{"1": {"fulltext": "l;.:.", "height": "3678", "width": "2394", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3905", "width": "2430", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "f i", "height": "3905", "width": "2430", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3834", "width": "2262", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3834", "width": "2262", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3850", "width": "2430", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3850", "width": "2430", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0007.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "36092\\nL-ibreiry of Oon^res\u00c2\u00ab\\no\\nTwo Copies Received\\n75 iU\u00c2\u00ab\\nAUG 18 1900\\n.M\\nCopyright Mitry\\nCottfi^/,i,ff\\nv^..ai.%^j.LQ...\\nSECOND COPY.\\nOeKvarad to\\nORDER DIVISION,\\nAliri 37 i90i^\\nCopyright, 1900, by W. B, Conkey Company.\\n68733", "height": "3856", "width": "2360", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0008.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "CONTENTS.\\nj PAGE\\nESSAY I.\\nIntellect 5\\nESSAY II.\\nArt 28\\nESSAY III.\\nThe Poet 47\\nESSAY IV.\\nExperience 8S\\nESSAY V.\\nCharacter 1^-30\\nESSAY VI.\\nManners 15S\\nESSAY VII.\\nGifts 195\\nESSAY VIII.\\nNature 202\\nESSAY IX.\\nPolitics 231\\nESSAY X.\\nNominalist and Realist 25s\\nNEW ENGLAND REFORMERS.\\nLecture at Armory Hall 28a\\n3", "height": "3895", "width": "2430", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0009.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3876", "width": "2334", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0010.jp2"}, "11": {"fulltext": "ESSAY L\\nINTELLECT.\\nEvery substance is negatively electric to that\\nwhich stands above it in the chemical tables,\\npositively to that which stands below it. Water\\ndissolves wood and stone, and salt; air dis-\\nsolves water electric fire dissolves air, but the\\nintellect dissolves fire, gravity, laws, method,\\nand the subtlest unnamed relations of nature\\nin its resistless menstruum. Intellect lies be-\\nhind genius, which is intellect constructive.\\nIntellect is the simple power anterior to all\\naction or construction. Gladly would I unfold\\nin calm degrees a natural history of the intel-\\nlect, but what man has yet been able to mark\\nthe steps and boundaries of that transparent\\nessence? The first ^questions are always to be\\nasked, and the wisest doctor is graveled by the\\ninquisitiveness of a child. How can we speak\\nof the action of the mind under any divisions,\\nas, of its knowledge, of its ethics, of its works,\\nand so forth, since it melts will into perception,\\nknowledge into act? Each becomes the other.\\n5", "height": "3876", "width": "2334", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0011.jp2"}, "12": {"fulltext": "6 ESSAY I.\\nItself alone is. Its vision is not like the vision\\nof the eye, but is union with the things known.\\nIntellect and intellection signify, to the com-\\nmon ear consideration of abstract truth. The\\nconsideration of time and place, of you and\\nme, of profit and hurt, tyrannize over most\\nmen*s minds. Intellect separates the fact con-\\nsidered from you, from all local and personal\\nreference, and discerns it as if it existed for its\\nown sake. Heraclitus looked upon the affec-\\ntions as dense and colored mists. In the fog\\nof good and evil affections, it is hard for man\\nto walk forward in a straight line. Intellect is\\nvoid of affection, and sees an object as it stands\\nin the light of science, cool and disengaged.\\nThe intellect goes out of the individual, floats\\nover its own personality, and regards it as a\\nfact, and not as I and mine. He who is im-\\nmersed in what concerns person or place, can-\\nnot see the problem of existence. This the\\nintellect always ponders. Nature shows all\\nthings formed and bound. The intellect pierces\\nthe form, overleaps the wall, detects intrinsic\\nlikeness between remote things and reduces all\\nthings into a few principles.\\nThe making a fact the subject of thought\\nraises it. All that mass of mental and moral\\nphenomena which we do not make objects of", "height": "3856", "width": "2430", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0012.jp2"}, "13": {"fulltext": "INTELLECT. 7\\nvoluntary thought come within the power of\\nfortune; they constitute the circumstance of\\ndaily life; they are subject to change to fear\\nand hope. Every man beholds his human\\ncondition with a degree of melancholy. As a\\nship aground is battered by the waves so man\\nimprisoned in mortal life, lies open to the mercy\\nof coming events. But a truth separated by\\nthe intellect is no longer a subject of destiny.\\nWe behold it as a god upraised above care and\\nfear. And so any fact in our life or any record\\nof our fancies or reflections, disentangled from\\nthe web of our unconsciousness, becomes an\\nobject impersonal and immortal. It is the last\\nrestored, but embalmed. A better art than\\nthat of Egypt has taken fear and corruption\\nout of it. It is eviscerated of care. It is\\noffered for science. What is addressed to us\\nfor contemplation does not threaten us, but\\nmakes us intellectual beings.\\nThe growth of the intellect is spontaneous\\nin every step. The mind that grows could not\\npredict the times, the means, the mode of that\\nspontaneity. God enters by a private door into\\nevery individual. Long prior to the age of\\nreflection, is the thinking of the mind. Out of\\ndarkness, it came insensibly into the marvelous\\nlight of to-day. Over it always reigned a firm", "height": "3856", "width": "2430", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0013.jp2"}, "14": {"fulltext": "8 ESSAY I.\\nlaw. In the period of infancy it accepted and\\ndisposed of all impressions from the surround-\\ning creations after its own way. Whatever\\nany mind doth or saith, is after a law. It has\\nno random act or word. And this native law\\nremains over it after it has come to reflection\\nor conscious thought. In the most worn, pe-\\ndantic, introverted, self-tormentor s life, the\\ngreatest part is incalculable by him, unfor-\\nseen, unimaginable, and must be until he can\\ntake himself up by his own ears. What am I?\\nWhat has my will done to make me that I am?\\nNothing. I ave been floated into this thought,\\nthis hour, this connection of events, by might\\nand mind sublime, and my ingenuity and wil-\\nfulness have not thwarted, have not aided to\\nan appreciable degree.\\nOur spontaneous action is always the best.\\nYou cannot, with your best deliberation and\\nheed, come so close to any question as your\\nspontaneous glance shall bring you, whilst you\\nrise from your bed, or walk abroad in the\\nmorning after meditating the matter before\\nsleep, on the previous night. Always our\\nthinking is a pious reception. Our truth of\\nthought is, therefore, vitiated as much by too\\nviolent direction given by our will, as by too\\ngreat negligence. We do not determine what", "height": "3856", "width": "2430", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0014.jp2"}, "15": {"fulltext": "INTELLECT. 9\\nwe will think. We only open our senses, clear\\naway, as we can, all obstruction from the fact,\\nand suffer the intellect to see. We have little\\ncontrol over our thoughts. We are the prison-\\ners of ideas. They catch us up for moments\\ninto their heaven, and so fully engage us, that\\nwe take no thought for the morrow, gaze like\\nchildren, without an effort to make them our\\nown. By-and-by we fall out of that rapture,\\nbethink us where we have been, what we have\\nseen, and repeat, as truly as we can, what we\\nhave beheld. As far as we can recall these\\necstasies, we carry away in the ineffaceable\\nmemory, the result, and all men and all the\\nages confirm it. It is called Truth, But the\\nmoment we cease to report, and attempt to\\ncorrect and contrive, it is not truth.\\nIf we consider what persons have stimulated\\nand profited us, we shall perceive the superi-\\nority of the spontaneous or intuitive principle\\nover the arithmetical or logical. The first\\nalways contains the second, but virtual and\\nlatent. We want, in every man, a long logic;\\nwe cannot pardon the absence of it, but it\\nmust not be spoken. Logic is the procession\\nor proportionate unfolding of the intuition;\\nbut its virtue is as silent method; the moment", "height": "3856", "width": "2430", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0015.jp2"}, "16": {"fulltext": "10 ESSAY I.\\nit would appear as propositions, and have a\\nseparate value, it is worthless.\\nIn every man s mind, some images, words,\\nand facts remain, without effort on his part to\\nimprint them, which others forget, and after-\\nward these illustrate to him important laws.\\nAll our progress is an unfolding, like the veg-\\netable bud. You have first an instinct, then\\nan opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has\\nroot, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the\\nend, though you can render no reason. It is\\nvain to hurry it. By trusting to the end, it\\nshall ripen into truth, and you shall know why\\nyou believe.\\nEach mind has its own method. A true man\\nnever acquires after college rules. What you\\nhave aggregated in a natural manner, surprises\\nand delights when it is produced. For we can-\\nnot oversee each other s secret. And hence\\nthe differences between men in natural en-\\ndowment are insignificant in comparison with\\ntheir common wealth. Do you think the por-\\nter and the cook have no anecdotes, no experi-\\nences, no wonders for you? Everybody knows\\nas much as the savant. The walls of rude\\nminds are scrawled all over with facts, with\\nthoughts. They shall one day bring a lantern\\nand read the inscriptions. Every man, in the", "height": "3856", "width": "2430", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0016.jp2"}, "17": {"fulltext": "INTELLECT. 11\\ndegree in which he has wit and culture, finds\\nhis curiosity inflamed concerning the modes of\\nliving and thinking of other men, and espe-\\ncially of those classes whose minds have not\\nbeen subdued by the drill of school education.\\nThis instinctive action never ceases in a\\nhealthy mind, but becomes richer and more\\nfrequent in its informations through all states\\nof culture. At last comes the era of reflec-\\ntion, when we not only observe, but take pains\\nto observe when we of set purpose, sit down\\nto consider an abstract truth when we keep\\nthe mind s eye open, whilst we converse, whilst\\nwe read, whilst we act, intent to learn the se-\\ncret law of some class of facts, s/\\nWhat is the hardest task in the world? To\\nthink. I would put myself in the attitude to\\nlook in the eye an abstract truth, and I cannot.\\nI blench and withdraw on this side and on that.\\nI seem to know what he meant, who said, No\\nman can see God face to face and live. For\\nexample, a man explores the basis of civil gov-\\nernment. Let him intend his mind without\\nrespite, without rest, in one direction. His\\nbest heed long time awails him nothing. Yet\\nthoughts are flitting before him. We all but\\napprehend, we dimly forebode the truth. We\\nsay, I will walk abroad, and the truth will take", "height": "3856", "width": "2430", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0017.jp2"}, "18": {"fulltext": "12 ESSAY I.\\nform and clearness to me. We go forth, but\\ncannot find it. It seems as if we needed only\\nthe stillness and composed attitude of the\\nlibrary to seize the thought. But we come\\nin, and are as far from it as at first. Then, in\\na moment, and unannounced, the truth ap-\\npears. A certain, wandering light appears,\\nand is the distinction, the principle we\\nwanted. But the oracle comes, because we\\nhad previously laid siege to the shrine. It\\nseems as if the law of the intellect resembled\\nthat law of nature by which we now inspire,\\nnow expire the breath by which the heart now\\ndraws in then hurls out the blood, \u00e2\u0080\u0094the law of\\nundulation. So now you must labor with\\nyour brains, and now you must forbear your\\nactivity, and see what the great Soul showeth.\\nOur intellections are mainly prospective.\\nThe immortality of man is as legitimately\\npreached from the intellections as from the\\nmoral volitions. Every intellection is mainly\\nprospective. Its present value is its least. It\\nis a little seed. Inspect what delights you in\\nPlutarch, in Shakespeare, in Cervantes. Each\\ntruth that a writer acquires, is a lantern which\\nhe instantly turns full on what facts and\\nthoughts lay already in his mind, and behold,\\nall the mats and rubbish which had littered his", "height": "3856", "width": "2430", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0018.jp2"}, "19": {"fulltext": "INTELLECT. 13\\ngarret, become precious. Every trivial fact in\\nhis private biography becomes an illustration\\nof this new principle, revisits the day, and de-\\nlights all men by its piquancy and new charm.\\nMen say, where did he get this? and think\\nthere was something divine in his life. But\\\\\\nno; they have myriads of facts just as good,\\nwould they only get a lamp to ransack their\\nattic withal.\\nWe are all wise. The difference between\\npersons is not in wisdom, but in art. I knew,\\nin an academical club, a person who always\\ndeferred to me, who, seeing my whim for writ-\\ning, fancied that my experiences had some-\\nwhat superior; whilst I saw that his experi-\\nences were as good as mine. Give them to me,\\nand I would make the same use of them. He\\nheld the old; he holds the new; I had the\\nhabit of tacking together the old and the new,\\nwhich he did not use to exercise. This may\\nhold in the great examples. Perhaps if we\\nshould meet Shakespeare, we should not be\\nconscious of any steep inferiority no, but of a\\ngreat equality, only that he possessed a\\nstrange skill of using, of classifying his facts,\\nwhich we lack. For notwithstanding our utter\\nincapacity to produce anything like Hamlet\\nand Othello, see the perfect reception this wit.", "height": "3856", "width": "2430", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0019.jp2"}, "20": {"fulltext": "14 ESSAY I.\\nand immense knowledge of life and liquid elo-\\nquence find in us all.\\nIf you gather apples in the sunshine, or\\nmake hay, or hoe corn, and then retire within\\ndoors, and shut your eyes, and press them\\nwith your hand, you shall still see apples hang-\\ning in the bright light, with boughs and leaves\\nthereto, or the tasseled grass, or the corn-\\nflags, and this for five or six hours afterward.\\nThere lie the impressions on the retentive\\norgan, though you knew it not. So lies the\\nwhole series of natural images with which\\nyour life has made you acquainted, in your\\nmemory, though you know it not, and a thrill\\nof passion flashes light on their dark chamber,\\nand the active power seizes instantly the fit\\nimage, as the word of its momentary thought.\\nIt is long ere we discover how rich we are.\\nOur history, we are sure, is quite tame. We\\nhave nothing to write, nothing to infer. But\\nour wiser years still run back to the despised\\nrecollections of childhood, and always we are\\nfishing up some wonderful article out of that\\npond; until, by-and-by, we begin to suspect\\nthat the biography of the one foolish person\\nwe know, is, in reality, nothing less than the\\nminiature paraphrase of the hundred volumes\\nof the Universal History.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0020.jp2"}, "21": {"fulltext": "INTELLECT. 15\\nIn the intellect constructive, which we popu-\\nlarly designate by the word Genius, we observe\\nthe same balance of two elements, as in intel-\\nlect receptive. The constructive intellect pro-\\\\\\nduces thoughts, sentences, poems, plans,\\ndesigns, systems. It is the generation of the\\nmind, the marriage of thought with nature.\\n^To genius must always go two gifts, the\\nthought and the publication. The first is rev-\\nelation, always a miracle, which no frequency\\nof occurrence, or incessant study can ever\\nfamiliarize, but which must always leave the\\ninquirer stupid with wonder. It is the advent\\nof truth into the world, a form of thought\\nnow, for the first time bursting into the\\nuniverse, a child of the old eternal soul, a\\npiece of genuine and immeasurable greatness.\\nIt seems, for the time, to inherit all that has\\nyet existed, and to dictate to the unborn. It\\naffects every thought of man, and goes to\\nfashion every institution. But to make it\\navailable, it needs a vehicle or art by which it\\nis conveyed to men. To be communicable, it\\nmust become picture or sensible object. We\\nmust learn the language of facts. The most\\nwonderful inspirations die with their subject,\\nif he has no hand to paint them to the senses.\\nThe ray of light passes invisible through", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0021.jp2"}, "22": {"fulltext": "16 ESSAY I.\\nSpace, and only when it falls on an object is it\\nseen. When the spiritual energy is directed\\non something outward, then is it a thought.\\nThe relation between it and you, first makes\\nyou, the value of you, apparent to me. The\\nrich, inventive genius of the painter must be\\nsmothered and lost for want of the power of\\ndrawing, and in our happy hours, we shoul4\\nbe inexhaustible poets, if once we could break\\nthrough the silence into adequate rhyme. As\\nall men have some access to primary truth, so\\nall have some art or power of communica-\\ntion in their head, but only in theartist does it\\ndescend into the hand. There is an inequality\\nwhose laws we do not yet know, between two\\nmen and between two moments of the same\\nman, in respect to this faculty. In common\\nhours we have the same facts as in the uncom^\\nmon or inspired, but they do not sit for their\\nportraits, they are not detached, but lie in a\\nweb. The thought of genius is spontaneous;\\nbut the power of picture or expression, in the\\nmost enriched and flowing nature, implies a\\nmixture of will, a certain control over the\\nspontaneous states, without which no produc-\\ntion is possible. It is a conversion of all\\nnature into the rhetoric of thought, under the\\neye of judgment, with a strenuous exercise of", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0022.jp2"}, "23": {"fulltext": "INTELLECT. 17\\nchoice. And yet the imaginative vocabulary\\nseems to be spontaneous also. It does not\\nflow from experience only or mainly, but from\\na richer source. Not by any conscious imita-\\ntion of particular forms are the grand strokes\\nof the painter executed, but by repairing to\\nthe fountain-head of all forms in his mind.\\nWho is the first drawing-master? Without\\ninstruction we know very well the ideal of the\\nhuman form. A child knows if an arm or a\\nleg be distorted in a picture, if the attitude be\\nnatural, or grand, or mean, though he has\\nnever received any instruction* in drawing, or\\nheard any conversation on the subject, nor\\ncan himself draw with correctness a single\\nfeature. A good form strikes all eyes pleas-\\nantly, long before they have any science on\\nthe subject, and a beautiful face sets twenty\\nhearts in palpitation, prior to all considera-\\ntion of the mechanical proportions of the\\nfeatures and head. We may owe to dreams\\nsome light on the fountain of this skill for,\\nas soon as we let our will go, and let the\\nunconscious states ensue, see what cunning\\ndraughtsmen we are! We entertain ourselves\\nwith wonderful forms of men, of women, of\\nanimals, of gardens, of woods, and of mon-\\nsters, and the mystic pencil wherewith we", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0023.jp2"}, "24": {"fulltext": "18 ESSAY I.\\nthen draw, has no awkwardness, or inexperi-\\nence, no meagreness or poverty it can design\\nwell, and group well its composition is full of\\nart, its colors are well laid on, and the whole\\ncanvas which it paints, is life-like, and apt to\\ntouch us with terror, with tenderness, with\\ndesire, and with grief. Neither are the artist s\\ncopies from experience, ever mere copies, but\\nalways touched and softened by tints from this\\nideal domain.\\nThe conditions essential to a constructive\\nmind, do not appear to be so often combined\\nbut that a good sentence or verse remains\\nfresh and memorable for a long time. Yet\\nv/hen we write with ease, and come out into\\nthe free air of thought, we seem to be assured\\nthat nothing is easier than to continue this\\ncommunication at pleasure. Up, down,\\naround, the kingdom of thought has no enclos-\\nures, but the Muse makes us free of her city.\\nWell, the world has a million writers. One\\nwould think, then, that good thought would\\nbe as familiar as air and water, and the gifts\\nof each new hour would exclude the last. Yet\\nwe can count all our good books; nay, I\\nremember any beautiful verse for twenty\\nyears. It is true that the discerning intellect\\nof the world is always greatly in advance of", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0024.jp2"}, "25": {"fulltext": "INTELLECT. 19\\nthe creatives so that always there are many\\ncompetent judges of the best book, and few\\nwriters of the best books. But some of the\\nconditions of intellectual construction are of\\nrare occurrence. The intellect is a whole, and\\ndemands integrity in every work. This is\\nresisted equally by a man s devotion to a\\nsingle thought, and by his ambition to com\u00c2\u00bb\\nbine too many.\\nTruth is our element of life, yet if a man\\nfasten his attention on a single aspect of\\ntruth, and apply himself to that alone for a\\nlong time, the truth becomes distorted and not\\nitself, but falsehood; herein resembling the\\nair, which is our natural element, and the\\nbreath of our nostrils, but if a stream of the\\nsame be directed on the body for a time, it\\ncauses cold, fever, and even death. How\\nwearisome the grammarian, the phrenologist,\\nthe political or religious fanatic, or indeed any\\npossessed mortal, whose balance is lost by the\\nexaggeration of a single topic. It is incipient\\ninsanity. Every thought is a prison also. I\\ncannot see what you see, because I am caught\\nup by a strong wind and blown so far in one\\ndirection, that I am out of the hoop of your\\nhorizon.\\nIs it any better, if the student, to avoid this", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0025.jp2"}, "26": {"fulltext": "20 ESSAY I.\\noffence, and to liberalize himself, aims to\\nmake a mechanical whole, of history, or\\nscience, or philosophy, by a numerical addition\\nof all the facts that fall within his vision? The\\nworld refuses to be analyzed by addition and\\nsubtraction. When we are young, we spend\\nmuch time and pains in filling our note-books\\nwith all definitions of Religion, Love, Poetry,\\nPolitics, Art, in the hope that in the course of\\na few years, we shall have condensed into our\\nencyclopedia, the net value of all the theories\\nat which the world has yet arrived. But year\\nafter year our tables get no completeness, and\\nat last we discover that our curve is a parabola,\\nwhose arcs will never meet.\\nNeither by detachment, neither by aggrega-\\ntion, is the integrity of the intellect trans-\\nmitted to its works, but by a vigilance which\\nbring the intellect in its greatness and. best\\nstate to operate every moment.\\nIt must have the same wholeness which\\nnature has. Although no diligence can rebuild\\nthe universe in a model by the best accumula-\\ntion or disposition of details, yet does the world\\nreappear in miniature in every event, so that\\nall the laws of nature may be read in the\\nsmallest fact. The intellect must have the\\nlike perfection in its apprehension, and in its", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0026.jp2"}, "27": {"fulltext": "INTELLECT. 21\\nworks. For this reason, an index or mercury\\nof intellectual proficiency is the perception\\nof identity. We talk with accomplished persons\\nwho appear to be strangers in nature. The\\ncloud, the tree, the turf, the bird are not\\ntheirs, have nothing of them: the world is\\nonly their lodging and table. But the poet\\nwhose verses are to be spheral and complete,\\nis one whom nature cannot deceive, whatso-\\never face of strangeness she may put on. He\\nfeels a strict consanguinity, and detects more\\nlikeness than variety in all her changes. We\\nare stung by the desire for new thought, but\\nwhen we receive a new thought, it is only the\\nold thought with a new face, and though we\\nmake it our own, we instantly crave another;\\nwe are not really enriched. For the truth was\\nin us, before it was reflected to us from\\nnatural objects; and the profound genius will\\ncast the likeness of all creatures into every\\nproduct of his wit.\\nBut if the constructive powers are rare, and\\nit is given to few men to be poets, yet every\\nman is a receiver of this descending holy\\nghost, and may well study the laws of its influx.\\nExactly parallel is the whole rule of intel-\\nlectual duty, to the rule of moral duty. A\\nself-denial no less austere than the saint s, is", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0027.jp2"}, "28": {"fulltext": "22 ESSAY I.\\ndemanded of the scholar. He must worship\\ntruth, and forego all things for that, and\\nchoose defeat and pain, so that his treasure in\\nthought is thereby augmented.\\nGod offers to every mind its choice between\\ntruth and repose. Take which you please,\\nyou can never have both. Between these, as\\na pendulum, man oscillates ever. He in\\nwhom the love of repose predominates, will\\naccept the first creed, the first philosophy, the\\nfirst political party he meets, most likely, his\\nfather s. He gets rest, commodity and repu-\\ntation but he shuts the door of truth. He in\\nwhom the love of truth predominates will\\nkeep himself aloof from all moorings and\\nafloat. He will abstain from dogmatism, and\\nrecognize all the opposite negations between\\nwhich, as walls, his being is swung. He sub-\\nmits to the inconvenience of suspense and\\nimperfect opinion, but he is a candidate for\\ntruth, as the other is not, and respects the\\nhighest law of his being.\\nThe circle of the green earth he must\\nmeasure with his shoes, to find the man who\\ncan yield him truth. He shall then know\\nthat there is somewhat more blessed and great\\nin hearing than in speaking. Happy is the\\nhearing man: unphappy the speaking man.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0028.jp2"}, "29": {"fulltext": "INTELLECT.\\nAs long as I hear truth, I am bathed by a\\nbeautiful element, and am not conscious of\\nany limits to my nature. The suggestions are\\nthousandfold that I hear and see. The\\nwaters of the great deep have ingress and\\negress to the soul. But if I speak, I define, I\\nconfine, and am less. When Socrates speaks.\\nLysis and Menexenus are afflicted by no shame\\nthat they do not speak. They also are good.\\nHe likewise defers to them, loves them,\\nwhilst he speaks. Because a true and natural\\nman contains and is the same truth which an\\neloquent man articulates but in the eloquent\\nman, because he can articulate it, it seems\\nsomething the less to reside, and he turns to\\nthese silent beautifvil with the more inclination\\nand respect. The ancient sentence said, *Let\\nus be silent, for so are the gods. Silence is\\na solvent that destroys personality, and gives\\nus leave to be great and universal. Every\\nman s progress is through a succession of\\nteachers, each of whom seems at the time to\\nhave a superlative influence, but it at last\\ngives place to a new. Frankly let him accept\\nit all. Jesus says. Leave father, mother,\\nhouse and lands, and follow me. Who leaves\\nall, receives more. This is as true intellect-\\nually as morally. Each new mind we", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0029.jp2"}, "30": {"fulltext": "24 ESSAY I.\\napproach, seems to require an abdication of all\\nour past and present possessions. A new\\ndoctrine seems, at first, a supervision of all\\npur opinions, tastes, and manner of living.\\nSuch has Swedenborg, such has Kent, such has\\nColeridge, such has Cousin seemed to many\\nyoung men in this country. Take thankfully\\nand heartily all they can give. Exhaust\\nthem, wrestle with them, let them not go until\\ntheir blessing be won, and after a short sea-\\nson, the dismay will be overpast, the excess of\\ninfluence withdrawn, and they will be no\\nlonger an alarming meteor, but one more\\nbright star shining serenely in your heaven,\\nand blending its light with all your. day.\\nBut whilst he gives himself up unreservedly\\nto that which draws him, because that is his\\nown, he is to refuse himself to that which\\ndraws him not, whatsoever fame and authority\\nmay attend it, because it is not his own.\\nEntire self-reliance belongs to the intellect.\\nOne soul is a counterpoise of all souls, as a\\ncapillary column of water is a balance for the\\nsea. It must treat things, and books, and\\nsovereign genius, as itself also a sovereign.\\nIf ^schylus be that man he is taken for, he\\nhas not yet done his office, when he has edu-\\ncated the learned of Europe for a thousand", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0030.jp2"}, "31": {"fulltext": "INTELLECT. 25\\nyears. He is now to approve himself a master\\nof delight to me also. If he cannot do that,\\nall his fame shall avail him nothing with me.\\nI were a fool not to sacrifice a thousand\\n^schyluses to my intellectual integrity.\\nEspecially take the same ground in regard to\\nabstract truth, the science of the mind. The\\nBacon, the Spinoza, the Hume, Schelling,\\nKant, or whosoever propounds to you a philos-\\nophy of the mind, is only a more or less\\nawkward translator of things in your con-\\nsciousness, which you have also your way of\\nseeing, perhaps of denominating, v Say then,\\ninstead of too timidly pouring into his obscure\\nsense, that he has not succeeded in rendering\\nback to you your consciousness. He has not\\nsucceeded now let another try. If Plato can-\\nnot, perhaps Spinoza will. If Spinoza cannot,\\nthen perhaps Kant. Anyhow when at last\\nit is done, you will find it is no recondite, but\\na simple, natural, common state, which the\\nwriter restores to you.\\nBut let us end these didactics. I will not,\\nthough the subject might provoke it, speak\\nto the open question between Truth and Love.\\nI shall not presume to interfere in the old\\npolitics of the skies; The cherubim know\\nmost; the seraphim love most. The gods", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0031.jp2"}, "32": {"fulltext": "26 ESSAY I.\\nshall settle their own quarrels. But I cannot\\nrecite, even thus rudely, laws of the intellect,\\nwithout remembering that lofty and seques-\\ntered class of men who have been its prophets\\nand oracles, the high priesthood of the pure\\nreason, the Trismegisti, the expounders of the\\nprinciples of thought from age to age. When\\nat long intervals, we turn over their abstruse\\npages, wonderful seems the calm and grand\\nair of these few, these great spiritual lords\\nwho have walked in the world these of the\\nold religion dwelling in a worship which\\nmakes the sanctities of Christianity look par-\\nvenues and popular; for persuasion is in soul,\\nbut necessity is in intellect. This band of\\ngrandees, Hermes, Heraciitus, Empedocles,\\nPlato, Plotinus, Olympiodorus, Proclus, Syne-\\nsius, and the rest, have somewhat so vast in\\ntheir logic, so primary in their thinking, that\\nit seems antecedent to all the ordinary distinc-\\ntions of rhetoric and literature, and to be at\\nonce poetry, and music, and dancing, and\\nastronomy, and mathematics. I am present at\\nthe sowing of the seed of the world. With a\\ngeometry of sunbeams, the soul lays the\\nfoundations of nature. The truth and gran-\\ndeur of their thoughts is proved by its scope\\nand applicability, for it commands the entire", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0032.jp2"}, "33": {"fulltext": "INTELLECT. 27\\nschedule and inventory of things, for its illus-\\ntration. But what marks its elevation, and has\\neven a comic look to us, is the innocent seren-\\nity with which these babe-like Jupiters sit\\nin their clouds, and from age to age prattle to\\neach other, and to no contemporary. Well\\nassured that their speech is intelligible, and\\nthe most natural thing in the world, they\\nadd thesis to thesis, without a moment s\\nheed of the universal astonishment of the\\nhuman race below, who do not comprehend\\ntheir plainest argument; nor do they ever\\nrelent so much as to insert a popular or\\nexplaining sentence nor testify the least dis-\\npleasure or petulance at the dullness of their\\namazed auditory. The angels are so enamored\\nof the language that is spoken in heaven, that\\nthey will not distort their lips with the hissing\\nand unmusical dialects of men, but speak their\\nown, whether there be any who understand it\\nor not.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0033.jp2"}, "34": {"fulltext": "ESSAY II.\\nART.\\nBecause the soul is progressive, it never\\nquite repeats itself, but in every act attempts\\nthe production of a new and fairer whole.\\nThis appears in works both of the useful and\\nthe fine arts, if we employ the proper distinc-\\ntion of works according to their aim, either at\\nuse or beauty. Thus in our fine arts, not imi-\\ntation, but creation is the aim. In landscapes,\\nthe painter should give the suggestion of a\\nfairer creation than we know. The details,\\nthe prose of nature he should omit, and give\\nas only the spirit and splendor. He should\\nknow that the landscape has beauty for his\\neyes, because it expresses a thought which is\\nto him good; and this, because the same\\npower which sees through his eyes, is seen in\\nthat spectacle and he will come to value the\\nexpression of nature, and not nature itself,\\nand so exalt in his copy, the features that\\nplease him. He will give the gloom of gloom,\\nand the sunshine of sunshine. In a portrait,", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0034.jp2"}, "35": {"fulltext": "ART. 29\\nhe must inscribe the character, and not the\\nfeatures, and must esteem the man who sits\\nto him as himself only an imperfect picture or\\nlikeness of the aspiring original within.\\nWhat is that abridgment and selection we\\nobserve in all spiritual activity, but itself the\\ncreative impulse? for it is the inlet of that\\nhigher illumination which teaches to convey a\\nlarger sense by simpler symbols. What is a\\nman but nature s finer success in self-explica-\\ntion? What is a man but a finer and com-\\npacter landscape than the horizon figures na-\\nture s eclecticism? and what is his speech, his\\nlove of painting, love of nature, but a still finer\\nsuccess? all the weary miles and tons of space\\nand bulk left out, and the spirit or moral of it\\ncontracted into a musical word, or the most\\ncunning stroke of the pencil?\\nBut the artist must employ the symbols in\\nuse in his day and nation, to convey his en-\\nlarged sense to his fellow-men. Thus the new\\nin art is always formed out of the old. The\\nGenius of the Hour always sets his inefface-\\nable seal on the work, and gives it an inexpres-\\nsible charm for the imagination. As far as\\nthe spiritual ^character of the period over-\\npowers the artist, and finds expression in his\\nwork, so far it will always retain a certain", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0035.jp2"}, "36": {"fulltext": "30 ESSAY II.\\ngrandeur, and will represent to future be-\\nholders the Unknown, the Inevitable, the\\nDivine. No man can quite exclude this\\nelement of Necessity from his labor. No man\\ncan quite emancipate himself from his age\\nand country, or produce a model in which the\\neducation, the religion, the politics, usages,\\nand arts, of his times shall have no share.\\nThough he were never so original, never so\\nwilful and fantastic, he cannot wipe out of his\\nwork every trace of the thoughts amidst which\\nit grew. The very avoidance betrays the\\nusage he avoids. Above his will, and out of\\nhis sight, he is necessitated, by the air he\\nbreathes, and the idea on which he and his\\ncontemporaries live and toil, to share the\\nmanner of his times, without knowing wh?\u00c2\u00b1f*\\nthat manner is. Now that which is inevita-\\nble in the work, has a higher charm than ind-^-\\nvidual talent can ever give, inasmuch as thd\\nartist s pen or chisel seems to have been held\\nand guided by a gigantic hand to inscribe a\\nline in the history of the human race. This\\ncircumstance gives a value to the Egyptian\\nhieroglyphics, to the Indian, Chinese, and\\nMexican idols, however gross and shapeless.\\nThey denote the height of the human soul in\\nthat hour, and were not fantastic, but sprung", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0036.jp2"}, "37": {"fulltext": "ART. 31\\nfrom a necessity as deep as the world. Shall\\nI now add that the whole extant product of\\nthe plastic arts has herein this highest value,\\nas history as a stroke drawn in the portrait of\\nthat after, perfect and beautiful, according to\\nwhose ordinations all beings advance to their\\nbeatitude.\\nThus, historically viewed, it has been the\\nofBce of art to educate the perception of beauty.\\nWe are immersed in beauty, but our eyes\\nhave no clear vision. It needs, by the exhi-\\nbition of single traits, to assist and lead the\\ndormant taste. We carve and paint, or we\\nbehold what is carved and painted, as stu-\\ndents of the mystery of Form. The virtue of\\nart lies in detachment, in sequestering one\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0object from the embarrassing variety. Until\\n..ae thing comes out from the connection of\\n^ings, there can be enjoyment, contemplation,\\nbut no thought. Our happiness and unhappi-\\nness are unproductive. The infant lies in a\\npleasing trance, but his individual character,\\nand his practical power depend on his daily\\nprogress in the separation of things, and deal-\\ning with one at a time. Love and all the pas-\\nsions concentrate all existence around a single\\nform. It is the habit of certain minds to give\\nan all-excluding fulness to the object, the", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0037.jp2"}, "38": {"fulltext": "32 ESSAY II.\\nthought, the word, they alight upon, and to\\nmake that for the time the deputy of the world.\\nThese are the artists, the orators, the leaders\\nof society. The power to detach, and to mag-\\nnify by detaching, is the essence of rhetoric in\\nthe hands of the orator and the poet. This\\nrhetoric, or power to fix the momentary emi-\\nnency of an object, so remarkable in Burke, in\\nByron, in Carlyle, the painter and sculptor\\nexhibit in color and in stone. The power\\ndepends on the depth of the artist s insight of\\nthat object he contemplates. For every object\\nhas its roots in central nature, and may of\\ncourse be so exhibited to us as to represent\\nthe world. Therefore, each work of genius is\\nthe tyrant of the hour, and concentrates at-\\ntention on itself. For the time, it is the only\\nthing worth naming, to do that, be it a\\nsonnet, an opera, a landscape, a statue, an\\noration, the plan of a temple, of a campaign,\\nor of a voyage of discovery. Presently we\\npass to some other object, which rounds itself\\ninto a whole, as did the first for example, a\\nwell laid garden: and nothing seems worth\\ndoing but the laying out of gardens. I should\\nthink fire the best thing in the world, if I were\\nnot acquainted with air, and water, and earth.\\nFor it is the right and property of all natural", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0038.jp2"}, "39": {"fulltext": "ART. 33\\nobjects, of all genuine talents, of all native\\nproperties whatsoever, to be for their moment\\nthe top of the world. A squirrel leaping from\\nbough to bough, and making the wood but one\\nwide tree for his pleasure, fills the eye not less\\nthan a lion, is beautiful, self sufficing and,\\nstands then and there for nature. A good\\nballad draws my ear and heart whilst I listen,\\nas much as an epic has done before. A dog,\\ndrawn by a master, or a litter of pigs, satisfies,\\nand is a reality not less than the frescoes of\\nAngelo. From this succession of excellent\\nobjects learn we at least the immensity of the\\nworld, the opulence of human nature, which\\ncan run out to infinitude in any direction.\\nBut I also learn that what astonished and fas-\\ncinated me in the first work, astonished me in\\nthe second work also, that excellence of all\\nthings is one.\\nThe office of painting and sculpture seems\\nto be merely initial. The best pictures can\\neasily tell us their last secret. The best pic-\\ntures are rude draughts of a few of the mirac-\\nulous dots and lines and dyes which make up\\nthe ever-changing landscape with figures\\namidst which we dwell. Painting seems to be\\nto the eye what dancing is to the limbs. When\\nthat has educated the frame to self-possession,\\ns", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0039.jp2"}, "40": {"fulltext": "84 ESSAY II.\\nto nimbleness, to grace, the steps of the danc-\\ning-master are better forgotten; so painting\\nteaches me the splendor of color and the\\nexpression of form, and, as I see many pictures\\nand higher genius in the art, I see the bound-\\nless opulence of the pencil, the indiflferency in\\nwhich the artist stands free to choose out of\\nthe possible forms. If he can draw every-\\nthing, why draw anything? and then is my eye\\nopened to the eternal picture which nature\\npaints in the street with moving men and\\nchildren, beggars, and fine ladies, draped in\\nred, and green, and blue, and gray; long-\\nhaired, grizzled, white-faced, black-faced,\\nwrinkled, giant, dwarf, expanded, elfish,\\ncapped and based by heaven, earth, and sea.\\nA gallery of sculpture teaches more austerely\\nthe same lesson. As picture teaches the color-\\ning, so sculpture the anatomy of form. When\\nI have seen fine statues, and afterward enter\\na public assembly, I undej[^stand well what he\\nmeant who said, **When I have been reading\\nHomer, all men look like giants.* I too see\\nthat painting and sculpture are gymnastics of\\nthe eye, its training to the niceties and curi-\\nosities of its function. There is no statue like\\nthis living man, with his infinite advantage\\nover all ideal sculpture, of perpetual variety.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0040.jp2"}, "41": {"fulltext": "ART. 35\\nWhat a gallery of art have I here! No man-\\nnerist made these varied groups and diverse\\noriginal single figures. Here is the artist him-\\nself improvising, grim and glad, at this block,\\nNow one thought strikes him, now another,\\nand with each moment he altars the whole\\nair, attitude and expression of his clay. Away\\nwith your nonsense of oil and easels, of marble\\nand chisels; except to open your eyes to the\\nwitchcraft of eternal art, they are hypocritical\\nrubbish.\\nThe reference of all production at last to an\\nAboriginal Power, explains the traits common\\nto all works of the highest art, that they are\\nuniversally intelligible; that they restore to\\nus the simplest states of mind; and are relig-\\nious. Smce what skill is therein shown is the\\nappearance of the original soul, a jet of pure\\nlight; it should produce a similar impression\\nto that made by natural objects. In happy\\nhours, nature appears to us one with art; art\\nperfected, the work of genius. And the indi-\\nvidual in whom simple tastes and susceptibility\\nto all the great human influences, overpower\\nthe accidents of a local and special culture, is\\nthe best critic of art. Though we travel the\\nworld over to find the beautiful, we must carry\\nit with us, or we find it not. I The best of", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0041.jp2"}, "42": {"fulltext": "36 ESSAY 11.\\nbeanty is a finer charm than skill in surfaces,\\nin outlines, or rules of art can ever teach,\\nnamely, a radiation from the work of art, of\\nhuman character, a wonderful expression\\nthrough stone or canvas or musical sound of\\nthe deepest and simplest attributes of our\\nnature, and therefore most intelligible at last\\nto those souls which have these attributes.\\nIn the sculptures of the Greeks, in the masonry\\nof the Romans, and in the pictures of the Tus-\\ncan aiad Venetian masters, the highest charm\\nis the universal language they speak. A con-\\nfession of moral nature, of purity, love, and\\nhope, breathes from them all. That which\\nwe carry to them, the same we bring back\\nmore fairly illustrated in the memory. The\\ntraveler who visits the Vatican, and passes\\nfrom chamber to chamber through galleries of\\nstatues, vases, sarcophagi, and candelabra,\\nthrough all forms of beauty, cut in the richest\\nmaterials, is in danger of forgetting the sim-\\nplicity of the principles out of which they all\\nsprung, and that they had their origin from\\nthoughts and laws in his own breast. He\\nstudies the technical rules on these wonderful\\nremains, but forgets that these works were\\nnot always thus constellated; that they are\\nthe contributions of many ages, and many", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0042.jp2"}, "43": {"fulltext": "ART. 37\\ncountries that each came out of the solitary\\nworkshop of one artist, who toiled perhaps in\\nignorance of the existence of other sculpture,\\ncreated his work without other model, save\\nlife, household life, and the sweet and smart of\\npersonal relations, of beating hearts, and\\nmeeting eyes, of poverty, and necessity, and\\nhope, and fear. These were his inspirations,\\nand these are the effects he carries home to\\nyour heart and mind. In proportion to his\\nforce, the artist will find in his work an outlet\\nfor his proper character. He must not be in\\nany manner pinched or hindered by his ma-\\nterial, but through his necessity of imparting\\nhimself, the adamant will be wax in his hands,\\nand will allow an adequate communication of\\nhimself in his full stature and proportion.\\nNot a conventional nature and culture need\\nhe cumber himself with, nor ask what is the\\nmode in Rome or in Paris, but that house,\\nand weather, and manner of living, which\\npoverty and the fate of birth have made at\\nonce so odious and so dear, in the gray, un-\\npainted wood cabin, on the corner of a New\\nHampshire farm, or in the log hut of the back-\\nwoods, or in the narrow lodging where he has\\nendured the constraints and seeming of a city\\npoverty, will serve as well as any other con-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0043.jp2"}, "44": {"fulltext": "S8 ESSAY II.\\ndition as the symbol of a thought which pours\\nitself indifferently through all.\\nI remember, when in my younger days, I had\\nheard of the wonders of Italian painting, I\\nfancied the great pictures would be great\\nstrangers; some surprising combination of\\ncolor and form; a foreign wonder, barbaric\\npearl and gold, like the spontoons and stand-\\nards of the militia, which play such pranks in\\nthe eyes and imaginations of school-boys. I\\nwas to see and acquire I knew not what. When\\nI came at last to Rome, and saw with eyes the\\npictures, I found that genius left to novices\\nthe gay and fantastic and ostentatious, and\\nitself pierced directly to the simple and true\\nthat it was familiar and sincere that it was\\nthe old, eternal fact I have met already in so\\nmany forms; unto which I lived; that it was\\nthe plain you and me I knew so well, had left\\nat home in so many conversations. I had the\\nsame experience already in a church at Naples.\\nThere I saw that nothing was changed with\\nme but the place, and said to myself,\u00e2\u0080\u0094 Thou\\nfoolish child, hast thou come out hither, over\\nfour thousand miles of salt water, to find that\\nwhich was perfect to thee, there at home?\\nthat fact I saw again in the Academmia at\\nNaples, in the chambers of sculpture, and yet", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0044.jp2"}, "45": {"fulltext": "ART. 39\\nagain when I came to Rome, and to the paint-\\nings of Raphael, Angelo, Sacchi, Titian and\\nLeonardo da Vinci. What old mole workest\\nthou in the earth so fast? It had traveled by\\nmy side; that which I fancied I had left in\\nBoston, was here in the Vatican, and again at\\nMilan, and at Paris, and made all traveling\\nridiculous as a treadmill. I now require this\\nof all pictures, that they domesticate me, not\\nthat they dazzle me. Pictures must not be too\\npicturesque. Nothing astonishes men so much\\nas common sense and plain dealing. All great\\nactions have been simple, and all great\\npictures are.\\nThe Transfiguration, by Raphael, is an\\neminent example of this peculiar merit. A\\ncalm, benignant beauty shines over all this\\npicture, and goes directly to the heart. It\\nseems almost to call you by name. The sweet\\nand sublime face of Jesus is beyond praise, yet\\nhow it disappoints all florid expectations!\\nThis familiar, simple, home-speaking counte-\\nnance, is as if one should meet a friend. The\\nknowledge of picture-dealers has its value, but\\nlisten not to their criticism when your heart is\\ntouched by genius. It was not painted for\\nthem, it was painted for you for such as had", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0045.jp2"}, "46": {"fulltext": "40 ESSAY II.\\neyes capable of being touched by simplicity\\nand lofty emotions.\\nYet when we have said all our fine things\\nabout the arts, we must end with a frank con-\\nfession, that the arts, as we know them, are but\\ninitial. Our best praise is given to what they\\naimed and promised, not to the actual result.\\nHe has conceived meanly of the resources of\\nman, who believes that the best age of produc-\\ntion is past. The real value of the Iliad, or\\nthe Transfiguration, is as signs of power;\\nbillows or ripples they are of the great stream of\\ntendency; tokens of the everlasting effort to\\nproduce, which even in its worst estate, the\\nsoul betrays. Art has not yet come to its\\nmaturity, if it do not put itself abreast with the\\nmost potent influences of the world, if it is not\\npractical and moral, if it do not stand in con-\\nnection with the conscience, if it do not make\\nthe poor and uncultivated feel that it addressed\\nthem with a voice of lofty cheer. There is\\nhigher work for Art than the arts. They are\\nabortive births of an imperfect or vitiated\\ninstinct. Art is the need to create but in its\\nessence, immense and universal, it is im-\\npatient of working with lame or tied hands,\\nand of making cripples and monsters, such as\\nall pictures and statues are. Nothing less than", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0046.jp2"}, "47": {"fulltext": "ART. 41\\nthe creation of man and nature is its end. A\\nman should find in it an outlet for his whole\\nenergy. He may paint and carve only as\\nlong as he can do that. Art should exhilarate:\\nand throw down the walls of circumstance on\\nevery side, awakening in the beholder the\\nsame sense of universal relation and power\\nwhich the work evinced in the artist, and its\\nhighest effect is to make new artists.\\nAlready History is old enough to witness\\nthe old age and disappearance of particular\\narts. The art of sculpture is long ago per-\\nished to any real effect. It was originally a\\nuseful art, a mode of writing, a savage s\\nrecord of gratitude or devotion, and among a\\npeople possessed of a wonderful perception of\\nform, this childish carving was refined to the\\nutmost splendor of effect. But it is the game\\nof a rude and youthful people, and not the\\nmanly labor of a wise and spiritual nation.\\nUnder an oak tree loaded with leaves and nuts,\\nunder a sky of eternal eyes, I stand in a\\nthoroughfare but in the works of our plastic\\narts, and especially of sculpture, creation is\\ndriven into a corner. I cannot hide from my-\\nself that there is a certain appearance of paltri-\\nness, as of toys, and the trumpery of a theatre,\\nin sculpture. Nature transcends all our moods", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0047.jp2"}, "48": {"fulltext": "42 ESSAY II.\\nof thought, and its secret we do not yet find.\\nBut the gallery stands at the mercy of our\\nmoods, and there is a moment when it be-\\ncomes frivolous. I do not wonder that New-\\nton, with an attention habitually engaged on\\nthe path of planets and suns, should have won-\\ndered what the Earl of Pembroke found to\\nadmire in stone dolls. Sculpture may serve\\nto teach the pupil how deep is the secret of\\nform, how purely the spirit can translate its\\nmeaning into that eloquent dialect. But the\\nstatue will look cold and false before that new\\nactivity which needs to roll through all things,\\nand is impatient of counterfeit, and things\\nnot alive. Picture and sculpture are the cele-\\nbrations and festivities of form. But true art\\nis never fixed, but always flowing. The\\nsweetest music is not in the oratorio, but in the\\nhuman voice when it speaks from its instant\\nlife, tones of tenderness, truth, or courage.\\nThe oratorio has already lost its relation to the\\nmorning, to the sun, and the earth, but that\\npersuading voice is in tune with these. All\\nworks of art should not be detached, but ex-\\ntempore performances. A great man is a new\\nstatue in every attitude and action. A beau-\\ntiful woman is a picture which drives all be-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0048.jp2"}, "49": {"fulltext": "ART. 4S\\nholders nobly mad. Life may be lyric or epic,\\nas well as a poem or a romance.