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in matters of religion which prevailed in and speaks of all that of men that went under the name of whether or with the same contempt now exhibited by and personal malice which has not the power to bite and only at the of god who go on their way rejoicing there are in new england two visible of liberty tl e free school and the free press in the first press in america was set up at cambridge however it was kept under a strict and no other was for a long time allowed to be set up the first three things printed are of new england the s oath was the proof shot of the press then came an made for new england then the turned into also made for new england by men who knew how to crack the ear of melody and break the legs of time the freedom of the press was not allowed however for a long time was to allow no m king william also forbade it in in governor o to the of an paper by the order of the general court declaring that he had power over the press and would prevent it the paper was printed the wished to the but the attorney general could find no law on which to frame an this was by no means the last instance of an attempt by men clothed with a little brief authority to the freedom of the press the attempt has been repeated in in our own day but what was once dangerous is now simply a donkey himself against a is not a very formidable yet he might have the ark of when drawn by two with no one to guide them of the jane in a press was in and the laws of that were printed but the governor the under bonds to print nothing till his majesty s pleasure should be known the next year king james the second forbade any press in the colony and virginia had none till in the third press was set up at philadelphia fourth was at new york in the first newspaper in america was established at boston in only containing and of news a regular newspaper discussing public was begun here in conducted by james but it perished for want of support says mr ominous fate of the first free press in america the records of boston contain this entry under date of april it was then generally agreed upon that our brother shall be instructed to become for the teaching and of children with us it does not appear that he kept a free school in college was established private and public gifts helped this first institution in america tn the general court passed a law making it the duty of the to see that every child was taught perfectly to read the english tongue a fine of twenty shillings for each neglect was imposed thus was an attempt made to render education universal and in a law was passed making it also free every town of fifty families was to have a teacher to instruct all the children in common branches and each town of a hundred families was commanded to set up a grammar school where lads might be fitted for the university at that time about twenty thousand inhabitants and the entire property of the whole people the of the colony could hardly amount to more than two or three millions of dollars this is the first attempt in the world to provide by law for the public education of the people on such a scale the system was soon adopted at and new haven in this law we find an e of much of the prosperity of new england and the influence she has exerted on america and the world another important thing in our history is the trade of the new england early manifested the yankee fondness for trade and in there were at and in other places i of the states were the blessing of the bay and the and a trade began with new york with virginia and e west indies in the little ships of new england stole along the of america with and or boldly the atlantic wave sailing to england holland spain or italy the jealousy the fear and hate with which new england en on land or sea was met in old england by the merchants and the government of britain would be astonishing at this day if we did not see the same and in new england itself at the present time but we have not space to dwell on this theme it is curious to see how early the habit of self reliance got established in new england every man was a soldier every church member a citizen in full soon all men were able to read and write necessity at first forced them to rely on god and their own right arm by and by when the mother country interfered she found a child accustomed to submission but we must pass away from this theme and pass over many other matters of interest touched upon by mr in this work and speak of his book in general and in special it strikes us that on the whole the history of the and i provincial period is better and more happily treated than that of the revolution everywhere we see marks of the same intellectual vigor which the former writings of mr there is a strength and freshness in his style he writes in the interest of mankind and not for any portion thereof he allows no local attachment or reverence for men or classes of men to keep him from telling tiie truth as he finds it he the good and evil qualities of the of the united states with the same and his work is almost wholly giving the facts	37
of tne question by francis philadelphia vo a latter day christ and the upon the sabbath by a student of divinity some time student of law c boston vo remarks on the comparative value of different agents by m d c boston vo of the trial of john w boston vo review no xii september art l opinions on the right of petition the right of petition as it was secured by the american people in the constitution and as thej ill understand it they should hold very dear indeed to permit its repeated especially if no effort be made to the right and make it more widely known and better appreciated to a surrender of it if we mistake not such a course can be shown to lead to an entire of the spirit of the government and if this sentiment be not gathered from the remarks that follow the writer will widely have missed one of his chief aims the of the old world have generally been founded by the superior energy of a few and those who administer them have been supposed to possess independent rights rights inconsistent with the welfare of the people the ignorance in which the latter were kept their not knowing what was due to them frequently induced an acknowledgment on their part that these pretensions were well founded the frequent in europe particularly of late have arisen from the pressure of these pretensions on what the people believed to be their own rights and both parties thinking that they were right the becomes very the preservation of the form by which power was secured to the rulers was to them so far as government was concerned the chief interest and as were thought to be felt first of all by them it was supposed that they would them government being deemed superior to the people its acts were mainly for those concerned in carrying it on if the people were incidentally so much the better in the eight of these even in the least of them there was some if it did not amount to an entire of the of the people and of their for a of this if it does not prevail np to this time prevailed to a great extent at the time oar constitution was made but in the formation of our government the changes that were made in many other things elsewhere deemed indispensable this relation of the government and the people was to be completely reversed here the was not to be more important than the sword it protected the people were to be superior to the government which they formed they were to be viewed as the government solely for their own convenience and benefit and as to others their power to administer it indeed they were looked on much as the substance of all government that it was formally acknowledged they had the right to change the form of it whenever they chose the people were considered as the soul those who administer the government as the body the first may always live the last may die or give place to something better this by the people made those to whom they their rights generally honorable and as they never wish any thing done for them without fully paying for it they gave their themselves the right to say what the honest discharge of their duties was worth them at the same time to take the amount from the treasury as they earned it but they never intended their as such to acquire any powers or rights separate from those of the people it is quite clear that the people of this country meant to do something m regard to the right of petition something they had not done before perhaps which had never been done before the we are told rarely goes abroad even to take an without having multitudes of presented to him they are all received with great and as he has the power of taking life at his discretion they are no doubt respectfully but they relate we suppose to private or individual re the writer wm told in hj an intelligent frenchman then directly paris and his residence hi that that popular meetings not he held in without the permission of uie government first obtained the meeting of the peace society in this the change is the the of petition no act of for no such act is performed there to or them and they very probably have but slight connection if any with what we understand as no doubt include individual cases but we commonly mean by them that more than one indeed that a good many are affected or that they can be removed or lightened by an act of such as is competent to pass and that the public interest will be somewhat or should they not be now to say that the very body to be addressed have the authority to determine what shall be addressed to them is in effect to say that nothing at least to any purpose has been done for a could do this before the revolution they could always have had such as they would choose to receive relating to topics on which they might wish to le late but to do this was plainly only permitted to the people they had no sight if there was any right in the matter had it but we have just seen that to secure the right to would really have been doing nothing and there is the constitutional provision which we are not to suppose was inserted for no purpose if then it was put in for some purpose and if it was unnecessary for and if there is only one other party we are driven to conclude if language do not totally contradict us that it was meant for the other party	37
the it ought also to be borne in mind that after the had formed the constitution and closed their labors after having inserted into that instrument all they thought necessary and submitted it to the people for their this was regarded as so material that it was not only made a part of the constitution but ultimately the first or addition to it the foregoing consideration shows that in popular estimation at least this right though necessarily at first a right as we expect to show in the progress of these remarks more at large was considered of great value that the people thought they had secured it indeed that they did as well they could can be no doubt but has it not practically with this right as it has with most others where every body s business is nobody s while men slept under the belief that there was no danger their servants the powers have been more and eager to take it from them has this right these being no one the right of especially appointed to guard it and give the alarm on its invasion never been down has it not indeed been so repeatedly down without popular rebuke or remonstrance or even uneasiness that it is now denied by the very persons to whom the petition was to be sent as a guide to their proceedings by their to be more explicit on this subject of right and that there may be no misunderstanding of it my ancestors have purchased for consideration of him who had authority equally to sell a right of way to be used at all times by their descendants at their discretion free from all by the or any claiming under him now if the latter disturb me in the exercise of my right and i submit to the disturbance quietly taking no measures whatever not only to be for the wrong already done but for the more certain establishment of my right in future the is gone my has the and converted the right into a mere indulgence at his and not mine we would not make the impression that intended to deprive the people of a right and that they