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diff --git a/6312.txt b/6312.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7953847 --- /dev/null +++ b/6312.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5703 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Representative Men, by Ralph Waldo Emerson +#3 in our series by Ralph Waldo Emerson + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Representative Men + +Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson + +Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6312] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on November 25, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REPRESENTATIVE MEN *** + + + + +Produced by Miranda van de Heijning, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +REPRESENTATIVE MEN + +SEVEN LECTURES + +BY + +RALPH WALDO EMERSON + + + + + + I. Uses of Great Men + + II. Plato; or, the Philosopher + + Plato; New Readings + +III. Swedenborg; or, the Mystic + + IV. Montaigne; or, the Skeptic + + V. Shakspeare; or, the Poet + + VI. Napoleon; or, the Man of the World + +VII. Goethe; or, the Writer + + + + +I. USES OF GREAT MEN. + + +It is natural to believe in great men. If the companions of our +childhood should turn out to be heroes, and their condition regal, it +would not surprise us. All mythology opens with demigods, and the +circumstance is high and poetic; that is, their genius is paramount. +In the legends of the Gautama, the first men ate the earth, and found +it deliciously sweet. + +Nature seems to exist for the excellent. The world is upheld by the +veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome. They who lived +with them found life glad and nutritious. Life is sweet and tolerable +only in our belief in such society; and actually, or ideally, we manage +to live with superiors. We call our children and our lands by their +names. Their names are wrought into the verbs of language, their works +and effigies are in our houses, and every circumstance of the day +recalls an anecdote of them. + +The search after the great is the dream of youth, and the most serious +occupation of manhood. We travel into foreign parts to find his +works,--if possible, to get a glimpse of him. But we are put off with +fortune instead. You say, the English are practical; the Germans are +hospitable; in Valencia, the climate is delicious; and in the hills +of Sacramento there is gold for the gathering. Yes, but I do not travel +to find comfortable, rich, and hospitable people, or clear sky, or +ingots that cost too much. But if there were any magnet that would +point to the countries and houses where are the persons who are +intrinsically rich and powerful, I would sell all, and buy it, and put +myself on the road to-day. + +The race goes with us on their credit. The knowledge, that in the city +is a man who invented the railroad, raises the credit of all the +citizens. But enormous populations, if they be beggars, are disgusting, +like moving cheese, like hills of ants, or of fleas--the more, the +worse. + +Our religion is the love and cherishing of these patrons. The gods of +fable are the shining moments of great men. We run all our vessels +into one mould. Our colossal theologies of Judaism, Christism, Buddhism, +Mahometism, are the necessary and structural action of the human mind. +The student of history is like a man going into a warehouse to buy +cloths or carpets. He fancies he has a new article. If he go to the +factory, he shall find that his new stuff still repeats the scrolls +and rosettes which are found on the interior walls of the pyramids of +Thebes. Our theism is the purification of the human mind. Man can +paint, or make, or think nothing but man. He believes that the great +material elements had their origin from his thought. And our philosophy +finds one essence collected or distributed. + +If now we proceed to inquire into the kinds of service we derive from +others, let us be warned of the danger of modern studies, and begin +low enough. We must not contend against love, or deny the substantial +existence of other people. I know not what would happen to us. We have +social strengths. Our affection toward others creates a sort of vantage +or purchase which nothing will supply. I can do that by another which +I cannot do alone. I can say to you what I cannot first say to myself. +Other men are lenses through which we read our own minds. Each man +seeks those of different quality from his own, and such as are good +of their kind; that is, he seeks other men, and the otherest. The +stronger the nature, the more it is reactive. Let us have the quality +pure. A little genius let us leave alone. A main difference betwixt +men is, whether they attend their own affair or not. Man is that noble +endogenous plant which grows, like the palm, from within, outward. His +own affair, though impossible to others, he can open with celerity and +in sport. It is easy to sugar to be sweet, and to nitre to be salt. +We take a great deal of pains to waylay and entrap that which of itself +will fall into our hands. I count him a great man who inhabits a higher +sphere of thought, into which other men rise with labor and difficulty; +he has but to open his eyes to see things in a true light, and in large +relations; whilst they must make painful corrections, and keep a +vigilant eye on many sources of error. His service to us is of like +sort. It costs a beautiful person no exertion to paint her image on +our eyes; yet how splendid is that benefit! It costs no more for a +wise soul to convey his quality to other men. And every one can do his +best thing easiest--"_Peu de moyens, beaucoup d'effet._" He is great who +is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others. + +But he must be related to us, and our life receive from him some promise +of explanation. I cannot tell what I would know; but I have observed +there are persons, who, in their character and actions, answer questions +which I have not skill to put. One man answers some questions which +none of his contemporaries put, and is isolated. The past and passing +religions and philosophies answer some other question. Certain men +affect us as rich possibilities, but helpless to themselves and to +their times,--the sport, perhaps, of some instinct that rules in the +air;--they do not speak to our want. But the great are near: we know +them at sight. They satisfy expectation, and fall into place. What is +good is effective, generative; makes for itself room, food, and allies. +A sound apple produces seed,--a hybrid does not. Is a man in his place, +he is constructive, fertile, magnetic, inundating armies with his +purpose, which is thus executed. The river makes its own shores, and +each legitimate idea makes its own channels and welcome,--harvest for +food, institutions for expression, weapons to fight with, and disciples +to explain it. The true artist has the planet for his pedestal; the +adventurer, after years of strife, has nothing broader than his own +shoes. + +Our common discourse respects two kinds of use of service from superior +men. Direct giving is agreeable to the early belief of men; direct +giving of material or metaphysical aid, as of health, eternal youth, +fine senses, arts of healing, magical power, and prophecy. The boy +believes there is a teacher who can sell him wisdom. Churches believe +in imputed merit. But, in strictness, we are not much cognizant of +direct serving. Man is endogenous, and education is his unfolding. The +aid we have from others is mechanical, compared with the discoveries +of nature in us. What is thus learned is delightful in the doing, and +the effect remains. Right ethics are central, and go from the soul +outward. Gift is contrary to the law of the universe. Serving others +is serving us. I must absolve me to myself. "Mind thy affair," says +the spirit:--"coxcomb, would you meddle with the skies, or with other +people?" Indirect service is left. Men have a pictorial or +representative quality, and serve us in the intellect. Behmen and +Swedenborg saw that things were representative. Men are also +representative; first, of things, and secondly, of ideas. + +As plants convert the minerals into food for animals, so each man +converts some raw material in nature to human use. The inventors of +fire, electricity, magnetism, iron; lead, glass, linen, silk, cotton; +the makers of tools; the inventor of decimal notation; the geometer; +the engineer; musician,--severally make an easy way for all, through +unknown and impossible confusions. Each man is, by secret liking, +connected with some district of nature, whose agent and interpreter +he is, as Linnaeus, of plants; Huber, of bees; Fries, of lichens; Van +Mons, of pears; Dalton, of atomic forms; Euclid, of lines; Newton, of +fluxions. + +A man is a center for nature, running out threads of relation through +everything, fluid and solid, material and elemental. The earth rolls; +every clod and stone comes to the meridian; so every organ, function, +acid, crystal, grain of dust, has its relation to the brain. It waits +long, but its turn comes. Each plant has its parasite, and each created +thing its lover and poet. Justice has already been done to steam, to +iron, to wood, to coal, to loadstone, to iodine, to corn, and cotton; +but how few materials are yet used by our arts! The mass of creatures +and of qualities are still hid and expectant. It would seem as if each +waited, like the enchanted princess in fairy tales, for a destined +human deliverer. Each must be disenchanted, and walk forth to the day +in human shape. In the history of discovery, the ripe and latent truth +seems to have fashioned a brain for itself. A magnet must be made man, +in some Gilbert, or Swedenborg, or Oersted, before the general mind +can come to entertain its powers. + +If we limit ourselves to the first advantages;--a sober grace adheres +to the mineral and botanic kingdoms, which, in the highest moments, +comes up as the charm of nature,--the glitter of the spar, the sureness +of affinity, the veracity of angles. Light and darkness, heat and cold, +hunger and food, sweet and sour, solid, liquid, and gas, circle us +round in a wreath of pleasures, and, by their agreeable quarrel, beguile +the day of life. The eye repeats every day the finest eulogy on +things--"He saw that they were good." We know where to find them; and +these performers are relished all the more, after a little experience +of the pretending races. We are entitled, also, to higher advantages. +Something is wanting to science, until it has been humanized. The table +of logarithms is one thing, and its vital play, in botany, music, +optics, and architecture, another. There are advancements to numbers, +anatomy, architecture, astronomy, little suspected at first, when, by +union with intellect and will, they ascend into the life, and re-appear +in conversation, character and politics. + +But this comes later. We speak now only of our acquaintance with them +in their own sphere, and the way in which they seem to fascinate and +draw to them some genius who occupies himself with one thing, all his +life long. The possibility of interpretation lies in the identity of +the observer with the observed. Each material thing has its celestial +side; has its translation, through humanity, into the spiritual and +necessary sphere, where it plays a part as indestructible as any other. +And to these, their ends, all things continually ascend. The gases +gather to the solid firmament; the chemic lump arrives at the plant, +and grows; arrives at the quadruped, and walks; arrives at the man, +and thinks. But also the constituency determines the vote of the +representative. He is not only representative, but participant. Like +can only be known by like. The reason why he knows about them is, that +he is of them; he has just come out of nature, or from being a part +of that thing. Animated chlorine knows of chlorine, and incarnate zinc, +of zinc. Their quality makes this career; and he can variously publish +their virtues, because they compose him. Man, made of the dust of the +world, does not forget his origin; and all that is yet inanimate will +one day speak and reason. Unpublished nature will have its whole secret +told. Shall we say that quartz mountains will pulverize into innumerable +Werners, Von Buchs, and Beaumonts; and the laboratory of the atmosphere +holds in solution I know not what Berzeliuses and Davys? + +Thus, we sit by the fire, and take hold on the poles of the earth. +This quasi omnipresence supplies the imbecility of our condition. In +one of those celestial days, when heaven and earth meet and adorn each +other, it seems a poverty that we can only spend it once; we wish for +a thousand heads, a thousand bodies, that we might celebrate its immense +beauty in many ways and places. Is this fancy? Well, in good faith, +we are multiplied by our proxies. How easily we adopt their labors! +Every ship that comes to America got its chart from Columbus. Every +novel is debtor to Homer. Every carpenter who shaves with a foreplane +borrows the genius of a forgotten inventor. Life is girt all around +with a zodiac of sciences, the contributions of men who have perished +to add their point of light to our sky. Engineer, broker, jurist, +physician, moralist, theologian, and every man, inasmuch as he has any +science, is a definer and map-maker of the latitudes and longitudes +of our condition. These road-makers on every hand enrich us. We must +extend the area of life, and multiply our relations. We are as much +gainers by finding a new property in the old earth, as by acquiring +a new planet. + +We are too passive in the reception of these material or semi-material +aids. We must not be sacks and stomachs. To ascend one step,--we are +better served through our sympathy. Activity is contagious. Looking +where others look, and conversing with the same things, we catch the +charm which lured them. Napoleon said, "you must not fight too often +with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war." Talk much +with any man of vigorous mind, and we acquire very fast the habit of +looking at things in the same light, and, on each occurrence, we +anticipate his thought. + +Men are helpful through the intellect and the affections. Other help, +I find a false appearance. If you affect to give me bread and fire, +I perceive that I pay for it the full price, and at last it leaves me +as it found me, neither better nor worse: but all mental and moral +force is a positive good. It goes out from you whether you will or +not, and profits me whom you never thought of. I cannot even hear of +personal vigor of any kind, great power of performance, without fresh +resolution. We are emulous of all that man can do. Cecil's saying of +Sir Walter Raleigh, "I know that he can toil terribly," is an electric +touch. So are Clarendon's portraits,--of Hampden; "who was of an +industry and vigilance not to be tired out or wearied by the most +laborious, and of parts not to be imposed on by the most subtle and +sharp, and of a personal courage equal to his best parts"--of Falkland; +"who was so severe an adorer of truth, that he could as easily have +given himself leave to steal, as to dissemble." We cannot read Plutarch, +without a tingling of the blood; and I accept the saying of the Chinese +Mencius: "As age is the instructor of a hundred ages. When the manners +of Loo are heard of, the stupid become intelligent, and the wavering, +determined." + +This is the moral of biography; yet it is hard for departed men to +touch the quick like our own companions, whose names may not last as +long. What is he whom I never think of? whilst in every solitude are +those who succor our genius, and stimulate us in wonderful manners. +There is a power in love to divine another's destiny better than that +other can, and by heroic encouragements, hold him to his task. What +has friendship so signaled as its sublime attraction to whatever virtue +is in us? We will never more think cheaply of ourselves, or of life. +We are piqued to some purpose, and the industry of the diggers on the +railroad will not again shame us. + +Under this head, too, falls that homage, very pure, as I think, which +all ranks pay to the hero of the day, from Coriolanus and Gracchus, +down to Pitt, Lafayette, Wellington, Webster, Lamartine. Hear the +shouts in the street! The people cannot see him enough. They delight +in a man. Here is a head and a trunk! What a front! What eyes! Atlantean +shoulders, and the whole carriage heroic, with equal inward force to +guide the great machine! This pleasure of full expression to that +which, in their private experience, is usually cramped and obstructed, +runs, also, much higher, and is the secret of the reader's joy in +literary genius. Nothing is kept back. There is fire enough to fuse +the mountain of ore. Shakspeare's principal merit may be conveyed, in +saying that he, of all men, best understands the English language, and +can say what he will. Yet these unchoked channels and floodgates of +expression are only health or fortunate constitution. Shakspeare's +name suggests other and purely intellectual benefits. + +Senates and sovereigns have no compliment, with their medals, swords, +and armorial coats, like the addressing to a human being thoughts out +of a certain height, and presupposing his intelligence. This honor, +which is possible in personal intercourse scarcely twice in a lifetime, +genius perpetually pays; contented, if now and then, in a century, the +proffer is accepted. The indicators of the values of matter are degraded +to a sort of cooks and confectioners, on the appearance of the +indicators of ideas. Genius is the naturalist or geographer of the +supersensible regions, and draws on their map; and, by acquainting us +with new fields of activity, cools our affection for the old. These +are at once accepted as the reality, of which the world we have +conversed with is the show. + +We go to the gymnasium and the swimming-school to see the power and +beauty of the body; there is the like pleasure, and a higher benefit, +from witnessing intellectual feats of all kinds; as, feats of memory, +of mathematical combination, great power of abstraction, the +transmutings of the imagination, even versatility, and concentration, +as these acts expose the invisible organs and members of the mind, +which respond, member for member, to the parts of the body. For, we +thus enter a new gymnasium, and learn to choose men by their truest +marks, taught, with Plato, "to choose those who can, without aid from +the eyes, or any other sense, proceed to truth and to being." Foremost +among these activities, are the summersaults, spells, and resurrections, +wrought by the imagination. When this wakes, a man seems to multiply +ten times or a thousand times his force. It opens the delicious sense +of indeterminate size, and inspires an audacious mental habit. We are +as elastic as the gas of gunpowder, and a sentence in a book, or a +word dropped in conversation, sets free our fancy, and instantly our +heads are bathed with galaxies, and our feet tread the floor of the +Pit. And this benefit is real, because we are entitled to these +enlargements, and, once having passed the bounds, shall never again +be quite the miserable pedants we were. + +The high functions of the intellect are so allied, that some imaginative +power usually appears in all eminent minds, even in arithmeticians of +the first class, but especially in meditative men of an intuitive habit +of thought. This class serve us, so that they have the perception of +identity and the perception of reaction. The eyes of Plato, Shakespeare, +Swedenborg, Goethe, never shut on either of these laws. The perception +of these laws is a kind of metre of the mind. Little minds are little, +through failure to see them. + +Even these feasts have their surfeit. Our delight in reason degenerates +into idolatry of the herald. Especially when a mind of powerful method +has instructed men, we find the examples of oppression. The dominion +of Aristotle, the Ptolemaic astronomy, the credit of Luther, of Bacon, +of Locke,--in religion the history of hierarchies, of saints, and the +sects which have taken the name of each founder, are in point. Alas! +every man is such a victim. The imbecility of men is always inviting +the impudence of power. It is the delight of vulgar talent to dazzle +and to bind the beholder. But true genius seeks to defend us from +itself. True genius will not impoverish, but will liberate, and add +new senses. If a wise man should appear in our village, he would create, +in those who conversed with him, a new consciousness of wealth, by +opening their eyes to unobserved advantages; he would establish a sense +of immovable equality, calm us with assurances that we could not be +cheated; as every one would discern the checks and guaranties of +condition. The rich would see their mistakes and poverty, the poor +their escapes and their resources. + +But nature brings all this about in due time. Rotation is her remedy. +The soul is impatient of masters, and eager for change. Housekeepers +say of a domestic who has been valuable, "She has lived with me long +enough." We are tendencies, or rather, symptoms, and none of us +complete. We touch and go, and sip the foam of many lives. Rotation +is the law of nature. When nature removes a great man, people explore +the horizon for a successor; but none comes and none will. His class +is extinguished with him. In some other and quite different field, the +next man will appear; not Jefferson, nor Franklin, but now a great +salesman; then a road-contractor; then a student of fishes; then a +buffalo-hunting explorer, or a semi-savage western general. Thus we +make a stand against our rougher masters; but against the best there +is a finer remedy. The power which they communicate is not theirs. +When we are exalted by ideas, we do not owe this to Plato, but to the +idea, to which, also, Plato was debtor. + +I must not forget that we have a special debt to a single class. Life +is a scale of degrees. Between rank and rank of our great men are wide +intervals. Mankind have, in all ages, attached themselves to a few +persons, who, either by the quality of that idea they embodied, or by +the largeness of their reception, were entitled to the position of +leaders and law-givers. These teach us the qualities of primary +nature,--admit us to the constitution of things. We swim, day by day, +on a river of delusions, and are effectually amused with houses and +towns in the air, of which the men about us are dupes. But life is a +sincerity. In lucid intervals we say, "Let there be an entrance opened +for me into realities; I have worn the fool's cap too long." We will +know the meaning of our economies and politics. Give us the cipher, +and, if persons and things are scores of a celestial music, let us +read off the strains. We have been cheated of our reason; yet there +have been sane men, who enjoyed a rich and related existence. What +they know, they know for us. With each new mind, a new secret of nature +transpires; nor can the Bible be closed, until the last great man is +born. These men correct the delirium of the animal spirits, make us +considerate, and engage us to new aims and powers. The veneration of +mankind selects these for the highest place. Witness the multitude of +statues, pictures, and memorials which recall their genius in every +city, village, house, and ship:-- + + "Ever their phantoms arise before us. + Our loftier brothers, but one in blood; + At bed and table they lord it o'er us, + With looks of beauty, and words of good." + +How to illustrate the distinctive benefit of ideas, the service rendered +by those who introduce moral truths into the general mind?--I am +plagued, in all my living, with a perpetual tariff of prices. If I +work in my garden, and prune an apple-tree, I am well enough +entertained, and could continue indefinitely in the like occupation. +But it comes to mind that a day is gone, and I have got this precious +nothing done. I go to Boston or New York, and run up and down on my +affairs: they are sped, but so is the day. I am vexed by the +recollection of this price I have paid for a trifling advantage. I +remember the _peau d'ane_, on which whoso sat should have his desire, +but a piece of the skin was gone for every wish. I go to a convention of +philanthropists. Do what I can, I cannot keep my eyes off the clock. But +if there should appear in the company some gentle soul who knows little +of persons or parties, of Carolina or Cuba, but who announces a law that +disposes these particulars, and so certifies me of the equity which +checkmates every false player, bankrupts every self-seeker, and apprises +me of my independence on any conditions of country, or time, or human +body, that man liberates me; I forget the clock. + +I pass out of the sore relation to persons. I am healed of my hurts. +I am made immortal by apprehending my possession of incorruptible +goods. Here is great competition of rich and poor. We live in a market, +where is only so much wheat, or wool, or land; and if I have so much +more, every other must have so much less. I seem to have no good, +without breach of good manners. Nobody is glad in the gladness of +another, and our system is one of war, of an injurious superiority. +Every child of the Saxon race is educated to wish to be first. It is +our system; and a man comes to measure his greatness by the regrets, +envies, and hatreds of his competitors. But in these new fields there +is room: here are no self-esteems, no exclusions. + +I admire great men of all classes, those who stand for facts, and for +thoughts; I like rough and smooth "Scourges of God," and "Darlings of +the human race." I like the first Caesar; and Charles V., of Spain; +and Charles XII., of Sweden; Richard Plantagenet; and Bonaparte, in +France. I applaud a sufficient man, an officer, equal to his office; +captains, ministers, senators. I like a master standing firm on legs +of iron, well-born, rich, handsome, eloquent, loaded with advantages, +drawing all men by fascination into tributaries and supporters of his +power. Sword and staff, or talents sword-like or staff-like, carry on +the work of the world. But I find him greater, when he can abolish +himself, and all heroes, by letting in this element of reason, +irrespective of persons; this subtilizer, and irresistible upward +force, into our thought, destroying individualism; the power so great, +that the potentate is nothing. Then he is a monarch, who gives a +constitution to his people; a pontiff, who preaches the equality of +souls, and releases his servants from their barbarous homages; an +emperor, who can spare his empire. + +But I intended to specify, with a little minuteness, two or three +points of service. Nature never spares the opium or nepenthe; but +wherever she mars her creature with some deformity or defect, lays her +poppies plentifully on the bruise, and the sufferer goes joyfully +through life, ignorant of the ruin, and incapable of seeing it, though +all the world point their finger at it every day. The worthless and +offensive members of society, whose existence is a social pest, +invariably think themselves the most ill-used people alive, and never +get over their astonishment at the ingratitude and selfishness of their +contemporaries. Our globe discovers its hidden virtues, not only in +heroes and archangels, but in gossips and nurses. Is it not a rare +contrivance that lodged the due inertia in every creature, the +conserving, resisting energy, the anger at being waked or changed? +Altogether independent of the intellectual force in each, is the pride +of opinion, the security that we are right. Not the feeblest grandame, +not a mowing idiot, but uses what spark of perception and faculty is +left, to chuckle and triumph in his or her opinion over the absurdities +of all the rest. Difference from me is the measure of absurdity. Not +one has a misgiving of being wrong. Was it not a bright thought that +made things cohere with this bitumen, fastest of cements? But, in the +midst of this chuckle of self-gratulation, some figure goes by, which +Thersites too can love and admire. This is he that should marshal us +the way we were going. There is no end to his aid. Without Plato, we +should almost lose our faith in the possibility of a reasonable book. +We seem to want but one, but we want one. We love to associate with +heroic persons, since our receptivity is unlimited; and, with the +great, our thoughts and manners easily become great. We are all wise +in capacity, though so few in energy. There needs but one wise man in +a company, and all are wise, so rapid is the contagion. + +Great men are thus a collyrium to clear our eyes from egotism, and +enable us to see other people and their works. But there are vices and +follies incident to whole populations and ages. Men resemble their +contemporaries, even more than their progenitors. It is observed in +old couples, or in persons who have been housemates for a course of +years, that they grow alike; and, if they should live long enough, we +should not be able to know them apart. Nature abhors these +complaisances, which threaten to melt the world into a lump, and hastens +to break up such maudlin agglutinations. The like assimilation goes +on between men of one town, of one sect, of one political party; and +the ideas of the time are in the air, and infect all who breathe it. +Viewed from any high point, the city of New York, yonder city of London, +the western civilization, would seem a bundle of insanities. We keep +each other in countenance, and exasperate by emulation the frenzy of +the time. The shield against the stingings of conscience, is the +universal practice, or our contemporaries. Again; it is very easy to +be as wise and good as your companions. We learn of our contemporaries, +what they know, without effort, and almost through the pores of the +skin. We catch it by sympathy, or, as a wife arrives at the intellectual +and moral elevations of her husband. But we stop where they stop. Very +hardly can we take another step. The great, or such as hold of nature, +and transcend fashions, by their fidelity to universal ideas, are +saviors from these federal errors, and defend us from our +contemporaries. They are the exceptions which we want, where all grows +alike. A foreign greatness is the antidote for cabalism. + +Thus we feed on genius, and refresh ourselves from too much conversation +with our mates, and exult in the depth of nature in that direction in +which he leads us. What indemnification is one great man for populations +of pigmies! Every mother wishes one son a genius, though all the rest +should be mediocre. But a new danger appears in the excess of influence +of the great man. His attractions warp us from our place. We have +become underlings and intellectual suicides. Ah! yonder in the horizon +is our help:--other great men, new qualities, counterweights and +checks on each other. We cloy of the honey of each peculiar greatness. +Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, +yet he said of the good Jesus, even, "I pray you, let me never hear +that man's name again." They cry up the virtues of George +Washington,--"Damn George Washington!" is the poor Jacobin's whole +speech and confutation. But it is human nature's indispensable defense. +The centripetence augments the centrifugence. We balance one man with +his opposite, and the health of the state depends on the see-saw. + +There is, however, a speedy limit to the use of heroes. Every genius +is defended from approach by quantities of availableness. They are +very attractive, and seem at a distance our own: but we are hindered +on all sides from approach. The more we are drawn, the more we are +repelled. There is something not solid in the good that is done for +us. The best discovery the discoverer makes for himself. It has +something unreal for his companion, until he too has substantiated it. +It seems as if the Deity dressed each soul which he sends into nature +in certain virtues and powers not communicable to other men, and, +sending it to perform one more turn through the circle of beings, wrote +"Not transferable," and "Good for this trip only," on these garments +of the soul. There is somewhat deceptive about the intercourse of +minds. The boundaries are invisible, but they are never crossed. There +is such good will to impart, and such good will to receive, that each +threatens to become the other; but the law of individuality collects +its secret strength: you are you, and I am I, and so we remain. + +For Nature wishes every thing to remain itself; and, whilst every +individual strives to grow and exclude, and to exclude and grow, to +the extremities of the universe, and to impose the law of its being +on every other creature, Nature steadily aims to protect each against +every other. Each is self-defended. Nothing is more marked than the +power by which individuals are guarded from individuals, in a world +where every benefactor becomes so easily a malefactor, only by +continuation of his activity into places where it is not due; where +children seem so much at the mercy of their foolish parents, and where +almost all men are too social and interfering. We rightly speak of the +guardian angels of children. How superior in their security from +infusions of evil persons, from vulgarity and second thought! They +shed their own abundant beauty on the objects they behold. Therefore, +they are not at the mercy of such poor educators as we adults. If we +huff and chide them, they soon come not to mind it, and get a +self-reliance; and if we indulge them to folly, they learn the +limitation elsewhere. + +We need not fear excessive influence. A more generous trust is +permitted. Serve the great. Stick at no humiliation. Grudge no office +thou canst render. Be the limb of their body, the breath of their +mouth. Compromise thy egotism. Who cares for that, so thou gain aught +wider and nobler? Never mind the taunt of Boswellism: the devotion may +easily be greater than the wretched pride which is guarding its own +skirts. Be another: not thyself, but a Platonist; not a soul, but a +Christian; not a naturalist, but a Cartesian; not a poet, but a +Shakspearian. In vain, the wheels of tendency will not stop, nor will +all the forces of inertia, fear, or love itself, hold thee there. On, +and forever onward! The microscope observes a monad or wheel-insect +among the infusories circulating in water. Presently, a dot appears +on the animal, which enlarges to a slit, and it becomes two perfect +animals. The ever-proceeding detachment appears not less in all thought, +and in society. Children think they cannot live without their parents. +But, long before they are aware of it, the black dot has appeared, and +the detachment taken place. Any accident will now reveal to them their +independence. + +But great men:--the word is injurious. Is there caste? is there fate? +What becomes of the promise to virtue? The thoughtful youth laments +the superfoetation of nature. "Generous and handsome," he says, "is +your hero; but look at yonder poor Paddy, whose country is his +wheelbarrow; look at his whole nation of Paddies." Why are the masses, +from the dawn of history down, food for knives and powder? The idea +dignifies a few leaders, who have sentiment, opinion, love, +self-devotion; and they make war and death sacred;--but what for the +wretches whom they hire and kill? The cheapness of man is every day's +tragedy. It is as real a loss that others should be low, as that we +should be low; for we must have society. + +Is it a reply to these suggestions, to say, society is a Pestalozzian +school; all are teachers and pupils in turn. We are equally served by +receiving and by imparting. Men who know the same things, are not long +the best company for each other. But bring to each an intelligent +person of another experience, and it is as if you let off water from +a lake, by cutting a lower basin. It seems a mechanical advantage, and +great benefit it is to each speaker, as he can now paint out his thought +to himself. We pass very fast, in our personal moods, from dignity to +dependence. And if any appear never to assume the chair, but always +to stand and serve, it is because we do not see the company in a +sufficiently long period for the whole rotation of parts to come about. +As to what we call the masses, and common men;--there are no common +men. All men are at last of a size; and true art is only possible, on +the conviction that every talent has its apotheosis somewhere. Fair +play, and an open field, and freshest laurels to all who have won them! +But heaven reserves an equal scope for every creature. Each is uneasy +until he has produced his private ray unto the concave sphere, and +beheld his talent also in its last nobility and exaltation. + +The heroes of the hour are relatively great: of a faster growth; or +they are such, in whom, at the moment of success, a quality is ripe +which is then in request. Other days will demand other qualities. Some +rays escape the common observer, and want a finely adapted eye. Ask +the great man if there be none greater. His companions are; and not +the less great, but the more, that society cannot see them. Nature +never sends a great man into the planet, without confiding the secret +to another soul. + +One gracious fact emerges from these studies,--that there is true +ascension in our love. The reputations of the nineteenth century will +one day be quoted to prove its barbarism. The genius of humanity is +the real subject whose biography is written in our annals. We must +infer much, and supply many chasms in the record. The history of the +universe is symptomatic, and life is mnemonical. No man, in all the +procession of famous men, is reason or illumination, or that essence +we were looking for; but is an exhibition, in some quarter, of new +possibilities. Could we one day complete the immense figure which these +flagrant points compose! The study of many individuals leads us to an +elemental region wherein the individual is lost, or wherein all touch +by their summits. Thought and feeling, that break out there, cannot +be impounded by any fence of personality. This is the key to the power +of the greatest men,--their spirit diffuses itself. A new quality of +mind travels by night and by day, in concentric circles from its origin, +and publishes itself by unknown methods: the union of all minds appears +intimate: what gets admission to one, cannot be kept out of any other: +the smallest acquisition of truth or of energy, in any quarter, is so +much good to the commonwealth of souls. If the disparities of talent +and position vanish, when the individuals are seen in the duration +which is necessary to complete the career of each; even more swiftly +the seeming injustice disappears, when we ascend to the central identity +of all the individuals, and know that they are made of the same +substance which ordaineth and doeth. + +The genius of humanity is the right point of view of history. The +qualities abide; the men who exhibit them have now more, now less, and +pass away; the qualities remain on another brow. No experience is more +familiar. Once you saw phoenixes: they are gone; the world is not +therefore disenchanted. The vessels on which you read sacred emblems +turn out to be common pottery; but the sense of the pictures is sacred, +and you may still read them transferred to the walls of the world. For +a time, our teachers serve us personally, as metres or milestones of +progress. Once they were angels of knowledge, and their figures touched +the sky. Then we drew near, saw their means, culture, and limits; and +they yielded their places to other geniuses. Happy, if a few names +remain so high, that we have not been able to read them nearer, and +age and comparison have not robbed them of a ray. But, at last, we +shall cease to look in men for completeness, and shall content ourselves +with their social and delegated quality. All that respects the +individual is temporary and prospective, like the individual himself, +who is ascending out of his limits, into a catholic existence. We have +never come at the true and best benefit of any genius, so long as we +believe him an original force. In the moment when he ceases to help +us as a cause, he begins to help us move as an effect. Then he appears +as an exponent of a vaster mind and will. The opaque self becomes +transparent with the light of the First Cause. + +Yet, within the limits of human education and agency, we may say, great +men exist that there may be greater men. The destiny of organized +nature is amelioration, and who can tell its limits? It is for man to +tame the chaos; on every side, whilst he lives, to scatter the seeds +of science and of song, that climate, corn, animals, men, may be milder, +and the germs of love and benefit may be multiplied. + + + + +II. PLATO; OR, THE PHILOSOPHER. + + +Among books, Plato only is entitled to Omar's fanatical compliment to +the Koran, when he said, "Burn the libraries; for, their value is in +this book." These sentences contain the culture of nations; these are +the corner-stone of schools; these are the fountain-head of literatures. +A discipline it is in logic, arithmetic, taste, symmetry, poetry, +language, rhetoric, ontology, morals, or practical wisdom. There was +never such range of speculation. Out of Plato come all things that are +still written and debated among men of thought. Great havoc makes he +among our originalities. We have reached the mountain from which all +these drift bowlders were detached. The Bible of the learned for twenty- +two hundred years, every brisk young man, who says in succession fine +things to each reluctant generation,--Boethius, Rabelais, Erasmus, +Bruno, Locke, Rousseau, Alfieri, Coleridge,--is some reader of Plato, +translating into the vernacular, wittily, his