\\nA true announcement of the law of creation,\\nif a man were found worthy to declare it\\nwould carry art up into the kingdom of nature,\\nand destroy its separate and contrasted exist-\\nence. The fountains of invention and beauty\\nin modern society are all but dried up. A\\npopular novel, a theatre, or a ball-room makes\\nus feel that we are all paupers in the alms-\\nhouses of this world, without dignity, without\\nskill, or industr}^ Art is as poor and low.\\nThe old tragic Necessity, which lowers on the\\nbrows even of the Venuses and Cupids of the\\nantique, and furnishes the sole apology for the\\nintrusions of such anomalous figures into\\nnature, namely, that they were inevitable;\\nthat the artist was drunk^ with a passion for\\nform which he could not resist, and which\\nvented itself in these fine extravagancies, no\\nlonger dignifies the chisel or the pencil. But\\nthe artist, and the connoisseur, now seek in\\nart the exhibition of their talent, or an asylum\\nfrom the evils of life. Men are not well\\npleased with the figure they make in their own\\nimagination, and they flee to art, and convey\\ntheir better sense in an oratorio, a statue, or\\na picture. Art makes the same effort which a", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0049.jp2"}, "50": {"fulltext": "44 ESSAY 11.\\nsensual prosperity makes, namely, to detach\\nthe beautiful from the useful, to do up the\\nwork as unavoidable, and hating it, pass on to\\nenjoyment. These solaces and compensations,\\nthis division of beauty from use the laws of\\nnature do not permit. As soon as beauty is\\nsought not from religion and love, but for\\npleasure, it degrades the seeker. High beauty\\nis no longer attainable by him in canvas or in\\nstone, in sound, or in lyrical construction an\\neffeminate, prudent, sickly beauty, which is\\nnot beauty, is all that can be formed for the\\nhand can never execute anything higher than\\nthe character can inspire.\\nThe art that thus separates, is itself first\\nseparated. Art must not be a superficial\\ntalent, but must begin farther back in man.\\nNow men do not see nature to be beautiful,\\nand they go to make a statue which shall be.\\nThey abhor men as tasteless, dull, and uncon-\\nvertible, and console themselves with color-\\nbags, and blocks of marble. They reject life\\nas prosaic, and create a death which they call\\npoetic. They despatch the day s weary\\nchores, and fly to voluptuous reveries. They\\neat and drink, that they may afterward exe-\\ncute the ideal. Thus is art vilified; the name\\nconveys to the mind its secondary and bad", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0050.jp2"}, "51": {"fulltext": "ART. 45\\nsenses; it stands in the imagination, as some-\\nwhat contrary to nature, and struck with death\\nfrom the first. Would it not be better to begin\\nhigher up, to serve the ideal before they eat\\nand drink; to serve the ideal in eating and\\ndrinking, in drawing the breath, and in the\\nfunctions of life? Beauty must come back to\\nthe useful arts, and the distinction between\\nthe fine and the useful arts be forgotten. If\\nhistory were truly told, if life were nobly\\nspent, it would be no longer easy or possible to\\ndistinguish the one from the other. In nature\\nall is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore\\nbeautiful, because it is alive, moving, repro-\\nductive it is therefore useful, because it is\\nsymmetrical and fair. Beauty will not come\\nat the call of a legislature, nor will it repeat\\nin England or America, its history in Greece.\\nIt will come, as always, unannounced, and\\nspring up between the feet of brave and\\nearnest men. It is in vain that we look for\\ngenius to reiterate its miracles in the old arts\\nit is its instinct to find beauty and holiness in\\nnew and necessary facts, in the field and road-\\nside, in the shop and mill. Proceeding from\\na religious heart it will raise to a divine use,\\nthe railroad, the insurance office, the joint\\nstock company, our law, our primary assem-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0051.jp2"}, "52": {"fulltext": "46 ESSAY II.\\nblies, our commerce, the galvanic battery, the\\nelectric jar, the prism and the chemist s retort\\nin which we seek now only an economical use.\\nIs not the selfish, and even cruel aspect which\\nbelongs to our great mechanical works, to\\nmills, railways, and machinery, the effect of\\nthe mercenary impulses which these works\\nobey? When its errands are noble and ade-\\nquate, a steamboat bridging the Atlantic\\nbetween Old and New England, and arriving\\nat its ports with the punctuality of a planet,\\nis a step of man into harmony with nature.\\nThe boat at St. Petersburg, which plies along\\nthe Lena by magnetism, needs little to make\\nit sublime. When science is learned in love,\\nand its powers are wielded by love, they will\\nappear the supplements and continuations of\\nthe material creation.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0052.jp2"}, "53": {"fulltext": "ESSAY III.\\nTHE POET.\\nThose who are esteemed umpires of taste are\\noften persons who have acquired some knowl-\\nedge of admired pictures or sculptures, and\\nhave an inclination for whatever is elegant;\\nbut if you inquire whether they are beautiful\\nsouls, and whether their own acts are like fair\\npictures, you learn that they are selfish and\\nsensual. Their cultivation is local, as if you\\nshould rub a log of dry wood in one spot to\\nproduce fire, all the rest remaining cold.\\nTheir knowledge of the fine arts is some study\\nof rules and particulars, or some limited judg-\\nment of color or form, which is exercised for\\namusement or for show. It is a proof of the\\nshallowness of the doctrine of beauty, as it lies\\nin the minds of our amateurs that men seem to\\nhave lost the perception of the instant depend-\\nence of form upon soul. There is no doctrine\\nof forms in our philosophy. We were put into\\nour bodies, as fire is put into a pan, to be car-\\nried about; but there is no accurate adjust-\\n47", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0053.jp2"}, "54": {"fulltext": "48 ESSAY III.\\nment between the spirit and the organ, much\\nless is the latter the germination of the form-\\ner. So in regard to other forms, the intellec-\\ntual men do not believe in any essential de-\\npendence of the material world on thought\\nand volition. Theologians think it a pretty\\nair-castle to talk of the spiritual meaning of a\\nship or a cloud, of a city or a contract, but they\\nprefer to come again to the solid ground of his-\\ntorical evidence; and even the poets are con-\\ntented with a civil and conformed manner of\\nliving, and to write poems from the fancy at a\\nsafe distance from their own experience. But\\nthe highest minds of the world have never\\nceased to explore the double meaning, or,\\nshall I say, the quadruple, or the centuple, or\\nmuch more manifold meaning, of every sen-\\nsuous fact: Orpheus, Empedocles, Heraclitus,\\nPlato, Plutarch, Dante, Swedenborg, and the\\nmasters of sculpture, picture and poetry. For\\nwe are not pans and barrows, nor even por-\\nters of the fire and torch-bearers, but children,\\nof the fire, made of it, and only the same divin-\\nity transmuted, and at two or three removes,\\nwhen we know least about it. And this hidden\\ntruth, that the fountain whence all this river\\nof Time and its creatures, floweth, are intrinsi-\\ncally ideal and beautiful, draws us to the con-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0054.jp2"}, "55": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 49\\nsideration of the natures and functions of the\\nPoet, or the man of Beauty, to the means and\\nmaterials he uses, and to the general aspect of\\nthe art in the present time.\\nThe breadth of the problem is great, for the\\npoet is representative. He stands among par-\\ntial men or the complete man, and apprises us\\nnot of his wealth, but of the commonwealth.\\nThe young man revers men of genius, be-\\ncause, to speak truly, they are more himself\\nthan he is. They receive of the soul as he also\\nreceives, but they more. Nature enhances her\\nbeauty, to the eye of loving men, from their\\nbelief that the poet is beholding her shows at\\nthe same time. He is isolated among his con-\\ntemporaries, by truth and by his art, but with\\nthis consolation in his pursuits, that they will\\ndraw all men sooner or later. For all men live\\nby truth, and stand in need of expression. In\\nlove, in art, in avarice, in politics, in labor, in\\ngames, we study to utter our painful secret.\\nThe man is only half himself, the other half is\\nhis expression.\\nNotwithstanding this necessity to be pub-\\nlished, adequate expression is rare. I know\\nnot how it is that we need an interpreter; but\\nthe great majority of men seem to be minors,\\nwho have not yet come into possession of their", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0055.jp2"}, "56": {"fulltext": "50 ESSAY in.\\nown, or mutes, who cannot report the conver-\\nsation they have had with nature. There is\\nno man who does not anticipate a snpersensual\\nutility in the sun, and stars, earth and water.\\nThese stand and wait to render him a peculiar\\nservice. But there is some obstruction, or\\nsome excess of phlegm in our constitution,\\nwhich does not suffer them to yield the due\\neffect. Too feeble fall the impressions of na-\\nture on us to make us artists. Every touch\\nshould thrill. Every man should be so much\\nan artist, that he could report in conversation\\nwhat had befallen him. Yet, in our experi-\\nence, the rays or appulses have sufficient force\\nto arrive at the senses, but not enough to reach\\nthe quick, and compel the reproduction of\\nthemselves in speech. The poet is the person\\nin whom these powers are in balance, the man\\nwithout impediment, who sees and handles that\\nwhich others dream of, traverses the whole\\nscale of experience, and is representative of\\nman, in virtue of being the largest power to\\nreceive and to impart.\\nFor the Universe has three children, born at\\none time, which reappear, under different\\nnames, in every system of thought, whether\\nthey be called cause, operation, and effect or,\\nmore poetically, Jove, Pluto, Neptune, or, the-\\nS^", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0056.jp2"}, "57": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 61\\nologically, the Father, the Spirit, and the Son\\nbut which we will call here, the Knower, the\\nDoer, and the Sayer. These stand respectively\\nfor the love of truth, for the love of good, and\\nfor the love of beauty. These three are equal.\\nEach is that which he is essentially, so that he\\ncannot be surmounted or analyzed, and each\\nof these three has the power of the others lat-\\nent in him, and his own patent.\\nThe poet is the sayer, the namer, and repre-\\nsents beauty. He is a sovereign, and stands\\non the center. For the world is not painted,\\nor adorned, but is from the beginning beauti-\\nful and God has not made some beautiful\\nthings, but Beauty is the creator of the uni-\\nverse. Therefore, the poet is not any permis-\\nsive potentate, but is emperor in his own right.\\nCriticism is infested with a cant of material-\\nism, which assumes that manual skill and activ-\\nity is the first merit of all men, and disparages\\nsuch as say and do not, overlooking the fact\\nthat some men, namely, poets, are natural say-\\ners, sent into the world to the end of expres-\\nsion, and confounds them with those whose\\nprovince is action, but who quit it, to imitate\\nthe sayers. But Homer s words are as costly\\nand admirable to Homer, as Agamemnon s\\nvictories are to Agamemnon. The poet does", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0057.jp2"}, "58": {"fulltext": "52 ESSAY III.\\nnot wait for the hero or the sage, but, as they\\nact and think primarily, so he writes primarily\\nwhat will and must be spoken, reckoning the\\nothers, though primaries also, yet, in respect\\nto him, secondaries and servants; as sitters or\\nmodels in the studio of a painter, or as assist-\\nants who bring building materials to an arch-\\nitect.\\nFor poetry was all written before time was,\\nand whenever we are so finely organized that\\nwe can penetrate into that region where the air\\nis music, we hear those primal warblings, and\\nattempt to write them down, but we lose ever\\nand anon a word, or a verse, and substitute\\nsomething of our own, and thus miswrite the\\npoem. The men of more delicate ear write\\ndown these cadences more faithfully, and\\nthese transcripts, though imperfect, become\\nthe songs of the nations. For nature is as\\ntruly beautiful as it is good or as it is reason-\\nable, and must as much appear, as it must be\\ndone, or be known. Words and deeds are quite\\nindifferent modes of the divine energy. Words\\nare also actions, and actions are a kind of\\nwords.\\nThe sign and credentials of the poet are,\\nthat he announces that which no man foretold.\\nHe is the true and only doctor; he knows and", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0058.jp2"}, "59": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 53\\ntells he is the only teller of news, for he was\\npresent and privy to the appearance which he\\ndescribes. He is a beholder of ideas, and an\\nntterer of the necessary and casual. For we\\ndo not speak now of men of poetical talents, or\\nof industry and skill in meter, but of the true\\npoet. I took part in a conversation the other\\nday, concerning a recent writer of lyrics, a\\nman of subtle mind, whose head appeared to\\nbe a music-box of delicate tunes and rhythms,\\nand whose skill, and command of language we\\ncould not sufficiently praise. But when the\\nquestion arose, whether he was not only a lyr-\\nist, but a poet, we were obliged to confess that\\nhe is plainly a contemporary, not an eternal\\nman. He does not stand out of our low limi-\\ntations, like a Chimborazo under the line, run-\\nning up from the torrid base through all the\\nclimates of the globe, with belts of the herb-\\nage of every latitude on its high and mottled\\nsides; but this genius is the landscape-garden\\nof a modern house, adorned with fountains\\nand statues, with well-bred men and women\\nstanding and sitting in the walks and terraces.\\nWe hear, through all the varied music, the\\nground-tone of conventional life. Our poets\\nare men of talents who sing, and not the chil-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0059.jp2"}, "60": {"fulltext": "54 ESSAY III.\\ndren of music. The argument is secondary,\\nthe finish of the verses is primary.\\nFor it is not meters, but a meter-making\\nargument, that makes a poem, a thought so\\npassionate and alive, that, like the spirit of a\\nplan or an animal, it has an architecture of its\\nown, and adorns nature with a new thing. The\\nthought and the form are equal in the order\\nof time, but in the order of genesis the thought\\nis prior to the form. The poet has a new\\nthought he has a whole new experience to un-\\nfold he will tell us how it was with him, and\\nall men will be the richer in his fortune. For,\\nthe experience of each new age requires a new\\nconfession, and the world seems always wait-\\ning for its poet. I remember, when I was\\nyoung, how much I was moved one morning\\nby tidings that genius had appeared in a youth\\nwho sat near me at table. He had left his\\nwork, and gone rambling none knew whither,\\nand had written hundreds of lines, but could\\nnot tell whether that which was in him was\\ntherein told: he could tell nothing but that all\\nwas changed, man, beast, heaven, earth, and\\nsea. How gladly we listened! how credulous!\\nSociety seemed to be compromised. We sat in\\nthe aurora of a sunrise which was to put out\\nall the stars. Boston seemed to be at twice", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0060.jp2"}, "61": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 55\\nthe distance it had the night before, or was\\nmuch farther than that. Rome, what was\\nRome? Plutarch and Shakespeare were in the\\nyellow leaf, and Homer no more should be\\nheard of. It is much to know that poetry has\\nbeen written this very day, under this very\\nroof, by your side. What! that wonderful\\nspirit has not expired! these stony moments\\nare still sparkling and animated! I had fancied\\nthat the oracles were all silent, and nature had\\nspent her fires, and behold! all night, from\\nevery pore, these fine auroras have been\\nstreaming. Every one has some interest in the\\nadvent of the poet, and no one knows how\\nmuch it may concern him. We know that the\\nsecret of the world is profound, but who or\\nwhat shall be our interpreter, we know not. A\\nmountain ramble, a new style of face, a new\\nperson may put the key into our hands. Of\\ncourse, the value of genius to us is in the va-\\nracity of its report. Talent may frolic and\\njuggle; genius realizes and adds. Mankind,\\nin good earnest, have availed so far in under-\\nstanding themselves and their work, that the\\nforemost watchman on the peak announces his\\nnews. It is the truest word ever spoken, and\\nthe phrase will be the fittest, most musical,", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0061.jp2"}, "62": {"fulltext": "56 ESSAY III.\\nand the unerring voice of the world for that\\ntime.\\nAll that we call sacred history attests that\\nthe birth of a poet is the principal event in\\nchronology. Man, never so often deceived,\\nstill watches for the arrival of a brother who\\ncan hold him steady to a truth, until he has\\nmade it his own. With what joy I begin to\\nread a poem, which I confide in as an inspira-\\ntion And now my chains are to be broken I\\nshall mount above these clouds and opaque\\nairs in which I live, opaque, though they\\nseem transparent, and from the heaven of\\ntruth I shall see and comprehend my relations.\\nThat will reconcile me to life, and renovate\\nnature, to see trifles animated by a tendency,\\nand to know what I am doing. Life will no\\nmore be a noise now I shall see men and wo-\\nmen, and know the signs by which they may\\nbe discerned from fools and satans. This day\\nshall be better than my birthday; then I be-\\ncame an animal now I am invited into the sci-\\nence of the real. Such is the hope, but the\\nfruition is postponed. Oftener it falls, that\\nthis winged man, who will carry me into the\\nheaven, whirls me into the clouds, then leaps\\nand frisks about with me from cloud to cloud,\\nstill affirming that he is bound heavenward;", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0062.jp2"}, "63": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 57\\nand I, being myself a novice, am slow in per-\\nceiving that he does not know the way into the\\nheavens, and is merely bent that I should ad-\\nmire his skill to rise, like a fowl or a flying\\nfish, a little way from the ground or the\\nwater; but the all-piercing, all-feeding, and\\nocular air of heaven, that man shall never in-\\nhabit. I tumble down again soon into my old\\nnooks, and lead the life of exaggerations as be-\\nfore, and have lost my faith in the possibility\\nof any guide who can lead me thither where I\\nwould be.\\nBut leaving these victims of vanity, let us,\\nwith new hope, observe how nature, by wor-\\nthier impulses, has insured the poet*s fidelity to\\nhis office of announcement and affirming,\\nnamely, by the beauty of things which becomes\\na new, and higher beauty, when expressed.\\nNature offers all her creatures to him as a pic-\\nture language. Being used as a type, a second\\nwonderful value appears in the object, far bet-\\nter than its old value, as the carpenter s\\nstretched cord, if you hold your ear close\\nenough, is musical in the breeze. Things\\nmore excellent than every image, says Jam-\\nblichus, are expressed through images.\\nThings admit of being used as symbols, be.\\ncause nature is a symbol, in the whole, and in", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0063.jp2"}, "64": {"fulltext": "58 ESSAY III.\\nevery part. Every line we can draw in the\\nsand has expression; and there is no body\\nwithout its spirit or genius. All form is an\\neffect of character; all condition, of the qual-\\nity of the life; all harmony, of health; (and,\\nfor this reason, a perception of beauty should\\nbe sympathetic, or proper only to the good).\\nThe beautiful rests on the foundations of the\\nnecessary. The soul makes the body, as the\\nwise Spencer teaches:\\nSo every spirit, as it is most pure,\\nAnd hath in it the more of heavenly light,\\nSo it the fairer body doth procure\\nTo habit in, and it more fairly dight,\\nWith cheerful grace and amiable sight,\\nFor, of the soul, the body form doth take,\\nFor soul is form, and doth the body make.\\nHere we find ourselves, suddenly, not in a crit-\\nical speculation, but in a holy place, and should\\ngo very warily and reverently. We stand be-\\nfore the secret of the world, there where Being\\npasses into Appearance, and Unity into Vari-\\nety.\\nThe Universe is the externization of the\\nsoul. Wherever the life is, that bursts into\\nappearance around it. Our science is sensual,\\nand, therefore, superficial. The earth, and\\nthe heavenly bodies, physics, and chemistry,", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0064.jp2"}, "65": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 69\\nwe sensually treat, as if they were self-exis-\\ntent; but these are the retinue of that Being\\nwe have. The mighty heaven, said Proc-\\nlus, exhibits, in its transfigurations, clear\\nimages of the splendor of intellectual percep-\\ntions; being moved in conjunction with the\\nunapparent periods of intellectual natures/\\nTherefore, science always goes abreast with\\nthe just elevation of the man, keeping step\\nwith religion and metaphysics or, the state of\\nscience is an index of our self-knowledge.\\nSince everything in nature answers to a moral\\npower, if any phenomenon remains brute and\\ndark, it is that the corresponding faculty in\\nthe observer is not yet active.\\nNo wonder, then, if these waters be so deep,\\nthat we hover over them with a religious re-\\ngard. The beauty of the fable proves the im-\\nportance of the sense; to the poet, and to all\\nothers or, if you please, every man is so far\\na poet as to be susceptible of these enchant-\\nments of nature for all men have the thoughts\\nwhereof the universe is the celebration. I\\nfind that the fascination resides in the symbol.\\nWho loves nature? Who does not? Is it only\\npoets, and men of leisure and cultivation, who\\nlive with her? No; but also hunters, farmers^\\ngrooms, and butchers, though they express", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0065.jp2"}, "66": {"fulltext": "60 ESSAY III.\\ntheir affection in their choice of life, and not\\nin their choice of words. The writer wonders\\nwhat the coachman or the hunter values in\\nriding, in horses, and dogs. It is not super-\\nficial qualities. When you talk with him, he\\nholds these at as slight a rate as you. His\\nworship is sympathetic; has no definitions,\\nbut he is commanded in nature, by the living\\npower which he feels to be there present. No\\nimitation, or playing of these things, would\\ncontent him he loves the earnest of the north\\nwind, of rain, of stone, and wood, and iron.\\nA beauty not explicable, is dearer than a beauty\\nwhich we can see to the end of. It is nature\\nthe symbol, nature certifying the supernatural,\\nbody overflowed by life, which he worships,\\nwith coarse, but sincere rites.\\nThe inwardness, and mystery, of this attach-\\nment drives men of every class to the use of\\nemblems. The schools of poets, and philoso-\\nphers, are not more intoxicated with their sym-\\nbols than the populace with theirs. In our\\npolitical parties, compute the power of badges\\nand emblems. See the great ball which they\\nroll from Baltimore to Bunker Hill In the\\npolitical processions, Lowell goes in a loom,\\nand Lynn in a shoe, and Salem in a ship. Wit-\\nness the cider barrel, the log cabin, the hickory", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0066.jp2"}, "67": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 61\\nStick, the palmelto, and all the cognizances of\\nparty. See the power of national emblems.\\nSome stars, lilies, leopards, a crescent, a lion,\\nan eagle, or other figure, which came into\\ncredit God knows how, on an old rag of bunt-\\ning, blowing in the wind, or a fort, at the ends\\nof the earth, shall make the blood tingle tinder\\nthe rudest, or the most conventional exterior.\\nThe people fancy they hate poetry, and they are\\nall poets and mystics\\nBeyond this universality of the symbolic lan-\\nguage, we are apprised^f the divineness of this\\nsuperior use of things, whereby the world is a\\ntemple, whose walls are covered with emblems,\\npictures, and commandments of the Deity, in\\nthis, that there is no fact in nature which does\\nnot carry the whole sense of nature; and the\\ndistinction which we make in events, and in\\naffairs, of low and high, honest and base, disap-\\npear when nature is used as a symbol. Thought\\nmakes everything fit for use. The vocabulary\\nof an omniscient man would embrace words\\nand images excluded from polite conversation.\\nWhat would be base, or even obscene, to the\\nobscene, becomes illustrious, spoken in a new\\nconnection of thought. The piety of the\\nHebrew prophets purges their grossness. The\\ncircumcision is an example of the power of", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0067.jp2"}, "68": {"fulltext": "62 ESSAY III.\\npoetry to raise the low and offensive. Small\\nand mean things serve as well as great sym-\\nbols. The meaner the type by which a law is\\nexpressed, the more pungent it is, and the\\nmore lasting in the memories of men: just as\\nwe choose the smallest box, or case, in which\\nany needful utensil can be carried. Bare lists\\nof words are found suggestive, to an imagina-\\ntive and excited mind as it is related of Lord\\nChatham, that he was accustomed to read in\\nBailey s Dictionary, when he was preparing to\\nspeak in Parliament. The poorest experience\\nis rich enough for all he purposes of expressing\\nthought. Why covet a knowledge of new\\nfacts? Day and night, house and garden, a\\nfew books, a few actions, serve us as well as\\nwould all trades and all spectacles. We are\\nfar from having exhausted the significance of\\nthe few symbols we use. We can come to use\\nthem yet with a terrible simplicity. It does\\nnot need that a poem should be long. Every\\nword was once a poem. Every new relation\\nis a new word. Also, we use defects and de-\\nformities to a sacred purpose, so expressing\\nour sense that the evils of the world are such\\nonly to the evil eye. In the old mythology,\\nmythologists observe, defects are ascribed to\\ndivine natures, as lameness to Vulcan, blind-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0068.jp2"}, "69": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 63\\nness to Cupid, and the like, to signify exuber-\\nances.\\nFor as it is dislocation and detachment from\\nthe life of God, that makes things ugly, the\\npoet, who re-attaches things to nature and the\\nWhole, re-attaching even artificial things,\\nand violations of nature, to nature, by a deeper\\ninsight, disposes very easily of the most dis-\\nagreeable facts. Readers of poetry see the fac-\\ntory village and the railway, and fancy that the\\npoetry of the landscape is broken up by these;\\nfor these works of art are not yet consecrated\\nin their reading; but the poet sees them fall\\nwithin the great Order not less than the bee\\nhive, or the spider s geometrical web. Nature\\nadopts them very fast into her vital circles,\\nand the gliding train of cars she loves like her\\nown. Besides, in a centered mind, it signifies\\nnothing how many mechanical inventions you\\nexhibit. Though you add millions, and never\\nso surprising, the fact of mechanics has not\\ngained a grain s weight. The spiritual fact\\nremains unalterable, by many or by few partic-\\nulars; as no mountain is of any appreciable\\nheight to break the curve of the sphere. A\\nshrewd country boy goes to the city for the\\nfirst time, and the complacent citizen is not\\nsatisfied with his little wonder. It is not that", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0069.jp2"}, "70": {"fulltext": "64 ESSAY III.\\nhe does not see all the fine houses, and know\\nthat he never saw such before, but he disposes\\nof them as easily as the poet finds place for the\\nrailway. The chief value of the new fact, is\\nto enhance the great and constant fact of Life,\\nwhich can dwarf any and every circumstance,\\nand to which the belt of wampum, and the\\ncommerce of America, are alike.\\nThe world being thus put under the mind\\nfor verb and noun, the poet is he who can ar-\\nticulate it. For, though life is great, and fas-\\ncinates, and absorbs, and though all men are\\nintelligent of the symbols through which it is\\nnamed, yet they cannot originally use them.\\nWe are symbols, and inhabit symbols; work-\\nmen, work, and tools, words and things, birth\\nand death, all are emblems; and we sympa-\\nthize with the symbols, and, being infatuated\\nwith the economical uses of things, we do not\\nknow that they are thoughts. The poet, by\\nan ulterior intellectual perception, gives them\\na power which makes their old use forgotten,\\nand puts eyes, and a tongue, into every dumb\\nand inanimate object. He perceives the inde-\\npendence of the thought on the symbol, the\\nstability of the thought, the accidency and\\nfugacity of the symbol. As the eyes of Lyn-\\ncseus were said to see through the earth, so the\\nte", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0070.jp2"}, "71": {"fulltext": "The poor shepherd who perishes in a drift. Page 77.\\nEmerson s Essays.\u00e2\u0080\u0094 Vol. II.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0071.jp2"}, "72": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0072.jp2"}, "73": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 65\\npoet turns the world to glass, and shows us\\nall things in their right series and processions.\\nFor, through that better perception, he stands\\none step nearer to things, and sees the flowing\\nor metamorphosis; perceives that thought is\\nmultiform that within the form of every crea-\\nture is a force impelling it to ascend into a\\nhigher form and, following with his eyes the\\nlife, uses the forms which express that life,\\nand so his speech flows with the flowing of na-\\nture. All the facts of the animal economy,\\nsex, nutriment, gestation, birth, growth, are\\nsymbols of the passage of the world into the\\nsoul of man, to suffer there a change, and re-\\nappear a new and higher fact. He uses forms\\naccording to the life, and not according to the\\nform. This is true science. The poet alone\\nknows astronomy, chemistry, vegetation, and\\nanimation, for he does not stop at these facts,\\nbut employs them as signs. He knows why\\nthe plain, or meadow of space, was strewn with\\nthese flowers we call suns, and moons, and\\nstars why the great deep is adorned with ani-\\nmals, with men, and gods; for, in every word\\nhe speaks he rides on them as the horses of\\nthought.\\nBy virtue of this science the poet is the\\nNamer, or Language-maker, naming things\\n5", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0073.jp2"}, "74": {"fulltext": "66 ESSAY III.\\nsometimes after their appearance, sometimes\\nafter their essence, and giving to every one its\\nown name, and not another s, thereby rejoic-\\ning the intellec;^^ which delights in detachment\\nor boundary. The poet made all the words,\\nand, therefore, language is the archives of his-\\ntory, and, if we must say it, a sort of tomb of\\nthe muses. For, though the origin of most\\nof our words is forgotten, each word was at\\nfirst a stroke of genius, and obtained currency,\\nbecause for the moment it symbolized the\\nworld to the first speak and to the hearer. The\\netymologist finds the deadest word to have\\nbeen once a brilliant picture. Language is\\nfossil poetry. As the limestone of the conti-\\nnent consists of infinite masses of the shells of\\nanimalcules, so language is made up of images,\\nor tropes, which now, in their secondary use,\\nhave long ceased to remind us of their poetic\\norigin. But the poet names the thing because\\nhe sees it, or comes one step nearer to it than\\nany other. This expression, or naming, is not\\nart, but a second nature, grown out of the\\nfirst, as a leaf out of a tree. What we. call na-\\nture is a certain self -regulated motion, or\\nchange and nature does all things by her own\\nhands, and does not leave another to baptize\\nher, but baptizes herself; and this through the", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0074.jp2"}, "75": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 67\\nmetamorphosis again. I remember that a cer-\\ntain poet described it to me thus\\nGenius is the activity which repairs the\\ndecays of things, whether wholly or partly of\\na material and finite kind. Nature, through\\nall her kingdoms, insures herself. Nobody\\ncares for planting the poor fungus: so she\\nshakes down from the gills of one agaric count-\\nless spores, any one of which, being preserved,\\ntransmits new billions of spores to-morrow or\\nnext day. The new agaric of this hour has a\\nchance which the old one had not. This atom\\nof seed is thrown into a new place, not subject\\nto the accidents which destroyed its parent two\\nrods off. She makes a man; and having\\nbrought him to ripe age, she will no longer\\nrun the risk of losing this wonder at a blow,\\nbut she detaches from him a new self, that the\\nkind may be safe from accidents to which the\\nindividual is exposed. So when the soul of\\nthe poet has come to ripeness of thought, she\\ndetaches and sends away from it its poems or\\nsongs, a fearless, sleepless, deathless pro-\\ngeny, which is not exposed to the accidents of\\nthe weary kingdom of time a fearless, viva,\\ncious offspring, clad with wings (such was the\\nvirtue of the soul out of which they came),\\nwhich carry them fast and far, and infix them", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0075.jp2"}, "76": {"fulltext": "\u00e2\u0082\u00ac8 ESSAY III.\\nirrecoverably into the hearts of men. These\\nwings are the beauty of the poet^s soul. The\\nsongs, thus flying immortal from their mortal\\nparent, by clamorous flights of censures,\\nwhich swarm in far greater numbers and,\\nthreaten to devour them but these last are\\nnot winged. At the end of a very short leap\\nthey fall plump down, and rot, having received\\nfrom the souls out of which they came no\\nbeautiful wings. But the melodies of the poet\\nascend, and leap, and pierce into the deeps of\\ninfinite time.\\nSo far the bard taught me, using his freer\\nspeech. But nature has a higher end, in the\\nproduction of new individuals, than security,\\nnamely, ascension, or, the passage of the soul\\ninto higher forms. I knew, in my younger\\ndays, the sculptor who made the statue of the\\nyouth which stands in the public garden. He\\nwas, as I remember, unable to tell, directly,\\nwhat made him happy, or unhappy, but by\\nwonderful indirections he could tell. He rose\\none day, according to his habit, before the\\ndawn, and saw the morning break, grand as\\nthe eternity out of which it came, and, for\\nmany days after, he strove to express this\\ntranquillity, and, lo! his chisel had fashioned\\nout of marble the form of a beautiful youth,", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0076.jp2"}, "77": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 69\\nPhosphorus, whose aspect is such, that, it is\\nsaid, all persons who look on it become silent.\\nThe poet also resigns himself of his mood, and\\nthat thought which agitated him is expressed,\\nbut idem alter, in a manner totally new. The\\nexpression is organic, or, the new type which\\nthings themselves take when liberated. As,\\nin the sun, objects paint their images on the\\nretina of the eye, so they, sharing the aspira-\\ntion of the whole universe, tend to paint a far\\nmore delicate copy of their essence in his\\nmind. Like the metamorphosis of things into\\nhigher organic forms, is their change into mel-\\nodies. Over everything stands its daemon, or\\nsoul, and, as the form of the thing is reflected\\nby the eye, so the soul of the thing is reflected\\nby a melody. The sea, the mountain-ridge,\\nNiagara, and every flower-bed, pre-exist, or\\nsuper-exist in pre-cantations, which sail like\\nodors in the air, and when any man goes by with\\nan ear sufficiently fine, he overhears them, and\\nendeavors to write down the notes, without\\ndiluting or depravinof them. And herein is\\nthe legitimation of criticism, in the mind s\\nfaith, that the poems are a corrupt version of\\nsome text in nature, with which they ought to\\nbe made to tally. A rhyme in one of our\\nsonnets should not be less pleasing than the", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0077.jp2"}, "78": {"fulltext": "70 ESSAY III.\\niterated nodes of a sea- shell, or the resembling\\ndifference of a group of flowers. The pairing\\nof the birds is an idyl, not tedious as our idyls\\nare a tempest is a rough ode without false-\\nhood or rant a summer, with its harvest sown,\\nreaped, and stored, is an epic song, subordinat-\\ning how many admirably executed parts.\\nWhy should not the symmetry and truth that\\nmodulate these, glide into our spirits, and we\\nparticipate the invention of nature.\\nThis insight, which expresses itself by what\\nis called Imagination, is a very high sort of\\nseeing, which does not come by study, but by\\nthe intellect being where and what it sees, by\\nsharing the path, or circuit of things through\\nforms, and so making them translucid to\\nothers. The path of things is silent. Will\\nthey suffer a speaker to go with them? A spy\\nthey will not suffer; a lover, a poet, is the\\ntranscendency of their own nature, him they\\nwill suffer. The condition of true naming, on\\nthe poet s part, is resigning himself to the\\ndivine aura which breathes through forms, and\\naccompanying that.\\nIt is a secret which every intellectual man\\nquickly learns, that, beyond the energy of his\\npossessed and conscious intellect, he is capable\\nof a new energy (as of an inte lect doubled on", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0078.jp2"}, "79": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 71\\nitself), by abandonment to the nature of\\nthings; that, besides his privacy of power as\\nan individual man, there is a great public\\npower, on which he can draw, by unlocking, at\\nall risks, his human doors, and suffering the\\nethereal tides to roll and circulate through him\\nthen he is caught up into the life of the Uni-\\nverse, his speech is thunder, his thought is\\nlaw, and his words are universally intelligible\\nas the plants and animals. The poet knows\\nthat he speaks adequately, then, on]y when he\\nspeaks somewhat wildly, or, Vith the flower\\nof the mind;** not with the intellect, used as\\nan organ, but with the intellect released from\\nall service, and suffered to take its direction\\nfrom its celestial life or, as the ancients were\\nwont to express themselves, not with intellect\\nalone, but with the intellect inebriated by\\nnectar. As the traveler who has lost his way,\\nthrows his reins on his horse s neck, and trusts\\nto the instinct of the animal to find his road, so\\nmust we do with the divine animal who carries\\nus through this world. For if in any manner\\nwe can stimulate this instinct, new passages\\nare opened for us into nature, the mind flows\\ninto and through things hardest and highest,\\nand the metamorphosis is possible.\\nThis is the reason why bards love wine", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0079.jp2"}, "80": {"fulltext": "72 ESSAY III.\\nmead, narcotics, coffee, tea, opium, the fumes\\nof sandal wood, and tobacco, or whatever other\\nspecies of animal exhilaration. All men avail\\nthemselves of such means as they can, to add\\nthis extraordinary power to their normal\\npowers; and to this end they prize conversa-\\ntion, music, pictures, sculpture, dancing,\\ntheatres, traveling, war, mobs, fires, gaming,\\npolitics, or love, or science, or animal intoxica-\\ntion, which are several coarser or finer quasi-\\nmechanical substitutes for the true nectar,\\nwhich is the ravishment of the intellect by\\ncoming nearer to the fact. These are auxili-\\naries to the centrifugal tendency of a man, to\\nhis passage out into free space, and they help\\nhim to escape the custody of that body in\\nwhich he is pent up, and of that jail-yard of\\nindividual relations in which he is enclosed.\\nHence a great number of such as were profes-\\nsionally expressors of Beauty, as painters,\\npoets, musicians, and actors, have been more\\nthan others wont to lead a life of pleasure and\\nindulgence all but the few who received the\\ntrue nectar; and, as it was a spurious mode of\\nattaining freedom, as it was an emancipation\\nnot into the heavens, but into the freedom of\\nbaser places, they were punished for that ad-\\nvantage they won, by a dissipation and deteri-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0080.jp2"}, "81": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 73\\noration. But never can any advantage be\\ntaken of nature by a trick. The spirit of the\\nworld, the great calm presence of the creator,\\ncomes not forth to the sorceries of opium or of\\nwine. The sublime vision comes to the pure\\nand simple soul in a clean and chaste body.\\nThat is not an inspiration which we owe to\\nnarcotics, but some counterfeit excitement and\\nfury. Milton says, that the lyric poet may\\ndrink wine and live generously, but the epic\\npoet, he who shall sing of the gods, and their\\ndescent unto men, must drink water out of a\\nwooden bowl. For poetry is not Devil s\\nwine, but God s wine. It is with this as it is\\nwith toys. We fill the hands and nurseries of\\nour children with all manner of dolls, drums,\\nand horses, withdrawing their eyes from the\\nplain face and suffering objects of nature, the\\nsun, and moon, the animals, the water, and\\nstones, which should be their toys. So the\\npoet s habit of living should be set on a key so\\nlow and plain, that the common influences\\nshould delight him. His cheerfulness should\\nbe the gift of the sunlight the air should suffice\\nfor his inspiration, and he should be tipsy with\\nwater. That spirit which suffices quiet hearts,\\nwhich seems to come forth to such from every\\ndry knoll of sere grass, from every pine-stump,", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0081.jp2"}, "82": {"fulltext": "74 ESSAY III.\\nand half-imbedded stone, on which the dull\\nMarch sun shines, comes forth to the poor and\\nhungry, and such as are of simple taste. If thou\\nfill thy brain with Boston and New York, with\\nfashion and covetousness, and wilt stimulate\\nthy jaded senses with wine and French coffee,\\nthou shalt find no radiance of wisdom in the\\nlonely waste of the pine woods.\\nIf the imagination intoxicates the poet, it is*\\nnot inactive in other men. The metamorphosis\\nexcites in the beholder an emotion of joy.\\nThe use of smybols has a certain power of\\nemancipation and exhilaration for all men.\\nWe seem to be touched by a wand, which\\nmakes us dance and run about happily, like\\nchildren. We are like persons who come out\\nof a cave or cellar into the open air. This is\\nthe effect on us of tropes, fables, oracles, and\\nall poetic forms. Poets are thus liberating\\ngods. Men have really got a new sense, and\\nfound within the world, another world, or nest\\nof worlds for, the metamorphosis once seen,\\nwe divine that it does not stop. I will not\\nnow consider how much this makes the charm\\nof algebra and the mathematics, which also\\nhave their tropes, but it is felt in every defini-\\ntion; as, when Aristotle defines space to be an\\nimmovable vessel, in which things are con-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0082.jp2"}, "83": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 75\\ntained; or, when Plato defines a line to be a\\nflowing point or, figure to be a bound of solid\\nand many the like. What a joyful sense of\\nfreedom we have, when Vitruvius announces\\nthe old opinion of artists, that no architect can\\nbuild any house well, who does not know some-\\nthing of anatomy. When Socrates, in Char-\\nmides, tells us that the soul is cured of its mal-\\nadies by certain incantations, and that these\\nincantations are beautiful reasons, from which\\ntemperance is generated in souls; when Plato\\ncalls the world an animal and Timseus affirms\\nthat the plants also are animals or affirms a\\nman to be a heavenly tree, growing with his\\nroot, which is his head, upward and, as George\\nChapman, following him, writes,^\\nSo in our tree of man, whose nervie root\\nSprings in his top;\\nwhen Orpheus speaks of hoariness as **that\\nwhite flower which marks extreme old age;\\nwhen Proclus calls the universe the statue of\\nthe intellect when Chaucer, in his praise of\\n**Gentilesse, compares good blood m mean\\ncondition to fire, which, though carried to the\\ndarkest house betwixt this and the mount of\\nCaucasus, will yet hold its natural office, arid\\nburn as bright as if twenty thousand men did", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0083.jp2"}, "84": {"fulltext": "76 ESSAY III.\\nit behold when John saw, in the apocalypse,\\nthe ruin of the world through evil, and the stars\\nfall from heaven, as the fig tree casteth her\\nuntimely fruit; when ^sop reports the whole\\ncatalogue of common daily relations through\\nthe masquerade of birds and beasts;\u00e2\u0080\u0094 we take\\nthe cheerful hint of the immortality of our\\nessence, and its versatile habit and escapes, as\\nwhen the gypsies say, **it is in vain to hang\\nthem, they cannot die.\\nThe poets are thus liberating gods. The\\nancient British bards had for the title of their\\norder, **Those who are free throughout the\\nworld. They are free, and they make free.\\nAn imaginative book renders us much more\\nservice at first, by stimulating us through its\\ntropes, than afterward, when we arrive at the\\nprecise sense of the author. I think nothing\\nis of any value in books, excepting the trans-\\ncendental and extraordinary. If a man is\\ninflamed and carried away by his thought, to\\nthat degree that he forgets the authors and the\\npublic, and heeds only this one ream, which\\nholds him like an insanity let me read his\\npaper, and 3^ou may have all the arguments\\nand histories and criticism. All the value\\nwhich attaches to Pythagoras, Paracelsus,\\nCornelius Agrippa, Cardan, Kepler, Sweden-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0084.jp2"}, "85": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 77\\nborg, Schilling, Oken, or any other who intro-\\nduces questionable facts into his cosmogony,\\nas angels, devils, magic, astrology, palmistry,\\nmesmerism, and so on, is the certificate we\\nhave of departure from routine, and that here\\nis a new witness. That also is the best success\\nin conversation, the magic of liberty, which\\nputs the world, like a ball, in our hands. How\\ncheap even the liberty then seems how mean\\nto study, when an emotion communicates to\\nthe intellect the power to sap and upheave\\nnature; how great the perspective! nations,\\ntimes, systems, enter and disappear, like\\nthreads in tapestry of large figure and many\\ncolors dream delivers us to dream, and, while\\nthe drunkenness lasts, we will sell our bed,\\nour philosophy, our religion, in our opulence.\\nThere is good reason why we should prize\\nthis liberation. The fate of the poor shepherd,\\nwho blinded and lost in the snow-storm, per-\\nishes in a drift within a few feet of his cottage\\ndoor, is an emblem of the state of man. On\\nthe brink of the waters of life and truth, we\\nare miserably dying. The inaccessibleness of\\nevery thought but that we are in, is wonderful.\\nWhat if you come near to it. you are as\\nremote, when you are nearest, as when you\\nare farthest. Every thought is also a prison", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0085.jp2"}, "86": {"fulltext": "78 ESSAY III.\\nevery heaven is also a prison. Therefore we\\nlove the poet, the inventor, who in any form,\\nwhether in an ode, or in an action, or in looks\\nand behavior, has yielded ns a new thought.\\nHe unlocks our chains, and admits us to a new\\nscene.\\nThis emancipation is dear to all men, and\\nthe power to impart it, as it must come from\\ngreater depth and scope of thought, is a meas-\\nure of intellect. Therefore all books of the\\nimagination endure, all which ascend to that\\ntruth, that the writer sees nature beneath him,\\nand uses it as his exponent. Every verse or\\nsentence, possessing this virtue, will take care\\nof its own immortality. The religions of the\\nworld are the ejaculations of a few imaginative\\nmen.\\nBut the quality of the imagination is to flow,\\nand not to freeze. The poet did not stop at\\nthe color, or the form, but read their meaning;\\nneither may he rest in this meaning, but he\\nmakes the same objects exponents of his new\\nthought. Here is the difference betwixt the\\npoet and the mystic, that the last nails a sym-\\nbol to one sense, which was a true sense for a\\nmoment, but soon becomes old and false. For\\nall symbols are fluxional; all language is\\nvehicular and transitive, and is good, as ferries", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0086.jp2"}, "87": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 79\\nand horses are, for conveyance, not as farms\\nand houses are, for homestead. Mysticism\\nconsists in the mistake of an accidental and\\nindividual symbol for an universal one. The\\nmorning redness happens to be the favorite\\nmeteor to the eyes of Jacob Behmen, and comes\\nto stand to him for truth and faith; and he\\nbelieves should stand for the same realities to\\nevery reader. But the first reader prefers as\\nnaturally the symbol of a mother and child, or\\na gardener and his bulb, or a jeweler polishing\\na gem. Either of these, or of a myriad more,\\nare equally good to the person to whom they\\nare significant. Only they must be held\\nlightly, and be very willingly translated into\\nthe equivalent terms which others use. And\\nthe mystic must be steadily told, All that you\\nsay is just as true without the tedious use of\\nthat symbol as with it. Let us have a little\\nalgebra, instead of this trite rhetoric, uni-\\nversal signs, instead of these village symbols,\\nand we shall both be gainers. The history\\nof hierarchies seems to show, that all religious\\nerror consisted in making the symbol to stark\\nand solid, and, at last, nothing but an excess\\nof the organ of language.\\nSwedenborg, of all men in the recent ages,\\nstands eminently for the translator of nature", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0087.jp2"}, "88": {"fulltext": "80 ESSAY III.\\ninto thought. I do not know the man in his-\\ntory to whom things stood so uniformly for\\nwords. Before him the metamorphosis con-\\ntinually plays. Everything on which his eye\\nrests, obeys the impulses of moral nature.\\nThe figs become grapes whilst he eats them.\\nWhen some of his angels affirmed a truth, the\\nlaurel twig which they held blossomed in their\\nhands. The noise which, at a distance,\\nappeared like gnashing and thumping, on com-\\ning nearer was found to be the voice of dis-\\nputants. The men, in one of his visions, seen\\nin heavenly light, appeared like dragons, and\\nseemed in darkness; but, to each other, they\\nappeared as men, and, when the light from\\nheaven shone into their cabin, they complained\\nof the darkness, and were compelled to shut\\nthe window that they might see.\\nThere was this perception in him, which\\nmakes the poet or seer an object of awe and\\nterror, namely, that the same man, or society\\nof men, may wear one aspect to themselves and\\ntheir companions, and a different aspect to\\nhigher intelligences. Certain priests, whom\\nhe describes as conversing very learnedly\\ntogether, appeared to the children, who were\\nat some distance, like dead horses: and many\\nthe like misappearances. And instantly the", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0088.jp2"}, "89": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 81\\nmind inquires, whether these fishes tinder the\\nbridge, yonder oxen in the pasture, those dogs\\nin the yard, are immutably fishes, oxen, and\\ndogs, or only so appear to me, and perchance\\nto themselves appear upright men; and\\nwhether I appear as a man to all eyes. The\\nBramins and Pythagoras propounded the same\\nquestion, and if any poet has witnessed the\\ntransformation, he doubtless found it in har-\\nmony with various experiences. We have all\\nseen changes as considerable in wheat and cat-\\nerpillars. He is the poet, and shall draw us\\nwith love and terror, who sees, through the\\nflowing vest, the firm nature, and can declare\\nit.\\nI look in vain for the poet whom I describe.