directed their conduct to this end to appropriate it to themselves although it is supposed they did not intend to do this it has been done as effectually as if they did whilst we would not charge them with such a purpose it is by no means an uncommon consequence of their situation if they be not carefully watched most of us perhaps a large majority are by the principle of the class to which we belong or in which we have the highest interest from this and as it appears to us from no other cause can the action of classes be at all accounted for or satisfactorily reconciled with individual honesty and the almost unbounded control that some exercise over the minds of men and were too pious and sagacious not to discover the many of the roman catholic and churches with which they were connected yet scarcely any two persons have contributed more to their advancement most well educated englishmen too think that is the best form for a political and social structure they are in favor of a nobility who are bom as also of making different orders m society by law they are pleased under any ci to meet with one of sentiments similar to their i the sight of own but still more if they find him in the midst of they then think that he is the of an order that will before long spring up around him and that the truth as they view it is permanent and has not in him at least been by surrounding falsehood the republican on the other hand thinks that his is the only reasonable political or and if we come nearer home we shall find that the parties into which the country is for the most part divided are equally anxious for the exaltation of themselves at the expense of all who oppose them and that this exaltation is the more desirable in proportion as the degradation of their is deep as they have departed from principles true and as they themselves have possession of the field thus we may examine all men closely connected with party and we shall find however widely they may differ as to the ultimate of their respective that they agree in this with but rare exceptions that they desire the exaltation of the class which them all or of the one in which they are most conspicuous and in which they have the greatest interest we do not mean to be understood that in all this time there was no one in true enough to himself and to the people to sound the alarm to the efforts that were made to maintain this right would be unjust not only to those who were then in some of them are there still bat to the late john q their able and experienced guide but their given as plainly as and as loudly as they well could be fell on those who could not be aroused by them or who thought that the following anecdote so well the practical surrender of a right by doing nothing to prevent it that it not to be withheld a tailor new in the shop where he had then been employed took bis place with the rest on the counter saying he had forgotten to bring any wax with him he politely applied to his next neighbor for the temporary of his with similar politeness the wax was handed to him the next day he again brought none and on the wax that he had been permitted to use being out of the way he asked for the wax the day	37
being in want of it he asked in rather a rough tone for hit wax this may have been the case with the right of petition may haye exercised it at first thinking that their independent acting would save their a great deal of trouble and that the people would certainly approve of what they were about to do the first instance passing without rebuke the next time they may have been bolder more confident at last finding their perhaps that at all it was but the right of the i now their y the ef public were in the main well or that it was not their place to be in such matters as we that the right of petition as inserted into the constitution is a popular right that has never been transferred even if it could be and that there is no to it only what the in their discretion may we ought to be prepared to answer all questions that fairly relate to the subject we are met at the threshold by several cases that seem at first sight to against our rule or to be exceptions to it but further consideration shows they are not what one is ready to say are bound to receive all even such as are and insulting to the body to which they are addressed and as we know words in may be civil and respectful but that they may be made to cover a subject to those to whom they are addressed and that the may ask to do what they have no authority to do shall these improper and wrong be received we say yes as a sam let us consider the petition lately presented to the y mr hale one of its members for the dissolution of the union with very few exceptions it seems greatly to have raised the patriotic of the but had our rule been observed this sudden outbreak of feeling would have been needless the people would have been better satisfied and never perhaps again would have had a petition for such an object presented to them we take extreme cases not only because they are comparatively rare but because they more completely and test the principle one of the first things perhaps the very first to be asked is what ought to be the design of the unquestionably it ought to be probably is to prevent the repetition of such it contribute much to the harmony and unity of a community and therefore it is quite desirable that the power the servants of the people should have the confidence and indeed the love of those who employ them and who honor them by that employment and that should feel similar sentiments in return but to get mad at the and call them hard names does not seem in the smallest degree to advance the object we have ascribed to them indeed the tendency is in the opposite way for the entirely apart from their design may have made it very manifest that the is i the of petition t composed of material that for the most part is incapable of standing a heavy blow there are few if any who can be angry and reject the guidance of reason without doing some foolish thing if they act at all but the to we now more particularly refer say that the excitement of not only the country but that they feel among themselves l e strongly at work we had thought but it may have been in our simplicity that the were elected for their good and well ed characters that unlike the younger part of the community they were not surprised into sudden and violent and that in them the of the blood is tame is humble and upon the judgment we had supposed that this was the main reason why to be eligible they must be at least six years older than a member of the house that the the forms of civility better than the house we have no more doubt than that it is a much smaller body and that it is generally thought as to dignity it is somewhat superior to it considering the members as competent witnesses the not only all other bodies in the propriety and of its and bat it is the most dignified assembly anywhere to be found this is the theory of the no matter how much it may have been departed from or how great may have been the excitement by which it has itself to be home away if the object of the be to put a stop to such and if the opinions and experience of the writer be of any account the and way to success is respectfully to answer such as have been received and let all that come be received read and answered in the same good spirit let the show that they are really worthy of the government they help to administer that they are that while they would be just to all men they have besides this a kind feeling towards their countrymen that the best but if the word please better the most tie of society is for the most learned and favored to instruct the most ignorant and and that the have too high an opinion of their own true honor to be ingenious in out an insult where none was intended they ought also to paper was written before mr had proved that the of the exhibit as as ever place in the house our wrote only not in a spirit of prophecy e know that the people although they may make mistakes in a now more than two generations old do not mean to insult or offend those who are acting for them in short their characters should be so well established their so that they would not return the abuse of a who might think to pro it by	37
them in public the people may not be as fastidious as the are in addressing one another and certainly the sometimes carry this quality to a great extent to one that seems almost with free deliberation yet that they are much inclined to respect their agents especially when they do not use their public stations to promote their private interests but after all suppose a petition is found to be almost as bad as it appears to be but that there is some room for considering the doubtful would it not be better for the to overlook what might be so interpreted and treat the as intending nothing wrong in the way of giving offence let the a commit tee composed of men whose characters are known to the community let this committee as it would do of course deal with the for a dissolution of the union we will suppose respectfully for americans right or wrong if we wish to win their confidence must be treated respectfully and not like slaves let this committee answer the petition by sound arguments by arguments proving that what it sought for was unreasonable and out of their power to grant and show why it was so and let this committee not forget also to show that as were made to be perpetual they make no provision for their dissolution if we say again this petition had been so treated probably another one for the same object would never again have been presented at all events there would have been a good opportunity of giving to the country some wholesome truths which it may begin to need the would have been saved a great deal of ill feeling of language of self the mass of the people would have been gratified and the themselves in all probability would have looked on their petition as weak and but the opportunity of doing or of from doing the things just mentioned is lost if the desired to do what would most effectually bring good people to compare the benefits of the union with its they the of petition have done it they have also convinced many that a a body ihey are not what they were thought to be that they are quick to do wi but slow to do right but suppose the intention to insult be so palpable that it cannot be mistaken and that all the measures we have recommended fail or that thinking from us and that ours is too a way to obtain their end or that in such cases a little ought to be shown as a cur sometimes at his master what then is to be done and read them by all means unless they be in the unknown tongue or a of nonsense if they should not be read and reading reception it wiu not be known what is in them it would be vain now to trust to what a might say of them for if he did not like them he might say they were that they ought not on that account to be received or he might even go as far as went send them back to the s mode one which was very highly commended by several of the is certainly a very effectual one one that deserves a patent right if any does for himself and the from which they do not like and for finally putting down the right of petition altogether quite a happy conceit this of s to say nothing of its if any new truth should be found in the let it be added to our stock for there are times probably in all men s lives when they care but little about the quarter whence truth comes it has almost become a proverb that nothing us from telling the truth laughing nor do we see why it should not be told in a different frame of mind if then after reading the nothing be found in them but and familiar truths mixed up with much falsehood lay them on the table or them to the proper committee who of course will not answer them the design of the then now quite apparent is not to have a grievance but to offer an insult they use the outside form of a good thing but they put a bad purpose within a box which ordinarily contains a jewel but now some this was not so intended the people never once supposed that any persons would wish to in the discharge of their duties those who represent them and they all with the exception of the of course may properly be considered no the of joining in a petition one is obliged to good coin because it is a lawful tender in of a debt bat good coin may be so badly and what is so obviously that we risk nothing in refusing it we have insisted and we still do that in every case it should be made as certain as it can be that an or insult was intended our remarks here have a more special reference to one covered up under smooth and words if an insult was it should be of the as a whole and not a part of it only this part may be concerned and deeply concerned in the grievance sought to be for instance how can slavery be removed and why should the people of the free states be disturbed by it unless they be permitted to show that to men is a sin is a reproach to any people that slavery is a contradiction of our often repeated and still persisted in that it is base and unjust and that it is in of the laws of god to which we all owe obedience to do this would certainly be no to the however it be to some of those who are engaged in making their fellow	37
