion, which is an attempt to organize +beauty of behavior. The beautiful and the generous are, +in the theory, the doctors and apostles of this church: +Scipio, and the Cid, and Sir Philip Sidney, and +Washington, and every pure and valiant heart who +worshipped Beauty by word and by deed. The persons who +constitute the natural aristocracy are not found in the +actual aristocracy, or only on its edge; as the chemical +energy of the spectrum is found to be greatest just +outside of the spectrum. Yet that is the infirmity of +the seneschals, who do not know their sovereign when he +appears. The theory of society supposes the existence +and sovereignty of these. It divines afar off their +coming. It says with the elder gods,-- + + "As Heaven and Earth are fairer far + Than Chaos and blank Darkness, though once chiefs; + And as we show beyond that Heaven and Earth, + In form and shape compact and beautiful; + So, on our heels a fresh perfection treads; + A power, more strong in beauty, born of us, + And fated to excel us, as we pass + In glory that old Darkness: + -------- for, 'tis the eternal law, + That first in beauty shall be first in might." + +Therefore, within the ethnical circle of good +society there is a narrower and higher circle, +concentration of its light, and flower of courtesy, +to which there is always a tacit appeal of pride +and reference, as to its inner and imperial court; +the parliament of love and chivalry. And this is +constituted of those persons in whom heroic +dispositions are native; with the love of beauty, +the delight in society, and the power to embellish +the passing day. If the individuals who compose +the purest circles of aristocracy in Europe, the +guarded blood of centuries, should pass in review, +in such manner as that we could at leisure and +critically inspect their behavior, we might find +no gentleman and no lady; for although excellent +specimens of courtesy and high-breeding would +gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars we +should detect offence. Because elegance comes of no +breeding, but of birth. There must be romance of +character, or the most fastidious exclusion of +impertinencies will not avail. It must be genius which +takes that direction: it must be not courteous, but +courtesy. High behavior is as rare in fiction as it is +in fact. Scott is praised for the fidelity with which +he painted the demeanor and conversation of the superior +classes. Certainly, kings and queens, nobles and great +ladies, had some right to complain of the absurdity +that had been put in their mouths before the days of +Waverley; but neither does Scott's dialogue bear +criticism. His lords brave each other in smart +epigramatic speeches, but the dialogue is in costume, +and does not please on the second reading: it is not +warm with life. In Shakspeare alone the speakers do not +strut and bridle, the dialogue is easily great, and he +adds to so many titles that of being the best-bred man +in England and in Christendom. Once or twice in a +lifetime we are permitted to enjoy the charm of noble +manners, in the presence of a man or woman who have no +bar in their nature, but whose character emanates freely +in their word and gesture. A beautiful form is better +than a beautiful face; a beautiful behavior is better +than a beautiful form: it gives a higher pleasure than +statues or pictures; it is the finest of the fine arts. +A man is but a little thing in the midst of the objects +of nature, yet, by the moral quality radiating from his +countenance he may abolish all considerations of +magnitude, and in his manners equal the majesty of the +world. I have seen an individual whose manners, though +wholly within the conventions of elegant society, were +never learned there, but were original and commanding +and held out protection and prosperity; one who did not +need the aid of a court-suit, but carried the holiday +in his eye; who exhilarated the fancy by flinging wide +the doors of new modes of existence; who shook off the +captivity of etiquette, with happy, spirited bearing, +good-natured and free as Robin Hood; yet with the port +of an emperor, if need be,--calm, serious, and fit to +stand the gaze of millions. + +The open air and the fields, the street and public +chambers are the places where Man executes his will; +let him yield or divide the sceptre at the door of +the house. Woman, with her instinct of behavior, +instantly detects in man a love of trifles, any +coldness or imbecility, or, in short, any want of +that large, flowing, and magnanimous deportment +which is indispensable as an exterior in the hall. +Our American institutions have been friendly to her, +and at this moment I esteem it a chief felicity of +this country, that it excels in women. A certain +awkward consciousness of inferiority in the men may +give rise to the new chivalry in behalf of Woman's +Rights. Certainly let her be as much better placed +in the laws and in social forms as the most zealous +reformer can ask, but I confide so entirely in her +inspiring and musical nature, that I believe only +herself can show us how she shall be served. The +wonderful generosity of her sentiments raises her at +times into heroical and godlike regions, and verifies +the pictures of Minerva, Juno, or Polymnia; and by +the firmness with which she treads her upward path, +she convinces the coarsest calculators that another +road exists than that which their feet know. But +besides those who make good in our imagination the +place of muses and of Delphic Sibyls, are there not +women who fill our vase with wine and roses to the +brim, so that the wine runs over and fills the house +with perfume; who inspire us with courtesy; who unloose +our tongues and we speak; who anoint our eyes and we +see? We say things we never thought to have said; for +once, our walls of habitual reserve vanished and left +us at large; we were children playing with children +in a wide field of flowers. Steep us, we cried, in these +influences, for days, for weeks, and we shall be sunny +poets and will write out in many-colored words the +romance that you are. Was it Hafiz or Firdousi that +said of his Persian Lilla, She was an elemental force, +and astonished me by her amount of life, when I saw her +day after day radiating, every instant, redundant joy +and grace on all around her. She was a solvent powerful +to reconcile all heterogeneous persons into one society: +like air or water, an element of such a great range of +affinities that it combines readily with a thousand +substances. Where she is present all others will be +more than they are wont. She was a unit and whole, so +that whatsoever she did, became her. She had too much +sympathy and desire to please, than that you could say +her manners were marked with dignity, yet no princess +could surpass her clear and erect demeanor on each +occasion. She did not study the Persian grammar, nor +the books of the seven poets, but all the poems of the +seven seemed to be written upon her. For though the +bias of her nature was not to thought, but to sympathy, +yet was she so perfect in her own nature as to meet +intellectual persons by the fulness of her heart, +warming them by her sentiments; believing, as she did, +that by dealing nobly with all, all would show +themselves noble. + +I know that this Byzantine pile of chivalry or +Fashion, which seems so fair and picturesque to +those who look at the contemporary facts for +science or for entertainment, is not equally +pleasant to all spectators. The constitution of +our society makes it a giant's castle to the +ambitious youth who have not found their names +enrolled in its Golden Book, and whom it has +excluded from its coveted honors and privileges. +They have yet to learn that its seeming grandeur +is shadowy and relative: it is great by their +allowance; its proudest gates will fly open at the +approach of their courage and virtue. For the +present distress, however, of those who are +predisposed to suffer from the tyrannies of this +caprice, there are easy remedies. To remove your +residence a couple of miles, or at most four, will +commonly relieve the most extreme susceptibility. +For the advantages which fashion values are plants +which thrive in very confined localities, in a few +streets namely. Out of this precinct they go for +nothing; are of no use in the farm, in the forest, +in the market, in war, in the nuptial society, in +the literary or scientific circle, at sea, in +friendship, in the heaven of thought or virtue. + +But we have lingered long enough in these painted +courts. The worth of the thing signified must +vindicate our taste for the emblem. Everything that +is called fashion and courtesy humbles itself before +the cause and fountain of honor, creator of titles +and dignities, namely the heart of love. This is the +royal blood, this the fire, which, in all countries +and contingencies, will work after its kind and +conquer and expand all that approaches it. This gives +new meanings to every fact. This impoverishes the +rich, suffering no grandeur but its own. What is rich? +Are you rich enough to help anybody? to succor the +unfashionable and the eccentric? rich enough to make +the Canadian in his wagon, the itinerant with his +consul's paper which commends him "To the charitable," +the swarthy Italian with his few broken words of +English, the lame pauper hunted by overseers from town +to town, even the poor insane or besotted wreck of man +or woman, feel the noble exception of your presence and +your house from the general bleakness and stoniness; to +make such feel that they were greeted with a voice +which made them both remember and hope? What is vulgar +but to refuse the claim on acute and conclusive reasons? +What is gentle, but to allow it, and give their heart +and yours one holiday from the national caution? Without +the rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar. The king of +Schiraz could not afford to be so bountiful as the poor +Osman who dwelt at his gate. Osman had a humanity so +broad and deep that although his speech was so bold and +free with the Koran as to disgust all the dervishes, +yet was there never a poor outcast, eccentric, or insane +man, some fool who had cut off his beard, or who had +been mutilated under a vow, or had a pet madness in his +brain, but fled at once to him; that great heart lay +there so sunny and hospitable in the centre of the +country, that it seemed as if the instinct of all +sufferers drew them to his side. And the madness which +he harbored he did not share. Is not this to be rich? +this only to be rightly rich? + +But I shall hear without pain that I play the +courtier very ill, and talk of that which I do not +well understand. It is easy to see, that what is +called by distinction society and fashion has good +laws as well as bad, has much that is necessary, +and much that is absurd. Too good for banning, and +too bad for blessing, it reminds us of a tradition +of the pagan mythology, in any attempt to settle +its character. 'I overheard Jove, one day,' said +Silenus, 'talking of destroying the earth; he said +it had failed; they were all rogues and vixens, who +went from bad to worse, as fast as the days succeeded +each other. Minerva said she hoped not; they were +only ridiculous little creatures, with this odd +circumstance, that they had a blur, or indeterminate +aspect, seen far or seen near; if you called them bad, +they would appear so; if you called them good, they +would appear so; and there was no one person or action +among them, which would not puzzle her owl, much more +all Olympus, to know whether it was fundamentally bad +or good.' + + + + +GIFTS. + +Gifts of one who loved me,-- +'T was high time they came; +When he ceased to love me, +Time they stopped for shame. + +V. +GIFTS. + +IT is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy; +that the world owes the world more than the world can +pay, and ought to go into chancery and be sold. I do +not think this general insolvency, which involves in +some sort all the population, to be the reason of the +difficulty experienced at Christmas and New Year and +other times, in bestowing gifts; since it is always +so pleasant to be generous, though very vexatious to +pay debts. But the impediment lies in the choosing. +If at any time it comes into my head that a present +is due from me to somebody, I am puzzled what to give, +until the opportunity is gone. Flowers and fruits are +always fit presents; flowers, because they are a proud +assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the +utilities of the world. These gay natures contrast with +the somewhat stern countenance of ordinary nature: they +are like music heard out of a work-house. Nature does +not cocker us; we are children, not pets; she is not +fond; everything is dealt to us without fear or favor, +after severe universal laws. Yet these delicate flowers +look like the frolic and interference of love and beauty. +Men use to tell us that we love flattery even though we +are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of +importance enough to be courted. Something like that +pleasure, the flowers give us: what am I to whom these +sweet hints are addressed? Fruits are acceptable gifts, +because they are the flower of commodities, and admit +of fantastic values being attached to them. If a man +should send to me to come a hundred miles to visit him +and should set before me a basket of fine summer-fruit, +I should think there was some proportion between the +labor and the reward. + +For common gifts, necessity makes pertinences and +beauty every day, and one is glad when an imperative +leaves him no option; since if the man at the door +have no shoes, you have not to consider whether you +could procure him a paint-box. And as it is always +pleasing to see a man eat bread, or drink water, in +the house or out of doors, so it is always a great +satisfaction to supply these first wants. Necessity +does everything well. In our condition of universal +dependence it seems heroic to let the petitioner be +the judge of his necessity, and to give all that is +asked, though at great inconvenience. If it be a +fantastic desire, it is better to leave to others +the office of punishing him. I can think of many +parts I should prefer playing to that of the Furies. +Next to things of necessity, the rule for a gift, +which one of my friends prescribed, is that we might +convey to some person that which properly belonged +to his character, and was easily associated with +him in thought. But our tokens of compliment and +love are for the most part barbarous. Rings and +other jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. +The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must +bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem; +the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, +a gem; the sailor, coral and shells; the painter, +his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own +sewing. This is right and pleasing, for it restores +society in so far to its primary basis, when a man's +biography is conveyed in his gift, and every man's +wealth is an index of his merit. But it is a cold +lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy me +something which does not represent your life and +talent, but a goldsmith's. This is fit for kings, +and rich men who represent kings, and a false state +of property, to make presents of gold and silver +stuffs, as a kind of symbolical sin-offering, or +payment of black-mail. + +The law of benefits is a difficult channel, which +requires careful sailing, or rude boats. It is not +the office of a man to receive gifts. How dare you +give them? We wish to be self-sustained. We do not +quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in +some danger of being bitten. We can receive anything +from love, for that is a way of receiving it from +ourselves; but not from any one who assumes to bestow. +We sometimes hate the meat which we eat, because there +seems something of degrading dependence in living +by it:-- + + "Brother, if Jove to thee a present make, + Take heed that from his hands thou nothing take." + +We ask the whole. Nothing less will content us. We +arraign society if it do not give us, besides earth +and fire and water, opportunity, love, reverence, +and objects of veneration. + +He is a good man who can receive a gift well. We +are either glad or sorry at a gift, and both emotions +are unbecoming. Some violence I think is done, some +degradation borne, when I rejoice or grieve at a gift. +I am sorry when my independence is invaded, or when a +gift comes from such as do not know my spirit, and so +the act is not supported; and if the gift pleases me +overmuch, then I should be ashamed that the donor +should read my heart, and see that I love his commodity, +and not him. The gift, to be true, must be the flowing +of the giver unto me, correspondent to my flowing unto +him. When the waters are at level, then my goods pass +to him, and his to me. All his are mine, all mine his. +I say to him, How can you give me this pot of oil or +this flagon of wine when all your oil and wine is mine, +which belief of mine this gift seems to deny? Hence +the fitness of beautiful, not useful things, for gifts. +This giving is flat usurpation, and therefore when the +beneficiary is ungrateful, as all beneficiaries hate +all Timons, not at all considering the value of the +gift but looking back to the greater store it was taken +from,--I rather sympathize with the beneficiary than +with the anger of my lord Timon. For the expectation of +gratitude is mean, and is continually punished by the +total insensibility of the obliged person. It is a great +happiness to get off without injury and heart-burning +from one who has had the ill-luck to be served by you. +It is a very onerous business, this of being served, and +the debtor naturally wishes to give you a slap. A golden +text for these gentlemen is that which I so admire in the +Buddhist, who never thanks, and who says, "Do not flatter +your benefactors." + +The reason of these discords I conceive to be that +there is no commensurability between a man and any +gift. You cannot give anything to a magnanimous +person. After you have served him he at once puts +you in debt by his magnanimity. The service a man +renders his friend is trivial and selfish compared +with the service he knows his friend stood in +readiness to yield him, alike before he had begun +to serve his friend, and now also. Compared with +that good-will I bear my friend, the benefit it is +in my power to render him seems small. Besides, our +action on each other, good as well as evil, is so +incidental and at random that we can seldom hear +the acknowledgments of any person who would thank +us for a benefit, without some shame and humiliation. +We can rarely strike a direct stroke, but must be +content with an oblique one; we seldom have the +satisfaction of yielding a direct benefit which is +directly received. But rectitude scatters favors on +every side without knowing it, and receives with +wonder the thanks of all people. + +I fear to breathe any treason against the majesty +of love, which is the genius and god of gifts, and +to whom we must not affect to prescribe. Let him +give kingdoms or flower-leaves indifferently. There +are persons from whom we always expect fairy-tokens; +let us not cease to expect them. This is prerogative, +and not to be limited by our municipal rules. For +the rest, I like to see that we cannot be bought and +sold. The best of hospitality and of generosity is +also not in the will, but in fate. I find that I am +not much to you; you do not need me; you do not feel +me; then am I thrust out of doors, though you proffer +me house and lands. No services are of any value, but +only likeness. When I have attempted to join myself to +others by services, it proved an intellectual trick,-- +no more. They eat your service like apples, and