good things. Even the +men of grander proportion suffer some deduction from the misfortune +(shall I say?) of coming after this exhausting generalizer. St. +Augustine, Copernicus, Newton, Behmen, Swedenborg, Goethe, are likewise +his debtors, and must say after him. For it is fair to credit the +broadest generalizer with all the particulars deducible from his thesis. + +Plato is philosophy, and philosophy, Plato,--at once the glory and the +shame of mankind, since neither Saxon nor Roman have availed to add +any idea to his categories. No wife, no children had he, and the +thinkers of all civilized nations are his posterity, and are tinged +with his mind. How many great men Nature is incessantly sending up out +of night, to be his men,--Platonists! the Alexandrians, a constellation +of genius; the Elizabethans, not less; Sir Thomas More, Henry More, +John Hales, John Smith, Lord Bacon, Jeremy Taylor, Ralph Cudworth, +Sydenham, Thomas Taylor; Marcilius Ficinus, and Picus Mirandola. +Calvinism is in his Phaedo: Christianity is in it. Mahometanism draws +all its philosophy, in its hand-book of morals, the Akhlak-y-Jalaly, +from him. Mysticism finds in Plato all its texts. This citizen of a +town in Greece is no villager nor patriot. An Englishman reads and +says, "how English!" a German--"how Teutonic!" an Italian--"how Roman +and how Greek!" As they say that Helen of Argos had that universal +beauty that everybody felt related to her, so Plato seems, to a reader +in New England, an American genius. His broad humanity transcends all +sectional lines. + +This range of Plato instructs us what to think of the vexed question +concerning his reputed works,--what are genuine, what spurious. It is +singular that wherever we find a man higher, by a whole head, than any +of his contemporaries, it is sure to come into doubt, what are his +real works. Thus, Homer, Plato, Raffaelle, Shakspeare. For these men +magnetize their contemporaries, so that their companions can do for +them what they can never do for themselves; and the great man does +thus live in several bodies; and write, or paint, or act, by many +hands; and after some time, it is not easy to say what is the authentic +work of the master, and what is only of his school. + +Plato, too, like every great man, consumed his own times. What is a +great man, but one of great affinities, who takes up into himself all +arts, sciences, all knowables, as his food? He can spare nothing; he +can dispose of everything. What is not good for virtue is good for +knowledge. Hence his contemporaries tax him with plagiarism. But the +inventor only knows how to borrow; and society is glad to forget the +innumerable laborers who ministered to this architect, and reserves +all its gratitude for him. When we are praising Plato, it seems we are +praising quotations from Solon, and Sophron, and Philolaus. Be it so. +Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all +forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation +from all his ancestors. And this grasping inventor puts all nations +under contribution. + +Plato absorbed the learning of his times,--Philolaus, Timaeus, +Heraclitus, Parmenides, and what else; then his master, Socrates; and +finding himself still capable of a larger synthesis,--beyond all example +then or since,--he traveled into Italy, to gain what Pythagoras had +for him; then into Egypt, and perhaps still further east, to import +the other element, which Europe wanted, into the European mind. This +breadth entitles him to stand as the representative of philosophy. He +says, in the Republic, "Such a genius as philosophers must of necessity +have, is wont but seldom, in all its parts, to meet in one man; but +its different parts generally spring up in different persons." Every +man, who would do anything well, must come to it from a higher ground. +A philosopher must be more than a philosopher. Plato is clothed with +the powers of a poet, stands upon the highest place of the poet, and +(though I doubt he wanted the decisive gift of lyric expression) mainly +is not a poet, because he chose to use the poetic gift to an ulterior +purpose. + +Great geniuses have the shortest biographies. Their cousins can tell +you nothing about them. They lived in their writings, and so their +house and street life was trivial and commonplace. If you would know +their tastes and complexions, the most admiring of their readers most +resembles them. Plato, especially, has no external biography. If he +had lover, wife, or children, we hear nothing of them. He ground them +all into paint. As a good chimney burns its smoke, so a philosopher +converts the value of all his fortunes into his intellectual +performances. + +He was born 430 A. C., about the time of the death of Pericles; was +of patrician connection in his times and city; and is said to have had +an early inclination for war; but in his twentieth year, meeting with +Socrates, was easily dissuaded from this pursuit, and remained for ten +years his scholar, until the death of Socrates. He then went to Megara; +accepted the invitations of Dion and of Dionysius, to the court of +Sicily; and went thither three times, though very capriciously treated. +He traveled into Italy; then into Egypt, where he stayed a long time; +some say three,--some say thirteen years. It is said, he went farther, +into Babylonia: this is uncertain. Returning to Athens, he gave lessons, +in the Academy, to those whom his fame drew thither; and died, as we +have received it, in the act of writing, at eighty-one years. + +But the biography of Plato is interior. We are to account for the +supreme elevation of this man, in the intellectual history of our +race,--how it happens that, in proportion to the culture of men, they +become his scholars; that, as our Jewish Bible has implanted itself +in the table-talk and household life of every man and woman in the +European and American nations, so the writings of Plato have +pre-occupied every school of learning, every lover of thought, every +church, every poet,--making it impossible to think, on certain levels, +except through him. He stands between the truth and every man's mind, +and has almost impressed language, and the primary forms of thought, +with his name and seal. I am struck, in reading him, with the extreme +modernness of his style and spirit. Here is the germ of that Europe +we know so well, in its long history of arts and arms; here are all +its traits, already discernible in the mind of Plato,--and in none +before him. It has spread itself since into a hundred histories, but +has added no new element. This perpetual modernness is the measure of +merit, in every work of art; since the author of it was not misled by +anything shortlived or local, but abode by real and abiding traits. +How Plato came thus to be Europe, and philosophy, and almost literature, +is the problem for us to solve. + +This could not have happened, without a sound, sincere, and catholic +man, able to honor, at the same time, the ideal, or laws of the mind, +and fate, or the order of nature. The first period of a nation, as of +an individual, is the period of unconscious strength. Children cry, +scream and stamp with fury, unable to express their desires. As soon +as they can speak and tell their want, and the reason of it, they +become gentle. In adult life, whilst the perceptions are obtuse, men +and women talk vehemently and superlatively, blunder and quarrel; their +manners are full of desperation; their speech is full of oaths. As +soon as, with culture, things have cleared up a little, and they see +them no longer in lumps and masses, but accurately distributed, they +desist from that weak vehemence, and explain their meaning in detail. +If the tongue had not been framed for articulation, man would still +be a beast in the forest. The same weakness and want, on a higher +plane, occurs daily in the education of ardent young men and women. +"Ah! you don't understand me; I have never met with any one who +comprehends me:" and they sigh and weep, write verses, and walk +alone,--fault of power to express their precise meaning. In a month +or two, through the favor of their good genius, they meet some one so +related as to assist their volcanic estate; and, good communication +being once established, they are thenceforward good citizens. It is +ever thus. The progress is to accuracy, to skill, to truth, from blind +force. + +There is a moment, in the history of every nation, when, proceeding +out of this brute youth, the perceptive powers reach their ripeness, +and have not yet become microscopic: so that man, at that instant, +extends across the entire scale; and, with his feet still planted on +the immense forces of night, converses, by his eyes and brain, with +solar and stellar creation. That is the moment of adult health, the +culmination of power. + +Such is the history of Europe, in all points; and such in philosophy. +Its early records, almost perished, are of the immigrations from Asia, +bringing with them the dreams of barbarians; a confusion of crude +notions of morals, and of natural philosophy, gradually subsiding, +through the partial insight of single teachers. + +Before Pericles, came the Seven Wise Masters; and we have the beginnings +of geometry, metaphysics, and ethics: then the partialists,--deducing +the origin of things from flux or water, or from air, or from fire, +or from mind. All mix with these causes mythologic pictures. At last, +comes Plato, the distributor, who needs no barbaric paint, or tattoo, +or whooping; for he can define. He leaves with Asia the vast and +superlative; he is the arrival of accuracy and intelligence. "He shall +be as a god to me, who can rightly divide and define." + +This defining is philosophy. Philosophy is the account which the human +mind gives to itself of the constitution of the world. Two cardinal +facts lie forever at the base: the one, and the two.--1. Unity, or +Identity; and, 2, Variety. We unite all things, by perceiving the law +which pervades them; by perceiving the superficial differences, and +the profound resemblances. But every mental act,--this very perception +of identity or oneness, recognizes the difference of things. Oneness +and otherness. It is impossible to speak, or to think, without embracing +both. + +The mind is urged to ask for one cause of many effects; then for the +cause of that; and again the cause, diving still into the profound; +self-assured that it shall arrive at an absolute and sufficient one,--a +one that shall be all. "In the midst of the sun is the light, in the +midst of the light is truth, and in the midst of truth is the +imperishable being, "say the Vedas. All philosophy, of east and west, +has the same centripetence. Urged by an opposite necessity, the mind +returns from the one, to that which is not one, but other or many; +from cause to effect; and affirms the necessary existence of variety, +the self-existence of both, as each is involved in the other. These +strictly-blended elements it is the problem of thought to separate, +and to reconcile. Their existence is mutually contradictory and +exclusive; and each so fast slides into the other, that we can never +say what is one, and what it is not. The Proteus is as nimble in the +highest as in the lowest grounds, when we contemplate the one, the +true, the good,--as in the surfaces and extremities of matter. In all +nations, there are minds which incline to dwell in the conception of +the fundamental Unity. The raptures of prayer and ecstasy of devotion +lose all being in one Being. This tendency finds its highest expression +in the religious writings of the East, and chiefly, in the Indian +Scriptures, in the Vedas, the Bhagavat Geeta, and the Vishnu Purana. +Those writings contain little else than this idea, and they rise to +pure and sublime strains in celebrating it. + +The Same, the Same! friend and foe are of one stuff; the ploughman, +the plough, and the furrow, are of one stuff; and the stuff is such, +and so much, that the variations of forms are unimportant. "You are +fit" (says the supreme Krishna to a sage) "to apprehend that you are +not distinct from me. That which I am, thou art, and that also is this +world, with its gods, and heroes, and mankind. Men contemplate +distinctions, because they are stupefied with ignorance." "The words +I and mine constitute ignorance. What is the great end of all, you +shall now learn from me. It is soul,--one in all bodies, pervading, +uniform, perfect, preeminent over nature, exempt from birth, growth, +and decay, omnipresent, made up of true knowledge, independent, +unconnected with unrealities, with name, species, and the rest, in +time past, present, and to come. The knowledge that this spirit, which +is essentially one, is in one's own, and in all other bodies, is the +wisdom of one who knows the unity of things. As one diffusive air, +passing through the perforations of a flute, is distinguished as the +notes of a scale, so the nature of the Great Spirit is single, though +its forms be manifold, arising from the consequences of acts. When the +difference of the investing form, as that of god, or the rest, is +destroyed, there is no distinction." "The whole world is but a +manifestation of Vishnu, who is identical with all things, and is to +be regarded by the wise, as not differing from, but as the same as +themselves. I neither am going nor coming; nor is my dwelling in any +one place; nor art thou, thou; nor are others, others; nor am I, I." +As if he had said, "All is for the soul, and the soul is Vishnu; and +animals and stars are transient painting; and light is whitewash; and +durations are deceptive; and form is imprisonment; and heaven itself +a decoy." That which the soul seeks is resolution into being, above +form, out of Tartarus, and out of heaven,--liberation from nature. + +If speculation tends thus to a terrific unity, in which all things are +absorbed, action tends directly backwards to diversity. The first is +the course of gravitation of mind; the second is the power of nature. +Nature is the manifold. The unity absorbs, and melts or reduces. Nature +opens and creates. These two principles reappear and interpenetrate +all things, all thought; the one, the many. One is being; the other, +intellect; one is necessity; the other, freedom; one, rest; the other, +motion; one, power; the other, distribution; one, strength; the other, +pleasure; one, consciousness; the other, definition; one, genius; the +other, talent, one, earnestness; the other, knowledge; one, possession; +the other, trade; one, caste; the other, culture; one king; the other, +democracy; and, if we dare carry these generalizations a step higher, +and name the last tendency of both, we might say, that the end of the +one is escape from organization,--pure science; and the end of the +other is the highest instrumentality, or use of means, or executive +deity. + +Each student adheres, by temperament and by habit, to the first or to +the second of these gods of the mind. By religion, he tends to unity; +by intellect, or by the senses, to the many. A too rapid unification, +and an excessive appliance to parts and particulars, are the twin +dangers of speculation. + +To this partiality the history of nations corresponded. The country +of unity, of immovable institutions, the seat of a philosophy delighting +in abstractions, of men faithful in doctrine and in practice to the +idea of a deaf, unimplorable, immense fate, is Asia; and it realizes +this fate in the social institution of caste. On the other side, the +genius of Europe is active and creative; it resists caste by culture; +its philosophy was a discipline; it is a land of arts, inventions, +trade, freedom. If the East loved infinity, the West delighted in +boundaries. + +European civility is the triumph of talent, the extension of system, +the sharpened understanding, adaptive skill, delight in forms, delight +in manifestation, in comprehensible results. Pericles, Athens, Greece, +had been working in this element with the joy of genius not yet chilled +by any foresight of the detriment of an excess. They saw before them +no sinister political economy; no ominous Malthus; no Paris or London; +no pitiless subdivision of classes,--the doom of the pinmakers, the +doom of the weavers, of dressers, of stockingers, of carders, of +spinners, of colliers; no Ireland; no Indian caste, superinduced by +the efforts of Europe to throw it off. The understanding was in its +health and prime. Art was in its splendid novelty. They cut the +Pentelican marble as if it were snow, and their perfect works in +architecture and sculpture seemed things of course, not more difficult +than the completion of a new ship at the Medford yards, or new mills +at Lowell. These things are in course, and may be taken for granted. +The Roman legion, Byzantine legislation, English trade, the saloons +of Versailles, the cafes of Paris, the steam-mill, steamboat, +steam-coach, may all be seen in perspective; the town-meeting, the +ballot-box, the newspaper and cheap press. + +Meantime, Plato, in Egypt, and in Eastern pilgrimages, imbibed the +idea of one Deity, in which all things are absorbed. The unity of Asia, +and the detail of Europe; the infinitude of the Asiatic soul, and the +defining, result-loving, machine-making, surface-seeking, opera-going +Europe,--Plato came to join, and by contact to enhance the energy of +each. The excellence of Europe and Asia are in his brain. Metaphysics +and natural philosophy expressed the genius of Europe; he substructs +the religion of Asia, as the base. + +In short, a balanced soul was born, perceptive of the two elements. +It is as easy to be great as to be small. The reason why we do not at +once believe in admirable souls, is because they are not in our +experience. In actual life, they are so rare, as to be incredible; +but, primarily, there is not only no presumption against them, but the +strongest presumption in favor of their appearance. But whether voices +were heard in the sky, or not; whether his mother or his father dreamed +that the infant man-child was the son of Apollo; whether a swarm of +bees settled on his lips, or not; a man who could see two sides of a +thing was born. The wonderful synthesis so familiar in nature; the +upper and the under side of the medal of Jove; the union of +impossibilities, which reappears in every object; its real and its +ideal power,--was now, also, transferred entire to the consciousness +of a man. + +The balanced soul came. If he loved abstract truth, he saved himself +by propounding the most popular of all principles, the absolute good, +which rules rulers, and judges the judge. If he made transcendental +distinctions, he fortified himself by drawing all his illustrations +from sources disdained by orators, and polite conversers; from mares +and puppies; from pitchers and soup-ladles; from cooks and criers; +the shops of potters, horse-doctors, butchers, and fishmongers. He +cannot forgive in himself a partiality, but is resolved that the two +poles of thought shall appear in his statement. His arguments and his +sentences are self-poised and spherical. The two poles appear; yes, +and become two hands, to grasp and appropriate their own. + +Every great artist has been such by synthesis. Our strength is +transitional, alternating; or, shall I say, a thread of two strands. +The seashore, sea seen from shore, shore seen from sea; the taste of +two metals in contact; and our enlarged powers at the approach and at +the departure of a friend; the experience of poetic creativeness, which +is not found in staying at home, nor yet in traveling, but in +transitions from one to the other, which must therefore be adroitly +managed to present as much transitional surface as possible; this +command of two elements must explain the power and charm of Plato. Art +expresses the one, or the same by the different. Thought seeks to know +unity in unity; poetry to show it by variety; that is, always by an +object or symbol. Plato keeps the two vases, one of aether and one of +pigment, at his side, and invariably uses both. Things added to things, +as statistics, civil history, are inventories. Things used as language +are inexhaustibly attractive. Plato turns incessantly the obverse and +the reverse of the medal of Jove. + +To take an example:--The physical philosophers have sketched each his +theory of the world; the theory of atoms, of fire, of flux, of spirit; +theories mechanical and chemical in their genius. Plato, a master of +mathematics, studious of all natural laws and causes, feels these, as +second causes, to be no theories of the world, but bare inventories +and lists. To the study of nature he therefore prefixes the dogma,--"Let +us declare the cause which led the Supreme Ordainer to produce and +compose the universe. He was good; and he who is good has no kind of +envy. Exempt from envy, he wished that all things should be as much +as possible like himself. Whosoever, taught by wise men, shall admit +this as the prime cause of the origin and foundation of the world, +will be in the truth." "All things are for the sake of the good, and +it is the cause of everything beautiful." This dogma animates and +impersonates his philosophy. The synthesis which makes the character +of his mind appears in all his talents. Where there is great compass +of wit, we usually find excellencies that combine easily in the living +man, but in description appear incompatible. The mind of Plato is not +to be exhibited by a Chinese catalogue, but is to be apprehended by +an original mind in the exercise of its original power. In him the +freest abandonment is united with the precision of a geometer. His +daring imagination gives him the more solid grasp of facts; as the +birds of highest flight have the strongest alar bones. His patrician +polish, his intrinsic elegance, edged by an irony so subtle that it +stings and paralyzes, adorn the soundest health and strength of frame. +According to the old sentence, "If Jove should descend to the earth, +he would speak in the style of Plato." + +With this palatial air, there is, for the direct aim of several of his +works, and running through the tenor of them all, a certain earnestness, +which mounts, in the Republic, and in the Phaedo, to piety. He has +been charged with feigning sickness at the time of the death of +Socrates. But the anecdotes that have come down from the times attest +his manly interference before the people in his master's behalf, since +even the savage cry of the assembly to Plato is preserved; and the +indignation towards popular government, in many of his pieces, expresses +a personal exasperation. He has a probity, a native reverence for +justice and honor, and a humanity which makes him tender for the +superstitions of the people. Add to this, he believes that poetry, +prophecy, and the high insight, arc from a wisdom of which man is not +master; that the gods never philosophize; but, by a celestial mania, +these miracles are accomplished. Horsed on these winged steeds, he +sweeps the dim regions, visits worlds which flesh cannot enter; he saw +the souls in pain; he hears the doom of the judge; he beholds the penal +metempsychosis; the Fates, with the rock and shears; and hears the +intoxicating hum of their spindle. + +But his circumspection never forsook him. One would say, he had read +the inscription on the gates of Busyrane,--"Be bold;" and on the second +gate,--"Be bold, be bold and evermore be bold;" and then again he +paused well at the third gate,--"Be not too bold." His strength is +like the momentum of a falling planet; and his discretion, the return +of its due and perfect curve,--so excellent is his Greek love of +boundary, and his skill in definition. In reading logarithms, one is +not more secure, than in following Plato in his flights. Nothing can +be colder than his head, when the lightnings of his imagination are +playing in the sky. He has finished his thinking, before he brings it +to the reader; and he abounds in the surprises of a literary master. +He has that opulence which furnishes, at every turn, the precise weapon +he needs. As the rich man wears no more garments, drives no more horses, +sits in no more chambers, than the poor,--but has that one dress, or +equipage, or instrument, which is fit for the hour and the need; so +Plato, in his plenty, is never restricted, but has the fit word. There +is, indeed, no weapon in all the armory of wit which he did not possess +and use,--epic, analysis, mania, intuition, music, satire, and irony, +down to the customary and polite. His illustrations are poetry and his +jests illustrations. Socrates' profession of obstetric art is good +philosophy; and his finding that word "cookery," and "adulatory art," +for rhetoric, in the Gorgias, does us a substantial service still. No +orator can measure in effect with him who can give good nicknames. + +What moderation, and understatement, and checking his thunder in mid +volley! He has good-naturedly furnished the courtier and citizen with +all that can be said against the schools. "For philosophy is an elegant +thing, if any one modestly meddles with it; but, if he is conversant +with it more than is becoming, it corrupts the man." He could well +afford to be generous,--he, who from the sunlike centrality and reach +of his vision, had a faith without cloud. Such as his perception, was +his speech: he plays with the doubt, and makes the most of it: he +paints and quibbles; and by and by comes a sentence that moves the sea +and land. The admirable earnest comes not only at intervals, in the +perfect yes and no of the dialogue, but in bursts of light. "I, +therefore, Callicles, am persuaded by these accounts, and consider how +I may exhibit my soul before the judge in a healthy condition. +Wherefore, disregarding the honors that most men value, and looking +to the truth, I shall endeavor in reality to live as virtuously as I +can and, when I die, to die so. And I invite all other men, to the +utmost of my power; and you, too, I in turn invite to this contest, +which, I affirm, surpasses all contests here." + +He is a great average man one who, to the best thinking, adds a +proportion and equality in his faculties, so that men see in him their +own dreams and glimpses made available, and made to pass for what they +are. A great common sense is his warrant and qualification to be the +world's interpreter. He has reason, as all the philosophic and poetic +class have: but he has, also, what they have not,--this strong solving +sense to reconcile his poetry with the appearances of the world, and +build a bridge from the streets of cities to the Atlantis. He omits +never this graduation, but slopes his thought, however picturesque the +precipice on one side, to an access from the plain. He never writes +in ecstasy, or catches us up into poetic rapture. + +Plato apprehended the cardinal facts. He could prostrate himself on +the earth, and cover his eyes, whilst he adorned that which cannot be +numbered, or gauged, or known, or named: that of which everything can +be affirmed and denied: that "which is entity and nonentity." He called +it super-essential. He even stood ready, as in the Parmenides, to +demonstrate that it was so,--that this Being exceeded the limits of +intellect. No man ever more fully acknowledged the Ineffable. Having +paid his homage, as for the human race, to the Illimitable, he then +stood erect, and for the human race affirmed, "And yet things are +knowable!"--that is, the Asia in his mind was first heartily +honored,--the ocean of love and power, before form, before will, before +knowledge, the Same, the Good, the One; and now, refreshed and empowered +by this worship, the instinct of Europe, namely, culture, returns; and +he cries, Yet things are knowable! They are knowable, because, being +from one, things correspond. There is a scale: and the correspondence +of heaven to earth, of matter to mind, of the part to the whole, is +our guide. As there is a science of stars, called astronomy; a science +of quantities called mathematics; a science of qualities, called +chemistry; so there is a science of sciences,--I call it +Dialectic,--which is the intellect discriminating the false and the +true. It rests on the observation of identity and diversity; for, to +judge, is to unite to an object the notion which belongs to it. The +sciences, even the best,--mathematics, and astronomy, are like +sportsmen, who seize whatever prey offers, even without being able to +make any use of them. Dialectic must teach the use of them. "This is +of that rank that no intellectual man will enter on any study for its +own sake, but only with a view to advance himself in that one sole +science which embraces all." + +"The essence or peculiarity of man is to comprehend the whole; or that +which in the diversity of sensations, can be comprised under a rational +unity." "The soul which has never perceived the truth, cannot pass +into the human form." I announce to men the intellect. I announce the +good of being interpenetrated by the mind that made nature: this +benefit, namely, that it can understand nature, which it made and +maketh. Nature is good, but intellect is better: as the law-giver is +before the law-receiver. I give you joy, O sons of men: that truth is +altogether wholesome; that we have hope to search out what might be +the very self of everything. The misery of man is to be balked of the +sight of essence, and to be stuffed with conjecture: but the supreme +good is reality; the supreme beauty is reality; and all virtue and all +felicity depend on this science of the real: for courage is nothing +else than knowledge: the fairest fortune that can befall man, is to +be guided by his daemon to that which is truly his own. This also is +the essence of justice,--to attend every one his own; nay, the notion +of virtue is not to be arrived at, except through direct contemplation +of the divine essence. Courage, then, for "the persuasion that we must +search that which we do not know, will render us, beyond comparison, +better, braver, and more industrious, than if we thought it impossible +to discover what we do not know, and useless to search for it." He +secures a position not to be commanded, by his passion for reality; +valuing philosophy only as it is the pleasure of conversing with real +being. + +Thus, full of the genius of Europe, he said, "Culture." He saw the +institutions of Sparta, and recognized more genially, one would say, +than any since, the hope of education. He delighted in every +accomplishment, in every graceful and useful and truthful performance; +above all, in the splendors of genius and intellectual achievement. +"The whole of life, O Socrates," said Glauco, "is, with the wise the +measure of hearing such discourses as these." What a price he sets on +the feats of talent, on the powers of Pericles, of Isocrates, of +Parmenides! What price, above price on the talents themselves! He +called the several faculties, gods, in his beautiful personation. What +value he gives to the art of gymnastics in education; what to geometry; +what to music, what to astronomy, whose appeasing and medicinal power +he celebrates! In the Timseus, he indicates the highest employment of +the eyes. "By us it is asserted, that God invented and bestowed sight +on us for this purpose,--that, on surveying the circles of intelligence +in the heavens, we might properly employ those of our own minds, which, +though disturbed when compared with the others that are uniform, are +still allied to their circulations; and that, having thus learned, and +being naturally possessed of a correct reasoning faculty, we might, +by imitating the uniform revolutions of divinity, set right our own +wanderings and blunders." And in the Republic,--"By each of these +disciplines, a certain organ of the soul is both purified and +reanimated, which is blinded and buried by studies of another kind; +an organ better worth saving than ten thousand eyes, since truth is +perceived by this alone." + +He said, Culture; but he first admitted its basis, and gave immeasurably +the first place to advantages of nature. His patrician tastes laid +stress on the distinctions of birth. In the doctrine of the organic +character and disposition is the origin of caste. "Such as were fit +to govern, into their composition the informing Deity mingled gold: +into the military, silver; iron and brass for husbandmen and +artificers." The East confirms itself, in all ages, in this faith. The +Koran is explicit on this point of caste. "Men have their metal, as +of gold and silver. Those of you who were the worthy ones in the state +of ignorance, will be the worthy ones in the state of faith, as soon +as you embrace it." Plato was not less firm. "Of the five orders of +things, only four can be taught in the generality of men." In the +Republic, he insists on the temperaments of the youth, as the first +of the first. + +A happier example of the stress laid on nature, is in the dialogue +with the young Theages, who wishes to receive lessons from Socrates. +Socrates declares that, if some have grown wise by associating with +him, no thanks are due to him; but, simply, whilst they were with him, +they grew wise, not because of him; he pretends not to know the way +of it. "It is adverse to many, nor can those be benefited by associating +with me, whom the Daemons oppose, so that it is not possible for me +to live with these. With many, however, he does not prevent me from +conversing, who yet are not at all benefited by associating with me. +Such, O Theages, is the association with me; for, if it pleases the +God, you will make great and rapid proficiency: you will not, if he +does not please. Judge whether it is not safer to be instructed by +some one of those who have power over the benefit which they impart +to men, than by me, who benefit or not, just as it may happen." As if +he had said, "I have no system. I cannot be answerable for you. You +will be what you must. If there is love between us, inconceivably +delicious and profitable will our intercourse be; if not, your time +is lost, and you will only annoy me. I shall seem to you stupid, and +the reputation I have, false. Quite above us, beyond the will of you +or me, is this secret affinity or repulsion laid. All my good is +magnetic, and I educate, not by lessons, but by going about my +business." + +He said, Culture; he said, Nature; and he failed not to add, "There +is also the divine." There is no thought in any mind, but it quickly +tends to convert itself into a power, and organizes a huge +instrumentality of means. Plato, lover of limits, loved the illimitable, +saw the enlargement and nobility which come from truth itself, and +good itself, and attempted, as if on the part of the human intellect, +once for all, to do it adequate homage,--homage fit for the immense +soul to receive, and yet homage becoming the intellect to render. He +said, then, "Our faculties run out into infinity, and return to us +thence. We can define but a little way; but here is a fact which will +not be skipped, and which to shut our eyes upon is suicide. All things +are in a scale; and, begin where we will, ascend and ascend. All things +are symbolical; and what we call results are beginnings." + +A key to the method and completeness of Plato is his twice bisected +line. After he has illustrated the relation between the absolute good +and true, and the forms of the intelligible world, he says:--"Let there +be a line cut in two, unequal parts. Cut again each of these two +parts,--one representing the visible, the other the intelligible +world,--and these two new sections, representing the bright part and +the dark part of these worlds, you will have, for one of the sections +of the visible world,--images, that is, both shadows and reflections; +for the other section, the objects of these images,-that is, plants, +animals, and the works of art and nature. Then divide the intelligible +world in like manner; the one section will be of opinions and +hypotheses, and the other section, of truths." To these four sections, +the four operations of the soul correspond,--conjecture, faith, +understanding, reason. As every pool reflects the image of the sun, +so every thought and thing restores us an image and creature of the +supreme Good. The universe is perforated by a million channels for his +activity. All things mount and mount. + +All his thought has this ascension; in Phaedrus, teaching that "beauty +is the most lovely of all things, exciting hilarity, and shedding +desire and confidence through the universe, wherever it enters; and +it enters, in some degree, into all things; but that there is another, +which is as much more beautiful than beauty, as beauty is than chaos; +namely, wisdom, which our wonderful organ of sight cannot reach unto, +but which, could it be seen, would ravish us with its perfect reality." +He has the same regard to it as the source of excellence in works of +art. "When an artificer, in the fabrication of any work, looks to that +which always subsists according to the same; and, employing a model +of this kind, expresses its idea and power in his work; it must follow, +that his production should be beautiful. But when he beholds that which +is born and dies, it will be far from beautiful." + +Thus ever: the Banquet is a teaching in the same spirit, familiar now +to all the poetry, and to all the sermons of the world, that the love +of the sexes is initial; and symbolizes, at a distance, the passion +of the soul for that immense lake of beauty it exists to seek. This +faith in the Divinity is never out of mind, and constitutes the +limitation of all his dogmas. Body cannot teach wisdom;--God only. In +the same mind, he constantly affirms that virtue cannot be taught; +that it is not a science, but an inspiration; that the greatest goods +are produced to us through mania, and are assigned to us by a divine +gift. + +This leads me to that central figure, which he has established in his +Academy, as the organ through which every considered opinion shall be +announced, and whose biography he has likewise so labored, that the +historic facts are lost in the light of Plato's mind. Socrates and +Plato are the double star, which the most powerful instruments will +not entirely separate. Socrates, again, in his traits and genius, is +the best example of that synthesis which constitutes Plato's +extraordinary power. Socrates, a man of humble stem, but honest enough; +of the commonest history; of a personal homeliness so remarkable, as +to be a cause of wit in others,--the rather that his broad good nature +and exquisite taste for a joke invited the sally, which was sure to +be paid. The players personated him on the stage; the potters copied +his ugly face on their stone jugs. He was a cool fellow, adding to his +humor a perfect temper, and a knowledge of his man, be he who he might +whom he talked with, which laid the companion open to certain defeat +in any debate,--and in debate he immoderately delighted. The young men +are prodigiously fond of him, and invite him to their feasts, whither +he goes for conversation. He can drink, too; has the strongest head +in Athens; and, after leaving the whole party under the table, goes +away, as if nothing had happened, to begin new dialogues with somebody +that is sober. In short, he was what our country-people call an old +one. + +He affected a good many citizen-like tastes, was monstrously fond of +Athens, hated trees, never willingly went beyond the walls, knew the +old characters, valued the bores and philistines, thought everything +in Athens a little better than anything in any other place. He was +plain as a Quaker in habit and speech, affected low phrases, and +illustrations from cocks and quails, soup-pans and sycamore-spoons, +grooms and farriers, and unnameable offices,--especially if he talked +with any superfine person. He had a Franklin-like wisdom. Thus, he +showed one who was afraid to go on foot to Olympia, that it was no +more than his daily walk within doors, if continuously extended, would +easily reach. + +Plain old uncle as he was, with his great ears,--an immense talker,--the +rumor ran, that, on one or two occasions, in the war with Boeotia, he +had shown a determination which had covered the retreat of a troop; +and there was some story that, under cover of folly, he had, in the +city government, when one day he chanced to hold a seat there, evinced +a courage in opposing singly the popular voice, which had well-nigh +ruined him. He is very poor; but then he is hardy as a soldier, and +can live on a few olives; usually, in the strictest sense, on bread +and water, except when entertained by his friends. His necessary +expenses were exceedingly small, and no one could live as he did. He +wore no undergarment; his upper garment was the same for summer and +winter; and he went barefooted; and it is said that, to procure the +pleasure, which he loves, of talking at his ease all day with the most +elegant and cultivated young men, he will now and then return to his +shop, and carve statues, good or bad, for sale. However that be, it +is certain that he had grown to delight in nothing else than this +conversation; and that, under his hypocritical pretense of knowing +nothing, he attacks and brings down all the fine speakers, all the +fine philosophers of Athens, whether natives, or strangers from Asia +Minor and the islands. Nobody can refuse to talk with him, he is so +honest, and really curious to know; a man who was willingly confuted, +if he did not speak the truth, and who willingly confuted others, +asserting what was false; and not less pleased when confuted than when +confuting; for he thought not any evil happened to men, of such a +magnitude as false opinion respecting the just and unjust. A pitiless +disputant, who knows nothing, but the bounds of whose conquering +intelligence no man had ever reached; whose temper was imperturbable; +whose dreadful logic was always leisurely and sportive; so careless +and ignorant as to disarm the weariest, and draw them, in the +pleasantest manner, into horrible doubts and confusion. But he always +knew the way out; knew it, yet would not tell it. No escape; he drives +them to terrible choices by his dilemmas, and tosses the Hippiases and +Gorgiases, with their grand reputations, as a boy tosses his balls. +The tyrannous realist!