\\nWe do not, with sufficient plainness, or sufl\\ncient profoundness, address ourselves to life nor\\ndare we chaunt our own times and social cir-\\ncumstance. If we filled the day with bravery,\\nwe should not shrink from celebrating it.\\nTime and nature yield us many gifts, but not\\nyet the timely man, the new religion, the\\nreconciler, whom all things await. Dante s\\npraise is, that he dared to write his autobi-\\nography in colossal cipher, or into universality.\\nWe have yet had no genius in America, with\\ntyrannous eye, which knew the value of our\\n6", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0089.jp2"}, "90": {"fulltext": "82 ESSAY III.\\nincomparable materials, and saw, in the bar-\\nbarism and materialism of the times, another\\ncarnival of the same gods whose picture he so\\nmuch admires in Homer; then in the middle\\nage; then in Calvinism. Banks and tariffs,\\nthe newspaper and caucus, methodism and\\nunitarianism, are flat and dull to dull people,\\nbut rest on the same foundations of wonder as\\nthe town of Troy, and the temple of Delphos,\\nand are as swiftly passing away. Our log-rol-\\nling, our stumps and their politics, our fisher-\\nies, our Negroes, and Indians, our boats, and\\nour repudiations, the wrath of rogiaes, and the\\npusillanimity of honest men, the northern\\ntrade, the southern planting, the western clear-\\ning, Oregon, and Texas, are yet unsung. Yet\\nAmerica is a poem in our eyes; its ample\\ngeography dazzles the imagination, and it will\\nnot wait long for meters. If I have not found\\nthat excellent combination of gifts in my coun-\\ntrymen which I seek, neither could I aid\\nmyself to fix the idea of the poet by reading\\nnow and then in Chalmer s collection of five\\ncenturies of English poets. These are wits,\\nmore than poets, though there have been\\npoets among them. But when we ad-\\nhere to the ideal of the poet, we have our\\ndifficulties even with Milton and Homer.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0090.jp2"}, "91": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 83\\nMilton is too literary, and Homer too literal\\nand historical.\\nBut I am not wise enough for a national crit-\\nicism, and must use the old largeness a little\\nlonger, to discharge my errand from the muse\\nto the poet concerning his art.\\nArt is the path of the creator to his work.\\nThe paths, or methods, are ideal and eternal,\\nthough few men ever see them, not the artist\\nhimself for years, or for a lifetime, unless he\\ncome into the conditions. The painter, the\\nsculptor, the composer, the epic rhapsodist,\\nthe orator, all partake one desire, namely, to\\nexpress themselves symmetrically and abund-\\nantly not dwarfishly and fragmentaril)^ They\\nfind or put themselves in certain conditions,\\nas the painter and sculptor before some\\nimpressive human figures the orator, into the\\nassembly of the people, and the others, in\\nsuch scenes as each has found exciting to his\\nintellect; and each presently feels the new\\ndesire. He hears a voice, he sees a beckoning.\\nThen he is apprised, with wonder, what herds\\nof demons hem him in. He can no more rest;\\nhe says, with the old painter, By God, it is\\nin me, and must go forth of me. He pursues\\na beauty, half seen, which flies before him.\\nThe poet pours out verses in every solitude.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0091.jp2"}, "92": {"fulltext": "84 ESSAY III\\nMost of the things he says are conventional,\\nno doubt but by and by he says something\\nwhich is original and beautiful. That charms\\nhim. He would say nothing else but such\\nthings. In our way of talking, we say, That\\nis yours, this is mine but the poet knows well\\nthat it is not his; that it is as strange and\\nbeautiful to him as to you; he would fain hear\\nthe like eloquence at length. Once having\\ntasted this immortal ichor, he cannot have\\nenough of it, and, as an admirable creative\\npower exists in these intellections, it is of the\\nlast importance that these things get spoken.\\nWhat a little of all we know is said What\\ndrops of all the sea of our science are baled up\\nand by what accident is it that these are\\nexposed, when so many secrets sleep in nature\\nHence the necessity of speech and song; hence\\nthese throbs and heart-beatings in the orator,\\nat the door of the assembly, to the end, namely,\\nthat thought may be ejaculated as Logos, or\\nWord.\\nDoubt not, O poet, but persist. Say, It is\\nin me, and shall out/* Stand there, balked\\nand dumb, stuttering and stammering, hissed\\nand hooted, stand and strive, until, at last,\\nrage draws out of thee that dream-power\\nwhich every night shows thee is thine own a", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0092.jp2"}, "93": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 85\\npower transcending all limit and privacy, and\\nby virtue of which a man is the conductor of\\nthe whole river of electricity. Nothing walks,\\nor creeps, or grows, or exists, which must not\\nin turn arise and walk before him as exponent\\nof his meaning. Comes he to that power, his\\ngenius is no longer exhaustible. All the crea-\\ntures, by pairs and by tribes, pour into his\\nmind as into a Noah s ark, to come forth again\\nto people a new world. This is like the stock\\nof air for our respiration, or for the combustion\\nof our fireplace, not a measure of gallons, but\\nthe entire atmosphere if wanted. And there-\\nfore the rich poets, as Homer, Chaucer, Shake-\\nspeare, and Raphael, have obviously no limits\\nto their works, except the limits of their life-\\ntime, and resemble a mirror carried through\\nthe street, ready to render an image of every\\ncreated thing.\\nO poet a new nobility is conferred in groves\\nand pastures, and not in castles, or by the\\nsword-blade, any longer. The conditions are\\nhard, but equal. Thou shalt leave the\\nworld, and know the must only. Thou shalt\\nnot know any longer the times, customs,\\ngraces, politics, or opinions of men, but shalt\\ntake all from the muse. For the time of\\ntowns is tolled from the world by funeral", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0093.jp2"}, "94": {"fulltext": "86 ESSAY III.\\nchimes, but in nature the universal hours are\\ncounted by succeeding tribes of animals and\\nplants, and by growth of joy on joy. God\\nwills also that thou abdicate a manifold and\\nduplex life, and that thou be content that\\nothers speak for thee. Others shall be thy\\ngentlemen, and shall represent all courtesy and\\nworldly life for thee; others shall do the great\\nand resounding actions also. Thou shalt lie\\nclose hid with nature, and canst not be afforded\\nto the Capitol or the Exchange. The world is\\nfull of renunciations and apprenticeships, and\\nthis is thine thou must pass for a fool and a\\nchurl for a long season. This is the screen\\nand sheath in which Pan has protected his well\\nbeloved flower, and thou shalt be known only\\nto thine own, and they shall console thee with\\ntenderest love. And thou shalt not be able to\\nrehearse the names of thy friends in thy verse,\\nfor an old shame before the holy ideal. And\\nthis is the reward: that the ideal shall be real\\nto thee, and the impressions of the actual world\\nshall fall like summer rain, copious, but not\\ntroublesome, to thy invulnerable essence.\\nThou shalt have the whole land for thy park\\nand manor, the sea for thy bath and naviga-\\ntion, without tax and without envy; the woods\\nand the rivers thou shalt own; and thou shalt", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0094.jp2"}, "95": {"fulltext": "THE POET. 87\\npossess that wherein others are only tenants\\nand boarders. Thou true land-lord sea-lord\\nair-lord! Wherever snow falls, or water\\nflows, or birds fly, wherever day and\\nnight meet in twilight, wherever the blue\\nheaven is hung by clouds, or sown with\\nstars, wherever are forms with trans-\\nparent boundaries, wherever are outlets\\ninto celestial space, wherever is danger, and\\nawe, and love, there is Beauty plenteous as\\nrain, shed for thee, and though thou shouldst\\nwalk the world over, thou shalt not be able to\\nfind a condition inopportune or ignoble.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0095.jp2"}, "96": {"fulltext": "ESSAY IV-\\nEXPERIENCE.\\nWhere do we find ourselves? In a series\\nof which we do not know the extremes, and\\nbelieve that it has none. We wake and find\\nourselves on a stair there are stairs below us,\\nwhich we seem to have ascended there are\\nstairs above us, many a one, which go upward\\nand out of sight. But the Genius which,\\naccording to the old belief, stands at the door\\nby which we enter, and gives us the lethe to\\ndrink, that we may tell no tales, mixed the\\ncup too strongly, and we cannot shake off the\\nlethargy now at noonday. Sleep lingers all\\nour lifetime about our eyes, as night hovers\\nall day in the boughs of the fir-tree. All\\nthings swim and glitter. Our life is not so\\nmuch threatened as our perception. Ghost-\\nlike we glide through nature, and should not\\nknow our place again. Did our birth fall in\\nsome fit of indigence and frugality in nature,\\nthat she was so sparing of her fire and so\\nliberal of her earth, that it appears to us that\\n88", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0096.jp2"}, "97": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 89\\nwe lack the affirmative principle, and though\\nwe have health and reason, yet we have no\\nsuperfluity of spirit for new creation? We\\nhave enough to live and bring the year about,\\nbut not an ounce to impart or to invest. Ah,\\nthat our Genius were a little more of the\\ngenius! We are like millers on the lower\\nlevels of a stream, when the factories above\\nthem have exhausted the water. We too fancy\\nthat the upper people have raised their dams.\\nIf any of its knew what we were doing, or\\nwhere we are going, then when we think we\\nbest know! We do not know to-day whether\\nwe are busy or idle. In times when we\\nthought ourselves indolent, we have after-\\nwards discovered, that much was accom-\\nplished, and much was begun in us. All our\\ndays are so unprofitable while they pass, that\\ntis wonderful where or when we ever got any-\\nthing of this which we call wisdom, poetry,\\nvirtue. We never got it on any dated calendar\\nday. Some heavenly days must have been\\nintercalated somewhere, like those that\\nHermes won with dice of the Moon, that\\nOsiris might be born. It is said, all martyr-\\ndom looked mean when they were suffered.\\nEvery ship is a romantic object, except that\\nwe sail in. Embark, and the romance quits", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0097.jp2"}, "98": {"fulltext": "90 ESSAY IV.\\nour vessel, and hangs on every other sail in\\nthe horizon. Our life looks trivial, and we\\nshun to record it. Men seem to have learned\\nof the horizon the art of perpetual retreating\\nand reference. Yonder uplands are rich\\npasturage, and my neighbor has fertile\\nmeadow, but my field, says the querulous\\nfarmer, *only holds the world together. I\\nquote another man s saying; unluckily that\\nother withdraws himself in the same way,\\nand quotes me, *Tis the trick of nature\\nthus to degrade to-day a good deal of buzz, and\\nsomewhere a result slipped magically in.\\nEvery roof is agreeable to the eye, until it is\\nlifted; then we find tragedy and moaning\\nwomen, and hard-eyed husbands, and deluges\\nof lethe, and the men ask, What s the news?\\nas if the old were so bad. How many indi-\\nviduals can we count in society? how many\\nactions? how many opinions? So much of our\\ntime is preparation, so much is routine, and so\\nmuch retrospect, that the pith of each man s\\ngenius contracts itself to a very few hours.\\nThe history of literature take the net result\\nof Tiraboschi, Warton, or Schlegel, is a sum\\nof very few ideas, and of very few original\\ntales, all the rest being variations of these.\\nSo in this great society wide lying around us,\\nsw^", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0098.jp2"}, "99": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 91\\na critical analysis would find very few spon-\\ntaneous actions. It is almost all custom and\\ngross sense. There are even few opinions,\\nand these seem organic in the speakers, and\\ndo not disturb the universal necessity.\\nWhat opium is instilled into all disaster It\\nshows formidable as we approach it, but there\\nis at least no rough rasping friction, but the\\nmost slippery sliding surfaces. We fall short\\non a thought. Ate Dea is gentle,\\nOver men s heads walking aloft,\\nWith tender feet treading so soft.\\nPeople grieve and bemoan themselves, but\\nit is not half so bad with them as they say.\\nThere are moods in which we court suffering,\\nin the hope that here, at least, we shall find\\nreality, sharp peaks and edges of truth. But\\nit turns out to be scene-painting and counter-\\nfeit. The only thing grief has taught me, is\\nto know how shallow it is. That, like all the\\nrest, plays about the surface, and never intro-\\nduces me into the reality, for contact with\\nwhich, we would even pay the costly price of\\nsons and lovers. Was it Boscovich who found\\nout that bodies never come in contact? Well,\\nsouls never touch their objects. An innavig-\\nable sea washes with silent waves between us", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0099.jp2"}, "100": {"fulltext": "92 ESSAY IV.\\nand the things we aim at and converse with.\\nGrief too will make ns idealists. In the death\\nof my son, now more than two years ago, I\\nseem to have lost a beautiful estate, no more.\\nI cannot get it nearer to me. If to-morrow I\\nshould be informed of the bankruptcy of my\\nprincipal debtors, the loss of my property\\nwould be a great inconvenience to me, per-\\nhaps, for many years; but it would leave me\\nas it found me, neither better nor worse.\\nSo is it with this calamity: it does not touch\\nme: something which I fancied was a part of\\nme, which could not be torn away without\\ntearing me, nor enlarged without enriching\\nme, falls off from me and leaves no scar. It\\nwas caducous. I grieve that grief can teach\\nme nothing, nor carry me one step into real\\n[nature. The Indian who was laid under a\\ncurse, that the wind should not blow on him,\\nnor water flow to him, nor fire burn him,\\nis a type of us all. The dearest events are\\nsummer-rain, and we the Para coats that shed\\nevery drop. Nothing is left us now but death.\\nWe look to that with a grim satisfaction, say-\\ning, there at least is reality that will not\\ndodge us.\\nI take this evanescence and lubricity of all\\nobjects, which lets them slip through our", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0100.jp2"}, "101": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 93\\nfingers then when we clutch hardest to be the\\nmost unhandsome part of our condition.\\nNature does not like to be observed, and likes\\nthat we should be her fools and playmates.\\nWe may have the sphere for our cricket-ball,\\nbut not a berry for our philosophy. Direct\\nstrokes she never gave us power to make all\\nour blows glance, all our hits are accidents.\\nOur relations to each other are oblique and\\ncasual.\\nDream delivers us to dream, and there is no\\nend to illusion. Life is a train of moods like^\\na string of beads, and as we pass through\\nthem they prove to be many-colored lenses,\\nwhich paint the world their own hue, an^\\neach shows only what lies in its focus. From\\nthe mountain you see the mountain. We\\nanimate what we can, and we see only what\\nwe animate. Nature and books belong to the\\neyes that see them. It depends on the mood\\nof the man, whether he shall see the sunset\\nor the fine poem. There are always sunsets,\\nand there is always genius; but only a few\\nhours so serene that we can relish nature or\\ncriticism. The more or less depends on struc-\\nture or temperament. Temperament is the\\niron wire on which the beads are strung. Of\\nwhat use is fortune or talent to a cold and", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0101.jp2"}, "102": {"fulltext": "94 ESSAY IV.\\ndefective nature? Who cares what sensibility\\nor discrimination a man has at some time\\nshown, if he falls asleep in his chair? or if he\\nlangh and giggle? or if he apologize? or is\\naffected with egotism? or thinks of his dollar?\\nthink of or cannot go buy food? or has gotten\\na child in his boyhood? Of what use is genius,\\nif the organ is too convex or too concave, and\\ncannot find a focal distance within the actual\\nhorizon of human life? Of what use, if the brain\\nis too cold or too hot, and the man does not care\\nenough for results to stimulate him to experi-\\nment, and hold him up in it? or if the web is\\nso finely woven, too irritable by pleasure and\\npain, so that life stagnates from too much\\nreception, without due outlet? Of what use to\\nmake heroic vows of amendment, if the same\\nold law-breaker is to keep them? What cheer\\ncan the religious sentiment yield, when that is\\nsuspected to be secretly dependent on the sea-\\nsons of the year, and the state of the blood? I\\nknew a witty physician who found theology in\\nthe biliary duct, and used to affirm that if\\nthere was disease in the liver, the man became\\na Calvinist, and if that organ was sound, he\\nbecame a Unitarian. Very mortifying is the\\nreluctant experience that some unfriendly\\nexcess or imbecility neutralizes the promise of", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0102.jp2"}, "103": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 95\\ngenius. We see young men who owe us a\\nnew world, so readily and lavishly they prom-\\nise, but they never acquit the debt they die\\nyoung and dodge the account: or if they live,\\nthey lose themselves in the crowd.\\nTemperament also enters fully into the\\nsystem of illusions, and shuts us in a prison\\nof glass which we cannot see. There is an\\noptical illusion about every person we meet.\\nIn truth, they are all creatures of given tem-\\nperament, which will appear in a given char-\\nacter, whose boundaries they will never pass\\nbut we look at them, they seem alive, and we\\npresume there is impulse in them. In the\\nmomycnt it seems impulse in the year, in the\\nlifetime, it turns out to be a certain uniform\\ntune which the revolving barrel of the music-\\nbox must play. Men resist the conclusion in\\nthe morning, but adopt it as the evening\\nv/ears on, that temper prevails over everything\\nof time, place, and condition, and is incon-\\nsumable in the flames of religion. Some modi-\\nfications the moral sentiment avails to impose,\\nbut the individual texture holds its dominion,\\nif not to bias the moral judgments, yet to fix\\nthe measure of activity and of enjoyment.\\nI thus express the law as it is read from the\\nplatform of ordinary life, but must not leave", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0103.jp2"}, "104": {"fulltext": "96 ESSAY IV.\\nit without noticing the capital exception. For\\ntemperament is a power which no man will-\\ningly hears any one praise but himself. On\\nthe platform of physics, we cannot resist the\\ncontracting influences of so-called science.\\nTemperament puts all divinity to rout. I\\nknow the mental proclivity of physicians. I\\nhear the chuckle of the phrenologists. Theo-\\nretic kidnappers and slave-drivers, they\\nesteem each man the victim of another, who\\nwinds him round his finger, by knowing the\\nlaw of his being, and by such cheap sign-\\nboards as the color of his beard, or the slope\\nof his occiput, reads the inventory of his for-\\ntunes and character. The grossest ignorance\\ndoes not disgust like this impudent knowing-\\nness. The physicians say, they are not materi-\\nalists; but they are: Spirit is matter reduced\\nto an extreme thinness O so thin But the\\ndefinition of spiritual, should be that which is\\nits own evidence. What notions do they\\nattach to love what to religion One would\\nnot willingly pronounce these words in their\\nhearing, and give them the occasion to pro-\\nfane them. I saw a gracious gentleman who\\nadapts his conversation to the form of the\\nhead of the man he talks with I had fancied\\nthat the value of life lay in its inscrutable pos-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0104.jp2"}, "105": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 97\\nsibilities; in the fact that I never know, in\\naddressing myself to sTnew individual, what\\nmay befall me. I carry the keys of my castle\\nin my hand, ready to throw them at the feet\\nof my lord, whenever and in what disguise\\nsoever he shall appear. I know he is in the\\nneighborhood hidden among vagabonds.\\nShall I preclude my future, by taking a high\\nseat, and kindly adapting my conversation to\\nthe shape of heads? When I come to that, the\\ndoctors shall buy me for a cent. But, sir,\\nmedical history the report to the Institute\\nthe proven facts! I mistrust the facts and\\nthe inferences. Temperament is the veto or\\nlimitation-power in the constitution, very\\njustly applied to restrain an opposite excess in\\nthe constitution, but absurdly offered as a bar\\nto original equity. When virtue is in pres-\\nence, all subordinate powers sleep. On its\\nown level, or in view of nature, temperament\\nis final. I see not, if one be once caught in\\nthis trap of so-called sciences, any escape for\\nthe man from the link of the chain of physi-\\ncal necessity. Given such an embryo, such\\na history must follow. On this platform, one\\nlives in a sty of sensualism, and would soon\\ncome to suicide. But it is impossible that\\nthe creative power should exclude itself. Into\\n7", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0105.jp2"}, "106": {"fulltext": "98 ESSAY IV.\\nevery intelligence there is a door which is\\nnever closed, through which the creator\\npasses. The intellect, seeker of absolute\\ntruth, or the heart, lover of absolute good,\\nintervenes for our succor, and at one whisper\\nof these high powers, we awake from intellec-\\ntual struggles with this nightmare. We hurl\\nit into its own hell, and cannot again contract\\nourselves to so base a state.\\nThe secret of the illusoriousness is in the\\nnecessity of a succession of moods or objects.\\nGladly we would anchor, but the anchorage\\nis quicksand. This onward trick of nature\\nis too strong for us: Pero si muove. When,\\nat night, I look at the moon and stars, I seem\\nstationary, and they to hurry. Our love of\\nthe real draws us to permanence, but health\\nof body consists in circulation, and sanity of\\nmind in variety or facility of association. We\\nneed change of objects. Dedication to one\\nthought is quickly odious. We house with the\\ninsane, and must humor them then conver-\\nsation dies out. Once I took such delight in\\nMontaigne, that I thought I should not need\\nany other book before that in Shakespeare\\nthen in Plutarch; then in Plotinus; at one\\ntime in Bacon afterward in Goethe even in\\nBettine; but now I turn the pages of either of", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0106.jp2"}, "107": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 99\\nthem languidly, whilst I still cherish their\\ngenius. So with pictures; each will bear an\\nemphasis of attention once, which it cannot\\nretain, though we fain would continue to be\\npleased in that manner. How strongly I have\\nfelt of pictures, that when you have seen one\\nwell, you must take your leave of it you shall\\nnever see it again. I have had good lessons\\nfrom pictures, which I have since seen with-\\nout emotion or remark. A deduction must be\\nmade from the opinion, which even the w^se\\nexpress of a new book or occurrence. Their\\nopinion gives me tidings of their mood, and\\nsome vague guess at the new fact, but is\\nnowise to be trusted as the lasting relation\\nbetween that intellect and that thing. The\\nchild asks, Mamma, why don t I like the\\nstory as well as when you told it me yester-\\nday? Alas, child, it is even so with the\\noldest cherubim of knowledge. But will it\\nanswer thy question to say. Because thou wert\\nborn to a whole, and this story is a particular?\\nThe reason of the pain this discovery causes\\nus (and we make it late in respect to works of\\nart and intellect), is the plaint of tragedy\\nwhich murmurs from it in regard to persons,\\nto friendship and love.\\nThat immobility and absence of elasticity", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0107.jp2"}, "108": {"fulltext": "100 ESSAY IV.\\nwhich we find in the arts, we find with more\\npain in the artist. There is no power of\\nexpansion in men. Our friends early appear\\nto ns as representatives of certain ideas, which\\nthey never pass or exceed. They stand on the\\nbrink of the ocean of thought and power, but\\nthey never take the single step that would\\nbring them there. A man is like a bit of\\nLabrador spar, which has no lustre as you\\nturn it in your hand, until you come to a parti-\\ncular angle then it shows deep and beautiful\\ncolors. There is no adaptation or universal\\napplicability in men, but each has his special\\ntalent, and the mastery of successful men con-\\nsists in adroitly keeping themselves where and\\nwhen that turn shall be oftenest to be prac-\\nticed. We do what we must, and call it by\\nthe best names we can, and would fain have\\nthe praise of having intended the result which\\nensues. I cannot recall any form of men who\\nis not superfluous sometimes. But is not this\\npitiful? Life is not worth the taking, to do\\ntricks in.\\nOf course, it needs the whole society, to give\\nthe symmetry we seek. The parti-colored\\nwheel must revolve very fast to appear white.\\nSomething is learned too by conversing with\\nso much folly and defect In fine, whoever", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0108.jp2"}, "109": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 101\\nloses, we are always of the gaining party.\\nDivinity is behind our failures and follies also.\\nThe plays of children are nonsense, but very\\neducative nonsense. So it is with the largest\\nand solemnest things, with commerce, govern-\\nment, church, marriage, and so with the\\nhistory of every man s bread, and the ways\\nby which he is to come by it. Like a bird\\nwhich alights nowhere, but hops perpetually\\nfrom bough to bough is the Power which\\nabides in no man and in no woman, but for a\\nmoment speaks from this one, and for another\\nmoment from that one.\\nBut what help from these fineries or pedan-\\ntries? What help from thought? Life is not\\ndialectics. We, I think, in these times, have\\nhad lessons enough of the futility of criticism.\\nOur young people have thouhgt and written\\nmuch on labor and reform, and for all that\\nthey have written, neither the world nor\\nthemselves have got in a step. Intellectual\\ntasting of life will not supersede muscular\\nactivity. If a man should consider the nicety\\nof the passage of a piece of bread down his\\nthroat, he would starve. At Education-Farm,\\nthe noblest theory of life sat on the noblest\\nfigures of young men and maidens, quite pow.\\nerless and melancholv. It would not rake or", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0109.jp2"}, "110": {"fulltext": "102 ESSAY IV.\\npitch a ton of hay; it would not rub down a\\nhorse; and the men and maidens it left pale\\nand hungry. A political orator wittily com-\\npared our party promises to western roads,\\nwhich opened stately enough, with planted\\ntree on either side, to tempt the traveler, but\\nsoon became narrow and narrower, and ended\\nin a squirrel- track, and ran up a tree. So\\ndoes culture with us; it ends in headache.\\nUnspeakably sad and barren does life look to\\nthose, who a few months ago were dazzled\\nwith the splendor of the promise of the times.\\nThere is now no longer any right course of\\naction, nor any self-devotion left among the\\nIranis. Objections and criticism we have\\nhad our fill of There are objections to every\\ncourse of life and action, and the practical\\nwisdom infers an indiff erency, from the omn-\\nipresence of objection. The whole frame of\\nthmgs preaches indiff erency. Do not craze\\nyourself with thinking, but go about your\\nbusiness anywhere. Life is not intellectual or\\ncritical, but sturdy. Its chief good is for the\\nwell-mixed people who can enjoy what they\\nfind, without question. Nature hates peeping,\\nand our mothers speak her very sense when\\nthey say, Children, eat your victuals, and\\nsay no more of it.* To fill the hour,", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0110.jp2"}, "111": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 103\\nthat is happiness; to fill the hour and leave no\\ncrevice for a repentance or approval. We live\\namid surfaces, and the true art of life is to\\nskate well on them./ Under the oldest\\nmoldiest conventions, a man of native force\\nprospers just as well as in the newest world,\\nand that by skill of handling and treatment.\\nHe can take hold anywhere. Life itself is a\\nmixture of power and form, and will not bear\\nthe least excess of either. To finish the\\nmoment, to find the journey s end in every step\\nof the road, to live the greatest number of\\ngood hours, is wisdom. It is not the part of\\nmen, but of fanatics, or of mathematicians, if\\nyou will, to say, that, the shortness of life\\nconsidered, it is not worth caring whether for\\nso short a duration we were sprawling in want,\\nor sitting high. Since our office is with mo-\\nments, let us husband them. Five minutes of\\nto-day are worth as much to me as five minutes\\nin the next millennium. Let us be poised, and^\\nwise, and our own, to-day. Let us treat the^\\nmen and women well treat them as if they\\nwere real: perhaps they are. Men live in\\ntheir fancy, like drunkards whose hands are\\ntoo soft and tremulous for successful labor.\\nIt is a tempest of fancies, and the only ballast\\nI know is a respect to the present hour.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0111.jp2"}, "112": {"fulltext": "104 ESSAY IV.\\nWithout any shadow of doubt, amidst this ver-\\ntigo of shows and politics, I settle myself ever\\nthe firmer in the creed, that we should not\\npostpone and refer and wish, but do broad\\njustice where we are, by whomsoever we deal\\nwith, accepting our actual companions and\\ncircumstances, however humble or odious, as\\nthe mystic officials to whom the universe has\\ndelegated its whole pleasure for us. If these\\nare mean and malignant, their contentment,\\nwhich is the last victory of justice, is a more\\nsatisfying echo to the heart than the voice of\\npoets and the casual sympathy of admirable\\npersons. I think that however a thoughtful\\nman may suffer from the defects and absurd-\\nities of his company, he cannot without any\\naffectation deny to any set of men and women\\na sensibility to extraordinary merit. The\\ncoarse and frivolous have an instinct of superi-\\nority, if they have not a sympathy, and honor\\nit in their blind capricious way with sincere\\nhomage.\\nThe fine young people despise life, but in\\nme, and in such as with me are free from\\ndyspepsia, and to whom a day is a sound and\\nsolid good, it is a great excess of politeness to\\nlook scornful and to cry for company. I am\\ngrown by sympathy a little eager and senti-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0112.jp2"}, "113": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 105\\nmental, but leave me alone, and I should relish\\nevery hour and what it brought me, the pot-\\nluck of the day, as heartily as the oldest gossip\\nin the bar-room. I am thankful for small\\nmercies. I compared notes with one of my\\nfriends who expects everything of the uni-\\nverse, and is disappointed when anything is\\nless than the best, and I found that I begin at\\nthe other extreme, expecting nothing, and\\nam always full of thanks for moderate goods.\\nI accept the clangor and jangle of contrary\\ntendencies. I find my account in sots and\\nbores also. They give a reality to the circum-\\njacent picture, which such a vanishing meteor-\\nous appearance can ill spare. In the morning\\nI awake, and find the old world, wife, babes,\\nand mother, Concord and Boston, the dear old\\nspiritual world, and even the dear old devil\\nnot very far off. If we will take the good we-\\nfind, asking no questions, we shall have heap-\\ning measures. The great gifts are not got by\\nanalysis. Everything good is on the highway.^\\nThe middle region of our being is the temper\\nate zone. We may climb into the thin and cold\\nrealmof pure geometry and lifeless science, or\\nsink into that of sensation. Between these\\nextremes is the equator of life, of thought, of\\nspirit, of poetry, a narrow belt. Moreover,", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0113.jp2"}, "114": {"fulltext": "106 ESSAY IV.\\nin popular experience, everything is on the\\nhighway. A collector peeps into all the\\npicture-shops of Europe for a landscape of\\nPoussin, a crayon sketch of Salvator but the\\nTransfiguration, the Last Judgment, the Com-\\nmunion of St. Jerome, and what are as tran-\\nscendent as these, are on the walls of the\\nVatican, the Uffizi, or the Louvre, where every\\nfootman may see them; to say nothing of\\nnature s pictures in every street, or sunsets\\nand sunrises every day, and the sculpture of\\nthe human body never absent. A collector\\nrecently bought at public auction, in London,\\nfor one hundred and fifty-seven guineas, an\\nautograph of Shakespeare but for nothing a\\nschool-boy can read Hamlet, and can detect\\nsecrets of highest concernment yet unpublished\\ntherein. I think I will never read any but the\\ncommonest books the Bible, Homer, Dante,\\nShakespeare, and Milton. Then we are im-\\npatient of so public a life and planet, and run\\nhither and thither for nooks and secrets. The\\nimagination delights in the woodcraft of In-\\ndians, trappers, and bee-hunters. We fancy\\nthat we are strangers, and not so intimately\\ndomesticated in the planet as the wild man,\\nand the wild beast and bird. But the exclu-\\nsion reaches them also reaches the climbing,", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0114.jp2"}, "115": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 107\\nflying, gliding, feathered and four-footed man.\\nFox and woodchuck, hawk and snipe, and bit-\\ntern, when nearly seen, have no more root in\\nthe deep world than man, and are just such\\nsuperficial tenants of the globe. Then the new\\nmolecular philosophy shows astronomical inter-\\nspaces betwixt atom and atom, shows that the\\nworld is all outside: it has no inside.\\nThe mid- world is best. Nature, as we know\\nher, is no saint. The lights of the church, the\\nascetics, Gentbos and Grahamites, she does\\nnot distinguish by any favor. She comes\\neating and drinking and sinning. Her dar-\\nlings, the great, the strong, the beautiful, are\\nnot children of our law, do not come out of the\\nSunday-school, nor weigh their food, nor\\npunctually keep the commandments. If we\\nwill be strong with her strength, we must not\\nharbor such disconsolate consciences, bor-\\nrowed too from the consciences of other\\nnations. We must set up the strong present\\ntense against all the rumors of wrath, past or\\nto come. So many things are unsettled which\\nit is the first importance to settle, and, pend-\\ning their settlement, we will do as we do.\\nWhilst the debate goes forward on the equity\\nof commerce, and will not be closed for a cen^\\ntury or two, New and Old England may keep", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0115.jp2"}, "116": {"fulltext": "108 ESSAY IV.\\nshop. Law of copyright and international\\ncopyright is to be discussed, and, in the inte-\\nrim, we will sell our books for the most we\\ncan. Expediency of literature, reason of\\nliterature, lawfulness of writing down a\\nthought, is questioned, much is to say on both\\nsides, and, while the fight waxes hot, thou,\\ndear scholar, stick to thy foolish task, add a\\nline every hour, and between whiles add a line.\\nRight to hold land, right of property, is dis-\\nputed, and the conventions convene, and before\\nthe vote is taken, dig away in your garden,\\nand spend your earnings as a waif or godsend\\nto all serene and beautiful purposes. Life\\nitself is a bubble and a skepticism, and a sleep\\nwithin a sleep. Grant it, and as much more\\nas they will, but thou, God s darling! heed\\nthy private dream thou wilt not be missed in\\nthe scorning and skepticism there are enough\\nof them stay there in thy closet, and toil, until\\nthe rest are agreed what to do about it. Thy\\nsickness, they say, and thy puny habit, require\\nthat thou do this or avoid that, but know that\\nthy life is a flitting state, a tent for a night,\\nand do thou, sick or well, finish that stint.\\nThou art sick, but shalt not be worse, and the\\nuniverse, which holds thee dear, shall be the\\nbetter.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0116.jp2"}, "117": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 109\\nHuman life is made up of two elements,\\npower and form, and the proportion must be\\ninvariably kept, if we would have it sweet and\\nsound. Each of these elements in excess\\nmakes a mischief as hurtful as its defect.\\nEverything rubs to excess every good quality\\nis noxious, if unmixed, and, to carry the dan-\\nger to the edge of ruin, nature causes each\\nman s peculiarity to superabound. Here,\\namong the farms, we adduce the scholars as\\nexamples of this treachery. They are nature s\\nvictims of expression. You who see the artist,\\nthe orator, the poet, too near, and find their\\nlife no more excellent than that of mechanics\\nor farmers, and themselves victims of parti-\\nality, very hollow and haggard, and pronounce\\nthem failures, not heroes, but quacks, con-\\nclude very reasonably that these arts are not\\nfor man, but are disease. Yet nature will not\\nbear you out. Irresistible nature made men\\nsuch, and makes legions more of such every\\nday. You love the boy reading in a book,\\ngazing at a drawing, or a cast yet what are\\nthese millions who read and behold, but incip-\\nient writers and sculptors? Add a little more\\nof that quality which now reads and sees, and\\nthey will seize the pen and chisel. And if one\\nremembers how innocently he began to be an", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0117.jp2"}, "118": {"fulltext": "no ESSAY IV.\\nartist, he perceives that natnre joined with\\nhis enemy. A man is a golden impossibility.\\nThe line he must walk is a hair s breadth.\\nThe wise through excess of wisdom is made a\\nfool.\\nHow easily, if fate would suffer it, we might\\nkeep forever these beautiful limits, and adjust\\nourselves, once for all, to the perfect calcula-\\ntion of the kingdom of known cause and effect.\\nIn the street and in the newspapers, life ap-\\npears so plain a business, that manly resolution\\nand adherence to the multiplication table\\nthrough all weathers will insure success. But\\nah presently comes a day, or is it only a half-\\nhour, with its angel-whispering, which dis-\\ncomfits the conclusions of nations and of years!\\nTo-morrow again everything looks real and\\nangular, the habitual standards are reinstated,\\ncommon sense is as rare as genius, is the\\nbasis of genius, and experience is hands and\\nfeet to every enterprise;\u00e2\u0080\u0094 and yet, he who\\nshould do his business on this understanding\\nwould be quickly bankrupt. Power keeps\\nquite another road than the turnpikes of choice\\nand will, namely, the subterranean and invis-\\nible tunnels and channels of life. It is ridicu-\\nlous that we are diplomatists, and doctors, and\\nconsiderate people: there are no dupes like", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0118.jp2"}, "119": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. Ill\\nthese. Life is a series of surprises, and\\nwould not be worth taking or keeping, if it\\nwere not. God delights to isolate us every-\\nday, and hide from us the past and the\\nfuture. We would look about us, but with\\ngrand politeness he draws down before us\\nan impenetrable screen of purest sky, and\\nanother behind us of purest sky. You will\\nnot remember, he seems to say, *and you\\nwill not expect. All good conversation,\\nmanners, and action, come from a spontaneity\\nwhich forgets usage, and makes the moment\\ngreat. Nature hates calculators; her methods\\nare saltatory and impulsive. Man lives by\\npulses our organic movements are such and\\nthe chemical and ethereal agents are undula-\\ntory and alternate and the mind goes antag-\\nonizing on, and never prospers but by fits.\\nWe thrive by casualties. Our chief experi-\\nences have been casual. The most attractive\\nclass of people are those who are powerful\\nobliquely, and not by the direct stroke men\\nof genius, but not yet accredited: one gets\\nthe cheer of their light, without paying too\\ngreat a tax. Theirs is the beauty of the bird,\\nor the morning light, and not of art. In the\\nthought of genius there is always a surprise\\nand the moral sentiment is well called **the", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0119.jp2"}, "120": {"fulltext": "112 ESSAY IV.\\nnewness, for it is never other; as new to the\\noldest intelligence as to the young child,\\nthe kingdom that cometh without observa-\\ntion. In like manner, for practical success,\\nthere must not be too much design. A man\\nwill not be observed in doing that which he\\ncan do best. There is a certain magic about\\nhis properest action, which stupefies your\\npowers of observation, so that though it is done\\nbefore you, you wist not of it. The art of life\\nhas a pudency and will not to be exposed.\\nEvery man is an impossibility, until he is born\\neverything impossible, until we see a success.\\nThe ardors of piety agree at last with the\\ncoldest skepticism, that nothing is of us or\\nour works, that all is of God. Nature will not\\nspare us the smallest leaf of laurel. All writ-\\ning comes by the grace of God, and all doing\\nand having. I would gladly be moral, and\\nkeep due metes and bounds, which I dearly\\nlove, and allow the most to the will of man,\\nbut I have set my heart on honesty in this\\nchapter, and I can see nothing at last, in suc-\\ncess or failure, than more or less of vital force\\nsupplied from the Eternal. The results of life\\nare uncalculated and uncalculable. The years\\nteach much which the days never know. The\\npersons who compose our company, converse,.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0120.jp2"}, "121": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 113\\nand come and go, and design and execute\\nmany things, and somewhat comes of it all,\\nbut an unlooked-for result. The individual is\\nalways mistaken. He designed many things,\\nand drew in other persons as coadjutors, quar-\\nreled with some or all, blundered much, and\\nsomething is done all are a little advanced,\\nbut the individual is always mistaken. It turns\\nout somewhat new, and very unlike what he\\npromised himself.\\nThe ancients, struck with the irreducibleness\\nof the elements of human life to calculation,\\nexalted Chance into a divinity, but that is to\\nstay too long at the spark,\u00e2\u0080\u0094 which glitters truly\\nat one point, but the universe is warm with\\nthe latency of the same fire. The miracle of\\nlife which will not be expounded, but will\\nremain a miracle, introduces a new element.\\nIn the growth of the embryo, Sir Everard\\nHome, I think, noticed that the evolution was\\nnot from one central point, but co-active from\\nthree or more points. Life has no memory.\\nThat which proceeds in succession might be\\nremembered, but that which is co-existent, or\\nejaculated from a deeper cause, as yet far from\\nbeing conscious, knows not its own tendency.\\nSo it is with us, now skeptical, or without unity,\\nbecause immersed in forms and effects al]\\n8", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0121.jp2"}, "122": {"fulltext": "114 ESSAY IV.\\nseeming to be of equal yet hostile value, and\\nnow religious, whilst in the reception of spir-\\nitual law. Bear with these distractions, with\\nthis coetaneous growth of the parts they will\\none day be members, and obey one will. On\\nthat one will, on that secret cause, they nail\\nour attention and hope. Life is hereby melted\\ninto an expectation or a religion. Under-\\nneath the inharmonious and trivial particulars\\nis a musical perfection, the Ideal journeying\\nalways with us, the heaven without rent or\\nseam. Do but observe the mode of our illu-\\nmination. When I converse with a profound\\nmind, or at any time being alone I have good\\nthoughts, I do not at once arrive at satisfac-\\ntions, as when, being thirsty, I drink water,\\nor go to the fire, being cold no but I am at\\nfirst appraised of my vicinity to a new and\\nexcellent region of life. By persisting to read\\nor to think, this region gives further sign of\\nitself, as it were in flashes of light, in sudden\\ndiscoveries of its profound beauty and repose,\\nas if the clouds that covered it parted at inter-\\nvals, and showed the approaching traveler the\\ninland mountains, with the tranquil eternal\\nmeadows spread at their base, whereon flocks\\ngraze, and shepherds pipe and dance. But\\nevery insight from this realm of thought is felt", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0122.jp2"}, "123": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 115\\nas initial, and promises a sequel. I do not\\nmake it; I arrive there, and behold what was\\nthere already. I make O no I clap my\\nhands in infantine joy and amazement, before\\nthe first opening to me of this august magnifi-\\ncence, old with the love and homage of innu-\\nmerable ages, young with the life of life, the\\nsunbright Mecca of the desert. And what a\\nfuture it opens! I feel a new heart beating\\nwith the love of the new beauty. I am ready\\nto die out of nature, and be born again into\\nthis new yet unapproachable America I have\\nfound in the West.\\nSince neither now nor yesterday began\\nThese thoughts, which have been ever, nor yet can\\nA man be found who their first entrance knew.\\nIf I have described life as a flux of moods,\\nI must now add, that there is that in us which\\nchanges not, and which ranks all sensations\\nand states of mind. The consciousness in each\\nman is a sliding scale, which identifies him\\nnow with the First Cause, and now with the\\nflesh of his body; life above life, in infinite\\ndegrees. The sentiment from which it sprung\\ndetermines the dignity of any deed and the\\nquestion ever is, not what you have done or\\nforborne, but, at whose command you have\\ndone or forborne it.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0123.jp2"}, "124": {"fulltext": "116 ESSAY IV.\\nFortune, Minerva, Muse, Holy Ghost,\\nthese are quaint names, too narrow to cover\\nthis unbounded substance. The baffled intellect\\nmust still kneel before this cause, which re-\\nfuses to be named, ineffable cause, which\\nevery fine genius has essayed to represent by\\nsome emphatic symbol, as, Thales by water,\\nAnaximenes by Air, Anaxagoras by {Novs)\\nthought, Zoroaster by fire, Jesus and the mod-\\nerns by love and the metaphor of each has\\nbecome a national religion. The Chinese\\nMencius has not been the least successful in\\nhis generalization. I fully understand lan-\\nguage,* he said, **and nourish well my vast-\\nflowing vigor. I beg to ask what you call\\n*vast flowing vigor?* said his companion.\\nThe explanation, replied Mencius, Ms diffi-\\ncult. This vigor is supremely great, and in\\nthe highest degree unbending. Nourish it\\ncorrectly, and do it no injury, and it will fill\\nup the vacancy between heaven and earth.\\nThis vigor accords with and assists justice and\\nreason, and leaves no hunger. In our more\\ncorrect writing we give to this generalization\\nthe name of Being and thereby confess that\\nwe have arrived as far as we can go. Suffice\\nit for the joy of the universe, tliat we have not\\narrived at a wall, but at interminable oceans.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0124.jp2"}, "125": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 117\\nOur life seems not present, so much as pros-\\npective; not for the affairs on which it is\\nwasted, but as a hint of this vast-flowing\\nvigor. Most of life seems to be mere adver-\\ntisement of faculty: information is given us\\nnot to sell ourselves cheap; that we are very-\\ngreat. So, in particulars, our greatness is\\nalways in a tendency or direction, not in an\\naction. It is for us to believe in the rule,\\nnot in the exception. The noble are thus known\\nfrom the ignoble. So in accepting the leading\\nof the sentiments, it is not what we believe\\nconcerning the immortality of the soul, or the\\nlike, but the universal impulse to believe, that\\nis the material circumstance, and is the prin-\\ncipal fact in the history of the globe. Shall\\nwe describe this cause as that which works\\ndirectly? The spirit is not hopeless or needful\\nof mediate organs. It was plentiful powers\\nand direct effects. I am explained without\\nexplaining, I am felt without acting, and\\nwhere am I not. Therefore all just persons\\nare satisfied with their own praise. They\\nrefuse to explain themselves, and are content\\nthat new actions should do them that office.\\nThey believe that we communicate without\\nspeech, and above speech, and that no right\\naction of ours is quite unaffecting to our", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0125.jp2"}, "126": {"fulltext": "118 ESSAY IV.\\nfriends, at whatever distance for the influence\\nof action is not to be measured by miles. Why\\nshould I fret myself, because a circumstance\\nhas occurred which hinders my presence\\nwhere I was expected? If I am not at the\\nmeeting, my presence where I am should be\\nas useful to the commonwealth of friendship\\nand wisdom, as would be my presence in that\\nplace. I exert the same quality of power in\\nthat place. I exert the same quality of power\\nin all places. Thus journeys the mighty Ideal\\nbefore us; it never was known to fall into the\\nrear. No man ever came to an experience\\nwhich was satiating, but his good is tidings\\nof a better. Onward and onward! In liber-\\nated moments, we know that a new picture of\\nlife and duty is already possible; the elements\\nalready exist in many minds around you, of a\\ndoctrine of life which shall transcend any\\nwritten record we have. The new statement\\nwill comprise the skepticisms, as well as the\\nfaiths of a society, and out of unbeliefs a\\ncreed shall be formed. For, skepticisms are\\nnot gratuitous or lawless, but are limitations\\nof the affirmative statement, and the new phi-\\nlosophy must take thme in, and make affirma-\\ntions outside of them, just as much as it must\\ninclude the oldest beliefs.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0126.jp2"}, "127": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 119\\nIt is very unhappy, but too late to be helped,^^\\nthe discovery we have made, that we exist.\\nThat discovery is called the Fall of Man. Ever\\nafterwards, we suspect our instruments. We\\nhave learned that we do not see directly, but\\nmeditately, and that we have no means of cor-\\nrecting these colored and distorted lenses which\\nwe are, or of computing the amount of their\\nerrors. Perhaps these subject-lepses have a\\ncreative power; perhaps there are no objects.\\nOnce we lived in what we saw now, the rapa-\\nciousness of this new power, which threatens\\nto absorb all things, engages us. Nature, art,\\npersons, letters, religions, objects, successive-\\nly tumble in, and God is but one of its ideas.\\nNature and literature are subjective phenom-\\nena; every evil and every good thing is a\\nshadow which we cast. The street is full of\\nhumiliations to the proud. As the fop con-\\ntrived to dress his bailiffs in his livery, and\\nmake them wait on his guests at table, so the\\nchagrins which the bad heart gives off as bub-\\nbles, at once take form as ladies and gentlemen\\nin the street, shopmen or barkeepers in hotels,\\nand threaten or insult whatever is threatenable\\nand insultable in us. *Tis the same with our\\nidolatries. People forget that it is the eye\\nwhich makes the horizon, and the rounding", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0127.jp2"}, "128": {"fulltext": "120 ESSAY IV.\\nmind s eye which makes this or that man a\\ntype or represntative of humanity with the\\nname of hero or saint. Jesus the ^providen-\\ntial man, is a good man on whom many peo-\\nple are agreed that these optical laws shall take\\neffect. By love on one part, and by forbear-\\nance to press objection on the other p rt, it is\\nfor a time settled, that we will look at him in\\nthe centre of the horizon, and ascribe to him\\nthe properties that will attach to any man so\\nseen. But the longest love or aversion has a\\nspeedy term. The great and crescive self,\\nrooted in absolute nature, supplants all rela-\\ntive existences, and ruins the kingdom of mor-\\ntal friendship and love. Marriage (in what is\\ncalled the spiritual world), is impossible, be-\\ncause of the inequality between every subject\\nand every object. The subject is the receiver\\nof Godhead, and at every comparison must feel\\nhis being enhanced by that cryptic might.