leave +you out. But love them, and they feel you and delight +in you all the time. + + + + +NATURE. + +The rounded world is fair to see, +Nine times folded in mystery: +Though baffled seers cannot impart +The secret of its laboring heart, +Throb thine with Nature's throbbing breast, +And all is clear from east to west. +Spirit that lurks each form within +Beckons to spirit of its kin; +Self-kindled every atom glows, +And hints the future which it owes. + +VI. +NATURE. + +THERE are days which occur in this climate, at +almost any season of the year, wherein the world +reaches its perfection; when the air, the heavenly +bodies and the earth, make a harmony, as if nature +would indulge her offspring; when, in these bleak +upper sides of the planet, nothing is to desire +that we have heard of the happiest latitudes, and +we bask in the shining hours of Florida and Cuba; +when everything that has life gives sign of +satisfaction, and the cattle that lie on the ground +seem to have great and tranquil thoughts. These +halcyons may be looked for with a little more +assurance in that pure October weather which we +distinguish by the name of the Indian summer. The +day, immeasurably long, sleeps over the broad hills +and warm wide fields. To have lived through all its +sunny hours, seems longevity enough. The solitary +places do not seem quite lonely. At the gates of the +forest, the surprised man of the world is forced to +leave his city estimates of great and small, wise +and foolish. The knapsack of custom falls off his +back with the first step he makes into these precincts. +Here is sanctity which shames our religions, and +reality which discredits our heroes. Here we find +Nature to be the circumstance which dwarfs every other +circumstance, and judges like a god all men that come +to her. We have crept out of our close and crowded +houses into the night and morning, and we see what +majestic beauties daily wrap us in their bosom. How +willingly we would escape the barriers which render +them comparatively impotent, escape the sophistication +and second thought, and suffer nature to intrance us. +The tempered light of the woods is like a perpetual +morning, and is stimulating and heroic. The anciently +reported spells of these places creep on us. The +stems of pines, hemlocks, and oaks almost gleam like +iron on the excited eye. The incommunicable trees +begin to persuade us to live with them, and quit our +life of solemn trifles. Here no history, or church, +or state, is interpolated on the divine sky and the +immortal year. How easily we might walk onward into +the opening landscape, absorbed by new pictures and +by thoughts fast succeeding each other, until by +degrees the recollection of home was crowded out of +the mind, all memory obliterated by the tyranny of +the present, and we were led in triumph by nature. + +These enchantments are medicinal, they sober and +heal us. These are plain pleasures, kindly and native +to us. We come to our own, and make friends with matter, +which the ambitious chatter of the schools would +persuade us to despise. We never can part with it; the +mind loves its old home: as water to our thirst, so is +the rock, the ground, to our eyes and hands and feet. +It is firm water; it is cold flame; what health, what +affinity! Ever an old friend, ever like a dear friend +and brother when we chat affectedly with strangers, +comes in this honest face, and takes a grave liberty +with us, and shames us out of our nonsense. Cities give +not the human senses room enough. We go out daily and +nightly to feed the eyes on the horizon, and require +so much scope, just as we need water for our bath. +There are all degrees of natural influence, from these +quarantine powers of nature, up to her dearest and +gravest ministrations to the imagination and the soul. +There is the bucket of cold water from the spring, the +wood-fire to which the chilled traveller rushes for +safety,--and there is the sublime moral of autumn and +of noon. We nestle in nature, and draw our living as +parasites from her roots and grains, and we receive +glances from the heavenly bodies, which call us to +solitude and foretell the remotest future. The blue +zenith is the point in which romance and reality meet. +I think if we should be rapt away into all that we +dream of heaven, and should converse with Gabriel and +Uriel, the upper sky would be all that would remain of +our furniture. + +It seems as if the day was not wholly profane in +which we have given heed to some natural object. +The fall of snowflakes in a still air, preserving +to each crystal its perfect form; the blowing of +sleet over a wide sheet of water, and over plains; +the waving ryefield; the mimic waving of acres of +houstonia, whose innumerable florets whiten and +ripple before the eye; the reflections of trees +and flowers in glassy lakes; the musical steaming +odorous south wind, which converts all trees to +windharps; the crackling and spurting of hemlock +in the flames, or of pine logs, which yield glory +to the walls and faces in the sittingroom,--these +are the music and pictures of the most ancient +religion. My house stands in low land, with limited +outlook, and on the skirt of the village. But I go +with my friend to the shore of our little river, +and with one stroke of the paddle I leave the village +politics and personalities, yes, and the world of +villages and personalities behind, and pass into a +delicate realm of sunset and moonlight, too bright +almost for spotted man to enter without novitiate +and probation. We penetrate bodily this incredible +beauty; we dip our hands in this painted element; +our eyes are bathed in these lights and forms. A +holiday, a villeggiatura, a royal revel, the proudest, +most heart-rejoicing festival that valor and beauty, +power and taste, ever decked and enjoyed, establishes +itself on the instant. These sunset clouds, these +delicately emerging stars, with their private and +ineffable glances, signify it and proffer it. I am +taught the poorness of our invention, the ugliness of +towns and palaces. Art and luxury have early learned +that they must work as enhancement and sequel to this +original beauty. I am overinstructed for my return. +Henceforth I shall be hard to please. I cannot go back +to toys. I am grown expensive and sophisticated. I can +no longer live without elegance, but a countryman shall +be my master of revels. He who knows the most; he who +knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the +waters, the plants, the heavens, and how to come at +these enchantments,--is the rich and royal man. Only +as far as the masters of the world have called in +nature to their aid, can they reach the height of +magnificence. This is the meaning of their hanging- +gardens, villas, garden-houses, islands, parks and +preserves, to back their faulty personality with these +strong accessories. I do not wonder that the landed +interest should be invincible in the State with these +dangerous auxiliaries. These bribe and invite; not +kings, not palaces, not men, not women, but these +tender and poetic stars, eloquent of secret promises. +We heard what the rich man said, we knew of his villa, +his grove, his wine and his company, but the provocation +and point of the invitation came out of these beguiling +stars. In their soft glances I see what men strove to +realize in some Versailles, or Paphos, or Ctesiphon. +Indeed, it is the magical lights of the horizon and the +blue sky for the background which save all our works of +art, which were otherwise bawbles. When the rich tax the +poor with servility and obsequiousness, they should +consider the effect of men reputed to be the possessors +of nature, on imaginative minds. Ah! if the rich were +rich as the poor fancy riches! A boy hears a military +band play on the field at night, and he has kings and +queens and famous chivalry palpably before him. He hears +the echoes of a horn in a hill country, in the Notch +Mountains, for example, which converts the mountains +into an Aeolian harp,--and this supernatural tiralira +restores to him the Dorian mythology, Apollo, Diana, +and all divine hunters and huntresses. Can a musical +note be so lofty, so haughtily beautiful! To the poor +young poet, thus fabulous is his picture of society; he +is loyal; he respects the rich; they are rich for the +sake of his imagination; how poor his fancy would be, +if they were not rich! That they have some high-fenced +grove which they call a park; that they live in larger +and better-garnished saloons than he has visited, and +go in coaches, keeping only the society of the elegant, +to watering-places and to distant cities,--these make +the groundwork from which he has delineated estates of +romance, compared with which their actual possessions +are shanties and paddocks. The muse herself betrays +her son, and enhances the gifts of wealth and well-born +beauty by a radiation out of the air, and clouds, and +forests that skirt the road,--a certain haughty favor, +as if from patrician genii to patricians, a kind of +aristocracy in nature, a prince of the power of the air. + +The moral sensibility which makes Edens and Tempes +so easily, may not be always found, but the material +landscape is never far off. We can find these +enchantments without visiting the Como Lake, or the +Madeira Islands. We exaggerate the praises of local +scenery. In every landscape the point of astonishment +is the meeting of the sky and the earth, and that is +seen from the first hillock as well as from the top +of the Alleghanies. The stars at night stoop down +over the brownest, homeliest common with all the +spiritual magnificence which they shed on the Campagna, +or on the marble deserts of Egypt. The uprolled clouds +and the colors of morning and evening will transfigure +maples and alders. The difference between landscape and +landscape is small, but there is great difference in +the beholders. There is nothing so wonderful in any +particular landscape as the necessity of being beautiful +under which every landscape lies. Nature cannot be +surprised in undress. Beauty breaks in everywhere. + +But it is very easy to outrun the sympathy of +readers on this topic, which schoolmen called +natura naturata, or nature passive. One can hardly +speak directly of it without excess. It is as easy +to broach in mixed companies what is called "the +subject of religion." A susceptible person does not +like to indulge his tastes in this kind without the +apology of some trivial necessity: he goes to see a +wood-lot, or to look at the crops, or to fetch a +plant or a mineral from a remote locality, or he +carries a fowling-piece or a fishing-rod. I suppose +this shame must have a good reason. A dilettantism +in nature is barren and unworthy. The fop of fields +is no better than his brother of Broadway. Men are +naturally hunters and inquisitive of wood-craft, +and I suppose that such a gazetteer as wood-cutters +and Indians should furnish facts for, would take +place in the most sumptuous drawing-rooms of all the +"Wreaths" and "Flora's chaplets" of the bookshops; +yet ordinarily, whether we are too clumsy for so +subtle a topic, or from whatever cause, as soon as +men begin to write on nature, they fall into euphuism. +Frivolity is a most unfit tribute to Pan, who ought +to be represented in the mythology as the most +continent of gods. I would not be frivolous before +the admirable reserve and prudence of time, yet I +cannot renounce the right of returning often to this +old topic. The multitude of false churches accredits +the true religion. Literature, poetry, science are +the homage of man to this unfathomed secret, concerning +which no sane man can affect an indifference or +incuriosity. Nature is loved by what is best in us. It +is loved as the city of God, although, or rather because +there is no citizen. The sunset is unlike anything that +is underneath it: it wants men. And the beauty of nature +must always seem unreal and mocking, until the landscape +has human figures that are as good as itself. If there +were good men, there would never be this rapture in +nature. If the king is in the palace, nobody looks at +the walls. It is when he is gone, and the house is filled +with grooms and gazers, that we turn from the people to +find relief in the majestic men that are suggested by the +pictures and the architecture. The critics who complain +of the sickly separation of the beauty of nature from +the thing to be done, must consider that our hunting of +the picturesque is inseparable from our protest against +false society. Man is fallen; nature is erect, and serves +as a differential thermometer, detecting the presence or +absence of the divine sentiment in man. By fault of our +dulness and selfishness we are looking up to nature, but +when we are convalescent, nature will look up to us. We +see the foaming brook with compunction: if our own life +flowed with the right energy, we should shame the brook. +The stream of zeal sparkles with real fire, and not with +reflex rays of sun and moon. Nature may be as selfishly +studied as trade. Astronomy to the selfish becomes +astrology; psychology, mesmerism (with intent to show +where our spoons are gone); and anatomy and physiology +become phrenology and palmistry. + +But taking timely warning, and leaving many things +unsaid on this topic, let us not longer omit our +homage to the Efficient Nature, natura naturans, +the quick cause before which all forms flee as the +driven snows; itself secret, its works driven +before it in flocks and multitudes, (as the ancient +represented nature by Proteus, a shepherd,) and in +undescribable variety. It publishes itself in +creatures, reaching from particles and spiculae +through transformation on transformation to the +highest symmetries, arriving at consummate results +without a shock or a leap. A little heat, that is +a little motion, is all that differences the bald, +dazzling white and deadly cold poles of the earth +from the prolific tropical climates. All changes +pass without violence, by reason of the two cardinal +conditions of boundless space and boundless time. +Geology has initiated us into the secularity of +nature, and taught us to disuse our dame-school +measures, and exchange our Mosaic and Ptolemaic +schemes for her large style. We knew nothing rightly, +for want of perspective. Now we learn what patient +periods must round themselves before the rock is +formed; then before the rock is broken, and the first +lichen race has disintegrated the thinnest external +plate into soil, and opened the door for the remote +Flora, Fauna, Ceres, and Pomona to come in. How far +off yet is the trilobite! how far the quadruped! how +inconceivably remote is man! All duly arrive, and +then race after race of men. It is a long way from +granite to the oyster; farther yet to Plato and the +preaching of the immortality of the soul. Yet all +must come, as surely as the first atom has two sides. + +Motion or change and identity or rest are the first +and second secrets of nature:--Motion and Rest. The +whole code of her laws may be written on the thumbnail, +or the signet of a ring. The whirling bubble on the +surface of a brook admits us to the secret of the +mechanics of the sky. Every shell on the beach is a +key to it. A little water made to rotate in a cup +explains the formation of the simpler shells; the +addition of matter from year to year, arrives at last +at the most complex forms; and yet so poor is nature +with all her craft, that from the beginning to the end +of the universe she has but one stuff, -- but one stuff +with its two ends, to serve up all her dream-like +variety. Compound it how she will, star, sand, fire, +water, tree, man, it is still one stuff, and betrays +the same properties. + +Nature is always consistent, though she feigns to +contravene her own laws. She keeps her laws, and +seems to transcend them. She arms and equips an +animal to find its place and living in the earth, +and at the same time she arms and equips another +animal to destroy it. Space exists to divide +creatures; but by clothing the sides of a bird with +a few feathers she gives him a petty omnipresence. +The direction is forever onward, but the artist +still goes back for materials and begins again with +the first elements on the most advanced stage: +otherwise all goes to ruin. If we look at her work, +we seem to catch a glance of a system in transition. +Plants are the young of the world, vessels of health +and vigor; but they grope ever upward towards +consciousness; the trees are imperfect men, and seem +to bemoan their imprisonment, rooted in the ground. +The animal is the novice and probationer of a more +advanced order. The men, though young, having tasted +the first drop from the cup of thought, are already +dissipated: the maples and ferns are still uncorrupt; +yet no doubt when they come to consciousness they too +will curse and swear. Flowers so strictly belong to +youth that we adult men soon come to feel that their +beautiful generations concern not us: we have had our +day; now let the children have theirs. The flowers jilt +us, and we are old bachelors with our ridiculous tenderness. + +Things are so strictly related, that according to +the skill of the eye, from any one object the parts +and properties of any other may be predicted. If we +had eyes to see it, a bit of stone from the city wall +would certify us of the necessity that man must exist, +as readily as the city. That identity makes us all +one, and reduces to nothing great intervals on our +customary scale. We talk of deviations from natural +life, as if artificial life were not also natural. The +smoothest curled courtier in the boudoirs of a palace +has an animal nature, rude and aboriginal as a white +bear, omnipotent to its own ends, and is directly +related, there amid essences and billetsdoux, to +Himmaleh mountain-chains and the axis of the globe. If +we consider how much we are nature's, we need not be +superstitious about towns, as if that terrific or +benefic force did not find us there also, and fashion +cities. Nature, who made the mason, made the house. +We may easily hear too much of rural influences. The +cool disengaged air of natural objects makes them +enviable to us, chafed and irritable creatures with +red faces, and we think we shall be as grand as they +if we camp out and eat roots; but let us be men +instead of woodchucks and the oak and the elm shall +gladly serve us, though we sit in chairs of ivory on +carpets of silk. + +This guiding identity runs through all the surprises +and contrasts of the piece, and characterizes every +law. Man carries the world in his head, the whole +astronomy and chemistry suspended in a thought. +Because the history of nature is charactered in his +brain, therefore is he the prophet and discoverer of +her secrets. Every known fact in natural science was +divined by the presentiment of somebody, before it was +actually verified. A man does not tie his shoe without +recognizing laws which bind the farthest regions of +nature: moon, plant, gas, crystal, are concrete geometry +and numbers. Common sense knows its own, and recognizes +the fact at first sight in chemical experiment. The +common sense of Franklin, Dalton, Davy and Black, is the +same common sense which made the arrangements which now +it discovers. + +If the identity expresses organized rest, the counter +action runs also into organization. The astronomers +said, 'Give us matter and a little motion and we will +construct the universe. It is not enough that we should +have matter, we must also have a single impulse, one +shove to launch the mass and generate the harmony of +the centrifugal and centripetal forces. Once heave the +ball from the hand, and we can show how all this mighty +order grew.'