a thing contrary to our national professions to the of a free government to nature to ri t and of course to the laws of god the to in scotland was made hy second very favorable the court had and charles made a bishop of who was educated at end one of the most and of the the of the attempt under such circumstances and when greater weight too was attached to forms than now for we want something more to any one a ia this and at this time the of petition the writer is not aware that these or any such have at any time been uttered in the but he thinks human ingenuity could not contrive a wiser plan for giving them an extensive circulation than by them in a petition and having it read there the could hear them through them the would know them and some who had not yet invested their means might learn that to claim property in man is a guilty that cannot be undisturbed among a people in civilization and christianity in the foregoing remarks we have endeavored to prove that the right of petition is secured as popular right to the whoever may compose it that it has been on by till at length it is openly denied and taken away from the people and to reasons why it should be at once resumed it for us to show more than we have yet done and we promise to do it as as we can from the speeches delivered in the what a weak and mistaken view they have of this right in that body from our remark we would except the very small messrs chase hale and the only who for the reception of the petition deemed so these gentlemen did not vote thus because their regard for the union was less than that of other who took this opportunity of sounding their own patriotism very loudly but because they understood the matter and wished to preserve the right so far as they could for those to whom it belonged but notwithstanding mr s excellent speech against the extension of slavery a speech which we will not attempt to lest we use too terms we yet have to make a against him for calling the the word does not even is in the not as a moral bat purely as a political one it is maintained that a territory about to become a states or that a state already such has at any time a right to part of the people who are now in it or who may come into it that there is no more moral character attached to the act of our fellow man than there is to the act of an individual who a chair from one side of a room to the other as may best suit his taste or convenience but we apprehend when we feel more intensely the which never fail to attend slavery and which as it grows older its moral character will be completely we shall then learn too though perhaps too late how how unwise it is to any of god s laws with regard to the treatment of any of children our and not expect their th sight of an to the reason or an appeal to of the and nobler feelings its tendency indeed is to it was gently by mr so was mr s application of black hearted to mr may have been thought mainly to refer to of from whom we do not look for things as to liberty as we do from mr the love of the union by the not to be oo measured by the petition as their dislike slavery they may love the union very so the say they do but whatever they may say state degradation they love slavery power power over their fellow more than they love tiie union if they use the union for the and the of slavery they will love it bat their love for the union will be inferior to their love of slavery inasmuch as the protected stands higher in their esteem than the mere means of the let it be admitted for dislike slavery more than they love the union so much so indeed that sooner than give up their dislike they stand ready to give up the union the say that so great is their love for slavery sooner than give it up they are ready to give up the union one to use the union for the destruction of the other for its protection the only real then is one party slavery and the party loves it and that the dislike and love of ae same object is stronger than their love of the union the marvel then is that the of liberty for ou should be called and enemies of the union whilst the and of oppression are its friends and oar readers can well judge which of the two is the more reasonable and to be but let us take a view of this question from another point suppose the believing to be true what they had heard from die and others that the union was now dissolved but not believing with referred to bow uttle had to the matter in hand aod how little they it for mr t not the least learned of these leaned n it is time we begin to investigate this question of the right of petition it have been well too if they had their before they acted the right of of at least with the same confidence that he does when he says that he who the union can be dissolved without is already in an insane hospital or ought to be placed there but that war may be averted by prudent counsels are they not rather to be commended than condemned for wishing to bring about	37
a formal dissolution it seems to us they are and that they are nearer right than general who being a military man thinks nothing can be well settled without fighting about it we will not go over line that us to fight and they e m not come over it to fight us and if we should be so foolish as to fight at all what should we fight about t the wish to use the government for the advancement of slavery the free states of liberty they could not have thin their own way and therefore they have gone from us this is all we see to fight about general to the contrary notwithstanding we will not say that cause of quarrel may not be found by the for they will always complain even when they get the lion s share in any division of property or power that might take place though we see none in the bare fact of dissolution which we trust if it ever come will be entirely voluntary on the part of the free states but in any event notwithstanding the and scented by general as closely following dissolution the conquest of the for all who were not would abandon them be an easy matter to the free states if the latter wished to raise an army one of the most formidable accustomed too to the climate could easily be raised if the union is always to bring on us such rule as we have had almost without for the last fifty years if the union is for and extending slavery at the expense of liberty we say so far as we are concerned let it disappear it does not deserve to be by any honest and just man and the sooner it is dis allowing faith to the of the country so as re the was never more stable so much so indeed that if we may be permitted to compare such things with objects the of is not more so how ludicrous then must one appear who is always going about stripped as it were to the and warning others that although they might fasten the heaviest to the n ck they must not at any time take it away with them for that he has constituted himself the special guardian of it to see that it is always in its right place the of petition and forgotten the better we would ran the risk of another from which would certainly be excluded rather than use the present one managed as it is in we would place ourselves in the of mr s the first and most direct assault on the right of petition at least the first we shall notice and perhaps the first was made in the house in by s resolutions several others having uie same end in view uie of all in the slightest manner relating to slavery were made before december when on the motion of john who from the first was openly indeed opposed to any of this right every obstacle to its fullest exercise was removed the direct attempt on this right contained in mr s notorious bill for post masters to prevent or anti slavery sent to the south by mail failed in the but the mode by which were kept from being read was quite effectual we have the account of it confirmed by from new for the seven years he had been in the from mr in these words i had understood it to be the uniform practice of the for the last twenty years as long as the of slavery had prevailed on the floor of to lay the motion to receive on the subject on the table as mr tells us to a mr further says understanding this to be the uniform practice of the i have to and in the practice in the which i have given i am not aware of one instance in which a petition relating to the slavery a coming from the north has been received here for twelve or fourteen years the by its practice its uniform practice had trampled on a constitutional right which the people had secured to a on one subject and that subject no matter how the or their natural both and at the north may speak of it certainly the most important question of the times as the of human mr wished to apply the rule of to all relating to whether they were from the north or the of t must ever be we wish to present so clearly that we not have to ask mr s opinion as a lawyer accustomed to and intricate subjects but only to appeal to his common sense suppose the had thought proper to a practice we care but little how it was of refusing to receive all except such as were agreeable to them would not the right of petition have then been taken away from the people and yet we see not why with the same propriety they might not have inter all as to have two classes of them the relating to slavery and those relating to a dissolution of the union mr finally for not receiving tiie petition about which he had been talking but as he uie reasons we will them in his own words but sir there seems to be a sentiment prevailing among man that all are to be received here and the prayer considered and that the refusal to do it is a of the right of petition i recognize the right of the people to petition to the fullest extent i have given no vote that or the doctrine of the right of every citizen to petition i hold however that the right of petition only extends so far as the exists to grant the prayer of the if every man has the right to	37