\\nThough not in energy, yet by presence, this\\nmagazine of substance cannot be otherwise\\nthan felt nor can any force of intellect attri-\\nbute to the object the proper deity which sleeps\\nor wakes forever in every subject. Never can\\nlove make consciousness and ascription equal\\nin force. There will be the same gulf between\\nevery me and thee, as between the original and", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0128.jp2"}, "129": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 121\\nthe picture. The universe is the bride of the\\nsoul. All private sympathy is partial. Two\\nhuman beings are like globes, which can touch\\nonly in a point, and, whilst they remain in con-\\ntact, all other points of each of the spheres\\nare inert; their turn must also come, and the\\nlonger a particular union lasts, the more en-\\nergy of appetency the parts not in union ac-y\\nquire.\\nLife will be imaged, but cannot be divided\\nnor doubled. Any invasion of its unity would\\nbe chaos. The soul is not twin-born, but the\\nonly begotten, and though revealing itself as\\nchild in time, child in appearance, is of a fatal\\nand universal power, admittig no co-life.\\nEvery day, every act betrays the ill-concealed\\ndeity. We believe in ourselves, as we do not\\nbelieve in others. We permit all things to our-\\nselves, and that which we call sin in others, is\\nexperiment for us. It is an instance of our\\nfaith in ourselves, that men never speak of\\ncrime as lightly as they think or, every man\\nthinks a latitude safe for himself, which is no-\\nwise to be indulged to another. The act looks\\nvery differently on the inside, and on the out-\\nside; in its quality, and in its consequences.\\nMurder in the murderer is no such ruinous\\nthought as poets and romancers will have it;", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0129.jp2"}, "130": {"fulltext": "122 ESSAY IV.\\nit does not unsettle him, or fright him from\\nhis ordinary notice of trifles it is an act quite\\neasy to be contemplated, but in its sequel, it\\nturns out to be a horrible jangle and confound-\\ning of all relations. Especially the crimes that\\nspring from love, seem right and fair from the\\nactor s point of view, but, when acted, are\\nfound destructive of society. No man at least\\nbelieves that he can be lost, nor that the crime\\nin him is as black as in the felon, because the\\nintellect qualifies in our own case the moral\\njudgments. For there is no crime to the intel-\\nlect. That is antinomian or hypernomian, and\\njudges law as well as fact. *It is worse than\\na crime, it is a blunder, said Napoleon, speak-\\ning the language of the intellect. To it, the\\nworld is a problem in mathematics or the sci-\\nence of quantity, and it leaves out praise and\\nblame, and all weak emotions. All stealing is\\ncomparative. If you come to absolutes, pray\\nwho does not steal? Saints are sad, because\\nthey behold sin (even when they speculate)\\nfrom the point of view of the conscience, and\\nnot of the intellect a confusion of thought.\\nSin seen from the thought, is a diminution or\\nless; seen from the conscience or will, it is\\npravity or bad. The intellect names it shade,\\nabsence of light, and no essence. The con-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0130.jp2"}, "131": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 123\\nscience must feel it as essence, essential evil.\\nThis it is not; it has an objective existence,\\nbut no subjective.\\nThus inevitably does the universe wear our\\ncolor, and every object fall successively into\\nthe subject itself. The subject exists, the sub-\\nject enlarges; all things sooner or later fall\\ninto place. As I am, so I see use what lan-\\nguage we will, we can never say anything but\\nwhat we are; Hermes, Cadmus, Columbus,\\nNewton, Bonaparte, are the mind s ministers.\\nInstead of feeling a poverty when we encoun-\\nter a great man, let us treat the new comer\\nlike a traveling geologist, who passes through\\nour estate, and shows us good slate, or lime-\\nstone, or anthracite, in our brush pasture. The\\npartial action of each strong mind in one direc-\\ntion, is a telescope for the objects on which it\\nis pointed. But every other part of knowledge\\nis to be pushed to the same extravagance, ere\\nthe soul attains her due sphericity. Do you\\nsee that kitten chasing so prettily her own tail?\\nIf you could look with her eyes, you might see\\nher surrounded with hundreds of figures per-\\nforming complex dramas, with tragic issues,\\nlong conversations, many characters, many\\nups and downs of fate, and meantime it is\\nonly puss and her tail. How long before our", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0131.jp2"}, "132": {"fulltext": "124 ESSAY IV.\\nmasquerade will end its noise of tambourines,\\nlaughter, and shouting, and we shall find it\\nwas a solitary performance? A subject and an\\nobject, it takes so much to make the galvanic\\ncircuit complete, but magnitude adds nothing.\\nWhat imports it whether it is Kepler and the\\nsphere, Columbus and America; a reader and\\nhis book; or puss with her tail?\\nIt is true that all the muses and love and re-\\nligion hate these developments, and will find a\\nway to punish the chemist, who publishes in\\nthe parlor the secrets of the laboratory. And\\nwe cannot say too little of our constitutional\\nnecessity of seeing things under private as-\\npects, or saturated with our humors. And yet\\nis the God the native of these bleak rocks.\\nThat need makes in mortals the capital virtue\\nof self-trust. We must hold hard to this pov-\\nerty, however scandalous, and by more vigor-\\nous self-recoveries, after the sallies of action,\\npossess our axis more firmly. The life of truth\\nis cold, and so far mournful; but it is not the\\nslave of tears, contritions, and perturbations.\\nIt does not attempt another s work, nor adopt\\nanother s facts. It is a main lesson of wisdom\\nto know your own from another s. I have\\nlearned that I cannot dispose of other people s\\nfacts; but I possess such a key to my own, as", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0132.jp2"}, "133": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 125\\npersuades me against all their denials, that\\nthey also have a key to theirs. A sympathetic\\nperson is placed in the dilemma of a swimmer\\namong drowning men, who all catch at him,\\nand if he gives so much as a leg or a finger,\\nthey will drown him. They wish to be saved\\nfrom the mischiefs of their vices, but not from\\ntheir vices. Charity would be wasted on this\\npoor waiting on the symptoms. A wise and\\nhardy physician will say, Come out of that, as\\nthe first condition of advice.\\nIn this our talking America, we are ruined\\nby our good nature and listening on all sides.\\nThis compliance takes away the power of be-\\ning greatly useful. A man should not be able\\nto look other than directly and forthright. A\\npreoccupied attention is the only answer to the\\nimportunate frivolity of other people an at-\\ntention, and to an aim which makes their\\nwants frivolous. This is a divine answer, and\\nleaves no appeal, and no hard thoughts. In\\nFlaxman s drawing of the Eumenides of\\n-^schylusi, Orestes supplicates Apollo, whilst\\nthe Furies sleep on the threshold. The face\\nof the god expresses a shade of regret and\\ncompassion, but calm with the conviction of\\nthe irreconcilableness of the two spheres. He\\nis born into other politics, into the eternal", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0133.jp2"}, "134": {"fulltext": "126 ESSAY IV,\\nand beautiful. The man at his feet asks for\\nhis interest in turmoils of the earth, into which\\nhis nature cannot enter. And the Eumenides\\nthere lying express pictorially this disparity.\\nThe god is surcharged with his divine destiny.\\nIllusion, Temperament, Succession, Surface,\\nSurprise, Reality, Subjectiveness, these are\\nthreads on the loom of time, these are the\\nlords of life. I dare not assume to give their\\norder, but I name them as I find them in my\\nway. I know better than to claim any com-\\npleteness for my picture. I am a fragment^\\nand this is a fragment of me. I can very con--\\nfidently announce one of another law, which\\nthrows itself into relief and form, but I am too\\nyoung yet by some ages to compile a code. I\\ngossip for my hour concerning the eternal pol-\\nitics. I have seen many fair pictures not in\\nvain. A wonderful time I have lived in. I\\nam not the novice I was fourteen, nor yet sev-\\nen years ago. Let who will ask, where is the\\nfruit? I find a private fruit sufficient. This\\nis a fruit, that I should not ask for a rash\\neffect from meditations, counsels, and the hiv-\\ning of truths. I should feel it pitiful to de-\\nmand a result of this town and county, an\\nover effect on the instant month and year.\\nThe effect is deep and secular as the cause. It", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0134.jp2"}, "135": {"fulltext": "EXPERIENCE. 127\\nworks on periods in which mortal lifetime is\\nlost. All I know is reception I am and I have\\nbut I do not get, and when I have fancied I\\nhad gotten anything, I found I did not. I wor-\\nship with wonder the great Fortune. My re-\\nception has been so large, that lam not annoyed\\nby receiving this or that superabundantly. I\\nsay to the Genius, if he will pardon the prov-\\nerb, In for a mill, in for a million. When I\\nreceive a new gift, I do not maserate my body\\nto make the account square, for, if I should\\ndie, I could not make the account square.\\nThe benefit overran the merit the first day,\\nand has overran the merit ever since. The\\nmerit itself, so-called, I reckon part of the re-\\nceiving.\\nAlso, that hankering after an overt or prac-\\ntical effect seems to me an apostacy. In good\\nearnest, I am willing to spare this most unnec-\\nessary deal of doing. Life wears to me a vis-\\nionary face. Hardest, roughest action is vis-\\nionary also. It is but a choice between soft\\nand turbulent dreams. People disparage know-\\ning and the intellectual life, and urge doing.\\nI am very content with knowing, if only I\\ncould know. That is an august entertainment,\\nand would suffice me a great while. To know\\na little, would be worth the expense of this", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0135.jp2"}, "136": {"fulltext": "j\\n128 ESSAY IV.\\nworld. I hear always the law of Adrastia,\\nthat every soul which had acquired any truth,\\nshould be safe from harm until another period.\\n/^l know that the world I converse with in the\\ncity and in the farms, is not the world I think.\\nI observe that difference, and shall observe it.\\nOne day, I shall know the value and law of\\nthis discrepance. But I have not found that\\nmuch was gained by manipular attempts to\\nrealize the world of thought. Many eager per-\\nsons successively make an experiment in this\\nway, and make themselves ridiculous. They\\nacquire democratic manners, they foam at the\\nmouth, they hate and deny. Worse, 1 observe,\\nthat, in the history of mankind, there is never\\na solitary example of success, taking their\\nown tests of success. I say this polemically,\\nor in reply to the inquiry, why not realize your\\nworld? But far be from me the despair which\\nprejudges the law by a paltry empiricism,\\nsince there never was a right endeavor, but it\\nsucceeded. Patience and patience, we shall\\nwin at the last. We must be very suspicious\\nof the deceptions of the element of time. It\\ntakes a good deal of time to eat or to sleep, or\\nto earn a hundred dollars, and a very little\\ntime to entertain a hope and an insight which\\nbecomes the light of our life. We dress our gar-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0136.jp2"}, "137": {"fulltext": "EXPEkffiNCE. 129\\nden, eat our dinners, discuss the household\\nwith our wives, and these things make no im-\\npression, are forgotten next week but in the\\nsolitude to which every man is always return-\\ning, he has a sanity and revelations, which in\\nhis passage into new worlds he will carry with\\nhim. Never mind the ridicule, never mind\\nthe defeat: up again, old heart! it seems to\\nsay, there is victory yet for all justice; and\\nthe true romance which the world exists to\\nrealize, will be the transformation of genius\\ninto practical power.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0137.jp2"}, "138": {"fulltext": "ESSAY V.\\nCHARACTER.\\nI have read that those who listened to Lord\\nChatham felt that there was something finer in\\nthe man, than anything which he said. It\\nhas been complained of our brilliant English\\nhistorian of the French Revolution, that when\\nhe has told all his facts about Mirabeau, they\\ndo not justify his estimate of his genius. The\\nGracchi, Agis, Cleomenes, and others of Plu-\\ntarch s heroes, do not in the records of facts\\nequal their own fame. Sir Philip Sidney,\\nthe Earl of Essex, Sir Walter Raleigh, are men\\nof great figure, and of few deeds. He cannot\\nfind the smallest part of the personal weight of\\nWashington in the narrative of his exploits.\\nThe authority of the name of Schiller is too\\ngreat for his books. This inequality of the\\nreputation to the works or the anecdotes is not\\naccounted for by saying that the reverberation\\nis longer than the thunder-clap; but some-\\nwhat resided in these men which begot an\\nexpectation that outran all their performance.\\n130", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0138.jp2"}, "139": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER. 131\\nThe largest part of their power was latent.\\nThis is that which we call Character, a re-\\nserved force which acts directly by presence,\\nand without means. It is conceived of as a\\ncertain undemonstrable force, a Familiar or\\nGenius by whose impulses the man is guided,\\nbut whose counsels he cannot impart which\\nis company for him, so that such men are\\noften solitary, or if they chance to be social,\\ndo not need society, but can entertain them-\\nselves very well alone. The purest literary\\ntalent appears at one time great, at another\\ntime small, but character is of a stellar and\\nundiminishable greatness. What others effect\\nby talent or by eloquence, this man accom-\\nplishes by some magnetism. **Half his\\nstrength he puts not forth.** His victories\\nare by demonstration of superiority, and not\\nby crossing of bayonets. He conquers, because\\nhis arrival alters the face of affairs. **0\\nlole how did you know that Hercules was a\\ngod?** Because,** answered lole, **I was\\ncontent the moment my eyes fell on him.\\nWhen I beheld Theseus, I desired that I\\nmight see him offer battle-, or at least guide\\nhis horses in the chariot-race; but Hercules\\ndid not wait for a contest; he conquered\\nwhether he stood, or walked or sat, or what-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0139.jp2"}, "140": {"fulltext": "132 ESSAY V.\\never thing he did.* Man, ordinarily a pen-\\ndant to events, only half attached, and that\\nawkwardly, to the world he lives in, in these\\nexamples appears to share the life of things,\\nand to be an expression of the same laws\\nwhich control the tides and the sun, numbers\\nand quantities.\\nBut to use a more modest illustration, and\\nnearer home, I observe, that in our political\\nelections, where this element, if it appear at\\nall, can only occur in its coarsest form, we\\nsuflSciently understand its incomparable rate.\\nThe people know that they need in their rep-\\nresentative much more than talent, namely, the\\npower to make his talent trusted. They\\ncannot come at their ends by sending to Con-\\ngress a learned, acute, and fluent speaker, if\\nhe be not one who, before he was appointed\\nby the people to represent them, was ap-\\npointed by Almighty God to stand for a fact,\\ninvincibly persuaded of that fact in himself,\\nso that the most confident and the most violent\\npersons learn that here is resistance on which\\nboth impudence and terror are wasted, namely,\\nfaith in an act. The men who carry their\\npoints do not need to inquire of their consti-\\ntuents what they should say, but are them-\\nselves the country which they represent;\\nI", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0140.jp2"}, "141": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER. 133\\nnowhere are its emotions or opinions so\\ninstant and true as in them nowhere so pure\\nfrom a selfish infusion. The constituency at\\nhome hearkens to their words, watches the\\ncolor of their cheek, and therein, as in a glass,\\ndresses its own. Our public assemblies are\\npretty good tests of manly force. Our frank\\ncountrymen of the west and south have a test\\nfor character, and like to know whether the\\nNew Englander is a substantial man, or\\nwhether the hand can pass through him.\\nThe same motive force appears in trade.\\nThere are geniuses in trade as well as in war,\\nor the state, or letters; and the reason why\\nthis or that man is fortunate, is not to be told.\\nIt lies in the man that is all anybody can tell\\nyou about it. See him, and you will know as\\neasily why he succeeds, as, if you see Napo-\\nleon, you would comprehend his fortune. In\\nthe new object we recognize the old game,\\nthe habit of fronting the fact, and not dealing\\nwith it at second hand, through the percep-\\ntions of somebody else. Nature seems to\\nauthorize trade, as soon as you see the natural\\nmerchant, who appears not so much a private\\nagent, as her factor and Minister of Commerce.\\nHis natural probity combines with his insight\\ninto the fabric of society, to put him above", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0141.jp2"}, "142": {"fulltext": "134 ESSAY V.\\ntricks, and he communicates to all his own\\nfaith, that contracts are of no private inter-\\npretation. The habit of his mind is a refer-\\nence to standards of natural equity and\\npublic advantage, and he inspires respect, and\\nthe wish to deal with him, both for the quiet-\\nspirit of honor which attends him, and for the\\nintellectual pastime which the spectacle of so\\nmuch ability affords. This immensely stretched\\ntrade, which makes the capes of the Southern\\nOcean his wharves, and the Atlantic Sea his\\nfamiliar port, centers in his brain only and\\nnobody in the universe can make his place\\ngood. In his parlor, I see very well that he\\nhas been at hard work this morning, with\\nthat knitted brow, and that settled humor,\\nwhich all his desire to be courteous cannot\\nshake off. I see plainly how many firm acts\\nhave been done how many valiant noes have\\nthis day been spoken, when others would have\\nuttered ruinous yeas. I see, with the pride\\nof art, and skill of masterly arithmetic and\\npower of remote combination, the conscious-\\nness of being an agent and playfellow of the\\noriginal laws of the world. He too believes\\nthat none can supply him, and that a man\\nmust be born to trade, or he cannot learn it.\\nThis virtue draws the mind more, when it", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0142.jp2"}, "143": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER. 135\\nappears in action to ends not so mixed. It\\nworks with most energy in the smallest com-\\npanies and in private relations. In all cases,\\nit is an extraordinary and incomputable agent.\\nThe excess of physical strength is paralyzed\\nby it. Higher natures overpower lower ones\\nby affecting them with a certain sleep. The\\nfaculties are locked up, and offers no resist-\\nance. Perhaps that is the universal law.\\nWhen the high cannot bring up the low to\\nitself, it benumbs it, as man charms down\\nthe resistance of the lower animals. Men\\nexert on each other a similar occult power.\\nHow often has the influences of a true master\\nrealized all the tales of magic! A river of\\ncommand seemed to run down from his eyes\\ninto all those who beheld him, a torrent of\\nstrong sad light, like an Ohio or Danube,\\nwhich pervaded them with his thoughts, and\\ncolored all events with the hue of his mind.\\n**What means did you employ? was the ques-\\ntion asked of the wife of Concini, in regard to\\nthe treatment of Mary of Medici; and the\\nanswer was, Only that influence which every\\nstrong mind has over a weak one. Cannot\\nCaesar in irons shuffle off the irons, and trans-\\nfer them to the person of Hippo or Thraso the\\nturnkey? Is an iron handcuff so immutable a", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0143.jp2"}, "144": {"fulltext": "136 ESSAY V.\\nbond? Suppose a slaver on the coast of\\nGuinea should take on board a gang of\\nnegroes, which should contain persons of the\\nstamp of Toussaint L*Ouverture; or, let us\\nfancy, under these swarthy masks he has a\\ngang of Washingtons in chains. When they\\narrive at Cuba, will the relative order of the\\nship s company be the same? Is there noth-\\ning but rope and iron? Is there no love, no\\nreverence? Is there never a glimpse of right\\nin a poor slave-captain s mind; and cannot\\nthese be supposed available to break, or elude,\\nor in any manner overmatch the tension of an\\ninch or two of iron ring?\\nThis is a natural power, like light and heat\\nand all nature co-operates with it. The\\nreason why we feel one man*s presence, and\\ndo not feel another s, is as simple as gravity.\\nTruth is the summit of being; justice is the\\napplication of it to affairs. All individual\\nnatures should stand in a scale, according to\\nthe purity of this element in them. The will\\nof the pure runs down from them into other\\nnatures, as water runs down from a higher into\\na lower vessel. This natural force is no more\\nto be withstood, than any other natural force.\\nWe can drive a stone upward for a moment\\ninto the air, but it is yet true that all stones will", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0144.jp2"}, "145": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER. 137\\nforever fall; and whatever instances can be\\nquoted of unpunished theft, or of a lie which\\nsomebody credited, justice must prevail, audit\\nis the privilege of truth to make itself believed.\\nCharacter is this moral order seen through\\nthe medium of an individual nature. An indi-\\nvidual is an encloser. Time and space, liberty\\nand necessity, truth and thought, are left at\\nlarge no longer. Now, the universe is a close\\nor pound. All things exist in the man tinged\\nwith the manners of his soul. With what\\nquality is in him, he infuses all nature that he\\ncan reach; nor does he tend to lose himself in\\nvastness, but, at how long a curve soever, all\\nhis regards return into his own good at last.\\nHe animates all he can, and he sees only what\\nhe animates. He encloses the world, as the\\npatriot does his country, as a material basis for\\nhis character, and a theatre for action. A\\nhealthy soul stands united with the Just and\\nthe True, as the magnet arranges itself with\\nthe pole, so that he stands to all beholders like\\na transparent object betwixt them and the\\nsun, and whose journeys toward the sun,\\njourneys toward that person. He is thus the\\nmedium of the highest influence to all who are\\nnot on the same level. Thus, men of character", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0145.jp2"}, "146": {"fulltext": "188 ESSAY V.\\nare the conscience of the society to which they\\nbelong.\\nThe natural measure of this power is the\\nresistance of circumstances. Impure men con-\\nsider life as it is reflected in opinions, events,\\nand persons. They cannot see the action,\\nuntil it is done. Yet its moral element pre-\\nexisted in the actor, and its quality as right\\nand wrong, it was easy to predict. Every-\\nthing in nature is bipolar, or has a positive\\nand negative pole. There is a male and a\\nfemale, a spirit and a fact, a north and a\\nsouth. Spirit is the positive, the event is\\nthe negative. Will is the north, action the\\nsouth pole. Character may be ranked as hav-\\ning its natural place in the north. It shares\\nthe magnetic currents of the system. The\\nfeeble souls are drawn to the south or negative\\npole. They look at the profit or hurt of the\\naction. They never behold a principle until it\\nis lodged in a person. They do not wish to be\\nlovely, but to be loved. This class of character\\nlike to hear of their faults; the other class do\\nnot like to hear of faults; they worship events;\\nsecure to them a fact, a connection, a certain\\nchain of circumstances, and they will ask no\\nmore. The hero sees that the event is ancil-\\nlary; it mast follow him. A given order of", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0146.jp2"}, "147": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER. IM\\nevents has no power to secure to him the sat-\\nisfaction which the imagination attaches to it\\nthe soul of goodness escapes from any set of\\ncircumstances, Vvrhilst prosperity belongs to a\\ncertain mind, and will introduce that power\\nand victory which is its natural fruit, into any\\norder of events. No change of circumstances\\ncan repair a defect of character. We boast our\\nemancipation from many superstitions; but if\\nwe have broken any idols, it is through a\\ntransfer of the idolatry. What have I gained\\nthat I, no longer immolate a bull to Jove, or\\nto Neptune, or a mouse to Hecate; that I do\\nnot tremble before the Eumenides, or the\\nCatholic Purgatory, or the Calvinistic Judg-\\nment-day, if I quake at opinion, the public\\nopinion, as we call it or at the threat of assault,\\nor contumely, or bad neighbors, or poverty, or\\nmutilation, or at the rumor of revolution, or of\\nmurder? If I quake, what matters it what I\\nquake at? Our proper vice takes form in one\\nor another shape, according to the sex, age, or\\ntemperament of the person, and, if we are\\ncapable of fear, will readily find terrors. The\\ncovetousness or the malignity which saddens\\nme, when I ascribe it to society, is my own.\\nI am always environed by myself. On the\\nother part, rectitude is a perpetual victory.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0147.jp2"}, "148": {"fulltext": "140 ESSAY V.\\ncelebrated not by cries of joy, but by serenity,\\nwhich is joy fixed or habitual. It is disgraceful\\nto fly to events for confirmation of our truth\\nand worth. The capitalist does not run every\\nhour to the broker, to coin his advantages into\\ncurrent money of the realm he is satisfied to\\nread in the quotations of the market, that his\\nstocks have risen. The same transport which\\nthe occurrence of the best events in the best\\norder would occasion me, I must learn to taste\\npurer in the perception that my position is\\nevery hour meliorated, and does already com-\\nmand those events I desire. That exultation\\nis only to be checked by the foresight of an\\norder of things so excellent as to throw all our\\nprosperities into the deepest shade.\\nThe face which character wears to me is self\\nsufficingness. I revere the person who is\\nriches; so that I cannot think of him as alone,\\nor poor, or exiled, or unhappy, or a client, but\\nas perpetual patron, benefactor, and beautified\\nman. Character is centrality, the impossi-\\nbility of being displaced or overset. A man\\nshould give us a sense of mass. Society is\\nfrivolous, and shreds its day into scraps, its\\nconversation into ceremonies and escapes. But\\nif I go to see an ingenious man, I shall think\\nmyself poorly entertained if he give me nimble", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0148.jp2"}, "149": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER. 141\\npieces of benevolence and etiquette rather he\\nshall stand stoutly in his place, and let me\\napprehend, if it were only his resistance know\\nthat I have encountered a new and positive\\nquality; great refreshment for both of us\u00c2\u00bb\\nIt is much, that he does not accept the con-\\nventional opinions and practices. That non-\\nconformity will remain a goad and remem-\\nbrancer, and every inquirer will have to\\ndispose of him, in the first place. There is\\nnothing real or useful that is not a seat of war.\\nOur houses ring with laughter and personal\\nand critical gossip, but it helps little. But the\\nuncivil, unavailable man, who is a problem\\nand a threat to society, whom it cannot let\\npass in silence, but must either worship or\\nhate, and to whom all parties feel related,\\nboth the leaders of opinion and the obscure\\nand eccentric, he helps; he puts America\\nand Europe in the wrong, and destroys the\\nskepticism which says, **man is a doll, let us\\neat and drink, tis the best we can do, by\\nilluminating the untried and unknown. Ac-\\nquiescence in the establishment, and appeal\\nto the public, indicate infirm faith, heads\\nwhio-h are not clear and which must see a\\nhouse built, before they can comprehend the\\nplan of it. The wise man not only leaves out", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0149.jp2"}, "150": {"fulltext": "142 ESSAY V.\\nof his thought the many, but leaves out the\\nfew. Mountains, fountains, the self-moved,\\nthe absorbed, the commander because he is\\ncommanded, the assured, the primary, they\\nare good for these announce the instant pres-\\nence of supreme power.\\nOur action should rest mathematically on\\nour substance. In nature, there are no false\\nvaluations. A pound of water in the ocean-\\ntempest has no more gravity than in a mid-\\nsummer pond. All things work exactly accord-\\ning to their quality, and according to their\\nquantity; attempt nothing they cannot do\\nexcept man only. He has pretension; he\\nwishes and attempts things beyond his force/.\\nI read in a book of English memoirs, Mr. Fox\\n(afterward Lord Holland) said, he must have\\nthe Treasury; he had served up to it, and\\nwould have if Xenophon and his Ten\\nThousand were quite equal to what they\\nattempted, and did it; so equal, that it was\\nnot suspected to be a grand and inimitable\\nexploit. Yet there stands that fact unre-\\npeated, a high-water-mark in military history.\\nMany have attempted it since, and not been\\nequal to it. It is only on reality, that any\\npower of action can be based. No institution\\nwill be better than the institutor. I know an", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0150.jp2"}, "151": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER. 143\\namiable and accomplished person who under-\\ntook a practical reform, yet I was never able\\nto find in him the enterprise of love he took in\\nhand. He adopted it by ear and by the under-\\nstanding from the books he had been reading.\\nAll his action was tentative, a piece of the\\ncity carried out into the fields, and was the city\\nstill, and no new fact, and could not inspire\\nenthusiasm. Had there been something latent\\nin the man, a terrible undemonstrated genius\\nagitating and embarrassing his demeanor, we\\nhad watched for its advent. It is not enough\\nthat the intellect should see the evils and their\\nremedy. We shall still postpone our exist-\\nence, nor take the ground to which we are\\nentitled, whilst it is only a thought, and not a\\nspirit that incites us. We have not yet served\\nup to it.\\nThese are the properties of life, and another\\ntrait is the notice of incessant growth. Men\\nshould be intelligent and earnest. They must\\nalso make us feel that they have a controlling\\nhappy future opening before them, which\\nsheds a splendor on the passing hour. The\\nhero is misconceived and misreported he can-\\nnot therefore wait to unravel any man s blun-\\nders: he is again on his road, adding new pow-\\ners and honors to his domain, and new claims", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0151.jp2"}, "152": {"fulltext": "144 ESSAY V.\\non yoilr heart, which will bankupt yon, if you\\nhave loitered about the old things, and have not\\nkept your relation to him, by adding to your\\nwealth. New actions are the only apologies\\nand explanations of old ones, which the noble\\ncan bear to offer or to receive. If your friend\\nhas displeased you, you shall not sit down to\\nconsider it, for he has already lost all memory\\nof the passage, and has doubled his power to\\nserve you, and, ere you can rise up again, will\\nburden you with blessings.\\nWe have no pleasure in thinking of a be-\\nnevolence that it only measured by its works.\\nLove is inexhaustible, and if its estate is\\nwasted, its granary emptied, still cheers and\\nenriches, and the man, though he sleep, seems\\nto purify the air, and his house to adorn the\\nlandscape and strengthen the laws. People\\nalways recognize this difference. We know\\nwho is benevolent, by quite other means than\\nthe amount of subscription to soup societies.\\nIt is only low merits that can be enumerated.\\nFear, when your friends say to you what you\\nhave done well, and say it through but when\\nthey vStand with uncertain timid looks of\\nrespect and half-dislike, and must suspend\\ntheir judgment for years to come, you may\\nbegin to hope. Those who live to the fixture", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0152.jp2"}, "153": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER. 145\\nmust always appear selfish to those who live to\\nthe present. Therefore it was droll in the good\\nRiemea, who has written memoirs of Goethe,\\nto make out a list of his donations and good\\ndeeds, as, so many hundred thalers given to\\nStilling, to Hegel, to Tischbein: a lucrative\\nplace found for Professor Voss, a post under\\nthe Grand Duke for Herder, a pension for\\nMeyer, two professors recommended to foreign\\nuniversities, etc., etc. The longest list of\\nspecifications of benefit would look very short.\\nA man is a poor creature, if he is to be meas-\\nured so. For, all these of course are excep-\\ntions; and the rule and hodiernal life of a\\ngood man is benefaction. The true charity of\\nGoethe is to be inferred from the account he\\ngave Dr. Eckermann, of the way in which he\\nhad spent his fortune. **Each bonmot of mine\\nhas cost a purse of gold. Half a million of my\\nown money, the fortune I inherited, my salary,\\nand the large income derived from my writ-\\nings for fifty years back, have been expended\\nto instruct me in what I now know. I have\\nbesides seen,** etc.\\nI own it is but poor chat and gossip to go to\\nenumerate traits of this simple and rapid\\npower, and we are painting the lightning with\\ncharcoal; but in these long nights and vaca-\\n10", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0153.jp2"}, "154": {"fulltext": "146 ESSAY V.\\ntions, I like to console myself so. Nothing\\nbut itself can copy it. A word from the heart\\nenriches me. I surrender at discretion. How\\ndeath cold is literary genius before this fire of\\nlife! These are the touches that reanimate\\nmy heavy soul, and give it eyes to pierce the\\ndark of nature. I find, where I thought my-\\nself poor, there was I most rich. Thence\\ncomes a new intellectual exaltation, to be\\nagain rebuked by some new exhibition of\\ncharacter. Strange alternation of attraction\\nand repulsion Character repudiates intellect,\\nyet excites it; and character passes into\\nthought, is published so, and then is ashamed\\nbefore new flashes of moral worth.\\nCharacter is nature in the highest form. It\\nis of no use to ape it, or to contend with it.\\nSomewhat is possible of resistance, and of per-\\nsistence, and of creation, to this power, which\\nwill foil all emulation.\\nThis masterpiece is best where no hands but\\nnature s have been laid on it. Care is taken\\nthat the greatly-destined shall slip up into life\\nin the shade, with no thousand-eyed Athens to\\nwatch and blazon every new thought, every\\nblushing emotion of young genius. Two per-\\nsons lately, very young children of the most\\nhigh God, have given me occasion for", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0154.jp2"}, "155": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER. 147\\nthought. When I explored the source of their\\nsanctity, and charm for the imagination, it\\nseemed as if each answered, ^*From my non-\\nconformity: I never listened to your people s\\nlaw, or to what they call their gospel, and\\nwasted my time. I was content with the\\nsimple rural poverty of my own: hence this\\nsweetness: my work never reminds you of\\nthat is pure of that. And nature advertises\\nme in such persons, that, in democratic Amer-\\nica, she will not be democratized. How clois-\\ntered and constitutionally sequestered from\\nthe market and from scandal! It was only\\nthis morning that I sent away some wild\\nflowers of these wood-gods. They are a relief\\nfrom literature, these fresh draughts from\\nthe sources of thought and sentiment; as we\\nread, in an age of polish and criticism, the first\\nlines of written prose and verse of a nation.\\nHow captivating is their devotion to their fav-\\norite books, whether ^schylus, Dante, Shake-\\nspeare, or Scott, as feeling that they have a\\nstake in that book who touches that, touches\\nthem and especially the total solitude of the\\ncritic, the Patmos of thought from which he\\nwrites, in unconsciousness of any eyes that\\nshall every read this writing. Could they\\ndream on still, as angels, and not wake to com-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0155.jp2"}, "156": {"fulltext": "148 ESSAY V.\\nparisons, and to be flattered! Yet some\\nnatures are too good to be spoiled by praise,\\nand wherever the vein of thought reaches\\ndown into the profound, there is no danger\\nfrom vanity. Solemn friends will warn them\\nof the danger of the head s being turned by\\nthe flourish of trumpets, but they can afford to\\nsmile. I remember the indignation of an elo-\\nquent Methodist at the kind admonitions of a\\nDoctor of Divinity, My friend, a man can\\nneither be praised nor insulted. But forgive\\nthe counsels they are very natural. I remem-\\nber the thought which occurred to me when\\nsome ingenious and spiritual foreigners came\\nto America, was, *^Have you been victimized in\\nbeing brought hither? or, prior to that, answer\\nme this, Are you victimizable!\\nAs I have said, nature keeps these sovereign\\nties in her own hands, and however pertly our\\nsermons and disciplines would divide some\\nshare of credit, and teach that the laws fashion\\nthe citizens, she goes her own gait, and puts\\nthe wisest in the wrong. She makes very\\nlight of gospels and prophets, as one who has\\na great many more to produce, and no excess\\nof time to spare on any one. There is a class\\nof men, individuals of which appear at long\\nintervals, so eminently endowed with insight", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0156.jp2"}, "157": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER. 149\\nand virtue, that they have been unanimously\\nsaluted as divine, and who seem to be an\\naccumulation of that power we consider.\\nDivine persons are character born, or to bor-\\nrow a phrase from Napoleon, they are victory\\norganized. They are usually received with ill\\nwill, because they are new, and because they\\nset a bound to the exaggeration that has been\\nmade of the personality of the last divine per-\\nson. Nature never rhymes her children, nor\\nmakes two men alike. When we see a great\\nman, we fancy a resemblance to some histor-\\nical person, and predict the sequel of his char-\\nacter and fortune, a result which he is sure to\\ndisappoint. None will ever solve the problem\\nof his character according to our prejudice,\\nbut only in his own high, unprecedented way.\\nCharacter wants room; must not be crowded\\non by persons, nor be judged from glimpses\\ngot in the press of affairs or on few occasions.\\nIt needs perspective, as a great building. It\\nmay not, probably does not, form relations\\nrapidly and we should not require rash\\nexplanation, either on the popular ethics, or on\\nour own, or its action.\\nI look on Sculpture as history. I do not\\nthink the Apollo and the Jove impossible in\\nflesh and blood. Every trait which the artist", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0157.jp2"}, "158": {"fulltext": "150 ESSAY V.\\nrecorded in stone, he had seen in life, and bet-\\nter than his copy. We have seen many coun-\\nterfeits, but we are born believers in great\\nmen. How easily we read in old books, when\\nmen were few, of the smallest action of the\\npatriarchs. We require that a inan should be\\nso large and columnar in the landscape, that it\\nshould deserve to be recorded, that he arose,\\nand girded up his loins, and departed to such\\na place. The most credible pictures are those\\nof majestic men who prevailed at their entrance,\\nand convinced the senses; as happened to the\\neastern magian who was sent to test the merits\\nof Zertusht or Zoroaster. When the Yunani\\nsage arrived at Balkh, the Persians tell us,\\nGushtasp appointed a day on which the Mobeds\\nof every country should assemble, and a golden\\nchair was placed for the Yunani sage. Then\\nthe beloved of Yezdam, the prophet Zertusht,\\nadvanced into the midst of the assembly. The\\nYunani sage, on seeing that chief, said, **This\\nform and this gait cannot lie, and nothing but\\ntruth can proceed from them. Plato said, it\\nwas impossible not to be believe in the children\\nof the gods, though they should speak without\\nprobable or necessary arguments. I should\\nthink myself very unhappy in my associates,\\nif I could not credit the best things in history.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0158.jp2"}, "159": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER, 161\\n*John Bradshaw, says Milton, appears like\\na consul, from whom the fasces are not to\\ndepart with the year so that not on the tri-\\nbunal only, but throughout his life, you would\\nregard him as sitting in judgment upon\\nkings. I find it more credible, since it is\\nanterior information, that one man should\\nknow heaven, as the Chinese say, than that so\\nmany men should know the world. **The\\nvirtuous prince confronts the gods, without\\nany misgiving. He waits a hundred ages till\\na sage comes, and does not doubt. He who\\nconfronts the gods, without any misgiving,\\nknows heaven he who waits a hundred ages\\nuntil a sage comes, without doubting, knows\\nmen. Hence the virtuous prince moves, and\\nforages shows empire the way. But there\\nis no need to seek remote examples. He is a\\ndull observer whose experience has not taught\\nhim the reality and force of magic, as well as\\nof chemistry. The coldest precision cannot\\ngo abroad without encountering inexplicable\\ninfluences. One man fastens an eye on him,\\nand the graves of the memory render up their\\ndead; the secrets that make him wretched\\neither to keep or to betray, must be yielded;\\nanother, and he cannot speak, and the bones\\nof his body seem to lose their cartilages the", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0159.jp2"}, "160": {"fulltext": "152 ESSAY V.\\nentrance of a friend adds grace, boldness, and\\neloquence to him and there are persons, he\\ncannot choose but remember, who gave a\\ntranscendent expansion to his thought, and\\nkindled another life in his bosom.\\nWhat is so excellent as strict relations of\\namity, when they spring from this deep root?\\nThe sufficient reply to the skeptic, who doubts\\nthe power and the furniture of man, is in that\\npossibility of joyful intercourse with persons,\\nwhich makes the faith and practice of all rea-\\nsonable men. I know nothing which life has\\nto offer so satisfying as the profound good\\nunderstanding, which can subsist, after much\\nexchange of good offices, between two virtuous\\nmen, each of whom is sure of himself, and\\nsure of his friend. It is a happiness which\\npostpones all other gratifications, and makes\\npolitics, and commerce, and churches, cheap.\\nFor, when men shall meet as they ought, each\\na benefactor, a shower of stars, clothed with\\nthoughts, with deeds, with accomplishments,\\nit should be the festival of nature which all\\nthings announce. Of such friendship, love in\\nthe sexes is the first symbol, as all other\\nthings are symbols of love. Those relations to\\nthe best men, which, at one time, we reckoned", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0160.jp2"}, "161": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER. 153\\nthe romances of youth, become, in the progress\\nof the character, the most solid enjoyment.\\nIf it were possible to live in right relations\\nwith men! if we could abstain from asking\\nanything of them, from asking their praise, or\\nhelp, or pity, and content us with compelling\\nthem through the virtue of the eldest laws!\\nCould we not deal with a few persons, with\\none person, after the unwritten statutes, and\\nmake an experiment of their efficacy? Could\\nwe not pay our friend the compliment of truth,\\nof silence, of forbearing? Need we be so eager\\nto seek him? If we are related, we shall\\nmeet. It was a tradition of the ancient world,\\nthat no metamorphosis could hide a god from\\na god and there is a Greek verse which runs,\\n*The gods are to each other not unknown.**\\nFriends also follow the laws of divine neces-\\nsity they gravitate to each other, and cannot\\notherwise\\n**When each the other shall avoid\\nShall each by each be most enjoyed.**\\nTheir relation is not made, but allowed. The\\ngods must seat themselves without seneschal\\nin our Olympus, and as they can instal them-\\nselves by seniority divine. Society is spoiled,\\nif pains are taken, if the associates are brought", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0161.jp2"}, "162": {"fulltext": "154 ESSAY V.\\na mile to meet. And if it be not society, it is\\na mischievous, low, degrading jangle, though\\nmade up of the best. All the greatness of each\\nis kept back, and every foible in painful activ-\\nity, as if Olympians should meet to exchange\\nsnuff-boxes.\\nLife goes headlong. We chase some flying\\nscheme, or we are hunted by some fear or com-\\nmand behind us. But if suddenly we encoun-\\nter a friend, we pause or heat and hurry look\\nfoolish enough now pause, now possession, is\\nrequired, and the power to swell the moment\\nfrom the resources of the heart. The moment\\nis all, in all noble relations.\\nA divine person is the prophecy of the mind\\na friend is the hope of the heart. Our beati-\\ntude waits for the fulfillment of these two in\\none. The ages are opening this moral force.\\nAll force is the shadow or symbol of that*\\nPoetry is joyful and strong, as it draws its\\ninspiration thence. Men write their names on\\nthe world, as they are filled with this. His-\\ntory has been mean; our nations have been\\nmobs we have never seen a man that divine\\nform we do not yet know, but only the dream\\nand prophecy of such: we do not know the\\nmajestic manners which belong to him, which\\nappease and exalt the beholder. We shall", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0162.jp2"}, "163": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER. 155\\none day see that the most private is the most\\npublic energy, that quality atones for quantity,\\nand grandeur of character acts in the dark,\\nand succors them who never saw it. What\\ngreatness has yet appeared, is beginnings and\\nencouragements to us in this direction. The\\nhistory of those gods and saints which the\\nworld has written, and the worshiped, are doc-\\numents of character. The ages have exulted\\nin the manners of a youth who owed nothing\\nto fortune, and who was hanged at the Tyburn\\nof his nation, who, by the pure quality of his\\nnature, shed an epic splendor around the facts\\nof his death, which has transfigured every\\nparticular into a universal symbol for the eyes\\nof mankind. This great defeat is hitherto our\\nhighest fact. But the mind requires a victory\\nto the senses, a force of character which will\\nconvert judge, jury, soldier and kings which\\nwill rule animal and mineral virtues, and blend\\nwith the courses of sap, of rivers, of winds, of\\nstars, and of moral agents.\\nIf we cannot attain at a bound to these\\ngrandeurs, at least, let us do them homage.\\nIn society, high advantages are set down to\\nthe possessor, as disadvantages. It requires\\nthe more wariness in our private estimates. I\\ndo not forgive in my friends the failure to", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0163.jp2"}, "164": {"fulltext": "156 ESSAY V.\\nknow a fine character, and to entertain it with\\nthankful hospitality. When, at last, that\\nwhich we have always longed for, is arrived,\\nand shines on us with glad rays out of that far\\ncelestial land, then to be coarse, then to be\\ncritical, and treat such a visitant with the jab-\\nber and suspicion of the streets, argues a vul-\\ngarity that seems to shut the doors of heaven.\\nThis is confession, this the right insanity, when\\nthe soul no longer knows its own, nor where\\nits allegiance, its religion, are due. Is there\\nany religion but this, to know that, wherever\\nin the wide desert of being, the holy sentiment\\nwe cherish has opened into a flower, it blooms\\nfor me? if none sees it, I see it; I am aware,\\nif I alone, of the greatness of the fact. Whilst\\nit blooms, I will keep sabbath or holy time,\\nand suspend my gloom, and my folly and\\njokes. Nature is indulged by the presence of\\nthis guest. There are many eyes that can\\ndetect and honor the prudent and household\\nvirtues there are many than can discern Gen-\\nius on his starry track, though the mob is\\nincapable; but when that Jove which is all-\\nsuffering, all-abstaining, all-inspiring, which\\nhas vowed to itself, that it will be a wretch and\\nalso a fool in this world, sooner than soil its", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0164.jp2"}, "165": {"fulltext": "CHARACTER. 157\\nwhite hands by any compliances, comes into\\nour streets and houses, only the pure and\\naspiring can know its face, and the only com-\\npliment they can pay it, is to own it.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0165.jp2"}, "166": {"fulltext": "ESSAY VI.\\nMANNERS.\\nHalf the world, it is said, knows not how\\nthe other half live. Our Exploring Expedi-\\ntion saw the Feejee islanders getting their\\ndinner off human bones and they are said to\\neat their own wives and children. The hus-\\nbandry of the modern inhabitants of Gournou\\n(west of old Thebes) is philosophical to a fault\\nTo set up their housekeeping, nothing is requi-\\nsite but two or three earthen pots, a stone to\\ngrind meal, and a mat which is the bed. The\\nhouse, namely, a tomb, is ready without rent\\nor taxes. No rain can pass through the roof,\\nand there is no door, for there is no want of\\none, and there is nothing to lose. If the house\\ndo not please them, they walk out and enter\\nanother, as there are several hundreds at their\\ncommand. **It is somewhat singular,* adds\\nBelzoni, to whom we owe this account, **to\\ntalk of happiness among people who live in\\nsepulchres, among the corpses and rags of an\\nancient nation which they know nothing of.\\n158", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0166.jp2"}, "167": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 159\\nIn the deserts of Borgoo, the rock-Tiboos still\\ndwell in caves, like cliff-swallows, and the lan-\\nguage of these negroes is compared by their\\nneighbors to the shrieking of bats, and to the\\nwhistling of birds. Again, the Bornoos have\\nno proper names; individuals are called after\\ntheir height, thickness, or other accidental\\nquality, and have nick-names merely. But\\nthe salt, the dates, the ivory, and the gold, for\\nwhich these horrible regions are visited, find\\ntheir way into countries where the purchaser\\nand consumer can hardly be ranked in one\\nrace with these cannibals and man-steal ers;\\ncountries where man serves himself with\\nmetals, wood, stone, glass, gum, cotton, silk,\\nand wool; honors himself with architecture;\\nwrites laws, and contrives to execute his will\\nthrough the hands of many nations and,\\nespecially, establishes a select society, run-\\nning through all the countries of intelligent\\nmen a self-constituted aristocracy, or frater-\\nnity of the best, which, without written law or\\nexact usage of any kind, perpetuates itself,\\ncolonizes every new-planted island, and adopts\\nand makes its own whatever personal beauty\\nor extraordinary native endowment anywhere\\nappears.\\nWhat fact more conspicuous in modern his-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0167.jp2"}, "168": {"fulltext": "160 ESSAY VI.\\ntory than the creation of the gentleman? Chiv-\\nalry is that, and loyalty is that, and, in English\\nliterature, half the drama and all the novels,\\nfrom Sir Philip Sidney to Sir Walter Scott,\\npaint this figure. The word gentleman, which,\\nlike the word Christian must hereafter\\ncharacterize the present and the few preceding\\ncenturies, by the importance attached to it, is\\na homage to personal and incommunicable\\nproperties. Frivolous and fantastic additions\\nhave got associated with the name, but the\\nsteady interest of mankind in it must be attrib-\\nuted to the valuable properties which it desig-\\nnates. An element which unites all the most\\nforcible persons of every country; makes them\\nintelligible and agreeable to each other, and is\\nsomewhat so precise, that it is at once felt if\\nan individual lack the masonic sign, cannot be\\nany casual product, but must be an average\\nresult of the character and faculties universally\\nfound in men. It seems a certain permanent\\naverage; as the atmosphere is a permanent\\ncomposition, whilst so many gases are com-\\nbined only to be decompounded. Comme il\\nfaut^ is the Frenchman s description of good\\nsociety, as we must be. It is a spontaneous\\nfruit of talents and feelings of precisely that\\nclass who have most vigor, who take the lead", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0168.jp2"}, "169": {"fulltext": "The house namely, a tomb is ready. Page 158,\\nEmerson s Essays.