--'A very unreasonable postulate,' said the +metaphysicians, 'and a plain begging of the question. +Could you not prevail to know the genesis of projection, +as well as the continuation of it?' Nature, meanwhile, +had not waited for the discussion, but, right or wrong, +bestowed the impulse, and the balls rolled. It was no +great affair, a mere push, but the astronomers were +right in making much of it, for there is no end to the +consequences of the act. That famous aboriginal push +propagates itself through all the balls of the system, +and through every atom of every ball; through all the +races of creatures, and through the history and +performances of every individual. Exaggeration is in +the course of things. Nature sends no creature, no man +into the world without adding a small excess of his +proper quality. Given the planet, it is still necessary +to add the impulse; so to every creature nature added +a little violence of direction in its proper path, a +shove to put it on its way; in every instance a slight +generosity, a drop too much. Without electricity the air +would rot, and without this violence of direction which +men and women have, without a spice of bigot and fanatic, +no excitement, no efficiency. We aim above the mark to +hit the mark. Every act hath some falsehood of exaggeration +in it. And when now and then comes along some sad, sharp- +eyed man, who sees how paltry a game is played, and refuses +to play, but blabs the secret;--how then? Is the bird flown? +O no, the wary Nature sends a new troop of fairer forms, of +lordlier youths, with a little more excess of direction to +hold them fast to their several aim; makes them a little +wrongheaded in that direction in which they are rightest, +and on goes the game again with new whirl, for a generation +or two more. The child with his sweet pranks, the fool of +his senses, commanded by every sight and sound, without any +power to compare and rank his sensations, abandoned to a +whistle or a painted chip, to a lead dragoon or a +gingerbread-dog, individualizing everything, generalizing +nothing, delighted with every new thing, lies down at night +overpowered by the fatigue which this day of continual +pretty madness has incurred. But Nature has answered her +purpose with the curly, dimpled lunatic. She has tasked +every faculty, and has secured the symmetrical growth of +the bodily frame by all these attitudes and exertions,-- +an end of the first importance, which could not be trusted +to any care less perfect than her own. This glitter, this +opaline lustre plays round the top of every toy to his +eye to insure his fidelity, and he is deceived to his good. +We are made alive and kept alive by the same arts. Let the +stoics say what they please, we do not eat for the good of +living, but because the meat is savory and the appetite is +keen. The vegetable life does not content itself with +casting from the flower or the tree a single seed, but it +fills the air and earth with a prodigality of seeds, that, +if thousands perish, thousands may plant themselves; that +hundreds may come up, that tens may live to maturity; that +at least one may replace the parent. All things betray the +same calculated profusion. The excess of fear with which +the animal frame is hedged round, shrinking from cold, +starting at sight of a snake, or at a sudden noise, protects +us, through a multitude of groundless alarms, from some one +real danger at last. The lover seeks in marriage his private +felicity and perfection, with no prospective end; and nature +hides in his happiness her own end, namely, progeny, or the +perpetuity of the race. + +But the craft with which the world is made, runs +also into the mind and character of men. No man +is quite sane; each has a vein of folly in his +composition, a slight determination of blood to +the head, to make sure of holding him hard to some +one point which nature had taken to heart. Great +causes are never tried on their merits; but the +cause is reduced to particulars to suit the size +of the partisans, and the contention is ever hottest +on minor matters. Not less remarkable is the overfaith +of each man in the importance of what he has to do or +say. The poet, the prophet, has a higher value for +what he utters than any hearer, and therefore it gets +spoken. The strong, self-complacent Luther declares +with an emphasis not to be mistaken, that "God himself +cannot do without wise men." Jacob Behmen and George +Fox betray their egotism in the pertinacity of their +controversial tracts, and James Naylor once suffered +himself to be worshipped as the Christ. Each prophet +comes presently to identify himself with his thought, +and to esteem his hat and shoes sacred. However this +may discredit such persons with the judicious, it helps +them with the people, as it gives heat, pungency, and +publicity to their words. A similar experience is not +infrequent in private life. Each young and ardent +person writes a diary, in which, when the hours of +prayer and penitence arrive, he inscribes his soul. The +pages thus written are to him burning and fragrant; he +reads them on his knees by midnight and by the morning +star; he wets them with his tears; they are sacred; too +good for the world, and hardly yet to be shown to the +dearest friend. This is the man-child that is born to +the soul, and her life still circulates in the babe. +The umbilical cord has not yet been cut. After some +time has elapsed, he begins to wish to admit his friend +to this hallowed experience, and with hesitation, yet +with firmness, exposes the pages to his eye. Will they +not burn his eyes? The friend coldly turns them over, +and passes from the writing to conversation, with easy +transition, which strikes the other party with +astonishment and vexation. He cannot suspect the writing +itself. Days and nights of fervid life, of communion +with angels of darkness and of light have engraved +their shadowy characters on that tear-stained book. He +suspects the intelligence or the heart of his friend. +Is there then no friend? He cannot yet credit that one +may have impressive experience and yet may not know how +to put his private fact into literature; and perhaps +the discovery that wisdom has other tongues and ministers +than we, that though we should hold our peace the truth +would not the less be spoken, might check injuriously +the flames of our zeal. A man can only speak so long as +he does not feel his speech to be partial and inadequate. +It is partial, but he does not see it to be so whilst he +utters it. As soon as he is released from the instinctive +and particular and sees its partiality, he shuts his +mouth in disgust. For no man can write anything who does +not think that what he writes is for the time the history +of the world; or do anything well who does not esteem his +work to be of importance. My work may be of none, but I +must not think it of none, or I shall not do it with +impunity. + +In like manner, there is throughout nature something +mocking, something that leads us on and on, but +arrives nowhere; keeps no faith with us. All promise +outruns the performance. We live in a system of +approximations. Every end is prospective of some other +end, which is also temporary; a round and final success +nowhere. We are encamped in nature, not domesticated. +Hunger and thirst lead us on to eat and to drink; but +bread and wine, mix and cook them how you will, leave +us hungry and thirsty, after the stomach is full. It +is the same with all our arts and performances. Our +music, our poetry, our language itself are not +satisfactions, but suggestions. The hunger for wealth, +which reduces the planet to a garden, fools the eager +pursuer. What is the end sought? Plainly to secure the +ends of good sense and beauty, from the intrusion of +deformity or vulgarity of any kind. But what an operose +method! What a train of means to secure a little +conversation! This palace of brick and stone, these +servants, this kitchen, these stables, horses and +equipage, this bank-stock and file of mortgages; trade +to all the world, country-house and cottage by the +waterside, all for a little conversation, high, clear, +and spiritual! Could it not be had as well by beggars +on the highway? No, all these things came from successive +efforts of these beggars to remove friction from the +wheels of life, and give opportunity. Conversation, +character, were the avowed ends; wealth was good as it +appeased the animal cravings, cured the smoky chimney, +silenced the creaking door, brought friends together in +a warm and quiet room, and kept the children and the +dinner-table in a different apartment. Thought, virtue, +beauty, were the ends; but it was known that men of +thought and virtue sometimes had the headache, or wet +feet, or could lose good time whilst the room was getting +warm in winter days. Unluckily, in the exertions necessary +to remove these inconveniences, the main attention has +been diverted to this object; the old aims have been lost +sight of, and to remove friction has come to be the end. +That is the ridicule of rich men, and Boston, London, +Vienna, and now the governments generally of the world +are cities and governments of the rich; and the masses +are not men, but poor men, that is, men who would be rich; +this is the ridicule of the class, that they arrive with +pains and sweat and fury nowhere; when all is done, it is +for nothing. They are like one who has interrupted the +conversation of a company to make his speech, and now has +forgotten what he went to say. The appearance strikes the +eye everywhere of an aimless society, of aimless nations. +Were the ends of nature so great and cogent as to exact +this immense sacrifice of men? + +Quite analogous to the deceits in life, there is, +as might be expected, a similar effect on the eye +from the face of external nature. There is in woods +and waters a certain enticement and flattery, together +with a failure to yield a present satisfaction. This +disappointment is felt in every landscape. I have seen +the softness and beauty of the summer clouds floating +feathery overhead, enjoying, as it seemed, their height +and privilege of motion, whilst yet they appeared not +so much the drapery of this place and hour, as +forelooking to some pavilions and gardens of festivity +beyond. It is an odd jealousy, but the poet finds +himself not near enough to his object. The pine-tree, +the river, the bank of flowers before him, does not +seem to be nature. Nature is still elsewhere. This or +this is but outskirt and far-off reflection and echo of +the triumph that has passed by and is now at its glancing +splendor and heyday, perchance in the neighboring fields, +or, if you stand in the field, then in the adjacent woods. +The present object shall give you this sense of stillness +that follows a pageant which has just gone by. What +splendid distance, what recesses of ineffable pomp and +loveliness in the sunset! But who can go where they are, +or lay his hand or plant his foot thereon? Off they fall +from the round world forever and ever. It is the same +among the men and women as among the silent trees; always +a referred existence, an absence, never a presence and +satisfaction. Is it that beauty can never be grasped? in +persons and in landscape is equally inaccessible? The +accepted and betrothed lover has lost the wildest charm +of his maiden in her acceptance of him. She was heaven +whilst he pursued her as a star: she cannot be heaven if +she stoops to such a one as he. + +What shall we say of this omnipresent appearance +of that first projectile impulse, of this flattery +and balking of so many well-meaning creatures? Must +we not suppose somewhere in the universe a slight +treachery and derision? Are we not engaged to a +serious resentment of this use that is made of us? +Are we tickled trout, and fools of nature? One look +at the face of heaven and earth lays all petulance +at rest, and soothes us to wiser convictions. To the +intelligent, nature converts itself into a vast +promise, and will not be rashly explained. Her secret +is untold. Many and many an Oedipus arrives; he has +the whole mystery teeming in his brain. Alas! the +same sorcery has spoiled his skill; no syllable can +he shape on his lips. Her mighty orbit vaults like +the fresh rainbow into the deep, but no archangel's +wing was yet strong enough to follow it and report +of the return of the curve. But it also appears that +our actions are seconded and disposed to greater +conclusions than we designed. We are escorted on +every hand through life by spiritual agents, and a +beneficent purpose lies in wait for us. We cannot +bandy words with Nature, or deal with her as we deal +with persons. If we measure our individual forces +against hers we may easily feel as if we were the +sport of an insuperable destiny. But if, instead of +identifying ourselves with the work, we feel that the +soul of the workman streams through us, we shall find +the peace of the morning dwelling first in our hearts, +and the fathomless powers of gravity and chemistry, +and, over them, of life, preexisting within us in +their highest form. + +The uneasiness which the thought of our helplessness +in the chain of causes occasions us, results from +looking too much at one condition of nature, namely, +Motion. But the drag is never taken from the wheel. +Wherever the impulse exceeds, the Rest or Identity +insinuates its compensation. All over the wide fields +of earth grows the prunella or self-heal. After every +foolish day we sleep off the fumes and furies of its +hours; and though we are always engaged with particulars, +and often enslaved to them, we bring with us to every +experiment the innate universal laws. These, while they +exist in the mind as ideas, stand around us in nature +forever embodied, a present sanity to expose and cure +the insanity of men. Our servitude to particulars betrays +into a hundred foolish expectations. We anticipate a new +era from the invention of a locomotive, or a balloon; +the new engine brings with it the old checks. They say +that by electro-magnetism your salad shall be grown from +the seed whilst your fowl is roasting for dinner; it is +a symbol of our modern aims and endeavors, of our +condensation and acceleration of objects;--but nothing +is gained; nature cannot be cheated; man's life is but +seventy salads long, grow they swift or grow they slow. +In these checks and impossibilities however we find our +advantage, not less than in the impulses. Let the +victory fall where it will, we are on that side. And the +knowledge that we traverse the whole scale of being, +from the centre to the poles of nature, and have some +stake in every possibility, lends that sublime lustre to +death, which philosophy and religion have too outwardly +and literally striven to express in the popular doctrine +of the immortality of the soul. The reality is more +excellent than the report. Here is no ruin, no discontinuity, +no spent ball. The divine circulations never rest nor linger. +Nature is the incarnation of a thought, and turns to a +thought again, as ice becomes water and gas. The world is +mind precipitated, and the volatile essence is forever +escaping again into the state of free thought. Hence the +virtue and pungency of the influence on the mind of natural +objects, whether inorganic or organized. Man imprisoned, +man crystallized, man vegetative, speaks to man impersonated. +That power which does not respect quantity, which makes the +whole and the particle its equal channel, delegates its smile +to the morning, and distils its essence into every drop of +rain. Every moment instructs, and every object: for wisdom +is infused into every form. It has been poured into us as +blood; it convulsed us as pain; it slid into us as pleasure; +it enveloped us in dull, melancholy days, or in days of +cheerful labor; we did not guess its essence until after a +long time. + + + + +POLITICS. + +Gold and iron are good +To buy iron and gold; +All earth's fleece and food +For their like are sold. +Boded Merlin wise, +Proved Napoleon great,-- +Nor kind nor coinage buys +Aught above its rate. +Fear, Craft, and Avarice +Cannot rear a State. +Out of dust to build +What is more than dust,-- +Walls Amphion piled +Phoebus stablish must. +When the Muses nine +With the Virtues meet, +Find to their design +An Atlantic seat, +By green orchard boughs +Fended from the heat, +Where the statesman ploughs +Furrow for the wheat; +When the Church is social worth, +When the state-house is the hearth, +Then the perfect State is come, +The republican at home. + +VII. +POLITICS. + +In dealing with the State we ought to remember +that its institution are not aboriginal, though +they existed before we were born; that they are +not superior to the citizen; that every one of +them was once the act of a single man; every law +and usage was a man's expedient to meet a particular +case; that they all are imitable, all alterable; +we may make as good, we may make better. Society +is an illusion to the young citizen. It lies before +him in rigid repose, with certain names, men and +institutions rooted like oak-trees to the centre, +round which all arrange themselves the best they +can. But the old statesman knows that society is +fluid; there are no such roots and centres, but +any particle may suddenly become the centre of the +movement and compel the system to gyrate round it; +as every man of strong will, like Pisistratus, or +Cromwell, does for a time, and every man of truth, +like Plato or Paul, does forever. But politics rest +on necessary foundations, and cannot be treated with +levity. Republics abound in young civilians, who +believe that the laws make the city, that grave +modifications of the policy and modes of living and +employments of the population, that commerce, +education, and religion, may be voted in or out; and +that any measure, though it were absurd, may be +imposed on a people if only you can get sufficient +voices to make it a law. But the wise know that +foolish legislation is a rope of sand which perishes +in the twisting; that the State must follow and not +lead the character and progress of the citizen; the +strongest usurper is quickly got rid of; and they +only who build on Ideas, build for eternity; and that +the form of government which prevails is the expression +of what cultivation exists in the population which +permits it. The law is only a memorandum. We are +superstitious, and esteem the statute somewhat: so much +life as it has in the character of living men is its +force. The statute stands there to say, Yesterday we +agreed so and so, but how feel ye this article to-day? +Our statute is a currency which we stamp with our own +portrait: it soon becomes unrecognizable, and in process +of time will return to the mint. Nature is not democratic, +nor limited-monarchical, but despotic, and will not be +fooled or abated of any jot of her authority by the +pertest of her sons; and as fast as the public mind is +opened to more intelligence, the code is seen to be +brute and stammering. It speaks not articulately, and +must be made to. Meantime the education of the general +mind never stops. The reveries of the true and simple +are prophetic. What the tender poetic youth dreams, and +prays, and paints to-day, but shuns the ridicule of +saying aloud, shall presently be the resolutions of +public bodies; then shall be carried as grievance and +bill of rights through conflict and war, and then shall +be triumphant law and establishment for a hundred years, +until it gives place in turn to new prayers and pictures. +The history of the State sketches in coarse outline the +progress of thought, and follows at a distance the +delicacy of culture and of aspiration. + +The theory of politics which has possessed the +mind of men, and which they have expressed the +best they could in their laws and in their +revolutions, considers persons and property as +the two objects for whose protection government +exists. Of persons, all have equal rights, in +virtue of being identical in nature. This interest +of course with