petition on every subject he must direct to that which has competent over the subject but i will not go into a of that branch of the subject i hold further that under the constitution the hat the right to dispose of all in such manner as the deem proper the constitution that we shall our own of proceeding and sir it is as competent to reject the prayer of the petition on a motion to lay the question of reception on the table as it is to vote down a bill before the the prayer of the petition it is only a question of and propriety how far we shall proceed in the steps of on which shall be presented and i am free to say there are which i am not willing to take up the time of the in to receive lay on the table and refer to a committee and of all the that could be desired the petition before us is one of that character it is no less sir than a petition to the american union sir is this under obligations to receive with respect and consider to the american union i hold not sir first we have no power under the constitution to grant the prayer of the petition secondly if we had the power it is moral no the of to give aod to the of a petition for one sir i am opposed to its reception there is no right in the of petition that will the citizens of this or any portion of them who are reckless enough to do so to ask us to receive and hear the prayer of for the dissolution of the american union i am glad we are to have a test question on this subject to test all of every kind and description that may choose to send to us are to be received and acted upon by the i shall vote against the reception of not only upon this subject but in relation to that whole class of subjects the tendencies of which are to the bonds of the american union or to result in its ultimate dissolution here sir you have the question directly presented whether you will receive the petition to the union upon the slavery question this matter only comes up in its tendencies every man sees that this slavery agitation has but one tendency and that tendency is to the union forever i shall vote against the reception of this petition to the union and i the ought to to the good old practice of laying upon the table every petition the direct and inevitable of which is to lead us to the same result only by slower and more steps one does not often see more errors crowded into a of the same length there is but a single statement that will be likely to secure general universal we were about to say if the proper course had been taken with the and this is that the have no more constitutional power to the union than any other similar number of men if we deal with the position of mr more at length than we otherwise would and at the risk of being thought somewhat it will be mainly because us lead has been followed by hie brethren so that an answer to him will be also an answer to them nor do we often see a more remarkable instance of for we are unable to perceive how after the on or delivered by the indeed we may say he have thought we suppose that he did not think much about it that he recognized to the fullest extent the right of tiie people to petition or that he had given no vote when he had just told us that he had to the practice of the which invaded or the doctrine of the ri t of every citizen to petition the eight of petition but mr as it will be seen is formal enough to throw his objections to a of the union under two heads when he that tiie have no power to grant the prayer of the petition with all due deference to the understanding of mr who no doubt intended to make his remarks as to the as he could he has us with an reason why they should be answered it is by no means a violent presumption but a sensible one one by which a wise man ought always to be guided that the would not ask the to do what they knew the had no power to do to suppose our race honest and true if we have no counter is certainly the best way to deal with them for we can form some pretty correct notions how far honesty will go and what direction it will take while we can form none of how far will go or what direction it will take now if the had entertained toward their fellow citizens that feeling which is apt to make more intense the presumption referred to they would have thought that the believed that what was said by some of the members of was true that the union was already dissolved and that they desired as men ought that the formal dissolution be with and and be if any thing could have much flattered the it seems to me this would that any number of their fellow citizens had such confidence in them that they supposed this unheard of power had been to them now what could have been easier for the than to ha e appointed a committee who would have informed the even if their object had been dissolution how nay how impossible it was and that there was no power in existence to accomplish their wishes the second is and in it many that the are to commit moral treason an unknown	37
to the laws to destroy itself to destroy the sovereign power to set the constitution and their oath to support it at defiance to commit c c general goes farther still he is for not even mentioning the word dissolution he says i had occasion some time since and under much less circumstances than the present to say we ought to have one word as the jews had old and thai word du i r the sentiment and than ever of its truth and importance to the first part of the proposition it be said that is not to do any act bad or in itself very true its powers seem to be but it is not to destroy the sovereign power that by the acknowledgment of all in the people nor to commit moral treason nor nor any crime or offence ever the ask them to do a particular thing they have no power as to do how easy then would it have been for the instead of getting mad and pouring forth many unnecessary grand patriotic to ve this to the as the reason why they could not do it they might have added reasons why dissolution should not take place at all the themselves would probably have been satisfied with them and even if they were not others would the of the union its oyer its so wail in as now led to it we see no harm bat on the from a of its in the most sense ae with the exception of the so as we have seen it is indeed says the of it to dwell on the value of the union especial when the witnesses the blessings we e t to the union appears to us so far firom to strengthen it even seems to think aa we do judging from a speech he delivered in the march the more the stronger will they become in the hearts of people who wiu to love the which has given them a greater of prosperity than any other people ever and will and defend it against all that the want to be oat of it as we trust things now are among the people does not at all surprise us for liberty to ail out of the original states always to form some part and a part of the value of the union nor are we surprised at their to with them the southern states and the non a large majority of the south it b not to say that the many of whom axe ignorant and easy to be imposed on may not be influenced to a certain point by feeling by the cry of state rights but when they see that they are to compose tiie rank and file of uie armies which the gentlemen are to com and to risk their lives and those whom they most resemble their ignorance and who wish to a the cause of the of the who as non in the midst of it they will and regard the of aa their most foe they will not only abandon him and let do his own fighting but also persuade his slaves to leave him heretofore have felt in for it them into the higher ranks of society now they will see that they never can have any personal interest in it that it is a system just going out can be that if we goes and they in all assist m putting it oat i th of as to can s should be an word as one was among the jews it deserves attention not so as proceeding firom him for the have often heard things from him equally silly bat as being applauded by mr who has o m mt as the great of the constitution we differ from to have one word among us with our present intelligence and refinement would be what might have been done thousands of years ago among the jews a rude and people can not be done now and in this country if it should be considered there is an end of the question but that it were practicable would it be a wise measure and make the union any stronger we not for if it be wished to pronounce a wo or sentiment now let it be we can not tell whether any public matter is right or wrong till it is inquired into and talked about indeed our constitution says that the freedom of speech shall not be the people of this country look on any matter suspiciously unless it be a private one that cannot be ven to the winds we talk so much that we have been called perhaps not a notwithstanding this and that everything even our government is managed by is the name of probably the name alluded to by general less among us than it was among the jews that they had good rulers occasionally is not disputed but that they were in the as much ven to vice as tiie surrounding nations their whole history particularly in later times when it is better known to us fully proves but we will take another illustration and it may be regarded as more complete because we understand it better the the use of the bible as a school book on the ground too great with it especially by the young contempt the on the other hand wish to introduce it denying what the say would be the effect of using it in common they think that the stores of wisdom to be found in it can not be too well known particularly in early life and that its influence would be a happy one on all concerned now we would ask general if the bible so common among the that it can be read by them at pleasure so common that no one book is more so	37
is less esteemed among them than it is among the with whom it is the of that according to the notion of the it them in any attempt which they might make for their nay render it imperative on them and that slavery especially in a country to be the in the world a grievance that ought at once to be and removed suppose that these persons also believe that in all countries where mind is as it is for the most part in the free states advances both moral and physical towards improvement and civilization are made with a rapidity to its and that the real question now is those states be in their upward progress as they heretofore have been by dragging slavery along with them for where slavery is mind except on a few subjects and they generally connected by the with the of their fellow creatures is comparatively or shall they put it out of the way suppose these men should think that tiie present state of things is in a great measure to be ascribed to the that the body or mass of the people occupy a more elevated moral position than they ever did before but that with their more rapid and higher advancement slavery is that they wish to the because they are their brethren and warn them to prepare for the going out of their system for it will be in vain for them to look for the present agitation to cease whilst slavery lasts and as long as there are persons who fear more than man suppose too they further think that to compromise a moral question however it may suit active political who never had any thing to do in the matter with such persons and in this country is utterly out of the power of any man however great his gifts or however experienced he be in and suppose they should think it as bad in mr as an attempt to make us all of one religious belief and that he might as well try to make us all roman or as to persuade us to hate slavery less than we do now as a thing contrary to our national professions to the spirit of a free government to nature to right and of course to the laws of god the to in was made bj charles the favorable the court had great and charles made a bishop of who was at and was one of the most and of the bnt the of the attempt under circumstances and when greater weight too was attached to forms than now for we want more substantial than ought to any one from a similar attempt in this and at this time the of the writer is not aware that these or any such have at any time been uttered in the but he thinks human ingenuity could not contrive a wiser plan for giving them an extensive circulation than by them in a petition and having it read there the could hear them through them the would know them and some who had not yet invested their means might learn that to claim property in man is a guilty that cannot be undisturbed among a people advancing in civilization and christianity in the foregoing remarks we have endeavored to prove that the right of petition is secured as v right to the whoever may compose it that it has been on by till at length it is openly denied and taken away from the people and to g ve reasons why it should be at once again resumed it for us to show more than we have yet done and we promise to do it as as we can from the speeches delivered in the what a weak and mistaken view they have of this right in that body from our remark we would except the very small messrs chase hale and the only who for the reception of the petition deemed so these gentlemen did not vote thus because their regard for the union was less than that of other who took this op of sounding their own patriotism very loudly but because they understood the matter and wished to preserve the right so far as they could for those to whom it belonged but notwithstanding mr s excellent speech against the extension of slavery a speech which we will not attempt to lest we use too terms we yet have to make a complaint against him for calling the the word does not even is in the not as a moral question purely as a political one it is mai that a territory about to become a or that a state already such has at any time a right to part of the people who are now in it or who may come into it that there is no more moral attached to the act of our fellow man than is to the act of an individual who a chair from one side of a room to the other as may best suit his taste or convenience but we apprehend when we feel more intensely the which never fail to attend and which as it grows older its moral character will be completely we shall then learn too though perhaps too late how how unwise it is to any of god laws with regard to the treatment of any of children our creatures and not expect their ths right of that according to the notion of the it them in any attempt which they might make for their nay render it imperative on them and that slavery especially in a country to be the in the world a grievance that ought at once to be and removed suppose that these persons also believe that in all countries where mind is as it is for the most part in the free states advances both moral and	37