-Meno has discoursed a thousand times, at length, +on virtue, before many companies, and very well, as it appeared to +him; but, at this moment, he cannot even tell what it is,--this +cramp-fish of a Socrates has so bewitched him. + +This hard-headed humorist, whose strange conceits, drollery, and +_bon-hommie_, diverted the young patricians, whilst the rumor of +his sayings and quibbles gets abroad every day, turns out, in a sequel, +to have a probity as invincible as his logic and to be either insane, +or, at least, under cover of this play, enthusiastic in his religion. +When accused before the judges of subverting the popular creed, he +affirms the immortality of the soul, the future reward and punishment; +and, refusing to recant, in a caprice of the popular government, was +condemned to die, and sent to the prison. Socrates entered the prison, +and took away all ignominy from the place, which could not be a prison, +whilst he was there. Crito bribed the jailor; but Socrates would not +go out by treachery. "Whatever inconvenience ensue, nothing is to be +preferred before justice. These things I hear like pipes and drums, +whose sound makes me deaf to everything you say." The fame of this +prison, the fame of the discourses there, and the drinking of the +hemlock, are one of the most precious passages in the history of the +world. + +The rare coincidence, in one ugly body, of the droll and the martyr, +the keen street and market debater with the sweetest saint known to +any history at that time, had forcibly struck the mind of Plato, so +capacious of these contrasts; and the figure of Socrates, by a +necessity, placed itself in the foreground of the scene, as the fittest +dispenser of the intellectual treasurers he had to communicate. It was +a rare fortune, that this Aesod of the mob, and this robed scholar, +should meet, to make each other immortal in their mutual faculty. The +strange synthesis, in the character of Socrates, capped the synthesis +in the mind of Plato. Moreover, by this means, he was able, in the +direct way, and without envy, to avail himself of the wit and weight +of Socrates, to which unquestionably his own debt was great; and these +derived again their principal advantage from the perfect art of Plato. + +It remains to say, that the defect of Plato in power is only that which +results inevitably from his quality. He is intellectual in his aim; +and, therefore, in expression, literary. Mounting into heaven, driving +into the pit, expounding the laws of the state, the passion of love, +the remorse of crime, the hope of the parting soul,--he is literary, +and never otherwise. It is almost the sole deduction from the merit +of Plato, that his writings have not,--what is, no doubt, incident +to this regnancy of intellect in his work,--the vital authority which +the screams of prophets and the sermons of unlettered Arabs and Jews +possess. There is an interval; and to cohesion, contact is necessary. + +I know not what can be said in reply to this criticism, but that we +have come to a fact in the nature of things: an oak is not an orange. +The qualities of sugar remain with sugar, and those of salt, with salt. + +In the second place, he has not a system. The dearest defenders and +disciples are at fault. He attempted a theory of the universe, and his +theory is not complete or self-evident. One man thinks he means this, +and another, that: he has said one thing in one place, and the reverse +of it in another place. He is charged with having failed to make the +transition from ideas to matter. Here is the world, sound as a nut, +perfect, not the smallest piece of chaos left, never a stitch nor an +end, not a mark of haste, or botching, or second thought; but the +theory of the world is a thing of shreds and patches. + +The longest wave is quickly lost in the sea. Plato would willingly +have a Platonism, a known and accurate expression for the world, and +it should be accurate. It shall be the world passed through the mind +of Plato,--nothing less. Every atom shall have the Platonic tinge; +every atom, every relation or quality you knew before, you shall know +again and find here, but now ordered; not nature, but art. And you +shall feel that Alexander indeed overran, with men and horses, some +countries of the planet; but countries, and things of which countries +are made, elements, planet itself, laws of planet and of men, have +passed through this man as bread into his body, and become no longer +bread, but body: so all this mammoth morsel has become Plato. He has +clapped copyright on the world. This is the ambition of individualism. +But the mouthful proves too large. Boa constrictor has good will to +eat it, but he is foiled. He falls abroad in the attempt; and biting, +gets strangled: the bitten world holds the biter fast by his own teeth. +There he perishes: unconquered nature lives on, and forgets him. So +it fares with all: so must it fare with Plato. In view of eternal +nature, Plato turns out to be philosophical exercitations. He argues +on this side, and on that. The acutest German, the lovingest disciple, +could never tell what Platonism was; indeed, admirable texts can be +quoted on both sides of every great question from him. + +These things we are forced to say, if we must consider the effort of +Plato, or of any philosopher, to dispose of Nature,--which will not +be disposed of. No power of genius has ever yet had the smallest success +in explaining existence. The perfect enigma remains. But there is an +injustice in assuming this ambition for Plato. Let us not seem to treat +with flippancy his venerable name. Men, in proportion to their +intellect, have admitted his transcendent claims. The way to know him, +is to compare him, not with nature, but with other men. How many ages +have gone by, and he remains unapproached! A chief structure of human +wit, like Karnac, or the mediaeval cathedrals, or the Etrurian remains, +it requires all the breadth of human faculty to know it. I think it +is truliest seen, when seen with the most respect. His sense deepens, +his merits multiply, with study. When we say, here is a fine collection +of fables; or, when we praise the style; or the common sense; or +arithmetic; we speak as boys, and much of our impatient criticism of +the dialectic, I suspect, is no better. The criticism is like our +impatience of miles when we are in a hurry; but it is still best that +a mile should have seventeen hundred and sixty yards. The great-eyed +Plato proportioned the lights and shades after the genius of our life. + + + +PLATO: NEW READINGS + + +The publication, in Mr. Bohn's "Serial Library," of the excellent +translations of Plato, which we esteem one of the chief benefits the +cheap press has yielded, gives us an occasion to take hastily a few +more notes of the elevation and bearings of this fixed star; or, to +add a bulletin, like the journals, of Plato at the latest dates. + +Modern science, by the extent of its generalization, has learned to +indemnify the student of man for the defects of individuals, by tracing +growth and ascent in races; and, by the simple expedient of lighting +up the vast background, generates a feeling of complacency and hope. +The human being has the saurian and the plant in his rear. His arts +and sciences, the easy issue of his brain, look glorious when +prospectively beheld from the distant brain of ox, crocodile, and fish. +It seems as if nature, in regarding the geologic night behind her, +when, in five or six millenniums, she had turned out five or six men, +as Homer, Phidias, Menu, and Columbus, was nowise discontented with +the result. These samples attested the virtue of the tree. These were +a clear amelioration of trilobite and saurus, and a good basis for +further proceeding. With this artist time and space are cheap, and she +is insensible of what you say of tedious preparation. She waited +tranquilly the flowing periods of paleontology, for the hour to be +struck when man should arrive. Then periods must pass before the motion +of the earth can be suspected; then before the map of the instincts +and the cultivable powers can be drawn. But as of races, so the +succession of individual men is fatal and beautiful, and Plato has the +fortune, in the history of mankind, to mark an epoch. + +Plato's fame does not stand on a syllogism, or on any masterpieces of +the Socratic, or on any thesis, as, for example, the immortality of +the soul. He is more than an expert, or a school-man, or a geometer, +or the prophet of a peculiar message. He represents the privilege of +the intellect, the power, namely, of carrying up every fact to +successive platforms, and so disclosing, in every fact, a germ of +expansion. These expansions are in the essence of thought. The +naturalist would never help us to them by any discoveries of the extent +of the universe, but is as poor, when cataloguing the resolved nebula +of Orion, as when measuring the angles of an acre. But the Republic +of Plato, by these expansions, may be said to require, and so to +anticipate, the astronomy of Laplace. The expansions are organic. The +mind does not create what it perceives, any more than the eye creates +the rose. In ascribing to Plato the merit of announcing them, we only +say, here was a more complete man, who could apply to nature the whole +scale of the senses, the understanding, and the reason. These +expansions, or extensions, consist in continuing the spiritual sight +where the horizon falls on our natural vision, and, by this second +sight, discovering the long lines of law which shoot in every direction. +Everywhere he stands on a path which has no end, but runs continuously +round the universe. Therefore, every word becomes an exponent of nature. +Whatever he looks upon discloses a second sense, and ulterior senses. +His perception of the generation of contraries, of death out of life, +and life out of death,--that law by which, in nature, decomposition +is recomposition, and putrefaction and cholera are only signals of a +new creation; his discernment of the little in the large, and the large +in the small; studying the state in the citizen, and the citizen in +the state; and leaving it doubtful whether he exhibited the Republic +as an allegory on the education of the private soul; his beautiful +definitions of ideas, of time, of form, of figure, of the line, +sometimes hypothetically given, as his defining of virtue, courage, +justice, temperance; his love of the apologue, and his apologues +themselves; the cave of Trophonius; the ring of Gyges; the charioteer +and two horses; the golden, silver, brass, and iron temperaments; +Theuth and Thamus; and the visions of Hades and the Fates--fables which +have imprinted themselves in the human memory like the signs of the +zodiac; his soliform eye and his boniform soul; his doctrine of +assimilation; his doctrine of reminiscence; his clear vision of the +laws of return, or reaction, which secure instant justice throughout +the universe, instanced everywhere, but specially in the doctrine, +"what comes from God to us, returns from us to God," and in Socrates' +belief that the laws below are sisters of the laws above. + +More striking examples are his moral conclusions. Plato affirms the +coincidence of science and virtue; for vice can never know itself and +virtue; but virtue knows both itself and vice. The eye attested that +justice was best, as long as it was profitable; Plato affirms that it +is profitable throughout; that the profit is intrinsic, though the +just conceal his justice from gods and men; that it is better to suffer +injustice, than to do it; that the sinner ought to covet punishment; +that the lie was more hurtful than homicide; and that ignorance, or +the involuntary lie, was more calamitous than involuntary homicide; +that the soul is unwillingly deprived of true opinions; and that no +man sins willingly; that the order of proceeding of nature was from +the mind to the body; and, though a sound body cannot restore an unsound +mind, yet a good soul can, by its virtue, render the body the best +possible. The intelligent have a right over the ignorant, namely, the +right of instructing them. The right punishment of one out of tune, +is to make him play in tune; the fine which the good, refusing to +govern, ought to pay, is, to be governed by a worse man; that his +guards shall not handle gold and silver, but shall be instructed that +there is gold and silver in their souls, which will make men willing +to give them everything which they need. This second sight explains +the stress laid on geometry. He saw that the globe of earth was not +more lawful and precise than was the supersensible; that a celestial +geometry was in place there, as a logic of lines and angles here below; +that the world was throughout mathematical; the proportions are constant +of oxygen, azote, and lime; there is just so much water, and slate, +and magnesia; not less are the proportions constant of moral elements. + +This eldest Goethe, hating varnish and falsehood, delighted in revealing +the real at the base of the accidental; in discovering connection, +continuity, and representation, everywhere; hating insulation; and +appears like the god of wealth among the cabins of vagabonds, opening +power and capability in everything he touches. Ethical science was new +and vacant, when Plato could write thus:--"Of all whose arguments are +left to the men of the present time, no one has ever yet condemned +injustice, or praised justice, otherwise than as respects the repute, +honors, and emoluments arising therefrom; while, as respects either +of them in itself, and subsisting by its own power in the soul of the +possessor, and concealed both from gods and men, no one has yet +sufficiently investigated, either in poetry or prose writings,--how, +namely, that the one is the greatest of all the evils that the soul +has within it, and justice the greatest good." + +His definition of ideas, as what is simple, permanent, uniform, and +self-existent, forever discriminating them from the notions of the +understanding, marks an era in the world. He was born to behold the +self-evolving power of spirit, endless generator of new ends; a power +which is the key at once to the centrality and the evanescence of +things. Plato is so centered, that he can well spare all his dogmas. +Thus the fact of knowledge and ideas reveals to him the fact of +eternity; and the doctrine of reminiscence he offers as the most +probable particular explication. Call that fanciful,--it matters not; +the connection between our knowledge and the abyss of being is still +real, and the explication must be not less magnificent. + +He has indicated every eminent point in speculation. He wrote on the +scale of the mind itself, so that all things have symmetry in his +tablet. He put in all the past, without weariness, and descended into +detail with a courage like that he witnessed in nature. One would say, +that his forerunners had mapped out each a farm, or a district, or an +island, in intellectual geography, but that Plato first drew the sphere. +He domesticates the soul in nature; man is the microcosm. All the +circles of the visible heaven represent as many circles in the rational +soul. There is no lawless particle, and there is nothing casual in the +action of the human mind. The names of things, too, are fatal, following +the nature of things. All the gods of the Pantheon are, by their names, +significant of a profound sense. The gods are the ideas. Pan is speech, +or manifestation; Saturn, the contemplative; Jove, the regal soul; and +Mars, passion. Venus is proportion; Calliope, the soul of the world; +Aglaia, intellectual illustration. + +These thoughts, in sparkles of light, had appeared often to pious and +to poetic souls; but this well-bred, all-knowing Greek geometer comes +with command, gathers them all up into rank and gradation, the Euclid +of holiness, and marries the two parts of nature. Before all men, he +saw the intellectual values of the moral sentiment. He describes his +own ideal, when he paints in Timaeus a god leading things from disorder +into order. He kindled a fire so truly in the center, that we see the +sphere illuminated, and can distinguish poles, equator, and lines of +latitude, every arc and node; a theory so averaged, so modulated, that +you would say, the winds of ages had swept through this rhythmic +structure, and not that it was the brief extempore blotting of one +short-lived scribe. Hence it has happened that a very well-marked +class of souls, namely those who delight in giving a spiritual, that +is, an ethico-intellectual expression to every truth by exhibiting an +ulterior end which is yet legitimate to it, are said to Platonize. +Thus, Michel Angelo is a Platonist, in his sonnets. Shakspeare is a +Platonist, when he writes, "Nature is made better by no mean, but +nature makes that mean," or, + + "He that can endure + To follow with allegiance a fallen lord, + Does conquer him that did his master conquer, + And earns a place in the story." + +Hamlet is a pure Platonist, and 'tis the magnitude only of Shakspeare's +proper genius that hinders him from being classed as the most eminent +of this school. Swedenborg, throughout his prose poem of "Conjugal +Love," is a Platonist. + +His subtlety commended him to men of thought. The secret of his popular +success is the moral aim, which endeared him to mankind. "Intellect," +he said, "is king of heaven and of earth;" but, in Plato, intellect +is always moral. His writings have also the sempiternal youth of poetry. +For their arguments, most of them, might have been couched in sonnets; +and poetry has never soared higher than in the Timaeus and the Phaedrus. +As the poet, too, he is only contemplative. He did not, like Pythagoras, +break himself with an institution. All his painting in the Republic +must be esteemed mythical, with intent to bring out, sometimes in +violent colors, his thought. You cannot institute, without peril of +charlatan. + +It was a high scheme, his absolute privilege for the best (which, to +make emphatic, he expressed by community of women), as the premium +which he would set on grandeur. There shall be exempts of two kinds: +first, those who by demerit have put themselves below +protection,--outlaws; and secondly, those who by eminence of nature +and desert are out of the reach of your rewards; let such be free of +the city, and above the law. We confide them to themselves; let them +do with us as they will. Let none presume to measure the irregularities +of Michel Angelo and Socrates by village scales. + +In his eighth book of the Republic, he throws a little mathematical +dust in our eyes. I am sorry to see him, after such noble superiorities, +permitting the lie to governors. Plato plays Providence a little with +the baser sort, as people allow themselves with their dogs and cats. + + + + +III. SWEDENBORG; OR, THE MYSTIC. + +Among eminent persons, those who are most dear to men are not the class +which the economists call producers; they have nothing in their hands; +they have not cultivated corn, nor made bread; they have not led out +a colony, nor invented a loom. A higher class, in the estimation and +love of this city-building, market-going race of mankind, are the +poets, who, from the intellectual kingdom, feed the thought and +imagination with ideas and pictures which raise men out of the world +of corn and money, and console them for the shortcomings of the day, +and the meannesses of labor and traffic. Then, also, the philosopher +has his value, who flatters the intellect of this laborer, by engaging +him with subtleties which instruct him in new faculties. Others may +build cities; he is to understand them, and keep them in awe. But there +is a class who lead us into another region,--the world of morals, or +of will. What is singular about this region of thought, is, its claim. +Wherever the sentiment of right comes in, it takes precedence of +everything else. For other things, I make poetry of them; but the moral +sentiment makes poetry of me. + +I have sometimes thought that he would render the greatest service to +modern criticism, who shall draw the line of relation that subsists +between Shakespeare and Swedenborg. The human mind stands ever in +perplexity, demanding intellect, demanding sanctity, impatient equally +of each without the other. The reconciler has not yet appeared. If we +tire of the saints, Shakespeare is our city of refuge. Yet the instincts +presently teach, that the problem of essence must take precedence of +all others,--the questions of Whence? What? and Whither? and the +solution of these must be in a life, and not in a book. A drama or +poem is a proximate or oblique reply; but Moses, Menu, Jesus, work +directly on this problem. The atmosphere of moral sentiment is a region +of grandeur which reduces all material magnificence to toys, yet opens +to every wretch that has reason, the doors of the universe. Almost +with a fierce haste it lays its empire on the man. In the language of +the Koran, "God said, the heaven and the earth, and all that is between +them, think ye that we created them in jest, and that ye shall not +return to us?" It is the kingdom of the will, and by inspiring the +will, which is the seat of personality, seems to convert the universe +into a person:-- + + "The realms of being to no other bow, + Not only all are thine, but all are Thou." + +All men are commanded by the saint. The Koran makes a distinct class +of those who are by nature good, and whose goodness has an influence +on others, and pronounces this class to be the aim of creation: the +other classes are admitted to the feast of being, only as following +in the train of this. And the Persian poet exclaims to a soul of this +kind: + + "Go boldly forth, and feast on being's banquet; + Thou art the called,--the rest admitted with thee." + +The privilege of this caste is an access to the secrets and structure +of nature, by some higher method than by experience. In common parlance, +what one man is said to learn by experience, a man of extraordinary +sagacity is said, without experience, to divine. The Arabians say, +that Abul Khain, the mystic, and Abu Ali Seena, the Philosopher, +conferred together; and, on parting, the philosopher said, "All that +he sees, I know;" and the mystic said, "All that he knows, I see." If +one should ask the reason of this intuition, the solution would lead +us into that property which Plato denoted as Reminiscence, and which +is implied by the Bramins in the tenet of Transmigration. The soul +having been often born, or, as the Hindoos say, "traveling the path +of existence through thousands of births," having beheld the things +which are here, those which are in heaven, and those which are beneath, +there is nothing of which she has not gained the knowledge: no wonder +that she is able to recollect, in regard to any one thing, what formerly +she knew. "For, all things in nature being linked and related, and +the soul having heretofore known all, nothing hinders but that any man +who has recalled to mind, or, according to the common phrase, has +learned one thing only, should of himself recover all his ancient +knowledge, and find out again all the rest, if he have but courage, +and faint not in the midst of his researches. For inquiry and learning +is reminiscence all." How much more, if he that inquires be a holy and +godlike soul! For, by being assimilated to the original soul, by whom, +and after whom, all things subsist, the soul of man does then easily +flow into all things, and all things flow into it: they mix: and he +is present and sympathetic with their structure and law. + +This path is difficult, secret, and beset with terror. The ancients +called it ecstasy or absence,--a getting out of their bodies to think. +All religious history contains traces of the trance of saints,--a +beatitude, but without any sign of joy, earnest, solitary, even sad; +"the flight," Plotinus called it, "of the alone to the alone." The +trances of Socrates, Plotinus, Porphyry, Behmen, Bunyan, Fox, Pascal, +Guion, Swedenborg, will readily come to mind. But what as readily comes +to mind, is the accompaniment of disease. This beatitude comes in +terror, and with shocks to the mind of the receiver. "It o'erinforms +the tenement of clay," and drives the man mad; or, gives a certain +violent bias, which taints his judgment. In the chief examples of +religious illumination, somewhat morbid, has mingled, in spite of the +unquestionable increase of mental power. Must the highest good drag +after it a quality which neutralizes and discredits it?-- + + "Indeed it takes + From our achievements, when performed at height, + The pith and marrow of our attribute." + +Shall we say, that the economical mother disburses so much earth and +so much fire, by weight and metre, to make a man, and will not add a +pennyweight, though a nation is perishing for a leader? Therefore, the +men of God purchased their science by folly or pain. If you will have +pure carbon, carbuncle, or diamond, to make the brain transparent, the +trunk and organs shall be so much the grosser: instead of porcelain, +they are potter's earth, clay, or mud. + +In modern times, no such remarkable example of this introverted mind +has occurred, as in Emanuel Swedenborg, born in Stockholm, in 1688. +This man, who appeared to his contemporaries a visionary, and elixir +of moonbeams, no doubt led the most real life of any man then in the +world: and now, when the royal and ducal Frederics, Cristierns, and +Brunswicks, of that day, have slid into oblivion, he begins to spread +himself into the minds of thousands. As happens in great men, he seemed, +by the variety and amount of his powers, to be a composition of several +persons,--like the giant fruits which are matured in gardens by the +union of four or five single blossoms. His frame is on a larger scale, +and possesses the advantage of size. As it is easier to see the +reflection of the great sphere in large globes, though defaced by some +crack or blemish, than in drops of water, so men of large calibre, +though with some eccentricity or madness, like Pascal or Newton, help +us more than balanced mediocre minds. + +His youth and training could not fail to be extraordinary. Such a boy +could not whistle or dance, but goes grubbing into mines and mountains, +prying into chemistry and optics, physiology, mathematics, and +astronomy, to find images fit for the measure of his versatile and +capacious brain. He was a scholar from a child, and was educated at +Upsala. At the age of twenty-eight, he was made Assessor of the Board +of Mines, by Charles XII. In 1716, he left home for four years, and +visited the universities of England, Holland, France, and Germany. He +performed a notable feat of engineering in 1718, at the siege of +Fredericshall, by hauling two galleys, five boats, and a sloop, some +fourteen English miles overland, for the royal service. In 1721 he +journeyed over Europe, to examine mines and smelting works. He +published, in 1716, his Daedalus Hyperboreus, and, from this time, for +the next thirty years, was employed in the composition and publication +of his scientific works. With the like force, he threw himself into +theology. In 1743, when he was fifty-four years old, what is called +his illumination began. All his metallurgy, and transportation of ships +overland, was absorbed into this ecstasy. He ceased to publish any +more scientific books, withdrew from his practical labors, and devoted +himself to the writing and publication of his voluminous theological +works, which were printed at his own expense, or at that of the Duke +of Brunswick, or other prince, at Dresden, Liepsic, London, or +Amsterdam. Later, he resigned his office of Assessor: the salary +attached to this office continued to be paid to him during his life. +His duties had brought him into intimate acquaintance with King Charles +XII., by whom he was much consulted and honored. The like favor was +continued to him by his successor. At the Diet of 1751, Count Hopken +says, the most solid memorials on finance were from his pen. In Sweden, +he appears to have attracted a marked regard. His rare science and +practical skill, and the added fame of second sight and extraordinary +religious knowledge and gifts, drew to him queens, nobles, clergy, +shipmasters, and people about the ports through which he was wont to +pass in his many voyages. The clergy interfered a little with the +importation and publication of his religious works; but he seems to +have kept the friendship of men in power. He was never married. He had +great modesty and gentleness of bearing. His habits were simple; he +lived on bread, milk, and vegetables; and he lived in a house situated +in a large garden; he went several times to England, where he does not +seem to have attracted any attention whatever from the learned or the +eminent; and died at London, March 29, 1772, of apoplexy, in his +eighty-fifth year. He is described, when in London, as a man of quiet, +clerical habit, not averse to tea and coffee, and kind to children. +He wore a sword when in full velvet dress, and, whenever he walked +out, carried a gold-headed cane. There is a common portrait of him in +antique coat and wig, but the face has a wandering or vacant air. + +The genius which was to penetrate the science of the age with a far +more subtle science; to pass the bounds of space and time; venture +into the dim spirit-realm, and attempt to establish a new religion in +the world,--began its lessons in quarries and forges, in the +smelting-pot and crucible, in ship-yards and dissecting-rooms. No one +man is perhaps able to judge of the merits of his works on so many +subjects. One is glad to learn that his books on mines and metals are +held in the highest esteem by those who understand these matters. It +seems that he anticipated much science of the nineteenth century; +anticipated, in astronomy, the discovery of the seventh planet,--but, +unhappily, not also of the eighth; anticipated the views of modern +astronomy in regard to the generation of earth by the sun; in magnetism, +some important experiments and conclusions of later students; in +chemistry, the atomic theory; in anatomy, the discoveries of +Schlichting, Monro, and Wilson; and first demonstrated the office of +the lungs. His excellent English editor magnanimously lays no stress +on his discoveries, since he was too great to care to be original; and +we are to judge, by what he can spare, of what remains. + +A colossal soul, he lies vast abroad on his times, uncomprehended by +them, and requires a long local distance to be seen; suggest, as +Aristotle, Bacon, Selden, Humboldt, that a certain vastness of learning, +or _quasi_ omnipresence of the human soul in nature, is possible. +His superb speculations, as from a tower, over nature and arts, without +ever losing sight of the texture and sequence of things, almost realizes +his own picture, in the "Principia," of the original integrity of man. +Over and above the merit of his particular discoveries, is the capital +merit of his self-equality. A drop of water has the properties of the +sea, but cannot exhibit a storm. There is beauty of a concert, as well +as of a flute; strength of a host, as well as of a hero; and, in +Swedenborg, those who are best acquainted with modern books, will most +admire the merit of mass. One of the missouriums and mastodons of +literature, he is not to be measured by whole colleges of ordinary +scholars. His stalwart presence would flutter the gowns of an +university. Our books are false by being fragmentary; their sentences +are _bon mots_, and not parts of natural discourse; childish expressions +of surprise or pleasure in nature; or, worse, owing a brief notoriety to +their petulance, or aversion from the order of nature,--being some +curiosity or oddity, designedly not in harmony with nature, and +purposely framed to excite a surprise, as jugglers do by concealing +their means. But Swedenborg is systematic, and respective of the world +in every sentence; all the means are orderly given; his faculties work +with astronomic punctuality, and this admirable writing is pure from all +pertness or egotism. + +Swedenborg was born into an atmosphere of great ideas. 'Tis hard to +say what was his own: yet his life was dignified by noblest pictures +of the universe. The robust Aristotelian method, with its breadth and +adequateness, shaming our sterile and linear logic by its genial +radiation, conversant with series and degree, with effects and ends, +skilful to discriminate power from form, essence from accident, and +opening by its terminology and definition, high roads into nature, had +trained a race of athletic philosophers. Harvey had shown the +circulation of the blood; Gilbert had shown that the earth was a magnet; +Descartes, taught by Gilbert's magnet, with its vortex, spiral, and +polarity, had filled Europe with the leading thought of vortical motion, +as the secret of nature. Newton, in the year in which Swedenborg was +born, published the "Principia," and established the universal gravity. +Malpighi, following the high doctrines of Hippocrates, Leucippus, and +Lucretius, had given emphasis to the dogma that nature works in +leasts,--"_tota in minimis existit natura_." Unrivalled dissectors, +Swammerdam, Leeuwenhoek, Winslow, Eustachius, Heister, Vesalius, +Boerhaave, had left nothing for scalpel or microscope to reveal in +human or comparative anatomy; Linnaeus, his contemporary, was affirming, +in his beautiful science, that "Nature is always like herself;" and, +lastly, the nobility of method, the largest application of principles, +had been exhibited by Leibnitz and Christian Wolff, in cosmology; +whilst Locke and Grotius had drawn the moral argument. What was left +for a genius of the largest calibre, but to go over their ground, and +verify and unite? It is easy to see, in these minds, the original of +Swedenborg's studies, and the suggestion of his problems. He had a +capacity to entertain and vivify these volumes of thought. Yet the +proximity of these geniuses, one or other of whom had introduced all +his leading ideas, makes Swedenborg another example of the difficulty, +even in a highly fertile genius, of proving originality, the first +birth and annunciation of one of the laws of nature. + +He named his favorite views, the doctrine of Forms, the doctrine of +Series and Degrees, the doctrine of Influx, the doctrine of +Correspondence. His statement of these doctrines deserves to be studied +in his books. Not every man can read them, but they will reward him +who can. His theologic works are valuable to illustrate these. His +writings would be a sufficient library to a lonely and athletic student; +and the "Economy of the Animal Kingdom" is one of those books which, +by the sustained dignity of thinking, is an honor to the human race. +He had studied spars and metals to some purpose. His varied and solid +knowledge makes his style lustrous with points and shooting spicula +of thought, and resembling one of those winter mornings when the air +sparkles with crystals. The grandeur of the topics makes the grandeur +of the style. He was apt for cosmology, because of that native +perception of identity which made mere size of no account to him. In +the atom of magnetic iron, he saw the quality which would generate the +spiral motion of sun and planet. + +The thoughts in which he lived were, the universality of each law in +nature; the Platonic doctrine of the scale or degrees; the version or +conversion of each into other, and so the correspondence of all the +parts; the fine secret that little explains large, and large, little; +the centrality of man in nature, and the connection that subsists +throughout all things: he saw that the human body was strictly +universal, or an instrument through which the soul feeds and is fed +by the whole of matter: so that he held, in exact antagonism to the +skeptics, that, "the wiser a man is, the more will he be a worshipper +of the Deity." In short, he was a believer in the Identity-philosophy, +which he held not idly, as the dreamers of Berlin or Boston, but which +he experimented with and established through years of labor, with the +heart and strength of the rudest Viking that his rough Sweden ever +sent to battle. + +This theory dates from the oldest philosophers, and derives perhaps +its best illustration from the newest. It is this: that nature iterates +her means perpetually on successive planes. In the old aphorism, nature +is always self-similar. In the plant, the eye or germinative point +opens to a leaf, then to another leaf, with a power of transforming +the leaf into radicle, stamen, pistil, petal, bract, sepal, or seed. +The whole art of the plant is still to repeat leaf on leaf without +end, the more or less of heat, light, moisture, and food, determining +the form it shall assume. In the animal, nature makes a vertebra, or +a spine of vertebrae, and helps herself still by a new spine, with a +limited power of modifying its form,--spine on spine, to the end of +the world. A poetic anatomist, in our own day, teaches that a snake, +being a horizontal line, and man, being an erect line, constitute a +right angle; and, between the lines of this mystical quadrant, all +animate beings find their place; and he assumes the hair-worm, the +span-worm, or the snake, as the type of prediction of the spine. +Manifestly, at the end of the spine, nature puts out smaller spines, +as arms; at the end of the arms, new spines, as hands; at the other +end, she repeats the process, as legs and feet. At the top of the +column, she puts out another spine, which doubles or loops itself over, +as a span-worm, into a ball, and forms the skull, with extremities +again; the hands being now the upper jaw, the feet the lower jaw, the +fingers and toes being represented this time by upper and lower teeth. +This new spine is destined to high uses. It is a new man on the +shoulders of the last. It can almost shed its trunk, and manage to +live alone, according to the Platonic idea in the Timaeus. Within it, +on a higher plane, all that was done in the trunk repeats itself. +Nature recites her lesson once more in a higher mood. The mind is a +finer body, and resumes its functions of feeding, digesting, absorbing, +excluding, and generating, in a new and ethereal element. Here, in the +brain, is all the process of alimentation repeated, in the acquiring, +comparing, digesting, and assimilating of experience. Here again is +the mystery of generation repeated. In the brain are male and female +faculties; here is marriage, here is fruit. And there is no limit to +this ascending scale, but series on series. Everything, at the end of +one use, is taken up into the next, each series punctually repeating +every organ and process of the last. We are adapted to infinity. We +are hard to please, and love nothing which ends; and in nature is no +end; but everything, at the end of one use, is lifted into a superior, +and the ascent of these things climbs into daemonic and celestial +natures. Creative force, like a musical composer, goes on unweariedly +repeating a simple air or theme now high, now low, in solo, in chorus, +ten thousand times reverberated, till it fills earth and heaven with +the chant. + +Gravitation, as explained by Newton, is good, but grandeur, when we +find chemistry only an extension of the law of masses into particles, +and that the atomic theory shows the action of chemistry to be +mechanical also. Metaphysics shows us a sort of gravitation, operative +also in the mental phenomena; and the terrible tabulation of the French +statists brings every piece of whim and humor to be reducible also to +exact numerical rations. If one man in twenty thousand, or in thirty +thousand, eats shoes, or marries his grandmother, then, in every twenty +thousand, or thirty thousand, is found one man who eats shoes, or +marries his grandmother. What we call gravitation, and fancy ultimate, +is one fork of a mightier stream, for which we have yet no name. +Astronomy is excellent; but it must come up into life to have its full +value, and not remain there in globes and spaces. The globule of blood +gyrates around its own axis in the human veins, as the planet in the +sky; and the circles of intellect relate to those of the heavens. Each +law of nature has the like universality; eating, sleep or hybernation, +rotation, generation, metamorphosis, vortical motion, which is seen +in eggs as in planets. These grand rhymes or returns in nature,--the +dear, best-known face startling us at every turn, under a mask so +unexpected that we think it the face of a stranger, and, carrying up +the semblance into divine forms,--delighted the prophetic eye of +Swedenborg; and he must be reckoned a leader in that revolution, which, +by giving to science an idea, has given to an aimless accumulation of +experiments, guidance and form, and a beating heart. + +I own, with some regret, that his printed works amount to about fifty +stout octaves, his scientific works being about half of the whole +number; and it appears that a mass of manuscript still unedited remains +in the royal library at Stockholm. The scientific works have just now +been translated into English, in an excellent edition. + +Swedenborg printed these scientific books in the ten years from 1734 +to 1744, and they remained from that time neglected; and now, after +their century is complete, he has at last found a pupil in Mr. +Wilkinson, in London, a philosophic critic, with a co-equal vigor of +understanding and imagination comparable only to Lord Bacon's, who has +produced his master's buried books to the day, and transferred them, +with every advantage, from their forgotten Latin into English, to go +round the world in our commercial and conquering tongue. This startling +reappearance of Swedenborg, after a hundred years, in his pupil, is +not the least remarkable fact in his history. Aided, it is said, by +the munificence of Mr. Clissold, and also by his literary skill, this +piece of poetic justice is done. The admirable preliminary discourses +with which Mr. Wilkinson has enriched these volumes, throw all the +contemporary philosophy of England into shade, and leave me nothing +to say on their proper grounds. + +The "Animal Kingdom" is a book of wonderful merits. It was written +with the highest end,--to put science and the soul, long estranged +from each other, at one again. It was an anatomist's account of the +human body, in the highest style of poetry. Nothing can exceed the +bold and brilliant treatment of a subject usually so dry and repulsive. +He saw nature "wreathing through an everlasting spiral, with wheels +that never dry, on axles that never creak," and sometimes sought "to +uncover those secret recess is where nature is sitting at the fires +in the depths of her laboratory;" whilst the picture comes recommended +by the hard fidelity with which it is based on practical anatomy. It +is remarkable that this sublime genius decides, peremptorily for the +analytic, against the synthetic method; and, in a book whose genius +is a daring poetic synthesis, claims to confine himself to a rigid +experience. + +He knows, if he only, the flowing of nature and how wise was that old +answer of Amasis to him who bade him drink up the sea,--"Yes, willingly, +if you will stop the rivers that flow in." Few knew as much about +nature and her subtle manners, or expressed more subtly her goings. +He thought as large a demand is made on our faith by nature, as by +miracles. "He noted that in her proceeding from first principles through +her several subordinations, there was no state through which she did +not pass, as if her path lay through all things." "For as often as she +betakes herself upward from visible phenomena, or, in other words, +withdraws herself inward, she instantly, as it were, disappears, while +no one knows what has become of her, or whither she is gone; so that +it is necessary to take science as a guide in pursuing her steps." + +The pursuing the inquiry under the light of an end or final cause, +gives wonderful animation, a sort of personality to the whole writing. +This book announces his favorite dogmas. The ancient doctrines of +Hippocrates, that the brain is a gland; and of Leucippus, that the +atom may be known by the mass; or, in Plato, the macrocosm by the +microcosm; and, in the verses of Lucretius,-- + + Ossa videlicet e pauxillis atque minutis + Ossibus sic et de pauxillis atque minutis + Visceribus viscus gigni, sanguenque creari + Sanguinis inter se multis coeuntibus guttis; + Ex aurique putat micis consistere posse + Aurum, et de terris terram concrescere parvis; + Ignibus ex igneis, humorem humoribus esse. + Lib. I. 835. + + "The principle of all things entrails made + Of smallest entrails; bone, of smallest bone, + Blood, of small sanguine drops reduced to one; + Gold, of small grains; earth, of small sands compacted + Small drops to water, sparks to fire contracted:" + +and which Malpighi had summed in his maxim, that "nature exists entirely +in leasts,"--is a favorite thought of Swedenborg. "It is a constant +law of the organic body, that large, compound, or visible forms exist +and subsist from smaller, simpler, and ultimately from invisible forms, +which act similarly to the larger ones, but more perfectly and more +universally, and the least forms so perfectly and universally, as to +involve an idea representative of their entire universe." The unities +of each organ are so many little organs, homogeneous with their +compound; the unities of the tongue are little tongues; those of the +stomach, little stomachs; those of the heart are little hearts. This +fruitful idea furnishes a key to every secret. What was too small for +the eye to detect was read by the aggregates; what was too large, by +the units. There is no end to his application of the thought. "Hunger +is an aggregate of very many little hungers, or losses of blood by the +little veins all over the body." It is the key to his theology, also. +"Man is a kind of very minute heaven, corresponding to the world of +spirits and to heaven. Every particular idea of man, and every +affection, yea, every smallest spark of his affection, is an image and +effigy of him. A spirit may be known from only a single thought. God +is the grand man." The hardihood and thoroughness of his study of +nature required a theory of forms, also. "Forms ascend in order from +the lowest to the highest. The lowest form is angular, or the +terrestrial and corporeal. The second and next higher form is the +circular, which is also called the perpetual-angular, because the +circumference of a circle is a perpetual angle. The form above this +is the spiral, parent and measure of circular forms; its diameters are +not rectilinear, but variously circular, and have a spherical surface +for center; therefore it is called the perpetual-circular. The form +above this is the vortical, or perpetual-spiral; next, the +perpetual-vortical, or celestial; last, the perpetual-celestial, or +spiritual." + +Was it strange that a genius so bold should take the last step, +also,--conceive that he might attain the science of all sciences, to +unlock the meaning of the world? In the first volume of the "Animal +Kingdom," he broaches the subject, in a remarkable note.