its whole power demands a democracy. +Whilst the rights of all as persons are equal, in +virtue of their access to reason, their rights in +property are very unequal. One man owns his clothes, +and another owns a county. This accident, depending +primarily on the skill and virtue of the parties, +of which there is every degree, and secondarily on +patrimony, falls unequally, and its rights of course +are unequal. Personal rights, universally the same, +demand a government framed on the ratio of the +census; property demands a government framed on the +ratio of owners and of owning. Laban, who has +flocks and herds, wishes them looked after by an +officer on the frontiers, lest the Midianites shall +drive them off; and pays a tax to that end. Jacob +has no flocks or herds and no fear of the Midianites, +and pays no tax to the officer. It seemed fit that +Laban and Jacob should have equal rights to elect +the officer who is to defend their persons, but that +Laban and not Jacob should elect the officer who is +to guard the sheep and cattle. And if question arise +whether additional officers or watch-towers should be +provided, must not Laban and Isaac, and those who must +sell part of their herds to buy protection for the +rest, judge better of this, and with more right, than +Jacob, who, because he is a youth and a traveller, eats +their bread and not his own? + +In the earliest society the proprietors made their +own wealth, and so long as it comes to the owners +in the direct way, no other opinion would arise in +any equitable community than that property should +make the law for property, and persons the law for +persons. + +But property passes through donation or inheritance +to those who do not create it. Gift, in one case, +makes it as really the new owner's, as labor made it +the first owner's: in the other case, of patrimony, +the law makes an ownership which will be valid in +each man's view according to the estimate which he +sets on the public tranquillity. + +It was not however found easy to embody the readily +admitted principle that property should make law +for property, and persons for persons; since persons +and property mixed themselves in every transaction. +At last it seemed settled that the rightful +distinction was that the proprietors should have more +elective franchise than non-proprietors, on the Spartan +principle of "calling that which is just, equal; not +that which is equal, just." + +That principle no longer looks so self-evident as +it appeared in former times, partly, because doubts +have arisen whether too much weight had not been +allowed in the laws to property, and such a structure +given to our usages as allowed the rich to encroach +on the poor, and to keep them poor; but mainly because +there is an instinctive sense, however obscure and yet +inarticulate, that the whole constitution of property, +on its present tenures, is injurious, and its influence +on persons deteriorating and degrading; that truly the +only interest for the consideration of the State is +persons; that property will always follow persons; that +the highest end of government is the culture of men; +and if men can be educated, the institutions will share +their improvement and the moral sentiment will write +the law of the land. + +If it be not easy to settle the equity of this +question, the peril is less when we take note of +our natural defences. We are kept by better guards +than the vigilance of such magistrates as we +commonly elect. Society always consists in greatest +part of young and foolish persons. The old, who have +seen through the hypocrisy of courts and statesmen, +die and leave no wisdom to their sons. They believe +their own newspaper, as their fathers did at their +age. With such an ignorant and deceivable majority, +States would soon run to ruin, but that there are +limitations beyond which the folly and ambition of +governors cannot go. Things have their laws, as well +as men; and things refuse to be trifled with. +Property will be protected. Corn will not grow unless +it is planted and manured; but the farmer will not +plant or hoe it unless the chances are a hundred to +one that he will cut and harvest it. Under any forms, +persons and property must and will have their just +sway. They exert their power, as steadily as matter +its attraction. Cover up a pound of earth never so +cunningly, divide and subdivide it; melt it to liquid, +convert it to gas; it will always weigh a pound; it +will always attract and resist other matter by the +full virtue of one pound weight:--and the attributes +of a person, his wit and his moral energy, will +exercise, under any law or extinguishing tyranny, their +proper force,--if not overtly, then covertly; if not +for the law, then against it; if not wholesomely, then +poisonously; with right, or by might. + +The boundaries of personal influence it is impossible +to fix, as persons are organs of moral or supernatural +force. Under the dominion of an idea which possesses +the minds of multitudes, as civil freedom, or the +religious sentiment, the powers of persons are no +longer subjects of calculation. A nation of men +unanimously bent on freedom or conquest can easily +confound the arithmetic of statists, and achieve +extravagant actions, out of all proportion to their +means; as the Greeks, the Saracens, the Swiss, the +Americans, and the French have done. + +In like manner to every particle of property belongs +its own attraction. A cent is the representative of +a certain quantity of corn or other commodity. Its +value is in the necessities of the animal man. It is +so much warmth, so much bread, so much water, so much +land. The law may do what it will with the owner of +property; its just power will still attach to the +cent. The law may in a mad freak say that all shall +have power except the owners of property; they shall +have no vote. Nevertheless, by a higher law, the +property will, year after year, write every statute +that respects property. The non-proprietor will be +the scribe of the proprietor. What the owners wish to +do, the whole power of property will do, either +through the law or else in defiance of it. Of course +I speak of all the property, not merely of the great +estates. When the rich are outvoted, as frequently +happens, it is the joint treasury of the poor which +exceeds their accumulations. Every man owns something, +if it is only a cow, or a wheel-barrow, or his arms, +and so has that property to dispose of. + +The same necessity which secures the rights of +person and property against the malignity or folly +of the magistrate, determines the form and methods +of governing, which are proper to each nation and +to its habit of thought, and nowise transferable to +other states of society. In this country we are very +vain of our political institutions, which are singular +in this, that they sprung, within the memory of living +men, from the character and condition of the people, +which they still express with sufficient fidelity,-- +and we ostentatiously prefer them to any other in +history. They are not better, but only fitter for us. +We may be wise in asserting the advantage in modern +times of the democratic form, but to other states of +society, in which religion consecrated the monarchical, +that and not this was expedient. Democracy is better +for us, because the religious sentiment of the present +time accords better with it. Born democrats, we are +nowise qualified to judge of monarchy, which, to our +fathers living in the monarchical idea, was also +relatively right. But our institutions, though in +coincidence with the spirit of the age, have not any +exemption from the practical defects which have +discredited other forms. Every actual State is corrupt. +Good men must not obey the laws too well. What satire +on government can equal the severity of censure conveyed +in the word politic, which now for ages has signified +cunning, intimating that the State is a trick? + +The same benign necessity and the same practical +abuse appear in the parties, into which each State +divides itself, of opponents and defenders of the +administration of the government. Parties are also +founded on instincts, and have better guides to +their own humble aims than the sagacity of their +leaders. They have nothing perverse in their origin, +but rudely mark some real and lasting relation. We +might as wisely reprove the east wind or the frost, +as a political party, whose members, for the most +part, could give no account of their position, but +stand for the defence of those interests in which +they find themselves. Our quarrel with them begins +when they quit this deep natural ground at the bidding +of some leader, and obeying personal considerations, +throw themselves into the maintenance and defence of +points nowise belonging to their system. A party is +perpetually corrupted by personality. Whilst we +absolve the association from dishonesty, we cannot +extend the same charity to their leaders. They reap +the rewards of the docility and zeal of the masses +which they direct. Ordinarily our parties are parties +of circumstance, and not of principle; as the planting +interest in conflict with the commercial; the party of +capitalists and that of operatives; parties which are +identical in their moral character, and which can +easily change ground with each other in the support of +many of their measures. Parties of principle, as, +religious sects, or the party of free-trade, of universal +suffrage, of abolition of slavery, of abolition of +capital punishment,--degenerate into personalities, or +would inspire enthusiasm. The vice of our leading +parties in this country (which may be cited as a fair +specimen of these societies of opinion) is that they do +not plant themselves on the deep and necessary grounds +to which they are respectively entitled, but lash +themselves to fury in the carrying of some local and +momentary measure, nowise useful to the commonwealth. +Of the two great parties which at this hour almost +share the nation between them, I should say that one +has the best cause, and the other contains the best men. +The philosopher, the poet, or the religious man will of +course wish to cast his vote with the democrat, for +free-trade, for wide suffrage, for the abolition of +legal cruelties in the penal code, and for facilitating +in every manner the access of the young and the poor to +the sources of wealth and power. But he can rarely accept +the persons whom the so-called popular party propose to +him as representatives of these liberalities. They have +not at heart the ends which give to the name of democracy +what hope and virtue are in it. The spirit of our American +radicalism is destructive and aimless: it is not loving; +it has no ulterior and divine ends, but is destructive +only out of hatred and selfishness. On the other side, +the conservative party, composed of the most moderate, +able, and cultivated part of the population, is timid, +and merely defensive of property. It vindicates no right, +it aspires to no real good, it brands no crime, it +proposes no generous policy; it does not build, nor write, +nor cherish the arts, nor foster religion, nor establish +schools, nor encourage science, nor emancipate the slave, +nor befriend the poor, or the Indian, or the immigrant. +From neither party, when in power, has the world any +benefit to expect in science, art, or humanity, at all +commensurate with the resources of the nation. + +I do not for these defects despair of our republic. +We are not at the mercy of any waves of chance. In +the strife of ferocious parties, human nature always +finds itself cherished; as the children of the +convicts at Botany Bay are found to have as healthy +a moral sentiment as other children. Citizens of +feudal states are alarmed at our democratic institutions +lapsing into anarchy, and the older and more cautious +among ourselves are learning from Europeans to look +with some terror at our turbulent freedom. It is said +that in our license of construing the Constitution, +and in the despotism of public opinion, we have no +anchor; and one foreign observer thinks he has found +the safeguard in the sanctity of Marriage among us; +and another thinks he has found it in our Calvinism. +Fisher Ames expressed the popular security more wisely, +when he compared a monarchy and a republic, saying that +a monarchy is a merchantman, which sails well, but will +sometimes strike on a rock and go to the bottom; whilst +a republic is a raft, which would never sink, but then +your feet are always in water. No forms can have any +dangerous importance whilst we are befriended by the +laws of things. It makes no difference how many tons +weight of atmosphere presses on our heads, so long as +the same pressure resists it within the lungs. Augment +the mass a thousand fold, it cannot begin to crush us, +as long as reaction is equal to action. The fact of two +poles, of two forces, centripetal and centrifugal, is +universal, and each force by its own activity develops +the other. Wild liberty develops iron conscience. Want +of liberty, by strengthening law and decorum, stupefies +conscience. 'Lynch-law' prevails only where there is +greater hardihood and self-subsistency in the leaders. +A mob cannot be a permanency; everybody's interest +requires that it should not exist, and only justice +satisfies all. + +We must trust infinitely to the beneficent necessity +which shines through all laws. Human nature expresses +itself in them as characteristically as in statues, +or songs, or railroads; and an abstract of the codes +of nations would be a transcript of the common +conscience. Governments have their origin in the +moral identity of men. Reason for one is seen to be +reason for another, and for every other. There is a +middle measure which satisfies all parties, be they +never so many or so resolute for their own. Every +man finds a sanction for his simplest claims and deeds +in decisions of his own mind, which he calls Truth and +Holiness. In these decisions all the citizens find a +perfect agreement, and only in these; not in what is +good to eat, good to wear, good use of time, or what +amount of land or of public aid, each is entitled to +claim. This truth and justice men presently endeavor +to make application of to the measuring of land, the +apportionment of service, the protection of life and +property. Their first endeavors, no doubt, are very +awkward. Yet absolute right is the first governor; or, +every government is an impure theocracy. The idea +after which each community is aiming to make and mend +its law, is the will of the wise man. The wise man it +cannot find in nature, and it makes awkward but earnest +efforts to secure his government by contrivance; as by +causing the entire people to give their voices on every +measure; or by a double choice to get the representation +of the whole; or, by a selection of the best citizens; +or to secure the advantages of efficiency and internal +peace by confiding the government to one, who may himself +select his agents. All forms of government symbolize an +immortal government, common to all dynasties and +independent of numbers, perfect where two men exist, +perfect where there is only one man. + +Every man's nature is a sufficient advertisement +to him of the character of his fellows. My right +and my wrong is their right and their wrong. Whilst +I do what is fit for me, and abstain from what is +unfit, my neighbor and I shall often agree in our +means, and work together for a time to one end. But +whenever I find my dominion over myself not sufficient +for me, and undertake the direction of him also, I +overstep the truth, and come into false relations to +him. I may have so much more skill or strength than +he that he cannot express adequately his sense of +wrong, but it is a lie, and hurts like a lie both him +and me. Love and nature cannot maintain the assumption; +it must be executed by a practical lie, namely by force. +This undertaking for another is the blunder which stands +in colossal ugliness in the governments of the world. +It is the same thing in numbers, as in a pair, only not +quite so intelligible. I can see well enough a great +difference between my setting myself down to a self- +control, and my going to make somebody else act after +my views; but when a quarter of the human race assume +to tell me what I must do, I may be too much disturbed +by the circumstances to see so clearly the absurdity +of their command. Therefore all public ends look vague +and quixotic beside private ones. For any laws but +those which men make for themselves, are laughable. If +I put myself in the place of my child, and we stand in +one thought and see that things are thus or thus, that +perception is law for him and me. We are both there, +both act. But if, without carrying him into the thought, +I look over into his plot, and, guessing how it is with +him, ordain this or that, he will never obey me. This +is the history of governments,--one man does something +which is to bind another. A man who cannot be acquainted +with me, taxes me; looking from afar at me ordains that +a part of my labor shall go to this or that whimsical +end,--not as I, but as he happens to fancy. Behold the +consequence. Of all debts men are least willing to pay +the taxes. What a satire is this on government! Everywhere +they think they get their money's worth, except for these. + +Hence the less government we have the better,-- +the fewer laws, and the less confided power. The +antidote to this abuse of formal Government is +the influence of private character, the growth of +the Individual; the appearance of the principal to +supersede the proxy; the appearance of the wise +man; of whom the existing government is, it must +be owned, but a shabby imitation. That which all +things tend to educe; which freedom, cultivation, +intercourse, revolutions, go to form and deliver, +is character; that is the end of Nature, to reach +unto this coronation of her king. To educate the +wise man the State exists, and with the appearance +of the wise man the State expires. The appearance +of character makes the State unnecessary. The wise +man is the State. He needs no army, fort, or navy, +--he loves men too well; no bribe, or feast, or +palace, to draw friends to him; no vantage ground, +no favorable circumstance. He needs no library, for +he has not done thinking; no church, for he is a +prophet; no statute book, for he has the lawgiver; +no money, for he is value; no road, for he is at +home where he is; no experience, for the life of the +creator shoots through him, and looks from his eyes. +He has no personal friends, for he who has the spell +to draw the prayer and piety of all men unto him +needs not husband and educate a few to share with +him a select and poetic life. His relation to men is +angelic; his memory is myrrh to them; his presence, +frankincense and flowers. + +We think our civilization near its meridian, but +we are yet only at the cock-crowing and the morning +star. In our barbarous society the influence of +character is in its infancy. As a political power, +as the rightful lord who is to tumble all rulers +from their chairs, its presence is hardly yet +suspected. Malthus and Ricardo quite omit it; the +Annual Register is silent; in the Conversations' +Lexicon it is not set down; the President's Message, +the Queen's Speech, have not mentioned it; and yet +it is never nothing. Every thought which genius and +piety throw into the world, alters the world. The +gladiators in the lists of power feel, through all +their frocks of force and simulation, the presence +of worth. I think the very strife of trade and +ambition are confession of this divinity; and +successes in those fields are the poor amends, the +fig-leaf with which the shamed soul attempts to hide +its nakedness. I find the like unwilling homage in +all quarters. It is because we know how much is due +from us that we