towards improvement and are made with a rapidity to its and that the real question now is shall those states be in their upward progress as they heretofore have been by dragging slavery along with them for where slavery is mind except on a few subjects and they generally connected by the with the of their fellow is comparatively or shall they put it out of the way suppose these men should think that die present state of things is in a great measure to be ascribed to the fact that the body or mass of the people occupy a more elevated moral position than they ever did before but that with their more rapid and higher advancement is that they wish to the because they are their brethren and warn them to prepare for the going out of their system for it will be in vain for them to look for the present agitation to cease whilst slavery lasts and as long as there are persons who fear ood more than man suppose too they further think that to compromise a moral question however it may suit active political who never had any thing to do in the matter with persons and in this country is utterly out of the power of any man however great his gifts or however experienced he may be in and suppose should think it as bad in mr as an attempt to make us all of one religious belief and that he might as well try to make us all roman or as to persuade us to hate slavery less than we do now as a thing contrary to our national professions to the spirit of a free government to nature to right and of course to the laws of god the attempt to establish in was made bj charles the favorable the court had mat influence and charles made a bishop of who at and was one of the most and of the bat the of the attempt and when greater weight too was attached to forms than now for we want something more substantial than to any one horn a similar attempt in this and at this time s the of petition the writer is not aware that these or any such sentiments have at any time been uttered in the but he thinks human ingenuity could not contrive a wiser plan for giving them an extensive circulation than by them in a petition and having it read there the could hear them through them the would know them and some who had not yet invested their means might learn that to claim property in man is a guilty that cannot be undisturbed among a people advancing in civilization and christianity in the foregoing remarks we have endeavored to prove that the right of petition is secured as a popular right to the whoever may compose it that it has been on by till at length it is openly denied and taken away from the people and to g ve reasons why it should be at once again resumed it remains for us to show more than we have yet done and we promise to do it as as we can from the speeches delivered in the what a weak and mistaken view they have of this right in that body from our remark we would except the very small messrs chase hale and the only who for the reception of the petition deemed so these gentlemen did not vote because their regard for the union was less than that of other who took this op of sounding their own patriotism very loudly but because they understood the matter and wished to preserve the right so far as they could for those to whom it belonged but notwithstanding mr s excellent speech against the extension of slavery a speech which we will not attempt to lest we use too terms we yet have to make a complaint against him for calling the the word does not even ia in the not as a moral question bnt as a political one it is mai that a territory about to become a or that a state already has at any time a right to part of the people who are now in it or who may come into it that there is no more moral character attached to the act of our fellow man than is to the act of an individual who a chair from one side of a room to the other as may best suit his taste or convenience but we apprehend when we feel more intensely the which never fail to attend slavery and which as it grows older its moral character will be completely we shall then learn too though perhaps too late how how unwise it is to of god s laws with regard to the treatment of any of his children our creatures and not expect their the right of that according to the notion of the it would them in any attempt which they might make for their liberty nay render it imperative on them and that slavery especially in a country to be the in the world a grievance that ought at once to be and removed suppose that these persons also believe that in all countries where mind is as it is for the most part in the free states advances both moral and physical towards improvement and are made with a rapidity to its and that the real question now is shall those states be in their upward progress as they heretofore have been by dragging slavery along with them for where slavery is mind except on a few subjects and they generally connected by the with the of their fellow creatures is comparatively or shall they put it out of the way suppose these men should think that tiie present state of things	37
is in a great measure to be ascribed to the fact that the body or mass of the people occupy a more elevated moral position than they ever did before but that with their more rapid and higher advancement is that they wish to the because they are their brethren and warn them to prepare for the going out of their system for it will be in vain for them to look for the present agitation to cease whilst slavery lasts and as long as there are persons who fear more than man suppose too they further think that to compromise a moral question however it may suit active political who never had any thing to do in the matter with persons and in this country is utterly out of the power of any man however great his gifts or however experienced he be in and suppose they should think it as bad in mr as an attempt to make us all of one religious belief and that he might as well try to make us all roman or as to persuade us to hate slavery less than we do now as a thing contrary to our national professions to the spirit of a free government to nature to right and of course to the laws of god the attempt to in scotland was made hj charles the favorable the court had great and charles made a bishop of who was at and was one of the most ana eloquent of the bat the of the attempt such circumstances and when greater weight too was attached to forms than now for we want something more than to any one from a similar attempt in and at this time the of petition the writer is not aware that these or any have at any time been uttered in the but he thinks human ingenuity could not contrive a wiser plan for giving them an extensive circulation than by them in a petition and having it read there the could hear them through them the would know them and some who had not yet invested their means might learn that to claim property in man is a guilty that cannot be undisturbed among a people in civilization and christianity in the foregoing remarks we have endeavored to prove that the right of petition is secured as popular right to the whoever may compose it that it has been on by till at length it is openly denied and taken away from the people and to ve reasons why it should be at once again resumed it for us to show more than we have yet done and we promise to do it as as we can from the speeches delivered in the what a weak and mistaken view they have of this right in that body from our remark we would except the very small messrs chase hale and the only who for the reception of the petition deemed so these did not vote thus because their regard for the was less than that of other who took this op of sounding their own patriotism very loudly but because they understood the matter and to preserve the right so far as they could for those to whom it belonged but notwithstanding mr s excellent speech against the extension of slavery a speech which we will not attempt to lest we use too terms we yet have to make a complaint against him for calling the the word does not even is in the not ai a moral question bat purely as a political one it is maintained that a territory about to become a state or that a state already has at any time a right to part of the people who are now in it or who may come into it that there is no more moral character attached to the act of our fellow man than is to the act of an individual who a chair from one side of a room to the other as may best suit his taste or convenience but we apprehend when we feel more intensely the which never to attend slavery and which as it grows older its moral character will be completely we then learn too though perhaps too late how how unwise it is to of god s laws with regard to the treatment of any of hit children our fellow creatures and not expect their the petition the ground that i have no right to a petition here for action upon a subject upon which had no power to act that is not mj business not at all it is for the people to judge as to what they shall petition for and when the time comes for action then i have a right to judge what is the power of to grant their prayer people who petition have the right to judge also whether has a right to act and then when the subject is before us we haye ihe right to judge end decide of the propriety of the power to act c c mb chase said i am one of those who believe that the right iii petition belongs to the people and that it is not within the power of this body or oi any other body to that right i do not think it becomes us to define the precise object to which a may be directed but that when are presented here from the people we their representatives are bound to receive those and if we think fit to decline answering their prayer we are bound to our reasons for the refusal it is for the people to whom the right of petition belongs to determine for themselves upon what occasion they will exercise it and when they have and have exercised it and their are presented here or in any other body they should be received to to receive	37