\u00e2\u0080\u0094 Vol. II.", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0169.jp2"}, "170": {"fulltext": "^_^^^^^g^^_^^", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0170.jp2"}, "171": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 161\\nin the world of this hour, and, though far from\\npure, far from constituting the gladdest and\\nhighest tone of human feeling, is as good as\\nthe whole society permits it to be. It is made\\nof the spirit, more than of the talent of men,\\nand is a compound result, into which every\\ngreat force enters as an ingredient, namely,\\nvirtue, wit, beauty, wealth and power.\\nThere is something equivocal in all the words\\nin use to express the excellence of manners\\nand social cultivation, because the quantities\\nare fluxional, and the last effect is assumed\\nby the senses as the cause. The word gentle-\\nman has not any correlative abstract to ex-\\npress the quality. Gentility is mean, and gen-\\ntilesse is obsolete. But we must keep alive in\\nthe vernacular, the distinction between fash-\\nion, a word of narrow and often sinister mean-\\ning, and the heroic character which the\\ngentleman imports. The usual words, how-\\never, must be respected: they will be found\\nto contain the root of the matter. The point\\nof distinction in all this class of names, as\\ncourtesy, chivalry, fashion, and the like, is,\\nthat the flower and fruit, not the grain of the\\ntree, are contemplated. It is beauty which is\\nthe aim this time, and not worth. The result\\nis now in question, although our words inti-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0171.jp2"}, "172": {"fulltext": "162 ESSAY VI.\\nmate well enough the popular feeling, that the\\nappearance supposes a substance. The gen-\\ntleman is a man of truth, lord of his own\\nactions, and expressing that lordship in his\\nbehavior, not in any manner dependent and\\nservile either on persons, or opinions, or pos-\\nsessions. Beyond this fact of truth and real\\nforce, the word denotes good-nature or benev-\\nolence: manhood first, and then gentleness.\\nThe popular notion certainly adds a condition\\nof ease and fortune; but that is a natural\\nresult of personal force and love, that they\\nshould possess and dispense the goods of the\\nworld. In times of violence, every eminent\\nperson must fall in with many opportunities\\nto approye his stoutness and worth therefore\\nevery man s name that emerged at all from\\nthe mass in the feudal ages, rattles in our ear\\nlike a flourish of trumpets. But personal\\nforce never goes out of fashion. That is still\\nparamount to-day, and, in the moving crowd\\nof good society, the men of valor and reality\\nare known, and rise to their natural place.\\nThe competition is transferred from war to\\npolitics and trade, but the personal force ap-\\npears readily enough in these new arenas.\\nPower first, or no leading class. In politics\\nand in trade, bruisers and pirates are of better", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0172.jp2"}, "173": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 163\\npromise than talkers and clerks. God knows\\nthat all sorts of gentlemen knock at the door\\nbut whenever used in strictness, and with any\\nemphasis, the name will be found to point at\\noriginal energy. It describes a man standing\\nin his own right, and working after untaught\\nmethods. In a good lord, there must first be a\\ngood animal, at least to the extent of yielding\\nthe incomparable advantage of animal spirits.\\nThe ruling class must have more, but they\\nmust have these, giving in every company the\\nsense of power, which makes things easy to be\\ndone which daunt the wise. The society of the\\nenergetic class, in their friendly and festive\\nmeetings is full of courage, and of attempts,\\nwhich intimidate the pale scholar. The cour-\\nage which girls exhibit is like a battle of Lun-\\ndys Lane, or a sea fight. The intellect relies\\non memory to make some supplies to face these\\nextemporaneous squadrons. But memory is a\\nbase mendicant with basket and badge, in the\\npresence of these sudden masters. The rulers\\nof society must be up to the work of the world,\\nand equal to their versatile office men of the\\nright Caesarean pattern, who have great range\\nof affinity. I am far from believing the timid\\nmaxim of Lord Falkland that for ceremony\\nthere must go two to it since a bold fellow", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0173.jp2"}, "174": {"fulltext": "164 ESSAY VI.\\nwill go through the cunningest forms and\\nam of the opinion that the gentleman is the\\nbold fellow whose forms are not to be broken\\nthrough and only that plenteous nature is\\nrightful master, which is the complement of\\nwhatever person it converses with. My gentle-\\nman gives the law where he is he will outpray\\nsaints in chapel, outgeneral veterans in the\\nfield, and outshine all courtesy in the hall.\\nHe is good company for pirates, and good with\\nacademicians so that it is useless to fortify\\nyourself against him; he has the private en-\\ntrance to all minds, and I could as easily ex-\\nclude myself, as him. The famous gentlemen\\nof Asia and Europe have been of this strong\\ntype: Saladin, Sapor, the Cid, Julius Csesar,\\nScipio, Alexander, Pericles, and the lordliest\\npersonages. They sat very carelessly in their\\nchairs, and were too excellent themselves, to\\nvalue any condition at a high rate.\\nA plentiful fortune is reckoned necessary, in\\nthe popular judgment to the completion of this\\nman of the world and it is a material deputy\\nwhich walks through the dance which the first\\nhas led. Money is not essential, but this wide\\naffinity is, which transcends the habits of clique\\nand caste, and makes itself felt by men of all\\nclasses. If the aristocrat is only valid in fash-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0174.jp2"}, "175": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 165\\nionable circles, and not with truckmen, he will\\nnever be a leader in fashion and if the man of\\nthe people cannot speak on equal terms with\\nthe gentleman, so that the gentleman shall\\nperceive that he is already really of his own\\norder, he is not to be feared. Diogenes, Soc-\\nrates, and Epaminondas are gentlemen of the\\nbest blood, who have chosen the condition of\\npoverty, when that of wealth was equally open\\nto them. I use these old names, but the men\\nI speak of are my contemporaries. Fortune\\nwill not supply to every generation one of\\nthese well-appointed knights, but every collec-\\ntion of men furnishes some example of the\\nclass and the politics of this country, and the\\ntrade of every town, are controlled by these\\nhardy and irresponsible doers, who have inven-\\ntion to take the lead, and a broad sympathy\\nwhich puts them in fellowship with crowds,\\nand makes their action popular.\\nThe manners of this class are observed and\\ncaught with devotion by men of taste. The\\nassociation of these masters with each other,\\nand with men intelligent of their merits, is\\nmutually agreeable and stimulating. The good\\nforms, the happiest expressions of each, are\\nrepeated and adopted. By swift consent,\\neverything superfluoi^s is dropped, everything", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0175.jp2"}, "176": {"fulltext": "166 ESSAY VI.\\ngraceful is renewed. Fine manners show\\nthemselves formidable to the uncultivated man.\\nThey are a subtler science of defence to\\nparry and intimidate; but once matched by\\nthe skill of the other party, the}^ drop the point\\nof the sword, points and fences disappear,\\nand the youth finds himself in a more trans-\\nparent atmosphere, wherein life is a less trou-\\nblesome game, and not a misunderstanding\\nrises between the players. Manners aid to\\nfacilitate life, to get rid of impediments, and\\nbring the man pure to energize. They aid\\nour dealing and conversation, as a railway aids\\ntraveling, by getting rid of all avoidable ob-\\nstructions of the road, and leaving nothing to\\nbe conquered but pure space. These forms\\nvery soon become fixed, and a fine sense of\\npropriety is cultivated with the more heed,\\nthat it becomes a badge of social and civil dis-\\ntinctions. Thus grows up Fashion, an equiv-\\nocal semblance, the most puissant, the most\\nfantastic and frivolous, the most feared and\\nfollowed, and which mortals and violence\\nassault in vain.\\nThere exists a strict relation between the\\nclass of power, and the exclusive and polished\\ncircles. The last are always filled or filling\\nfrom the first. The strong men usually give", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0176.jp2"}, "177": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 187\\nsome allowance even to the petulances of\\nfashion, for that affinity they find in it. Na-\\npoleon, child of the revolution, destroyer of the\\nold noblesse, never ceased to court the Fau-\\nbourg St. Germain doubtless with the feeling,\\nthat fashion is a homage to men of his stamp.\\nFashion, though in a strange way, represents\\nall manly virtue. It is virtue gone to seed: it\\nis a kind of posthumous honor. It does not\\noften caress the great, but the children of the\\ngreat it is a hall of the Past It usually sets\\nits face against the great of this hour. Great\\nmen are not commonly in its halls: they are\\nabsent in the field they are working, not tri-\\numphing. Fashion is made up of their\\nchildren; of those who, through the value and\\nvirtue of somebody, have acquired lustre to\\n.their name, marks of distinction, means of\\ncultivation and generosity, and, in their phy-\\nsical organization, a certain health and excel-\\nlence which secures to them if not the highest\\npower to work yet high power to enjoy. The\\nclass of power, the working heroes, the Cortez,\\nthe Nelson, the Napoleon, see that this is the\\nfestivity and permanent celebration of such\\nas they; that fashion is funded talent; is Mex-\\nico, Marengo, and Trafalgar beaten out thin\\nthat the brilliant names of fashion run back to", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0177.jp2"}, "178": {"fulltext": "168 ESSAY VI.\\njust such busy names as their own fifty or\\nsixty years ago. They are the sowers, their\\nsons shall be the reapers, and their sons in the\\nordinary course of things must yield the pos-\\nsession of the harvest to new competitors with\\nkeener eyes and stronger frames. The city is\\nrecruited from the country. In the year 1805\\nit is said every legitimate monarch in Europe\\nwas imbecile. The city would have died out\\nrotted, and exploded long ago but that it was\\nreinforced from the fields. It is only country\\nwhich came to town day before yesterday, that\\nis city and court to-day.\\nAristocracy and fashion are certain inevitable\\nresults. These mutual selections are inde-\\nstructible. If they provoke anger in the least\\nfavored class, and the excluded majority re-\\nvenge themselves on the excluding minority,\\nby the strong hand, and kill them, at once a\\nnew class finds itself at the top, as certainly as\\ncream rises in a bowl of milk: and if the peo-\\nple should destroy class after class, until two\\nmen only were left, one of these would be the\\nleader, and would be involuntarily served and\\ncopied by the other. You may keep this\\nminority out of sight and out of mind, but it\\nis tenacious of life, and is one of the estates of\\nthe realm. I am the more struck with this", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0178.jp2"}, "179": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 169\\ntenacity, when I see its work. It respects the\\nadministration of such unimportant matters\\nthat we should not look for any durability in\\nits rule. We sometimes meet men under some\\nstrong moral influence, as, a patriotic, a lit-\\nerary, a religious movement and feel that the\\nmoral sentiment rules man and nature. We\\nthink all other distinctions and ties will be\\nslight and fugitive, this of caste or fashion for\\nexample yet come from year to year and see\\nhow permanent that is, in this Boston or New\\nYork life of man, where, too, it has not the\\nleast countenance from the law of the land.\\nNot in Egypt or in India a firmer or more\\nimpassable line. Here are associations\\nwhose ties go over and under, and through it,\\na meeting of merchants, a military corps, a\\ncollege class, a fire-club, a professional associa-\\ntion, a political, a religious convention; the\\npersons seem to draw inseparably near; yet,\\nthat assembly once dispersed, its members will\\nnot in the year meet again. Each returns to\\nhis degree in the scale of good society, por-\\ncelain remains porcelain, and earthen earthen.\\nThe objects of fashion may be frivolous, or\\nfashion may be objectless, but the nature of\\nthis union and selection can be neither frivol-\\nous nor accidental. Each man s rank in that", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0179.jp2"}, "180": {"fulltext": "170 ESSAY VI.\\nperfect graduation depends on some symmetry\\nin his structure, or some agreement in his\\nstructure to the symmetry of society. Its\\ndoors unbar instantaneously to a natural claim\\nof. their own kind. A natural gentleman\\nfinds his way in, and will keep the oldest patri-\\ncian out, who has lost his intrinsic rank.\\nFashion understands itself; good breeding and\\npersonal superiority of whatsoever country\\nreadily fraternize with those of every other.\\nThe chiefs of savage tribes have distinguished\\nthemselves in London and Paris, by the purity\\nof their tournure.\\nTo say what good of fashion we can, it rest^\\non reality, and hates nothing so much as pre-\\ntenders; to exclude and mystify pretenders,\\nand send them into everlasting Coventry/*\\nis its delight. We contemn, in turn, every\\nother gift of men of the world but the habit\\neven in little and the least matters, of not\\nappealing to any but our own sense of propri-\\nety, constitutes the foundation of all chivalry.\\nThere is almost no kind of self-reliance, so it\\nbe sane and proportioned, which fashion does\\nnot occasionally adopt and give it the freedom\\nof its saloons. A sainted soul is always\\nelegant, and, if it will, passes unchallenged\\ninto the most guarded ring. But so will Jock", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0180.jp2"}, "181": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 171\\nthe teamster pass, in some crisis that orings\\nhim thither, and find favor, as long as his head\\nis not giddy with the new circumstance, and\\nthe iron shoes do not wish to dance in waltzes\\nand cotillions. For there is nothing settled in\\nmanners, but the laws of behavior yield to the\\nenergy of the individual. The maiden at her\\nfirst ball, the countryman at a city dinner,\\nbelieves that there is a ritual according to\\nwhich every act and compliment must be per-\\nformed, or the failing party must be cast out\\nof this presence. Later, they learn that good\\nsense and character make their own forms\\nevery moment, and speak or abstain, take\\nwine or refuse it, stay or go, sit in a chair or\\nsprawl with children on the floor, or stand on\\ntheir head, or what else soever, in a new and\\naboriginal way: and that strong will is always\\nin fashion, let who will be unfashionable. All\\nthat fashion demands is composure, and self-\\ncontent. A circle of men perfectly well-bred\\nwould be a company of sensible persons, in\\nwhich every man s native manners and charac-\\nter appeared. If the fashionist have not this\\nquality, he is nothing. We are such lovers of\\nself-reliance, that we excuse in a man many\\nsins, if he will show us a complete satisfaction\\nin his position, which asks no leave to be, of", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0181.jp2"}, "182": {"fulltext": "172 ESSAY VI.\\nmine, or any man s good opinion. But any\\ndeference to some eminent man or woman of\\nthe world forfeits all privilege of nobility.\\nHe is an underling I have nothing to do with\\nhim I will speak with his master. A man\\nshould not go where he cannot carry his whole\\nsphere or society with him, not bodily, the\\nwhole circle of his friends, but atmospheric-\\nally. He should preserve in a new company\\nthe same attitude of mind and reality of rela-\\ntion, which his daily associates draw him to,\\nelse he is shorn of his best beams, and will be\\nan orphan in the merriest club. If you\\ncould see Vich Ian Vohr with his tail on!\\nBut Vich Ian Vohr must always carry his be-\\nlongings in some fashion, if not added as\\nhonor, then severed as disgrace.\\nThere will always be in society certain per-\\nsons who are mercuries of its approbation, and\\nwhose glance will at any time determine for\\nthe curious their standing in the world. These\\nare the chamberlains of the lesser gods.\\nAccept their coldness as an omen of grace with\\nthe loftier deities, and allow them all their\\nprivilege. They are clear in their office, nor\\ncould they be thus formidable, without their\\nown merits. But do not measure the impor-\\ntance of this class by their pretension, or", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0182.jp2"}, "183": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 173\\nimagine that a fop can be the dispenser of\\nhonor and shame. They pass also at their\\njust rate: for how can they otherwise, in\\ncircles which exist as a sort of herald s office\\nfor the sifting of character?\\nAs the first thing man requires of man is\\nreality, so that appears in all forms of society.\\nWe pointedly, and by name, introduce the\\nparties to each other. Know you before all\\nheaven and earth, that this is Andrew, and\\nthis is Gregory they look each other in the\\neye; and grasp each other s hand, to identify\\nand signalize each other. It is a great satisfac-\\ntion. A gentleman never dodges: his eyes\\nlook straight forward, and he assures the other\\nparty, first of all, that he has been met. For\\nwhat is it that we seek, in so many visits and\\nhospitalities? Is it your draperies, pictures,\\nand decorations? Or, do we not insatiably ask,\\nWas a man in the house? I may easily go\\ninto a great household where there is much\\nsubstance, excellent provision for comfort,\\nluxury and taste, and yet not encounter there\\nany Amphitryon, who shall subordinate these\\nappendages. I may go into a cottage, and\\nfind a farmer who feels that he is the man I\\nhave come to see, and fronts me accordingly.\\nIt was therefore a very natural point of old", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0183.jp2"}, "184": {"fulltext": "174 ESSAY VI.\\nfeudal etiquette, that a gentleman who re-\\nceived a visit, though it were of his sovereign,\\nshould not leave his roof, but should wait his\\narrival at the door of his house. No house,\\nthough it were the Tuileries, or the Escurial\\nis good for anything without a master. And\\nyet we are not often gratified by this hospi-\\ntality. Everybody we know surrounds himself\\nwith a fine house, fine books, conservatory,\\ngardens, equipage, and all manner of toys, as\\nscreens to interpose between himself and his\\nguest. Does it not seem as if man was of a\\nvery sly, elusive nature, and dreaded nothing\\nso much as a full encounter front to front with\\nhis fellow? It were unmerciful, I know, quite\\nto abolish the use of these screens, which are\\nof eminent convenience, whether the guest is\\ntoo great, or too little. We call together many\\nfriends who keep each other in play, or, by\\nluxuries and ornaments we amuse the young\\npeople, and guard our retirement. Or if, per-\\nchance, a searching realist comes to our gate,\\nbefore whose eye we have no care to stand,\\nthen again w^e run to our curtain, and hide\\nourselves as Adam at the voice of the Lord\\nGod in the garden. Cardinal Caprara, the\\nPope s legate at Paris, defended himself from\\nthe glances of Napoleon, by an immense pair", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0184.jp2"}, "185": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 175\\nof green spectacles. Napoleon remarked\\nthem, and speedily managed to rally them off:\\nand yet Napoleon, in his turn, was not great\\nenough with eight hundred thousand troops a\\nhis back, to face a pair of freeborn eyes, but\\nfenced himself with etiquette, and within\\ntriple barriers of reserve: and, as all the\\nworld knows from Madame de Stael, was wont,\\nwhen he found himself observed, to discharge\\nhis face of all expression. But emperors and\\nrich men are by no means the most skilful mas-\\nters of good manners. No rent-roll nor army\\nlist can dignify skulking and dissimulation:\\nand the first point of courtesy must always be\\ntruth, as really all the forms of good-breeding\\npoint that way.\\nI have just been reading, in Mr. Hazlitt s\\ntranslation, Montaigne s account of his journey\\ninto Italy, and am struck with nothing more\\nagreeably than the self-respecting fashions of\\nthe time. His arrival in each place, the arri-\\nval of a gentleman of France, is an event of\\nsome consequence. Wherever he goes, he pays\\na visit to whatever prince or gentleman of note\\nresides upon his road, as a duty to himself and\\nto civilization. When he leaves any house in\\nwhich he has lodged for a few weeks, he causes\\nhis arms to be painted and hung up as a per-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0185.jp2"}, "186": {"fulltext": "176 ESSAY VI.\\npetual sign to the house, as was the custom of\\ngentlemen.\\nThe complement of this graceful self-\\nrespect, and that of all the points of good\\nbreeding I most require and insist upon, is\\ndeference. I like that every chair should be a\\nthrone, and hold a king. I prefer a tendency\\nto stateliness, to an excess of fellowship. Let\\nthe incommunicable objects of nature and the\\nmetaphysical isolation of man teach us inde-\\npendence. Let us not be too much acquainted.\\nI would have a man enter his house through a\\nhall filled v/ith heroic and sacred sculptures,\\nthat he might not want the hint of tranquillity\\nand self-poise. We should meet each morning,\\nas from foreign countries, and spending the\\nday together, should depart at night, as into\\nforeign countries. In all things I would have\\nthe island of man inviolate. Let us sit apart\\nas the gods, talking from peak to peak all\\naround Olympus. No degree of affection need\\ninvade this religion. This is myrrh and rose-\\nmary to keep the other sweet. Lovers should\\nguard their strangeness. If they forgive too\\nmuch, all slides into confusion and meanness.\\nIt is easy to push this deference to a Chinese\\netiquette; but coolness and absence of heat\\nand haste indicate fine qualities. A gentleman", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0186.jp2"}, "187": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 177\\nmakes no noise a lady is serene. Proportion-\\nate is our disgust at those invaders who fill a\\nstudious house with blast and running, to se-\\ncure some paltry convenience. Not less I dis-\\nlike a low sympathy of each with his neighbor s\\nneeds. Must we have a good understanding\\nwith one another s palates? as foolish people\\nwho have lived long together, know when each\\nwants salt or sugar. I pray my companion, if\\nhe wishes for bread, to ask me for bread, and\\nif he wishes for sassafras or arsenic, to ask me\\nfor them, and not to hold out his plate, as if I\\nknew already. Every natural function can be\\ndignified by deliberation and privacy. Let us\\nleave hurry to slaves. The compliments and\\nceremonies of our breeding should signify,\\nhowever remotely, the recollections of the\\ngrandeur of our destiny.\\nThe flower of courtesy does not very well\\nbide handling, but if we dare to open another\\nleaf, and explore what parts go to its confor-\\nmation, we shall find also an intellectual qual-\\nity. To the leaders of men, the brain as well\\nas the flesh and the heart must furnish a pro-\\nportion. Defect in manners is usually the de-\\nfect of fine perceptions. Men are too coarsely\\nmade for the delicacy of beautiful carriage and\\ncUvStoms. It is not quite sufficient to good-\\n12", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0187.jp2"}, "188": {"fulltext": "178 ESSAY VI.\\nbreeding, a union of kindness and independ-\\nence. We imperatively require a perception\\nof, and a homage to beauty in our compan-\\nions. Other virtues are in request in the field\\nand work-yard, but a certain degree of taste is\\nnot to be spared in, those we sit with. I could\\nbetter eat with one who did not respect the\\ntruth of the laws, than with a sloven and un-\\npresentable person. Moral qualities rule the\\nworld, but at short distances the senses are\\ndespotic. The same discrimination of fit and\\nfair runs out, if with less rigor, into all parts\\nof life. The average spirit of the energetic\\nclass is good sense, acting under certain limi-\\ntations and to certain ends. It entertains\\nevery natural gift. Social in its nature, it re-\\nspects everything which tends to unite men.\\nIt delights in measure. The love of beauty is\\nmainly the love of measure or proportion.\\nThe person who screams, or uses the superla-\\ntive degree, or converses with heat, puts whole\\ndrawing-rooms to flight. If you wish to be\\nloved, love measure. You must have genius,\\nor a prodigious usefulness, if you will hide the\\nwant of measure. This perception comes in\\nto polish and perfect the parts of the social in-\\nstrument. Society will pardon much to genius\\nand special gifts, but, being in its nature a con-", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0188.jp2"}, "189": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 179\\nvention, it loves what is conventional, or what\\nbelongs to coming together. That makes the\\ngood and bad of manners, namely, what helps\\nor hinders fellowship. For fashion is not good\\nsense absolute, but relative; not good sense\\nprivate, but good sense entertaining company.\\nIt hates corners and sharp points of character,\\nthese quarrelsome, egotistical, solitary, and\\ngloomy people hates whatever can interfere\\nwith total blending of parties whilst it values\\nall peculiarities as in the highest degree re-\\nfreshing, which can consist with good fellow-\\nship. And besides the general infusion of wit\\nto heighten civility, the direct splendor of in-\\ntellectual power is ever welcome in fine soci-\\nety as the costliest addition to its rule and its\\ncredit.\\nThe dry light must shine in to adorn our fes-\\ntival, but it must be tempered and shaded, or\\nthat will also offend. Accuracy is essential to\\nbeauty, and quick perceptions to politeness,\\nbut not too quick perceptions. One may be\\ntoo punctual and too precise. He must leave\\nthe omniscience of business at the door, when\\nhe comes in the palace of beauty. Society\\nloves Creole natures, and sleepy, languishing\\nmanners, so that they cover sense, grace, and\\ngood- will; the air of drowsy strength, which", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0189.jp2"}, "190": {"fulltext": "180 ESSAY VI,\\ndisarms criticism; perhaps, because such a\\nperson seems to reserve himself for the best of\\nthe game, and not spend himself on surfaces;\\nan ignoring eye, which does not see the annoy-\\nances, shifts, and inconveniences, that cloud\\nthe brow and smother the voice of the sensi-\\ntive.\\nTherefore, beside personal force and so much\\nperception as constitutes unerring taste, society\\ndemands in its patrician class another element\\nalready intimated, which it significantly terms\\ngood-nature, expressing all degree of generos-\\nity, from the lowest willingness and faculty to\\noblige, up to the heights of magnanimity and\\nlove. Insight we must have, or we shall run\\nagainst one another, and miss the way to our\\nfood; but intelligence is selfish and barren.\\nThe secret of success in society is a certain\\nheartiness and sympathy. A man who is not\\nhappy in the company cannot find any word in\\nhis memory that will fit the occasion. All his\\ninformation is a little impertinent. A man\\nwho is happy there finds in every turn of the\\nconversation equally lucky occasions for the\\nintroduction of that which he has to say. The\\nfavorites of society, and what it calls whole\\nsouls, are able men, and of more spirit than\\nwit, who have no uncomfortable egotism, but", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0190.jp2"}, "191": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 181\\nwho exactly fill the hour and the company, con-\\ntented and contenting, at a marriage or a fu-\\nneral, a ball or a jury, a water-party or a shoot-\\ning-match. England, which is rich in gentle-\\nmen, furnished, in the beginning of the present\\ncentury, a good model of that genius which the\\nworld loves, in Mr. Fox, who added to his\\ngreat abilities the most social disposition, and\\nreal love of men. Parliamentary history has\\nfew better passages than the debate, in which\\nBurke and Fox separated in the House of Com-\\nmons when Fox urged on his old friend the\\nclaims of old friendship with such tenderness,\\nthat the house was moved to tears. Another\\nanecdote is so close to my matter, that I must\\nhazard the story. A tradesman who had long\\ndunned him for a note of three hundred\\nguineas, found him one day counting gold,\\nand demanded payment: No, said Fox, *I\\nowe this money to Sheridan it is a debt of\\nhonor; if an accident should happen to me, he\\nhas nothing to show. **Then/ said the\\ncreditor, I change my debt into a debt of\\nhonor, and tore the notes in pieces. Fox\\nthanked the man for his confidence, and paid\\nhim, saying, **his debt was of older standing,\\nand Sheridan must wait. Lover of liberty,\\nfriend of the Hindoo, friend of the African", "height": "3856", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0191.jp2"}, "192": {"fulltext": "182 ESSAY VI.\\nslave, he possessed a great personal popularity\\nand Napoleon said of him on the occasion of\\nhis visit to Paris, in 1805: Mr. Fox will al-\\nways hold the first place in an assembly at the\\nTuileries.\\nWe may easily seem ridiculous in our eulogy\\no\u00c2\u00a3 courtesy, whenever we insist on benevolence\\nas its foundation. The painted phantasm Fash-\\nion rises to cast a species of derision on what\\nwe say. But I will neither be driven from\\nsome allowance to Fashion as a symbolic insti-\\ntution, nor from the belief that love is the basis\\nof courtesy. We must obtain that, if we can;\\nbut by all means we must affirm this. Life\\nowes much of its spirit to these sharp con-\\ntrasts. Fashion which affects to be honor is\\noften, in all men s experience, only a ball-room\\ncode. Yet, so long as it is the highest circle,\\nin the imagination of the best heads on the\\nplanet, there is something necessary and ex-\\ncellent in it; for it is not to be supposed that\\nmen have agreed to be the dupes of anything\\npreposterous; and the respect which these\\nmysteries inspire in the most rude and sylvan\\ncharacters, and the curiosity with which details\\nof high life are read, betray the universality\\nof the love of cultivated manners. I know that\\na comic disparity would be left, if we should", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0192.jp2"}, "193": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 183\\nenter the acknowledged first circles and\\napply these terrific standards of justice, beauty,\\nand benefit to the individuals found there.\\nMonarchs and heroes, sages and lovers, these\\ngallants are not. Fashion has many classes and\\nmany rules of probation and admission and\\nnot the best alone. There is not only the\\nright of conquest, which genius pretends, the\\nindividual, demonstrating his natural aristoc-\\nracy best of the best but less claims will pass\\nfor the time; for Fashion loves lions, and\\npoints, like Circe, to her horned company.\\nThis gentleman is this afternoon arrived from\\nDenmark; and that is my Lord Ride, who\\ncame yesterday from Bagdad: here is Captain\\nFriese, from Cape Turnagain; and Captain\\nSymmes, from the interior of the earth and\\nMonsieur Jovaire, who came down this morn-\\ning in a balloon Mr. Hobnail, the reformer,\\nand Reverend Jul Bat, who has converted the\\nwhole torrid zone in his Sunday-school in Sig-\\nnor Torre del Greco, who. extinguished Vesu-\\nvius by pouring into it the Bay of Naples;\\nSpahi, the Persian ambassador; and Tul Wil\\nShan, the exiled nabob of Nepaul, whose sad-\\ndle is the new moon. But these are monsters\\nof one day, and to-morrow will be dismissed\\nto their holes and dens for, in these rooms,", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0193.jp2"}, "194": {"fulltext": "184 ESSAY VI.\\nevery chair is waited for. The artist, the\\nscholar, and, in general, the clerisy, wins its\\nway up into these places, and gets represented\\nhere, somewhat on this footing of conquest.\\nAnother mode is to pass through all the de-\\ngrees, spending a year and a day in St. Mich-\\nael s Square, being steeped in Cologne water,\\nand perfumed, and dined, and introduced, and\\nproperly grounded in all the biography, and\\npolitics, and anecdotes of the boudoirs.\\nYet these fineries may have grace and wit.\\nLet there be grotesque sculpture about the\\ngates and offices of temples. Let the creed\\nand commandments even have the saucy hom-\\nage of parody. The forms of politeness uni-\\nversally express benevolence in superlative de-\\ngrees. What if they are in the mouths of self-\\nish men, and used as means of selfishness?\\nWhat if the false gentleman almost bows the\\ntrue out of the world? What if the false gen-\\ntleman contrives so to address his companion,\\nas civilly to exclude all others from his dis-\\ncourse, and also to make them feel excluded?\\nReal service will not lose its nobleness. All\\ngenerosity is not merely French and senti-\\nmental, nor is it to be concealed, that living\\nblood and a passion of kindness does at last\\ndistinguish God s gentleman from Fashion s.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0194.jp2"}, "195": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 185\\nThe epitaph of Sir Jenkin Grout is not wholly\\nunintelligible to the present age. Here lies\\nSir Jenkin Grout, who loved his friend, and\\npersuaded his enemy; what his mouth ate, his\\nhand paid for; what his servants robbed, he\\nrestored if a woman gave him pleasure, he\\nsupported her in pain he never forgot his chil-\\ndren; and who so touched his finger, drew\\nafter it. his whole body. Even the line of\\nheroes is not utterly extinct. There is still\\never some admirable person in plain clothes,\\nstanding on the wharf, who jumps in to rescue\\na drowning man there is still some absurd\\ninventor of charities; some guide and com-\\nforter of runaway slaves; some friend of\\nPoland; some Philhellene; some fanatic who\\nplants shade-trees for the second and third\\ngeneration, and orchards when he is grown old\\nsome well-concealed piety, some just man\\nhappy in an ill-fame some youth ashamed of\\nthe favors of fortune, and impatiently casting\\nthem on other shoulders. And these are the\\ncenters of society, on which it returns for fresh\\nimpulses. These are the creators of Fashion,\\nwhich is an attempt to organize beauty of be-\\nhavior. The beautiful and the generous are,\\nin the theory, the doctors and apostles of this\\nchurch; Scipio, and the Cid, and Sir Philip", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0195.jp2"}, "196": {"fulltext": "186 ESSAY VI.\\nSidney, and Washington, and every pure and\\nvaliant heart, who worshiped Beauty by word\\nand by deed. The persons who constitute the\\nnatural aristocracy are not found in the actual\\n-aristocracy, or, only on its edge; as the\\nchemical energy of the spectrum is found\\nto be greatest just outside of the spectrum.\\nYet that is the infirmity of the seneschals, who\\ndo not know their sovereign, when he appears.\\nThe theory of society supposes the existence\\nand sovereignty of these. It divines afar off\\ntheir coming. It says with the elder gods,\\nAs Heaven and Earth are fairer far\\nThan Chaos and blank Darkness, though once chiefs\\nAnd as we show beyond that Heaven and Earth,\\nIn form and shape compact and beautiful\\nSo, on our heels a fresh perfection treads;\\nA power, more strong in beauty, born of us,\\nAnd fated to excel us, as we pass\\nIn glory that old Darkness\\nfor *tis the eternal law.\\nThat first in beauty shall be first in might.**\\nTherefore, within the ethnical circle of good\\nsociety, there is a narrower and higher circle,\\nconcentration of its light, and flower of cour-\\ntesy, to which there is always a tacit appeal of\\npride and reference, as to its inner and impe-\\nrial court, the parliament of love and chivalry.\\nAnd this is constituted of those persons in\\nwhom heroic dispositions are native, with the", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0196.jp2"}, "197": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 187\\nlove of beauty, the delight in society, and the\\npower to embellish the passing day. If the in-\\ndividuals who compose the purest circles of\\naristocracy in Europe, the guarded blood of\\ncenturies, should pass in review, in such man-\\nner as that we could, at leisure, and critically\\ninspect their behavior, we might find no gen-\\ntleman, and no lady; for, although excellent\\nspecimens of courtesy and high-breeding would\\ngratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars\\nwe should detect offence. Because, elegance\\ncomes of no breeding, but of birth. There\\nmust be romance of character, or the most fas-\\ntidious exclusion of impertinence will not\\navail. It must be genius which takes that\\ndirection it must be not courteous, but cour-\\ntesy. High behavior is as rare in fiction as it\\nis in fact Scott is praise d for the fidelity with\\nwhich he painted the demeanor and conversa-\\ntion of the superior classes. Certainly, kings\\nand queens, nobles and great ladies, had some\\nright to complain of the absurdity that had\\nbeen put in their mouths, before the days of\\nWaverly but neither does Scott s dialogue bear\\ncriticism. His lords brave each other in smart\\nepigrammatic speeches, but the dialogue is in\\ncostume, and does not please on the second\\nreading; it is not warm with life. In Shake-", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0197.jp2"}, "198": {"fulltext": "188 ESSAY VI.\\nspeare alone, the speakers do not strut and\\nbridle, the dialogue is easily great, and he\\nadds to so many titles that of being the best-\\nbred man in England, and in Christendom.\\nOnce or twice in a life-time we are permitted\\nto enjoy the charm of noble manners, in the\\npresence of a man or woman who have no bar\\nin their nature, but whose character emanates\\nfreely in their word and gesture. A beautiful\\nform is better than a beautiful face a beauti-\\nful behavior is better than a beautiful form it\\ngives a higher pleasure than statues or pic-\\ntures; it is the finest of the fine arts. A man\\nis but a little thing in the midst of the objects\\nof nature, yet by the moral quality radiating\\nfrom his countenance, he may abolish all con-\\nsiderations of magnitude, and in his manners\\nequal the majesty of the world. I have seen-\\nan individual, whose manners, though wholly\\nwithin the conventions of elegant society, were\\nnever learned there^ but were original and com-\\nmanding, and held out protection and prosper-\\nity one who did not need the aid of a court-\\nsuit, but carried the holiday in his eye; who\\nexhilarated the fancy by flinging wide the\\ndoors of new modes of existence who shook\\noff the activity of etiquette, with happy, spir-\\nited bearing, good-natured and free as Robin", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0198.jp2"}, "199": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 189\\nHood; yet with the port of an emperor, if\\nneed be, calm, serious, and fit to stand the gaze\\nof millions.\\nThe open air and the fields, the street and\\npublic chambers, are the places where Man ex-\\necutes his will; let him yield or divide the\\nsceptre at the door of the house. Woman,\\nwith her instinct of behavior, instantly detects\\nin man a love of trifles, any coldness or imbe-\\ncility, or, in short, any want of that large, flow-\\ning, and magnanimous deportment, which is\\nindispensable as an exterior in the hall. Our\\nAmerican institutions have been friendly to\\nher, and at this moment I esteem it a chief\\nfelicity of this country, thatit excels in women.\\nA certain awkward consciousness of inferiority\\nin the men may give rise to the new chivalry\\nin behalf of Woman s Rights. Certainly, let\\nher be as much better placed in the laws and\\nin social forms as the most zealous reformer\\ncan ask, but I confide so entirely in her inspir-\\ning and musical nature, that I believe only\\nherself can show us how she shall be served.\\nThe wonderful generosity of her sentiments\\nraises her at times into heroical and godlike\\nregions and verifies the pictures of Minerva,\\nJuno, or Polymnia; and, by the firmness with\\nwhich she treads her upward path, she con-", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0199.jp2"}, "200": {"fulltext": "190 ESSAY VI.\\nvinces the coarsest calculators that another\\nroad exists, than that which their feet know.\\nBut besides those who make good in our imag-\\nination the place of muses and of Delphic\\nSibyls, are there not women who fill our vase\\nwith wine and roses to the brim, so that the\\nwine runs over and fills the house with perfume\\nwho inspire us with courtesy; who unloose\\nour tongues, and we speak who anoint our\\neyes, and we see? We say things we never\\nthought to have said for once our walls of\\nhabitual reserve vanished, and left us at large\\nwe were children playing with children in a\\nwide field of flowers. Steep us, we cried, in\\nthese influences, for days, for weeks, and we\\nshall be sunny poets, and will write out in\\nmany-colored words the romance that 3^ou are.\\nWas it Hafiz or Firdousi that said of his Per-\\nsian Lilla, She was an elemental force, and\\nastonished me by her amount of life, when I\\nsaw her day after day radiating, every instant,\\nredundant joy and grace on all around her.\\nShe was a solvent powerful to reconcile all\\nheterogeneous persons into one society; like\\nair or water, an element of such a great range\\nof affinities, that it combines readily with a\\nthousand substances. Where she is present,\\nall others will be more than they are wont.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0200.jp2"}, "201": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 191\\nShe was a unit and whole, so that whatsoever\\nshe did, became her. She had too much sym-\\npathy and desire to please, than that you could\\nsay, her manners were marked with dignity;\\nyet no princess could surpass her clear and\\nerect demeanor on each occasion. She did not\\nstudy the Persian grammar, nor the books of\\nthe seven poets, but all the poems of the seven\\nseemed to be written upon her. For, though\\nthe bias of her nature was not to thought, but\\nto sympathy, yet was she so perfect in her own\\nnature, as to meet intellectual persons by the\\nfulness of her heart, warming them by her\\nsentiments; believing, as she did, that by deal-\\ning nobly with all, all could show themselves\\nnoble.\\nI know that this Byzantine pile of chivalry\\nor Fashion which seems so fair and picturesque\\nto those who look at the contemporary facts for\\nscience or for entertainment, is not equally\\npleasant to all spectators. The constitution\\nof our society makes it a giant^s castle to\\nthe ambitious youth who have not found their\\nnames enrolled in its Golden Book, and whom\\nit has excluded from its coveted honors and\\nprivileges. They have yet to learn that its\\nseeming grandeur is shadowy and relative; it\\nis great by their allowance its proudest gates", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0201.jp2"}, "202": {"fulltext": "192 ESSAY VI.\\nwill fly open at the approach of their courage\\nand virtue. For the present distress, how-\\never, of those who are predisposed to suffer\\nfrom the tyrannies of this caprice, there are\\neasy remedies. To move your residence a\\ncouple of miles, or at most four, will commonly\\nrelieve the most supreme susceptibility. For,\\nthe advantages which fashion values are plants\\nwhich thrive in very confined localities, in a\\nfew streets, namely. Out of this precinct,\\nthey go for nothing; are of no use in the farm,\\nin the forest, in the market, in war, in the\\nnuptial society, in the literary or scientific cir-\\ncle, at sea, in friendship, in the heaven of\\nthought or virtue.\\nBut we have lingered long enough in these\\npainted courts. The worth of the thing signi-\\nfied must vindicate our taste for the emblem.\\nEverything that is called fashion and courtesy\\nhumbles itself before the cause and fountain\\nof honor, creator of titles and dignities, namely,\\nthe heart of love. This is the royal blood, this\\nthe fire, which, in all countries and contingen-\\ncies, will work after its kind, and conquer and\\nexpand all that approaches it. This gives new\\nmeanings to every fact. This impoverishes the\\nrich, suffering no grandeur but its own. What\\nis rich? Are you rich enough to help anybody?", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0202.jp2"}, "203": {"fulltext": "MANNERS. 193\\nto succor the unfashionable and the eccentric?\\nrich enough to make the Canadian in his\\nwagon, the itinerant with his consults paper\\nwhich commends him **To the charitable/* the\\nswarthy Italian with his few broken words of\\nEnglish, the lame pauper hunted by overseers\\nfrom town to town, even the poor insane or\\nbesotted wreck of man or woman feel the noble\\nexception of your presence and your house,\\nfrom the general bleakness and stoniness; to\\nmake such feel that they were greeted with a\\nvoice which made them both remember and\\nhope? What is vulgar, but to refuse the claim\\non acute and conclusive reasons? What is gen-\\ntle, but to allow it, and give their heart and\\nyours one holiday from the national caution?\\nWithout the rich heart, wealth is an ugly beg-\\ngar. The king of Schiraz could not afford to\\nbe so bountiful as the poor Osman who dwelt\\nat his gate. Osman has a humanity so broad\\nand deep, that although his speech was so bold\\nand free with the Koran, as to disgust all the\\ndervishes, yet was there never a poor outcast,\\neccentric, or insane man, some fool who had\\ncut off his beard, or who had been mutilated\\nunder a vow, or had a pet madness in his\\nbrain, but fled at once to him, that great heart\\nlay there so sunny and hospitable in the cen\u00c2\u00bb\\n18", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0203.jp2"}, "204": {"fulltext": "394 ESSAY VI.\\nter of the country, that it seemed as if the\\ninstinct of all sufferers drew them to his side.\\nAnd the madness which he harbored, he did\\nnot share. Is not this to be rich? this only to\\nTdc rightly rich?\\nBut I shall hear without pain, that I play the\\ncourtier very ill, and talk of that which I do\\nnot well understand. It is easy to see, that\\nwhat is called by distinction society and fash-\\nion, has good laws as well as bad, has much\\nthat is necessary, and much that is absurd.\\nToo good for banning, and too bad for bless-\\ning, it reminds us of a tradition of the pagan\\nmythology, in any attempt to settle its charac-\\nter. I overhieard Jove, one day, said Sile-\\nnus, talking of destroying the earth; he said,\\nit had failed they were all rogues and vizens,\\nwho went from bad to worse, as fast as the\\ndays succeeded each other. Minerva said, she\\nhoped not; they were only ridiculous little\\ncreatures, with this odd circumstance, that\\nthey had a blur, or undeterminable aspect,\\nseen far or seen near; if you called them bad,\\nthey would appear so.;; if you called them good,\\nthey would appear -so and there was no one\\nperson or action among them, which would not\\npuzzle her owl, much more all Olympus, to\\nknow whether it w.as fundamentally bad or\\ntRfood.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0204.jp2"}, "205": {"fulltext": "ESSAY VIL\\nGIFTS.\\nIt is said that the world is in a state of bank-\\nruptcy, that the world owes the world more\\nthan the world can pay, and ought to go into\\nchancery, and be sold. I do not think this\\ngeneral insolvency, which involves in some\\npart all the population, to be the reason of\\nthe difficulty experienced at Christmas and\\nNew Year, and other times, in bestowing\\ngifts; since it is always so pleasant to be\\ngenerous, though very vexatious in the\\nchoosing. If, at any time, it comes into my\\nhead, that a present is due from me to some-\\nbody, I am puzzled what to give, until the\\nopportunity is gone. Flowers and fruits are\\nall fit presents; flowers, because they are a\\nproud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues\\nall the utilities of the world. These gay\\nnatures contrast with the somewhat stern\\ncountenance of ordinary nature they are like\\nmusic heard out of a work-house. Nature\\ndoes not cocker us: we are children, not pets:\\n195", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0205.jp2"}, "206": {"fulltext": "196 ESSAY VII.\\nshe is not fond everything is dealt to ns\\nwithout fear or favor, after severe universal\\nlaws. Yet these delicate flowers look like the\\nfrolic and interference of love and beauty.\\nMen use to tell us that we love flattery, even\\nthough we are not deceived by it, because it\\nshows that we are of importance enough to be\\ncourted. Something like that pleasure the\\nflowers give us: what am I to whom these\\nsweet hints are addressed? Fruits are accep-\\ntable gifts, because they are the flower of com-\\nmodities, and admit of fantastic values being\\nattached to them. If a man should send to me\\nto come a hundred miles to visit him, and\\nshould set before me a basket of fine summer-\\nfruit, I should think there was some propor-\\ntion between the labor and the reward.\\nFor common gifts, necessity makes perti-\\nnences and beauty every day, and one is glad\\nwhen an imperative leaves him no option,\\nsince if the man at the door have no shoes,\\nyou have not to consider whether you could\\nprocure him a paint-box. And as it is always\\npleasing to see a man eat bread or drink\\nwater, in the house or out of doors, so it is\\nalways a great satisfaction to supply these first\\nwants. Necessity does everything well. In\\nour condition of universal dependence, it", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0206.jp2"}, "207": {"fulltext": "GIFTS. 197\\nseems heroic to let the petitioner be the\\njudge o\u00c2\u00a3 his necessity, and to give all that is\\nasked, though at great inconvenience. If\\nit be a fantastic desire, it is better to leave to\\nothers the office of punishing him. I can\\nthink of many parts I should prefer playing to\\nthat of the Furies. Next to things of necessity,\\nthe rule for a gift, which one of my friends pre-\\nscribed, is, that we might convey to some\\nperson that which properly belonged to his\\ncharacter, and was easily associated with him\\nin thought. But our tokens of compliment\\nand love are for the most part barbarous.\\nRings and other jewels are not gifts, but\\napologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion\\nof thyself. Thou must bleed for me. There-\\nfore the poet brings his poem the shepherd,\\nhis lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, a\\ngem the sailor, coral and shells the painter,\\nhis picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her\\nown sewing. This is right and pleasing, for\\nit restores society in so far to its primary basis\\nwhen a man*s biography is conveyed in his\\ngift, and every man s wealth is an index of his\\nmerit. But it is a cold, lifeless business when\\nyou go to the shops to buy me something,\\nwhich does not represent your life and talent,\\nbut a goldsmith s. This is fit for kings, and", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0207.jp2"}, "208": {"fulltext": "198 ESSAY VII.\\nrich men who represent kings, and a false\\nstate of property, to make presents of gold\\nand silver stuffs, as a kind of symbolical sin-\\noffering, or payment of blackmail.\\nThe law of benefits is a difficult channel,\\nwhich requires careful sailing, or rude boats.\\nIt is not the office of a man to receive gifts.\\nHow dare you give them? We wish to be self-\\nsustained. We do not quite forgive a giver.\\nThe hand that feeds us is in some danger of\\nbeing bitten. We can receive anything from\\nlove, for that is a way of receiving it from our-\\nselves; but not from any one who assumes to\\nbestow. We sometimes hate the meat which\\nwe eat, because there seems something of\\ndegrading dependence in living by it.\\nBrother, if Jove to thee a present make,\\nTake heed that from his hands thou nothing take.**\\nWe ask the whole. Nothing less will content\\nus. We arraign society, if it do not give us\\nbesides earth, and fire, and water, oppor-\\ntunity, love, reverence, and objects of vener-\\nation.