are impatient to show some petty +talent as a substitute for worth. We are haunted by +a conscience of this right to grandeur of character, +and are false to it. But each of us has some talent, +can do somewhat useful, or graceful, or formidable, +or amusing, or lucrative. That we do, as an apology +to others and to ourselves for not reaching the mark +of a good and equal life. But it does not satisfy us, +whilst we thrust it on the notice of our companions. +It may throw dust in their eyes, but does not smooth +our own brow, or give us the tranquillity of the +strong when we walk abroad. We do penance as we go. +Our talent is a sort of expiation, and we are +constrained to reflect on our splendid moment with +a certain humiliation, as somewhat too fine, and not +as one act of many acts, a fair expression of our +permanent energy. Most persons of ability meet in +society with a kind of tacit appeal. Each seems to +say, 'I am not all here.' Senators and presidents +have climbed so high with pain enough, not because +they think the place specially agreeable, but as an +apology for real worth, and to vindicate their manhood +in our eyes. This conspicuous chair is their compensation +to themselves for being of a poor, cold, hard nature. +They must do what they can. Like one class of forest +animals, they have nothing but a prehensile tail; climb +they must, or crawl. If a man found himself so rich- +natured that he could enter into strict relations with +the best persons and make life serene around him by the +dignity and sweetness of his behavior, could he afford +to circumvent the favor of the caucus and the press, and +covet relations so hollow and pompous as those of a +politician? Surely nobody would be a charlatan who could +afford to be sincere. + +The tendencies of the times favor the idea of +self-government, and leave the individual, for all +code, to the rewards and penalties of his own +constitution; which work with more energy than we +believe whilst we depend on artificial restraints. +The movement in this direction has been very marked +in modern history. Much has been blind and +discreditable, but the nature of the revolution is +not affected by the vices of the revolters; for this +is a purely moral force. It was never adopted by any +party in history, neither can be. It separates the +individual from all party, and unites him at the +same time to the race. It promises a recognition of +higher rights than those of personal freedom, or the +security of property. A man has a right to be employed, +to be trusted, to be loved, to be revered. The power +of love, as the basis of a State, has never been tried. +We must not imagine that all things are lapsing into +confusion if every tender protestant be not compelled +to bear his part in certain social conventions; nor +doubt that roads can be built, letters carried, and +the fruit of labor secured, when the government of +force is at an end. Are our methods now so excellent +that all competition is hopeless? could not a nation +of friends even devise better ways? On the other hand, +let not the most conservative and timid fear anything +from a premature surrender of the bayonet and the +system of force. For, according to the order of nature, +which is quite superior to our will, it stands thus; +there will always be a government of force where men +are selfish; and when they are pure enough to abjure +the code of force they will be wise enough to see how +these public ends of the post-office, of the highway, +of commerce and the exchange of property, of museums +and libraries, of institutions of art and science can +be answered. + +We live in a very low state of the world, and pay +unwilling tribute to governments founded on force. +There is not, among the most religious and instructed +men of the most religious and civil nations, a +reliance on the moral sentiment and a sufficient +belief in the unity of things, to persuade them that +society can be maintained without artificial restraints, +as well as the solar system; or that the private citizen +might be reasonable and a good neighbor, without the +hint of a jail or a confiscation. What is strange too, +there never was in any man sufficient faith in the power +of rectitude to inspire him with the broad design of +renovating the State on the principle of right and love. +All those who have pretended this design have been +partial reformers, and have admitted in some manner the +supremacy of the bad State. I do not call to mind a +single human being who has steadily denied the authority +of the laws, on the simple ground of his own moral +nature. Such designs, full of genius and full of fate as +they are, are not entertained except avowedly as air- +pictures. If the individual who exhibits them dare to +think them practicable, he disgusts scholars and churchmen; +and men of talent and women of superior sentiments cannot +hide their contempt. Not the less does nature continue to +fill the heart of youth with suggestions of this enthusiasm, +and there are now men,--if indeed I can speak in the plural +number,--more exactly, I will say, I have just been +conversing with one man, to whom no weight of adverse +experience will make it for a moment appear impossible that +thousands of human beings might exercise towards each other +the grandest and simplest sentiments, as well as a knot of +friends, or a pair of lovers. + + + + +NOMINALIST AND REALIST. + +In countless upward-striving waves +The moon-drawn tide-wave strives: +In thousand far-transplanted grafts +The parent fruit survives; +So, in the new-born millions, +The perfect Adam lives. +Not less are summer-mornings dear +To every child they wake, +And each with novel life his sphere +Fills for his proper sake. + +VIII. +NONIMALIST AND REALIST. + +I CANNOT often enough say that a man is only a +relative and representative nature. Each is a hint +of the truth, but far enough from being that truth +which yet he quite newly and inevitably suggests +to us. If I seek it in him I shall not find it. +Could any man conduct into me the pure stream of +that which he pretends to be! Long afterwards I +find that quality elsewhere which he promised me. +The genius of the Platonists is intoxicating to the +student, yet how few particulars of it can I detach +from all their books. The man momentarily stands +for the thought, but will not bear examination; and +a society of men will cursorily represent well enough +a certain quality and culture, for example, chivalry +or beauty of manners; but separate them and there is +no gentleman and no lady in the group. The least hint +sets us on the pursuit of a character which no man +realizes. We have such exorbitant eyes that on seeing +the smallest arc we complete the curve, and when the +curtain is lifted from the diagram which it seemed to +veil, we are vexed to find that no more was drawn than +just that fragment of an arc which we first beheld. We +are greatly too liberal in our construction of each +other's faculty and promise. Exactly what the parties +have already done they shall do again; but that which +we inferred from their nature and inception, they will +not do. That is in nature, but not in them. That happens +in the world, which we often witness in a public debate. +Each of the speakers expresses himself imperfectly; no +one of them hears much that another says, such is the +preoccupation of mind of each; and the audience, who +have only to hear and not to speak, judge very wisely +and superiorly how wrongheaded and unskilful is each of +the debaters to his own affair. Great men or men of great +gifts you shall easily find, but symmetrical men never. +When I meet a pure intellectual force or a generosity of +affection, I believe here then is man; and am presently +mortified by the discovery that this individual is no +more available to his own or to the general ends than +his companions; because the power which drew my respect +is not supported by the total symphony of his talents. +All persons exist to society by some shining trait of +beauty or utility which they have. We borrow the +proportions of the man from that one fine feature, and +finish the portrait symmetrically; which is false, for +the rest of his body is small or deformed. I observe a +person who makes a good public appearance, and conclude +thence the perfection of his private character, on which +this is based; but he has no private character. He is a +graceful cloak or lay-figure for holidays. All our poets, +heroes, and saints, fail utterly in some one or in many +parts to satisfy our idea, fail to draw our spontaneous +interest, and so leave us without any hope of realization +but in our own future. Our exaggeration of all fine +characters arises from the fact that we identify each in +turn with the soul. But there are no such men as we fable; +no Jesus, nor Pericles, nor Caesar, nor Angelo, nor +Washington, such as we have made. We consecrate a great +deal of nonsense because it was allowed by great men. +There is none without his foible. I verily believe if an +angel should come to chant the chorus of the moral law, +he would eat too much gingerbread, or take liberties with +private letters, or do some precious atrocity. It is bad +enough that our geniuses cannot do anything useful, but +it is worse that no man is fit for society who has fine +traits. He is admired at a distance, but he cannot come +near without appearing a cripple. The men of fine parts +protect themselves by solitude, or by courtesy, or by +satire, or by an acid worldly manner, each concealing as +he best can his incapacity for useful association, but +they want either love or self-reliance. + +Our native love of reality joins with this experience +to teach us a little reserve, and to dissuade a too +sudden surrender to the brilliant qualities of persons. +Young people admire talents or particular excellences; +as we grow older we value total powers and effects, as +the impression, the quality, the spirit of men and +things. The genius is all. The man,--it is his system: +we do not try a solitary word or act, but his habit. +The acts which you praise, I praise not, since they are +departures from his faith, and are mere compliances. +The magnetism which arranges tribes and races in one +polarity is alone to be respected; the men are steel- +filings. Yet we unjustly select a particle, and say, +'O steel-filing number one! what heart-drawings I feel +to thee! what prodigious virtues are these of thine! how +constitutional to thee, and incommunicable.' Whilst we +speak the loadstone is withdrawn; down falls our filing +in a heap with the rest, and we continue our mummery to +the wretched shaving. Let us go for universals; for the +magnetism, not for the needles. Human life and its +persons are poor empirical pretensions. A personal +influence is an ignis fatuus. If they say it is great, +it is great; if they say it is small, it is small; you +see it, and you see it not, by turns; it borrows all its +size from the momentary estimation of the speakers: the +Will-of-the-wisp vanishes if you go too near, vanishes +if you go too far, and only blazes at one angle. Who +can tell if Washington be a great man or no? Who can +tell if Franklin be? Yes, or any but the twelve, or six, +or three great gods of fame? And they too loom and fade +before the eternal. + +We are amphibious creatures, weaponed for two +elements, having two sets of faculties, the particular +and the catholic. We adjust our instrument for general +observation, and sweep the heavens as easily as we +pick out a single figure in the terrestrial landscape. +We are practically skilful in detecting elements for +which we have no place in our theory, and no name. Thus +we are very sensible of an atmospheric influence in men +and in bodies of men, not accounted for in an arithmetical +addition of all their measurable properties. There is a +genius of a nation, which is not to be found in the +numerical citizens, but which characterizes the society. +England, strong, punctual, practical, well-spoken England +I should not find if I should go to the island to seek it. +In the parliament, in the play-house, at dinner-tables, I +might see a great number of rich, ignorant, book-read, +conventional, proud men,--many old women,--and not anywhere +the Englishman who made the good speeches, combined the +accurate engines, and did the bold and nervous deeds. It +is even worse in America, where, from the intellectual +quickness of the race, the genius of the country is more +splendid in its promise and more slight in its performance. +Webster cannot do the work of Webster. We conceive distinctly +enough the French, the Spanish, the German genius, and it +is not the less real that perhaps we should not meet in +either of those nations a single individual who corresponded +with the type. We infer the spirit of the nation in great +measure from the language, which is a sort of monument to +which each forcible individual in a course of many hundred +years has contributed a stone. And, universally, a good +example of this social force is the veracity of language, +which cannot be debauched. In any controversy concerning +morals, an appeal may be made with safety to the sentiments +which the language of the people expresses. Proverbs, words, +and grammar-inflections convey the public sense with more +purity and precision than the wisest individual. + +In the famous dispute with the Nominalists, the +Realists had a good deal of reason. General ideas +are essences. They are our gods: they round and +ennoble the most partial and sordid way of living. +Our proclivity to details cannot quite degrade our +life and divest it of poetry. The day-laborer is +reckoned as standing at the foot of the social scale, +yet he is saturated with the laws of the world. His +measures are the hours; morning and night, solstice +and equinox, geometry, astronomy and all the lovely +accidents of nature play through his mind. Money, +which represents the prose of life, and which is +hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology, is, +in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses. +Property keeps the accounts of the world, and is +always moral. The property will be found where the +labor, the wisdom, and the virtue have been in nations, +in classes, and (the whole life-time considered, with +the compensations) in the individual also. How wise +the world appears, when the laws and usages of nations +are largely detailed, and the completeness of the +municipal system is considered! Nothing is left out. +If you go into the markets and the custom-houses, the +insurers' and notaries' offices, the offices of sealers +of weights and measures, of inspection of provisions,-- +it will appear as if one man had made it all. Wherever +you go, a wit like your own has been before you, and +has realized its thought. The Eleusinian mysteries, the +Egyptian architecture, the Indian astronomy, the Greek +sculpture, show that there always were seeing and knowing +men in the planet. The world is full of masonic ties, of +guilds, of secret and public legions of honor; that of +scholars, for example; and that of gentlemen, fraternizing +with the upper class of every country and every culture. + +I am very much struck in literature by the appearance +that one person wrote all the books; as if the editor +of a journal planted his body of reporters in different +parts of the field of action, and relieved some by +others from time to time; but there is such equality +and identity both of judgment and point of view in +the narrative that it is plainly the work of one all- +seeing, all-hearing gentleman. I looked into Pope's +Odyssey yesterday: it is as correct and elegant after +our canon of to-day as if it were newly written. The +modernness of all good books seems to give me an +existence as wide as man. What is well done I feel as +if I did; what is ill done I reck not of. Shakspeare's +passages of passion (for example, in Lear and Hamlet) +are in the very dialect of the present year. I am +faithful again to the whole over the members in my +use of books. I find the most pleasure in reading a +book in a manner least flattering to the author. I +read Proclus, and sometimes Plato, as I might read a +dictionary, for a mechanical help to the fancy and +the imagination. I read for the lustres, as if one +should use a fine picture in a chromatic experiment, +for its rich colors. 'Tis not Proclus, but a piece +of nature and fate that I explore. It is a greater +joy to see the author's author, than himself. A higher +pleasure of the same kind I found lately at a concert, +where I went to hear Handel's Messiah. As the master +overpowered the littleness and incapableness of the +performers and made them conductors of his electricity, +so it was easy to observe what efforts nature was +making, through so many hoarse, wooden, and imperfect +persons, to produce beautiful voices, fluid and soul- +guided men and women. The genius of nature was paramount +at the oratorio. + +This preference of the genius to the parts is the +secret of that deification of art, which is found +in all superior minds. Art, in the artist, is +proportion, or a habitual respect to the whole by +an eye loving beauty in details. And the wonder and +charm of it is the sanity in insanity which it denotes. +Proportion is almost impossible to human beings. There +is no one who does not exaggerate. In conversation, +men are encumbered with personality, and talk too much. +In modern sculpture, picture, and poetry, the beauty is +miscellaneous; the artist works here and there and at +all points, adding and adding, instead of unfolding +the unit of his thought. Beautiful details we must have, +or no artist; but they must be means and never other. +The eye must not lose sight for a moment of the purpose. +Lively boys write to their ear and eye, and the cool +reader finds nothing but sweet jingles in it. When they +grow older, they respect the argument. + +We obey the same intellectual integrity when we +study in exceptions the law of the world. Anomalous +facts, as the never quite obsolete rumors of magic +and demonology, and the new allegations of phrenologists +and neurologists, are of ideal use. They are good +indications. Homoeopathy is insignificant as an art +of healing, but of great value as criticism on the +hygeia or medical practice of the time. So with +Mesmerism, Swedenborgism, Fourierism, and the Millennial +Church; they are poor pretensions enough, but good +criticism on the science, philosophy, and preaching +of the day. For these abnormal insights of the adepts +ought to be normal, and things of course. + +All things show us that on every side we are very +near to the best. It seems not worth while to execute +with too much pains some one intellectual, or +aesthetical, or civil feat, when presently the dream +will scatter, and we shall burst into universal power. +The reason of idleness and of crime is the deferring +of our hopes. Whilst we are waiting we beguile the +time with jokes, with sleep, with eating, and with +crimes. + +Thus we settle it in our cool libraries, that all +the agents with which we deal are subalterns, which +we can well afford to let pass, and life will be +simpler when we live at the centre and flout the +surfaces. I wish to speak with all respect of +persons, but sometimes I must pinch myself to keep +awake and preserve the due decorum. They melt so +fast into each other that they are like grass and +trees, and it needs an effort to treat them as +individuals. Though the uninspired man certainly +finds persons a conveniency in household matters, +the divine man does not respect them; he sees them +as a rack of clouds, or a fleet of ripples which +the wind drives over the surface of the water. But +this is flat rebellion. Nature will not be Buddhist: +she resents generalizing, and insults the philosopher +in every moment with a million of fresh particulars. +It is all idle talking: as much as