them is in my judgment an of that right to stop short of this to to receive a petition to say to the you shall not be heard is an invasion of their constitutional privilege sir we cannot that privilege by law much less can we it by mere usage or rule c mr i believe sir if there had never been any on the subject of slavery rejected by there never would have been any presented to for the dissolution of the union i believe that so long as we those who are to maintain before the le a on the right of petition so long shall we have the right of petition abused and for such purposes and it is for that reason i should desire to receive this and all other the distinguished from mr has to one or two cases and asks by way of parallel whether we would receive under such circumstances as for a petition to declare there is no god well sir i have seen a question very similar to that in my experience i have known large masses of the community agitated by an apprehension of a combination of church and state growing out of an appointment of to bodies i have seen such presented and a great popular movement made to compel the attention of the body to the discussion of that question of the exploring expedition the moment were received and discussed and decided upon the agitation ceased i remember also the oi very signed to bodies to the reading of the bible in the common schools and the question was raised which was the wisest way to meet an agitation so injurious to the peace and morals of society some maintained that it was best to reject them and others that it was best to receive them and give them an answer they were received referred and an elaborate answer given them and though that is more than ten years ago no such petition was presented to the body afterwards now sir we shall never hear of for the dissolution of the union if we receive this and give it that answer which is in the mouth as well as in the heart of every member of this body it is a simple question whether we shall give these reasons we are not above giving reasons to our fellow men not even above giving reasons for not the union george washington was not above giving reasons why this union should not be dissolved c art ii united states exploring expedition daring the under the command of charles u s n d a m of the d c e y c a of twenty one new york c i islands the work to which we desire to call the attention of our readers in the following article contains the results of the observations of the author while attached to the united states exploring expedition under the command of captain to mr we are already indebted for the splendid and elaborate work on the which has excited universal admiration among scientific men to these two works which communicate to the world only a portion of the of the author while engaged on this expedition we look with the highest degree of satisfaction as a noble contribution from this country to the treasures of scientific knowledge and it is to such results that we would proudly point when called on by the to cf the expedition the comparatively sum which this in encouraging the of science we need hardly for a few of pages to the subject of at least to those branches of this science have been especially illustrated m mr s work for we feel confident the facts here given and the theories by which they are linked together are of so striking and beautiful a character as to the attention of every thinking man even if he be not a of science deeply interested ourselves in the subject and aware of the important results which the investigation of other scientific had developed in those remote regions visited by the exploring expedition we had looked forward to the publication of this volume with great confidence feeling assured that it would be a work of the greatest to the now that we have read the book we take pleasure in stating that we have not been disappointed in our most san expectations and unless we are entirely mistaken in our estimate both of the subject and of the author we that this work will to mr as eminent a rank among as he among and if in his of the he has excited our admiration as an ingenious a faithful and minute observer he us in this volume by the of his views and his deep insight into those great operations of nature the study of which require alike an acute and strong power of observation and a truly philosophical mind these naturally embrace a wide field from the nature of such an expedition and the very limited time allowed for observation in the different places we can not of course expect more than a general outline of the principal features but even as such they are of importance since they relate to countries of whose structure or nothing definite was known as for instance new new south wales the deception island and on this continent the of and as might be expected these and islands exhibit every variety of rocks the study of which will increase our knowledge of the extent of several the descriptions are accompanied with several maps and numerous well executed wood there is besides an of the of representing mostly from the series of new south wales with some from the west coast of the american continent but above all it was the pacific which to mr the richest field as it had already furnished him the chief materials for his	37
themselves thus the islands stretch in a direct line to the north west the also are mostly in a single range the group the new new the islands the c are all in distinctly groups but according to mr the lines are not necessarily and he goes even so far as to assert that an exactly straight line is nowhere to be found not even in a single ridge of a chain the peaks advance and retreat all along the line and occasionally the mountains sweep around into some new direction and then return again more or less nearly to their former course something similar occurs in many of our continental mountain especially in the and whoever has seen the beautiful but unfortunately as yet map no q of the or body often as broad as the itself and not larger which contains e and internal of the and the month which opens into the is at the centre of the here then the flower and the garden flower in character the difference being required by the different modes of in the two of nature all species of do not lime or cot i as there are without a shell for instance the so there are many a shell the most among them is the so sea or which may be seen m abundance attached to the logs at our being more accessible to than any other they have been studied with more care and have been made the type of one of the two great in the class of the indeed most of the although much smaller correspond in structure to the sea especially those large and beautifully white masses like carved marble which adorn our c those which have a internal like the and the red coral are less concerned in the construction of in order to form a correct idea of the astonishing growth tf we must keep in mind that the as before stated are plant like animals which spread and grow like shrubs a bud starts from a parent branch and soon forms a branch the parent in size this is the commencement of a group or the two branches continue in turn to bud and we have only to imagine the parent and the new to go on in the same proportion to conceive how a large group or may be formed in a short time each its own when these remain isolated they form coral like the but when together they form clusters in the same way as we have branch and ball shaped yet it is not uncommon to see the clustered also form branches as for instance the horn shaped the coral is generally throughout the and at the base of the but sometimes a takes the other is that of the e those which are to the fresh water it is doubtful however if this order can be maintained most of the species proved to be but the early stage of some or fish of the expedition place also between the of the internal of the and this produces the which constitute the star of the so conspicuous in many species this if ever so active would not however suffice to produce those heavy dome like masses which are so frequent on the islands of the pacific were it not for a peculiar law which is beautifully explained by mr by which both life and death are made to the purpose life and death are here in or parallel progress in some instances a simple while at the top and constantly itself upward is dying at its lower extremity leaving the base of the coral bare and destitute of any living the thus continues rising in height and below at the same rate till at last the live may be seen at the extremity of a coral stem many times its own length the same operation takes place in species which bud and form large groups in some instances the summit or bud and grow while at a certain distance below tiie summit the work of death is going on and are gradually disappearing there is thus a certain interval of ufe the length of which is for different species there are which grow to a height of several feet and still only the upper one or two inches are living the recent at the top of the column are active with life and vigorous in while the more aged below having reached the fixed limits of their existence are disappearing the enduring coral remains and the or stage of action for future generations of death is not in progress at the base of the column or branch only the whole interior of a trunk or dome is likewise dead thus a although the branch may be an inch in is alive only to a depth of a line or two the growing of the surface having died at their lower or inner extremity as they increased outward those large of likewise which attain sometimes a of ten or twenty feet and are alive over the whole surface are nothing but lifeless coral throughout the interior the living portion be separated it would form a shell of in most species about half an inch thick in some species of of the same e the whole mass is lifeless excepting the exterior for one sixth of an inch in depth it is plain that with such a mode of increase there is no necessary limit to the growth of the rising col s or dome may grow upward until it the of the sea when death simply from ei k aad not from any failure in power of life we may however that if the land supporting the growing coral were very gradually sinking the increase of the coral t without limit there are thus sufficient means provided for the production of coral material for however and there is no	37
exaggeration in saying that these humble of power might without er attributes than those they now possess have even laid the foundation of and them with now it be asked what prevents these stems and trunks from decay when deprived of that power of resistance which life what them against the wearing and destructive action of the winds and waves and thus prevents the destruction of a large part of the living which grow upon the of their ancestors mr us that by a beautiful provision of nature the dead sur become the resting place of small species of which hke over the coral and prevent it from being destroyed by uie action of the waters when deprived of hfe and from the wear of the waves some of these species the for instance are to grow at the same rate with the advance of death in the so as to keep themselves up to the very limit of the living part even the of tt become to this great end the preservation of the dead coral for they into the many among the dead trunks and up the intervals which are often large between the scattered coral groups and by this combined action of living growth and a solid rock is formed and kept in constant increase if we were to judge of the structure of the coral mere ly from the specimens of coral which we see in our we might infer that they must be a very and rock such however is not the case the coral especially those of the pacific are generally very compact no matter if made of erect with the intervals filled m by as is the case with the inner or of a coral or what is more common if composed of a fine and hard white of texture the of the coral rock in each of cases is owing to the same process a by means of the finely i tke which in the water is either deposited in the of the coral or m and by alternately and dried by the action of tides and as the of the are constancy wearing oat under the influence of the waves there is a constant of these fine materials those which are absolutely must be supposed to have been as a very fine mud in sheltered places and afterwards there are indeed te be seen about many coral but like the mud of our own coast they are found chiefly in the sheltered places such as the channels or it has supposed by mr and others that this fine mud might be derived partly from and fishes which are said to on the living but this supposition according to mr is by no means adequate to the supply and if these animals play a part at all it can be but a very subordinate one there is another difficulty connected with the which we deem of more consequence for the namely the fact that the most coral rock should occur mainly in the where the least shelter is to be expected we have vainly looked for an explanation of this circumstance and should be happy if these remarks should call forth a satisfactory solution of the problem suggested farther that the coral mud of the might be a fit material for the formation of chalk this supposition although very probable at first view is objected to by mr on the ground that in ordinary