\\nHe is a good man who can receive a gift\\nwell. We are either glad or sorry at a gift,\\nand both emotions are unbecoming. Some\\nviolence, I think, is done, some degradation\\nborne, when I rejoice or grieve at a gift. I", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0208.jp2"}, "209": {"fulltext": "GIFTS. 199\\nam sorry when my independence is invaded,\\nor when a gift comes from such as do not know\\nmy spirit, and so the act is not supported and\\nif the gift pleases me overmuch, then I should\\nbe ashamed that the donor should read my\\nheart, and see that I love his commodity, and\\nnot him. The gift, to be true, must be the\\nflowing of the giver unto me, correspondent to\\nmy flowing unto him. When the waters are\\nat a level, then my goods pass to him, and his\\nto me. All his are mine, all mine his. I say\\nto him, How can you give me this pot of oil,\\nor this flagon of wine, when all your oil and\\nwine is mine, which belief of mine this gift\\nseems to deny? Hence the fitness of beauti-\\nful, not useful things for gifts. This giving is\\nflat UvSurpation, and therefore when the benefi-\\nciary is ungrateful, as all beneficiaries hate all\\nTimons, not at all considering the value of\\nthe gift, but looking back to the greater store\\nit was taken from, I rather sympathize with\\nthe beneficiary, than with the anger of my\\nlord Timon. For, the expectation of grati-\\ntude is mean, and is continually punished by\\nthe total insensibility of the obliged person.\\nIt is a great happiness to get off without\\ninjury and heart-burning, from one who has\\nhad the ill-luck to be served by you. It is a", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0209.jp2"}, "210": {"fulltext": "2Q0 ESSAY VII.\\nvery onerous business, this of being served,\\nand the debtor naturally wishes to give you\\na slap. A golden text for these gentlemen is\\nthat which I so admire in the Buddhist,\\nwho never thanks, and who says, Do not\\nflatter your benefactors.\\nThe reason of these discords I conceive to\\nbe, that there is no commensurability be-\\ntween a man and any gift. You cannot give\\nanything to a magnanimous person. After\\nyou have served him, he at once puts you in\\ndebt by his magnanimity. The service a man\\nrenders his friend is trivial and selfish, com-\\npared with the service he knows his friend\\nstood in readiness to yield him, alike before he\\nhad begun to serve his friend, and now also.\\nCompared with that good-will I bear my\\nfriend, the benefit it is in my power to render\\nhim seems small. Besides, our action on each\\nother, good as well as evil, is so incidental and\\nat random that we can seldom hear the ac-\\nknowledgments of any person who would\\nthank us for a benefit, without some shame\\nand humiliation. We can rarely strike a direct\\nstroke, but must be content with an oblique\\none we seldom have the satisfaction of yield-\\ning a direct benefit, which is directly received.\\nBut rectitude scatters favors on every side", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0210.jp2"}, "211": {"fulltext": "GIFTS. 201\\nwithout knowing it, and receives with wonder\\nthe thanks of all people.\\nI fear to breathe any treason against the\\nmajesty of love, which is the genius and god\\nof gifts, and to whom we must not affect to\\nprescribe. Let him give kingdoms or flower-\\nleaves indifferently. There are persons from\\nwhom we always expect fairy tokens; let us\\nnot cease to expect them. This is preroga-\\ntive, and not to be limited by our municipal\\nrules. For the rest, I like to see that we can-\\nnot be bought and sold. The best of hospital-\\nity and of generosity is also not in the will, but\\nin fate. I find that I am not much to you you\\ndo not need me; you do not feel me; then am\\nI thrust out of doors, though you proffer me\\nhouse and lands. No services are of any value,\\nbut only likeness. When I have attempted\\nto join myself to others by services, it proved\\nan intellectual trick, no more. They eat your\\nservice like apples, and leave you out. But\\nlove them, and they feel you, and delight in\\nyou all the tiine.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0211.jp2"}, "212": {"fulltext": "ESSAY VIII.\\nNATURE.\\nThere are days which occur in this climate,\\nat almost any season of the year, wherein the\\nworld reaches its perfection, when the air, the\\nheavenly bodies, and the earth, make a har-\\nmony, as if nature would indulge her off-\\nspring when, in these bleak upper sides of the\\nplanet, nothing is to desire that we have heard\\nof the happiest latitudes, and we bask in the\\nshining hours of Florida and Cuba; when\\neverything that has life gives signs of satis-\\nfaction, and the cattle that lie on the ground\\nseem to have great and tranquil thoughts.\\nThese halcyons may be looked for with a little\\nmore assurance in that pure October weather,\\nwhich we distinguish by the name of the\\nIndian Summer. The day, immeasurably\\nlong, sleeps over the broad hills and warms\\nwide fields. To have lived through all its\\nsunny hours, seems longevity enough. The\\nsolitary places do not seem quite lonely. /At\\nthe gates of the forest, the surprised man of\\n202", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0212.jp2"}, "213": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 203\\nthe world is forced to leave his city estimates\\nof great and small, wise and foolish. The\\nknapsack of custom falls off his back with the\\nfirst step he makes into these precincts. Here\\nis sanctity which shames our religions, and\\nreality which discredits our heroes. Here\\nwe find nature to be the circumstance which\\ndwarfs every other circumstance, and judges\\nlike a god all men that come to her. We have\\ncrept out of our close and crowded houses into\\nthe night and morning, and we see what ma-\\njestic beauties daily wrap us in their bosom.\\nHow willingly we would escape the barriers\\nwhich render them comparatively impotent,\\nescape the sophistication and second thought,\\nand suffer nature to entrance us. The tem-\\npered light of the woods is like a perpetual\\nmorning, and is stimulating and heroic. The\\nanciently reported spells of these places creep\\non us. The stems of pines, hemlocks, and\\noaks almost gleam like iron on the excited eye.\\nThe incommunicable trees begin to persuade\\nus to live with them, and quit our life of sol-\\nemn trifles. Here no history, or church, or\\nstate, is interpolated in the divine sky and the\\nimmortal year. How easily we might walk\\nonward into the opening landscape, absorbed\\nby new pictures, and by thoughts fast sue-", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0213.jp2"}, "214": {"fulltext": "204 ESSAY VIII.\\nceeding each other, until by degrees the recol-\\nlection of home was crowded out of the mind,\\nall memory obliterated by the tyranny of the\\npresent, and we were led in triumph by nature.\\nThe enchantments are medicinal, they sober\\nand heal us. These are plain pleasures,\\nkindly and native to us. We come to our own,\\nand make friends with matter, which the\\nambitious chatter of the schools would per-\\nsuade us to despise. We never can part with\\nit; the mind loves its old home: as water to\\nour thirst, so is the rock, the ground, to our\\neyes, and hands, and feet. It is firm water:\\nit is cold flame: what health, what affinity!\\nEver an old friend, ever like a dear friend and\\nbrother, when we chat affectedly with stran-\\ngers, comes in this honest face, and takes a\\ngrave liberty with us, and shames us out of\\nour nonsense. Cities give not the human\\nsenses room enough. We go out daily and\\nnightly to feed the eyes on the horizon, and\\nrequire so much scope, just as we need water\\nfor our bath. There are all degrees of natural\\ninfluence, from these quarantine powers of\\nnature, up to her dearest and gravest minis-\\ntrations to the imagination and the soul.\\nThere is the bucket of cold water from the\\nspring, the wood-fire to which the chilled trav-", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0214.jp2"}, "215": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 205\\neler rushes for safety, and there is the sub-\\nlime moral of autumn and of noon. We nestle\\nin nature, and draw our living as parasites\\nfrom her roots and grains, and we receive\\nglances from the heavenly bodies, which call\\nus to solitude, and foretell the remotest future.\\nThe blue zenith is the point in which romance\\nand reality meet. I think, if we should be\\nrapt away mto all that we dream of heaven,\\nand should converse with Gabriel and Uriel,\\nthe upper sky would be all that would remain\\nof our furniture.\\nIt seems as if the day was not wholly pro-\\nfane, in which we have given heed to some\\nnatural object. The fall of snowflakes in a\\nstill air, preserving to each crystal its perfect\\nform the blowing of sleet over a wide sheet\\nof water, and over plains, the waving rye\\nfield, the mimic waving of acres of houstonia,\\nwhose innumerable flowrets whiten and ripple\\nbefore the eye; the reflections of trees and\\nflowers in glassy lakes ;/the musical, steaming\\nodorous south wind, which converts all trees\\nto windharps; the crackling and spurting of\\nhemlock in the flames or of pine logs, which\\nyield glory to the walls and faces in the sitting-\\nroom, these are the music and pictures of the\\nmost ancient religion.) My house stands in", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0215.jp2"}, "216": {"fulltext": "206; ESSAY VIII.\\nlow land, with limited outlook, and on the\\nskirt of the village. But I go with my friend\\nto the shore of our little river, and with one\\nstroke of the paddle, I leave the village poli-\\ntics and personalities, yes, and the world of\\nvillages and personalities behind, and pass\\ninto a delicate realm of sunset and moonlight,\\ntoo bright almost for spotted man to enter\\nwithout novitiate and probation. We pene-\\ntrate bodily this incredible beauty: we dip\\nour hands in this painted element: our eyes\\nare bathed in these lights and forms. A holi-\\nday a villeggiatura, a royal revel, the proudest,\\nmost heart-rejoicing festival that valor and\\nbeauty, power and taste, ever decked and\\nenjoyed, establishes itself on the instant\\nThese sunset clouds, these delicately emerging\\nstars, with their private and ineffable glances,\\nsignify it and proffer it. I am taught the poor-\\nness of our invention, the ugliness of towns\\nand palaces. Art and luxury have early\\nlearned that they must work as enchantment\\nand sequel to this original beauty. I am\\noverinstructed for my return. Henceforth I\\nshall be hard to please. I cannot go back\\nto toys. I am grown expensive and sophis-\\nticated. I can no longer live without ele-\\ngance: but a countryman shall be my master", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0216.jp2"}, "217": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 207\\nr\\nof revels. He who knows the most, he who\\nknows what sweets and virtues are in the\\nground, the waters, the plants, the heavens,\\nand how to come at these enchantments, is the\\nrich and royal man. Only as far as the mas-\\nters of the world have called in nature to\\ntheir aid, can they reach the height of magnifi-\\ncence. This is the meaning of their hanging-\\ngardens, villas, garden-houses, islands, parks,\\nand preserves, to back their faulty personality\\nwith these strong accessories. I do not won-\\nder that the landed interest should be invin-\\ncible in the state with these dangerous auxil-\\niaries. These bribe and invite not kings, not\\npalaces, not men, not women, but these tender\\nand poetic stars, eloquent of secret promises.\\nWe heard what the rich man said, we knew of\\nhis villa, his grove, his wine, and his company,\\nbut the provocation and point of the invitation\\ncame out of these beguiling stars. In their soft\\nglances, I see what men strove to realize in\\nsome Versailles, or Paphos, or Ctesiphon. In-\\ndeed, it is the magical lights of the horizon, and\\nthe blue sky for the background, which save all\\nour works of art, which were otherwise bau-\\nbles. When the rich tax the poor with ser-\\nvility and obsequiousness, they should consider\\nthe effect of men reputed to be the possessors", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0217.jp2"}, "218": {"fulltext": "208 ESSAY VIII.\\nof nature, on imaginative minds. Ah! if\\nthese rich were rich as the poor fancy riches!\\nA boy hears a military band play on the field\\nat night, and he has kings and queens, and\\nfamous chivalry palpably before him. He\\nhears the echoes of a horn in a hill country,\\nin the Notch Mountains, for example, which\\nconverts the mountains into an -^olian harp,\\nand this supernatural tiralira restores to him\\nthe Dorian mythology, Apollo, Diana, and all\\nthe divine hunters and huntresses. Can a\\nmusical note be so lofty, so haughtily beauti-\\nful! To the poor young poet, thus fabulous in\\nhis picture of society he is loyal he respects\\nthe rich they are rich for the sake of his im-\\nagination how poor his fancy would be, if they\\nwere not rich! That they have some high-\\nfenced grove, which they call a park; that\\nthey live in larger and better-garnished saloons\\nthan he has visited, and go in coaches, keep-\\ning only the society of the elegant, to water-\\ning-places, and to distant cities, are the ground-\\nwork from which he has delineated estates of\\nromance, compared with which their actual\\npossessions are shanties and paddocks. The\\nmuse herself betrays her son, and enhances\\nthe gifts of wealth and well-born beauty, by a\\nradiation out of the air, and clouds, and forests", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0218.jp2"}, "219": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 209\\nthat skirt the road, a certain haughty favor,\\nas if from patrician genii to patricians, a kind\\nof aristocracy in nature, a prince of the power\\nof the air.\\nThe moral sensibility which makes Edens\\nand Temples so easily, may not be always\\nfound, but the material landscape is never far\\noff. We can find these enchantments without\\nvisiting the Como Lake, or the Maderia Islands.\\nWe exaggerate the praises of local scenery. In\\nevery landscape, the point of astonishment is\\nthe meeting of the sky and the earth, and\\nthat is seen from the first hillock as well as\\nfrom the top of the AUeghanies. The stars at\\nnight stoop down over the brownest, homeliest\\ncommon, with all the spiritual magnificence\\nwhich they shed on the Campagna, or on the\\nmarble deserts of Egypt. The uproUed clouds\\nand the colors of morning and evening will\\ntransfigure maples and alders. I, The differ-\\nence between landscape and landscape is small,\\nbut there is great difference in the beholder.\\nThere is nothing so wonderful in any partic-\\nular landscape, as the necessity of being beau-\\ntiful under which every landscape lies. Nature\\ncannot be surprised in undress. Beauty\\nbreaks in everywhere.\\nBut it is very easy to outrun the sympathy\\n14", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0219.jp2"}, "220": {"fulltext": "210 ESSAY VIII.\\nof readers on this topic, which schoolmen\\ncalled natura naturata^ or nature passive. One\\ncan hardly speak directly of it without excess.\\nIt is as easy to broach in mixed companies\\nwhat is called *the subject of religion.** A\\nsusceptible person does not like to indulge his\\ntastes in this kind, without the apology of\\nsome trivial necessity: he goes to see a wood-\\nlot, or to look at the crops, or to fetch a plant\\nor a mineral from a remote locality, or he\\ncarries a fowling piece, or a fishing-rod. I\\nsuppose this shame must have a good reason.\\nA dilettantism in nature is barren and un-\\nworthy. The fop of fields is no better than his\\nbrother of Broadway. Men are naturally\\nhunters and inquisitive of wood-craft, and I\\nsuppose that such a gazetteer as wood-cutters\\nand Indians should furnish facts for, would\\ntake place in the most sumptuous drawing-\\nrooms of all the **Wreaths** and Flora*s\\nchaplets of the bookshops; yet ordinarily,\\nwhether we are too clumsy for so subtle a\\ntopic, or from whatever cause, as soon as men\\nbegin to write on nature, they fall into euphu-\\nism. Frivolity is a most unfit tribute to Pan,\\nwho ought to be represented in the mythology\\nas the most continent of gods. I would not\\nbe frivolous before the admirable reserve and", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0220.jp2"}, "221": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 211\\nprudence of time, yet I cannot renounce the\\nright of returning often to this old topic. The\\nmultitude of false churches accredits the true\\nreligion. Literature, poetry, science are the\\nhomage of man to this unfathomed secret,\\nconcerning which no sane man can affect an\\nindifference or incuriosity. Nature is loved\\nby what is best in us. It is loved as the city of\\nGod, although, or rather, because there is no\\ncitizen. The sunset is unlike anything that\\nis underneath it: it wants men. And beauty\\nof nature must always seem unreal and mock-\\ning, until the landscape has human figures,\\nthat are as good as itself. If there were good\\nmen, there would never be this rapture in\\nnature. If the king is in the palace, nobody\\nlooks at the walls. It is when he is gone,\\nand the house is filled with grooms and gazers,\\nthat we turn from the people, to find relief\\nin the majestic men that are suggested by the\\npictures and the architecture. The critics\\nwho complain of the sickly separation of the\\nbeauty of nature from the thing to be done,\\nmust consider that our hunting of the pictur-\\nesque is inseparable from our protest against\\nfalse society. Man is fallen nature is erect,\\nand serves as a differential thermometer,\\ndetecting the presence or absence of the", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0221.jp2"}, "222": {"fulltext": "212 ESSAY VIII.\\ndivine sentiment in man. By fault of our\\ndullness and selfishness, we are looking up to\\nnature, but when we are convalescent, nature\\nwill look up to us. We see the foaming brook\\nwith compunction: if our own life flowed with\\nthe right energy, we should shame the brook.\\nThe stream of zeal sparkles with real fire,\\nand not with reflex rays of sun and moon.\\nNature may be as selfishly studied as trade.\\nAstronomy to the selfish becomes astrology;\\npsychology, mesmerism (with intent to show\\nwhere our spoons are gone) and anatomy and\\nphysiology, become phrenology and palmistry.\\nBut taking timely warning, and leaving\\nmany things unsaid on this topic, let us no\\nlonger omit our homage to the Efficient Nature,\\nnatura naturans^ the quick cause before which\\nall forms flee as the driven snows, itself\\nsecret, its works driven before it in flocks and\\nmultitudes (as the ancient represented nature\\nby Proteus, a shepherd), and in indescribable\\nvariety. It publishes itself in creatures,\\nreaching from particles and spicula, through\\ntransformation on transformation to the\\nhighest symmetries, arriving at consummate\\nresults without a shock or a leap. A little\\nheat, that is, a little motion, is all that differ-\\nences the bald, dazzling white, and deadly cold", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0222.jp2"}, "223": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 213\\npoles of the earth from the prolific tropical\\nclimates. All changes pass without violence,\\nby reason of the two cardinal conditions of\\nboundless space and boundless time. Geology\\nhas initiated us into the secularity of nature,\\nand taught us to disuse our dame-school mea-\\nsures, and exchange our Mosaic and Ptolemaic\\nschemes for her large style. We know noth-\\ning rightly, for want of perspective. Now we\\nlearn what patient periods must round them-\\nselves before the rock is formed, then before\\nthe rock is broken, and the first lichen race\\nhas disintegrated the thinnest external plate JH\\ninto soil, and opened the door for the remote \u00e2\u0096\u00a0j^^\\nFlora, Fauna, Ceres, and Pomona, to come^iju\\nHow far off yet is the trilobite how far the\\nquadruped! how inconceivably remote is man!\\nAll duly arrive, and then race after race of\\nmen. It is a long way from granite to the oys-\\nter; farther yet to Plato, and the preaching of\\nthe immortality of the soul. Yet all must\\ncome, as surely as the first atom has two sides.\\nMotion or change and identity or rest, are\\nthe first and second secrets of nature Motion\\nand Rest. The whole code of her laws may\\nbe written on the thumbnail, or the signet\\nof a ring. The whirling bubble on the sur-\\nface of a brook admits us to the secret of the", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0223.jp2"}, "224": {"fulltext": "214 ESSAY VIII.\\nmechanics of the sky. Every shell on the\\nbeach is a key to it. A little water made to\\nrotate in a cup explains the formation of the\\nsimpler shells; the addition of matter from\\nyear to year, arrives at last at the most com-\\nplex forms; and yet so poor is nature with all\\nher craft, that from the beginning to the end\\nof the universe, she has but one stuff, but\\none stuff with its two ends, to serve up all her\\ndream-like variety. Compound it how she\\nwill, star, sand, fire, water, tree, man, it is still\\none stuff, and betrays the same properties.\\nNature is always consistent though she\\nfeigns to contravene her own laws. She keeps\\nher laws, and seems to transcend them. She\\narms and equips an animal to find its place\\nand living in the earth, and, at the same time,\\nshe arms and equips another animal to destroy\\nit. Space exists to divide creatures; but by\\nclothing the sides of a bird with a few feathers,\\nshe gives him a petty omnipresence. The\\ndirection is forever onward, but the artist still\\ngoes back for materials, and begins again with\\nthe first elements on the most advanced stage:\\notherwise, all goes to ruin. If we look at her\\nwork, we seem to catch a glance of a system\\nin transition. Plants are the young of the\\nworld, vessels of health and vigor; but they", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0224.jp2"}, "225": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 215\\ngrope ever upward toward consciousness; the\\ntrees are imperfect men, and seem to bemoan\\ntheir imprisonment, rooted in the ground.\\nThe animal is the novice and probationer of a\\nmore advanced order. The men, though\\nyoung, having tasted the first drop from the\\ncup of thought, are already dissipated: the\\nmaples and ferns are still uncorrupt yet no\\ndoubt, when they come to consciousness, they\\ntoo will curse and swear. Flowers so strictly\\nbelong to youth, that we adult men soon come\\nto feel that their beautiful generations concern\\nnot us: we have had our day; now let the\\nchildren have theirs. The flowers jilt us, and\\nwe are old bachelors with our ridiculous tend-\\nerness.\\nThings are so strictly related, that accord-\\ning to the skill of the eye, from any one object\\nthe parts and properties of any other may be\\npredicted. If we had eyes to see it, a bit of\\nstone from the city wall would certify us of the\\nnecessity that man must exist, as readily as\\nthe city. That identity makes us all one, and\\nreduces to nothing great intervals on our cus-\\ntomary scale. We talk of deviations from nat-\\nural life, as if artificial life were not also nat-\\nural. The smoothest curled courtier in the\\nboudoirs of a palace has an animal nature,", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0225.jp2"}, "226": {"fulltext": "216 ESSAY VIII.\\nrude and aboriginal as a white bear, omnipo-\\ntent to its ends, and is directly related, there\\nanciid essences and billetdoux, to Himmaleh\\nmountain- chains, and the axis of the globe.\\nIf we consider how much we are nature*s, we\\nneed not be superstitious about towns, as if\\nthat terrific or benefic force did not find us\\nthere also, and fashion cities. Nature, who\\nmade the mason, made the house. We may\\neasily hear too much of rural influences. The\\ncool, disengaged air of natural objects makes\\nthem enviable to us, chafed and irritable crea-\\ntures with red faces, and we think we shall be\\nas grand as they, if we camp out and eat roots\\nbut let us be men instead of wood- chucks, and\\nthe oak and the elm shall gladly serve us,\\nthough we sit in chairs of ivory on carpels of\\nsilk.\\nThis guiding identity runs through all the\\nsurprises and contrasts of the piece, and char-\\nacterizes every law. Man carries the world in\\nhis head, the whole astronomy and chemistry\\nsuspended in a thought. Because the history\\nof nature is charactered in his brain, there-\\nfore, is he the prophet and discoverer of her\\nsecrets. Every known fact in natural science\\nwas divined by the presentiment of somebody,\\nbefore it was actually verified. A man does", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0226.jp2"}, "227": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 217\\nnot tie his shoe without recognizing laws which\\nbind the farthest regions of nature: moon,\\nplant, gas, crystal are concrete geometry and\\nnumbers. Common sense knows its own, and\\nrecognizes the fact at first sight in chemical\\nexperiment The common sense of Franklin,\\nDalton, Davy, and Black is the same common\\nsense which made the arrangements which now\\nit discovers.\\nIf the identity expresses organized rest, the\\ncounter-action runs into organization. The\\nastronomers said, **Give us matter, and a little\\nmotion, and we will construct the universe.\\nIt is not enough that we should have matter,\\nwe must also have a single impulse, one shove\\nto launch the mass, and generate the harmony\\nof the centrifugal forces. Once heave the ball\\nfrom the hand, and we can show how all this\\nmighty order grew. **A very reasonable\\npostulate,* said the metaphysicians, *^and a\\nplain begging of the question. Could you not\\nprevail to know the genesis of projection, as\\nwell as the continuation of it? Nature,\\nmeanwhile, had not waited for the discussion,\\nbut, right or wrong, bestowed the impulse, and\\nthe balls rolled. It was no great affair, a\\nmere push, but the astronomers were right in\\nmaking much of it, for there is no end to the", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0227.jp2"}, "228": {"fulltext": "218 ESSAY VIII.\\nconsequences of the act. That famous aborig-\\ninal push propagates itself through all the\\nballs of the system, and through every atom of\\nevery ball, through all the races of creatures,\\nand through the history and performances of\\nevery individual. Exaggeration is in the\\ncourse of things. Nature sends no creature,\\nno man into the world, without adding a small\\nexcess of his proper quality. Given the planet,\\nit is still necessary to add the impulse so to\\nevery creature nature added a little violence of\\ndirection in its proper path, a shove to put it\\non its way in every instance, a slight gener-\\nosity, a drop too much. Without electricity the\\nair would rot, and without this violence of\\ndirection, which men and women have, with-\\nout a spice of bigot and fanatic, no excitement,\\nno efficiency. We aim above the mark, to hit\\nthe mark. Every act hath some falsehood of\\nexaggeration in it. And when now and then\\ncomes along some sad, sharp-eyed man, who\\nsees how paltry a game is played, and refuses\\nto play, but blabs the secret; how then? is\\nthe bird flown? O, no, the wary Nature sends\\na new troop of fairer forms, of lordlier youths,\\nwith a little more excess of direction to hold\\nthem fast to their several aim makes them a\\nlittle wrong-headed in that direction in which", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0228.jp2"}, "229": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 219\\nthey are tightest, and on goes the game again\\nwith new whirl, for a generation or two more.\\nThe child with his sweet pranks, the fool of\\nhis senses, commanded by every sight and\\nsound, without any power to compare and rank\\nhis sensations, abandoaed to a whistle or a\\npainted chip, to a lead dragoon or a ginger-\\nbread dog, individualizing everything, general-\\nizing nothing, delighted with every new thing,\\nlies down at night overpowered by the fatigue,\\nwhich this day of continual pretty madness\\nhas incurred. But Nature has answered her\\npurpose with the curly, dimpled lunatic. She\\nhas kept every faculty, and has secured the\\nsymmetrical growth of the bodily frame, by\\nall these attitudes and exertions, an end of\\nthe first importance, which could not be trust-\\ned to any care less perfect than her own. This\\nglitter, this opaline lustre plays round the top\\nof every toy to his eye, to ensure his fidelity,\\nand he is deceived to his good. We are made\\nalive and kept alive by the same arts. Let\\nthe stoics say what they please, we do not eat\\nfor the good of living, but because the meat is\\nsavory and the appetite is keen. The veget-\\nable life does not content itself with casting\\nfrom the flower or the tree a single seed, but\\nit fills the air and earth with a prodigality of", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0229.jp2"}, "230": {"fulltext": "220 ESSAY VIII.\\nseeds, that, if thousands perish, thousands\\nmay plant themselves, that hundreds may\\ncome up, that tens may live to maturity, that,\\nat least, one may replace the parent. All\\nthings betray the same calculated profusion.\\nThe excess of fear with which the animal frame\\nis hedged around, shrinking from cold, starting\\nat sight of a snake, or at a sudden noise, pro-\\ntects us, through a multitude of groundless\\nalarms, from some one real danger at last.\\nThe lover seeks in marriage his private felicity\\nand perfection, with no prospective end; and\\nnature hides in his happiness her own end,\\nnamely, progeny, or the perpetuity of the\\nrace.\\nBut the craft with which the world is made\\nruns also into the mind and character of men.\\nNo man is quite sane each has a vein of folly\\nin his composition, a slight determination of\\nblood to the head, to make sure of holding him\\nhard to some one point which nature had taken\\nto heart. Great causes are never tried on their\\nmerits but the cause is reduced to particulars\\nto suit the size of the partisans, and the con-\\ntention is ever hottest on minor matters. Not\\nless remarkable is the over faith of each man\\nin the importance of what he has to do or say.\\nThe poet, the prophet, has a higher value for", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0230.jp2"}, "231": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 221\\nwhat he utters than any hearer, and, therefore,\\nit gets spoken. The strong, self-complacent\\nLtither declares with an emphasis, not to be\\nmistaken, that **God himself cannot do with-\\nout wise men. Jacob Behmen and George\\nFox betray their egotism in the pertinacity of\\ntheir controversial tracts, and James Naylor\\nonce suffered himself to be worshiped as the\\nChrist. Each prophet comes presently to iden-\\ntify himself with his thought, and to esteem\\nhis hat and shoes sacred. However this may\\ndiscredit such persons with the judicious, it\\nhelps them with the people, as it gives heat,\\npungency, and publicity to their words. A\\nsimilar experience is not infrequent in private\\nlife. Each young and ardent person writes a\\ndiary, in which, when the hours of prayer and\\npenitence arrive, he inscribes his souL The\\npages thus written are, to him, burning and\\nfragrant he reads them on his knees by mid-\\nnight and by the morning star; he wets them\\nwith his tears; they are sacred; too good for\\nthe world, and hardly yet to be shown to the\\ndearest friend. This is the man-child that is\\nborn to the soul, and her life still circulates in\\nthe babe. The umbilical cord has not yet\\nbeen cut. After some time has elapsed, he\\nbegins to wish to admit his friend to this hal-", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0231.jp2"}, "232": {"fulltext": "222 ESSAY VIII.\\nlowed experience, and with hesitation, yet with\\nfirmness, exposes the pages to his eye. Will\\nthey not burn his eyes? The friend coldly turns\\nthem over, and passes from the writing to con-\\nversation, with easy transition, which strikes\\nthe other party with astonishment and vexa-\\ntion. He cannot suspect the writing itself.\\nDays and nights of fervid life, of communion\\nwith angels, of darkness and of light, have en-\\ngraved their shadowy characters on that tear-\\nstained book. He suspects the intelligence or\\nthe heart of his friend. Is there then no\\nfriend? He cannot yet credit that one may\\nhave impressive experience, and yet may not\\nknow how to put his private fact into litera-\\nture and perhaps the discovery that wisdom\\nhas other tongues and ministers than we,\\nthat though we should hold our peace the truth\\nwould not the less be spoken, might check in-\\njuriously the flames of our zeal. A man can\\nonly speak, so long as he does not feel his\\nspeech to be partial and inadequate. It is par-\\ntial, but he does not see it to be so, whilst he\\nutters it. As soon as he is released from the\\ninstinctive and particular, and sees its partial-\\nity, he shuts his mouth in disgust. For, no\\nman can write anything, who does not think\\nthat what he writes is for the time the history", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0232.jp2"}, "233": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 223\\nof the world: or do anything well, who does\\nnot esteem his work to be of importance. My\\nwork may be of none, but I must not think it\\nof none, or I shall not do it with impunity.\\nIn like manner, there is throughout nature\\nsomething mocking, something that leads us\\non and on, but arrives nowhere, keeps no faith\\nwith us. All promise outruns the perform-\\nance. We live in a system of approximations.\\nEvery end is prospective of some other end,\\nwhich is also temporary; a round and final suc-\\ncess nowhere. We are encamped in nature,\\nnot domesticated. Hunger and thirst lead us\\non to eat and drink but bread and wine, mix\\nand cook them how you will, leave us hungry\\nand thirsty, after the stomach is full. It is\\nthe same with all our arts and performances.\\nOur music, our poetry, our language itself are\\nnot satisfactions, but suggestions. The hunter\\nfor wealth, which reduces the planet to a gar-\\nden, fools the eager pursuer. What is the end\\nsought? Plainly to secure the ends of good\\nsense and beauty from the intrusion of defor-\\nmity or vulgarity of any kind. But what an\\noperose method! What a train of means to se-\\ncure a little conversation I This palace of brick\\nand stone, these servants, this kitchen, these\\nstables, horses and equipage, this bank-stock,", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0233.jp2"}, "234": {"fulltext": "224 ESSAY VIIL\\nand file of mortgages trade to all the world,\\ncountry-house and cottage by the water side,\\nall for a little conversation, high, clear, and\\nspiritual Could it not be had as well by beg-\\ngars on the highway? No, all these things\\ncame from successive efforts of these beggars\\nto remove friction from the wheels of life, and\\ngive opportunity. Conversation, character\\nwere the avowed ends wealth was good as it\\nappeased the animal cravings, cured the smoky\\nchimney, silenced the creaking door, brought\\nfriends together in a warm and quiet room,\\nand kept the children and the dinner-table in\\na different apartment. Thought, virtue,\\nbeauty were the ends but it was known that\\nmen of thought and virtue sometimes had the\\nheadache, or wet feet, or could lose good time\\nwhilst the room was getting warm in winter\\ndays. Unluckily, in the exertions necessary\\nto remove these inconveniences, the main at-\\ntention has been diverted to this object the\\nold aims have been lost sight of, and to remove\\nfriction has come to be the end. That is the\\nridicule of rich men, and Boston, London,\\nVienna, and now the governments generally\\nof the world, are cities and governments of\\nthe rich, and the masses are not men, but poor\\nmen, that is, men who would be rich this is", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0234.jp2"}, "235": {"fulltext": "In woods and waters a certain enticement. Page 225,\\nEmerson s Essays. Vol. II,", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0235.jp2"}, "236": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0236.jp2"}, "237": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 225\\nthe ridicule of the class, that they arrive with\\npains and sweat and fury nowhere when all is\\ndone, it is for nothing. They are like one who\\nhas interrupted the conversation of a company\\nto make his speech, and now has forgotten\\nwhat he went to say. The appearance strikes\\nthe eye everywhere of an aimless society, of\\naimless nations. Were the ends of nature so\\ngreat and cogent, as to exact this immense sac-\\nrifice of men?\\nQuite analogous to the deceits in life, there\\nis, as might be expected, a similar effect on\\nthe eye from the face of external nature.\\nThere is in woods and waters a certain entice-\\nment and flattery, together with a failure to\\nyield a present satisfaction. This disappoint-\\nment is felt in every landscape. I have seen\\nthe softness and beauty of the summer-clouds\\nfloating feathery overhead, enjoying, as it\\nseemed, their height and privilege of motion,\\nwhilst yet they appeared not so much the\\ndrapery of this place and hour, as forelooking\\nto some pavilions and gardens of festivity be-\\nyond. It is an odd jealousy: but the poet finds\\nhimself not near enough to his object. The\\npine-tree, the river, the bank of flowers before\\nhim, does not seem to be nature. Nature is\\nstill elsewhere. This or this is but outskirt\\n15", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0237.jp2"}, "238": {"fulltext": "226 ESSAY VI I L\\nand far-off reflection and echo of the triumph\\nthat has passed by, and is now at its glancing\\nsplendor and heyday, perchance in the neigh-\\nboring fields, or, if you stand in the field, then\\nin the adjacent woods. The present object\\nshall give you this sense of stillness that fol-\\nlows a pageant which has just gone by. What\\nsplendid distance, what recesses of ineffable\\npomp and loveliness in the sunset But who\\ncan go where they are, or lay his hand or plant\\nhis foot thereon? Off they fall from the round\\nworld forever and ever. It is the same among\\nthe men and women, as among the silent\\ntrees always a referred existence, an absence,\\nnever a presence and satisfaction. Is it, that\\nbeauty can never be grasped? in persons and\\nin landscape is equally inaccessible? The ac-\\ncepted and betrothed loved has lost the wildest\\ncharm of his maiden in her acceptance of him.\\nShe was heaven whilst he pursued her as a star:\\nshe cannot be heaven, if she stoops to such a\\none as he.\\nWhat shall we say of this omnipresent ap-\\npearance of that first projectile impulse, of this\\nflattery and baulking of so many well-mean-\\ning creatures? Must we not suppose some-\\nwhere in the universe a slight treachery and\\nderision? Are we not engaged to a serious", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0238.jp2"}, "239": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 227\\nresentment of this use that is made of us?\\nAre we tickled trout, and fools of nature? One\\nlook at the face of heaven and earth lays all\\npetulance at rest, and soothes us to wiser con-\\nvictions. To the intelligent, nature converts\\nitself into a vast promise, and will not be\\nrashly explained. Her secret is untold. Many\\nand many an (Edipus arrives; he has the\\nwholy mystery in his brain. Alas! the same\\nsorcery has spoiled his skill; no syllable can\\nhe shape on his lips. Her mighty orbit vaults\\nlike the fresh rainbow into the deep, but no\\narchangel s wing was yet strong enough to fol-\\nlow it, and report of the return of the curve.\\nBut it also appears that our actions are sec-\\nonded and disposed to greater conclusions than\\nwe designed. We are escorted on every hand\\nthrough life by spiritual agents, and a benefi-\\ncent purpose lies in wait for us. We cannot\\nbandy words with nature, or deal with her as\\nwe deal with persons.\\nIf we measure our individual forces against\\nhers, we may easily feel as if we were the\\nsport of an insuperable destiny. But if, in-\\nstead of identifying ourselves with the work,\\nwe feel that the soul of the workman streams\\nthrough us, we shall find the peace of the\\nmorning dwelling first in our hearts, and the", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0239.jp2"}, "240": {"fulltext": "228 ESSAY VIII.\\nfathomless powers of gravit} and chemistry,\\nand, over them, of life, pre-existing within us\\nin their highest form.\\nThe uneasiness which the thought of our\\nhelplessness in the chain of causes occasions us,\\nresults from looking too much at one condition\\nof nature, namely, Motion. But the drag is\\nnever taken from the wheel. Wherever the\\nimpulse exceeds, the Rest or Identity insinu-\\nates its compensation. All over the wide fields\\nof earth grows the prunella or self-heal. After\\nevery foolish day we sleep off the fumes and\\nfuries of its hours; and though we are always\\nengaged with particulars, and often enslaved\\nto them, we bring with us to every experiment\\nthe innate universal laws. These, while they\\nexist in the mind as ideas, stand around us in\\nnature forever embodied, a present sanity to\\nexpose and cure the insanity of men. Our ser-\\nvitude to particulars betrays into a hundred\\nfoolish expectations. We anticipate a new era\\nfrom the invention of a locomotive, or a bal-\\nloon the new engine brings with it the old\\nchecks. They say that by electro- magnetism,\\nyour salad shall be grown from the seed, whilst\\nyour fowl is roasting for dinner it is a symbol\\nof our modern aims and endeavors, of our\\ncondensation and accelleration of objects; but", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0240.jp2"}, "241": {"fulltext": "NATURE. 229\\nnothing is gained; nature cannot be cheated,\\nman s life is but seventy salads long, grow\\nthey swift or grow they slow. In these checks\\nand impossibilities, however, we find our ad-\\nvantage, not less than in the impulses. Let\\nthe victory fall where it will, we are on that\\nside. And the knowledge that we traverse\\nthe whole scale of being, from the center to\\nthe poles of nature, and have some stake in\\nevery possibility, lends that sublime lustre to\\ndeath, which philosophy and religion have too\\noutwardly and literally striven to express in\\nthe popular doctrine of the immortality of the\\nsoul. The reality is more excellent than the\\nreport. Here is no ruin, no discontinuity, no\\nspent ball. The divine circulations never rest\\nnor linger. Nature is the incarnation of a\\nthought, and turns to a thought again, as ice\\nbecomes water and gas. The world is mind\\nprecipitated, and the volatile essence is forever\\nescaping again into the state of free thought.\\nHence the virtue and pungency of the influ-\\nence on the mind, of natural objects, whether\\ninorganic or organized. Man imprisoned,\\nman crystallized, man vegetative, speaks to\\nman impersonated. That power which does\\nnot respect quantity, which makes the whole\\nand the particle its equal channel, delegates its", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0241.jp2"}, "242": {"fulltext": "230 ESSAY VIIL\\nsmile to the morning, and distils its essence\\ninto every drop of rain. Every moment in-\\nstructs, and every object: for wisdom is in-\\nfused into every form. It has been poured\\ninto us as blood it convulsed us as pain it\\nslid into us as pleasure; it enveloped us in\\ndull, melancholy days, or in days of cheerful\\nlabor we did not guess its essence, until after\\na long time.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0242.jp2"}, "243": {"fulltext": "ESSAY IX.\\nPOLITICS.\\nIn dealing with the State, we ought to\\nremember that its institutions are not abori-\\nginal, though they existed before we were\\nborn that they are not superior to the citizen\\nthat every one of them was once the act of a\\nsingle man: every law and usage was a man s\\nexpedient to meet a particular case: that they\\nall are imitable, all alterable; we may make\\nbetter. Society is an illusion to the young\\ncitizen. It lies before him in rigid repose,\\nwith certain names, men, and institutions,\\nrooted like oak-trees to the center, round\\nwhich all arrange themselves the best they\\ncan. But the old statesman knows that society\\nis fluid there are no such roots and centers\\nbut any particle may suddenly become the\\ncenter of the movement, and compel the sys-\\ntem to gyrate round it, as every man of strong\\nwill, like Pisistratus, or Cromwell, does for a\\ntime, and every man of truth, like Plato, or\\nPaul, does forever. But politics rest on neces-\\n231", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0243.jp2"}, "244": {"fulltext": "232 ESSAY IX.\\nsary fonndations, and cannot be treated with\\nlevity. Republics abound in young civilians,\\nwho believe that the laws make the city, that\\ngrave modifications of the policy and modes of\\nliving, and employments of the population,\\nthat commerce, education, and religion, may\\nbe voted in or out; and that any measure,\\nthough it were absurd, may be imposed on a\\npeople, if only you can get sufficient voices to\\nmake it a law. But the wise know that foolish\\nlegislation is a rope of sand, which perishes iu\\nthe twisting; that the State must follow, and\\nnot lead the character and progress of the\\ncitizen; the strongest usurper is quickly got\\nrid of; and they only who build on Ideas,\\nbuild for eternity; and that the form of\\ngovernment which prevails is the expression\\nof what cultivation exists in the population\\nwhich permits it. Is^The law is only a memor-\\nandum. We are superstitious, and esteem the\\nstatue somewhat so much life as it has in the\\ncharacter of living men, so its force. The\\nstatue stands there to say, yesterday we\\nagreed so and so, but how feel ye this article\\nto-day? Our statue is a currency, which we\\nstamp with our own portrait it soon becomes\\nunrecognizable, and in process of time will\\nreturn to the mint. Nature is not democratic,", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0244.jp2"}, "245": {"fulltext": "POLITICS. 233\\nnor Hmited-monarchial, but despotic, and\\nwill not be fooled or abated of any jot of her\\nauthority, by the protest of her sons: and as\\nfast as the public mind is opened to more in-\\ntelligence, the code is seen to be brute and\\nstammering. It speaks not articulately, and\\nmust be made to. Meantime the education\\nof the general mind never stops. The\\nreveries of the true and simple are prophetic.\\nWhat the tender poetic youth dreams, and\\nprays, and paints to-day, but shuns the ridi-\\ncule of saying aloud, shall presently be the\\nresolutions of public bodies, then shall be car-\\nried as grievance and bill of rights through con-\\nflict and war, and then shall be triumphant\\nlaw and establishment for a hundred years,\\nuntil it gives place, in turn, to new prayers\\nand pictures. The history of the State\\nsketches in coarse outline the progress of\\nthought, and follows at a distance the delicacy\\nof culture and of aspiration.\\nThe theory of politics, which has possessed\\nthe mind of men, and which they have ex-\\npressed the best they could in their laws and\\nin their revolutions, considers persons and\\nproperty as the two objects for whose protec-\\ntion government exists. Of persons, all have\\nequal rights, in virtue of being identical in", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0245.jp2"}, "246": {"fulltext": "234 ESSAY IX.\\nnature. This interest, of course, with its\\nwhole power demands a democracy. Whilst\\nthe rights of all as persons are equal, in virtue\\nof their access to reason, their rights in prop-\\nerty are very unequal. One man owns his\\nclothes, and another owns a county. This\\naccident, depending, primarily, on the skill\\nand virtue of the parties, of which there is\\nevery degree, and, secondarily, on patrimony,\\nfalls unequally, and its rights, of course, are\\nunequal. Personal rights, universally the\\nsame, demand a government framed on the\\nratio of the census: property demands a\\ngovernment framed on the ratio of owners\\nand of owning. Laban, who has flocks and\\nherds, wishes them looked after by an officer\\nof the frontiers, lest the Midianites shall drive\\nthem off, and pays a tax to that end. Jacob\\nhas no flocks or herds, and no fear of the\\nMidianites, and pays no tax to the officer. It\\nseemed fit that Laban and Jacob should have\\nequal rights to elect the officer who is to de-\\nfend their persons, but that Laban, and not\\nJacob, should elect the officer who is to guard\\nthe sheep and cattle. And, if question arises\\nwhether additional officers or watch-towers\\nshould be provided, must not Laban and\\nIsaac, and those who must sell part of their", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0246.jp2"}, "247": {"fulltext": "POLITICS. 235\\nherds to buy protection for the rest, judge\\nbetter of this, and with more right, that Jacob,\\nwho, because he is a youth and a traveler,\\neats their bread and not his own.\\nIn the earliest society the proprietors made\\ntheir own wealth, and so long as it comes to\\nthe owners in the direct way, no other opinion\\nwould arise in any equitable community, than\\nthat property should make the law for prop-\\nerty, and persons the law for persons.\\nBut property passes through donation or\\ninheritance to those who do not create it.\\nGift, in one case, makes it as really the new\\nowner s, as labor made it the first owner s: in\\nthe other case, of patrimony, the law makes\\nan ownership, which will be valid in each man s\\nview according to the estimate which he sets\\non the public tranquillity.\\nIt was not, however, found easy to embody\\nthe readily admitted principle, that property\\nshould make law for property, and persons for\\npersons: since persons and property mixed\\nthemselves in every transaction. At last it\\nseemed settled, that the rightful distinction\\nwas, that the proprietors should have more\\nelective franchise than non-proprietors, on\\nthe Spartan principle of calling that which\\nis just, equal; not that which is equal, just", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0247.jp2"}, "248": {"fulltext": "236 ESSAY IX.\\nThat principle no longer looks so self-evi-\\ndent as it appeared in former times, partly,\\nbecause doubts have arisen whether too much\\nweight had not been allowed in the laws, to\\nproperty, and such a structure given to our\\nusages, as allowed the rich to encroach on the\\npoor, and to keep them poor; but mainly,\\nbecause there is an instinctive sense, however\\nobscure and yet inarticulate, that the whole\\nconstitution of property, on its present tenures,\\nis injurious, and its influence on persons\\ndeteriorating and degrading; that truly, the\\nonly interest for the consideration of the State\\nis persons: that property will always follow\\npersons that the highest end of government\\nis the culture of men and if men can be edu-\\ncated, the institutions will share their improve-\\nment, and the moral sentiment will write the\\nlaw of the land.\\nIf it be not easy to settle the equity of this\\nquestion, the peril is less when we take note of\\nour natural defences. We are kept better\\nguards than the vigilance of such magistrates\\nas we commonly elect. Society always con-\\nsists, in greatest part, of young and foolish\\npersons. The old, who have seen through the\\nhypocrisy of courts and statesmen, die, and\\nleave no wisdom to their sons. They believe", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0248.jp2"}, "249": {"fulltext": "POLITICS. 237\\ntheir own newspaper, as their fathers did at\\ntheir age. y With such an ignorant and deceiv-\\nable majority, States would soon run to ruin,\\nbut that there are limitations, beyond which\\nthe folly and ambition of governors cannot go.\\nThings have their laws, as well as men and\\nthings refuse to be trifled with. Property\\nwill be protected. Corn will not grow, unless\\nit is planted and manured; but the farmer\\nwill not plant or hoe it, unless the chances are\\na hundred to one that he will cut and harvest\\nit. Under any form, persons and property\\nmust and will have their just sway. They\\nexert their power, as steadily as matter its\\nattraction. Cover up a pound of earth never\\nso cunningly, divide and subdivide it melt it\\nto liquid, convert it to gas, it will always\\nweigh a pound it will always attract and resist\\nother matter, by the full virtue of one pound\\nweight; and the attributes of a person, his\\nwit and his moral energy, will exercise, under\\nany law or extinguishing tyranny, their proper\\nforce, if not overtly, then covertly: if not\\nfor the law, then against it; with right, or by\\nmight.\\nThe boundaries of personal influence it is\\nimpossible to fix, as persons are organs of\\nmoral or supernatural force. Under the", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0249.jp2"}, "250": {"fulltext": "238 ESSAY IX.