a man is a whole, +so is he also a part; and it were partial not to +see it. What you say in your pompous distribution +only distributes you into your class and section. You +have not got rid of parts by denying them, but are the +more partial. You are one thing, but Nature is one +thing and the other thing, in the same moment. She will +not remain orbed in a thought, but rushes into persons; +and when each person, inflamed to a fury of personality, +would conquer all things to his poor crotchet, she +raises up against him another person, and by many persons +incarnates again a sort of whole. She will have all. Nick +Bottom cannot play all the parts, work it how he may; +there will be somebody else, and the world will be round. +Everything must have its flower or effort at the beautiful, +coarser or finer according to its stuff. They relieve and +recommend each other, and the sanity of society is a +balance of a thousand insanities. She punishes +abstractionists, and will only forgive an induction which +is rare and casual. We like to come to a height of land +and see the landscape, just as we value a general remark +in conversation. But it is not the intention of Nature +that we should live by general views. We fetch fire and +water, run about all day among the shops and markets, and +get our clothes and shoes made and mended, and are the +victims of these details; and once in a fortnight we arrive +perhaps at a rational moment. If we were not thus infatuated, +if we saw the real from hour to hour, we should not be here +to write and to read, but should have been burned or frozen +long ago. She would never get anything done, if she suffered +admirable Crichtons and universal geniuses. She loves better +a wheelwright who dreams all night of wheels, and a groom +who is part of his horse; for she is full of work, and these +are her hands. As the frugal farmer takes care that his +cattle shall eat down the rowen, and swine shall eat the +waste of his house, and poultry shall pick the crumbs,--so +our economical mother dispatches a new genius and habit of +mind into every district and condition of existence, plants +an eye wherever a new ray of light can fall, and gathering +up into some man every property in the universe, establishes +thousandfold occult mutual attractions among her offspring, +that all this wash and waste of power may be imparted and +exchanged. + +Great dangers undoubtedly accrue from this incarnation +and distribution of the godhead, and hence Nature has +her maligners, as if she were Circe; and Alphonso of +Castille fancied he could have given useful advice. +But she does not go unprovided; she has hellebore at +the bottom of the cup. Solitude would ripen a plentiful +crop of despots. The recluse thinks of men as having +his manner, or as not having his manner; and as having +degrees of it, more and less. But when he comes into a +public assembly he sees that men have very different +manners from his own, and in their way admirable. In +his childhood and youth he has had many checks and +censures, and thinks modestly enough of his own endowment. +When afterwards he comes to unfold it in propitious +circumstance, it seems the only talent; he is delighted +with his success, and accounts himself already the fellow +of the great. But he goes into a mob, into a banking +house, into a mechanic's shop, into a mill, into a +laboratory, into a ship, into a camp, and in each new +place he is no better than an idiot; other talents take +place, and rule the hour. The rotation which whirls every +leaf and pebble to the meridian, reaches to every gift of +man, and we all take turns at the top. + +For Nature, who abhors mannerism, has set her heart +on breaking up all styles and tricks, and it is so +much easier to do what one has done before than to +do a new thing, that there is a perpetual tendency +to a set mode. In every conversation, even the highest, +there is a certain trick, which may be soon learned +by an acute person and then that particular style +continued indefinitely. Each man too is a tyrant in +tendency, because he would impose his idea on others; +and their trick is their natural defence. Jesus would +absorb the race; but Tom Paine or the coarsest +blasphemer helps humanity by resisting this exuberance +of power. Hence the immense benefit of party in politics, +as it reveals faults of character in a chief, which the +intellectual force of the persons, with ordinary +opportunity and not hurled into aphelion by hatred, +could not have seen. Since we are all so stupid, what +benefit that there should be two stupidities! It is +like that brute advantage so essential to astronomy, +of having the diameter of the earth's orbit for a base +of its triangles. Democracy is morose, and runs to +anarchy, but in the State and in the schools it is +indispensable to resist the consolidation of all men +into a few men. If John was perfect, why are you and +I alive? As long as any man exists, there is some need +of him; let him fight for his own. A new poet has +appeared; a new character approached us; why should we +refuse to eat bread until we have found his regiment +and section in our old army-files? Why not a new man? +Here is a new enterprise of Brook Farm, of Skeneateles, +of Northampton: why so impatient to baptize them Essenes, +or Port-Royalists, or Shakers, or by any known and effete +name? Let it be a new way of living. Why have only two +or three ways of life, and not thousands? Every man is +wanted, and no man is wanted much. We came this time +for condiments, not for corn. We want the great genius +only for joy; for one star more in our constellation, +for one tree more in our grove. But he thinks we wish +to belong to him, as he wishes to occupy us. He greatly +mistakes us. I think I have done well if I have acquired +a new word from a good author; and my business with him +is to find my own, though it were only to melt him down +into an epithet or an image for daily use:-- + + "Into paint will I grind thee, my bride!" + +To embroil the confusion, and make it impossible +to arrive at any general statement,--when we have +insisted on the imperfection of individuals, our +affections and our experience urge that every +individual is entitled to honor, and a very generous +treatment is sure to be repaid. A recluse sees only +two or three persons, and allows them all their room; +they spread themselves at large. The statesman looks +at many, and compares the few habitually with others, +and these look less. Yet are they not entitled to this +generosity of reception? and is not munificence the +means of insight? For though gamesters say that the +cards beat all the players, though they were never so +skilful, yet in the contest we are now considering, +the players are also the game, and share the power of +the cards. If you criticise a fine genius, the odds +are that you are out of your reckoning, and instead +of the poet, are censuring your own caricature of +him. For there is somewhat spheral and infinite in +every man, especially in every genius, which, if you +can come very near him, sports with all your +limitations. For rightly every man is a channel through +which heaven floweth, and whilst I fancied I was +criticising him, I was censuring or rather terminating +my own soul. After taxing Goethe as a courtier, +artificial, unbelieving, worldly,--I took up this book +of Helena, and found him an Indian of the wilderness, +a piece of pure nature like an apple or an oak, large +as morning or night, and virtuous as a brier-rose. + +But care is taken that the whole tune shall be +played. If we were not kept among surfaces, every +thing would be large and universal; now the excluded +attributes burst in on us with the more brightness +that they have been excluded. "Your turn now, my +turn next," is the rule of the game. The universality +being hindered in its primary form, comes in the +secondary form of all sides; the points come in +succession to the meridian, and by the speed of +rotation a new whole is formed. Nature keeps herself +whole and her representation complete in the experience +of each mind. She suffers no seat to be vacant in her +college. It is the secret of the world that all things +subsist and do not die but only retire a little from +sight and afterwards return again. Whatever does not +concern us is concealed from us. As soon as a person +is no longer related to our present well-being, he is +concealed, or dies, as we say. Really, all things and +persons are related to us, but according to our nature +they act on us not at once but in succession, and we +are made aware of their presence one at a time. All +persons, all things which we have known, are here +present, and many more than we see; the world is full. +As the ancient said, the world is a plenum or solid; +and if we saw all things that really surround us we +should be imprisoned and unable to move. For though +nothing is impassable to the soul, but all things are +pervious to it and like highways, yet this is only +whilst the soul does not see them. As soon as the soul +sees any object, it stops before that object. Therefore, +the divine Providence which keeps the universe open in +every direction to the soul, conceals all the furniture +and all the persons that do not concern a particular +soul, from the senses of that individual. Through +solidest eternal things the man finds his road as if +they did not subsist, and does not once suspect their +being. As soon as he needs a new object, suddenly he +beholds it, and no longer attempts to pass through it, +but takes another way. When he has exhausted for the +time the nourishment to be drawn from any one person +or thing, that object is withdrawn from his observation, +and though still in his immediate neighborhood, he does +not suspect its presence. Nothing is dead: men feign +themselves dead, and endure mock funerals and mournful +obituaries, and there they stand looking out of the +window, sound and well, in some new and strange disguise. +Jesus is not dead; he is very well alive: nor John, nor +Paul, nor Mahomet, nor Aristotle; at times we believe +we have seen them all, and could easily tell the names +under which they go. + +If we cannot make voluntary and conscious steps +in the admirable science of universals, let us see +the parts wisely, and infer the genius of nature +from the best particulars with a becoming charity. +What is best in each kind is an index of what +should be the average of that thing. Love shows me +the opulence of nature, by disclosing to me in my +friend a hidden wealth, and I infer an equal depth +of good in every other direction. It is commonly +said by farmers that a good pear or apple costs no +more time or pains to rear than a poor one; so I +would have no work of art, no speech, or action, or +thought, or friend, but the best. + +The end and the means, the gamester and the game, +--life is made up of the intermixture and reaction +of these two amicable powers, whose marriage appears +beforehand monstrous, as each denies and tends to +abolish the other. We must reconcile the contradictions +as we can, but their discord and their concord +introduce wild absurdities into our thinking and speech. +No sentence will hold the whole truth, and the only way +in which we can be just, is by giving ourselves the lie; +Speech is better than silence; silence is better than +speech;--All things are in contact; every atom has a +sphere of repulsion;--Things are, and are not, at the +same time;--and the like. All the universe over, there +is but one thing, this old Two-Face, creator-creature, +mind-matter, right-wrong, of which any proposition may +be affirmed or denied. Very fitly therefore I assert +that every man is a partialist, that nature secures him +as an instrument by self-conceit, preventing the +tendencies to religion and science; and now further +assert, that, each man's genius being nearly and +affectionately explored, he is justified in his +individuality, as his nature is found to be immense; +and now I add that every man is a universalist also, +and, as our earth, whilst it spins on its own axis, +spins all the time around the sun through the celestial +spaces, so the least of its rational children, the most +dedicated to his private affair, works out, though as it +were under a disguise, the universal problem. We fancy +men are individuals; so are pumpkins; but every pumpkin +in the field goes through every point of pumpkin history. +The rabid democrat, as soon as he is senator and rich man, +has ripened beyond possibility of sincere radicalism, and +unless he can resist the sun, he must be conservative the +remainder of his days. Lord Eldon said in his old age that +"if he were to begin life again, he would be damned but he +would begin as agitator." + +We hide this universality if we can, but it appears +at all points. We are as ungrateful as children. +There is nothing we cherish and strive to draw to us +but in some hour we turn and rend it. We keep a running +fire of sarcasm at ignorance and the life of the senses; +then goes by, perchance, a fair girl, a piece of life, +gay and happy, and making the commonest offices beautiful +by the energy and heart with which she does them; and +seeing this we admire and love her and them, and say, +'Lo! a genuine creature of the fair earth, not dissipated +or too early ripened by books, philosophy, religion, +society, or care!' insinuating a treachery and contempt +for all we had so long loved and wrought in ourselves +and others. + +If we could have any security against moods! If +the profoundest prophet could be holden to his +words, and the hearer who is ready to sell all +and join the crusade could have any certificate +that tomorrow his prophet shall not unsay his +testimony! But the Truth sits veiled there on the +Bench, and never interposes an adamantine syllable; +and the most sincere and revolutionary doctrine, +put as if the ark of God were carried forward some +furlongs, and planted there for the succor of the +world, shall in a few weeks be coldly set aside by +the same speaker, as morbid; "I thought I was right, +but I was not,"--and the same immeasurable credulity +demanded for new audacities. If we were not of all +opinions! if we did not in any moment shift the +platform on which we stand, and look and speak from +another! if there could be any regulation, any 'one- +hour-rule,' that a man should never leave his point +of view without sound of trumpet. I am always insincere, +as always knowing there are other moods. + +How sincere and confidential we can be, saying +all that lies in the mind, and yet go away feeling +that all is yet unsaid, from the incapacity of the +parties to know each other, although they use the +same words! My companion assumes to know my mood +and habit of thought, and we go on from explanation +to explanation until all is said which words can, +and we leave matters just as they were at first, +because of that vicious assumption. Is it that every +man believes every other to be an incurable partialist, +and himself a universalist? I talked yesterday with a +pair of philosophers; I endeavored to show my good +men that I love everything by turns and nothing long; +that I loved the centre, but doated on the superficies; +that I loved man, if men seemed to me mice and rats; +that I revered saints, but woke up glad that the old +pagan world stood its ground and died hard; that I was +glad of men of every gift and nobility, but would not +live in their arms. Could they but once understand +that I loved to know that they existed, and heartily +wished them God-speed, yet, out of my poverty of life +and thought, had no word or welcome for them when they +came to see me, and could well consent to their living +in Oregon, for any claim I felt on them,--it would be +a great satisfaction. + + + + +NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. + +In the suburb, in the town, +On the railway, in the square, +Came a beam of goodness down +Doubling daylight everywhere: +Peace now each for malice takes, +Beauty for his sinful weeks, +For the angel Hope aye makes +Him an angel whom she leads. + +NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. + +A LECTURE READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY IN AMORY HALL, ON +SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 1844. + +WHOEVER has had opportunity of acquaintance with +society in New England during the last twenty-five +years, with those middle and with those leading +sections that may constitute any just representation +of the character and aim of the community, will have +been struck with the great activity of thought and +experimenting. His attention must be commanded by +the signs that the Church, or religious party, is +falling from the Church nominal, and is appearing +in temperance and non-resistance societies; in +movements of abolitionists and of socialists; and +in very significant assemblies called Sabbath and +Bible Conventions; composed of ultraists, of seekers, +of all the soul of the soldiery of dissent, and meeting +to call in question the authority of the Sabbath, of +the priesthood, and of the Church. In these movements +nothing was more remarkable than the discontent they +begot in the movers. The spirit of protest and of +detachment drove the members of these Conventions to +bear testimony against the Church, and immediately +afterward, to declare their discontent with these +Conventions, their independence of their colleagues, +and their impatience of the methods whereby they were +working. They defied each other, like a congress of +kings, each of whom had a realm to rule, and a way of +his own that made concert unprofitable. What a fertility +of projects for the salvation of the world! One apostle +thought all men should go to farming, and another that +no man should buy or sell, that the use of money was the +cardinal evil; another that the mischief was in our diet, +that we eat and drink damnation. These made unleavened +bread, and were foes to the death to fermentation. It was +in vain urged by the housewife that God made yeast, as +well as dough, and loves fermentation just as dearly as +he loves vegetation; that fermentation develops the +saccharine element in the grain, and makes it more +palatable and more digestible. No; they wish the pure +wheat, and will die but it shall not ferment. Stop, dear +nature, these incessant advances of thine; let us scotch +these ever-rolling wheels! Others attacked the system +of agriculture, the use of animal manures in farming, +and the tyranny of man over brute nature; these abuses +polluted his food. The ox must be taken from the plough +and the horse from the cart, the hundred acres of the +farm must be spaded, and the man must walk, wherever +boats and locomotives will not carry him. Even the insect +world was to be defended,--that had been too long neglected, +and a society for the protection of ground-worms, slugs, +and mosquitos was to be incorporated without delay. With +these appeared the adepts of homoeopathy, of hydropathy, +of mesmerism, of phrenology, and their wonderful theories +of the Christian miracles! Others assailed particular +vocations, as that of the lawyer, that of the merchant, +of the manufacturer, of the clergyman, of the scholar. +Others attacked the institution of marriage as the fountain +of social evils. Others devoted themselves to the worrying +of churches and meetings for public worship; and the fertile +forms of antinomianism among the elder puritans seemed to +have their match in the plenty of the new harvest of reform. + +With this din of opinion and debate there was a +keener scrutiny of institutions and domestic life +than any we had known; there was sincere protesting +against existing evils, and there were changes of +employment dictated by conscience. No doubt there +was plentiful vaporing, and cases of backsliding +might occur. But in each of these movements emerged +a good result, a tendency to