instances the mud instead of becoming chalk into compact the question then arises what conditions are required to produce chalk as it appears there is in the whole pacific but one instance known of a chalk like deposit and this is not found on any of the coral islands but in elevated of one of the islands and from its position at the foot of an extinct mr seems inclined to it to the influence of heat some hot spring for instance by which the waters might have been kept at a higher temperature than in the surrounding sea and since heated water lime much less readily than cold this might be a reason for its inferior hardness and structure without questioning the of the explanation in this particular case we hardly o of the expedition think tiiat it could apply to those of white chalk which are so in some parts of europe for it would meet here with the same objection which mr made to the of coral mud by fishes namely of the circumstance tiiat coral occur mainly within the sufficiently to what degree they are dependent upon temperature from a general of the facts it appears that forming species are not met with when the winter temperature remains for any time below though in some places the may occasionally sink to or even lower k we were therefore to trace on each side of the a line across the ocean touching all those points where the temperature lower than this we should an area which would include all the growing of the world with the exception of the which owe their higher temperature to the vicinity of the gulf stream this area would extend in the northern to near the th degree of latitude a similar may be traced as regards the depth at which building live it was formerly believed that might grow at all depths this view however has since proved to be according to and they are most abundant between five and six and t states that they do not generally extend beyond twenty did not find them lower than six in the bed sea the observations of the exploring expedition tend to confirm in every respect these views regard to the comparatively small depths in which the coral animals can exist it is stated by mr that among the islands the extent of coral grounds surveyed was many hundreds of square miles and that throughout thb re on	37
first observed in cook s voyage it was supposed by cook s companion that the coral animals had the power of building up steep and almost perpendicular walls from great depths in the sea a notion which prevailed for some time until it was proved that do not live in very deep water and are seldom found alive beyond a depth of twenty the of plants found in the according to dr the of the expedition another was tlie which was based chiefly upon the form of the islands or the circular form of each having a m the centre and being surrounded on all bj deep ocean suggested the idea that they were the of over wn by coral the of the to ue and the rim to the re this theory on with the ingenious the of obtained for a time general being by mr and other in proportion however as the pacific islands became known the of this view increased its was more and more felt and at last it bad to yield entirely to another more in accordance with the ts namely the theory of mr the simplicity of renders the grandeur of the conception the more striking according to mr the be to build in water of a moderate depth and they are yet at the bottom of the sea from action of causes so that the of edifice is carried downwards at the same time that they are raising the if therefore the rate of be not too rapid the growing coral will continue to up to the surface the mass always gaining in height above its original base but in other respects in the same not so with the land each inch is lost as the whole gradually sinks the water gains foot by foot oa the shore the last pe of the original island in connecting thus the coral with the great of continental is itself e natural consequence of the gradual of our globe mr has not only removed the difficulty arising from the depth at which are found but has also solved the great problem of their distribution whilst mr the same principle still has pointed out the cause of their absence in some portions of the ocean and of their peculiar shape and size in others the first hint towards this brilliant mr found in those small islands standing in the middle of a surrounded by a like a picture in its frame he noticed that there was hardly any difference between these and the true and that could the small be removed there would remain ft genuine island d tt or ho no would bo it for now as of these small of rocks of it was obvious thej could not be parts a the theory was destined to show that they are indeed only of the same process this will be from the following let this represent the section of one of the rocky islands of the pacific namely a mountain surmounted by a coral rising to the water s edge a b whilst the summit of the mountain z rises a little above it like a island in a li e let us suppose the island to gradually some hundred feet and the water level to be carried from the line a b to c d so as to entirely the mountain x and we shall have no an island but an in other words a surrounded by a coral if this be really the rule then an must a greater amount of than a with a small island in the middle and this again a greater than a large mountain surmounted merely by a thus the coral thrown around the y island to and protect it becomes afterwards the permanent and the only record of its est the according to r is a vast where each marks the of a buried as to the thickness of the there are no means of it in an except by direct sounding which as may be expected is not an easy matter in the case of an surrounded by a barrier like that of the above it may however be inferred on the assumption that the slope of the island on which the is based is the same below as above water mr on this assumption that some of the coral of the group at their outer limits are at least two thousand feet in thickness we ought not however to f ih rely too upon has of tlie and below water for it is a fact that mountains in general are towards their summit than at their base whoever has ascended mount or any of the peaks of the green mountains must have found that the slope in proportion as we come near the summit this is owing chiefly to the fact that the are mostly accumulated on the lower slopes and we find them to be especially numerous in the such as most of the peaks of the pacific are known to be when the slope is the same amount of will of course cause the coral to to a much greater distance than if it is steep and in this way we may conceive of barrier being many miles from the main land like the barrier of as a general rule however it may be admitted that those which are the farthest fin m the land imply the greatest amount of those of our readers who are familiar with the result of modem will not consider it b any means an improbable assumption that extensive changes m the relative level of land and sea should have taken place a theory which seems to be demanded by the form and portion of the coral islands to be we are accustomed instinctively to consider the land as the emblem of and hence our surprise at the idea that it should be otherwise	37
the observations made in showing the whole coast is a gradual the similar indications on the eastern coast of this continent together with the many evidences of slow during the most recent period are sufficient proof that in the relative level of water and land are by no means of occurrence we are not astonished therefore that this theory one of the greatest of the human mind in our age should have gained in a short time almost universal approbation mr could not fail to adopt it and by giving to it the sanction of his extensive he has established it on a firm basis of evidence whilst on tiie other hand as we shall see hereafter he has corrected and modified those portions which were not by sufficient facts notwithstanding this confirmation the theory has still some among them captain himself all due regard for the great abilities of the distinguished head of the exploring expedition and although we are ready to of the edge in some the of the coral requires farther examination jet we cannot admit that the objection made by him to the in question will at all the arguments of messrs and least of all can we agree with him when he puts his on the ground that it seems almost absurd to suppose that these immense banks have been raised by the exertions of a minute animal to a no more powerful agency will seem requisite than that of such apparently insignificant causes it follows as a consequence of the above mentioned theory that coral of any description no matter if in the form of islands or barrier are indications of whilst and uplifted banks of shells and furnish evidence of applying this principle to the pacific and indian seas mr has divided them into several of and elevation thus with the western shores of south america he finds in its banks of marine shells proof of proceeding westward there is first a deep ocean without islands until we come to the of the society islands which include many and encircled islands and constitute therefore an area of more than four thousand miles in extent farther west are the new solomon and new ireland which are supposed to indicate another area of again to the westward of the new we reach the of new and the great barrier which a second area of mr whilst the same general principle applies it in a somewhat different and as we think more philosophical manner he looks at the changes of level not merely in their opposition to each other as and elevation but them with an eye accustomed to regard the operations of nature in their relation to time in their perspective so to speak he several successive phases in the history of the changes of level namely a general epoch of indicated by the and barrier during more recent periods and partly during the same epoch of changes of level to the and the growth of recent as to the indicated by it is stated that if a line be drawn from s island the of no xii of the the by the group the north of the society group and the solomon islands to the it will mark the boundary between the and the high islands of the pacific the former lying to the north of the line and the latter to the south now if it be true that afford evidence of a greater than barrier or cling we may infer from their in the immediate vicinity of the above line and their entire absence farther south that the was along the said line and went on from thence southward its north of the line where universally prevail now it is a fact well worthy of notice that to the north of these very islands which are supposed to indicate a greater amount of and group there is a wide blank of ocean twenty degrees in which is without an island this area lies between the the and the and stretches far to the considering it to be an established fact that the in size in consequence of continued and at last disappear entirely mr asks if it would not be sufficient in order to explain the above blank merely to suppose that the same reduced the size of the islands to mere patches of continued northward and thus caused the total disappearance of islands that once existed over this part of the ocean it would follow therefore if the premises are true that the increased from the south to the northward or and was greatest between the and or islands about to west and latitude to north a line drawn from at the eastern comer of the group west towards would according to mr represent the or line of greatest depression for that vast area of however considerable the sinking may have been in the society and other islands the very ct that they are actual mountains tells us that their amount of must be small when compared with that required to all the lands in the coral islands as to leave but as for instance in the the same may also be traced oat in the different in the the the and of the expedition tu or islands one or two or even five hundred feet could not have all the many peaks of these islands there are now among the groups mountains which rise to all heights from four thousand to fourteen thousand feet above the sea we would therefore ask with mr whether it be reasonable to suppose that throughout this extensive area where the two hundred were actual mountains there were among them none equal in to the mean of their heights however moderate our estimate there must still be allowed a sinking of several thousand feet indeed a twice and three times as considerable would not be extravagant when compared with the changes of level which are	37