-- + +"In our doctrine of Representations and Correspondences, we shall treat +of both these symbolical and typical resemblances, and of the +astonishing things which occur, I will not say, in the living body +only, but throughout nature, and which correspond so entirely to supreme +and spiritual things, that one would swear that the physical world was +purely symbolical of the spiritual world; insomuch, that if we choose +to express any natural truth in physical and definite vocalterms, and +to convert these terms only into the corresponding and spiritual terms, +we shall by this means elicit a spiritual truth, or theological dogma, +in place of the physical truth or precept; although no mortal would +have predicted that anything of the kind could possibly arise by bare +literal transposition; inasmuch as the one precept, considered +separately from the other, appears to have absolutely no relation to +it. I intend, hereafter, to communicate a number of examples of such +correspondences, together with a vocabulary containing the terms of +spiritual things, as well as of the physical things for which they are +to be substituted. This symbolism pervades the living body." + +The fact, thus explicitly stated, is implied in all poetry, in allegory, +in fable, in the use of emblems, and in the structure of language. +Plato knew of it, as is evident from his twice bisected line, in the +sixth book of the Republic. Lord Bacon had found that truth and nature +differed only as seal and print; and he instanced some physical +proportions, with their translation into a moral and political sense. +Behmen, and all mystics, imply this law in their dark riddle-writing. +The poets, in as far as they are poets, use it; but it is known to +them only, as the magnet was known for ages, as a toy. Swedenborg first +put the fact into a detached and scientific statement, because it was +habitually present to him, and never not seen. It was involved, as we +explained already, in the doctrine of identity and iteration, because +the mental series exactly tallies with the material series. It required +an insight that could rank things in order and series; or, rather, it +required such rightness of position, that the poles of the eye should +coincide with the axis of the world. The earth has fed its mankind +through five or six millenniums, and they had sciences, religions, +philosophies; and yet had failed to see the correspondence of meaning +between every part and every other part. And, down to this hour, +literature has no book in which the symbolism of things is +scientifically opened. One would say, that, as soon as men had the +first hint that every sensible object,--animal, rock, river, air,--nay, +space and time, subsists not for itself, nor finally to a material +end, but as a picture-language, to tell another story of beings and +duties, other science would be put by, and a science of such grand +presage would absorb all faculties; that each man would ask of all +objects, what they mean: Why does the horizon hold me fast, with my +joy and grief, in this center? Why hear I the same sense from countless +differing voices, and read one never quite expressed fact in endless +picture-language? Yet, whether it be that these things will not be +intellectually learned, or, that many centuries must elaborate and +compose so rare and opulent a soul,--there is no comet, rock-stratum, +fossil, fish, quadruped, spider, or fungus, that, for itself, does not +interest more scholars and classifiers than the meaning and upshot of +the frame of things. + +But Swedenborg was not content with the culinary use of the world. In +his fifty-fourth year, these thoughts held him fast, and his profound +mind admitted the perilous opinion, too frequent in religious history, +that he was an abnormal person, to whom was granted the privilege of +conversing with angels and spirits; and this ecstasy connected itself +with just this office of explaining the moral import of the sensible +world. To a right perception, at once broad and minute, of the order +of nature, he added the comprehension of the moral laws in their widest +social aspects; but whatever he saw, through some excessive +determination to form, in his constitution, he saw not abstractly, but +in pictures, heard it in dialogues, constructed it in events. When he +attempted to announce the law most sanely, he was forced to couch it +in parable. + +Modern psychology offers no similar example of a deranged balance. The +principal powers continued to maintain a healthy action; and, to a +reader who can make due allowance in the report for the reporter's +peculiarities, the results are still instructive, and a more striking +testimony to the sublime laws he announced, than any that balanced +dulness could afford. He attempts to give some account of the modus +of the new state, affirming that "his presence in the spiritual world +is attended with a certain separation, but only as to the intellectual +part of his mind, not as to the will part;" and he affirms that "he +sees, with the internal sight, the things that are in another life, +more clearly than he sees the things which are here in the world." + +Having adopted the belief that certain books of the Old and New +Testaments were exact allegories, or written in the angelic and ecstatic +mode, he employed his remaining years in extricating from the literal, +the universal sense. He had borrowed from Plato the fine fable of "a +most ancient people, men better than we, and dwelling nigher to the +gods;" and Swedenborg added, that they used the earth symbolically; +that these, when they saw terrestrial objects, did not think at all +about them, but only about those which they signified. The +correspondence between thoughts and things henceforward occupied him. +"The very organic form resembles the end inscribed on it." A man is +in general, and in particular, an organizd justice or injustice, +selfishness or gratitude. And the cause of this harmony he assigned +in the Arcana: "The reason why all and single things, in the heavens +and on earth, are representative, is because they exist from an influx +of the Lord, through heaven." This design of exhibiting such +correspondences, which, if adequately executed, would be the poem of +the world, in which all history and science would play an essential +part, was narrowed and defeated by the exclusively theologic direction +which his inquiries took. His perception of nature is not human and +universal, but is mystical and Hebraic. He fastens each natural object +to a theologic notion:--a horse signifies carnal understanding; a tree, +perception; the moon, faith; a cat means this; an ostrich, that; an +artichoke, this other; and poorly tethers every symbol to a several +ecclesiastic sense. The slippery Proteus is not so easily caught. In +nature, each individual symbol plays innumerable parts, as each particle +of matter circulates in turn through every system. The central identity +enables any one symbol to express successively all the qualities and +shades of the real being. In the transmission of the heavenly waters, +every hose fits every hydrant. Nature avenges herself speedily on the +hard pedantry that would chain her waves. She is no literalist. +Everything must be taken genially, and we must be at the top of our +condition to understand anything rightly. + +His theological bias thus fatally narrowed his interpretation of nature, +and the dictionary of symbols is yet to be written. But the interpreter, +whom mankind must still expect, will find no predecessor who has +approached so near to the true problem. + +Swedenborg styles himself, in the title-page of his books, "Servant +of the Lord Jesus Christ;" and by force of intellect, and in effect, +he is the last Father in the Church, and is not likely to have a +successor. No wonder that his depth of ethical wisdom should give him +influence as a teacher. To the withered traditional church yielding +dry catechisms, he let in nature again, and the worshiper, escaping +from the vestry of verbs and texts, is surprised to find himself a +party to the whole of his religion. His religion thinks for him, and +is of universal application. He turns it on every side; it fits every +part of life, interprets and dignifies every circumstance. Instead of +a religion which visited him diplomatically three or four times,-- +when he was born, when he married, when he fell sick, and when he died, +and for the rest never interfered with him,--here was a teaching which +accompanied him all day, accompanied him even into sleep and dreams; +into his thinking, and showed him through what a long ancestry his +thoughts descend; into society, and showed by what affinities he was +girt to his equals and his counterparts; into natural objects, and +showed their origin and meaning, what are friendly, and what are +hurtful; and opened the future world, by indicating the continuity of +the same laws. His disciples allege that their intellect is invigorated +by the study of his books. + +There is no such problem for criticism as his theological writings, +their merits are so commanding; yet such grave deductions must be made. +Their immense and sandy diffuseness is like the prairie, or the desert, +and their incongruities are like the last deliration. He is +superfluously explanatory, and his feelings of the ignorance of men, +strangely exaggerated. Men take truths of this nature very fast. Yet +he abounds in assertions; he is a rich discoverer, and of things which +most import us to know. His thought dwells in essential resemblances, +like the resemblance of a house to the man who built it. He saw things +in their law, in likeness of function, not of structure. There is an +invariable method and order in his delivery of his truth, the habitual +proceeding of the mind from inmost to outmost. What earnestness and +weightiness,--his eye never roving, without one swell of vanity, or +one look to self, in any common form of literary pride! a theoretic +or speculative man, but whom no practical man in the universe could +affect to scorn. Plato is a gownsman; his garment, though of purple, +and almost skywoven, is an academic robe, and hinders action with its +voluminous folds. But this mystic is awful to Caesar. Lycurgus himself +would bow. + +The moral insight of Swedenborg, the correction of popular errors, the +announcement of ethical laws, take him out of comparison with any other +modern writer, and entitle him to a place, vacant for some ages, among +the lawgivers of mankind. That slow but commanding influence which he +has acquired, like that of other religious geniuses, must be excessive +also, and have its tides, before it subsides into a permanent amount. +Of course, what is real and universal cannot be confined to the circle +of those who sympathize strictly with his genius, but will pass forth +into the common stock of wise and just thinking. The world has a sure +chemistry, by which it attracts what is excellent in its children, and +lets fall the infirmities and limitations of the grandest mind. + +That metempsychosis which is familiar in the old mythology of the +Greeks, collected in Ovid, and in the Indian Transmigration, and is +there objective, or really takes place in bodies by alien will,--in +Swedenborg's mind, has a more philosophic character. It is subjective, +or depends entirely upon the thought of the person. All things in the +universe arrange themselves to each person anew, according to his +ruling love. Man is such as his affection and thought are. Man is man +by virtue of willing, not by virtue of knowing and understanding. As +he is, so he sees. The marriages of the world are broken up. Interiors +associate all in the spiritual world. Whatever the angels looked upon +was to them celestial. Each Satan appears to himself a man; to those +as bad as he, a comely man; to the purified, a heap of carrion. Nothing +can resist states; everything gravitates; like will to like; what we +call poetic justice takes effect on the spot. We have come into a world +which is a living poem. Every thing is as I am. Bird and beast is not +bird and beast, but emanation and effluvia of the minds and wills of +men there present. Every one makes his own house and state. The ghosts +are tormented with the fear of death, and cannot remember that they +have died. They who are in evil and falsehood are afraid of all others. +Such as have deprived themselves of charity, wander and flee; the +societies which they approach discover their quality, and drive them +away. The covetous seem to themselves to be abiding in cells where +their money is deposited, and these to be infested with mice. They who +place merit in good works seem to themselves to cut wood. "I asked +such, if they were not wearied? They replied, that they have not yet +done work enough to merit heaven." + +He delivers golden sayings, which express with singular beauty the +ethical laws; as when he uttered that famed sentence, that, "in heaven +the angels are advancing continually to the springtime of their youth, +so that the oldest angel appears the youngest:" "The more angels, the +more room:" "The perfection of man is the love of use:" "Man, in his +perfect form, is heaven:" "What is from Him, is Him:" "Ends always +ascend as nature descends:" And the truly poetic account of the writing +in the inmost heaven, which, as it consists of inflexions according +to the form of heaven, can be read without instruction He almost +justifies his claim to preternatural vision, by strange insights of +the structure of the human body and mind. "It is never permitted to +any one, in heaven, to stand behind another and look at the back of +his head; for then the influx which is from the Lord is disturbed." +The angels, from the sound of the voice, know a man's love; from the +articulation of the sound, his wisdom; and from the sense of the words, +his science. + +In the "Conjugal Love," he has unfolded the science of marriage. Of +this book, one would say, that, with the highest elements, it has +failed of success. It came near to be the Hymn of Love, which Plato +attempted in the "Banquet;" the love, which, Dante says, Casella sang +among the angels in Paradise; and which, as rightly celebrated, in its +genesis, fruition, and effect, might well entrance the souls, as it +would lay open the genesis of all institutions, customs, and manners. +The book had been grand, if the Hebraism had been omitted, and the law +stated without Gothicism, as ethics, and with that scope for ascension +of state which the nature of things requires. It is a fine Platonic +development of the science of marriage; teaching that sex is universal, +and not local; virility in the male qualifying every organ, act, and +thought; and the feminine in woman. Therefore, in the real or spiritual +world, the nuptial union is not momentary, but incessant and total; +and chastity not a local, but a universal virtue; unchastity being +discovered as much in the trading, or planting, or speaking, or +philosophizing, as in generation; and that, though the virgins he saw +in heaven were beautiful, the wives were incomparably more beautiful, +and went on increasing in beauty evermore. + +Yet Swedenborg, after his mode, pinned his theory to a temporary form. +He exaggerates the circumstance of marriage; and, though he finds false +marriages on the earth, fancies a wiser choice in heaven. But of +progressive souls, all loves and friendships are momentary. Do you +love me? means, Do you see the same truth? If you do, we are happy +with the same happiness; but presently one of us passes into the +perception of new truth;--we are divorced, and no tension in nature +can hold us to each other. I know how delicious is this cup of love,--I +existing for you, you existing for me; but it is a child's clinging +to his toy; an attempt to eternize the fireside and nuptial chamber; +to keep the picture-alphabet through which our first lessons are +prettily conveyed. The Eden of God is bare and grand: like the outdoor +landscape, remembered from the evening fireside, it seems cold and +desolate, whilst you cower over the coals; but, once abroad again, we +pity those who can forego the magnificence of nature, for candle-light +and cards. Perhaps the true subject of the "Conjugal Love" is +conversation, whose laws are profoundly eliminated. It is false, if +literally applied to marriage. For God is the bride or bridegroom of +the soul. Heaven is not the pairing of two, but the communion of all +souls. We meet, and dwell an instant under the temple of one thought, +and part as though we parted not, to join another thought in other +fellowships of joy. So far from there being anything divine in the low +and proprietary sense of, Do you love me? it is only when you leave +and lose me, by casting yourself on a sentiment which is higher than +both of us, that I draw near, and find myself at your side; and I am +repelled, if you fix your eye on me, and demand love. In fact, in the +spiritual world, we change sexes every moment. You love the worth in +me; then I am your husband: but it is not me, but the worth, that fixes +the love; and that worth is a drop of the ocean of worth that is beyond +me. Meantime, I adore the greater worth in another, and so become his +wife. He aspires to a higher worth in another spirit, and is wife of +receiver of that influence. + +Whether a self-inquisitorial habit, that he grew into, from jealousy +of the sins to which men of thought are liable, he has acquired, in +disentangling and demonstrating that particular form of moral disease, +an acumen which no conscience can resist. I refer to his feeling of +the profanation of thinking to what is good "from scientifics." "To +reason about faith, is to doubt and deny." He was painfully alive to +the difference between knowing and doing, and this sensibility is +incessantly expressed. Philosophers are, therefore, vipers, cockatrices, +asps, hemorrhoids, presters, and flying serpents; literary men are +conjurers and charlatans. + +But this topic suggests a sad afterthought, that here we find the seat +of his own pain. Possibly Swedenborg paid the penalty of introverted +faculties. Success, or a fortunate genius, seems to depend on a happy +adjustment of heart and brain; on a due proportion, hard to hit, of +moral and mental power, which, perhaps, obeys the law of those chemical +ratios which make a proportion in volumes necessary to combination, +as when gases will combine in certain fixed rates, but not at any rate. +It is hard to carry a full cup: and this man, profusely endowed in +heart and mind, early fell into dangerous discord with himself. In his +Animal Kingdom, he surprises us, by declaring that he loved analysis, +and not synthesis; and now, after his fiftieth year, he falls into +jealousy of his intellect; and, though aware that truth is not solitary, +nor is goodness solitary, but both must ever mix and marry, he makes +war on his mind, takes the part of the conscience against it, and, on +all occasions, traduces and blasphemes it. The violence is instantly +avenged. Beauty is disgraced, love is unlovely, when truth, the half +part of heaven, is denied, as much as when a bitterness in men of +talent leads to satire, and destroys the judgment. He is wise, but +wise in his own despite. There is an air of infinite grief, and the +sound of wailing, all over and through this lurid universe. A vampyre +sits in the seat of the prophet, and turns with gloomy appetite to the +images of pain. Indeed, a bird does not more readily weave its nest, +or a mole bore into the ground, than this seer of souls substructs a +new hell and pit, each more abominable than the last, round every new +crew of offenders. He was let down through a column that seemed of +brass, but it was formed of angelic spirits, that he might descend +safely amongst the unhappy, and witness the vastation of souls; and +heard there, for a long continuance, their lamentations; he saw their +tormentors, who increase and strain pangs to infinity; he saw the hell +of the jugglers, the hell of the assassins, the hell of the lascivious; +the hell of robbers, who kill and boil men; the infernal tun of the +deceitful; the excrementitious hells; the hell of the revengeful, whose +faces resembled a round, broad-cake, and their arms rotate like a +wheel. Except Rabelais and Dean Swift, nobody ever had such science +of filth and corruption. + +These books should be used with caution. It is dangerous to sculpture +these evanescing images of thought. True in transition, they become +false if fixed. It requires, for his just apprehension, almost a genius +equal to his own. But when his visions become the stereotyped language +of multitudes of persons, of all degrees of age and capacity, they are +perverted. The wise people of the Greek race were accustomed to lead +the most intelligent and virtuous young men, as part of their education, +through the Eleusinian mysteries, wherein, with much pomp and +graduation, the highest truths known to ancient wisdom were taught. +An ardent and contemplative young man, at eighteen or twenty years, +might read once these books of Swedenborg, these mysteries of love and +conscience, and then throw them aside forever. Genius is ever haunted +by similar dreams, when the hells and the heavens are opened to it. +But these pictures are to be held as mystical, that is, as a quite +arbitrary and accidental picture of the truth--not as the truth. Any +other symbol would be as good: then this is safely seen. + +Swedenborg's system of the world wants central spontaneity; it is +dynamic, not vital, and lacks power to generate life. There is no +individual in it. The universe is a gigantic crystal, all those atoms +and laminae lie in uninterrupted order, and with unbroken unity, but +cold and still. What seems an individual and a will, is none. There +is an immense chain of intermediation, extending from center to +extremes, which bereaves every agency of all freedom and character. +The universe, in his poem, suffers under a magnetic sleep, and only +reflects the mind of the magnetizer. Every thought comes into each +mind by influence from a society of spirits that surround it, and into +these from a higher society, and so on. All his types mean the same +few things. All his figures speak one speech. All his interlocutors +Swedenborgize. Be they who they may, to this complexion must they come +at last. This Charon ferries them all over in his boat; kings, +counselors, cavaliers, doctors, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Hans Sloane, +King George II., Mahomet, or whosoever, and all gather one grimness +of hue and style. Only when Cicero comes by, our gentle seer sticks +a little at saying he talked with Cicero, and, with a touch of human +relenting, remarks, "one whom it was given me to believe was Cicero;" +and when the _soi disant_ Roman opens his mouth, Rome and eloquence +have ebbed away,--it is plain theologic Swedenborg, like the rest. His +heavens and hells are dull; fault of want of individualism. The +thousand-fold relation of men is not there. The interest that attaches +in nature to each man, because he is right by his wrong, and wrong by +his right, because he defies all dogmatizing and classification, so +many allowances, and contingencies, and futurities, are to be taken +into account, strong by his vices, often paralyzed by his +virtues,--sinks into entire sympathy with his society. This want reacts +to the center of the system. Though the agency of "the Lord" is in +every line referred to by name, it never becomes alive. There is no +lustre in that eye which gazes from the center, and which should vivify +the immense dependency of beings. + +The vice of Swedenborg's mind is its theologic determination. Nothing +with him has the liberality of universal wisdom, but we are always in +a church. That Hebrew muse, which taught the lore of right and wrong +to man, had the same excess of influence for him, it has had for the +nations. The mode, as well as the essence, was sacred. Palestine is +ever the more valuable as a chapter in universal history, and ever the +less an available element in education. The genius of Swedenborg, +largest of all modern souls in this department of thought, wasted +itself in the endeavor to reanimate and conserve what had already +arrived at its natural term, and, in the great secular Providence, was +retiring from its prominence, before western modes of thought and +expression. Swedenborg and Behmen both failed by attaching themselves +to the Christian symbol, instead of to the moral sentiment, which +carries innumerable christianities, humanities, divinities, in its +bosom. + +The excess of influence shows itself in the incongruous importation +of a foreign rhetoric. "What have I to do," asks the impatient reader, +"with jasper and sardonyx, beryl and chalcedony; what with arks and +passovers, ephahs and ephods; what with lepers and emerods; what with +heave-offerings and unleavened bread; chariots of fire, dragons crowned +and horned, behemoth and unicorn? Good for orientals, these are nothing +to me. The more learning you bring to explain them, the more glaring +the impertinence. The more coherent and elaborate the system, the less +I like it. I say, with the Spartan, 'Why do you speak so much to the +purpose, of that which is nothing to the purpose?' My learning is such +as God gave me in my birth and habit, in the delight and study of my +eyes, and not of another man's. Of all absurdities, this of some +foreigner, purposing to take away my rhetoric, and substitute his own, +and amuse me with pelican and stork, instead of thrush and robin; +palm-trees and shittim-wood, instead of sassafras and hickory,--seems +the most needless." Locke said, "God, when he makes the prophet, does +not unmake the man." Swedenborg's history points the remark. The parish +disputes, in the Swedish church, between the friends and foes of Luther +and Melancthon, concerning "faith alone," and "works alone," intrude +themselves into his speculations upon the economy of the universe, and +of the celestial societies. The Lutheran bishop's son, for whom the +heavens are opened, so that he sees with eyes, and in the richest +symbolic forms, the awful truth of things, and utters again, in his +books, as under a heavenly mandate, the indisputable secrets of moral +nature,--with all these grandeurs resting upon him, remains the Lutheran +bishop's son; his judgments are those of a Swedish polemic, and his +vast enlargements purchased by adamantine limitations. He carries his +controversial memory with him, in his visits to the souls. He is like +Michel Angelo, who, in his frescoes, put the cardinal who had offended +him to roast under a mountain of devils; or, like Dante, who avenged, +in vindictive melodies, all his private wrongs; or, perhaps still more +like Montaigne's parish priest, who, if a hailstorm passes over the +village, thinks the day of doom has come, and the cannibals already +have got the pip. Swedenborg confounds us not less with the pains of +Melancthon, and Luther, and Wolfius, and his own books, which he +advertises among the angels. + +Under the same theologic cramp, many of his dogmas are bound. His +cardinal position in morals is, that evils should be shunned as sins. +But he does not know what evil is, or what good is, who thinks any +ground remains to be occupied, after saying that evil is to be shunned +as evil. I doubt not he was led by the desire to insert the element +of personality of Deity. But nothing is added. One man, you say, dreads +crysipelas,--show him that this dread is evil: or, one dreads +hell,--show him that dread is evil. He who loves goodness, harbors +angels, reveres reverence, and lives with God. The less we have to do +with our sins, the better. No man can afford to waste his moments in +compunctions. "That is active duty," say the Hindoos, "which is not +for our bondage; that is knowledge, which is for our liberation; all +other duty is good only unto weariness." + +Another dogma, growing out of this pernicious theologic limitation, +is this Inferno. Swedenborg has devils. Evil, according to old +philosophers, is good in the making. That pure malignity can exist, +is the extreme proposition of unbelief. It is not to be entertained +by a rational agent; it is atheism; it is the last profanation. +Euripides rightly said,-- + +"Goodness and being in the gods are one; He who imputes ill to them +makes them none." + +To what a painful perversion had Gothic theology arrived, that +Swedenborg admitted no conversion for evil spirits! But the divine +effort is never relaxed; the carrion in the sun will convert itself +to grass and flowers; and man, though in brothels, or jails, or on +gibbets, is on his way to all that is good and true. Burns, with the +wild humor of his apostrophe to "poor old Nickie Ben," + +"O wad ye tak a thought, and mend!" + +has the advantage of the vindictive theologian. Everything is +superficial, and perishes, but love and truth only. The largest is +always the truest sentiment, and we feel the more generous spirit of +the Indian Vishnu,-"I am the same to all mankind. There is not one who +is worthy of my love or hatred. They who serve me with adoration,--I +am in them, and they in me. If one whose ways are altogether evil, +serve me alone, he is as respectable as the just man; he is altogether +well employed; he soon becometh of a virtuous spirit, and obtaineth +eternal happiness." + +For the anomalous pretension of Revelations of the other world,--only +his probity and genius can entitle it to any serious regard. His +revelations destroy their credit by running into detail. If a man say, +that the Holy Ghost hath informed him that the Last Judgment (or the +last of the judgments) took place in 1757; or, that the Dutch, in the +other world, live in a heaven by themselves, and the English in a +heaven by themselves; I reply, that the Spirit which is holy, is +reserved, taciturn, and deals in laws. The rumors of ghosts and +hobgoblins gossip and tell fortunes. The teachings of the high Spirit +are abstemious, and, in regard to particulars, negative. Socrates' +Genius did not advise him to act or to find, but if he proposed to do +somewhat not advantageous, it dissuaded him. "What God is," he said, +"I know not; what he is not I know." The Hindoos have denominated the +Supreme Being, the "Internal Check." The illuminated Quakers explained +their Light, not as somewhat which leads to any action, but it appears +as an obstruction to anything unfit. But the right examples are private +experiences, which are absolutely at one on this point. Strictly +speaking, Swedenborg's revelation is a confounding of planes,--a capital +offence in so learned a categorist. This is to carry the law of surface +into the plane of substance, to carry individualism and its fopperies +into the realm of essences and generals, which is dislocation and +chaos. + +The secret of heaven is kept from age to age. No imprudent, no sociable +angel ever dropt an early syllable to answer the longings of saints, +the fears of mortals. We should have listened on our knees to any +favorite, who, by stricter obedience, had brought his thoughts into +parallelism with the celestial currents, and could hint to human ears +the scenery and circumstance of the newly parted soul. But it is certain +that it must tally with what is best in nature. It must not be inferior +in tone to the already known works of the artist who sculptures the +globes of the firmament, and writes the moral law. It must be fresher +than rainbows, stabler than mountains, agreeing with flowers, with +tides, and the rising and setting of autumnal stars. Melodious poets +shall be hoarse as street ballads, when once the penetrating key-note +of nature and spirit is sounded,--the earth-beat, sea-beat, heart-beat +which makes the tune to which the sun rolls, and the globule of blood, +and the sap of trees. + +In this mood, we hear the rumor that the seer has arrived, and his +tale is told. But there is no beauty, no heaven: for angels, goblins. +The sad muse loves night and death, and the pit. His Inferno is +mesmeric. His spiritual world bears the same relation to the +generosities and joys of truth, of which human souls have already made +us cognizant, as a man's bad dreams bear to his ideal life. It is +indeed very like, in its endless power of lurid pictures, to the +phenomena of dreaming, which nightly turns many an honest gentleman, +benevolent but dyspeptic, into a wretch, skulking like a dog about the +outer yards and kennels of creation. When he mounts into the heavens, +I do not hear its language. A man should not tell me that he has walked +among the angels; his proof is, that his eloquence makes me one. Shall +the archangels be less majestic and sweet than the figures that have +actually walked the earth? These angels that Swedenborg paints give +us no very high idea of their discipline and culture; they are all +country parsons; their heaven is a _fete champetre_, and evangelical +picnic, or French distribution of prizes to virtuous peasants. Strange, +scholastic, didactic, passionless, bloodless man, who denotes classes of +souls as a botanist disposes of a carex, and visits doleful hells as a +stratum of chalk or hornblende! He has no sympathy. He goes up and down +the world of men, a modern Rhadamanthus in gold-headed cane and peruke, +and with nonchalance, and the air of a referee, distributing souls. The +warm, many-weathered, passionate-peopled world is to him a grammar of +hieroglyphs, or an emblematic freemason's procession. How different is +Jacob Behmen! he is tremulous with emotion, and listens awe-struck, with +the gentlest humanity, to the Teacher whose lessons he conveys; and when +he asserts that, "in some sort, love is greater than God," his heart +beats so high that the thumping against his leathern coat is audible +across the centuries. 'Tis a great difference. Behmen is healthily and +beautifully wise, notwithstanding the mystical narrowness and +incommunicableness. Swedenborg is disagreeably wise, and, with all his +accumulated gifts, paralyzes and repels. + +It is the best sign of a great nature, that it opens a foreground, +and, like the breath of morning landscapes, invites us onward. +Swedenborg is retrospective, nor can we divest him of his mattock and +shroud. Some minds are forever restrained from descending into nature; +others are forever prevented from ascending out of it. With a force +of many men, he could never break the umbilical cord which held him +to nature, and he did not rise to the platform of pure genius. + +It is remarkable that this man, who, by his perception of symbols, saw +the poetic construction of things, and the primary relation of mind +to matter, remained entirely devoid of the whole apparatus of poetic +expression, which that perception creates. He knew the grammar and +rudiments of the Mother-Tongue,--how could he not read off one strain +into music? Was he like Saadi, who, in his vision, designed to fill +his lap with the celestial flowers, as presents for his friends; but +the fragrance of the roses so intoxicated him, that the skirt dropped +from his hands? or, is reporting a breach of the manners of that +heavenly society? or, was it that he saw the vision intellectually, +and hence that chiding of the intellectual that pervades his books? +Be it as it may, his books have no melody, no emotion, no humor, no +relief to the dead prosaic level. In his profuse and accurate imagery +is no pleasure, for there is no beauty. We wander forlorn in a lack- +lustre landscape. No bird ever sang in all these gardens of the dead. +The entire want of poetry in so transcendent a mind betokens the +disease, and, like a hoarse voice in a beautiful person, is a kind of +warning. I think, sometimes, he will not be read longer. His great +name will turn a sentence. His books have become a monument. His laurels +so largely mixed with cypress, a charnel-breath so mingles with the +temple incense, that boys and maids will shun the spot. + +Yet, in this immolation of genius and fame at the shrine of conscience, +is a merit sublime beyond praise. He lived to purpose: he gave a +verdict. He elected goodness as the clue to which the soul must cling +in all this labyrinth of nature. Many opinions conflict as to the true +center. In the shipwreck, some cling to running rigging, some to cask +and barrel, some to spars, some to mast; the pilot chooses with +science,--I plant myself here; all will sink before this; "he comes +to land who sails with me." Do not rely on heavenly favor, or on +compassion to folly, or on prudence, on common sense, the old usage +and main chance of men; nothing can keep you,--not fate, nor health, +nor admirable intellect; none can keep you, but rectitude only, +rectitude forever and ever!