\\ndominion of an idea, which possesses the minds\\nof multitudes, as civil freedom, or the religious\\nsentiment, the powers of persons are no longer\\nsubjects of calculation. A nation of men\\nunanimously bent on freedom, or conquest,\\ncan easily confound the arithmetic of statists,\\nand achieve extravagant actions, out of all\\nproportion to their means; as, the Greeks, the\\nSaracens, the Swiss, the Americans, and the\\nFrench have done.\\nIn like manner, to every particle of property\\nbelongs it own attraction. A cent is\\nthe representative of a certain quantity of\\ncorn or other commodity. Its value is in the\\nnecessities of the animal man. It is so\\nmuch warmth, so much bread, so much\\nwater, so much land. The \\\\aw may do what\\nit will with the owner of property, its just\\npower will still attach to the cent. The law\\nmay in a mad freak say that all shall have\\npower except the owners of property: they\\nshall have no vote. Nevertheless, by a\\nhigher law, the property will, year after year,\\nwrite every statute that respects property.\\nThe non-proprietor will be the scribe of the\\nproprietor. What the owners wish to do, the\\nwhole power of property will do, either\\nthrough the law, or else in defiance of it. Of", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0250.jp2"}, "251": {"fulltext": "POLITICS 239\\ncourse, I speak of all the property, not merely\\nof the great estates. When the rich are out-\\nvoted, as frequently happens, it is the joint\\ntreasury of the poor which exceeds their accu-\\nmulations. Every man owns something, if it\\nis only a cow or a wheelbarrow, or his arms,\\nand so has that property to dispose of.\\nThe same necessity which secures the rights\\nof person and property against the malignity\\nand folly of the magistrate determines the\\nform and methods of governing, which are\\nproper to each nation, and to its habits of\\nthought, and nowise transferable to other\\nstates of society. In this country, we are very\\nvain of our political institutions, which are\\nsingular in this, that they sprung, within the\\nmemory of living men, from the character and\\ncondition of the people, which they still ex-\\npress with sufficient fidelity, and we osten-\\ntatiously prefer them to any other in history.\\nThey are not better, but only fitter for us. We\\nmay be wise in asserting the advantage in\\nmodern times of the democratic form, but to\\nother states of society, in which religion con-\\nsecrated the monarchical, that and not this was\\nexpedient. Democracy is better for us,\\nbecause the religious sentiment of the present\\ntime accords better with it. Born democrats,", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0251.jp2"}, "252": {"fulltext": "240 ESSAY IX.\\nwe are nowise qualified to judge of monarchy,\\nwhich, to our fathers living in the monarchical\\nidea, was also relatively right. But our institu-\\ntions, though in coincidence with the spirit of\\nthe age, have not any exemption from the\\npractical defects which have discredited other\\nforms. Every actual State is corrupt. Good\\nmen must not obey the laws too well. What\\nsatire on government can equal the severity\\nof censure conveyed in the word politics which\\nnow for ages has signified cunning, intimating\\nthat the State is a trick?\\nThe same benign necessity and the same\\npractical abuse appear in the parties into\\nwhich each State divides itself, of opponents\\nand defenders of the administration of the gov-\\nernment. Parties are also founded on instincts,\\nand have better guides to their own hum-\\nble aims than the sagacity of their leaders.\\nThey have nothing perverse in their origin,\\nbut rudely mark some real and lasting rela-\\ntion. We might as wisely reprove the last\\nwind, or the frost, as a political party, whose\\nmembers, for the most part, could give no\\naccount of their position, but stand for the\\ndefence of those interests in which they find\\nthemselves. Our quarrel with them begins,\\nwhen they quit this deep natural ground at the.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0252.jp2"}, "253": {"fulltext": "POLITICS. 241\\nbidding of some leader, and, obeying personal\\nconsiderations, throw themselves into the\\nmaintenance and defence of points, nowise\\nbelonging to their system. A party is perpet-\\nually corrupted by personality. Whilst we\\nabsolve the association from dishonesty we\\ncannot extend the same charity to their\\nleaders. They reap the rewards of the docility\\nand zeal of the masses which they direct.\\nOrdinarily, our parties are parties of circum-\\nstance, and not of principle as, the planting\\ninterest in conflict with the commercial the\\nparty of capitalists, and that of operatives;\\nparties which are identical in their moral\\ncharacter, and which can easily change ground\\nwith each other, in the support of many of\\ntheir measures. Parties of principle, as relig-\\nious sects, or the party of free-trade, of uni-\\nversal suffrage, of abolition of slavery, of abol-\\nition of capital punishment, degenerate into\\npersonalities, or would inspire enthusiasm.\\nThe vice of our leading parties in this country\\n(which may be cited as a fair specimen of these\\nsocieties of opinion) is, that they do not plant\\nthemselves on the deep and necessary grounds\\nto which they are respectively entitled, but\\nlash themselves to fury in the carrying of some\\nlocal and momentary measure, nowise useful to\\n16", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0253.jp2"}, "254": {"fulltext": "242 ESSAY IX.\\nthe commonwealth. Of the two great parties,\\nwhich, at this hour, almost share the nation\\nbetween them, I should say that one has the\\nbest cause, and the other contains the best\\nmen. The philosopher, the poet, or the relig-\\nious man will, of course, wish to cast his vote\\nwith the democrat, for free trade, for wide\\nsuffrage, for the abolition of legal cruelties in\\nthe penal code, and for facilitating in every\\nmanner the access of the young and the poor\\nto the sources of wealth and power. But he can\\nrarely accept the persons whom the so-called\\npopular party propose to him as representa-\\ntives of these liberalities. They have not at\\nheart the ends which give to the name of\\ndemocracy what hope and virtue are in it. The\\nspirit of our American radicalism is destructive\\nand aimless it is not loving it has no ulterior\\nand divine ends; but is destructive only out of\\nhatred and selfishness. On the other side, the\\nconservative party, composed of tlie most\\nmoderate, able, and cultivated part of the\\npopulation is timid, and merely defensive of\\nproperty. It vindicates no right, it aspires to\\nno real good, it brands no crime, it proposes\\nno generous policy, it does not build, nor write,\\nnor cherish the arts, nor foster religion, nor\\nestablish schools, nor encourage science, nor", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0254.jp2"}, "255": {"fulltext": "POLITICS. 243\\nemancipate the slave, nor befriend the poor,\\nor the Indian, or the immigrant. From\\nneither party, when in power, has the world\\nany benefit to expect in science, art or human-\\nity, at all commensurate with the resources of\\nthe nation.\\nI do not for these defects despair of our re-\\npublic. We are not at the mercy of any waves\\nof chance. In the strife of ferocious parties,\\nhuman nature always finds itself cherished as\\nthe children of the convicts at Botany Bay are\\nfound to have as healthy a moral sentiment as\\nother children. Citizens of feudal states are\\nalarmed at our democratic institutions lapsing\\ninto anarchy and the older and more cautious\\namong ourselves are learning from Europeans\\nto look with some terror at our turbulent free-\\ndom. It is said that in our license of constru-\\ning the Constitution, and in the despotism of\\npublic opinion, we have no anchor; and one\\nforeign observer thinks he has found the safe-\\nguard in the sanctity of Marriage among us;\\nand another thinks he has found it in our\\nCalvinism. Fisher Ames expressed the pop-\\nular security more wisely, when he compared\\na monarchy and a republic, saying, that a\\nmonarchy is a merchantman, which sails well,\\nbut will sometimes strike on a rock and go to", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0255.jp2"}, "256": {"fulltext": "244 ESSAY IX.\\nthe bottom whilst a republic is a raft, which\\nwould never sink, but then your feet are\\nalways in water/ No forms can have any\\ndangerous importance, whilst we are be-\\nfriended by the laws of things. It makes no\\ndifference how many tons weight of atmos-\\nphere presses on our heads, as long as the same\\npressure resists it within the lungs. Augment\\nthe mass a thousand fold, it cannot begin to\\ncrush us, as long as reaction is equal to action.\\nThe fact of two poles, of two forces, centrip-\\nital and centrifugal, is universal, and each force\\nby its own activity develops the other. Wild\\nliberty develops iron conscience. Want of\\nliberty, by strengthening law and decorum,\\nstupefies conscience. Lynch-law prevails\\nonly where there is greater hardihood and self-\\nsubsistency in the leaders. A mob cannot be a\\npermanency: everybody s interests requires\\nthat it should not exist, and only justice sat-\\nisfies all.\\nWe must trust infinitely to the benefi-\\ncent necessity which shines through all laws.\\nHuman nature expresses itself in them as\\ncharacteristically as in statues, or songs,\\nor railroads, and an abstract of the codes of\\nnations would be a transcript of the common\\nconscience. Governments have their origin", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0256.jp2"}, "257": {"fulltext": "POLITICS. 245\\nin the moral identity of men. Reason for one\\nis seen to be reason for another, and for every\\nother. There is a middle measure which sat-\\nisfies all parties, be they never so many, or so\\nresolute for their own. Every man finds a\\nsanction for his simplest claims and deeds in\\ndecisions of his own mind, which he calls\\nTruth and Holiness. In these decisions all\\nthe citizens find a perfect agreement, and\\nonly in these; not in what is good to eat, good\\nto wear, good use of time, or what amount of\\nland, or of public aid, each is entitled to claim.\\nThis truth and justice men presently endeavor\\nto make application of, to the measuring of\\nland, the apportionment of service, the pro-\\ntection of life and property. Their first en-\\ndeavors no doubt, are very awkward. Yet\\nabsolute right is the first governor or, every\\ngovernment is an impure theocracy. The\\nidea, after which each community is aiming to\\nmake and mend its law, is, the will of the wise\\nman. The wise man it cannot find in nature,\\nand it makes awkward but earnest efforts to\\nsecure his government by contrivance as, by\\ncausing the entire people to give their voices\\non every measure; or, by a double choice to\\nget the representation of the whole or, by a\\nselection of the best citizens: or, to secure", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0257.jp2"}, "258": {"fulltext": "246\\nESSAY IX.\\nthe advantages of efEciency and internal peace,\\nby confiding the government to one who may\\nhimself select his agents. All forms of gov-\\nernment symbolize an immortal government,\\ncommon to all dynasties and independent of\\nnumbers, perfect where two men exist, perfect\\nwhere there is only one man.\\nEvery man s nature is a sufficient advertise-\\nment to him of the character of his fellows.\\nMy right and my wrong, is their right and\\ntheir wrong. Whilst I do what is fit for me,\\nand abstain from what is unfit, my neighbor\\nand I shall often agree in our means, and work\\ntogether for a time to one end. But whenever\\nI find my dominion over myself not sufficient\\nfor me, and undertake the direction of him\\nalso, I overstep the truth, and come into false\\nrelations to him. I may have so much more\\nskill or strength than he, that he cannot\\nexpress adequately his sense of wrong, but it\\nis a lie, and hurts like a lie both him and\\nme. Love and nature cannot maintain the\\nassumption it must be executed by a practical\\nlie, namely, by force. This undertaking for\\nanother is the blunder which stands in the\\ncolossal ugliness in the governments of the\\nworld. It is the same thing in numbers as in\\na pair, only not quite so intelligible. I can", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0258.jp2"}, "259": {"fulltext": "POLITICS. 247\\nsee well enough a great difference between\\nmy setting myself down to a self-control, and\\nmy going to make somebody else act after my\\nviews: but when a quarter of the human race\\nassume to tell me what I must do, I may be\\ntoo much disturbed by the circumstances to\\nsee so clearly the absurdity of their command.\\nTherefore, all public ends look vague and\\nquixotic beside private ones. For, any laws\\nbut those which men make for themselves, are\\nlaughable. If I put myself in the place of my\\nchild, and we stand in one thought, and see\\nthat things are thus or thus, that perception is\\nlaw for him and me. We are both there, both\\nact. But if, without carrying him into the\\nthought, I look over into his plot, and, guess-\\ning how it is with him, ordain this or that, he\\nwill never obey me. This is the history of\\ngovernments, one man does something\\nwhich is to bind another. A man who can-\\nnot be acquainted with me, taxes me look-\\ning from afar at me, ordains that a part of my\\nlabors shall go to this or that whimsical end,\\nnot as I, but as he happens to fancy. Behold\\nthe consequence. Of all debts, men are least\\nwilling to pay the taxes. What a satire is this\\non government! Everywhere they think they\\nget their money s worth, exeept for these.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0259.jp2"}, "260": {"fulltext": "248 ESSAY IX.\\nHence, the less government we have, the\\nbetter the fewer laws, and the less confided\\npower. The antidote to this abuse of formal\\nGovernment is the influence of private charac-\\nter, the growth of the Individual the appear-\\nance of the principal to supersede the proxy;\\nthe appearance of the wise man, of whom the\\nexisting government is, it must be owned, a\\nshabby imitation. That which all things tend\\nto educe, which freedom, cultivation, inter-\\ncourse, revolutions, go to form and deliver, is\\ncharacter; that is the end of nature, to reach\\nunto this coronation of her king. To educate\\nthe wise man, the State exists; and with the\\nappearance of the wise man, the State expires.\\nThe appearance of character makes the State\\nunnecessary. The wise man is the State. He\\nneeds no army, fort, or navy, he loves men\\ntoo well; no bribe, or feast, or palace, to draw\\nfriends to him no vantage ground, no favor-\\nable circumstance. He needs no library, for\\nhe has not done thinking no church, for he\\nis a prophet; no statute book, for he has the\\nlawgiver no money, for he is value no road,\\nfor he is at home where he is; no experience,\\nfor the life of the creator shoots through him,\\nand looks from his eyes. He has no personal\\nfriends, for he who has the spell to draw the", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0260.jp2"}, "261": {"fulltext": "POLITICS. 249\\nprayer and piety of all men unto him needs\\nnot hnsband and educate a few, to share with\\nhim a select and poetic life. His relation to\\nmen is angelic; his memory is myrrh to\\nthem; his presence, frankincense and flowers.\\nWe think our civilization near its meridian,\\nbut we are yet only at the cock crowing and\\nthe morning star. In our barbarous society\\nthe influence is in its infancy. As a political\\npower, as the rightful lord who is to tumble\\nall rulers from their chairs, its presence is\\nhardly yet suspected. Malthus and Ricardo\\nquite omit it; the Annual Register is silent; in\\nthe Conversations Lexicon it is not set down\\nthe President s Message, the Queen s Speech,\\nhave not mentioned it; and yet it is never\\nnothing. Every thought which genius and\\npiety throw into the world alters the world.\\nThe gladiators in the lists of power feel,\\nthrough all their frocks of force and simula-\\ntion, the presence of worth. I think the every\\nstrife of trade and ambition are confession of\\nthis divinity; and successes in those fields are\\nthe poor amends, the fig-leaf with which the\\nashamed soul attempts to hide its nakedness.\\nI find the like unwilling homage in all quarters.\\nIt is because we know how much is due from\\nus, that we are impatient to show some petty", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0261.jp2"}, "262": {"fulltext": "250 ESSAY IX.\\ntalent as a substitute for worth. We are\\nhaunted by a conscience of this right to gran-\\ndeur of character, and are false to it. But\\neach of us has some talent, can do somewhat\\nuseful, or graceful, or formidable, or amusing,\\nor lucrative. That we do, as an apology to\\nothers and to ourselves, for not reaching the\\nmark of a good and equal life. But it does not\\nsatisfy us, whilst we thrust it on the notice of\\nour companions. It may throw dust in their\\neyes, but does not smooth our own brow, or\\ngive us the tranquillity of the strong when we\\nwalk abroad. We do penance as we go. Our\\ntalent is a sort of expiation, and we are con-\\nstrained to reflect on our splendid moment,\\nwith a certain humiliation, as somewhat too\\nfine, and not as one act of many acts, a fair\\nexpression of our permanent energy. Most\\npersons of ability meet in society with a kind\\nof tacit appeal. Each seems to say, I am not\\nall here. Senators and presidents have\\n^climbed so high with pain enough, not because\\nthey think the place specially agreeable, but\\nas an apology for real worth, and to vindicate\\ntheir manhood in our eyes. This conspicuous\\nchair is their compensation to themselves for\\nbeing of a poor, cold, hard nature. They\\nmust do what they can. Like one class of", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0262.jp2"}, "263": {"fulltext": "POLITICS. 25]\\nforest animals, they have nothing but a pre-\\nhensile tail: climb they must, or crawl. If a\\nman found himself so rich-natured that he\\ncould enter into strict relations with the best\\npersons, and make life serene around him by\\nthe dignity and sweetness of his behavior,\\ncould he afford to circumvent the favor of\\nthe caucus and the press, and covet relations\\nso hollow and pompous as those of a politi-\\ncian? Surely nobody would be a charlatan,\\nwho could afford to be sincere.\\nThe tendencies of the times favor the idea\\nof self-government, and leave the individual,\\nfor all code, to the rewards and penalties of\\nhis own constitution, which work with more\\nenergy than we believe, whilst we depend on\\nartificial restraints. The movement in this\\ndirection has been very marked in modern\\nhistory. Much has been blind and discredita-\\nble, but the nature of the revolution is not\\naffected by the vices of the revolters; for this\\nis a purely moral force. It was never adopted\\nby any party in history, neither can be. It\\nseparates the individual from all party, and\\nunites him, at the same time, to the race. It\\npromises a recognition of higher rights than\\nthose of personal freedom, or the security of\\nproperty. A man has a right to be employed,", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0263.jp2"}, "264": {"fulltext": "252 ESSAY IX.\\nto be trusted, to be loved, to be revered. The\\npower of love, as the basis of a State, has\\nnever been tried. We must not imagine that\\nall things are lapsing into confusion, if every\\ntender protestant be not compelled to bear his\\npart in certain social conventions: nor doubt\\nthat roads can be built, letters carried, and\\nthe fruit of labor secured, when the govern-\\nment of force is at an end. Are our methods\\nnow so excellent that all competition is hope-\\nless? Could not a nation of friends even\\ndevise better ways? On the other hand, let\\nnot the most conservative and timid fear any-\\nthing from a premature surrender of the bay-\\nonet, and the system of force. For, according\\nto the order of nature, which is quite superior\\nto our will, it stands thus there will always\\nbe a government of force, where men are sel-\\nfish; and when they are pure enough to abjure\\nthe code of force, they will be wise enough to\\nsee how these public ends of the postofifice, of\\nthe highway, of commerce, and the exchange\\nof property, of museums and libraries, of insti-\\ntutions of art and science, can be answered.\\nWe live in a very low state of the world, and\\npay unwilling tribute to governments founded\\non force. There is not, among the most\\nreligious and instructed men of the most relig-", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0264.jp2"}, "265": {"fulltext": "POLITICS. 253\\nions and civil nations, a reliance on the moral\\nsentiment, and a sufficient belief in the unity\\nof things to persuade them that society can be\\nmaintained without artificial restraints, as well\\nas the solar system, or that the private citizen\\nmight be reasonable, and a good neighbor,\\nwithout the hint of a jail or a confiscation.\\nWhat is strange, too, there never was in any\\nman sufficient faith in the power of rectitude,\\nto inspire him with the broad design of reno-\\nvating the State on the principle of right and\\nlove. All those who have pretended this\\ndesign ^ave been partial reformers, and have\\nadmitted in some manner the supremacy of\\nthe bad State. I do not call to mind a single\\nhuman being who has steadily denied the\\nauthority of the laws, on the simple ground of\\nhis own moral nature. Such designs, full of\\ngenius and full of fate as they are, are not\\nentertained except avowedly as air-pictures.\\nIf the individual who exhibits them dare to\\nthink them practicable, he disgusts scholars\\nand churchmen and men of talent, and women\\nof superior sentiments, cannot hide their con-\\ntempt. Not the less does nature continue to\\nfill the heart of youth with suggestions in this\\nenthusiasm, and there are now men if indeed\\nI can speak in the plural number, more", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0265.jp2"}, "266": {"fulltext": "254 ESSAY IX.\\nexactly, I will say, I have just been convers-\\ning to one man, to whom no weight of adverse\\nexperience will make it for a moment appear\\nimpossible, that thousands of human beings\\nmight exercise toward each other the grandest\\nand simplest sentiments, as well as a knot of\\nfriends, or a pair of lovers.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0266.jp2"}, "267": {"fulltext": "ESSAY X.\\nNOMINALIST AND REALIST.\\nI cannot often enough say that a man is only\\na relative and representative nature. Each is\\na hint of the truth, but far enough from being\\nthat truth, which yet he quite newly and inev-\\nitably suggests to us. If I seek it in him, I\\nshall not find it. Could any man conduct into\\nme the pure stream of that which he pretends\\nto be! Long afterward, I find that quality\\nelsewhere which he promised me. The genius\\nof the Platonists is intoxicating to the student,\\nyet how few particulars of it can I detach from\\nall their books! The man momentarily stands\\nfor the thought, but will not bear examination\\nand a society of men will cursorily represent\\nwell enough a certain quality and culture, for\\nexample, chivalry or beauty of manners; but\\nseparate them, and there is no gentleman and\\nno lady in the group. The least hint sets us\\non the pursuit of a character which no man\\nrealizes. We have such exorbitant eyes, that\\non seeing the smallest arc, we complete the\\n255", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0267.jp2"}, "268": {"fulltext": "256 ESSAY X.\\ncurve, and when the curtain is lifted from the\\ndiagram which it seemed to veil, we are vexed\\nto find that no more was drawn than just that\\nfragment of an arc which we first beheld. We\\nare greatly too liberal in our construction of\\neach other s faculty and promise. Exactly\\nwhat the parties have already done, they shall\\ndo again, but that which we inferred from\\ntheir nature and inception, they will not do.\\nThat is in nature, but not in them. That\\nhappens in the world, which we often witness\\nin a public debate. Each of the speakers ex-\\npresses himself imperfectly: no one of them\\nhears much that another says, such is the pre-\\noccupation of mind of each and the audience,\\nwho have only to hear and not to speak, judge\\nvery wisely and superiorly how wrongheaded\\nand unskilful is each of the debators to his\\nown affair. Great men or men of great gifts\\nyou shall easily find, but symmetrical men\\nnever. When I meet a pure, intellectual force,\\nor a generosity of affection, I believe, here\\nthen is man; and am presently mortified by\\nthe discovery that this individual is no more\\nvailable to his own or to the general ends than\\nhis companions: because the power which\\ndrew my respect is not supported by the total\\nsymphony of his talents. All persons exist to\\ni", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0268.jp2"}, "269": {"fulltext": "NOMINALIST AND REALIST. 25T\\nsociety by some shining trait of beauty or util-\\nity, which they have. We borrow the propor-\\ntions of the man from that one fine feature,\\nand finish the portrait symmetrically which is\\nfalse; for the rest of his body is small or de-\\nformed. I observe a person who makes a good\\npublic appearance, and conclude thence the\\nperfection of his private character, on which\\nthis is based but he has no private character.\\nHe is a graceful cloak or lay-figure for holi-\\ndays. All our poets, heroes, and saints faii\\nutterly in some one or in many parts to satisfy\\nour idea, fail to draw our spontaneous interest,\\nand so leave us without any hope of realization\\nbut in our own future. Our exaggeration of\\nall fine characters arises from the fact that we\\nidentify each in turn with the soul. But there\\nare no such men as we fable; no Jesus, nor\\nPericles, nor Cassar, nor Angelo, nor Wash-\\nington, such as we have made. We consecrate\\na great deal of nonsense, because it was al-\\nlowed by great men. There is none without\\nhis foible. I verily believe if an angel should\\ncome to chaunt the chorus of the moral law,\\nhe would eat too much gingerbread, or take\\nliberties with private letters, or do some pre-\\ncious atrocity. It is bad enough, that our gen-\\niuses cannot do anything useful, but it is worse\\n17", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0269.jp2"}, "270": {"fulltext": "258 ESSAY X.\\nthat no man is fit for society who has fine traits.\\nHe is admired at a distance, but he cannot come\\nnear without appearing a cripple. The men of\\nfine parts protect themselves by solitude, or by\\ncourtesy, or by satire, or by an acid worldly\\nmanner, each concealing, as he best can, his\\nincapacity for useful association; but they\\nwant either love or self-reliance.\\nOur native love of reality joins with this ex-\\nperience to teach us a little reserve, and to dis-\\nsuade a too sudden surrender to the brilliant\\nqualities of persons. Young people admire\\ntalents or particular excellences as we grow\\nolder, we value total powers and effects, as,\\nthe impression, the equality, the spirit of men\\nand things. The genius is all. The man, it\\nis his system we do not try a solitary word or\\nact, but his habit. The acts which you praise,\\nI praise not, since they are departures from his\\nfaith, and are mere compliances. The magne-\\ntism which arranges tribes and races in one\\npolarity is alone to be respected the men are\\nsteel filings. Yet we unjustly select a particle,\\nand say, *0 steel-filing number one! what\\nheart-drawings I feel to thee what prodigious\\nvirtues are these of thine! how constitutional\\nto thee, and incommunicable.* Whilst, we\\nspeak, the loadstone is withdrawn; down falls\\nI", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0270.jp2"}, "271": {"fulltext": "NOMINALIST AND REALIST. 259\\nour filing in a heap with the rest, and we con\u00c2\u00ab\\ntinne our mummery to the wretched shaving.\\nLet us go for universals; for the magnetism^\\nnot for the needles. Human life and its per-\\nsons are poor empirical pretensions. A per-\\nsonal influence is an ignis fatuus. If they say^\\nit is great, it is great if they say, it is small,\\nit is small you see it, and you see it not, by\\nturns it borrows all its size from the momen-\\ntary estimation of the speakers: the Will-of-\\nthe-wisp vanishes if you go too near, vanishes\\nif you go too far, and only blazes at one angle.\\nWho can tell if Washington be a great man,\\nor no? Who can tell if Franklin be? Yes, or\\nany but the twelve, or six, or three gods of\\nfame? And they, too, loom and fade before\\nthe eternal.\\nWe are amphibious creatures, weaponed for\\ntwo elements, having two sets of faculties, the\\nparticular and the catholic. We adjust our in-\\nstrument for general observation, and sweep\\nthe heavens as easily as we pick out a single\\nfigure in the terrestrial landscape. We are\\npractically skilful in detecting elements, for\\nwhich we have no place in our theory, and no\\nname. Thus we are very sensible of an atmos-\\npheric influence in men and in bodies of men,\\nnot accounted for in an arithmetical addition of", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0271.jp2"}, "272": {"fulltext": "260 ESSAY X.\\nall their measurable properties. There is a\\ngenius of a nation which is not to be found in\\nthe numerical citizens but which characterizes\\nthe society. England, strong, punctual, prac-\\ntical, well-spoken England, I should go to the\\nisland to seek it. In the parliament, in the\\nplay-house, at dinner-tables, book-read, con-\\nventional, proud men, many old women,\\nand not anywhere the Englishman who made\\nthe good speeches, combined the accurate en-\\ngines, and did the bold and nervous deeds. It\\nis even worse in America, where, from the in-\\ntellectual quickness of the race, the genius of\\nthe country is more splendid in its promise,\\nand more slight in its performance. Webster\\ncannot do the work of Webster. We conceive\\ndistinctly enough the French, the Spanish, the\\nGerman genius, and it is not the less real, that\\nperhaps we should not meet in either of those\\nnations a single individual who corresponded\\nwith the type. We infer the spirit of the na-\\ntion in great measure from the language, which\\nis a sort of monument, to which each forcible\\nindividual in a course of many hundred years\\nhas contributed a stone. And, universally, a\\ngood example of this social force is the verac-\\nity of language, which cannot be debauched.\\nIn any controversy concerning morals, an", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0272.jp2"}, "273": {"fulltext": "NOMINALIST AND REALIST. 261\\nappeal may be made with safety to the senti-\\nments, which the language of the people ex-\\npresses. Proverbs, words, and grammar inflec-\\ntions convey the public sense with more purity\\nand precision than the wisest individual.\\nIn the famous dispute with the Nominalists,\\nthe Realists had a good deal of reason. Gen-\\neral ideas are essences. They are our gods:\\nthey round and ennoble the most partial and\\nsordid way of living. Our proclivity to details\\ncannot quite degrade our life, and divest it of\\npoetry. The day-laborer is reckoned as stand-\\ning at the foot of the social scale, yet he is sat-\\nurated with the laws of the world. His mea-\\nsures are the hours; morning and night, sol-\\nstice and equinox, geometry, astronomy, and\\nall the lovely accidents of nature play through\\nhis mind. Money, which represents the prose\\nof life, and which is hardly spoken of in par-\\nlors without an apology, is, in its effects and\\nlaws, as beautiful as roses. Property keeps\\nthe accounts of the world, and is always moral.\\nThe property will be found where the labor,\\nthe wisdom, and the virtue have been in na-\\ntions, in classes, and (the whole life-time con-\\nsidered, with the compensations) in the indi-\\nvidual also. How wise the world appears,\\nwhen the laws and usages of nations are largely", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0273.jp2"}, "274": {"fulltext": "262 ESSAY X.\\ndetailed, and the coinpleteness of the munici-\\npal system is considered Nothing is left out.\\nIf you go into the markets, and the custom-\\nhouses, the insurers and notaries* offices, the\\noffices of sealers of weights and measures, of\\ninspection of provisions, it will appear as if\\none man had made it all. Wherever you go,\\na wit like your own has been before you, and\\nhas realized its thought. The Eleusinian mys-\\nteries, the Egyptian architecture, the Indian\\nastronomy, the Greek sculpture, show that\\nthere always were seeing and knowing men in\\nthe planet. The world is full of masonic ties,\\nof guilds, of secret and public legions of honor;\\nthat of scholars, for example and that of gen-\\ntlemen fraternizing with the upper class of\\nevery country and every culture.\\nI am very much struck in literature by the\\nappearance that one person wrote all the\\nbooks; as if the editor of a journal planted his\\nbody of reporters in different parts of the field\\nof action, and relieved some by others from\\ntime to time; but there is such equality and\\nidentity both/ of judgment and point of view\\nin the narrative, that it is plainly the work of\\none all-seeing, all-hearing gentleman. I looked\\ninto Pope s Odyssey yesterday: it is as cor-\\nrect and elegant, after our canon of to-day, as", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0274.jp2"}, "275": {"fulltext": "NOMINALIST AND REALIST. 263\\nif it were newly written. The modernness of\\nall good books seems to give me an existence\\nas wide as man. What is well done, I feel as\\nif I did; what is ill-done, I reck not of. Shake-\\nspeare s passages of passion (for example, in\\nLear and Hamlet) are in the very dialect of\\nthe present year. I am faithful again to the\\nwhole over the members in my use of books.\\nI find the most pleasure in reading a book in a\\nmanner least flattering to the author. I read\\nProclus, and sometimes Plato, as I might read\\na dictionary, for a mechanical help to the fancy\\nand the imagination. I read for the lustres, as\\nif one should use a fine picture in a chromatic\\nexperiment, for its rich colors. Tis not Pro-\\nclus, but a piece of nature and fate that I ex-\\nplore. It is a greater joy to see the author s\\nauthor, than himself, A higher pleasure of\\nthe same kind I found lately at a concert,\\nwhere I went to hear HandeVs Messiah. As\\nthe master overpowered the littleness and in-\\ncapableness of the performers, and made them\\nconductors of his electricity, so it was easy to\\nobserve what efforts nature was making\\nthrough so many hoarse, wooden, and imper-\\nfect persons, to produce beautiful voices, fluid\\nand soul-guided men and women. The genius\\nof nature was paramount at the oratorio.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0275.jp2"}, "276": {"fulltext": "264 ESSAY X.\\nThis preference of the genius to the parts is\\nthe secret of that deification of art which is\\nfound in all superior minds. Art, in the artist,\\nis proportion, or, a habitual respect to the\\nwhole by an eye loving beauty in details.\\nAnd the wonder and charm of it is the sanity\\nin insanity which it denotes. Proportion is\\nalmost impossible to human beings. There is\\nno one who does not exaggerate. In conversa-\\ntion, men are encumbered with personality,\\nand talk too much. In modern sculpture, pic-\\nture, and poetry the beauty is miscellaneous;\\nthe artist works here and there, and at all\\npoints, adding and adding, instead of unfold-\\ning the unit of his thought. Beautiful details\\nwe must have, or no artist: but they must be\\nmeans and never other. The eye must not\\nlose sight for a moment of the purpose.\\nLively boys write to their ear and eye, and\\nthe cool reader finds nothing but sweet jingles\\nin it. When they grow older, they respect the\\nargument.\\nWe obey the same intellectual integrity,\\nwhen we study in exceptions the law of the\\nworld. Anomalous facts, as the never\\nquite obsolete rumors of magic and demonol-\\nogy, and the new allegations of phrenologists\\nand neurologists, are of ideal use\u00e2\u0080\u009e They are", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0276.jp2"}, "277": {"fulltext": "NOMINALIST AND REALIST. 265\\ngood indications. Homoeopathy is insignificant\\nas an art of healing, but of great value as criti-\\ncism on the hygeia or medical practice of the\\ntime. So with Mesmerism, Swedenborgism\\nFourierism, and the Millennial Church they\\nare poor pretensions enough, but good criti-\\ncism on the science, philosophy, and preaching\\nof the day. For these abnormal insights of\\nthe adepts ought to be normal, and things of\\ncourse.\\nAll things show us that on every side we are\\nvery near to the best. It seems not worth\\nwhile to execute with too much pains some\\none intellectual, or aesthetical, or civil feat,\\nwhen presently the dream will scatter, and\\nwe shall burst into universal power. The\\nreason of idleness and of crime is the defer-\\nring of our hopes. Whilst we are waiting, we\\nbeguile the time with jokes, with sleep, with\\neating, and with crimes.\\nThus we settle it in our cool libraries, that\\nall the agents with which we deal are subal-\\nterns which we can well afford to let pass,\\nand life will be simpler when we live at the\\ncenter, and flout the surfaces. I wish to\\nspeak with all respect of persons, but some-\\ntimes I must pinch myself to keep awake, and\\npreserve the due decorum. They melt so fast", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0277.jp2"}, "278": {"fulltext": "266 ESSAY X.\\ninto each other, that they are like grass and\\ntrees, and it needs an effort to tolerate them\\nas individuals. Though the uninspired man\\ncertainly finds persons a conveniency in house-\\nhold matters, the divine man does not respect\\nthem he sees them as a rack of clouds, or a\\nfleet of ripples which the wind drives over the\\nsurface of the water. But this is fiat rebel-\\nlion. Nature will not be Buddhist: she\\nresents generalizing, and insults the philos-\\nopher in every moment with a million of\\nfresh particulars. It is an idle talking: as\\nmuch as a man is a whole, so is he also a part\\nand it were partial not to see it. What you\\nsay in your pompous distribution only distri-\\nbutes you into your class and section. You\\nhave not got rid of parts by denying them, but\\nare the more partial. You are one thing, but\\nnature is one thing and the other thing, in\\nthe same moment. She will not remain orbed\\nin a thought, but rushes into persons; and\\nwhen each person, inflamed to a fury of per-\\nsonality, would conquer all things to his poor\\ncrochet, she raises up against him another per-\\nson, and by many persons incarnates again a\\nsort of whole. She will have all. Nick Bot-\\ntom cannot play all the parts, work it how he\\nmay: there will be somebody else, and the", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0278.jp2"}, "279": {"fulltext": "NOMINALIST AND REALIST. 267\\nworld will be round. Everything must have\\nits flower or effort at the beautiful, coarser or\\nfiner according to its stuff. They relieve and\\nrecommend each other, and the sanity of\\nsociety is a balance of a thousand insanities.\\nShe punishes abstractionists, and will only for-\\ngive an induction which is rare and casual.\\nWe like to come to a height of land and see\\nthe landscape, just as we value a general\\nremark in conversation. But it is not the in-\\ntention of nature that we should live by gen-\\neral views. We fetch fire and water, run\\nabout all day among the shops and markets,\\nand get our clothes and shoes made and\\nmended, and are the victims of these details,\\nand once in a fortnight we arrive perhaps at\\na rational moment. If we were not thus infatu-\\nated, if we saw the real from hour to hour, we\\nshould not be here to write and to read but\\nshould have been burned or frozen long ago.\\nShe would never get anything done, if she\\nsuffered admirable Crichtons, and universal\\ngeniuses. She loves better a wheelwright who\\ndreams all night of wheels, and a groom who\\nis part of his horse for she is full of work,\\nand these are her hands. As the frugal\\nfarmer takes care that his cattle shall eat\\ndown the rowan, and swine shall eat the", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0279.jp2"}, "280": {"fulltext": "1268 ESSAY X.\\nwaste of his house, and poultry shall pick the\\ncrumbs, so our economical mother despatches\\na new genius and habit of mind into every\\ndistrict and condition of existence, plants an\\neye wherever a new ray of light can fall, and\\ngathering up into some man every property in\\nthe universe, establishes thousand-fold occult\\nmutual attractions among her off-spring that\\nall this wash and waste of power may be im-\\nparted and exchanged.\\nGreat dangers undoubtedly accrue from this\\nincarnation and distribution of the godhead,\\nand hence nature has her maligners, as if she\\nwere Circe and Alphonso of Castile fancied he\\ncould have given useful advice. But she does\\nnot go unprovided; she has hellebore at the\\nbottom of the cup. Solitude would ripen a\\nplentiful crop of despots. The recluse thinks\\nof men as having his manner, or as not having\\nhis manner and as having degrees of it, more\\nor less. But when he comes into a public\\nassembly, he sees that men have very different\\nmanners from his own, and in their way\\nadmirable. In his childhood and youth he has\\nhad many checks and censures, and thinks\\nmodestly enough of his own endowment.\\nWhen afterward he comes to unfold it in propi-\\ntious circumstance, it seems the only talent he", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0280.jp2"}, "281": {"fulltext": "NOMINALIST AND REALIST. 269\\nis delighted with his success, and accounts\\nhimself already the fellow of the great. But\\nhe goes into a mob, into a banking-house, into\\na mechanic s shop, into a mill, into a labor-\\natory, into a ship, into a camp, and in each\\nnew place he is no better than an idiot other\\ntalents take place, and rule the hour. The\\nrotation which whirls every leaf and pebble to\\nthe meridian, reaches to every gift of man,\\nand we all take turns at the to p.\\nFor nature, who abhors mannerism, has set\\nher heart on breaking up all styles and tricks,\\nand it is so much easier to do what one has\\ndone before, than to do a new thing, that\\nthere is a perpetual tendency to a set mode. In\\nevery conversation, even the highest, there is\\na certain trick, which may be soon learned by\\nan acute person, and then that particular style\\ncontinued indefinitely. Each man, too, is a\\ntryant in tendency, because he would impose\\nhis idea on others; and their trick is their\\nnatural defence, Jesus would absorb the race\\nbut Tom Paine, or the coarsest blasphemer,\\nhelps humanity by resisting this exuberance of\\npower. Hence the immense benefit of party\\nin politics, as it reveals faults of character in a\\nchief, which the intellectual force of the per-\\nsons, with ordinary opportunity, and not", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0281.jp2"}, "282": {"fulltext": "270 ESSAY X.\\nhurled into aphelion by hatred, could not have\\nseen. Since we are all so stupid, what benefit\\nthat there should be two stupidities! It is\\nlike that brute advantages so essential to\\nastronomy, of having the diameter of the\\nearth s orbit for a base of its triangles. Democ-\\nracy is morose, and runs to anarchy, but in\\nthe state, and in the schools, it is indispensable\\nto resist the consolidation of all men into a\\nfew men. If John was perfect, why are you\\nand I alive? As long as any man exists, there\\nis some need of him let him fight for his own.\\nA new poet has appeared a new character\\napproached us; why should we refuse to eat\\nbread, until we have found his regiment and\\nsection in our old army-files? Why not a new\\nman? Here is a new enterprise of Brook Farm,\\nof Skeneateles, of Northampton why so impa-\\ntient to baptize them Essenes, or Port- Royal-\\nists, or Shakers, or by any known and effete\\nname? Let it be a new way of living. Why\\nhave only two or three ways of life, and not\\nthousands? Every man is wanted, and no\\nman is wanted much. We came this time for\\ncondiments, not for corn. We want the great\\ngenius only for joy; for one star more in our\\nconstellation, for one tree more in our grove.\\nBut he thinks we wish to belong to him, as he", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0282.jp2"}, "283": {"fulltext": "NOMINALIST AND REALIST. 271\\nwishes to occupy us. He greatly mistakes us.\\nI think I have done well, if I have acquired a\\nnew word from a good author and my busi-\\nness with him is to find my own, though it\\nwere only to melt him down into an epithet or\\nan image for daily use.\\n**Into paint will I grind thee, my bride!\\nTo embroil the confusion, and make it\\nimpossible to arrive at any general statement,\\nwhen we have insisted on the imperfection of\\nindividuals, our affections and our experience\\nurge that every individual is entitled to honor,\\nand a very generous treatment is sure to be\\nrepaid. A recluse sees only two or three per-\\nsons, and allows them all their room; they\\nspread themselves at large. The man of state\\nlooks at many, and compares the few habitually\\nwith others and these look less. Yet are they\\nnot entitled to this generosity of reception?\\nand is not munificence the means of insight?\\nFor, though gamesters say that the cards beat\\nall the players, though they were never so skil-\\nful, yet in the contest we are now considering,\\nthe players are also the game, and share the\\npower of the cards. If you criticise a fine\\ngenius, the odds are that you are out of your\\nreckoning and, instead of the poet, are censur-", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0283.jp2"}, "284": {"fulltext": "272 ESSAY X.\\ning your own caricature of him. For there is\\nsomewhat spheral and infinite in every man,\\nespecially in ever}^ genius, which, if you can\\ncome very near him, sports with all your limi*\\ntations. For, rightly, every man is a channel\\nthrough which heaven floweth, and, whilst I\\nfancied I was criticising him, I was censuring\\nor rather terminating my own soul. After\\ntaxing Goethe as a courtier, artificial, unbe-\\nlieving, worldly, I took up this book of\\nHelena, and found him an Indian of the wild-\\nerness, a piece of pure nature like an apple or\\nan oak, large as morning or night, and virtu-\\nous as a briar-rose.\\nBut care is taken that the whole tune shall\\nbe played. If he were not kept among sur-\\nfaces, everything would be large and univer-\\nsal now the excluded attributes burst in on\\nus with the more brightness, that they have\\nbeen excluded. **Your turn now, my turn\\nnext, is the rule of the game. The univer-\\nsality being hindered in its primary form,\\ncomes in the secondary form of all sides: the\\npoints come in succession to the meridian, and\\nby the speed of rotation, a new whole is\\nformed. Nature keeps herself whole, and\\nher representation complete in the experience\\nof each mind. She suffers no seat to be vacant", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0284.jp2"}, "285": {"fulltext": "NOMINALIST AND REALIST. 273\\nin her college. It is the secret of the world\\nthat all things subsist, and do not die, but\\nonly retire a little from sight, and afterward\\nreturn again. Whatever does not concern us,\\nis concealed from us. As soon as a person is\\nno longer related to our present well-being, he\\nis concealed, or dies, as we say. Really, all\\nthings and persons are related to us but accord-\\ning to our nature, they act on us not at once,\\nbut in succession, and we are made aware of\\ntheir presence one at a time. All persons, all\\nthings which we have known, are here pres-\\nent, and many more than we see the world is\\nfull. As the ancient said, the world is a\\nplenum or solid and if we saw all things that\\nreally surround us, we should be imprisoned\\nand unable to move. For, though nothing is\\nimpassable to the soul, but all things are per\u00c2\u00ab\\nvious to it, and like highways, yet this is only\\nwhilst the soul does not see them. As soon as\\nthe soul sees any object it stops before that\\nobject. Therefore, the divine Providence,\\nwhich keeps the universe open in every direc-\\ntion to the soul, conceals all the furniture and\\nall the persons that do not concern a particular\\nsoul, from the senses of that individual.\\nThrough solidest eternal things, the man finds\\nhis road, as if they did not subsist, and does\\n18", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0285.jp2"}, "286": {"fulltext": "274 ESSAY X.\\nnot once suspect their being. As soon as he\\nneeds a new object, suddenly he beholds it,\\nand no longer attempts to pass through it, but\\ntakes another way. When he has exhausted\\nfor the time the nourishment to be drawn\\nfrom any one person or thing, that object is\\nwithdrawn from his observation, and though\\nstill in his immediate neighborhood, he does\\nnot suspect its presence.\\nNothing is dead: men feign themselves\\ndead, and endure mock funerals and mournful\\nobituaries, and there they stand looking out\\nof the window, sound and well, in some new\\nand strange disguise. Jesus is not dead: he is\\nvery well alive: nor John, nor Paul, nor\\nMahomet, nor Aristotle at times we believe\\nwe have seen them all, and could easily tell\\nthe names under which they go.\\nIf we cannot make voluntary and conscious\\nsteps in the admirable science of universals,\\nlet us see the parts wisely, and infer the genius\\nof nature from the best particulars with a\\nbecoming charity. What is best in each kind\\nis an index of what should be the average of\\nthat thing. Love shows me the opulence of\\nnature, by disclosing to me in my friend a\\nhidden wealth, and I infer an equal depth of\\ngood in every other direction. It is commonly\\ni", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0286.jp2"}, "287": {"fulltext": "NOMINALIST AND REALIST. 275\\nsaid by farmers, that a good pear or apple costs\\nno more time or pains to rear, than a poor\\none; so I would have no work of art, no\\nspeech, or action, or thought, or friend, but\\nthe best.\\nThe end and the means, the gamester and\\nthe game, life is made up of the intermix-\\nture and reaction of these two amicable\\npowers, whose marriage appears beforehand\\nmonstrous, as each denies and tends to abolish\\nthe other. We must reconcile the contradic-\\ntions as we can, but their discord and their\\nconcord introduce wild absurdities into our\\nthinking and speech. No sentence will hold\\nthe whole truth, and the only way in which we\\ncan be just, is by giving ourselves the lie;\\nSpeech is better than silence silence is better\\nthan speech All things are in contact every\\natom has a sphere of repulsion Things are\\nand are not, at the same time and the like.\\nAll the universe over, there is but one thing,\\nthis old Two- Face, creator-creature, mind-\\nmatter, right-wrong, of which any proposition\\nmay be affirmed or denied. Very fitly, there-\\nfore, I assert, that every man is a partialist,\\nthat nature secures him as an instrument by\\nself-conceit, preventing the tendencies to\\nreligion and science; and now further assert", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0287.jp2"}, "288": {"fulltext": "276 ESSAY X.\\nthat, each man*s genius being nearly and\\naffectionately explored, he is justified in his\\nindividuality, as his nature is found to be\\nimmense and now I add, that every man is a\\nuniversalist also, and, as our earth, whilst is\\nspins on its ow^n axis, spins all the time around\\nthe sun through the celestial spaces, so the\\nleast of its rational children, the most dedi-\\ncated to his private affair, works out, though\\nas it were under a disguise, the universal prob-\\nlem. We fancy men are individuals; so are\\npumpkins; but every pumpkin in the field\\ngoes through every point of pumpkin history.\\nThe rabid democrat, as soon as he is senator\\nand rich man, has ripened beyond possibility\\nof sincere, radicalism, and unless he can\\nresist the sun, he must be conservative the\\nremainder of his days. Lord Eldon said is his\\nold age, *that, if he were to begin life again,\\nhe would be damned but he would begin as\\nagitator.\\nWe hide this universality, if we can, but it\\nappears at all points. We are as ungrateful as\\nchildren. There is nothing we cherish and\\nstrive to draw to us, but in some hour we turn\\nand rend it. We keep a running fire of sarcasm\\nat ignorance and the life of the senses then\\ngoes by, perchance, a fair girl, apiece of life.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0288.jp2"}, "289": {"fulltext": "NOMINALIST AND REALIST. 277\\ngay and happy, and making the commonest\\noffices beautiful, by the energy and heart with\\nwhich she does them, and seeing this, we admire\\nand love her and them, and say, Lo a genuine\\ncreature of the fair earth, not dissipated, or\\ntoo early ripened by books, philosophy, relig-\\nion, society, or care! insinuating a treachery\\nand contempt for all we had so long loved and\\nwrought in ourselves and others.