the adoption of simpler +methods, and an assertion of the sufficiency of the +private man. Thus it was directly in the spirit and +genius of the age, what happened in one instance +when a church censured and threatened to excommunicate +one of its members on account of the somewhat hostile +part to the church which his conscience led him to +take in the anti-slavery business; the threatened +individual immediately excommunicated the church in a +public and formal process. This has been several times +repeated: it was excellent when it was done the first +time, but of course loses all value when it is copied. +Every project in the history of reform, no matter how +violent and surprising, is good when it is the dictate +of a man's genius and constitution, but very dull and +suspicious when adopted from another. It is right and +beautiful in any man to say, 'I will take this coat, +or this book, or this measure of corn of yours,'--in +whom we see the act to be original, and to flow from +the whole spirit and faith of him; for then that taking +will have a giving as free and divine; but we are very +easily disposed to resist the same generosity of speech +when we miss originality and truth to character in it. + +There was in all the practical activities of New +England for the last quarter of a century, a gradual +withdrawal of tender consciences from the social +organizations. There is observable throughout, the +contest between mechanical and spiritual methods, but +with a steady tendency of the thoughtful and virtuous +to a deeper belief and reliance on spiritual facts. + +In politics for example it is easy to see the progress +of dissent. The country is full of rebellion; the +country is full of kings. Hands off! let there be no +control and no interference in the administration of +the affairs of this kingdom of me. Hence the growth of +the doctrine and of the party of Free Trade, and the +willingness to try that experiment, in the face of what +appear incontestable facts. I confess, the motto of +the Globe newspaper is so attractive to me that I can +seldom find much appetite to read what is below it in +its columns: "The world is governed too much." So the +country is frequently affording solitary examples of +resistance to the government, solitary nullifiers, who +throw themselves on their reserved rights; nay, who +have reserved all their rights; who reply to the assessor +and to the clerk of court that they do not know the +State, and embarrass the courts of law by non-juring and +the commander-in-chief of the militia by non-resistance. + +The same disposition to scrutiny and dissent appeared +in civil, festive, neighborly, and domestic society. +A restless, prying, conscientious criticism broke out +in unexpected quarters. Who gave me the money with +which I bought my coat? Why should professional labor +and that of the counting-house be paid so disproportionately +to the labor of the porter and woodsawyer? This whole +business of Trade gives me to pause and think, as it +constitutes false relations between men; inasmuch as I +am prone to count myself relieved of any responsibility +to behave well and nobly to that person whom I pay with +money; whereas if I had not that commodity, I should be +put on my good behavior in all companies, and man would +be a benefactor to man, as being himself his only +certificate that he had a right to those aids and services +which each asked of the other. Am I not too protected a +person? is there not a wide disparity between the lot of +me and the lot of thee, my poor brother, my poor sister? +Am I not defrauded of my best culture in the loss of +those gymnastics which manual labor and the emergencies +of poverty constitute? I find nothing healthful or exalting +in the smooth conventions of society; I do not like the +close air of saloons. I begin to suspect myself to be a +prisoner, though treated with all this courtesy and luxury. +I pay a destructive tax in my conformity. + +The same insatiable criticism may be traced in the +efforts for the reform of Education. The popular +education has been taxed with a want of truth and +nature. It was complained that an education to things +was not given. We are students of words: we are shut +up in schools, and colleges, and recitation-rooms, +for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with +a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a +thing. We cannot use our hands, or our legs, or our +eyes, or our arms. We do not know an edible root in +the woods, we cannot tell our course by the stars, +nor the hour of the day by the sun. It is well if we +can swim and skate. We are afraid of a horse, of a cow, +of a dog, of a snake, of a spider. The Roman rule was +to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing. +The old English rule was, 'All summer in the field, and +all winter in the study.' And it seems as if a man +should learn to plant, or to fish, or to hunt, that he +might secure his subsistence at all events, and not be +painful to his friends and fellow-men. The lessons of +science should be experimental also. The sight of the +planet through a telescope is worth all the course on +astronomy; the shock of the electric spark in the elbow, +outvalues all the theories; the taste of the nitrous +oxide, the firing of an artificial volcano, are better +than volumes of chemistry. + +One of the traits of the new spirit is the inquisition +it fixed on our scholastic devotion to the dead +languages. The ancient languages, with great beauty of +structure, contain wonderful remains of genius, which +draw, and always will draw, certain likeminded men,-- +Greek men, and Roman men,--in all countries, to their +study; but by a wonderful drowsiness of usage they had +exacted the study of all men. Once (say two centuries +ago), Latin and Greek had a strict relation to all the +science and culture there was in Europe, and the +Mathematics had a momentary importance at some era of +activity in physical science. These things became +stereotyped as education, as the manner of men is. But +the Good Spirit never cared for the colleges, and though +all men and boys were now drilled in Latin, Greek, and +Mathematics, it had quite left these shells high and dry +on the beach, and was now creating and feeding other +matters at other ends of the world. But in a hundred +high schools and colleges this warfare against common +sense still goes on. Four, or six, or ten years, the +pupil is parsing Greek and Latin, and as soon as he +leaves the University, as it is ludicrously called, he +shuts those books for the last time. Some thousands of +young men are graduated at our colleges in this country +every year, and the persons who, at forty years, still +read Greek, can all be counted on your hand. I never met +with ten. Four or five persons I have seen who read Plato. + +But is not this absurd, that the whole liberal talent +of this country should be directed in its best years +on studies which lead to nothing? What was the +consequence? Some intelligent persons said or thought, +'Is that Greek and Latin some spell to conjure with, +and not words of reason? If the physician, the lawyer, +the divine, never use it to come at their ends, I need +never learn it to come at mine. Conjuring is gone out +of fashion, and I will omit this conjugating, and go +straight to affairs.' So they jumped the Greek and Latin, +and read law, medicine, or sermons, without it. To the +astonishment of all, the self-made men took even ground +at once with the oldest of the regular graduates, and in +a few months the most conservative circles of Boston and +New York had quite forgotten who of their gownsmen was +college-bred, and who was not. + +One tendency appears alike in the philosophical +speculation and in the rudest democratical movements, +through all the petulance and all the puerility, the +wish, namely, to cast aside the superfluous and +arrive at short methods; urged, as I suppose, by an +intuition that the human spirit is equal to all +emergencies, alone, and that man is more often injured +than helped by the means he uses. + +I conceive this gradual casting off of material aids, +and the indication of growing trust in the private +self-supplied powers of the individual, to be the +affirmative principle of the recent philosophy, and +that it is feeling its own profound truth and is +reaching forward at this very hour to the happiest +conclusions. I readily concede that in this, as in +every period of intellectual activity, there has been +a noise of denial and protest; much was to be resisted, +much was to be got rid of by those who were reared in +the old, before they could begin to affirm and to +construct. Many a reformer perishes in his removal of +rubbish; and that makes the offensiveness of the class. +They are partial; they are not equal to the work they +pretend. They lose their way; in the assault on the +kingdom of darkness they expend all their energy on +some accidental evil, and lose their sanity and power +of benefit. It is of little moment that one or two or +twenty errors of our social system be corrected, but +of much that the man be in his senses. + +The criticism and attack on institutions, which we +have witnessed, has made one thing plain, that +society gains nothing whilst a man, not himself +renovated, attempts to renovate things around him: +he has become tediously good in some particular but +negligent or narrow in the rest; and hypocrisy and +vanity are often the disgusting result. + +It is handsomer to remain in the establishment better +than the establishment, and conduct that in the best +manner, than to make a sally against evil by some +single improvement, without supporting it by a total +regeneration. Do not be so vain of your one objection. +Do you think there is only one? Alas! my good friend, +there is no part of society or of life better than +any other part. All our things are right and wrong +together. The wave of evil washes all our institutions +alike. Do you complain of our Marriage? Our marriage is +no worse than our education, our diet, our trade, our +social customs. Do you complain of the laws of Property? +It is a pedantry to give such importance to them. Can we +not play the game of life with these counters, as well +as with those? in the institution of property, as well +as out of it? Let into it the new and renewing principle +of love, and property will be universality. No one gives +the impression of superiority to the institution, which +he must give who will reform it. It makes no difference +what you say, you must make me feel that you are aloof +from it; by your natural and supernatural advantages do +easily see to the end of it,--do see how man can do +without it. Now all men are on one side. No man deserves +to be heard against property. Only Love, only an Idea, +is against property as we hold it. + +I cannot afford to be irritable and captious, nor +to waste all my time in attacks. If I should go out +of church whenever I hear a false sentiment I could +never stay there five minutes. But why come out? the +street is as false as the church, and when I get to +my house, or to my manners, or to my speech, I have +not got away from the lie. When we see an eager +assailant of one of these wrongs, a special reformer, +we feel like asking him, What right have you, sir, to +your one virtue? Is virtue piecemeal? This is a jewel +amidst the rags of a beggar. + +In another way the right will be vindicated. In +the midst of abuses, in the heart of cities, in +the aisles of false churches, alike in one place +and in another,--wherever, namely, a just and +heroic soul finds itself, there it will do what +is next at hand, and by the new quality of character +it shall put forth it shall abrogate that old +condition, law or school in which it stands, before +the law of its own mind. + +If partiality was one fault of the movement party, +the other defect was their reliance on Association. +Doubts such as those I have intimated drove many +good persons to agitate the questions of social +reform. But the revolt against the spirit of commerce, +the spirit of aristocracy, and the inveterate abuses +of cities, did not appear possible to individuals; +and to do battle against numbers they armed themselves +with numbers, and against concert they relied on new +concert. + +Following or advancing beyond the ideas of St. Simon, +of Fourier, and of Owen, three communities have +already been formed in Massachusetts on kindred plans, +and many more in the country at large. They aim to +give every member a share in the manual labor, to give +an equal reward to labor and to talent, and to unite a +liberal culture with an education to labor. The scheme +offers, by the economies of associated labor and expense, +to make every member rich, on the same amount of property, +that, in separate families, would leave every member poor. +These new associations are composed of men and women of +superior talents and sentiments; yet it may easily be +questioned whether such a community will draw, except in +its beginnings, the able and the good; whether those who +have energy will not prefer their chance of superiority +and power in the world, to the humble certainties of the +association; whether such a retreat does not promise to +become an asylum to those who have tried and failed, +rather than a field to the strong; and whether the members +will not necessarily be fractions of men, because each +finds that he cannot enter it, without some compromise. +Friendship and association are very fine things, and a +grand phalanx of the best of the human race, banded for +some catholic object; yes, excellent; but remember that +no society can ever be so large as one man. He, in his +friendship, in his natural and momentary associations, +doubles or multiplies himself; but in the hour in which +he mortgages himself to two or ten or twenty, he dwarfs +himself below the stature of one. + +But the men of less faith could not thus believe, +and to such, concert appears the sole specific of +strength. I have failed, and you have failed, but +perhaps together we shall not fail. Our housekeeping +is not satisfactory to us, but perhaps a phalanx, a +community, might be. Many of us have differed in +opinion, and we could find no man who could make the +truth plain, but possibly a college, or an ecclesiastical +council might. I have not been able either to persuade +my brother or to prevail on myself, to disuse the traffic +or the potation of brandy, but perhaps a pledge of total +abstinence might effectually restrain us. The candidate +my party votes for is not to be trusted with a dollar, +but he will be honest in the Senate, for we can bring +public opinion to bear on him. Thus concert was the +specific in all cases. But concert is neither better +nor worse, neither more nor less potent than individual +force. All the men in the world cannot make a statue +walk and speak, cannot make a drop of blood, or a blade +of grass, any more than one man can. But let there be +one man, let there be truth in two men, in ten men, then +is concert for the first time possible; because the force +which moves the world is a new quality, and can never be +furnished by adding whatever quantities of a different +kind. What is the use of the concert of the false and +the disunited? There can be no concert in two, where +there is no concert in one. When the individual is not +individual, but is dual; when his thoughts look one way +and his actions another; when his faith is traversed by +his habits; when his will, enlightened by reason, is +warped by his sense; when with one hand he rows and with +the other backs water, what concert can be? + +I do not wonder at the interest these projects +inspire. The world is awaking to the idea of union, +and these experiments show what it is thinking of. +It is and will be magic. Men will live and communicate, +and plough, and reap, and govern, as by added ethereal +power, when once they are united; as in a celebrated +experiment, by expiration and respiration exactly +together, four persons lift a heavy man from the ground +by the little finger only, and without sense of weight. +But this union must be inward, and not one of covenants, +and is to be reached by a reverse of the methods they +use. The union is only perfect when all the uniters +are isolated. It is the union of friends who live in +different streets or towns. Each man, if he attempts +to join himself to others, is on all sides cramped and +diminished of his proportion; and the stricter the union +the smaller and the more pitiful he is. But leave him +alone, to recognize in every hour and place the secret +soul; he will go up and down doing the works of a true +member, and, to the astonishment of all, the work will +be done with concert, though no man spoke. Government +will be adamantine without any governor. The union must +be ideal in actual individualism. + +I pass to the indication in some particulars of +that faith in man, which the heart is preaching +to us in these days, and which engages the more +regard, from the consideration that the speculations +of one generation are the history of the next +following. + +In alluding just now to our system of education, I +spoke of the deadness of its details. But it is open +to graver criticism than the palsy of its members: +it is a system of despair. The disease with which the +human mind now labors is want of faith. Men do not +believe in a power of education. We do not think we +can speak to divine sentiments in man, and we do not +try. We renounce all high aims. We believe that the +defects of so many perverse and so many frivolous +people who make up society, are organic, and society +is a hospital of incurables. A man of good sense but +of little faith, whose compassion seemed to lead him +to church as often as he went there, said to me that +"he liked to have concerts, and fairs, and churches, +and other public amusements go on." I am afraid the +remark is too honest, and comes from the same origin +as the maxim of the tyrant, "If you would rule the +world quietly, you must keep it amused." I notice too +that the ground on which eminent public servants urge +the claims of popular education is fear; 'This country +is filling up with thousands and millions of voters, +and you must educate them to keep them from our throats.' +We do not believe that any education, any system of +philosophy, any influence of genius, will ever give +depth of insight to a superficial mind. Having settled +ourselves into this infidelity, our skill is expended +to procure alleviations, diversion, opiates. We adorn +the victim with manual skill, his tongue with languages, +his body with inoffensive and comely manners. So have we +cunningly hid the tragedy of limitation and inner death +we cannot avert. Is it strange that society should be +devoured by a secret melancholy which breaks through all +its smiles and all its gayety and games? + +But even one step farther our infidelity has gone. +It appears that some doubt is felt by good and wise +men whether really the happiness and probity of men +is increased by the culture of the mind in those +disciplines to which we give the name of education. +Unhappily too the doubt comes from scholars, from +persons who have tried these methods. In their +experience the scholar was not raised by the sacred +thoughts amongst which he dwelt, but used them to +selfish ends. He was a profane person, and became a +showman, turning his gifts to a marketable use, and +not to his own sustenance and growth. It was found +that the intellect could be independently developed, +that is, in separation from the man, as any single +organ can be invigorated, and the result was monstrous. +A canine appetite for knowledge was generated, which +must still be fed but was never satisfied, and this +knowledge, not being directed on action, never took +the character of substantial, humane truth, blessing +those whom it entered. It gave the