--and, with a tenacity that never swerved +in all his studies, inventions, dreams, he adheres to this brave choice. +I think of him as of some transmigratory votary of Indian legend, who +says, "Though I be dog, or jackal, or pismire, in the last rudiments +of nature, under what integument or ferocity, I cleave to right, as +the sure ladder that leads up to man and to God." + +Swedenborg has rendered a double service to mankind, which is now only +beginning to be known. By the science of experiment and use, he made +his first steps; he observed and published the laws of nature; and, +ascending by just degrees, from events to their summits and causes, +he was fired with piety at the harmonies he felt, and abandoned himself +to his joy and worship. This was his first service. If the glory was +too bright for his eyes to bear, if he staggered under the trance of +delight, the more excellent is the spectacle he saw, the realities of +being which beam and blaze through him, and which no infirmities of +the prophet are suffered to obscure; and he renders a second passive +service to men, not less than the first,--perhaps, in the great circle +of being, and in the retributions of spiritual nature, not less glorious +or less beautiful to himself. + + + + +IV. MONTAIGNE; OR, THE SKEPTIC. + + +Every fact is related on one side to sensation and, on the other, to +morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two +sides, to find the other; given the upper, to find the under side. +Nothing so thin, but has these two faces; and, when the observer has +seen the obverse, he turns it over to see the reverse. + +Life is a pitching of this penny,--heads or tails. We never tire of +this game, because there is still a slight shudder of astonishment at +the exhibition of the other face, at the contrast of the two faces. +A man is flushed with success, and bethinks himself what this good +luck signifies. He drives his bargain in the street; but it occurs +that he also is bought and sold. He sees the beauty of a human face, +and searches the cause of that beauty, which must be more beautiful. +He builds his fortunes, maintains the laws, cherishes his children; +but he asks himself, why? and whereto? This head and this tail are +called, in the language of philosophy, Infinite and Finite; Relative +and Absolute; Apparent and Real; and many fine names beside. + +Each man is born with a predisposition to one or the other of these +sides of nature; and it will easily happen that men will be found +devoted to one or the other. One class has the perception of difference, +and is conversant with facts and surfaces; cities and persons; and the +bringing certain things to pass;--the men of talent and action. Another +class have the perception of identity, and are men of faith and +philosophy, men of genius. + +Each of these riders drives too fast. Plotinus believes only in +philosophers; Fenelon, in saints; Pindar and Byron, in poets. Read the +haughty language in which Plato and the Platonists speak of all men +who are not devoted to their own shining abstractions: other men are +rats and mice. The literary class is usually proud and exclusive. The +correspondence of Pope and Swift describes mankind around them as +monsters; and that of Goethe and Schiller, in our own time, is scarcely +more kind. + +It is easy to see how this arrogance comes. The genius is a genius by +the first look he casts on any object. Is his eye creative? Does he +not rest in angles and colors, but beholds the design--he will presently +undervalue the actual object. In powerful moments, his thought has +dissolved the works of art and nature into their causes, so that the +works appear heavy and faulty. He has a conception of beauty which the +sculptor cannot embody. Picture, statue, temple, railroad, steam-engine, +existed first in an artist's mind, without flaw, mistake, or friction, +which impair the executed models. So did the church, the state, college, +court, social circle, and all the institutions. It is not strange that +these men, remembering what they have seen and hoped of ideas, should +affirm disdainfully the superiority of ideas. Having at some time seen +that the happy soul will carry all the arts in power, they say, Why +cumber ourselves with superfluous realizations? and, like dreaming +beggars, they assume to speak and act as if these values were already +substantiated. + +On the other part, the men of toil and trade and luxury,--the animal +world, including the animal in the philosopher and poet also,--and the +practical world, including the painful drudgeries which are never +excused to philosopher or poet any more than to the rest,--weigh heavily +on the other side. The trade in our streets believes in no metaphysical +causes, thinks nothing of the force which necessitated traders and a +trading planet to exist; no, but sticks to cotton, sugar, wool, and +salt. The ward meetings, on election days, are not softened by any +misgivings of the value of these ballotings. Hot life is streaming in +a single direction. To the men of this world, to the animal strength +and spirits, to the men of practical power, whilst immersed in it, the +man of ideas appears out of his reason. They alone have reason. + +Things always bring their own philosophy with them, that is, prudence. +No man acquires property without acquiring with it a little arithmetic, +also. In England, the richest country that ever existed, property +stands for more, compared with personal ability, than in any other. +After dinner, a man believes less, denies more; verities have lost +some charm. After dinner, arithmetic is the only science; ideas are +disturbing, incendiary, follies of young men, repudiated by the solid +portion of society; and a man comes to be valued by his athletic and +animal qualities. Spence relates, that Mr. Pope was with Sir Godfrey +Kneller one day, when his nephew, a Guinea trader, came in. "Nephew," +said Sir Godfrey, "you have the honor of seeing the two greatest men +in the world." "I don't know how great men you may be," said the Guinea +man, "but I don't like your looks. I have often bought a man much +better than both of you, all muscles and bones, for ten guineas. Thus, +the men of the senses revenge themselves on the professors, and repay +scorn for scorn. The first had leaped to conclusions not yet ripe, and +say more than is true; the others make themselves merry with the +philosopher, and weigh man by the pound.--They believe that mustard +bites the tongue, that pepper is hot, friction-matches are incendiary, +revolvers to be avoided, and suspenders hold up pantaloons; that there +is much sentiment in a chest of tea; and a man will be eloquent, if +you give him good wine. Are you tender and scrupulous,--you must eat +more mince-pie. They hold that Luther had milk in him when he said, + +"Wer nicht liebt Wein, Weib, und Gesang Der bleibt ein Narr sein Leben +lang," + +and when he advised a young scholar perplexed with fore-ordination and +free-will, to get well drunk. "The nerves," says Cabanis, "they are +the man." My neighbor, a jolly farmer, in the tavern bar-room, thinks +that the use of money is sure and speedy spending. "For his part," he +says, "he puts his down his neck, and gets the good of it." + +The inconvenience of this way of thinking is, that it runs into +indifferentism, and then into disgust. Life is eating us up. We shall +be fables presently. Keep cool: it will be all one a hundred years +hence. Life's well enough; but we shall be glad to get out of it, and +they will all be glad to have us. Why should we fret and drudge? Our +meat will taste to-morrow as it did yesterday, and we may at last have +had enough of it. "Ah," said my languid gentleman at Oxford, "there's +nothing new or true,--and no matter." + +With a little more bitterness, the cynic moans: our life is like an +ass led to market by a bundle of hay being carried before him: he sees +nothing but the bundle of hay. "There is so much trouble in coming +into the world," said Lord Bolingbroke, "and so much more, as well as +meanness, in going out of it, that 'tis hardly worth while to be here +at all." I knew a philosopher of this kidney, who was accustomed briefly +to sum up his experience of human nature in saying, "Mankind is a +damned rascal:" and the natural corollary is pretty sure to +follow,--"The world lives by humbug, and so will I." + +The abstractionist and the materialist thus mutually exasperating each +other, and the scoffer expressing the worst of materialism, there +arises a third party to occupy the middle ground between these two, +the skeptic, namely. He finds both wrong by being in extremes. He +labors to plant his feet, to be the beam of the balance. He will not +go beyond his card. He sees the one-sidedness of these men of the +street; he will not be a Gibeonite; he stands for the intellectual +faculties, a cool head, and whatever serves to keep it cool; no +unadvised industry, no unrewarded self-devotion, no loss of the brains +in toil. Am I an ox, or a dray?--You are both in extremes, he says. +You that will have all solid, and a world of pig-lead, deceive +yourselves grossly. You believe yourselves rooted and grounded on +adamant; and, yet, if we uncover the last facts of our knowledge, you +are spinning like bubbles in a river, you know not whither or whence, +and you are bottomed and capped and wrapped in delusions. + +Neither will he be betrayed to a book, and wrapped in a gown. The +studious class are their own victims; they are thin and pale, their +feet are cold, their heads are hot, the night is without sleep, the +day a fear of interruption,--pallor, squalor, hunger, and egotism. If +you come near them, and see what conceits they entertain,--they are +abstractionists, and spend their days and nights in dreaming some +dreams; in expecting the homage of society to some precious scheme +built on a truth, but destitute of proportion in its presentment, of +justness in its application, and of all energy of will in the schemer +to embody and vitalize it. + +But I see plainly, he says, that I cannot see. I know that human +strength is not in extremes, but in avoiding extremes. I, at least, +will shun the weakness of philosophizing beyond my depth. What is the +use of pretending to powers we have not? What is the use of pretending +to assurances we have not, respecting the other life? Why exaggerate +the power of virtue? Why be an angel before your time? These strings, +wound up too high, will snap. If there is a wish for immortality, and +no evidence, why not say just that? If there are conflicting evidences, +why not state them? If there is not ground for a candid thinker to +make up his mind, yea or nay,--why not suspend the judgment? I weary +of these dogmatizers. I tire of these hacks of routine, who deny the +dogmas. I neither affirm nor deny. I stand here to try the case. I am +here to consider,--to consider how it is. I will try to keep the balance +true. Of what use to take the chair, and glibly rattle off theories +of societies, religion, and nature, when I know that practical +objections lie in the way, insurmountable by me and by my mates? Why +so talkative in public, when each of my neighbors can pin me to my +seat by arguments I cannot refute? Why pretend that life is so simple +a game, when we know how subtle and elusive the Proteus is? Why think +to shut up all things in your narrow coop, when we know there are not +one or two only, but ten, twenty, a thousand things, and unlike? Why +fancy that you have all the truth in your keeping? There is much to +say on all sides. + +Who shall forbid a wise skepticism, seeing that there is no practical +question on which anything more than an approximate solution can be +had? Is not marriage an open question when it is alleged, from the +beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to +get out, and such as are out wish to get in? And the reply of Socrates, +to him who asked whether he should choose a wife, still remains +reasonable, "that, whether he should choose one or not, he would repent +it." Is not the state a question? All society is divided in opinion +on the subject of the state. Nobody loves it; great numbers dislike +it, and suffer conscientious scruples to allegiance: and the only +defense set up, is, the fear of doing worse in disorganizing. Is it +otherwise with the church? Or, to put any of the questions which touch +mankind nearest,--shall the young man aim at a leading part in law, +in politics, in trade? It will not be pretended that a success in +either of these kinds is quite coincident with what is best and inmost +in his mind. Shall he, then, cutting the stays that hold him fast to +the social state, put out to sea with no guidance but his genius? There +is much to say on both sides. Remember the open question between the +present order of "competition," and the friends of "attractive and +associated labor." The generous minds embrace the proposition of labor +shared by all; it is the only honesty; nothing else is safe. It is +from the poor man's hut alone, that strength and virtue come; and yet, +on the other side, it is alleged that labor impairs the form, and +breaks the spirit of man, and the laborers cry unanimously, "We have +no thoughts." Culture, how indispensable! I cannot forgive you the +want of accomplishment; and yet, culture will instantly destroy that +chiefest beauty of spontaneousness. Excellent is culture for a savage; +but once let him read in the book, and he is no longer able not to +think of Plutarch's heroes. In short, since true fortitude of +understanding consists "in not letting what we know be embarrassed by +what we do not know," we ought to secure those advantages which we can +command, and not risk them by clutching after the airy and unattainable. +Come, no chimeras! Let us go abroad; let us mix in affairs; let us +learn, and get, and have, and climb. "Men are a sort of moving plants, +and, like trees, receive a great part of their nourishment from the +air. If they keep too much at home, they pine." Let us have a robust, +manly life; let us know what we know, for certain; what we have, let +it be solid, and seasonable, and our own. A world in the hand is worth +two in the bush. Let us have to do with real men and women, and not +with skipping ghosts. + +This, then, is the right ground of the skeptic,--this of consideration, +of self-containing; not at all of unbelief; not at all of universal +denying, nor of universal doubting,--doubting even that he doubts; +least of all, of scoffing and profligate jeering at all that is stable +and good. These are no more his moods than are those of religion and +philosophy. He is the considerer, the prudent, taking in sail, counting +stock, husbanding his means, believing that a man has too many enemies, +than that he can afford to be his own; that we cannot give ourselves +too many advantages, in this unequal conflict, with powers so vast and +unweariable ranged on one side, and this little, conceited, vulnerable +popinjay that a man is, bobbing up and down into every danger, on the +other. It is a position taken up for better defense, as of more safety, +and one that can be maintained; and it is one of more opportunity and +range; as, when we build a house, the rule is, to set it not too high +nor too low, under the wind, but out of the dirt. + +The philosophy we want is one of fluxions and mobility. The Spartan +and Stoic schemes are too stark and stiff for our occasion. A theory +of Saint John, and of non-resistance, seems, on the other hand, too +thin and aerial. We want some coat woven of elastic steel, stout as +the first, and limber as the second. We want a ship in these billows +we inhabit. An angular, dogmatic house would be rent to chips and +splinters, in this storm of many elements. No, it must be tight, and +fit to the form of man, to live at all; as a shell is the architecture +of a house founded on the sea. The soul of man must be the type of our +scheme, just as the body of man is the type after which a dwelling-house +is built. Adaptiveness is the peculiarity of human nature. We are +golden averages, volitant stabilities, compensated or periodic errors, +houses founded on the sea. The wise skeptic wishes to have a near view +of the best game, and the chief players; what is best in the planet; +art and nature, places and events, but mainly men. Everything that is +excellent in mankind,--a form of grace, an arm of iron, lips of +persuasion, a brain of resources, every one skilful to play and win,--he +will see and judge. + +The terms of admission to this spectacle are, that he have a certain +solid and intelligible way of living of his own; some method of +answering the inevitable needs of human life; proof that he has played +with skill and success; that he has evinced the temper, stoutness, and +the range of qualities which, among his contemporaries and countrymen, +entitle him to fellowship and trust. For, the secrets of life are not +shown except to sympathy and likeness. Men do not confide themselves +to boys, or coxcombs, or pedants, but to their peers. Some wise +limitation, as the modern phrase is; some condition between the +extremes, and having itself a positive quality; some stark and +sufficient man, who is not salt or sugar, but sufficiently related to +the world to do justice to Paris or London, and, at the same time, a +vigorous and original thinker, whom cities cannot overawe, but who +uses them,--is the fit person to occupy this ground of speculation. + +These qualities meet in the character of Montaigne. And yet, since the +personal regard which I entertain for Montaigne may be unduly great, +I will, under the shield of this prince of egotists, offer, as an +apology for electing him as the representative of skepticism, a word +or two to explain how my love began and grew for this admirable gossip. + +A single odd volume of Cotton's translation of the Essays remained to +me from my father's library, when a boy. It lay long neglected, until, +after many years, when I was newly escaped from college, I read the +book, and procured the remaining volumes. I remember the delight and +wonder in which I lived with it. It seemed to me as if I had myself +written the book, in some former life, so sincerely it spoke to my +thought and experience. It happened, when in Paris, in 1833, that, in +the cemetery of Pere le Chaise, I came to a tomb of Augustus Collignon, +who died in 1830, aged sixty-eight years, and who, said the monument, +"lived to do right, and had formed himself to virtue on the Essays of +Montaigne." Some years later, I became acquainted with an accomplished +English poet, John Sterling; and, in prosecuting my correspondence, +I found that, from a love of Montaigne, he had made a pilgrimage to +his chateau, still standing near Castellan, in Perigord, and, after +two hundred and fifty years, had copied from the walls of his library +the inscriptions which Montaigne had written there. That Journal of +Mr. Sterling's, published in the Westminster Review, Mr. Hazlitt has +reprinted in the Prolegomenae to his edition of the Essays. I heard +with pleasure that one of the newly-discovered autographs of William +Shakspeare was in a copy of Florio's translation of Montaigne. It is +the only book which we certainly know to have been in the poet's +library. And, oddly enough, the duplicate copy of Florio, which the +British Museum purchased, with a view of protecting the Shakspeare +autograph (as I was informed in the Museum), turned out to have the +autograph of Ben Jonson in the fly-leaf. Leigh Hunt relates of Lord +Byron, that Montaigne was the only great writer of past times whom he +read with avowed satisfaction. Other coincidences, not needful to be +mentioned here, concurred to make this old Gascon still new and immortal +for me. + +In 1571, on the death of his father, Montaigne, then thirty-eight years +old, retired from the practice of law, at Bordeaux, and settled himself +on his estate. Though he had been a man of pleasure, and sometimes a +courtier, his studious habits now grew on him, and he loved the compass, +staidness, and independence of the country gentleman's life. He took +up his economy in good earnest, and made his farms yield the most. +Downright and plain-dealing, and abhorring to be deceived or to +deceive, he was esteemed in the country for his sense and probity. In +the civil wars of the League, which converted every house into a fort, +Montaigne kept his gates open, and his house without defense. All +parties freely came and went, his courage and honor being universally +esteemed. The neighboring lords and gentry brought jewels and papers +to him for safekeeping. Gibbon reckons, in these bigoted times, but +two men of liberality in France,--Henry IV. and Montaigne. + +Montaigne is the frankest and honestest of all writers. His French +freedom runs into grossness; but he has anticipated all censures by +the bounty of his own confessions. In his times, books were written +to one sex only, and almost all were written in Latin; so that, in a +humorist, a certain nakedness of statement was permitted, which our +manners, of a literature addressed equally to both sexes, do not allow. +But, though a biblical plainness, coupled with a most uncanonical +levity, may shut his pages to many sensitive readers, yet the offence +is superficial. He parades it: he makes the most of it; nobody can +think or say worse of him than he does. He pretends to most of the +vices; and, if there be any virtue in him, he says, it got in by +stealth. There is no man, in his opinion, who has not deserved hanging +five or six times; and he pretends no exception in his own behalf. +"Five or six as ridiculous stories," too, he says, "can be told of me, +as of any man living." But, with all this really superfluous frankness, +the opinion of an invincible probity grows into every reader's mind. + +"When I the most strictly and religiously confess myself, I find that +the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice; and I am afraid +that Plato, in his purest virtue (I, who am as sincere and perfect a +lover of virtue of that stamp as any other whatever), if he had +listened, and laid his ear close to himself, would have heard some +jarring sound of human mixture; but faint and remote, and only to be +perceived by himself." + +Here is an impatience and fastidiousness at color or pretense of any +kind. He has been in courts so long as to have conceived a furious +disgust at appearances; he will indulge himself with a little cursing +and swearing; he will talk with sailors and gypsies, use flash and +street ballads; he has stayed indoors till he is deadly sick; he will +to the open air, though it rain bullets. He has seen too much of +gentlemen of the long robe, until he wishes for cannibals; and is so +nervous, by factitious life, that he thinks, the more barbarous man +is, the better he is. He likes his saddle. You may read theology, and +grammar, and metaphysics elsewhere. Whatever you get here, shall smack +of the earth and of real life, sweet, or smart, or stinging. He makes +no hesitation to entertain you with the records of his disease; and +his journey to Italy is quite full of that matter. He took and kept +this position of equilibrium. Over his name, he drew an emblematic +pair of scales, and wrote, _Que sais-je?_ under it. As I look at +his effigy opposite the title-page, I seem to hear him say, "You may +play old Poz, if you will; you may rail and exaggerate,--I stand here +for truth, and will not, for all the states, and churches, and revenues, +and personal reputations of Europe, overstate the dry fact, as I see +it; I will rather mumble and prose about what I certainly know,--my +house and barns; my father, my wife, and my tenants; my old lean bald +pate; my knives and forks; what meats I eat, and what drinks I prefer; +and a hundred straws just as ridiculous,--than I will write, with a +fine crow-quill, a fine romance. I like gray days, and autumn and +winter weather. I am gray and autumnal myself, and think an undress, +and old shoes that do not pinch my feet, and old friends who do not +constrain me, and plain topics where I do not need to strain myself +and pump my brains, the most suitable. Our condition as men is risky +and ticklish enough. One cannot be sure of himself and his fortune an +hour, but he may be whisked off into some pitiable or ridiculous plight. +Why should I vapor and play the philosopher, instead of ballasting, +the best I can, this dancing balloon? So, at least, I live within +compass, keep myself ready for action, and can shoot the gulf, at last, +with decency. If there be anything farcical in such a life, the blame +is not mine; let it lie at fate's and nature's door." + +The Essays, therefore, are an entertaining soliloquy on every random +topic that comes into his head; treating everything without ceremony, +yet with masculine sense. There have been men with deeper insight; +but, one would say, never a man with such abundance of thoughts; he +is never dull, never insincere, and has the genius to make the reader +care for all that he cares for. + +The sincerity and marrow of the man reaches to his sentences. I know +not anywhere the book that seems less written. It is the language of +conversation transferred to a book. Cut these words, and they would +bleed; they are vascular and alive. One has the same pleasure in it +that we have in listening to the necessary speech of men about their +work, when any unusual circumstance give momentary importance to the +dialogue. For blacksmiths and teamsters do not trip in their speech; +it is a shower of bullets. It is Cambridge men who correct themselves, +and begin again at every half-sentence, and, moreover, will pun, and +refine too much, and swerve from the matter to the expression. Montaigne +talks with shrewdness, knows the world, and books, and himself, and +uses the positive degree; never shrieks, or protests, or prays; no +weakness, no convulsion, no superlative; does not wish to jump out of +his skin, or play any antics, or annihilate space or time; but is stout +and solid; tastes every moment of the day; likes pain, because it makes +him feel himself, and realize things; as we pinch ourselves to know +that we are awake. He keeps the plain; he rarely mounts or sinks; likes +to feel solid ground, and the stones underneath. His writing has no +enthusiasms, no aspiration; contented, self-respecting, and keeping +the middle of the road. There is but one exception,--in his love for +Socrates. In speaking of him, for once his cheek flushes, and his style +rises to passion. + +Montaigne died of a quinsy, at the age of sixty, in 1592. When he came +to die, he caused the mass to be celebrated in his chamber. At the age +of thirty-three, he had been married. "But," he says, "might I have +had my own will, I would not have married Wisdom herself, if she would +have had me; but 'tis to much purpose to evade it, the common custom +and use of life will have it so. Most of my actions are guided by +example, not choice." In the hour of death he gave the same weight to +custom. _Que sais-je?_ What do I know. + +This book of Montaigne the world has endorsed, by translating it into +all tongues, and printing seventy-five editions of it in Europe; and +that, too, a circulation somewhat chosen, namely, among courtiers, +soldiers, princes, men of the world, and men of wit and generosity. + +Shall we say that Montaigne has spoken wisely, and given the right and +permanent expression of the human mind, on the conduct of life? + +We are natural believers. Truth, or the connection between cause and +effect, alone interests us. We are persuaded that a thread runs through +all things; all worlds are strung on it, as beads; and men, and events, +and life, come to us, only because of that thread; they pass and repass, +only that we may know the direction and continuity of that line. A +book or statement which goes to show that there is no line, but random +and chaos, a calamity out of nothing, a prosperity and no account of +it, a hero born from a fool, a fool from a hero,--dispirits us. Seen +or unseen, we believe the tie exists. Talent makes counterfeit ties; +genius finds the real ones. We hearken to the man of science, because +we anticipate the sequence in natural phenomena which he uncovers. We +love whatever affirms, connects, preserves; and dislike what scatters +or pulls down. One man appears whose nature is to all men's eyes +conserving and constructive; his presence supposes a well-ordered +society, agriculture, trade, large institutions, and empire. If these +did not exist, they would begin to exist through his endeavors. +Therefore, he cheers and comforts men, who feel all this in him very +readily. The nonconformist and the rebel say all manner of unanswerable +things against the existing republic, but discover to our sense no +plan of house or state of their own. Therefore, though the town, and +state, and way of living, which our counselor contemplated, might be +a very modest or musty prosperity, yet men rightly go for him, and +reject the reformer, so long as he comes only with axe and crowbar. + +But though we are natural conservers and causationists, and reject a +sour, dumpish unbelief, the skeptical class, which Montaigne represents, +have reason, and every man, at some time, belongs to it. Every superior +mind will pass through this domain of equilibration,--I should rather +say, will know how to avail himself of the checks and balances in +nature, as a natural weapon against the exaggeration and formalism of +bigots and blockheads. + +Skepticism is the attitude assumed by the student in relation to the +particulars which society adores, but which he sees to be reverent +only in their tendency and spirit. The ground occupied by the skeptic +is the vestibule of the temple. Society does not like to have any +breath of question blown on the existing order. But the interrogation +of custom at all points is an inevitable stage in the growth of every +superior mind, and is the evidence of its perception of the flowing +power which remains itself in all changes. + +The superior mind will find itself equally at odds with the evils of +society, and with the projects that are offered to relieve them. The +wise skeptic is a bad citizen; no conservative; he sees the selfishness +of property, and the drowsiness of institutions. But neither is he fit +to work with any democratic party that ever was constituted; for parties +wish every one committed, and he penetrates the popular patriotism. +His politics are those of the "Soul's Errand" of Sir Walter Raleigh; +or of Krishna, in the Bhagavat, "There is none who is worthy of my +love or hatred;" while he sentences law, physic, divinity, commerce, +and custom. He is a reformer: yet he is no better member of the +philanthropic association. It turns out that he is not the champion +of the operative, the pauper, the prisoner, the slave. It stands in +his mind, that our life in this world is not of quite so easy +interpretation as churches and school-books say. He does not wish to +take ground against these benevolences, to play the part of devil's +attorney, and blazon every doubt and sneer that darkens the sun for +him. But he says, There are doubts. + +I mean to use the occasion, and celebrate the calendar-day of our Saint +Michel de Montaigne, by counting and describing these doubts or +negations. I wish to ferret them out of their holes, and sun them a +little. We must do with them as the police do with old rogues, who are +shown up to the public at the marshal's office. They will never be so +formidable, when once they have been identified and registered. But +I mean honestly by them--that justice shall be done to their terrors. +I shall not take Sunday objections, made up on purpose to be put down. +I shall take the worst I can find, whether I can dispose of them, or +they of me. + +I do not press the skepticism of the materialist. I know the quadruped +opinion will not prevail. 'Tis of no importance what bats and oxen +think. The first dangerous symptom I report is, the levity of intellect; +as if it were fatal to earnestness to know much. Knowledge is the +knowing that we cannot know. The dull pray; the geniuses are light +mockers. How respectable is earnestness on every platform! but intellect +kills it. Nay, San Carlo, my subtle and admirable friend, one of the +most penetrating of men, finds that all direct ascension, even of lofty +piety, leads to this ghastly insight, and sends back the votary +orphaned. My astonishing San Carlo thought the lawgivers and saints +infected. They found the ark empty; saw, and would not tell; and tried +to choke off their approaching followers, by saying, "Action, action, +my dear fellows, is for you!" Bad as was to me this detection by San +Carlo, this frost in July, this blow from a brick, there was still a +worse, namely, the cloy or satiety of the saints. In the mount of +vision, ere they have yet risen from their knees, they say, "We discover +that this our homage and beatitude is partial and deformed; we must +fly for relief to the suspected and reviled Intellect, to the +Understanding, the Mephistopheles, to the gymnastics of latent." + +This is hobgoblin the first; and, though it has been the subject of +much elegy, in our nineteenth century, from Byron, Goethe, and other +poets of less fame, not to mention many distinguished private +observers,--I confess it is not very affecting to my imagination; for +it seems to concern the shattering of baby-houses and crockery-shops. +What flutters the church of Rome, or of England, or of Geneva, or of +Boston, may yet be very far from touching any principle of faith. I +think that the intellect and moral sentiment are unanimous; and that, +though philosophy extirpates bugbears, yet it supplies the natural +checks of vice, and polarity to the soul. I think that the wiser a man +is, the more stupendous he finds the natural and moral economy, and +lifts himself to a more absolute reliance. + +There is the power of moods, each setting at nought all but its own +tissue of facts and beliefs. There is the power of complexions, +obviously modifying the dispositions and sentiments. The beliefs and +unbeliefs appear to be structural; and, as soon as each man attains +the poise and vivacity which allow the whole machinery to play, he +will not need extreme examples, but will rapidly alternate all opinions +in his own life. Our life is March weather, savage and serene in one +hour. We go forth austere, dedicated, believing in the iron links of +Destiny, and will not turn on our heel to save our life; but a book, +or a bust, or only the sound of a name, shoots a spark through the +nerves, and we suddenly believe in will: my finger-ring shall be the +seal of Solomon: fate is for imbeciles: all is possible to the resolved +mind. Presently, a new experience gives a new turn to our thoughts: +common sense resumes its tyranny: we say, "Well, the army, after all, +is the gate to fame, manners, and poetry: and, look you,--on the whole, +selfishness plants best, prunes best, makes the best commerce, and the +best citizen." Are the opinions of a man on right and wrong, on fate +and causation, at the mercy of a broken sleep or an indigestion? Is +his belief in God and Duty no deeper than a stomach evidence? And what +guaranty for the permanence of his opinions? I like not the French +celerity,--a new church and state once a week.--This is the second +negation; and I shall let it pass for what it will. As far as it asserts +rotation of states of mind, I suppose it suggests its own remedy, +namely, in the record of larger periods. What is the mean of many +states; of all the states? Does the general voice of ages affirm any +principle, or is no community of sentiment discoverable in distant +times and places? And when it shows the power of self-interest, I +accept that as a part of the divine law, and must reconcile it with +aspiration the best I can. + +The word Fate, or Destiny, expresses the sense of mankind, in all +ages,--that the laws of the world do not always befriend, but often +hurt and crush us. Fate, in the shape of Kinde or nature, grows over +us like grass. We paint Time with a scythe; Love and Fortune, blind; +and Destiny, deaf. We have too little power of resistance against this +ferocity which champs us up. What front can we make against these +unavoidable, victorious, maleficent forces? What can I do against the +influence of Race, in my history? What can I do against hereditary and +constitutional habits, against scrofula, lymph, impotence? against +climate, against barbarism, in my country? I can reason down or deny +everything, except this perpetual Belly; feed he must and will, and +I cannot make him respectable. + +But the main resistance which the affirmative impulse finds, and one +including all others, is in the doctrine of the Illusionists. There +is a painful rumor in circulation, that we have been practiced upon +in all the principal performances of life, and free agency is the +emptiest name. We have been sopped and drugged with the air, with food, +with woman, with children, with sciences, with events which leave us +exactly where they found us. The mathematics, 'tis complained, leave +the mind where they find it: so do all sciences; and so do all events +and actions. I find a man who has passed through all the sciences, the +churl he was; and, through all the offices, learned, civil, and social, +can detect the child. We are not the less necessitated to dedicate +life to them. In fact, we may come to accept it as the fixed rule and +theory of our state of education, that God is a substance, and his +method is illusion. The eastern sages owned the goddess Yoganidra, the +great illusory energy of Vishnu, by whom, as utter ignorance, the whole +world is beguiled. + +Or, shall I state it thus?