\\nIf we could have any security against moods\\nIf the profoundest prophet could be holden to\\nhis words, and the hearer who is ready to sell\\nall and join the crusade, could have any cer-\\ntificate that to-morrow his prophet shall not\\nunsay his testimony! But the Truth sits veiled\\non the Bench, and never interposes an ada-\\nmantine syllable and the most sincere and rev-\\nolutionary doctrine, put as if the ark of God\\nwere carried forward some furlongs, and\\nplanted there for the succor of the world, shall\\nin a few weeks be coldly set aside by the same\\nspeaker, a morbid *I thought I was right, but\\nI was not, and the same immeasurable cre-\\ndulity demanded for new audacities. If we\\nwere not of all opinions if we did not in any\\nmoment shift the platform on which we stand,\\nand look and speak from another! if there\\ncould be any regulation, any one-hour rule,", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0289.jp2"}, "290": {"fulltext": "278 ESSAY X.\\nthat a man should never leave his point of\\nview, without sound of trumpet. I am always\\ninsincere, as always knowing there are other\\nmoods.\\nHow sincere and confidential we can be, say-\\ning all that lies in the mind, and yet go away\\nfeeling that all is yet unsaid, from the incapac-\\nity of the parties to know each other, although\\nthey use the same words! My companion as-\\nsumes to know my mood and habit of thought,\\nand we go on from explanation to explanation,\\nuntil all is said which words can, and we\\nleave matters just as they were at first, be-\\ncause of that vicious assumption. Is it that\\nevery man believes every other to be an incur-\\nable partialist, and himself an universalist? I\\ntalked yesterday with a pair of philosophers I\\nendeavored to show my good men that I love\\neverything by turns, and nothing long: that I\\nloved the center, but doated on the superficies\\nthat I loved men, if men seemed to me mice\\nand rats that I revered saints, but woke up\\nglad that the old pagan world stood its ground,\\nand died hard; that I was glad of men of every\\ngift and nobility, but w^ould not live in their\\narms. Could they but once understand that I\\nloved to know that they existed, and heartily\\nwished them Godspeed, yet, out of my poverty", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0290.jp2"}, "291": {"fulltext": "NOMINALIST AND REALIST. 279\\nof life and thought, had no word or welcome\\nfor them when they came to see me, and could\\nwell consent to their living in Oregon for any\\nclaim I felt on them, it would be a great satis-\\nfaction.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0291.jp2"}, "292": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS.\\nA LECTURE READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY IN ARMORY\\nHALL, ON SUNDAY, 3RD MARCH, 1 844.\\nWhoever has had opportunity of acquaint-\\nance with society in New England, during the\\nlast twenty-five years, with those middle and\\nwith those leading sections that may constitute\\nany just representation of the character and\\naim of the community, will have been struck\\nwith the great activity of thought and experi-\\nmenting. His attention must be commanded\\nby the signs that the Church, or religious\\nparty, is falling from the church nominal, and\\nis appearing in temperance and non-resistance\\nsocieties, in movements of abolitionists and of\\nsocialists, and in very significant assemblies,\\ncalled Sabbath and Bible Conventions, com-\\nposed of ultraists, of seekers, of all the soul of\\nthe soldiery of dissent, and meeting to call in\\nquestion the authority of the Sabbath, of the\\npriesthood, and of the church. In these move-\\nments, nothing was more remarkable than the\\ndiscontent they begot in the movers. The\\nspirit of protest and of detachment drove the\\n280\\nI", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0292.jp2"}, "293": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 281\\nmembers of these Conventions to bear testi-\\nmony against the church, and immediately\\nafterward, to declare their discontent with\\nthese Conventions, their independence of their\\ncolleagues, and their impatience of the methods\\nwhereby they were working. They defied\\neach other, like a congress of king, each of\\nwhom had a realm to rule, and a way of his\\nown that made concert unprofitable. What a\\nfertility of projects for the salvation of the\\nworld! One apostle thought all men should\\ngo to farming; and another, that no man\\nshould buy or sell that the use of money was\\nthe cardinal evil; another, that the mischief\\nwas in our diet, that we eat and drink damna-\\ntion. These made unleavened bread, and were\\nfoes to the death to fermentation. It was in\\nvain urged by the housewife, that God made\\nyeast, as well as dough, and loves fermentation\\njust as dearly as he loves vegetation that fer-\\nmentation develops the saccharine element in\\nthe grain, and makes it more palatable and\\nmore digestible. No; they wish the pure\\nwheat, and will die, but it shall not ferment.\\nSo, dear nature, these incessant advances of\\nthine; let us scotch these ever-rolling wheels!\\nOthers attacked the system of agriculture, the\\nuse of animal manures in farming; and the", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0293.jp2"}, "294": {"fulltext": "282 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL\\ntyranny of man over brute nature these abuses\\npolluted his food. The ox must be taken from\\nthe plough, and the horse from the cart, the\\nhundred acres of the farm must be spaded, and\\nthe man must walk wherever boats and loco-\\nmotives will not carry him. Even the insect\\nworld was to be defended, that had been too\\nlong- neglected, and a society for the protection\\nof ground-worms, slugs, and mosquitoes was\\nto be incorporated without delay. With these\\nappeared the adepts of homoeopathy, of hydrop-\\nathy, of mesmerism, of phrenology, and their\\nwonderful theories of the Christian miracles!\\nOthers assailed particular vocations, as that of\\nthe lawyer, that of the merchant, of the man-\\nufacturer, of the clergyman, of the scholar.\\nOthers attacked the institution of marriage, as\\nthe fountain of social evils. Others devoted\\nthemselves to the worrying of churches and\\nmeetings for public worship; and the fertile\\nforms of antinomianism among the elder pur-\\nitans seemed to have their match in the plenty\\nof the new harvest of reform.\\nWith this din of opinion and debate, there\\nwas a keener scrutiny of institutions and domes-\\ntic life than any we had known, there was sin-\\ncere protesting against existing evils, and there\\nw^ere changes of employment dictated by con-", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0294.jp2"}, "295": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 283\\nscience. No doubt, there was plentiful vapor-\\ning, and cases of backsliding might occur. But\\nin each of these movements emerged a good\\nresult, a tendency to the adoption of simpler\\nmethods, and an assertion of the sufficiency of\\nthe private man. Thus it was directly in the\\nspirit and genius of the age, what happened in\\none instance, when a church censured and\\nthreatened to excommunicate one of its mem-\\nbers, on account of the somewhat hostile part\\nto the church which his conscience led him to\\ntake in the anti-slavery business; the threat-\\nened individuar immediately excommunicated\\nthe church in a public and formal process.\\nThis has been several times repeated it v/as\\nexcellent when it was done the first time, but,\\nof course, loses all value when it is copied.\\nEvery project in the history of reform, no mat-\\nter how violent and surprising, is good, when\\nit is the dictate of a man s genius and constitu-\\ntion, but very dull and suspicious when adopted\\nfrom another. It is right and beautiful in any\\nman to say, **I will take this coat, or this book,\\nor this measure of corn of yours, in whom\\nwe see the act to be original, and to flow from\\nthe whole spirit and faith of him for then that\\ntaking will have a giving as free and divine\\nbut we are very easily disposed to resist the", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0295.jp2"}, "296": {"fulltext": "284 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL\\nsame generosity of speech, when we miss orig-\\ninality and truth to character in it.\\nThere was in all the practical activities of\\nNew England, for the last quarter of a cen-\\ntury, a gradual withdrawal of tender con-\\nsciences from the social organizations. There\\nis observable throughout, the contest between\\nmechanical and spiritual methods, but with a\\nsteady tendency of the thoughtful and virtuous\\nto a deeper belief and reliance on spiritual\\nfacts.\\nIn politics, for example, it is easy to see the\\nprogress of dissent. The country is full of\\nrebellion the country is full of kings. Hands\\noff let there be no control and no interfer-\\nence in the administration of the affairs of this\\nkingdom of me. Hence the growth of the doc-\\ntrine and of the party of Free Trade, and the\\nwillingness to try that experiment, in the face\\nof what appear incontestable facts. I confess,\\nthe motto of the globe newspaper is so attract-\\nive to me, that I can seldom find much appe-,\\ntite to read what is below it in its columns,\\nThe world is governed too much. So the\\ncountry is frequently affording solitary exam-\\nples of resistance to the government, solitary\\nnullifiers, who throw themselves on their re-\\nserved rights; nay, who have reserved all", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0296.jp2"}, "297": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS 285\\ntheir rights who reply to the assessor, and to\\nthe clerk of court, that they do not know the\\nState; and embarrass the courts of law, by\\nnon-juring, and the commander-in-chief of the\\nmilitia, by non-resistance.\\nThe same disposition to scrutiny and dissent\\nappeared in civil, festive, neighborly, and do-\\nmestic society. A resistless, prying, conscien-\\ntious criticism broke out in unexpected quar-\\nters. Who gave me the money with which I\\nbought my coat? Why should professional\\nlabor and that of the counting-house be paid\\nso disproportionately to the labor of the por-\\nter, and wood-sawer? This whole business of\\nTrade gives me to pause and think, as it con-\\nstitutes false relations between men inasmuch\\nas I am prone to count myself relieved of any\\nresponsibility to behave well and nobly to that\\nperson whom I pay with money, whereas if I\\nhad not that commodity, I should be put on\\nmy good behavior in all companies, and man\\nwould be a benefactor to man, as being him-\\nself his only certificate that he had a right to\\nthose aids and services which each asked of\\nthe other. Am I not too protected a person?\\nis there not a wide disparity between the lot\\nof me and the lot of thee, my poor brother,\\nmy poor sister? Am I not defrauded of my", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0297.jp2"}, "298": {"fulltext": "286 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\nbest culture in the loss of those gymnastics\\nwhich manual labor and the emergencies of\\npoverty constitute? I find nothing healthful\\nor exalting in the smooth conventions of soci-\\nety I do not like the close air of saloons. I\\nbegin to suspect myself to be a prisoner, though\\ntreated with all this courtesy and luxury. I\\npay a destructive tax in my conformity.\\nThe same insatiable criticism may be traced\\nin the efforts for the reform, of Education.\\nThe popular education has been taxed with\\na want of truth and nature. It was complained\\nthat an education to things was not given. We\\nare students of words; we are shut up in\\nschools, and colleges, and recitation-rooms, for\\nten or fifteen years, and come out at last with\\na bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not\\nknow a thing. We cannot use our hands, or\\nour legs, or our eyes, or our arms. We do not\\nknow an edible root in the woods, we cannot\\ntell our course by the stars, nor the hour of\\nthe day by the sun. It is well if we can swim\\nand skate. We are afraid of a horse, of a cow,\\nof a dog, of a snake, of a spider. The Roman\\nrule was, to teach a boy nothing that he could\\nnot learn standing. The old English rule was,\\nAll summer in the field, and all winter in the\\nstudy. And it seems as if a man should", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0298.jp2"}, "299": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 287\\nlearn to plant, or to fish, or to hunt, that he\\nmight secure his subsistence at all events, and\\nnot be painful to his friends and fellowmen.\\nThe lessons of science should be experimental\\nalso. The sight of the planet through a teles-\\ncope is worth all the course on astronomy the\\nshock of the electric spark in the elbow outval-\\nues all the theories; the taste of the nitrous\\noxide, the firing of an artificial volcano, are\\nbetter than volumes of chemistry.\\nOne of the traits of the new spirit is the in-\\nquisition it fixed on our scholastic devotion to\\nthe dead languages. The ancient languages,\\nwith great beauty of structure, contain won-\\nderful remains of genius, which draw, and al-\\nways will draw, certain like-minded men,\\nGreek men, and Roman men, in all countries,\\nto their study; but by a wonderful drowsiness\\nof usage, they had exacted the study of all\\nmen. Once (say two centuries ago), Latin and\\nGreek had a strict relation to all the science\\nand culture there was in Europe, and the\\nMathematics had a momentary importance at\\nsome era of activity in physical science. These\\nthings became stereotyped as education, as\\nthe manner of men is. But the Good Spirit\\nnever cared for the colleges, and though all\\nmen and boys were now drilled in Latin, Greek", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0299.jp2"}, "300": {"fulltext": "288 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\nand Mathematics, it had quite left these shells\\nhigh and dry on the beach and was now creat-\\ning and feeding other matters at other ends of\\nthe world. But in a hundred high schools and\\ncolleges this warfare against common sense\\nstill goes on. Four, or six, or ten years, the\\npupil is parsing Greek and Latin, and as soon\\nas he leaves the University, as it is ludicrously\\ncalled, he shuts those books for the last time.\\nSome thousands of young men are graduated\\nat our colleges in this countr)^ every year, and\\nthe persons who, at forty years, still read Greek,\\ncan all be counted on your hand. I never met\\nwith ten. Four or five persons I have seen\\nwho read Plato.\\nBut is not this absurd, that the whole liberal\\ntalent of this country should be directed in its\\nbest years on studies which lead to nothing?\\nWhat was the consequence? Some intelligent\\nperson said or thought: Is that Greek and\\nLatin some spell to conjure with, and not\\nwords of reason? If the physician, the law-\\nyer, the divine, never use it to come at their\\nends, I need never learn it to come at mine.\\nConjuring is gone out of fashion, and I will\\nomit this conjugating, and go straight to\\naffairs. So they jumped the Greek and\\nLatin, and read law, medicine, or sermons.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0300.jp2"}, "301": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 289\\nwithout it. To the astonishment of all, the\\nself-made man took even ground at once with\\nthe oldest of the regular graduates, and in a\\nfew months the most conservative circles of\\nBoston and New York had quite forgotten who\\nof their townsmen was college-bred, and who\\nwas not.\\nOne tendency appears alike in the philosoph-\\nical speculation, and in the rudest democratical\\nmovements, through all the petulance and all\\nthe puerility, the wish, namely, to cast aside\\nthe superfluous, and arrive at short methods,\\nurged, as I suppose, by an intuition that the\\nhuman spirit is equal to all emergences, alone,\\nand that man is more often injured than helped\\nby the means he uses.\\nI conceive this gradual casting off of material\\naids, and in the indication of growing trust in\\nthe private, self-supplied powers of the indi-\\nvidual, to be the affirmative principle of the\\nrecent philosophy and that it is feeling its own\\nprofound truth, and is reaching forward at this\\nvery hour to the happiest conclusions. I read-\\nily concede that in this, as in every period of\\nintellectual activity, there has been a noise of\\ndenial and protest much was to be resisted,\\nmuch was to be got rid of by those who were\\nreared in the old, before they could begin to\\n19", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0301.jp2"}, "302": {"fulltext": "290 LECTURE AT ARxMORY HALL.\\naffirm and to construct. Many a reformer per-\\nishes in his removal of rubbish, and that\\nmakes the offensiveness of the class. They\\nare partial they are not equal to the work\\nthey pretend. They lose their way; in the\\nassault on the kingdom of darkness, they ex-\\npend all their energy on some accidental evil,\\nand lose their sanity and power of benefit. It\\nis of little moment that one or^two, or twenty\\nerrors of our social system be corrected, but of\\nmuch that the man be in his senses.\\nThe criticism and attack on institutions\\nwhich we have witnessed has made one thing\\nplain, that society gains nothing whilst a man,\\nnot himself renovated, attempts to renovate\\nthings around him? he has become tediously\\ngood in some particular, but negligent or nar-\\nrow in the rest and hypocrisy and vanity are\\noften the disgusting result.\\nIt is handsomer to remain in the establish-\\nment better than the establishment, and con-\\nduct that in the best manner, than to make r\\nsally against evil by some single improvement\\nwithout supporting it by a total regeneration.\\nDo not be so vain of your one objection. Di\\nyou think there is only one? Alas! my good\\nfriend, there is no part of society or of life bet-\\nter than any other part. All our things are", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0302.jp2"}, "303": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 291\\ndght and wrong together. The wave of evil\\nwashes all our institutions alike. Do you com-\\nplain of our Marriage? Our marriage is no\\nworse than our education, our diet, our trade,\\nour social customs. Do you complain of the\\nlaws of Property? It is a pedantry to give\\nsuch importance to them. Can we not play\\nthe game of life with these counters, as well\\nas with those in the institution of property, as\\nwell as out of it. Let into it the new and re-\\nnewing principle of love, and property will be\\nuniversality. No one gives the impression of\\nsuperiority to the institution, which he must\\ngive who will reform it. It makes no differ-\\nence what you say; you must make me feel\\nthat you are aloof from it by your natural\\nand supernatural advantages, do easily see to\\nthe end of it, do see how man can do without\\nit. Now all men are on one side. No man\\ndeserves to be heard against property. Only\\nLove, only an Idea, is against property, as we\\n:3Lold it.\\n,:I cannot afford to be irritable and captious,\\nuor to waste all my time in attacks. If I\\ndiould go out of church whenever I hear a false\\nSentiment, I could never stay there five min-\\nutes. But why come out? the street is as false\\nas the church, and when I get to my house, or", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0303.jp2"}, "304": {"fulltext": "292 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\nto my manners, or to my speech, I have not\\ngot away from the lie. When we see an eager\\nassailant of one of these wrongs, a special re-\\nformer, we feel like asking him, What right\\nhave you, sir, to your one virtue? Is virtue\\npiecemeal? This is a jewel amidst the rags of\\na beggar.\\nIn another way the right will be vindicated.\\nIn the midst of abuses, in the heart of cities, in\\nthe aisles of false churches, alike in one place\\nand in another, wherever, namely, a just and\\nheroic soul finds itself, there it will do what is\\nnext at hand, and by the new quality of char-\\nacter it shall put forth, it shall abrogate that\\nold condition, law or school in which it stands,\\nbefore the law of its own mind.\\nIf partiality was one fault of the movement\\nparty, the other defect was their reliance on\\nAssociation. Doubts such as those I have in-\\ntimated, drove many good persons to agitate\\nthe questions of social reform. But the revolt\\nagainst the spirit of aristocracy, and the invet-\\nerate abuses of cities, did not appear possible\\nto individuals and to do battle against num-\\nbers, they armed themselves with numbers,\\nand against concert, they relied on new con-\\ncert.\\nFollowing, or advancing beyond the ideas of", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0304.jp2"}, "305": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 293\\nSt. Simon of Fourier, and of Owen, three com-\\nmunities have already been formed in Massa-\\nchusetts on kindred plans, and many more in\\nthe country at large. They aim to give every\\nmember a share in the manual labor, to give\\nan equal reward to labor and to talent, and to\\nunite a liberal culture with an education to\\nlabor. The scheme offers, by the economies\\nof associated labor and expense, to make every\\nmember rich, on the same amount of property,\\nthat, in separate families, would leave every\\nmember poor. These new associations are com-\\nposed of men and women of superior talents\\nand sentiments: yet it may easily be ques-\\ntioned, whether such a community will draw,\\nexcept in its beginnings, the able and the good\\nwhether those who have energy will not\\nprefer their chance of superiority and power\\nin the world, to the humble certainties of the\\nAssociation whether such a retreat does not\\npromise to become an asylum to those who\\nhave tried and failed, rather than a field to\\nthe strong; and whether the members will not\\nnecessarily be fractions of men, because each\\nfinds that he cannot enter it, without some\\ncompromise. Friendship and association are\\nvery fine things, and a grand phalanx of the\\nbest of the human race, banded for some", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0305.jp2"}, "306": {"fulltext": "291 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\ncatholic object: yes, excellent; but remember\\nthat no society can ever be so large as one\\nman. He in his friendship, in his natural and\\nmomentary associations, doubles or multiplies\\nhimself; but in the hour in which he mortga-\\nges himself to two or ten or twenty, he dwarfs\\nhimself below the stature of one.\\nBut the men of less faith could not thus\\nbelieve, and to such, concert appears the sole\\nspecific of strength. I have failed, and you have\\nfailed, but perhaps together we shall not fail.\\nOur housekeeping is not satisfactory to us, but\\nperhaps a phalanx, a community, might be.\\nMany of us have differed in opinion, and we\\ncould find no man who could make the truth\\nplain, but possibly a college, or an ecclesias-\\ntical council might. I have not been able\\neither to persuade my brother or to prevail on\\nmyself to disuse the traffic or the potation of\\nbrandy, but perhaps a pledge of total absti-\\nnence might effectually restrain us. The can-\\ndidate my party votes for is not to be trusted\\nwith a dollar, but he will be honest in the\\nSenate, for we can bring public opinion to bear\\non him. Thus concert was the specific in all\\ncases. But concert is neither better nor worse,\\nneither more nor less potent than individual\\nforce. All the men in the world cannot make", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0306.jp2"}, "307": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 295\\na statue walk and speak, cannot make a drop\\nof blood, or a blade of grass, any more than\\none man cam But let there be one man, let\\nthere be truth in two men, in ten men, then\\nis concert for the first time possible, because\\nthe force which moves the world is a new\\nquality and can ever be furnished by adding\\nwhatever quantities of a different kind. Wiiat\\nis the use of the concert of the false and the\\ndisunited? There can be no concert in two,\\nwhere there is no concert in one. When the\\nindividual is not individual, but is dual when\\nhis thoughts look one way, and his actions\\nanother; when his faith is traversed by his\\nhabits; when his will, enlightened by reason,\\nis warped by his sense; when with one hand\\nhe rows, and with the other backs water, what\\nconcert can be?\\nI do not wonder at the interest these projects\\ninspire. The world is awaking to the idea of\\nunion, and these experiments show what it\\nis thinking of. It is and will be magic. Men\\nwill live and communicate, and plough, and\\nreap, and govern, as by added ethereal power,\\nwhen once they are united as in a celebrated\\nexperiment, by expiration and respiration\\nexactly together, four persons lift a heavy\\nman from the ground by the little finger only,", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0307.jp2"}, "308": {"fulltext": "296 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\nand without sense of weight. Bat this union\\nmust be inward, and not one of covenants, and\\nis to be reached by a reverse of the methods\\nthey use. The union is only perfect, when all\\nthe uniters are isolated. It is the union of\\nfriends who live in different streets or towns.\\nEach man, if he attempts to join himself to\\nothers, is on all sides cramped and diminished\\nof his proportion and the stricter the union,\\nthe smaller and the more pitiful he is. But\\nleave him alone, to recognize in every hour\\nand place the secret soul, he will go up and\\ndown doing the works of a true member, and,\\nto the astonishment of all, the work will be\\ndone with concert, though no man spoke.\\nGovernment will be adamantine without any\\ngovernor. The union must be ideal in actual\\nindividualism.\\nI pass-to the indication in some particulars of\\nthat faith in man, which the heart is preach-\\ning to us in these days, and which engages the\\nmore regard, from the consideration that the\\nspeculations of one generation are the his-\\ntory of the next following.\\nIn alluding just now to our system of educa-\\ntion, I spoke of the deadness of its details.\\nBut it is open to graver criticism than the\\npalsy of its members: it is a system of despair.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0308.jp2"}, "309": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 297\\nThe disease with which the human mind now\\nlabors is want of faith. Men do not believe in\\na power of education. We do not think we\\ncan speak to divine sentiments in man, and we\\ndo not try. We renounce all high aims. We\\nbelieve that the defects of so may perverse and\\nso many frivolous people, who make up\\nsociety, are organic, and society is a hospital of\\nincurables. A man of good sense but of little\\nfaith, whose compassion seemed to lead him to\\nchurch as often as he went there, said to me,\\n*that he liked to have concerts, and fairs, and\\nchurches, and other public amusements go\\non. I am afraid the remark is too honest,\\nand comes from the same orio^in as the\\nmaxim of the tyrant, **If you would rule the\\nworld quietly, you must keep it amused.* I\\nnotice, too, that the ground on which eminent\\npublic servants urge the claims of popular edu-\\ncation is fear: **This country is filling up\\nwith thousands and millions of voters, and you\\nmust educate them to keep them from our\\nthroats. We do not believe that any educa-\\ntion, any system of philosophy, any influence\\nof genius, will ever give depth of insight to a\\nsuperficial mind. Having settled ourselves\\ninto this infidelity, our skill is expended to pro-\\ncure alleviations, diversion, opiates. We adorn", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0309.jp2"}, "310": {"fulltext": "293\\nLECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\nthe victim with manual skill, his tongue with\\nlanguages, his body with inoffensive and\\ncomely manners. So have we cunningly hid\\nthe tragedy of limitation and inner death w e\\ncannot avert. Is it strange that society\\nshould be devoured by a secret melancholy,\\nwhich breaks through all its smiles, and all its\\ngayety and games?\\nBut even one step farther our infidelity has\\ngone. It appears that some doubt is felt by\\ngood and wise men, whether really the hap-\\npiness and probity of men is increased by the\\nculture of the mind in those disciplines to\\nwhich we give the name of education. Unhap-\\npily, too, the doubt comes from scholars, from\\npersons who have tried these methods. In\\ntheir experience, the scholar was not raised by\\nthe sacred thoughts amongst which he dwelt,\\nbut used them to selfish ends. He was a pro-\\nfane person, and became a showman, turning\\nhis gifts to a remarkable use, and not to his\\nown sustenance and growth. It was found\\nthat the intellect could be independently\\ndeveloped, that is, in separation from the man,\\nas any single organ can be invigorated, and\\nthe result was monstrous. A canine appetite\\nfor knowledge was generated, which must still\\nbe fed, but was never satined, and this know-", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0310.jp2"}, "311": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 299\\nledge not being directed on action, never took\\nthe character of substantial, humane truth,\\nblessing those whom it entered. It gave the\\nscholar certain powers of expression, the\\npower of speech, the power of poetry, of liter-\\nary art, but it did not bring him to peace, or\\nto beneficence.\\nWhen the literary class betray a destitution\\nof faith, it is not strange that society should be\\ndisheartened and sensualized by unbelief.\\nWhat remedy? Life must be lived on a higher\\nplane. We must go up to a higher platform.,\\nto which we are always invited to ascend;\\nthere, the whole aspect of things changes. I\\nresist the skepticism of our education, and of\\nour educated men. I do not believe that the\\ndifferences of opinion and character in men\\nare organic. I do not recognize, beside the\\nclass of the good and the wise a permanent\\nclass of skeptics, or a class of conservatives,\\nor of malignants, or of materialists. I do not\\nbelieve in two classes.\\nYou remember the story of the poor woman\\nwho importuned King Philip of Macedon to\\ngrant her justice, which Philip refused: the\\nwoman exclaimed, **I appeal:** the king,\\nastonished, asked to whom she appealed: the\\nwoman replied, **from Philip drunk to Philip", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0311.jp2"}, "312": {"fulltext": "300 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\nsober/ The text will suit me very well. I\\nbelieve not in two classes of men, but in man\\nin two moods, in Philip drunk and Philip\\nsober. I think, according to the good-hearted\\nword of Plato, Unwillingly the soul is\\ndeprived of truth. Iron conservative, miser,\\nor thief, no man is, but by a supposed neces-\\nsity, which he tolerates by shortness or tor-\\npidity of sight. The soul lets no man go with-\\nout some visitations and holy-days of a diviner\\npresence. It would be easy to show, by a nar-\\nrow scanning of any man s biography, that we\\nare not so wedded to our paltry performances\\nof every kind, but that every man has at inter-\\nvals the grace to scorn his performances, in\\ncomparing them with his belief of what he\\nshould do, that he puts himself on the side of\\nhis enemies, listening gladly to what they say\\nof him, and accusing himself of the same\\nthings.\\nWhat is it men love in Genius, but its infinite\\nhope, which degrades all it has done? Genius\\ncounts all its miracles poor and short. Its own\\nidea is never exhausted. The Iliad, the\\nPlamlet, the Doric column, the Roman arch,\\nthe Gothic minister, the German anthem,\\nwhen they are ended, the master casts behind\\nhim. How sinks the song in the waves of", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0312.jp2"}, "313": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 301\\nmelody which the universe pours over his soul\\nBefore that gracious Infinite, out of which he\\ndrew these few strokes, how mean they look,\\nthough the praises of the world attend them.\\nFrom the triumphs of his art, he turns with\\ndesire to this greater defeat. Let those admire\\nwho will. With silent joy he sees himself to\\nbe capable of a beauty that eclipses all which\\nhis hands have done, all which human hands\\nhave ever done.\\nWell, we are all the children of genius, thetX\\nchildren of virtue, and feel their inspirations\\nin our happier hours. Is not every man some-\\ntimes a radical in politics? Men are conserva-\\ntives when they are least vigorous, or when\\nthey are most luxurious. They are conserva-\\ntives after dinner, or before taking their rest\\nwhen they are sick, or aged in the morning,\\nor when their intellect or their conscience have,\\nbeen aroused, when they hear music, or when\\nthey read poetry, they are radicals. In the\\ncircle of the rankest tories that could be col-\\nlected in England, Old or New, let a powerful\\nand stimulating intellect, a man of great heart\\nand mind, act on them, and very quickly these\\nfrozen conservators will yield to the friendly\\ninfluence, these hopeless will begin to hope,\\nthese haters will begin to love, these immov-", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0313.jp2"}, "314": {"fulltext": "302\\nLECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\nable statues will begin to spin and revolve. I\\ncannot help recalling the fine anecdote which\\nWarton relates of Bishop Berkeley, when he\\nwas preparing to leave England, with his plan\\nof planting the gospel among the American\\nsavages. Lord Bathurst told me, that the\\nmembers of the Scriblerus club, being met at\\nhis house at dinner, they agreed to rally\\nBerkeley, who was also his guest, on his\\nscheme at Bermudas. Berkeley, having\\nlistened to the many lively things they had to\\nsay, begged to be heard in his turn, and dis-\\nplayed his plan with such an astonishing and\\nanimating force of eloquence and enthusiasm,\\nthat they were struck dumb, and, after some\\npause, rose up altogether with earnestness,\\nexclaiming, Let us set out with him immedi-\\nately. Men in all ways are better than\\nthey seem. They like flattery for the moment,\\nbut they know the truth for their own. It is\\na foolish cowardice v/hich keeps us from trust-\\ning them, and speaking to them rude truth.\\nThey resent your honesty for an instant, they\\nwill thank you for it always. What is it we\\nheartily wish of each other? Is it to be\\npleased and flattered? No, but to be con-\\nvicted and exposed, to be shamed out of our\\nnonsense of all kinds, and made men of.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0314.jp2"}, "315": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 303\\ninstead of ghosts and phantoms. We are\\nweary of gliding ghostlike through the world,\\nwhich is itself so slight and unreal. We crave\\na sense of reality, though it comes in strokes\\nof pain. I explain so, by this manlike love\\nof truth, those excesses and errors into\\nwhich souls of great vigor, but not equal\\ninsight, often fall. They feel the poverty at\\nthe bottom of all the seeming affluence of the\\nv/orld. They know the speed with which they\\ncome straight through the thin masquerade,\\nand conceive a disgust at the indigence of\\nnature: Rousseau, Mirabeau, Charles Fox,\\nNapoleon, Byron, and I could easily add\\nnames nearer home, of raging riders, who\\ndrive their steeds so hard, in the violence of\\nliving to forget its illusion they would know\\nthe worst, and tread the floors of hell. The\\nheroes of ancient and modern fame, Cimon,\\nThemistocles, Alcibiades, Alexander, Caesar,\\nhave treated life and fortune as a game to be\\nvv^ell and skilfully played, but the stake not to\\nbe so valued, but that any time it could be\\nheld as a trifle light as air, and thrown up.\\nCaesar, just before the battle of Pharsalia, dis-\\ncourses with the Egyptian priest, concerning\\nthe fountains of the Nile, and offers to quit the", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0315.jp2"}, "316": {"fulltext": "804 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\narmy, the empire, and Cleopatra, if he will\\nshow him those mysterious sources.\\nThe same magnanimity shows itself in our\\nsocial relations, in the preference, namely,\\nwhich each man gives to the society of supe-\\nriors over that of his equals. All that a man\\nhas, will he give for right relations with his\\nmates. All that he has, will he give for an\\nerected demeanor in every company and on\\neach condition. He aims at such things as his\\nneighbor s prize, and gives his days and\\nnights, his talents and his heart, to strike a\\ngood stroke, to acquit himself in all men s\\nsight as a man. The consideration of an emi-\\nnent citizen, of a noted merchant, of a man of\\nmark in his profession; naval and military\\nhonor, a general s commi^ion, a marshal s\\nbaton, a ducal coronet, the laurel of poets, and\\nanyhow procured, the acknowledgment of\\neminent merit, have this lustre for each candi-\\ndate, that they enable him to walk erect and\\nunabashed, in the presence of some persons,\\nbefore whom he felt himself inferior. Having\\nraised himself to this rank, having established\\nhis equality with class after class of those with\\nwhom he would live well, he still finds certain\\nothers, before whom he cannot possess him-\\nself, because they have somewhat fairer, some-", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0316.jp2"}, "317": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 305\\nwhat grander, somewhat purer, which extorts\\nhomage of him. Is his ambition pure? then\\nwill his laurels and his possessions seem worth-\\nless instead of avoiding these men who make\\nhis fine gold dim, he will cast all behind him,\\nand seek their society only, woo and embrace\\nthis, his humiliation and mortification, until he\\nshall know why his eye sinks, his voice is\\nhusk}^ and his brilliant talents are paralyzed\\nin his presence. He is sure that the soul which\\ngives the lie to all things, will tell none. His\\nconstitution will not mislead him. If it can-\\nnot carry itself as it ought, high and unmatch-\\nable in the presence of any man, if the secret\\noracles whose whisper makes the sweetness\\nand dignity of his life, do here withdraw and\\naccompany him no longer, it is time to under-\\nvalue what he has valued, to dispossess him-\\nself of what he has acquired, and with Caesar\\nto take in his hand the army, the empire, and\\nCleopatra, and say, A11 these will I relin-\\nquish, if you will show me the fountains of the\\nNile. Dear to us are those who love us the\\nswift moments we spend with them are a com-\\npensation for a great deal of misery; they\\nenlarge our life; but dearer are those who\\nreject us as unworthy, for they add another\\nlife: they build a heaven before us, whereof\\n20", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0317.jp2"}, "318": {"fulltext": "306 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\nwe had not dreamed, and thereby supply to us\\nnew powers out of the recesses of the spirit,\\nand urge us to new and unattempted per-\\nformances.\\nAs every man at heart wishes the best and\\nnot inferior society, wishes to be convicted of\\nhis error and to come to himself, so he wishes\\nthat the same healing should not stop in his\\nthought, but should penetrate his will or active\\npower. The selfish man suffers more from his\\nselfishness than he from whom that selfishness\\nwithholds some important benefit. What he.\\nmost wishes it to be lifted to some higher plat-\\nform, that he may see be3^ond his present fear\\nthe transalpine good, so that his fear, his\\ncoldness, his custom, may be broken up like\\nfragments of ice, melted and carried away in\\nthe great stream of good will. Do you ask my\\naid? I also wish to be a benefactor. I wish\\nmore to be a benefactor and servant than you\\nwish to be served by me, and surely the\\ngreatest good fortune that could befall me is\\nprecisely to be so moved by you that I should\\nsay, *Take me and all mine, and use me and\\nmine freely to your ends! for, I could not say\\nit, otherwise than because a great enlargement\\nhad come to my heart and mind, which made\\nme paralyzed with fear we hold on to our", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0318.jp2"}, "319": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 307\\nlittle properties, house and land, office and\\nmoney, for the bread which they have in our\\nexperience yielded us, although we confess\\nthat our being does not flow through them.\\nWe desire to be made great, we desire to be\\ntouched with that fire which shall command\\nthis ice to stream, and make our existence a\\nbenefit. If therefore we start objections to\\nyour project, O friend of the slave, or friend of\\nthe poor, or of the race, understand well, that\\nit is because we wish to drive you to drive us\\ninto your measures. We wish to hear ourselves\\nconfuted. We are haunted with a belief that\\nyou have a secret, which it would highliest\\nadvantage us to learn and we would force yon.\\nto impart it to us, though it should bring us to\\nprison, or to worse extremity.\\nv/ Nothing shall warp me from the belief that\\nevery man is a lover of truth. There is no\\npure lie, no pure malignity in nature. The\\nentertainment of the proposition of depravity\\nis the last profligacy and profanation. There\\nis no skepticism, no atheism but that. Could\\nit be received into common belief, suicide\\nwould unpeople the planet. It has had a name\\nto live in some dogmatic theology, but each\\nman s innocence and his real liking of his\\nneighbor have kept it a dead letter. I remem-", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0319.jp2"}, "320": {"fulltext": "308 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\nber standing at the polls one day, when the\\nanger of the political contest gave a certain\\ngrimness to the faces of the independent elec-\\ntors, and a good man at my side looking on the\\npeople, remarked, I am satisfied that the\\nlargest part of these men, on either side, mean\\nto vote right. I suppose, considerate obser-\\nvers looking at the masses of men, in their\\nblameless, and in their equivocal actions, will\\nassent, that in spite of selfishness and frivolity,\\nthe general purpose in the great number of\\npersons is fidelity. The reason why any one\\nrefuses his assent to your opinion, or his aid to\\nyour benevolent design, is in you he refuses\\nto accept you as a bringer of truth, because\\nthough }^ou think you have it, he feels that you\\nhave it not. You have not given him the\\nauthentic sign.\\nIf it were worth while to run into details\\nthis general doctrine of the latent but ever\\nsoliciting Spirit, it would be easy to adduce\\nillustration in particulars of a man*s equality to\\nthe church, of his equality to the state, and of\\nhis equality to every other man. It is yet in\\nall men s memory, that, a few years ago, the\\nliberal churches complained that the Calvinistic\\nchurch denied to them the name of Christian.\\nI think the complaint was confession: a religi-", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0320.jp2"}, "321": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 309\\nous church would not complain. A religious\\nman like Behmen, Fox, or Swedenborg, is\\nnot irritated by wanting the sanction of the\\nchurch, but the church feels the accusation of\\nhis presence and belief.\\nIt only needs that a just man should walk in\\nour streets, to make it appear how pitiful and\\ninartificial a contrivance is our legislation.\\nThe man whose part is taken, and who does\\nnot wait for society in anything, has a power\\nwhich society cannot choose but feel. The\\nfamiliar experiment called the hydrostatic para-\\ndox, in which a capillary column of water\\nbalances the ocean, is a symbol of the relation\\nof one man to the whole family of men. The\\nwise Dandini, on hearing the lives of Socrates,\\nPythagoras, and Diogenes read, judged them\\nto be great men every way, excepting, that\\nthey were too much subjected to the reverence\\nof the laws, which to second and authorize,\\ntrue virtue must abate very much of its\\noriginal vigor.\\nAnd as a man is equal to the church, and\\nequal to the state, so he is equal to every other\\nman. The disparities of power in men are\\nsuperficial; and all frank and searching con-\\nversation, in which a man lays himself open to\\nhis brother, apprizes each of their radical", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0321.jp2"}, "322": {"fulltext": "310 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\nunity. When two persons sit and converse in\\na thoroughly good understanding, the remark\\nis sure to be made, See how we have disputed\\nabout words! Let a clear, apprehensive mind,\\nsuch as every man knows among his friends,\\nconverse with the most commanding poetic\\ngenius, I think it would appear that there was\\nno inequality such as men fancy between them\\nthat a perfect understanding, a like receiving,\\na like perceiving, abolished differences, and\\nthe poet would confess that his creative imagi-\\nnation gave him no deep advantage, but only\\nthe superficial one, that he could express him-\\nself, and the other could not that his advan-\\ntage was a knack, which might impose on\\nindolent men, but could not impose on lovers\\nof truth for they know the tax of talent, or,\\nwhat a price of greatness the power of expres-\\nsion too often pays. I believe it is the convic-\\ntion of the purest men, that the net amount of\\nman and man does not much vary. Each is\\nincomparably superior to his companion in\\nsome faculty. His want of skill in other\\ndirections has added to his fitness for his own\\nwork. Each seems to have some compensa-\\ntion yielded to him by his infirmity, and every\\nhindrance operates as a concentration of his\\nforce.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0322.jp2"}, "323": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 311\\nThese and the like experiences intimate that\\nman stands in strict connection with a higher\\nfact never yet manifested. There is power\\nover and behind us, and we are the channels\\nof its communications. We seek to say thus\\nand so, and over our head some spirit sits,\\nwhich contradicts what we say. We would\\npersuade our fellow to this or that; another\\nself within our eyes dissuades him. That\\nwhich we keep back, this reveals. In vain we\\ncompose our faces and our words; it holds\\nuncontrollable communication with the enemy,\\nand he answers civilly to us, but believes the\\nspirit. We exclaim, There s a traitor in the\\nhouse! but at last it appears that he is the\\ntrue man, and I am the traitor. This open\\nchannel to the highest life is the first and last\\nreality, so subtle, so quiet, yet so tenacious,\\nthat although I have never expressed the\\ntruth, and although I have never heard the\\nexpression of it from any other, I know that\\nthe whole truth is here for me. What if I can- i^^\\nnot answer your questions? I am not pained\\nthat I cannot frame a reply to the question,\\nWhat is the operation we call Providence?\\nThere lies the unspoken thing, present, omni-\\npresent. Every time we converse, we seek to\\ntranslate it into speech, but whether we hit,", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0323.jp2"}, "324": {"fulltext": "312 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\nor whether we miss, we has the fact. Every\\ndiscourse is an approximate answer: but it is\\nof small consequence that we do not set into\\nverbs and nouns, whilst it abides for contem-\\nplation forever.\\nIf the auguries of the prophesying heart\\nshall make themselves good in time, the man\\nwho shall be born, whose advent men and\\nevents prepare and foreshow, is one who sihall\\nenjoy his connection with a higher life, with\\nthe man within man shall destroy distrust by\\nhis trust, shall use his native but forgotten\\nmethods, shall not take counsel of flesh and\\nblood, but shall rely on the Law alive and\\nbeautiful, which works over our heads and\\nunder our feet. Pitiless, it avails itself of our\\nsuccess, when we obey it, and of our ruin,\\nwhen we contravene it. Men are all secret\\nbelievers in it, else the word justice would\\nhave no meaning: they believe that the best is\\nthe true; that right is done at last; or chaos\\nwould come. It rewards actions after their\\nnature, and not after the design of the agent.\\n*Work, it saith to man, in every hour, paid\\nor unpaid, see only that thou work, and thou\\ncanst not escape the reward whether thy work\\nbe fine or coarse, planting corn, or writing\\nepics, so only it be honest work, done to thine", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0324.jp2"}, "325": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 313\\nown approbation, it shall earn a reward to the\\nsenses as well as to the thought no matter\\nhow often defeated, you are born to victory.\\nThe reward of a thing well done, is to have\\ndone it.**\\nAs soon as a man is wonted to look beyond\\nsurfaces, and to see how this high will prevails\\nwithout an exception or an interval, he settles\\nhimself into serenity. He can already rely\\non the laws of gravity, that every stone will\\nfall where it is due the good globe is faith-\\nful, and carries us securely through the celes-\\ntial spaces, anxious or resigned: we need not\\ninterfere to help it on, and he will learn, one\\nday, the mild lesson they teach, that our own\\norbit is all our task, and we need not assist the\\nadministration of the universe. Do not be so\\nimpatient to set the town right concerning the\\nunfounded pretensions and the false reputa-\\ntion of certain men of standing. They are\\nlaboring harder to set the town right concern-\\ning themselves, and will certainly succeed.\\nSuppress for a few days your criticism on the\\ninsufficiency of this or that teacher or experi-\\nmenter, and he will have demonstrated his\\ninsufficiency to all men s eyes. In like man-\\nner, let a man fall into the divine circuits, and\\nhe is enlarged. Obedience to his genius is", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0325.jp2"}, "326": {"fulltext": "814 LECTURE AT ARMORY HALL.\\nthe only liberating influence. We wish to\\nescape from subjection, and a sense of inferi-\\nority, and we make self-denying ordinances,\\nw^e drink water, we eat grass, we refuse the\\nlaws, we go to jail: it is all in vain; only by\\nobedience to his genius; only by the freest\\nactivity in the way constitutional to him, does\\nan angel seem to arise before a man, and lead\\nhim by the hand out of all the wards of the\\nprison.\\nThat which befits us, embosomed in beauty\\nand wonder as we are, is cheerfulness and cour-\\nage, and the endeavor to realize our aspirations.\\nThe life of man is the true romance, which,\\nwhen it is valiantly conducted, will yield the\\nimagination a higher joy than any fiction. All\\naround us, what powers are wrapped up under\\nthe coarse mattings of custom, and all wonder\\nprevented. It is so wonderful to our neurolo-\\ngists that a man can see without his eyes, that\\nit does not occur to them that it is just as won-\\nderful that he should see with them and that\\nis ever the difference between the wise and\\nthe unwise: the latter wonders at what is\\nunusual, the wise man wonders at the usual.\\nShall not the heart which has received so much\\ntrust the Power by which it lives? May it", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0326.jp2"}, "327": {"fulltext": "NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 315\\nnot quit other leadings, and listen to the Soul\\nthat has guided it so gently, and taught it so\\nmuch, secure that the future will be worthy of\\nthe past?\\nTHE END.", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0327.jp2"}, "328": {"fulltext": "fiJe 20", "height": "3723", "width": "2134", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0328.jp2"}, "329": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3723", "width": "2134", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0329.jp2"}, "330": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3669", "width": "2174", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0330.jp2"}, "331": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3669", "width": "2174", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0331.jp2"}, "332": {"fulltext": "*r\\n^Av\\nV", "height": "3736", "width": "2269", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0332.jp2"}, "333": {"fulltext": "Oo\\n^r^-^ \\\\v j.A-\\n---V\u00c2\u00b0 \u00e2\u0096\u00a0\u00c2\u00ab5 ^c^ ^c^\\n^f.", "height": "3736", "width": "2269", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0333.jp2"}, "334": {"fulltext": "LIBRARY OF CONGRESS\\niiiiiiiiiiiiiii\\n015 785 848 8i", "height": "3749", "width": "2497", "jp2-path": "essays02emer_0334.jp2"}}