scholar certain +powers of expression, the power of speech, the power +of poetry, of literary art, but it did not bring him +to peace or to beneficence. + +When the literary class betray a destitution of +faith, it is not strange that society should be +disheartened and sensualized by unbelief. What +remedy? Life must be lived on a higher plane. We +must go up to a higher platform, to which we are +always invited to ascend; there, the whole aspect +of things changes. I resist the skepticism of our +education and of our educated men. I do not believe +that the differences of opinion and character in +men are organic. I do not recognize, beside the +class of the good and the wise, a permanent class of +skeptics, or a class of conservatives, or of malignants, +or of materialists. I do not believe in two classes. +You remember the story of the poor woman who importuned +King Philip of Macedon to grant her justice, which +Philip refused: the woman exclaimed, "I appeal:" the +king, astonished, asked to whom she appealed: the woman +replied, "From Philip drunk to Philip sober." The text +will suit me very well. I believe not in two classes +of men, but in man in two moods, in Philip drunk and +Philip sober. I think, according to the good-hearted +word of Plato, "Unwillingly the soul is deprived of +truth." Iron conservative, miser, or thief, no man is +but by a supposed necessity which he tolerates by +shortness or torpidity of sight. The soul lets no man +go without some visitations and holydays of a diviner +presence. It would be easy to show, by a narrow scanning +of any man's biography, that we are not so wedded to our +paltry performances of every kind but that every man +has at intervals the grace to scorn his performances, +in comparing them with his belief of what he should do; +--that he puts himself on the side of his enemies, +listening gladly to what they say of him, and accusing +himself of the same things. + +What is it men love in Genius, but its infinite +hope, which degrades all it has done? Genius +counts all its miracles poor and short. Its own +idea it never executed. The Iliad, the Hamlet, +the Doric column, the Roman arch, the Gothic minster, +the German anthem, when they are ended, the master +casts behind him. How sinks the song in the waves +of melody which the universe pours over his soul! +Before that gracious Infinite out of which he drew +these few strokes, how mean they look, though the +praises of the world attend them. From the triumphs +of his art he turns with desire to this greater +defeat. Let those admire who will. With silent joy +he sees himself to be capable of a beauty that +eclipses all which his hands have done; all which +human hands have ever done. + +Well, we are all the children of genius, the +children of virtue,--and feel their inspirations +in our happier hours. Is not every man sometimes +a radical in politics? Men are conservatives when +they are least vigorous, or when they are most +luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner, +or before taking their rest; when they are sick, +or aged: in the morning, or when their intellect +or their conscience has been aroused; when they +hear music, or when they read poetry, they are +radicals. In the circle of the rankest tories that +could be collected in England, Old or New, let a +powerful and stimulating intellect, a man of great +heart and mind, act on them, and very quickly these +frozen conservators will yield to the friendly +influence, these hopeless will begin to hope, these +haters will begin to love, these immovable statues +will begin to spin and revolve. I cannot help +recalling the fine anecdote which Warton relates of +Bishop Berkeley, when he was preparing to leave +England with his plan of planting the gospel among +the American savages. "Lord Bathurst told me that +the members of the Scriblerus club being met at his +house at dinner, they agreed to rally Berkeley, who +was also his guest, on his scheme at Bermudas. +Berkeley, having listened to the many lively things +they had to say, begged to be heard in his turn, and +displayed his plan with such an astonishing and +animating force of eloquence and enthusiasm, that +they were struck dumb, and, after some pause, rose +up all together with earnestness, exclaiming, 'Let +us set out with him immediately.'" Men in all ways +are better than they seem. They like flattery for the +moment, but they know the truth for their own. It is +a foolish cowardice which keeps us from trusting them +and speaking to them rude truth. They resent your +honesty for an instant, they will thank you for it +always. What is it we heartily wish of each other? Is +it to be pleased and flattered? No, but to be convicted +and exposed, to be shamed out of our nonsense of all +kinds, and made men of, instead of ghosts and phantoms. +We are weary of gliding ghostlike through the world, +which is itself so slight and unreal. We crave a sense +of reality, though it come in strokes of pain. I explain +so,--by this manlike love of truth,--those excesses and +errors into which souls of great vigor, but not equal +insight, often fall. They feel the poverty at the bottom +of all the seeming affluence of the world. They know +the speed with which they come straight through the thin +masquerade, and conceive a disgust at the indigence of +nature: Rousseau, Mirabeau, Charles Fox, Napoleon, Byron, +--and I could easily add names nearer home, of raging +riders, who drive their steeds so hard, in the violence +of living to forget its illusion: they would know the +worst, and tread the floors of hell. The heroes of +ancient and modern fame, Cimon, Themistocles, Alcibiades, +Alexander, Caesar, have treated life and fortune as a +game to be well and skilfully played, but the stake not +to be so valued but that any time it could be held as a +trifle light as air, and thrown up. Caesar, just before +the battle of Pharsalia, discourses with the Egyptian +priest concerning the fountains of the Nile, and offers +to quit the army, the empire, and Cleopatra, if he will +show him those mysterious sources. + +The same magnanimity shows itself in our social +relations, in the preference, namely, which each +man gives to the society of superiors over that +of his equals. All that a man has will he give for +right relations with his mates. All that he has +will he give for an erect demeanor in every company +and on each occasion. He aims at such things as his +neighbors prize, and gives his days and nights, his +talents and his heart, to strike a good stroke, to +acquit himself in all men's sight as a man. The +consideration of an eminent citizen, of a noted +merchant, of a man of mark in his profession; a naval +and military honor, a general's commission, a marshal's +baton, a ducal coronet, the laurel of poets, and, +anyhow procured, the acknowledgment of eminent merit, +--have this lustre for each candidate that they enable +him to walk erect and unashamed in the presence of some +persons before whom he felt himself inferior. Having +raised himself to this rank, having established his +equality with class after class of those with whom +he would live well, he still finds certain others +before whom he cannot possess himself, because they +have somewhat fairer, somewhat grander, somewhat purer, +which extorts homage of him. Is his ambition pure? then +will his laurels and his possessions seem worthless: +instead of avoiding these men who make his fine gold +dim, he will cast all behind him and seek their society +only, woo and embrace this his humiliation and +mortification, until he shall know why his eye sinks, +his voice is husky, and his brilliant talents are +paralyzed in this presence. He is sure that the soul +which gives the lie to all things will tell none. His +constitution will not mislead him. If it cannot carry +itself as it ought, high and unmatchable in the presence +of any man; if the secret oracles whose whisper makes +the sweetness and dignity of his life do here withdraw +and accompany him no longer,--it is time to undervalue +what he has valued, to dispossess himself of what he has +acquired, and with Caesar to take in his hand the army, +the empire, and Cleopatra, and say, "All these will I +relinquish, if you will show me the fountains of the +Nile." Dear to us are those who love us; the swift +moments we spend with them are a compensation for a great +deal of misery; they enlarge our life;--but dearer are +those who reject us as unworthy, for they add another +life: they build a heaven before us whereof we had not +dreamed, and thereby supply to us new powers out of the +recesses of the spirit, and urge us to new and unattempted +performances. + +As every man at heart wishes the best and not +inferior society, wishes to be convicted of his +error and to come to himself,--so he wishes that +the same healing should not stop in his thought, +but should penetrate his will or active power. +The selfish man suffers more from his selfishness +than he from whom that selfishness withholds some +important benefit. What he most wishes is to be +lifted to some higher platform, that he may see +beyond his present fear the transalpine good, so +that his fear, his coldness, his custom may be +broken up like fragments of ice, melted and carried +away in the great stream of good will. Do you ask +my aid? I also wish to be a benefactor. I wish more +to be a benefactor and servant than you wish to be +served by me; and surely the greatest good fortune +that could befall me is precisely to be so moved by +you that I should say, 'Take me and all mine, and +use me and mine freely to your ends'! for I could +not say it otherwise than because a great enlargement +had come to my heart and mind, which made me superior +to my fortunes. Here we are paralyzed with fear; we +hold on to our little properties, house and land, +office and money, for the bread which they have in +our experience yielded us, although we confess that +our being does not flow through them. We desire to be +made great; we desire to be touched with that fire +which shall command this ice to stream, and make our +existence a benefit. If therefore we start objections +to your project, O friend of the slave, or friend of +the poor, or of the race, understand well that it is +because we wish to drive you to drive us into your +measures. We wish to hear ourselves confuted. We are +haunted with a belief that you have a secret which it +would highliest advantage us to learn, and we would +force you to impart it to us, though it should bring +us to prison, or to worse extremity. + +Nothing shall warp me from the belief that every +man is a lover of truth. There is no pure lie, no +pure malignity in nature. The entertainment of the +proposition of depravity is the last profligacy +and profanation. There is no skepticism, no atheism +but that. Could it be received into common belief, +suicide would unpeople the planet. It has had a name +to live in some dogmatic theology, but each man's +innocence and his real liking of his neighbor have +kept it a dead letter. I remember standing at the +polls one day when the anger of the political contest +gave a certain grimness to the faces of the independent +electors, and a good man at my side, looking on the +people, remarked, "I am satisfied that the largest +part of these men, on either side, mean to vote right." +I suppose considerate observers, looking at the masses +of men in their blameless and in their equivocal actions, +will assent, that in spite of selfishness and frivolity, +the general purpose in the great number of persons is +fidelity. The reason why any one refuses his assent to +your opinion, or his aid to your benevolent design, is +in you: he refuses to accept you as a bringer of truth, +because, though you think you have it, he feels that +you have it not. You have not given him the authentic +sign. + +If it were worth while to run into details this +general doctrine of the latent but ever soliciting +Spirit, it would be easy to adduce illustration in +particulars of a man's equality to the Church, of +his equality to the State, and of his equality to +every other man. It is yet in all men's memory that, +a few years ago, the liberal churches complained +that the Calvinistic church denied to them the name +of Christian. I think the complaint was confession: +a religious church would not complain. A religious +man like Behmen, Fox, or Swedenborg is not irritated +by wanting the sanction of the Church, but the Church +feels the accusation of his presence and belief. + +It only needs that a just man should walk in our +streets to make it appear how pitiful and inartificial +a contrivance is our legislation. The man whose part +is taken and who does not wait for society in anything, +has a power which society cannot choose but feel. The +familiar experiment called the hydrostatic paradox, in +which a capillary column of water balances the ocean, +is a symbol of the relation of one man to the whole +family of men. The wise Dandamis, on hearing the lives +of Socrates, Pythagoras and Diogenes read, "judged them +to be great men every way, excepting, that they were +too much subjected to the reverence of the laws, which +to second and authorize, true virtue must abate very +much of its original vigor." + +And as a man is equal to the Church and equal to +the State, so he is equal to every other man. The +disparities of power in men are superficial; and +all frank and searching conversation, in which a +man lays himself open to his brother, apprises each +of their radical unity. When two persons sit and +converse in a thoroughly good understanding, the +remark is sure to be made, See how we have disputed +about words! Let a clear, apprehensive mind, such +as every man knows among his friends, converse with +the most commanding poetic genius, I think it would +appear that there was no inequality such as men +fancy, between them; that a perfect understanding, +a like receiving, a like perceiving, abolished +differences; and the poet would confess that his +creative imagination gave him no deep advantage, +but only the superficial one that he could express +himself and the other could not; that his advantage +was a knack, which might impose on indolent men but +could not impose on lovers of truth; for they know +the tax of talent, or what a price of greatness the +power of expression too often pays. I believe it is +the conviction of the purest men, that the net amount +of man and man does not much vary. Each is incomparably +superior to his companion in some faculty. His want of +skill in other directions has added to his fitness for +his own work. Each seems to have some compensation +yielded to him by his infirmity, and every hindrance +operates as a concentration of his force. + +These and the like experiences intimate that man +stands in strict connection with a higher fact never +yet manifested. There is power over and behind us, +and we are the channels of its communications. We +seek to say thus and so, and over our head some +spirit sits which contradicts what we say. We would +persuade our fellow to this or that; another self +within our eyes dissuades him. That which we keep +back, this reveals. In vain we compose our faces and +our words; it holds uncontrollable communication with +the enemy, and he answers civilly to us, but believes +the spirit. We exclaim, 'There's a traitor in the +house!' but at last it appears that he is the true +man, and I am the traitor. This open channel to the +highest life is the first and last reality, so subtle, +so quiet, yet so tenacious, that although I have never +expressed the truth, and although I have never heard +the expression of it from any other, I know that the +whole truth is here for me. What if I cannot answer +your questions? I am not pained that I cannot frame a +reply to the question, What is the operation we call +Providence? There lies the unspoken thing, present, +omnipresent. Every time we converse we seek to +translate it into speech, but whether we hit or whether +we miss, we have the fact. Every discourse is an +approximate answer: but it is of small consequence +that we do not get it into verbs and nouns, whilst it +abides for contemplation forever. + +If the auguries of the prophesying heart shall make +themselves good in time, the man who shall be born, +whose advent men and events prepare and foreshow, +is one who shall enjoy his connection with a higher +life, with the man within man; shall destroy distrust +by his trust, shall use his native but forgotten +methods, shall not take counsel of flesh and blood, +but shall rely on the Law alive and beautiful which +works over our heads and under our feet. Pitiless, +it avails itself of our success when we obey it, and +of our ruin when we contravene it. Men are all secret +believers in it, else the word justice would have no +meaning: they believe that the best is the true; that +right is done at last; or chaos would come. It rewards +actions after their nature, and not after the design +of the agent. 'Work,' it saith to man, 'in every hour, +paid or unpaid, see only that thou work, and thou canst +not escape the reward: whether thy work be fine or +coarse, planting corn or writing epics, so only it be +honest work, done to thine own approbation, it shall +earn a reward to the senses as well as to the thought: +no matter how often defeated, you are born to victory. +The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.' + +As soon as a man is wonted to look beyond surfaces, +and to see how this high will prevails without an +exception or an interval, he settles himself into +serenity. He can already rely on the laws of gravity, +that every stone will fall where it is due; the good +globe is faithful, and carries us securely through +the celestial spaces, anxious or resigned, we need +not interfere to help it on: and he will learn one +day the mild lesson they teach, that our own orbit +is all our task, and we need not assist the +administration of the universe. Do not be so impatient +to set the town right concerning the unfounded +pretensions and the false reputation of certain men +of standing. They are laboring harder to set the town +right concerning themselves, and will certainly succeed. +Suppress for a few days your criticism on the +insufficiency of this or that teacher or experimenter, +and he will have demonstrated his insufficiency to all +men's eyes. In like manner, let a man fall into the +divine circuits, and he is enlarged. Obedience to his +genius is the only liberating influence. We wish to +escape from subjection and a sense of inferiority, and +we make self-denying ordinances, we drink water, we eat +grass, we refuse the laws, we go to jail: it is all in +vain; only by obedience to his genius, only by the +freest activity in the way constitutional to him, does +an angel seem to arise before a man and lead him by the +hand out of all the wards of the prison. + +That which befits us, embosomed in beauty and wonder +as we are, is cheerfulness and courage, and the endeavor +to realize our aspirations. The life of man is the true +romance, which when it is valiantly conducted will yield +the imagination a higher joy than any fiction. All around +us what powers are wrapped up under the coarse mattings +of custom, and all wonder prevented. It is so wonderful +to our neurologists that a man can see without his eyes, +that it does not occur to them that it is just as +wonderful that he should see with them; and that is ever +the difference between the wise and the unwise: the +latter wonders at what is unusual, the wise man wonders +at the usual. Shall not the heart which has received so +much, trust the Power by which it lives? May it not quit +other leadings, and listen to the Soul that has guided +it so gently and taught it so much, secure that the +future will be worthy of the past? + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Essays, 2nd Series, by Ralph Waldo Emerson + |