--The astonishment of life, is, the absence +of any appearance of reconciliation between the theory and practice +of life. Reason, the prized reality, the Law, is apprehended, now and +then, for a serene and profound moment, amidst the hubbub of cares and +works which have no direct bearing on it;--is then lost, for months +or years, and again found, for an interval, to be lost again. If we +compute it in time, we may, in fifty years, have half a dozen reasonable +hours. But what are these cares and works the better? A method in the +world we do not see, but this parallelism of great and little, which +never react on each other, nor discover the smallest tendency to +converge. Experiences, fortunes, governings, readings, writings are +nothing to the purpose; as when a man comes into the room, it does not +appear whether he has been fed on yams or buffalo,--he has contrived +to get so much bone and fibre as he wants, out of rice or out of snow. +So vast is the disproportion between the sky of law and the pismire +of performance under it, that, whether he is a man of worth or a sot, +is not so great a matter as we say. Shall I add, as one juggle of this +enchantment, the stunning non-intercourse law which makes cooperation +impossible? The young spirit pants to enter society. But all the ways +of culture and greatness lead to solitary imprisonment. He has been +often baulked. He did not expect a sympathy with his thought from the +village, but he went with it to the chosen and intelligent, and found +no entertainment for it, but mere misapprehension, distaste, and +scoffing. Men are strangely mistimed and misapplied; and the excellence +of each is an inflamed individualism which separates him more. + +There are these, and more than these diseases of thought, which our +ordinary teachers do not attempt to remove. Now shall we, because a +good nature inclines us to virtue's side, say, There are no doubts,--and +lie for the right? Is life to be led in a brave or in a cowardly manner? +and is not the satisfaction of the doubts essential to all manliness? +Is the name of virtue to be a barrier to that which is virtue? Can you +not believe that a man of earnest and burly habit may find small good +in tea, essays, and catechism, and want a rougher instruction, want +men, labor, trade, farming, war, hunger, plenty, love, hatred, doubt, +and terror, to make things plain to him; and has he not a right to +insist on being convinced in his own way? When he is convinced, he +will be worth the pains. + +Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief +in denying them. Some minds are incapable of skepticism. The doubts +they profess to entertain are rather a civility or accommodation to +the common discourse of their company. They may well give themselves +leave to speculate, for they are secure of a return. Once admitted to +the heaven of thought, they see no relapse into night, but infinite +invitation on the other side. Heaven is within heaven, and sky over +sky, and they are encompassed with divinities. Others there are, to +whom the heaven is brass, and it shuts down to the surface of the +earth. It is a question of temperament, or of more or less immersion +in nature. The last class must needs have a reflex or parasite faith; +not a sight of realities, but an instinctive reliance on the seers and +believers of realities. The manners and thoughts of believers astonish +them, and convince them that these have seen something which is hid +from themselves. But their sensual habit would fix the believer to his +last position, whilst he as inevitably advances; and presently the +unbeliever, for love of belief, burns the believer. + +Great believers are always reckoned infidels, impracticable, fantastic, +atheistic, and really men of no account. The spiritualist finds himself +driven to express his faith by a series of skepticisms. Charitable +souls come with their projects, and ask his cooperation. How can he +hesitate? It is the rule of mere comity and courtesy to agree where +you can, and to turn your sentence with something auspicious, and not +freezing and sinister. But he is forced to say, "O, these things will +be as they must be: what can you do? These particular griefs and crimes +are the foliage and fruit of such trees as we see growing. It is vain +to complain of the leaf or the berry: cut it off; it will bear another +just as bad. You must begin your cure lower down." The generosities +of the day prove an intractable element for him. The people's questions +are not his; their methods are not his; and, against all the dictates +of good nature, he is driven to say, he has no pleasure in them. + +Even the doctrines dear to the hope of man, of the divine Providence, +and of the immortality of the soul, his neighbors cannot put the +statement so that he shall affirm it. But he denies out of more faith, +and not less. He denies out of honesty. He had rather stand charged +with the imbecility of skepticism, than with untruth. I believe, he +says, in the moral design of the universe; it exists hospitably for +the weal of the souls; but your dogmas seem to me caricatures; why +should I make believe them? Will any say, this is cold and infidel? +The wise and magnanimous will not say so. They will exult in his +far-sighted good-will, that can abandon to the adversary all the ground +of tradition and common belief, without losing a jot of strength. It +sees to the end of all transgression. George Fox saw "that there was +an ocean of darkness and death; but withal, an infinite ocean of light +and love which flowed over that of darkness." + +The final solution in which skepticism is lost is in the moral +sentiment, which never forfeits its supremacy. All moods may be safely +tried, and their weight allowed to all objections: the moral sentiment +as easily outweighs them all, as any one. This is the drop which +balances the sea. I play with the miscellany of facts, and take those +superficial views which we call skepticism; but I know that they will +presently appear to me in that order which makes skepticism impossible. +A man of thought must feel the thought that is parent of the universe, +that the masses of nature do undulate and flow. + +This faith avails to the whole emergency of life and objects. The world +is saturated with deity and with law. He is content with just and +unjust, with sots and fools, with the triumph of folly and fraud. He +can behold with serenity the yawning gulf between the ambition of man +and his power of performance, between the demand and supply of power, +which makes the tragedy of all souls. + +Charles Fourier announced that "the attractions of man are proportioned +to his destinies;" in other words, that every desire predicts its own +satisfaction. Yet, all experience exhibits the reverse of this; the +incompetency of power is the universal grief of young and ardent minds. +They accuse the divine Providence of a certain parsimony. It has shown +the heaven and earth to every child, and filled him with a desire for +the whole; a desire raging, infinite; a hunger, as of space to be +filled with planets; a cry of famine, as of devils for souls. Then for +the satisfaction,--to each man is administered a single drop, a bead +of dew of vital power per day,--a cup as large as space, and one drop +of the water of life in it. Each man woke in the morning, with an +appetite that could eat the solar system like a cake; a spirit for +action and passion without bounds; he could lay his hand on the morning +star; he could try conclusions with gravitation or chemistry; but, on +the first motion to prove his strength--hands, feet, senses, gave way, +and would not serve him. He was an emperor deserted by his states, and +left to whistle by himself, or thrust into a mob of emperors, all +whistling: and still the sirens sang, "The attractions are proportioned +to the destinies." In every house, in the heart of each maiden, and +of each boy, in the soul of the soaring saint, this chasm is found,-- +between the largest promise of ideal power, and the shabby experience. + +The expansive nature of truth comes to our succor, elastic, not to be +surrounded. Man helps himself by larger generalizations. The lesson +of life is practically to generalize; to believe what the years and +the centuries say against the hours; to resist the usurpation of +particulars; to penetrate to their catholic sense. Things seem to say +one thing, and say the reverse. The appearance is immoral; the result +is moral. Things seem to tend downward, to justify despondency, to +promote rogues, to defeat the just; and, by knaves, as by martyrs, the +just cause is carried forward. Although knaves win in every political +struggle, although society seems to be delivered over from the hands +of one set of criminals into the hands of another set of criminals, +as fast as the government is changed, and the march of civilization +is a train of felonies, yet, general ends are somehow answered. We +see, now, events forced on, which seem to retard or retrograde the +civility of ages. But the world-spirit is a good swimmer, and storms +and waves cannot drown him. He snaps his finger at laws; and so, +throughout history, heaven seems to affect low and poor means. Through +the years and the centuries, through evil agents, through toys and +atoms, a great and beneficent tendency irresistibly streams. + +Let a man learn to look for the permanent in the mutable and fleeting; +let him learn to bear the disappearance of things he was wont to +reverence, without losing his reverence; let him learn that he is here, +not to work, but to be worked upon; and that, though abyss open under +abyss, and opinion displace opinion, all are at last contained in the +Eternal cause.-- + + "If my bark sink, 'tis to another sea." + + + + +V. SHAKSPEARE; OR, THE POET. + + +Great men are more distinguished by range and extent than by +originality. If we require the originality which consists in weaving, +like a spider, their web from their own bowels; in finding clay, and +making bricks and building the house, no great men are original. Nor +does valuable originality consist in unlikeness to other men. The hero +is in the press of knights, and the thick of events; and, seeing what +men want, and sharing their desire, he adds the needful length of sight +and of arm, to come at the desired point. The greatest genius is the +most indebted man. A poet is no rattlebrain, saying what comes +uppermost, and, because he says everything, saying, at last, something +good; but a heart in unison with his time and country. There is nothing +whimsical and fantastic in his production, but sweet and sad earnest, +freighted with the weightiest convictions, and pointed with the most +determined aim which any man or class knows of in his times. + +The Genius of our life is jealous of individuals, and will not have +any individual great, except through the general. There is no choice +to genius. A great man does not wake up on some fine morning, and say, +"I am full of life, I will go to sea, and find an Antarctic continent: +to-day I will square the circle: I will ransack botany, and find a new +food for man: I have a new architecture in my mind: I foresee a new +mechanic power;" no, but he finds himself in the river of the thoughts +and events, forced onward by the ideas and necessities of his +contemporaries. He stands where all the eyes of men look one way, and +their hands all point in the direction in which he should go. The +church has reared him amidst rites and pomps, and he carries out the +advice which her music gave him, and builds a cathedral needed by her +chants and processions. He finds a war raging: it educates him by +trumpet, in barracks, and he betters the instruction. He finds two +counties groping to bring coal, or flour, or fish, from the place of +production to the place of consumption, and he hits on a railroad. +Every master has found his materials collected, and his power lay in +his sympathy with his people, and in his love of the materials he +wrought in. What an economy of power! and what a compensation for the +shortness of life! All is done to his hand. The world has brought him +thus far on his way. The human race has gone out before him, sunk the +hills, filled the hollows, and bridged the rivers. Men, nations, poets, +artisans, women, all have worked for him, and he enters into their +labors. Choose any other thing, out of the line of tendency, out of +the national feeling and history, and he would have all to do for +himself: his powers would be expended in the first preparations. Great +genial power, one would almost say, consists in not being original at +all; in being altogether receptive; in letting the world do all, and +suffering the spirit of the hour to pass unobstructed through the mind. + +Shakspeare's youth fell in a time when the English people were +importunate for dramatic entertainments. The court took offence easily +at political allusions, and attempted to suppress them. The Puritans, +a growing and energetic party, and the religious among the Anglican +church, would suppress them. But the people wanted them. Inn-yards, +houses without roofs, and extemporaneous enclosures at country fairs, +were the ready theatres of strolling players. The people had tasted +this new joy; and, as we could not hope to suppress newspapers now,--no, +not by the strongest party,--neither then could king, prelate, or +puritan, alone or united, suppress an organ, which was ballad, epic, +newspaper, caucus, lecture, punch, and library, at the same time. +Probably king, prelate and puritan, all found their own account in it. +It had become, by all causes, a national interest,--by no means +conspicuous, so that some great scholar would have thought of treating +it in an English history,--but not a whit less considerable, because +it was cheap, and of no account, like a baker's-shop. The best proof +of its vitality is the crowd of writers which suddenly broke into this +field; Kyd, Marlow, Greene, Jonson, Chapman, Dekker, Webster, Heywood, +Middleton, Peele, Ford, Massinger, Beaumont, and Fletcher. + +The secure possession, by the stage, of the public mind, is of the +first importance to the poet who works for it. He loses no time in +idle experiments. Here is audience and expectation prepared. In the +case of Shakespeare there is much more. At the time when he left +Stratford, and went up to London, a great body of stage-plays, of +all dates and writers, existed in manuscript, and were in turn produced +on the boards. Here is the Tale of Troy, which the audience will bear +hearing some part of every week; the Death of Julius Caesar, and other +stories out of Plutarch, which they never tire of; a shelf full of +English history, from the chronicles of Brut and Arthur, down to the +royal Henries, which men hear eagerly; and a string of doleful +tragedies, merry Italian tales, and Spanish voyages, which all the +London 'prentices know. All the mass has been treated, with more or +less skill, by every playwright, and the prompter has the soiled and +tattered manuscripts. It is now no longer possible to say who wrote +them first. They have been the property of the Theatre so long, and +so many rising geniuses have enlarged or altered them, inserting a +speech, or a whole scene, or adding a song, that no man can any longer +claim copyright on this work of numbers. Happily, no man wishes to. +They are not yet desired in that way. We have few readers, many +spectators and hearers. They had best lie where they are. + +Shakspeare, in common with his comrades, esteemed the mass of old +plays, waste stock, in which any experiment could be freely tried. Had +the _prestige_ which hedges about a modern tragedy existed, nothing +could have been done. The rude warm blood of the living England +circulated in the play, as in street-ballads, and gave body which he +wanted to his airy and majestic fancy. The poet needs a ground in +popular tradition on which he may work, and which, again, may restrain +his art within the due temperance. It holds him to the people, supplies +a foundation for his edifice; and, in furnishing so much work done to +his hand, leaves him at leisure, and in full strength for the audacities +of his imagination. In short, the poet owes to his legend what sculpture +owed to the temple. Sculpture in Egypt, and in Greece, grew up in +subordination to architecture. It was the ornament of the temple wall: +at first, a rude relief carved on pediments, then the relief became +bolder, and a head or arm was projected from the wall, the groups being +still arrayed with reference to the building, which serves also as a +frame to hold the figures; and when, at last, the greatest freedom of +style and treatment was reached, the prevailing genius of architecture +still enforced a certain calmness and continence in the statue. As +soon as the statue was begun for itself, and with no reference to the +temple or palace, the art began to decline: freak, extravagance, and +exhibition, took the place of the old temperance. This balance-wheel, +which the sculptor found in architecture, the perilous irritability +of poetic talent found in the accumulated dramatic materials to which +the people were already wonted, and which had a certain excellence +which no single genius, however extraordinary, could hope to create. + +In point of fact, it appears that Shakspeare did owe debts in all +directions, and was able to use whatever he found; and the amount of +indebtedness may be inferred from Malone's laborious computations in +regard to the First, Second, and Third parts of Henry VI., in which, +"out of 6043 lines, 1771 were written by some author preceding +Shakspeare; 2373 by him, on the foundation laid by his predecessors; +and 1899 were entirely his own." And the preceding investigation hardly +leaves a single drama of his absolute invention. Malone's sentence is +an important piece of external history. In Henry VIII., I think I see +plainly the cropping out of the original rock on which his own finer +stratum was laid. The first play was written by a superior, thoughtful +man, with a vicious ear. I can mark his lines, and know well their +cadence. See Wolsey's soliloquy, and the following scene with Cromwell, +where,--instead of the metre of Shakspeare, whose secret is, that the +thought constructs the tune, so that reading for the sense will best +bring out the rhythm,--here the lines are constructed on a given tune, +and the verse has even a trace of pulpit eloquence. But the play +contains, through all its length, unmistakable traits of Shakspeare's +hand, and some passages, as the account of the coronation, are like +autographs. What is odd, the compliment to Queen Elizabeth is in the +bad rhythm. + +Shakspeare knew that tradition supplies a better fable that any +invention can. If he lost any credit of design, he augmented his +resources; and, at that day our petulant demand for originality was +not so much pressed. There was no literature for the million. The +universal reading, the cheap press, were unknown. A great poet, who +appears in illiterate times, absorbs into his sphere all the light +which is anywhere radiating. Every intellectual jewel, every flower +of sentiment, it is his fine office to bring to his people; and he +comes to value his memory equally with his invention. He is therefore +little solicitous whence his thoughts have been derived; whether through +translation, whether through tradition, whether by travel in distant +countries, whether by inspiration; from whatever source, they are +equally welcome to his uncritical audience. Nay, he borrows very near +home. Other men say wise things as well as he; only they say a good +many foolish things, and do not know when they have spoken wisely. He +knows the sparkle of the true stone, and puts it in high place, wherever +he finds it. Such is the happy position of Homer, perhaps; of Chaucer, +of Saadi. They felt that all wit was their wit. And they are librarians +and historiographers, as well as poets. Each romancer was heir and +dispenser of all the hundred tales of the world,-- + + "Presenting Thebes' and Pelops' line + And the tale of Troy divine." + +The influence of Chaucer is conspicuous in all our early literature; +and, more recently, not only Pope and Dryden have been beholden to +him, but, in the whole society of English writers, a large +unacknowledged debt is easily traced. One is charmed with the opulence +which feeds so many pensioners. But Chaucer is a huge borrower. Chaucer, +it seems, drew continually, through Lydgate and Caxton, from Guido di +Colonna, whose Latin romance of the Trojan war was in turn a compilation +from Dares Phrygius, Ovid, and Statius. Then Petrarch, Boccaccio, and +the Provencal poets, are his benefactors: the Romaunt of the Rose is +only judicious translation from William of Lorris and John of Meun: +Troilus and Creseide, from Lollius of Urbino: The Cock and the Fox, +from the _Lais_ of Marie: The House of Fame, from the French or +Italian: and poor Gower he uses as if he were only a brick-kiln or +stone-quarry out of which to build his house. He steals by this +apology,--that what he takes has no worth where he finds it, and the +greatest where he leaves it. It has come to be practically a sort of +rule in literature, that a man, having once shown himself capable of +original writing, is entitled thenceforth to steal from the writings +of others at discretion. Thought is the property of him who can +entertain it; and of him who can adequately place it. A certain +awkwardness marks the use of borrowed thoughts; but, as soon as we +have learned what to do with them, they become our own. + +Thus, all originality is relative. Every thinker is retrospective. The +learned member of the legislature, at Westminster, or at Washington, +speaks and votes for thousands. Show us the constituency, and the now +invisible channels by which the senator is made aware of their wishes, +the crowd of practical and knowing men, who, by correspondence or +conversation, are feeding him with evidence, anecdotes, and estimates, +and it will bereave his fine attitude and resistance of something of +their impressiveness. As Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Webster vote, so Locke +and Rousseau think for thousands; and so there were fountains all +around Homer, Menu, Saadi, or Milton, from which they drew; friends, +lovers, books, traditions, proverbs,--all perished,--which, if seen, +would go to reduce the wonder. Did the bard speak with authority? Did +he feel himself, overmatched by any companion? The appeal is to the +consciousness of the writer. Is there at last in his breast a Delhi +whereof to ask concerning any thought or thing, whether it be verily +so, yea or nay? and to have answer, and to rely on that? All the debt +which such a man could contract to other wit, would never disturb his +consciousness of originality: for the ministrations of books, and of +other minds, are a whiff of smoke to that most private reality with +which he has conversed. + +It is easy to see that what is best written or done by genius, in the +world, was no man's work, but came by wide social labor, when a thousand +wrought like one, sharing the same impulse. Our English Bible is a +wonderful specimen of the strength and music of the English language. +But it was not made by one man, or at one time; but centuries and +churches brought it to perfection. There never was a time when there +was not some translation existing. The Liturgy, admired for its energy +and pathos, is an anthology of the piety of ages and nations, a +translation of the prayers and forms of the Catholic church,--these +collected, too, in long periods, from the prayers and meditations of +every saint and sacred writer, all over the world. Grotius makes the +like remark in respect to the Lord's Prayer, that the single clauses +of which it is composed were already in use, in the time of Christ, +in the rabbinical forms. He picked out the grains of gold. The nervous +language of the Common Law, the impressive forms of our courts, and +the precision and substantial truth of the legal distinctions, are the +contribution of all the sharp-sighted, strong-minded men who have lived +in the countries where these laws govern. The translation of Plutarch +gets its excellence by being translation on translation. There never +was a time when there was none. All the truly diomatic and national +phrases are kept, and all others successively picked out and thrown +away. Something like the same process had gone on, long before, with +the originals of these books. The world takes liberties with +world-books. Vedas, Aesop's Fables, Pilpay, Arabian Nights, Cid, Iliad, +Robin Hood, Scottish Minstrelsy, are not the work of single men. In +the composition of such works, the time thinks, the market thinks, the +mason, the carpenter, the merchant, the farmer, the fop, all think for +us. Every book supplies its time with one good word; every municipal +law, every trade, every folly of the day, and the generic catholic +genius who is not afraid or ashamed to owe his originality to the +originality of all, stands with the next age as the recorder and +embodiment of his own. + +We have to thank the researches of antiquaries, and the Shakspeare +Society, for ascertaining the steps of the English drama, from the +Mysteries celebrated in churches and by churchmen, and the final +detachment from the church, and the completion of secular plays, from +Ferrex and Porrex, and Gammer Gurton's Needle, down to the possession +of the stage by the very pieces which Shakspeare altered, remodelled, +and finally made his own. Elated with success, and piqued by the growing +interest of the problem, they have left no book-stall unsearched, no +chest in a garret unopened, no file of old yellow accounts to decompose +in damp and worms, so keen was the hope to discover whether the boy +Shakspeare poached or not, whether he held horses at the theater door, +whether he kept school, and why he left in his will only his second-best +bed to Ann Hathaway, his wife. + +There is somewhat touching in the madness with which the passing age +mischooses the object on which all candles shine, and all eyes are +turned; the care with which it registers every trifle touching Queen +Elizabeth, and King James, and the Essexes, Leicesters, Burleighs, and +Buckinghams; and let pass without a single valuable note the founder +of another dynasty, which alone will cause the Tudor dynasty to be +remembered,--the man who carries the Saxon race in him by the +inspiration which feeds him, and on whose thoughts the foremost people +of the world are now for some ages to be nourished, and minds to receive +this and not another bias. A popular player,--nobody suspected he was +the poet of the human race; and the secret was kept as faithfully from +poets and intellectual men, as from courtiers and frivolous people. +Bacon, who took the inventory of the human understanding for his times, +never mentioned his name. Ben Jonson, though we have strained his few +words of regard and panegyric, had no suspicion of the elastic fame +whose first vibrations he was attempting. He no doubt thought the +praise he has conceded to him generous, and esteemed himself, out of +all question, the better poet of the two. + +If it need wit to know wit, according to the proverb, Shakspeare's +time should be capable of recognizing it. Sir Henry Wotton was born +four years after Shakspeare, and died twenty-three years after him; +and I find among his correspondents and acquaintances, the following +persons: Theodore Beza, Isaac Casaubon, Sir Philip Sidney, Earl of +Essex, Lord Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Milton, Sir Henry Vane, +Isaac Walton, Dr. Donne, Abraham Cowley, Bellarmine, Charles Cotton, +John Pym, John Hales, Kepler, Vieta, Albericus Gentilis, Paul Sarpi, +Ariminius; with all of whom exist some token of his having communicated, +without enumerating many others, whom doubtless he saw,--Shakspeare, +Spenser, Jonson, Beaumont, Massinger, two Herberts, Marlow, Chapman, +and the rest. Since the constellation of great men who appeared in +Greece in the time of Pericles, there was never any such society;--yet +their genius failed them to find out the best head in the universe. +Our poet's mask was impenetrable. You cannot see the mountain near. +It took a century to make it suspected; and not until two centuries +had passed, after his death, did any criticism which we think adequate +begin to appear. It was not possible to write the history of Shakspeare +till now; for he is the father of German literature: it was on the +introduction of Shakspeare into German by Lessing, and the translation +of his works by Wieland and Schlegel, that the rapid burst of German +literature was most intimately connected. It was not until the +nineteenth century, whose speculative genius is a sort of living Hamlet, +that the tragedy of Hamlet should find such wondering readers. Now, +literature, philosophy, and thought are Shakspearized. His mind is the +horizon beyond which, at present, we do not see. Our ears are educated +to music by his rhythm. Coleridge and Goethe are the only critics who +have expressed our convictions with any adequate fidelity: but there +is in all cultivated minds a silent appreciation of his superlative +power and beauty, which, like Christianity, qualifies the period. + +The Shakspeare Society have inquired in all directions, advertised the +missing facts, offered money for any information that will lead to +proof; and with what results? Beside some important illustration of +the history of the English stage, to which I have adverted, they have +gleaned a few facts touching the property, and dealings in regard to +property, of the poet. It appears that, from year to year, he owned +a larger share in the Blackfriars' Theater: its wardrobe and other +appurtenances were his: that he bought an estate in his native village, +with his earnings, as writer and shareholder; that he lived in the +best house in Stratford; was intrusted by his neighbors with their +commissions in London, as of borrowing money, and the like; that he +was a veritable farmer. About the time when he was writing Macbeth, +he sues Philip Rogers, in the borough-court of Stratford, for +thirty-five shillings ten pence, for corn delivered to him at different +times; and, in all respects, appears as a good husband, with no +reputation for eccentricity or excess. He was a good-natured sort of +man, an actor and shareholder in the theater, not in any striking +manner distinguished from other actors and managers. I admit the +importance of this information. It was well worth the pains that have +been taken to procure it. + +But whatever scraps of information concerning his condition these +researches may have rescued, they can shed no light upon that infinite +invention which is the concealed magnet of his attraction for us. We +are very clumsy writers of history. We tell the chronicle of parentage, +birth, birthplace, schooling, schoolmates, earning of money, marriage, +publication of books, celebrity, death; and when we have come to an +end of this gossip, no ray of relation appears between it and the +goddess-born; and it seems as if, had we dipped at random into the +"Modern Plutarch," and read any other life there, it would have fitted +the poems as well, It is the essence of poetry to spring, like the +rainbow daughter of Wonder, from the invisible, to abolish the past, +and refuse all history. Malone, Warburton, Dyce, and Collier, have +wasted their oil. The famed theaters, Covent Garden, Drury Lane, the +Park, and Tremont, have vainly assisted. Betterton, Garrick, Kemble, +Kean, and Macready, dedicate their lives to this genius; him they +crown, elucidate, obey, and express. The genius knows them not. The +recitation begins; one golden word leaps out immortal from all this +painted pedantry, and sweetly torments us with invitations to its own +inaccessible homes. I remember, I went once to see the Hamlet of a +famed performer, the pride of the English stage; and all I then heard, +and all I now remember, of the tragedian, was that in which the +tragedian had no part; simply, Hamlet's question to the ghost,-- + + "What may this mean, + That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel + Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon?" + +That imagination which dilates the closet he writes into the world's +dimension, crowds it with agents in rank and order, as quickly reduces +the big reality to be the glimpses of the moon. These tricks of his +magic spoil for us the illusions of the green-room. Can any biography +shed light on the localities into which the Midsummer Night's Dream +admits me? Did Shakspeare confide to any notary or parish recorder, +sacristan, or surrogate, in Stratford, the genesis of that delicate +creation? The forest of Arden, the nimble air of Scone Castle, the +moonlight of Portia's villa, "the antres vast and desarts idle," of +Othello's captivity,--where is the third cousin, or grand-nephew, the +chancellor's file of accounts, or private letter, that has kept one +word of those transcendent secrets. In fine, in this drama, as in all +great works of art,--in the Cyclopaean architecture of Egypt and India; +in the Phidian sculpture; the Gothic minsters; the Italian painting; +the Ballads of Spain and Scotland,--the Genius draws up the ladder +after him, when the creative age goes up to heaven, and gives way to +a new, who see the works, and ask in vain for a history. + +Shakspeare is the only biographer of Shakspeare; and even he can tell +nothing, except to the Shakspeare in us; that is, to our most +apprehensive and sympathetic hour. He cannot step from off his tripod, +and give us anecdotes of his inspirations. Read the antique documents +extricated, analyzed, and compared, by the assiduous Dyce and Collier; +and now read one of those skyey sentences,--aerolites,--which seem to +have fallen out of heaven, and which, not your experience, but the man +within the breast, has accepted as words of fate; and tell me if they +match; if the former account in any manner for the latter; or, which +gives the most historical insight into the man. + +Hence, though our external history is so meager, yet, with Shakspeare +for biographer, instead of Aubrey and Rowe, we have really the +information which is material, that which describes character and +fortune; that which, if we were about to meet the man and deal with +him, would most import us to know. We have his recorded convictions +on those questions which knock for answer at every heart,--on life and +death, on love, on wealth and poverty, on the prizes of life, and the +ways whereby we may come at them; on the characters of men, and the +influences, occult and open, which affect their fortunes: and on those +mysterious and demoniacal powers which defy our science, and which yet +interweave their malice and their gift in our brightest hours. Who +ever read the volume of Sonnets, without finding that the poet had +there revealed, under masks that are no masks to the intelligent, the +lore of friendship and of love; the confusion of sentiments in the +most susceptible, and, at the same time, the most intellectual of men? +What trait of his private mind has he hidden in his dramas? One can +discern, in his ample pictures of the gentleman and the king, what +forms and humanities pleased him; his delight in troops of friends, +in large hospitality, in cheerful giving. Let Timon, let Warwick, let +Antonio the merchant, answer for his great heart. So far from Shakspeare +being the least known, he is the one person, in all modern history, +known to us. What point of morals, of manners, of economy, of +philosophy, of religion, of taste, of the conduct of life, has he not +settled? What mystery has he not signified his knowledge of? What +office or function, or district of man's work, has he not remembered? +What king has he not taught state, as Talma taught Napoleon? What +maiden has not found him finer than her delicacy? What lover has he +not outloved? What sage has he not outseen? What gentleman has he not +instructed in the rudeness of his behavior? + +Some able and appreciating critics think no criticism on Shakspeare +valuable, that does not rest purely on the dramatic merit; that he is +falsely judged as poet and philosopher. I think as highly as these +critics of his dramatic merit, but still think it secondary. He was +a full man, who liked to talk; a brain exhaling thoughts and images, +which, seeking vent, found the drama next at hand. Had he been less, +we should have had to consider how well he filled his place, how good +a dramatist he was,--and he is the best in the world. But it turns +out; that what he has to say is of that weight, as to withdraw some +attention from the vehicle; and he is like some saint whose history +is to be rendered into all languages, into verse and prose, into songs +and pictures, and cut up into proverbs; so that the occasions which +gave the saint's meaning the form of a conversation, or of a prayer, +or of a code of laws, is immaterial compared with the universality of +its application. So it fares with the wise Shakspeare and his book of +life. He wrote the airs for all our modern music: he wrote the text +of modern life; the text of manners: he drew the man of England and +Europe; the father of the man in America: he drew the man and described +the day, and what is done in it: he read the hearts of men and women, +their probity, and their second thought, and wiles; the wiles of +innocence, and the transitions by which virtues and vices slide into +their contraries: he could divide the mother's part from the father's +part in the face of the child, or draw the fine demarcations of freedom +and fate: he knew the laws of repression which make the police of +nature: and all the sweets and all the terrors of human lot lay in his +mind as truly but as softly as the landscape lies on the eye. And the +importance of this wisdom of life sinks the form, as of Drama or Epic, +out of notice. 'Tis like making a question concerning the paper on +which a king's message is written. + +Shakspeare is as much out of the category of eminent authors, as he +is out of the crowd. He is inconceivably wise; the others, conceivably. +A good reader can, in a sort, nestle into Plato's brain, and think +from thence; but not into Shakspeare's. We are still out of doors. For +executive faculty, for creation, Shakspeare is unique. No man can +imagine it better. He was the farthest reach of subtlety compatible +with an individual self,--the subtilest of authors, and only just +within the possibility of authorship. With this wisdom of life, is the +equal endowment of imaginative and of lyric power. He clothed the +creatures of his legend with form and sentiments, as if they were +people who had lived under his roof; and few real men have left such +distinct characters as these fictions. And they spoke in language as +sweet as it was fit. Yet his talents never seduced him into an +ostentation, nor did he harp on one string. An omnipresent humanity +co-ordinates all his faculties. Give a man of talents a story to tell, +and his partiality will presently appear. He has certain observations, +opinions, topics, which have some accidental prominence, and which he +disposes all to exhibit. He crams this part, and starves that other +part, consulting not the fitness of the thing, but his fitness and +strength. But Shakspeare has no peculiarity, no importunate topic; but +all is duly given; no veins, no curiosities: no cow-painter, no +bird-fancier, no mannerist is he: he has no discoverable egotism: the +great he tells greatly; the small subordinately. He is wise without +emphasis or assertion; he is strong, as nature is strong, who lifts +the land into mountain slopes without effort, and by the same rule as +she floats a bubble in the air, and likes as well to do the one as the +other. This makes that equality of power in farce, tragedy, narrative, +and love-songs; a merit so incessant, that each reader is incredulous +of the perception of other readers. + +This power of expression, or of transferring the inmost truth of things +into music and verse, makes him the type of the poet, and has added +a new problem to metaphysics. This is that which throws him into natural +history, as a main production of the globe, and as announcing new eras +and ameliorations. Things were mirrored in his poetry without loss or +blur: he could paint the fine with precision, the great with compass; +the tragic and comic indifferently, and without any distortion or +favor. He carried his powerful execution into minute details, to a +hair point; finishes an eyelash or a dimple as firmly as he draws a +mountain; and yet these like nature's, will bear the scrutiny of the +solar microscope. + +In short, he is the chief example to prove that more or less of +production, more or fewer pictures, is a thing indifferent. He had the +power to make one picture. Daguerre learned how to let one flower etch +its image on his plate of iodine; and then proceeds at leisure to etch +a million. There are always objects; but there was never representation. +Here is perfect representation, at last; and now let the world of +figures sit for their portraits. No recipe can be given for the making +of a Shakspeare; but the possibility of the translation of things into +song is demonstrated. + +His lyric power lies in the genius of the piece. The sonnets, though +their excellence is lost in the splendor of the dramas, are as +inimitable as they: and it is not a merit of lines, but a total merit +of the piece; like the tone of voice of some incomparable person, so +is this a speech of poetic beings, and any clause as unproducible now +as a whole poem. + +Though the speeches in the plays, and single lines, have a beauty which +tempts the ear to pause on them for their euphuism, yet the sentence +is so loaded with meaning, and so linked with its foregoers and +followers, that the logician is satisfied. His means are as admirable +as his ends; every subordinate invention, by which he helps himself +to connect some irreconcilable opposites, is a poem too. He is not +reduced to dismount and walk, because his horses are running off with +him in some distant direction: he always rides. + +The finest poetry was first experience: but the thought has suffered +a transformation since it was an experience. Cultivated men often +attain a good degree of skill in writing verses; but it is easy to +read, through their poems, their personal history; any one acquainted +with parties can name every figure: this is Andrew, and that is Rachel. +The sense thus remains prosaic. It is a caterpillar with wings, and +not yet a butterfly. In the poet's mind, the fact has gone quite over +into the new element of thought, and has lost all that is exuvial. +This generosity abides with Shakspeare. We say, from the truth and +closeness of his pictures, that he knows the lesson by heart. Yet there +is not a trace of egotism. + +One more royal trait properly belongs to the poet. I mean his +cheerfulness, without which no man can be a poet,--for beauty is his +aim. He loves virtue, not for its obligation, but for its grace: he +delights in the world, in man, in woman, for the lovely light that +sparkles from them. Beauty, the spirit of joy and hilarity, he sheds +over the universe. Epicurus relates, that poetry hath such charms that +a lover might forsake his mistress to partake of them. And the true +bards have been noted for their firm and cheerful temper. Homer lies +in sunshine; Chaucer is glad and erect; and Saadi says, "It was rumored +abroad that I was penitent; but what had I to do with repentance?" Not +less sovereign and cheerful,--much more sovereign and cheerful is the +tone of Shakspeare. His name suggests joy and emancipation to the heart +of men. If he should appear in any company of human souls, who would +not march in his troop? He touches nothing that does not borrow health +and longevity from his festive style. + +And now, how stands the account of man with this bard and benefactor, +when in solitude, shutting our ears to the reverberations of his fame, +we seek to strike the balance? Solitude has austere lessons; it can +teach us to spare both heroes and poets; and it weighs Shakspeare also, +and finds him to share the halfness and imperfections of humanity. + +Shakspeare, Homer, Dante, Chaucer, saw the splendor of meaning that +plays over the visible world; knew that a tree had another use than +for apples, and corn another than for meal, and the ball of the earth, +than for tillage and roads: that these things bore a second and finer +harvest to the mind, being emblems of its thoughts, and conveying in +all their natural history a certain mute commentary on human life. +Shakspeare employed them as colors to compose his picture. He rested +in their beauty; and never took the step which seemed inevitable to +such genius, namely, to explore the virtue which resides in these +symbols, and imparts this power,--what is that which they themselves +say? He converted the elements, which waited on his command, into +entertainments. He was master of the revels to mankind. Is it not as +if one should have, through majestic powers of science, the comets +given into his hand, or the planets and their moons, and should draw +them from their orbits to glare with the municipal fireworks on a +holiday night, and advertise in all towns, "very superior pyrotechny +this evening!" Are the agents of nature, and the power to understand +them, worth no more than a street serenade, or the breath of a cigar? +One remembers again the trumpet-text in the Koran--"The heavens and +the earth, and all that is between them, think ye we have created them +in jest?" As long as the question is of talent and mental power, the +world of men has not his equal to show. But when the question is to +life, and its materials, and its auxiliaries, how does he profit me? +What does it signify? It is but a Twelfth Night, or Midsummer-Night's +Dream, or a Winter Evening's Tale: what signifies another picture more +or less? The Egyptian verdict of the Shakspeare Societies comes to +mind, that he was a jovial actor and manager. I cannot marry this fact +to his verse. Other admirable men have led lives in some sort of keeping +with their thought; but this man, in wide contrast. Had he been less, +had he reached only the common measure of great authors, of Bacon, +Milton, Tasso, Cervantes, we might leave the fact in the twilight of +human fate: but, that this man of men, he who gave to the science of +mind a new and larger subject than had ever existed, and planted the +standard of humanity some furlongs forward into Chaos,--that he should +not be wise for himself,--it must even go into the world's history, +that the best poet led an obscure and profane life, using his genius +for the public amusement. + +Well, other men, priest and prophet, Israelite, German, and Swede, +beheld the same objects: they also saw through them that which was +contained. And to what purpose? The beauty straightway vanishes; they +read commandments, all-excluding mountainous duty; an obligation, a +sadness, as of piled mountains, fell on them, and life became ghastly, +joyless, a pilgrim's progress, a probation, beleaguered round with +doleful histories of Adam's fall and curse, behind us; with doomsdays +and purgatorial and penal fires before us; and the heart of the seer +and the heart of the listener sank in them. It must be conceded that +these are half-views of half-men. The world still wants its +poet-priest, a reconciler, who shall not trifle with Shakspeare the +player, nor shall grope in graves with Swedenborg the mourner; but who +shall see, speak, and act, with equal inspiration. For knowledge will +brighten the sunshine; right is more beautiful than private affection; +and love is compatible with universal wisdom. + + + + +VI. NAPOLEON; OR, THE MAN OF THE WORLD. + + +Among the eminent persons of the nineteenth century, Bonaparte is far +the best known, and the most powerful; and owes his predominance to +the fidelity with which he expresses the tone of thought and belief, +the aims of the masses of active and cultivated men. It is Swedenborg's +theory, that every organ is made up of homogeneous particles; or, as +it is sometimes expressed, every whole is made of similars; that is, +the lungs are composed of infinitely small lungs; the liver, of +infinitely small livers; the kidney, of little kidneys, etc. Following +this analogy, if any man is found to carry with him the power and +affections of vast numbers, if Napoleon is France, if Napoleon is +Europe, it is because the people whom he sways are little Napoleons. + +In our society, there is a standing antagonism between the conservative +and the democratic classes; between those who have made their fortunes, +and the young and the poor who have fortunes to make; between the +interests of dead labor,--that is, the labor of hands long ago still +in the grave, which labor is now entombed in money stocks, or in land +and buildings owned by idle capitalists,--and the interests of living +labor, which seeks to possess itself of land, and buildings, and money +stocks. The first class is timid, selfish, illiberal, hating innovation, +and continually losing numbers by death. The second class is selfish +also, encroaching, bold, self-relying, always outnumbering the other, +and recruiting its numbers every hour by births. It desires to keep +open every avenue to the competition of all, and to multiply +avenues;--the class of business men in America, in England, in France, +and throughout Europe; the class of industry and skill. Napoleon is +its representative. The instinct of active, brave, able men, throughout +the middle class everywhere, has pointed out Napoleon as the incarnate +Democrat. He had their virtues, and their vices; above all, he had +their spirit or aim. That tendency is material, pointing at a sensual +success, and employing the richest and most various means to that end; +conversant with mechanical powers, highly intellectual, widely and +accurately learned and skilful, but subordinating all intellectual and +spiritual forces into means to a material success. To be the rich man +is the end. "God has granted" says the Koran, "to every people a prophet +in its own tongue." Paris, and London, and New York, the spirit of +commerce, of money, and material power, were also to have their prophet; +and Bonaparte was qualified and sent. + +Every one of the million readers of anecdotes, or memoirs, or lives +of Napoleon, delights in the page, because he studies in it his own +history. Napoleon is thoroughly modern, and, at the highest point of +his fortunes, has the very spirit of the newspapers. He is no saint,--to +use his own word, "no capuchin," and he is no hero, in the high sense. +The man in the street finds in him the qualities and powers of other +men in the street. He finds him, like himself, by birth a citizen, +who, by very intelligible merits, arrived at such a commanding position, +that he could indulge all those tastes which the common man possesses, +but is obliged to conceal and deny; good society, good books, fast +traveling, dress, dinners, servants without number, personal weight, +the execution of his ideas, the standing in the attitude of a benefactor +to all persons about him, the refined enjoyments of pictures, statues, +music, palaces, and conventional honors,--precisely what is agreeable +to the heart of every man in the nineteenth century,--this powerful +man possessed. + +It is true that a man of Napoleon's truth of adaptation to the mind +of the masses around him becomes not merely representative, but actually +a monopolizer and usurper of other minds. Thus Mirabeau plagiarized +every good thought, every good word, that was spoken in France. Dumont +relates that he sat in the gallery of the Convention, and heard Mirabeau +make a speech. It struck Dumont that he could fit it with a peroration, +which he wrote in pencil immediately, and showed to Lord Elgin, who +sat by him. Lord Elgin approved it, and Dumont, in the evening, showed +it to Mirabeau. Mirabeau read it, pronounced it admirable, and declared +he would incorporate it into his harangue, to-morrow, to the Assembly. +"It is impossible," said Dumont, "as, unfortunately, I have shown it +to Lord Elgin." "If you have shown it to Lord Elgin, and to fifty +persons beside, I shall still speak it to-morrow:" and he did speak +it, with much effect, at the next day's session. For Mirabeau, with +his overpowering personality, felt that these things, which his presence +inspired, were as much his own, as if he had said them, and that his +adoption of them gave them their weight. Much more absolute and +centralizing was the successor to Mirabeau's popularity, and to much +more than his predominance in France. Indeed, a man of Napoleon's stamp +almost ceases to have a private speech and opinion. He is so largely +receptive, and is so placed, that he comes to be a bureau for all the +intelligence, wit, and power, of the age and country. He gains the +battle; he makes the code; he makes the system of weights and measures; +he levels the Alps; he builds the road. All distinguished engineers, +savants, statists, report to him; so likewise do all good heads in +every kind; he adopts the best measures, sets his stamp on them, and +not these alone, but on every happy and memorable expression. Every +sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves +reading, as it is the sense of France. + +Bonaparte was the idol of common men, because he had in transcendent +degree the qualities and powers of common men. There is a certain +satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we +get rid of cant and hypocrisy. Bonaparte wrought, in common with that +great class he represented, for power and wealth,--but Bonaparte, +specially, without any scruple as to the means. All the sentiments +which embarrass men's pursuit of these objects, he set aside. The +sentiments were for women and children. Fontanes, in 1804, expressed +Napoleon's own sense, when, in behalf of the Senate, he addressed +him,--"Sire, the desire of perfection is the worst disease that ever +afflicted the human mind." The advocates of liberty, and of progress, +are "ideologists;"--a word of contempt often in his mouth;--"Necker +is an ideologist:" "Lafayette is an ideologist." + +An Italian proverb, too well known, declares that, "if you would +succeed, you must not be too good." It is an advantage, within certain +limits, to have renounced the dominion of the sentiments of piety, +gratitude, and generosity; since, what was an impassable bar to us, +and still is to others, becomes a convenient weapon for our purposes; +just as the river which was a formidable barrier, winter transforms +into the smoothest of roads. + +Napoleon renounced, once for all, sentiments and affections, and would +help himself with his hands and his head. With him is no miracle, and +no magic. He is a worker in brass, in iron, in wood, in earth, in +roads, in buildings, in money, and in troops, and a very consistent +and wise master-workman. He is never weak and literary, but acts with +the solidity and the precision of natural agents. He has not lost his +native sense and sympathy with things. Men give way before such a man +as before natural events. To be sure, there are men enough who are +immersed in things, as farmers, smiths, sailors, and mechanics +generally; and we know how real and solid such men appear in the +presence of scholars and grammarians; but these men ordinarily lack +the power of arrangement, and are like hands without a head. But +Bonaparte superadded to this mineral and animal force, insight and +generalization, so that men saw in him combined the natural and the +intellectual power, as if the sea and land had taken flesh and begun +to cipher. Therefore the land and sea seem to presuppose him. He came +unto his own, and they received him. This ciphering operative knows +what he is working with, and what is the product. He knew the properties +of gold and iron, of wheels and ships, of troops and diplomatists, and +required that each should do after its kind. + +The art of war was the game in which he exerted his arithmetic. It +consisted, according to him, in having always more forces than the +enemy, on the point where the enemy is attacked, or where he attacks: +and his whole talent is strained by endless manoeuvre and evolution, +to march always on the enemy at an angle, and destroy his forces in +detail. It is obvious that a very small force, skilfully and rapidly +manoeuvring, so as always to bring two men against one at the point +of engagement, will be an overmatch for a much larger body of men. + +The times, his constitution, and his early circumstances, combined to +develop this pattern democrat. He had the virtues of his class, and +the conditions for their activity. That common sense, which no sooner +respects any end, than it finds the means to effect it; the delight +in the use of means; in the choice, simplification, and combining of +means; the directness and thoroughness of his work; the prudence with +which all was seen, and the energy with which all was done, make him +the natural organ and head of what I may almost call, from its extent, +the modern party. + +Nature must have far the greatest share in every success, and so in +his. Such a man was wanted, and such a man was born; a man of stone +and iron, capable of sitting on horseback sixteen or seventeen hours, +of going many days together without rest or food, except by snatches, +and with the speed and spring of a tiger in action; a man not +embarrassed by any scruples; compact, instant, selfish, prudent, and +of a perception which did not suffer itself to be balked or misled by +any pretences of others, or any superstition, or any heat or haste of +his own. "My hand of iron," he said, "was not at the extremity of my +arm; it was immediately connected with my head." He respected the power +of nature and fortune, and ascribed to it his superiority, instead of +valuing himself, like inferior men, on his opinionativeness and waging +war with nature. His favorite rhetoric lay in allusion to his star: +and he pleased himself, as well as the people, when he styled himself +the "Child of Destiny." "They charge me," he said, "with the commission +of great crimes: men of my stamp do not commit crimes. Nothing has +been more simple than my elevation: 'tis in vain to ascribe it to +intrigue or crime: it was owing to the peculiarity of the times, and +to my reputation of having fought well against the enemies of my +country. I have always marched with the opinion of great masses, and +with events. Of what use, then, would crimes be to me?" Again he said, +speaking of his son, "My son cannot replace me; I could not replace +myself. I am the creature of circumstances." He had a directness of +action never before combined with so much comprehension. He is a +realist, terrific to all talkers, and confused truth-obscuring persons. +He sees where the matter hinges, throws himself on the precise point +of resistance, and slights all other considerations. He is strong in +the right manner, namely, by insight. He never blundered into victory, +but won his battles in his head, before he won them on the field. His +principal means are in himself. He asks counsel of no other. In 1796, +he writes to the Directory: "I have conducted the campaign without +consulting any one. I should have done no good, if I had been under +the necessity of conforming to the notions of another person. I have +gained some advantages over superior forces, and when totally destitute +of everything, because, in the persuasion that your confidence was +reposed in me, my actions were as prompt as my thoughts." + +History is full, down to this day, of the imbecility of kings and +governors. They are a class of persons much to be pitied, for they +know not what they should do. The weavers strike for bread; and the +king and his ministers, not knowing what to do, meet them with bayonets. +But Napoleon understood his business. Here was a man who, in each +moment and emergency, knew what to do next. It is an immense comfort +and refreshment to the spirits, not only of kings, but of citizens. +Few men have any next; they live from hand to mouth, without plan, and +are ever at the end of their line, and, after each action, wait for +an impulse from abroad. Napoleon had been the first man of the world +if his ends had been purely public. As he is, he inspires confidence +and vigor by the extraordinary unity of his action. He is firm, sure, +self-denying, self-postponing, sacrificing everything to his +aim,--money, troops, generals, and his own safety also, to his aim; +not misled, like common adventurers, by the splendor of his own means. +"Incidents ought not to govern policy," he said, "but policy, +incidents." "To be hurried away by every event, is to have no political +system at all. His victories were only so many doors, and he never for +a moment lost sight of his way onward, in the dazzle and uproar of the +present circumstance. He knew what to do, and he flew to his mark. He +would shorten a straight line to come at his object. Horrible anecdotes +may, no doubt, be collected from his history, of the price at which +he bought his successes; but he must not therefore be set down as +cruel; but only as one who knew no impediment to his will; not +bloodthirsty, not cruel,--but woe to what thing or person stood in his +way! Not bloodthirsty, but not sparing of blood,--and pitiless. He saw +only the object: the obstacle must give way. "Sire, General Clarke +cannot combine with General Junot, for the dreadful fire of the Austrian +battery."--"Let him carry the battery."--"Sire, every regiment that +approaches the heavy artillery is sacrified: Sire, what orders?"-- +"Forward, forward!" Seruzier, a colonel of artillery, gives, in his +"Military Memoirs," the following sketch of a scene after the battle +of Austerlitz.--"At the moment in which the Russian army was making +its retreat, painfully, but in good order, on the ice of the lake, the +Emperor Napoleon came riding at full speed toward the artillery. 'You +are losing time,' he cried; 'fire upon those masses; they must be +engulfed; fire upon the ice!' The order remained unexecuted for ten +minutes. In vain several officers and myself were placed on the slope +of a hill to produce the effect; their balls and mine rolled upon the +ice, without breaking it up. Seeing that, I tried a simple method of +elevating light howitzers. The almost perpendicular fall of the heavy +projectiles produced the desired effect. My method was immediately +followed by the adjoining batteries, and in less than no time we buried +'some' [Footnote: As I quote at second-hand, and cannot procure +Seruzier, I dare not adopt the high figure I find.] thousands of +Russians and Austrians under the waters of the lake." + +In the plenitude of his resources, every obstacle seemed to vanish. +"There shall be no Alps," he said; and he built his perfect roads, +climbing by graded galleries their steepest precipices, until Italy +was as open to Paris as any town in France. He laid his bones to, and +wrought for his crown. Having decided what was to be done, he did that +with might and main. He put out all his strength. He risked everything, +and spared nothing, neither ammunition, nor money, nor troops, nor +generals, nor himself. + +We like to see everything do its office after its kind, whether it be +a milch-cow or a rattlesnake; and, if fighting be the best mode of +adjusting national differences (as large majorities of men seem to +agree), certainly Bonaparte was right in making it thorough. "The grand +principle of war," he said, "was, that an army ought always to be +ready, by day and by night, and at all hours, to make all the resistance +it is capable of making." He never economized his ammunition, but, on +a hostile position, rained a torrent of iron,--shells, balls, +grape-shot,--to annihilate all defense. On any point of resistance, +he concentrated squadron on squadron in overwhelming numbers, until +it was swept out of existence. To a regiment of horse-chasseurs at +Lobenstein, two days before the battle of Jena, Napoleon said, "My +lads, you must not fear death; when soldiers brave death, they drive +him into the enemy's ranks." In the fury of assault, he no more spared +himself. He went to the edge of his possibility. It is plain that in +Italy he did what he could, and all that he could. He came, several +times, within an inch of ruin; and his own person was all but lost. +He was flung into the marsh at Arcola. The Austrians were between him +and his troops, in the melee, and he was brought off with desperate +efforts. At Lonato, and at other places, he was on the point of being +taken prisoner. He fought sixty battles. He had never enough. Each +victory was a new weapon. "My power would fall, were I not to support +it by new achievements. Conquest has made me what I am, and conquest +must maintain me." He felt, with every wise man, that as much life is +needed for conservation as for creation. We are always in peril, always +in a bad plight, just on the edge of destruction, and only to be saved +by invention and courage. + +This vigor was guarded and tempered by the coldest prudence and +punctuality. A thunderbolt in the attack, he was found invulnerable +in his intrenchments. His very attack was never the inspiration of +courage, but the result of calculation. His idea of the best defense +consists in being still the attacking party. "My ambition," he says, +"was great, but was of a cold nature." In one of his conversations +with Las Casas, he remarked, "As to moral courage, I have rarely met +with the two-o'clock-in-the-morning kind; I mean unprepared courage, +that which, is necessary on an unexpected occasion; and which, in spite +of the most unforeseen events, leaves full freedom of judgment and +decision;" and he did not hesitate to declare that he was himself +eminently endowed with this "two-o'clock-in-the-morning courage, and +that he had met with few persons equal to himself in this respect." + +Everything depended on the nicety of his combinations, and the stars +were not more punctual than his arithmetic. His personal attention +descended to the smallest particulars. "At Montebello, I ordered +Kellermann to attack with eight hundred horse, and with these he +separated the six thousand Hungarian grenadiers, before the very eyes +of the Austrian cavalry. This cavalry was half a league off, and +required a quarter of an hour to arrive on the field of action; and +I have observed, that it is always these quarters of an hour that +decide the fate of a battle." "Before he fought a battle, Bonaparte +thought little about what he should do in case of success, but a great +deal about what he should do in case of a reverse of fortune. "The +same prudence and good sense mark all his behavior. His instructions +to his secretary at the Tuilleries are worth remembering. "During the +night, enter my chamber as seldom as possible. Do not wake me when you +have any good news to communicate; with that there is no hurry. But +when you bring bad news, rouse me instantly, for then there is not a +moment to be lost." It was a whimsical economy of the same kind which +dictated his practice, when general in Italy, in regard to his +burdensome correspondence. He directed Bourienne to leave all letters +unopened for three weeks, and then observed with satisfaction how large +a part of the correspondence had thus disposed of itself, and no longer +required an answer. His achievement of business was immense, and +enlarges the known powers of man. There have been many working kings, +from Ulysses to William of Orange, but none who accomplished a tithe +of this man's performance. + +To these gifts of nature, Napoleon added the advantage of having been +born to a private and humble fortune. In his latter days, he had the +weakness of wishing to add to his crowns and badges the prescription +of aristocracy; but he knew his debt to his austere education, and +made no secret of his contempt for the born kings, and for "the +hereditary asses," as he coarsely styled the Bourbons. He said that, +"in their exile, they had learned nothing, and forgot nothing." +Bonaparte had passed through all the degrees of military service, but +also was citizen before he was emperor, and so had the key to +citizenship. His remarks and estimates discover the information and +justness of measurement of the middle class. Those who had to deal +with him found that he was not to be imposed upon, but could cipher +as well as another man. This appears in all parts of his Memoirs, +dictated at St. Helena. When the expenses of the empress, of his +household, of his palaces, had accumulated great debts, Napoleon +examined the bills of the creditors himself, detected overcharges and +errors, and reduced the claims by considerable sums. + +His grand weapon, namely, the millions whom he directed, he owed to +the representative character which clothed him. He interests us as he +stands for France and for Europe; and he exists as captain and king, +only as far as the Revolution, or the interest of the industrious +masses found an organ and a leader in him. In the social interests, +he knew the meaning and value of labor, and threw himself naturally +on that side. I like an incident mentioned by one of his biographers +at St. Helena. "When walking with Mrs. Balcombe, some servants, carrying +heavy boxes, passed by on the road, and Mrs. Balcombe desired them, +in rather an angry tone, to keep back. Napoleon interfered, saying, +'Respect the burden, Madam.'" In the time of the empire, he directed +attention to the improvement and embellishment of the market of the +capital. "The market-place," he said, "is the Louvre of the common +people." The principal works that have survived him are his magnificent +roads. He filled the troops with his spirit, and a sort of freedom and +companionship grew up between him and them, which the forms of his +court never permitted between the officers and himself. They performed, +under his eye, that which no others could do. The best document of his +relation to his troops is the order of the day on the morning of the +battle of Austerlitz, in which Napoleon promises the troops that he +will keep his person out of reach of fire. This declaration, which is +the reverse of that ordinarily made by generals and sovereigns on the +eve of a battle, sufficiently explains the devotion of the army to +their leader. + +But though there is in particulars this identity between Napoleon and +the mass of the people, his real strength lay in their conviction that +he was their representative in his genius and aims, not only when he +courted, but when he controlled, and even when he decimated them by +his conscriptions. He knew, as well as any Jacobin in France, how to +philosophize on liberty and equality; and, when allusion was made to +the precious blood of centuries, which was spilled by the killing of +the Duc d'Enghien, he suggested, "Neither is my blood ditch-water" The +people felt that no longer the throne was occupied, and the land sucked +of its nourishment, by a small class of legitimates, secluded from all +community with the children of the soil, and holding the ideas and +superstitions of a long-forgotten state of society. Instead of that +vampire, a man of themselves held, in the Tuilleries, knowledge and +ideas like their own, opening, of course, to them and their children, +all places of power and trust. The day of sleepy, selfish policy, ever +narrowing the means and opportunities of young men, was ended, and a +day of expansion and demand was come. A market for all the powers and +productions of man was opened: brilliant prizes glittered in the eyes +of youth and talent. The old, iron-bound, feudal France was changed +into a young Ohio or New York; and those who smarted under the immediate +rigors of the new monarch, pardoned them as the necessary severities +of the military system which had driven out the oppressor. And even +when the majority of the people had begun to ask, whether they had +really gained anything under the exhausting levies of men and money +of the new master,--the whole talent of the country, in every rank and +kindred, took his part, and defended him as its natural patron. In +1814, when advised to rely on the higher classes, Napoleon said to +those around him, "Gentlemen, in the situation in which I stand, my +only nobility is the rabble of the Faubourgs." + +Napoleon met this natural expectation. The necessity of his position +required a hospitality to every sort of talent, and its appointment +to trusts; and his feelings went along with this policy. Like every +superior person, he undoubtedly felt a desire for men and compeers, +and a wish to measure his power with other masters, and an impatience +of fools and underlings. In Italy, he sought for men, and found none. +"Good God!" he said, "how rare men are! There are eighteen millions +in Italy, and I have with difficulty found two,--Dandolo and Melzi." +In later years, with larger experience, his respect for mankind was +not increased. In a moment of bitterness, he said to one of his oldest +friends, "Men deserve the contempt with which they inspire me. I have +only to put some gold lace on the coat of my virtuous republicans, and +they immediately become just what I wish them." This impatience at +levity was, however, an oblique tribute of respect to those able persons +who commanded his regard, not only when he found them friends and +coadjutors, but also when they resisted his will. He could not confound +Fox and Pitt, Carnot, Lafayette, and Bernadotte, with the danglers of +his court; and, in spite of the detraction which his systematic egotism +dictated toward the great captains who conquered with and for him, +ample acknowledgements are made by him to Lannes Duroc, Kleber, Dessaix, +Massena, Murat, Ney, and Augereau. If he felt himself their patron, +and founder of their fortunes, as when he said, "I made my generals +out of mud," he could not hide his satisfaction in receiving from them +a seconding and support commensurate with the grandeur of his +enterprise. In the Russian campaign, he was so much impressed by the +courage and resources of Marshal Ney, that he said, "I have two hundred +millions in my coffers, and I would give them all for Ney." The +characters which he has drawn of several of his marshals are +discriminating, and, though they did not content the insatiable vanity +of French officers, are, no doubt, substantially just. And, in fact, +every species of merit was sought and advanced under his government. +"I know," he said, "the depth and draught of water of every one of my +generals." Natural power was sure to be well received at his court. +Seventeen men, in his time, were raised from common soldiers to the +rank of king, marshal, duke, or general; and the crosses of his Legion +of Honor were given to personal valor, and not to family connection. +"When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they +have all one rank in my eyes." + +When a natural king becomes a titular king, everybody is pleased and +satisfied. The Revolution entitled the strong populace of the Faubourg +St. Antoine, and every horse-boy and powder-monkey in the army, to +look on Napoleon as flesh of his flesh, and the creature of his party: +but there is something in the success of grand talent which enlists +an universal sympathy. For, in the prevalence of sense and spirit over +stupidity and malversation, all reasonable men have an interest; and, +as intellectual beings, we feel the air purified by the electric shock, +when material force is overthrown by intellectual energies. As soon +as we are removed out of the reach of local and accidental partialities, +man feels that Napoleon fights for him; these are honest victories; +this strong steam-engine does our work. Whatever appeals to the +imagination, by transcending the ordinary limits of human ability, +wonderfully encourages and liberates us. This capacious head, revolving +and disposing sovereignly trains of affairs, and animating such +multitudes of agents; this eye, which looked through Europe; this +prompt invention; this inexhaustible resource;--what events! what +romantic pictures! what strange situations!--when spying the Alps, by +a sunset in the Sicilian sea; drawing up his army for battle, in sight +of the Pyramids, and saying to his troops, "From the tops of those +pyramids, forty centuries look down on you;" fording the Red Sea; +wading in the gulf of the Isthmus of Suez. On the shore of Ptolemais, +gigantic projects agitated him. "Had Acre fallen, I should have changed +the face of the world." His army, on the night of the battle of +Austerlitz, which was the anniversary of his inauguration as Emperor, +presented him with a bouquet of forty standards taken in the fight. +Perhaps it is a little puerile, the pleasure he took in making these +contrasts glaring; as when he pleased himself with making kings wait +in his antechambers, at Tilsit, at Paris, and at Erfurt. + +We cannot, in the universal imbecility, indecision, and indolence of +men, sufficiently congratulate ourselves on this strong and ready +actor, who took occasion by the beard, and showed us how much may be +accomplished by the mere force of such virtues as all men possess in +less degrees; namely, by punctuality, by personal attention, by courage, +and thoroughness. "The Austrians," he said, "do not know the value of +time." I should cite him, in his earlier years, as a model of prudence. +His power does not consist in any wild or extravagant force; in any +enthusiasm, like Mahomet's; or singular power of persuasion; but in +the exercise of common sense on each emergency, instead of abiding by +rules and customs. The lesson he teaches is that which vigor always +teaches,--that there is always room for it. To what heaps of cowardly +doubts is not that man's life an answer. When he appeared, it was the +belief of all military men that there could be nothing new in war; as +it is the belief of men to-day, that nothing new can be undertaken in +politics, or in church, or in letters, or in trade, or in farming, or +in our social manners and customs; and as it is, at all times, the +belief of society that the world is used up. But Bonaparte knew better +than society; and, moreover, knew that he knew better. I think all men +know better than they do; know that the institutions we so volubly +commend are go-carts and baubles; but they dare not trust their +presentiments. Bonaparte relied on his own sense, and did not care a +bean for other people's. The world treated his novelties just as it +treats everybody's novelties,--made infinite objection: mustered all +the impediments; but he snapped his finger at their objections. "What +creates great difficulty," he remarks, "in the profession of the land +commander, is the necessity of feeding so many men and animals. If he +allows himself to be guided by the commissaries, he will never stir, +and all his expeditions will fail." An example of his common sense is +what he says of the passage of the Alps in winter, which all writers, +one repeating after the other, had described as impracticable. "The +winter," says Napoleon, "is not the most unfavorable season for the +passage of lofty mountains. The snow is then firm, the weather settled, +and there is nothing to fear from avalanches, the real and only danger +to be apprehended in the Alps. On those high mountains, there are often +very fine days in December, of a dry cold, with extreme calmness in +the air." Read his account, too, of the way in which battles are gained. +"In all battles, a moment occurs, when the bravest troops, after having +made the greatest efforts, feel inclined to run. That terror proceeds +from a want of confidence in their own courage; and it only requires +a slight opportunity, a pretense, to restore confidence to them. The +art is to give rise to the opportunity, and to invent the pretense. +At Arcola, I won the battle with twenty-five horsemen. I seized that +moment of lassitude, gave every man a trumpet, and gained the day with +this handful. You see that two armies are two bodies which meet, and +endeavor to frighten each other: a moment of panic occurs, and that +moment must be turned to advantage. When a man has been present in +many actions, he distinguishes that moment without difficulty; it is +as easy as casting up an addition." + +This deputy of the nineteenth century added to his gifts a capacity +for speculation on general topics. He delighted in running through the +range of practical, of literary, and of abstract questions. His opinion +is always original, and to the purpose. On the voyage to Egypt, he +liked, after dinner, to fix on three or four persons to support a +proposition, and as many to oppose it. He gave a subject, and the +discussions turned on questions of religion, the different kinds of +government, and the art of war. One day, he asked, whether the planets +were inhabited? On another, what was the age of the world? Then he +proposed to consider the probability of the destruction of the globe, +either by water or by fire; at another time, the truth or fallacy of +presentiments, and the interpretation of dreams. He was very fond of +talking of religion. In 1806, he conversed with Fournier, bishop of +Montpelier, on matters of theology. There were two points on which +they could not agree, viz., that of hell, and that of salvation out +of the pale of the church. The Emperor told Josephine, that he disputed +like a devil on these two points, on which the bishop was inexorable. +To the philosophers he readily yielded all that was proved against +religion as the work of men and time; but he would not hear of +materialism. One fine night, on deck, amid a clatter of materialism, +Bonaparte pointed to the stars, and said, "You may talk as long as you +please, gentlemen, but who made all that?" He delighted in the +conversation of men of science, particularly of Monge and Berthollet; +but the men of letters he slighted; "they were manufacturers of +phrases." Of medicine, too, he was fond of talking, and with those of +its practitioners whom he most esteemed,-with Corvisart at Paris, and +with Antonomarchi at St. Helena. "Believe me, "he said to the last, +"we had better leave off all these remedies: life is a fortress which +neither you nor I know anything about. Why throw obstacles in the way +of its defense? Its own means are superior to all the apparatus of +your laboratories. Corvisart candidly agreed with me, that all your +filthy mixtures are good for nothing. Medicine is a collection of +uncertain prescriptions, the results of which, taken collectively, are +more fatal than useful to mankind. Water, air, and cleanliness, are +the chief articles in my pharmacopeia." + +His memoirs, dictated to Count Montholon and General Gourgaud, at St. +Helena, have great value, after all the deduction that, it seems, is +to be made from them, on account of his known disingenuousness. He has +the goodnature of strength and conscious superiority. I admire his +simple, clear narrative of his battles;--good as Caesar's; his +good-natured and sufficiently respectful account of Marshal Wurmser +and his other antagonists, and his own equality as a writer to his +varying subject. The most agreeable portion is the Campaign in Egypt. + +He had hours of thought and wisdom. In intervals of leisure, either +in the camp or the palace, Napoleon appears as a man of genius, +directing on abstract questions the native appetite for truth, and the +impatience of words, he was wont to show in war. He could enjoy every +play of invention, a romance, a _bon mot_, as well as a stratagem +in a campaign. He delighted to fascinate Josephine and her ladies, in +a dim-lighted apartment, by the terrors of a fiction, to which his +voice and dramatic power lent every addition. + +I call Napoleon the agent or attorney of the middle class of modern +society; of the throng who fill the markets, shops, counting-houses, +manufactories, ships, of the modern world, aiming to be rich. He was +the agitator, the destroyer of prescription, the internal improver, +the liberal, the radical, the inventor of means, the opener of doors +and markets, the subverter of monopoly and abuse. Of course, the rich +and aristocratic did not like him. England, the center of capital, and +Rome and Austria, centers of tradition and genealogy, opposed him. The +consternation of the dull and conservative classes, the terror of the +foolish old men and old women of the Roman conclave,--who in their +despair took hold of anything, and would cling to red-hot iron,--the +vain attempts of statists to amuse and deceive him, of the emperor of +Austria to bribe him; and the instinct of the young, ardent, and active +men, everywhere, which pointed him out as the giant of the middle +class, make his history bright and commanding. He had the virtues of +the masses of his constituents; he had also their vices. I am sorry +that the brilliant picture has its reverse. But that is the fatal +quality which we discover in our pursuit of wealth, that it is +treacherous, and is bought by the breaking or weakening of the +sentiments; and it is inevitable that we should find the same fact in +the history of this champion, who proposed to himself simply a brilliant +career, without any stipulation or scruple concerning the means. + +Bonaparte was singularly destitute of generous sentiments. The +highest-placed individual in the most cultivated age and population +of the world,--he has not the merit of common truth and honesty. He +is unjust to his generals; egotistic, and monopolizing; meanly stealing +the credit of their great actions from Kellermann, from Bernadotte; +intriguing to involve his faithful Junot in hopeless bankruptcy, in +order to drive him to a distance from Paris, because the familiarity +of his manners offends the new pride of his throne. He is a boundless +liar. The official paper, his "Moniteurs," and all his bulletins, are +proverbs for saying what he wished to be believed; and worse,--he sat, +in his premature old age, in his lonely island, coldly falsifying +facts, and dates, and characters, and giving to history, a theatrical +eclat. Like all Frenchmen, he has a passion for stage effect. Every +action that breathes of generosity is poisoned by this calculation. +His star, his love of glory, his doctrine of the immortality of the +soul, are all French. "I must dazzle and astonish. If I were to give +the liberty of the press, my power could not last three days." To make +a great noise is his favorite design. "A great reputation is a great +noise; the more there is made, the farther off it is heard. Laws, +institutions, monuments, nations, all fall; but the noise continues, +and resounds in after ages." His doctrine of immortality is simply +fame. His theory of influence is not flattering. "There are two levers +for moving men,--interest and fear. Love is a silly infatuation, depend +upon it. Friendship is but a name. I love nobody. I do not even love +my brothers; perhaps Joseph, a little, from habit, and because he is +my elder; and Duroc, I love him too; but why?--because his character +pleases me; he is stern and resolute, and, I believe, the fellow never +shed a tear. For my part, I know very well that I have no true friends. +As long as I continue to be what I am, I may have as many pretended +friends as I please. Leave sensibility to women; but men should be +firm in heart and purpose, or they should have nothing to do with war +and government." He was thoroughly unscrupulous. He would steal, +slander, assassinate, drown, and poison, as his interest dictated. He +had no generosity; but mere vulgar hatred; he was intensely selfish; +he was perfidious; he cheated at cards; he was a prodigious gossip; +and opened letters; and delighted in his infamous police; and rubbed +his hands with joy when he had intercepted some morsel of intelligence +concerning the men and women about him, boasting that "he knew +everything;" and interfered with the cutting the dresses of the women; +and listened after the hurrahs and the compliments of the street, +incognito. His manners were coarse. He treated women with low +familiarity. He had the habit of pulling their ears and pinching their +cheeks, when he was in good humor, and of pulling the ears and whiskers +of men, and of striking and horse-play with them, to his last days. +It does not appear that he listened at keyholes, or, at least, that +he "was caught at it". In short, when you have penetrated through all +the circles of power and splendor, you were not dealing with a +gentleman, at last; but with an impostor and a rogue; and he fully +deserves the epithet of Jupiter Scapin, or a sort of Scamp Jupiter. + +In describing the two parties into which modern society divides +itself,--the democrat and the conservative,--I said, Bonaparte +represents the democrat, or the party of men of business, against the +stationary or conservative party. I omitted then to say, what is +material to the statement, namely, that these two parties differ only +as young and old. The democrat is a young conservative; the conservative +is an old democrat. The aristocrat is the democrat ripe, and gone to +seed,--because both parties stand on the one ground of the supreme +value of property, which one endeavors to get, and the other to keep. +Bonaparte may be said to represent the whole history of this party, +its youth and its age; yes, and with poetic justice, its fate, in his +own. The counter-revolution, the counter-party, still waits for its +organ and representative, in a lover and a man of truly public and +universal aims. + +Here was an experiment, under the most favorable conditions, of the +powers of intellect without conscience. Never was such a leader so +endowed, and so weaponed; never leader found such aids and followers. +And what was the result of this vast talent and power, of these immense +armies, burned cities, squandered treasures, immolated millions of +men, of this demoralized Europe? It came to no result. All passed away, +like the smoke of his artillery and left no trace. He left France +smaller, poorer, feebler, than he found it; and the whole contest for +freedom was to be begun again. The attempt was, in principle, suicidal. +France served him with life, and limb, and estate, as long as it could +identify its interest with him; but when men saw that after victory +was another war; after the destruction of armies, new conscriptions; +and they who had toiled so desperately were never nearer to the +reward,--they could not spend what they had earned, nor repose on their +down-beds, nor strut in their chateaux,--they deserted him. Men found +that his absorbing egotism was deadly to all other men. It resembled +the torpedo, which inflicts a succession of shocks on any one who takes +hold of it, producing spasms which contract the muscles of the hand, +so that the man cannot open his fingers; and the animal inflicts new +and more violent shocks, until he paralyzes and kills his victim. So, +this exorbitant egotist narrowed, impoverished, and absorbed the power +and existence of those who served him; and the universal cry of France, +and of Europe, in 1814, was, "enough of him;" "assez de Bonaparte." + +It was not Bonaparte's fault. He did all that in him lay, to live and +thrive without moral principle. It was the nature of things, the eternal +law of man and of the world, which baulked and ruined him; and the +result, in a million experiments, will be the same. Every experiment, +by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, +will fail. The pacific Fourier will be as inefficient as the pernicious +Napoleon. As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, +of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches +will leave us sick; there will be bitterness in our laughter; and our +wine will burn our mouth. Only that good profits, which we can taste +with all doors open, and which serves all men. + + + + +VII. GOETHE; OR, THE WRITER + + +I find a provision in the constitution of the world for the writer or +secretary, who is to report the doings of the miraculous spirit of +life that everywhere throbs and works. His office is a reception of +the facts into the mind, and then a selection of the eminent and +characteristic experiences. + +Nature will be reported. All things are engaged in writing their +history. The planet, the pebble, goes attended by its shadow. The +rolling rock leaves its scratches on the mountain; the river, its +channel in the soil; the animal, its bones in the stratum; the fern +and leaf their modest epitaph in the coal. The falling drop makes its +sculpture in the sand or the stone. Not a foot steps into the snow, +or along the ground, but prints in characters more or less lasting, +a map of its march. Every act of the man inscribes itself in the +memories of his fellows, and in his own manners and face. The air is +full of sounds; the sky, of tokens; the ground is all memoranda and +signatures; and every object covered over with hints, which speak to +the intelligent. + +In nature, this self-registration is incessant, and the narrative is +the print of the seal. It neither exceeds nor comes short of the fact. +But nature strives upward; and, in man, the report is something more +than print of the seal. It is a new and finer form of the original. +The record is alive, as that which it recorded is alive. In man, the +memory is a kind of looking-glass, which, having received the images +of surrounding objects, is touched with life, and disposes them in a +new order. The facts which transpired do not lie in it inert; but some +subside, and others shine; so that soon we have a new picture, composed +of the eminent experiences. The man cooperates. He loves to communicate; +and that which is for him to say lies as a load on his heart until it +is delivered. But, besides the universal joy of conversation, some men +are born with exalted powers for this second creation. Men are born +to write. The gardener saves every slip, and seed, and peach-stone; +his vocation is to be a planter of plants. Not less does the writer +attend his affairs. Whatever he beholds or experiences, comes to him +as a model, and sits for its picture. He counts it all nonsense that +they say, that some things are undescribable. He believes that all +that can be thought can be written, first or last; and he would report +the Holy Ghost, or attempt it. Nothing so broad, so subtle, or so dear, +but comes therefore commended to his pen,--and he will write. In his +eyes, a man is the faculty of reporting, and the universe is the +possibility of being reported. In conversation, in calamity, he finds +new materials; as our German poet said, "some god gave me the power +to paint what I suffer." He draws his rents from rage and pain. By +acting rashly, he buys the power of talking wisely. Vexations, and a +tempest of passion, only fill his sails; as the good Luther writes, +"When I am angry I can pray well, and preach well;" and if we knew the +genesis of fine-strokes of eloquence, they might recall the complaisance +of Sultan Amurath, who struck off some Persian heads, that his +physician, Vesalius, might see the spasms in the muscles of the neck. +His failures are the preparation of his victories. A new thought, or +a crisis of passion, apprises him that all that he has yet learned and +written is exoteric--is not the fact, but some rumor of the fact. What +then? Does he throw away the pen? No; he begins again to describe in +the new light which has shined on him,--if, by some means, he may yet +save some true word. Nature conspires. Whatever can be thought can be +spoken, and still rises for utterance, though to rude and stammering +organs. If they cannot compass it, it waits and works, until, at last, +it moulds them to its perfect will, and is articulated. + +This striving after imitative expression, which one meets everywhere, +is significant of the aim of nature, but is mere stenography. There +are higher degrees, and nature has more splendid endowments for those +whom she elects to a superior office; for the class of scholars or +writers, who see connection where the multitude see fragments, and who +are impelled to exhibit the facts in order, and so to supply the axis +on which the frame of things turns. Nature has dearly at heart the +formation of the speculative man, or scholar. It is an end never lost +sight of, and is prepared in the original casting of things. He is no +permissive or accidental appearance, but an organic agent, one of the +estates of the realm, provided and prepared from of old and from +everlasting, in the knitting and contexture of things. Presentiments, +impulses, cheer him. There is a certain heat in the breast, which +attends the perception of a primary truth, which is the shining of the +spiritual sun down into the shaft of the mine. Every thought which +dawns on the mind, in the moment of its emergency announces its own +rank,--whether it is some whimsy, or whether it is a power. + +If he have his incitements, there is, on the other side, invitation +and need enough of his gift. Society has, at all times, the same want, +namely, of one sane man with adequate powers of expression to held up +each object of monomania in its right relation. The ambitious and +mercenary bring their last new mumbo-jumbo, whether tariff, Texas, +railroad, Romanism, mesmerism, or California; and, by detaching the +object from its relations, easily succeed in making it seen in a glare; +and a multitude go mad about it, and they are not to be reproved or +cured by the opposite multitude, who are kept from this particular +insanity by an equal frenzy on another crochet. But let one man have +the comprehensive eye that can replace this isolated prodigy in its +right neighborhood and bearings,--the illusion vanishes, and the +returning reason of the community thanks the reason of the monitor. + +The scholar is the man of the ages, but he must also wish, with other +men, to stand well with his contemporaries. But there is a certain +ridicule, among superficial people, thrown on the scholars or clerisy, +which is of no import, unless the scholars heed it. In this country, +the emphasis of conversation, and of public opinion, commends the +practical man; and the solid portion of the community is named with +significant respect in every circle. Our people are of Bonaparte's +opinion concerning ideologists. Ideas are subversive of social order +and comfort, and at last make a fool of the possessor. It is believed, +the ordering a cargo of goods from New York to Smyrna; or, the running +up and down to procure a company of subscribers to set a-going five +or ten thousand spindles; or, the negotiations of a caucus, and the +practising on the prejudices and facility of country-people, to secure +their votes in November,--is practical and commendable. + +If I were to compare action of a much higher strain with a life of +contemplation, I should not venture to pronounce with much confidence +in favor of the former. Mankind have such a deep stake in inward +illumination, that there is much to be said by the hermit or monk in +defense of his life of thought and prayer. A certain partiality, a +headiness, and loss of balance, is the tax which all action must pay. +Act, if you like,--but you do it at your peril. Men's actions are too +strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the +victim and slave of his action. What they have done commits and enforces +them to do the same again. The first act, which was to be an experiment, +becomes a sacrament. The fiery reformer embodies his aspiration in +some rite or covenant, and he and his friends cleave to the form and +lose the aspiration. The Quaker has established Quakerism, the Shaker +has established his monastery and his dance; and, although each prates +of spirit, there is no spirit, but repetition, which is anti-spiritual. +But where are his new things of today? In actions of enthusiasm, this +drawback appears: but in those lower activities, which have no higher +aim than to make us more comfortable and more cowardly, in actions of +cunning, actions that steal and lie, actions that divorce the +speculative from the practical faculty, and put a ban on reason and +sentiment, there is nothing else but drawback and negation. The Hindoos +write in their sacred books, "Children only, and not the learned, speak +of the speculative and the practical faculties as two. They are but +one, for both obtain the selfsame end, and the place which is gained +by the followers of the one is gained by the followers of the other. +That man seeth, who seeth that the speculative and the practical +doctrines are one." For great action must draw on the spiritual nature. +The measure of action is the sentiment from which it proceeds. The +greatest action may easily be one of the most private circumstances. + +This disparagement will not come from the leaders, but from inferior +persons. The robust gentlemen who stand at the head of the practical +class, share the ideas of the time, and have too much sympathy with +the speculative class. It is not from men excellent in any kind, that +disparagement of any other is to be looked for. With such, Talleyrand's +question is ever the main one; not, is he rich? is he committed? is +he well-meaning? has he this or that faculty? is he of the movement? +is he of the establishment?--but, Is he anybody? does he stand for +something? He must be good of his kind. That is all that Talleyrand, +all that State-street, all that the common sense of mankind asks. Be +real and admirable, not as we know, but as you know. Able men do not +care in what kind a man is able, so only that he is able. A master +likes a master, and does not stipulate whether it be orator, artist, +craftsman, or king. + +Society has really no graver interest than the well-being of the +literary class. And it is not to be denied that men are cordial in +their recognition and welcome of intellectual accomplishments. Still +the writer does not stand with us on any commanding ground. I think +this to be his own fault. A pound passes for a pound. There have been +times when he was a sacred person; he wrote Bibles; the first hymns; +the codes; the epics; tragic songs; Sibylline verses; Chaldean oracles; +Laconian sentences inscribed on temple walls. Every word was true, and +woke the nations to new life. He wrote without levity, and without +choice. Every word was carved, before his eyes, into the earth and +sky; and the sun and stars were only letters of the same purport; and +of no more necessity. But how can he be honored, when he does not honor +himself; when he loses himself in the crowd; when he is no longer the +lawgiver, but the sycophant, ducking to the giddy opinion of a reckless +public; when he must sustain with shameless advocacy some bad +government, or must bark, all the year round, in opposition; or write +conventional criticism, or profligate novels; or, at any rate, write +without thought, and without recurrence, by day and night, to the +sources of inspiration? + +Some reply to these questions may be furnished by looking over the +list of men of literary genius in our age. Among these, no more +instructive name occurs than that of Goethe, to represent the power +and duties of the scholar or writer. + +I described Bonaparte as a representative of the popular external life +and aims of the nineteenth century. Its other half, its poet, is Goethe, +a man quite domesticated in the century, breathing its air, enjoying +its fruits, impossible at any earlier time, and taking away, by his +colossal parts, the reproach of weakness, which, but for him, would +lie on the intellectual works of the period. He appears at a time when +a general culture has spread itself, and has smoothed down all sharp +individual traits; when, in the absence of heroic characters, a social +comfort and cooperation have come in. There is no poet, but scores of +poetic writers; no Columbus, but hundreds of post-captains, with +transit-telescope, barometer, and concentrated soup and pemmican; no +Demosthenes, no Chatham, but any number of clever parliamentary and +forensic debaters; no prophet or saint, but colleges of divinity; no +learned man, but learned societies, a cheap press, reading-rooms, and +book-clubs, without number. There was never such a miscellany of facts. +The world extends itself like American trade. We conceive Greek or +Roman life,--life in the middle ages--to be a simple and comprehensive +affair; but modern life to respect a multitude of things, which is +distracting. + +Goethe was the philosopher of this multiplicity; hundred-handed, +Argus-eyed, able and happy to cope with this rolling miscellany of +facts and sciences, and, by his own versatility, to dispose of them +with ease; a manly mind, unembarrassed by the variety of coats of +convention with which life had got encrusted, easily able by his +subtlety to pierce these, and to draw his strength from nature, with +which he lived in full communion. What is strange, too, he lived in +a small town, in a petty state, in a defeated state, and in a time +when Germany played no such leading part in the world's affairs as to +swell the bosom of her sons with any metropolitan pride, such as might +have cheered a French, or English, or, once, a Roman or Attic genius. +Yet there is no trace of provincial limitation in his muse. He is not +a debtor to his position, but was born with a free and controlling +genius. + +The Helena, or the second part of Faust, is a philosophy of literature +set in poetry; the work of one who found himself the master of +histories, mythologies, philosophies, sciences, and national +literatures, in the encyclopaedical manner in which modern erudition, +with its international intercourse of the whole earth's population, +researches into Indian, Etruscan, and all Cyclopaean arts, geology, +chemistry, astronomy; and every one of these kingdoms assuming a certain +aerial and poetic character, by reason of the multitude. One looks at +a king with reverence; but if one should chance to be at a congress +of kings, the eye would take liberties with the peculiarities of each. +These are not wild miraculous songs, but elaborate forms, to which the +poet has confided the results of eighty years of observation. This +reflective and critical wisdom makes the poem more truly the flower +of this time. It dates itself. Still he is a poet,--poet of a prouder +laurel than any contemporary, and under this plague of microscopes +(for he seems to see out of every pore of his skin), strikes the harp +with a hero's strength and grace. + +The wonder of the book is its superior intelligence. In the menstruum +of this man's wit, the past and the present ages, and their religions, +politics, and modes of thinking, are dissolved into archetypes and +ideas. What new mythologies sail through his head! The Greeks said, +that Alexander went as far as Chaos; Goethe went, only the other day, +as far; and one step farther he hazarded, and brought himself safe +back. There is a heart-cheering freedom in his speculation. The immense +horizon which journeys with us lends its majesties to trifles, and to +matters of convenience and necessity, as to solemn and festal +performances. He was the soul of his century. If that was learned, and +had become, by population, compact organization, and drill of parts, +one great Exploring Expedition, accumulating a glut of facts and fruits +too fast for any hitherto-existing savants to classify, this man's +mind had ample chambers for the distribution of all. He had a power +to unite the detached atoms again by their own law. He has clothed our +modern existence with poetry. Amid littleness and detail, he detected +the Genius of life, the old cunning Proteus, nestling close beside us, +and showed that the dullness and prose we ascribe to the age was only +another of his masks:--"His very flight is presence in disguise:" that +he had put off a gay uniform for a fatigue dress, and was not a whit +less vivacious or rich in Liverpool or the Hague, than once in Rome +or Antioch. He sought him in public squares and main streets, in +boulevards and hotels; and, in the solidest kingdom of routine and the +senses, he showed the lurking daemonic power; that, in actions of +routine, a thread of mythology and fable spins itself; and this, by +tracing the pedigree of every usage and practice, every institution, +utensil, and means, home to its origin in the structure of man. He had +an extreme impatience of conjecture, and of rhetoric. "I have guesses +enough of my own; if a man write a book, let him set down only what +he knows." He writes in the plainest and lowest tone, omitting a great +deal more than he writes, and putting ever a thing for a word. He has +explained the distinction between the antique and the modern spirit +and art. He has defined art, its scope and laws. He has said the best +things about nature that ever were said. He treats nature as the old +philosophers, as the seven wise masters did,--and, with whatever loss +of French tabulation and dissection, poetry and humanity remain to us; +and they have some doctorial skill. Eyes are better, on the whole, +than telescopes or microscopes. He has contributed a key to many parts +of nature, through the rare turn for unity and simplicity in his mind. +Thus Goethe suggested the leading idea of modern botany, that a leaf, +or the eye of a leaf, is the unit of botany, and that every part of +the plant is only a transformed leaf to meet a new condition; and, by +varying the conditions, a leaf may be converted into any other organ, +and any other organ into a leaf. In like manner, in osteology, he +assumed that one vertebra of the spine might be considered the unit +of the skeleton; the head was only the uppermost vertebra transformed. +"The plant goes from knot to knot, closing, at last, with the flower +and the seed. So the tape-worm, the caterpillar, goes from knot to +knot, and closes with the head. Men and the higher animals are built +up through the vertebrae, the powers being concentrated in the head." +In optics, again, he rejected the artificial theory of seven colors, +and considered that every color was the mixture of light and darkness +in new proportions. It is really of very little consequence what topic +he writes upon. He sees at every pore, and has a certain gravitation +toward truth. He will realize what you say. He hates to be trifled +with, and to be made to say over again some old wife's fable, that has +had possession of men's faith these thousand years. He may as well see +if it is true as another. He sifts it. I am here, he would say, to be +the measure and judge of these things. Why should I take them on trust? +And, therefore, what he says of religion, of passion, of marriage, of +manners, property, of paper money, of periods or beliefs, of omens, +of luck, or whatever else, refuses to be forgotten. + +Take the most remarkable example that could occur of this tendency to +verify every term in popular use. The Devil had played an important +part in mythology in all times. Goethe would have no word that does +not cover a thing. The same measure will still serve: "I have never +heard of any crime which I might not have committed." So he flies at +the throat of this imp. He shall be real; he shall be modern; he shall +be European; he shall dress like a gentleman, and accept the manner, +and walk in the streets, and be well initiated in the life of Vienna, +and of Heidelberg, in 1820,--or he shall not exist. Accordingly, he +stripped him of mythologic gear, of horns, cloven foot, harpoon tail, +brimstone, and blue-fire, and, instead of looking in books and pictures, +looked for him in his own mind, in every shade of coldness, selfishness, +and unbelief that, in crowds, or in solitude, darkens over the human +thought,--and found that the portrait gained reality and terror by +everything he added, and by everything he took away. He found that the +essence of this hobgoblin, which had hovered in shadow about the +habitations of men, ever since they were men, was pure intellect, +applied,--as always there is a tendency,--to the service of the senses: +and he flung into literature, in his Mephistopheles, the first organic +figure that has been added for some ages, and which will remain as +long as the Prometheus. I have no design to enter into any analysis +of his numerous works. They consist of translations, criticisms, dramas, +lyric and every other description of poems, literary journals, and +portraits of distinguished men. Yet I cannot omit to specify the Wilhelm +Meister. + +Wilhelm Meister is a novel in every sense, the first of its kind, +called by its admirers the only delineation of modern society,--as if +other novels, those of Scott, for example, dealt with costume and +condition, this with the spirit of life. It is a book over which some +veil is still drawn. It is read by very intelligent persons with wonder +and delight. It is preferred by some such to Hamlet, as a work of +genius. I suppose no book of this century can compare with it in its +delicious sweetness, so new, so provoking to the mind, gratifying it +with so many and so solid thoughts, just insights into life, and +manners, and characters; so many good hints for the conduct of life, +so many unexpected glimpses into a higher sphere, and never a trace +of rhetoric or dullness. A very provoking book to the curiosity of +young men of genius, but a very unsatisfactory one. Lovers of light +reading, those who look in it for the entertainment they find in a +romance, are disappointed. On the other hand, those who begin it with +the higher hope to read in it a worthy history of genius, and the just +award of the laurels to its toils and denials, have also reason to +complain. We had an English romance here, not long ago, professing to +embody the hope of a new age, and to unfold the political hope of the +party called "Young England," in which the only reward of virtue is +a seat in parliament, and a peerage. Goethe's romance has a conclusion +as lame and immoral. George Sand, in Consuelo and its continuation, +has sketched a truer and more dignified picture. In the progress of +the story, the characters of the hero and heroine expand at a rate +that shivers the porcelain chess-table of aristocratic convention: +they quit the society and habits of their rank; they lose their wealth; +they become the servants of great ideas, and of the most generous +social ends; until, at last, the hero, who is the center and fountain +of an association for the rendering of the noblest benefits to the +human race, no longer answers to his own titled name: it sounds foreign +and remote in his ear. + +"I am only man," he says; "I breathe and work for man," and this in +poverty and extreme sacrifices. Goethe's hero, on the contrary, has +so many weaknesses and impurities, and keeps such bad company, that +the sober English public, when the book was translated, were disgusted. +And yet it is so crammed with wisdom, with knowledge of the world, and +with knowledge of laws; the persons so truly and subtly drawn, and +with such few strokes, and not a word too much, the book remains ever +so new and unexhausted, that we must even let it go its way, and be +willing to get what good from it we can, assured that it has only begun +its office, and has millions of readers yet to serve. + +The argument is the passage of a democrat to the aristocracy, using +both words in their best sense. And this passage is not made in any +mean or creeping way, but through the hall door. Nature and character +assist, and the rank is made real by sense and probity in the nobles. +No generous youth can escape this charm of reality in the book, so +that it is highly stimulating to intellect and courage. The ardent and +holy Novalis characterized the book as "thoroughly modern and prosaic; +the romantic is completely leveled in it; so is the poetry of nature; +the wonderful. The book treats only of the ordinary affairs of men: +it is a poeticized civic and domestic story. The wonderful in it is +expressly treated as fiction and enthusiastic dreaming:"--and yet, +what is also characteristic, Novalis soon returned to this book, and +it remained his favorite reading to the end of his life. + +What distinguishes Goethe for French and English readers, is a property +which he shares with his nation,--a habitual reference to interior +truth. In England and in America there is a respect for talent; and, +if it is exerted in support of any ascertained or intelligible interest +or party, or in regular opposition to any, the public is satisfied. +In France, there is even a greater delight in intellectual brilliancy, +for its own sake. And, in all these countries, men of talent write +from talent. It is enough if the understanding is occupied, the taste +propitiated,--so many columns so many hours, filled in a lively and +creditable way. The German intellect wants the French sprightliness, +the fine practical understanding of the English, and the American +adventure; but it has a certain probity, which never rests in a +superficial performance, but asks steadily, To what end? A German +public asks for a controlling sincerity. Here is activity of thought; +but what is it for? What does the man mean? Whence, whence, all these +thoughts? + +Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book; +a personality which, by birth and quality, is pledged to the doctrines +there set forth, and which exists to see and state things so, and not +otherwise; holding things because they are things. If he cannot rightly +express himself to-day, the same things subsist, and will open +themselves to-morrow. There lies the burden on his mind--the burden +of truth to be declared,--more or less understood; and it constitutes +his business and calling in the world, to see those facts through, and +to make them known. What signifies that he trips and stammers; that +his voice is harsh or hissing; that this method or his tropes are +inadequate? That message will find method and imagery, articulation +and melody. Though he were dumb, it would speak. If not,--if there be +no such God's word in the man,--what care we how adroit, how fluent, +how brilliant he is? + +It makes a great difference to the force of any sentence, whether there +be a man behind it, or no. In the learned journal, in the influential +newspaper, I discern no form; only some irresponsible shadow; oftener +some monied corporation, or some dangler, who hopes, in the mask and +robes of his paragraph, to pass for somebody. But, through every clause +and part of speech of a right book, I meet the eyes of the most +determined of men: his force and terror inundate every word: the commas +and dashes are alive; so that the writing is athletic and nimble,--can +go far and live long. + +In England and America, one may be an adept in the writing of a Greek +or Latin poet, without any poetic taste or fire. That a man has spent +years on Plato and Proclus, does not afford a presumption that he holds +heroic opinions, or undervalues the fashions of his town. But the +German nation have the most ridiculous good faith on these subjects: +the student, out of the lecture-room, still broods on the lessons; and +the professor cannot divest himself of the fancy, that the truths of +philosophy have some application to Berlin and Munich. This earnestness +enables them to out-see men of much more talent. Hence, almost all the +valuable distinctions which are current in higher conversation, have +been derived to us from Germany. But, whilst men distinguished for wit +and learning, in England and France, adopt their study and their side +with a certain levity, and are not understood to be very deeply engaged, +from grounds of character, to the topic or the part they +espouse,--Goethe, the head and body of the German nation, does not +speak from talent, but the truth shines through: he is very wise, +though his talent often veils his wisdom. However excellent his sentence +is, he has somewhat better in view. It awakens my curiosity. He has +the formidable independence which converse with truth gives: hear you, +or forbear, his fact abides; and your interest in the writer is not +confined to his story, and he dismissed from memory, when he has +performed his task creditably, as a baker when he has left his loaf; +but his work is the least part of him. The old Eternal Genius who built +the world has confided himself more to this man than to any other. I +dare not say that Goethe ascended to the highest grounds from which +genius has spoken. He has not worshipped the highest unity; he is +incapable of a self-surrender to the moral sentiment. There are nobler +strains in poetry than any he has sounded. There are writers poorer +in talent, whose tone is purer, and more touches the heart. Goethe can +never be dear to men. His is not even the devotion to pure truth; but +to truth for the sake of culture. He has no aims less large than the +conquest of universal nature, of universal truth, to be his portion; +a man not to be bribed, nor deceived, nor overawed; of a stoical self- +command and self-denial, and having one test for all men,--What can +you teach me? All possessions are valued by him for that only; rank, +privileges, health, time, being itself. + +He is the type of culture, the amateur of all arts, and sciences, and +events; artistic, but not artist; spiritual, but not spiritualist. +There is nothing he had not right to know; there is no weapon in the +army of universal genius he did not take into his hand, but with +peremptory heed that he should not be for a moment prejudiced by his +instruments. He lays a ray of light under every fact, and between +himself and his dearest property. From him nothing was hid, nothing +withholden. The lurking daemons sat to him, and the saint who saw the +daemons; and the metaphysical elements took form. "Piety itself is no +aim, but only a means whereby, through purest inward peace, we may +attain to highest culture." And his penetration of every secret of the +fine arts will make Goethe still more statuesque. His affections help +him, like women employed by Cicero to worm out the secret of +conspirators. Enmities he has none. Enemy of him you may be,--if so +you shall teach him aught which your good-will cannot,--were it only +what experience will accrue from your ruin. Enemy and welcome, but +enemy on high terms. He cannot hate anybody; his time is worth too +much. Temperamental antagonisms may be suffered, but like feuds of +emperors, who fight dignifiedly across kingdoms. + +His autobiography, under the title of "Poetry and Truth Out of My +Life," is the expression of the idea,--now familiar to the world through +the German mind, but a novelty to England, Old and New, when that book +appeared,--that a man exists for culture; not for what he can +accomplish, but for what can be accomplished in him. The reaction of +things on the man is the only noteworthy result. An intellectual man +can see himself as a third person; therefore his faults and delusions +interest him equally with his successes. Though he wishes to prosper +in affairs, he wishes more to know the history and destiny of man; +whilst the clouds of egotists drifting about him are only interested +in a low success. This idea reigns in the _Dichtung und Wahrheit_, +and directs the selection of the incidents; and nowise the external +importance of events, the rank of the personages, or the bulk of +incomes. Of course, the book affords slender materials for what would +be reckoned with us a "Life of Goethe;"--few dates; no correspondence; +no details of offices or employments; no light on his marriage; and, +a period of ten years, that should be the most active in his life, +after his settlement at Weimar, is sunk in silence. Meantime, certain +love-affairs, that came to nothing, as people say, have the strangest +importance: he crowds us with detail:--certain whimsical opinions, +cosmogonies, and religions of his own invention, and, especially his +relations to remarkable minds, and to critical epochs of thought:--these +he magnifies. His "Daily and Yearly Journal," his "Italian Travels," +his "Campaign in France" and the historical part of his "Theory of +Colors," have the same interest. In the last, he rapidly notices Kepler, +Roger Bacon, Galileo, Newton, Voltaire, etc.; and the charm of this +portion of the book consists in the simplest statement of the relation +betwixt these grandees of European scientific history and himself; the +mere drawing of the lines from Goethe to Kepler, from Goethe to Bacon, +from Goethe to Newton. The drawing of the line is for the time and +person, a solution of the formidable problem, and gives pleasure when +Iphigenia and Faust do not, without any cost of invention comparable +to that of Iphigenia and Faust. This law giver of art is not an artist. +Was it that he knew too much, that his sight was microscopic, and +interfered with the just perspective, the seeing of the whole? He is +fragmentary; a writer of occasional poems, and of an encyclopaedia of +sentences. When he sits down to write a drama or a tale, he collects +and sorts his observations from a hundred sides, and combines them +into the body as fitly as he can. A great deal refuses to incorporate: +this he adds loosely, as letters, of the parties, leaves from their +journals, or the like. A great deal still is left that will not find +any place. This the bookbinder alone can give any cohesion to: and, +hence, notwithstanding the looseness of many of his works, we have +volumes of detached paragraphs, aphorisms, xenien, etc. + +I suppose the worldly tone of his tales grew out of the calculations +of self-culture. It was the infirmity of an admirable scholar, who +loved the world out of gratitude; who knew where libraries, galleries, +architecture, laboratories, savants, and leisure, were to be had, and +who did not quite trust the compensations of poverty and nakedness. +Socrates loved Athens; Montaigne, Paris; and Madame de Stael said, she +was only vulnerable on that side (namely, of Paris). It has its +favorable aspect. All the geniuses are usually so ill-assorted and +sickly, that one is ever wishing them somewhere else. We seldom see +anybody who is not uneasy or afraid to live. There is a slight blush +of shame on the cheek of good men and aspiring men, and a spice of +caricature. But this man was entirely at home and happy in his century +and the world. None was so fit to live, or more heartily enjoyed the +game. In this aim of culture, which is the genius of his works, is +their power. The idea of absolute, eternal truth, without reference +to my own enlargement by it, is higher. The surrender to the torrent, +of poetic inspiration is higher; but compared with any motives on which +books are written in England and America, this is very truth, and has +the power to inspire which belongs to truth. Thus has he brought back +to a book some of its ancient might and dignity. + +Goethe, coming into an over-civilized time and country, when original +talent was oppressed under the load of books, and mechanical +auxiliaries, and the distracting variety of claims, taught men how to +dispose of this mountainous miscellany, and make it subservient. I +join Napoleon with him, as being both representatives of the impatience +and reaction of nature against the morgue of conventions,--two stern +realists, who, with their scholars, have severally set the axe at the +root of the tree of cant and seeming, for this time, and for all time. +This cheerful laborer, with no external popularity or provocation, +drawing his motive and his plan from his own breast, tasked himself +with stints for a giant, and, without relaxation or rest, except by +alternating his pursuits, worked on for eighty years with the steadiness +of his first zeal. + +It is the last lesson of modern science, that the highest simplicity +of structure is produced, not by few elements, but by the highest +complexity. Man is the most composite of all creatures: the +wheel-insect, volvox globator, is at the other extreme. We shall learn +to draw rents and revenues from the immense patrimony of the old and +recent ages. Goethe teaches courage, and the equivalence of all times: +that the disadvantages of any epoch exist only to the faint-hearted. +Genius hovers with his sunshine and music close by the darkest and +deafest eras. No mortgage, no attainder, will hold on men or hours. +The world is young; the former great men call to us affectionately. +We too must write Bibles, to unite again the heavens and the earthly +world. The secret of genius is to suffer no fiction to exist for us; +to realize all that we know; in the high refinement of modern life, +in arts, in sciences, in books, in men, to exact good faith, reality, +and a purpose; and first, last, midst, and without end, to honor every +truth by use. + +THE END. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Representative Men, by Ralph Waldo Emerson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REPRESENTATIVE MEN *** + +This file should be named 6312.txt or 6312.zip + +Produced by Miranda van de Heijning, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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