known to have sustained the area between the new and over which the whole surface is presumed to have undergone a depression cannot have been less considerable the long of one hundred and fifty miles stretching from the south cape of new cannot be explained without supposing a of one or two thousand feet at least and the distant barrier of new holland is proof of a still greater it has already been remarked by mr what an extraordinary spectacle would be presented if the bottom of the pacific where abound should be and laid dry we should behold mountain peaks and composed mentally of rocks on which masses of would repose most of them reaching to the same height that is to the present actual surface of the although starting from very different some of these would be continuous over an area of three miles others above three hundred miles in while their thickness might vary from one thousand to ten thousand feet or more in the lower regions between the mountain there would often be no contemporary or when exceptions occurred to this rule the would differ in their nature as much as the species of which they from the masses of coral from the actual extent of the coral and islands mr that the whole amount of high land lost to the pacific by is at least fifty thousand square miles since are necessarily smaller than the land thej cover and the more so the farther the has proceeded since many islands owing to their abrupt shores or through agency must have had no about them of the expedition and have disappeared a mark and others may have subsided too rapidly for the to retain themselves at the surface it is obvious that the estimate is below the truth in many cases islands now have once been connected and the several may been formed about the heights of a single island of large it is therefore that the scattered and do not tell half the story might it not be that the extra tropical are entire on our merely because the climate did not allow the to plant their growing upon the of their islands and that like s they have disappeared without leaving a to mark the spot where they once stood however we should be careful not to indulge too readily in fancies which are not sustained by facts it is an easy matter for the fancy to about the former existence of a pacific but as mr justly as yet nothing of it as to e epoch when these changes took place there is every probability that it was within and since the epoch this is inferred from the fact that in one of the islands where the have been over two hundred feet the species are found to be the same as those now living although we do by no means agree with those who pretend that all tiie of every formation are necessarily distinct from those of the and that the creation has been utterly destroyed and renewed at each time we think with mr that there is no reason to refer them to a very remote period and since we do not therefore know of any existing animals or plants found in a state farther back than the it is but rational not to carry back the origin of the to a more remote epoch however great the length of time they may have required to build up the walls of the and to such a thickness as we know them to occur in the pacific finally mr the following of a now in progress which was communicated to him by mr hale the of the expedition who gathered it from a foreigner who had been for awhile a resident on the island of east of the it is evident that the at and are of the same kind and were built for the same purpose it is also clear that when the latter were raised the on which they stood in a different condition from what it is now f tf at of the exploring present tbey are actually in the water what were once paths are now passages for and when the walls are broken down the water enters the mr hale hence that the land on the whole group of and perhaps all the neighboring groups has undergone a slight depression besides the instances of which we have been examining there are instances of elevation in the pacific mr gives a careful account with a of all the islands which afford or are to afford evidence of a change of level in that direction instances are found in almost every as for instance in the the society the the the t the the the c but as a general rule the elevation is very limited in most cases it only to a few feet and seldom one hundred feet in the most striking instance that of the island of or one of the western the raised of coral do not exceed two hundred and fifty feet in height now it must be granted that such are utterly insignificant when compared with the amount of which is to be inferred from the or nor is there any proof whatever that they extended over wide nor that they took place simultaneously in the different groups seems therefore to have their importance in bringing them in constant opposition to the sub we think that mr has taken the most correct view when he represents them merely as minor over limited whereas the exhibited b the and one of the events m the earth history in which a large of the globe was concerned but the means by which both and are ascertained are the same namely coral had there been no growing coral the whole would have passed without a record these permanent planted in ages past in various parts of	37
dignity and respectability to their place and opportunity and experience to themselves there is an energy which no circumstance can destroy which belongs to that and defiant essence called character has two results the development j of the strong and the destruction of the weak and it is to the latter alone that the of practical effort belong if we run our eye over literary history and see the intellectual fire which has been subjected to e influences of patronage and place from to we shall not condemn office holding as wholly if we go from the custom house into state street we shall find that office holding is not the only sphere in the world and if we wander out of the region of politics into the pulpit we shall find that the former does not all the time serving to us who live under no rain of the whole process of getting a living is hard enough at best and he who can make this work secondary to the great life of thought and a to his laboring mind those powers which carry man to his highest development of as a especially as an office we would not think or speak more than is necessary he has presented himself in this light and of course demands notice as every extraordinary man does whatever be his sphere of action and even here condemn the position as he may we are glad to admire his peculiar genius from the height of that tall office stool on which he sat his survey of mankind around him was clear just and penetrating there is not a life whose daily history sincerely and presented does not appeal to our sympathy and interest and we are reminded of the strong human groups of and as we read the picture of those old custom house from the pen of his appreciation of s scarlet letter himself and of each individual associate whatever be his qualities commands our assent the general the clerks the the father of the custom house are real flesh and blood and each acts his part in the drama with an interest and an effect which forbid his removal from the group it is astonishing how accurately he the peculiar characteristics of his associates how delicately and how justly while we sit and listen with the intensity of interest to the effect which each foot worn stone in the court yard each grass grown comer of the old neglected wharf each of busy merchants and sea flushed sailors each of that old building where the traditions were hung up to dry each duty and interest has upon the mind and heart of this acute observer and we grow muscular and peculiarly vital and over the old we are account books with the accurate clerk we are half asleep with the old who range along the passage and we are firm able placid patriotic brave when we read the tender and touching recognition of the peculiar reverence due the calm and silent night which rests upon the great mass of forces contained in the old himself the humor here is too the high stool a keen and quaint in one instance at least and although some might question the delicacy of the personal allusions we are forced to admire the twinkling good nature the honest confidence the pathetic penetration which play over that countenance as it takes its survey and we know no such word as as to the result of that survey for which we are as grateful as we are to for his groups and faces although to many minds we doubt not a sense and may be imparted by the we should no sooner look for these passions from the high stool of the of the custom house than from the desk of that clerk who carried day after day for so many years to his books in the india house such wit and humor such affection and touching devotion such knowledge and gentleness such purity of heart and such elegant delicacy and power of mind but the is his official head drops off and his literary out of the custom house with the manuscript and scarlet letter of old in his pocket the ko s scarlet letter sale of the book had distributed the story we deal i with its philosophy and merits it is as we had a right to expect extraordinary as a work of art and as a vehicle of religion and surrounded by the stiff formal of our new england colony and subjected to their severe laws and social atmosphere we have a picture of crime and passion it would be hard to conceive of a greater outrage upon the and self denying doctrines of that day than the sin for which was damned by society and for which arthur damned himself for centuries the devoted and superstitious catholic had made it a part of his creed to cast disgrace upon the passions and the cold and ri d with less and consequently with less beauty had driven them out of his paradise as the parents of all sin there was no recognition of the intention or meaning of that element of human nature which life like a sunset lays the foundation of all that beauty which seeks its expression in and music and art and gives the highest apprehension oi religious zest of life was no part of the s belief he scorned his own flesh and blood his were crimes his cool head was ready to temper the hot blood in its first tendency to come bounding from his heart he had no sympathy no tenderness for sinner more especially for that hardened criminal who had failed to all his senses beneath his feet love was a weakness in the mind of that who rt with the sword of the lord and of subdued his enemies and	37
with of and sustained and cheered his friends and love was that scarlet sin which had no for in these of him who said to the woman neither do i condemn thee the state of society which this form of humanity created probably as little to men as any court of and while we recognize with compressed lip that heroism which seas and unknown shores for opinion s sake we remember with a warm glow the and courage and tropical of the whom they left behind them and on either hand neither fruitful of the finer and truer virtues were all that men had arrived at in the great work of life it was the former which the scarlet letter to the s breast of and which drove arthur into a life of cowardly and selfish meanness that added disgrace and to his original crime in any form of society hitherto known the of the devoted relation between the sexes has constituted the most certain foundation of all purity and all social safety imperfect as this great law has been in most of its development founded upon and the rights of property instead of positively the delicacy of abstract virtue and having become of necessity in the present organization a of hereditary rights and a bond for a deed of conveyance it less appeals to the highest sense of virtue and honor which a man finds in his breast in an age in which there is a tendency to these as well as all obligations in order to secure those which are more sacred and binding than any which have been born of the book we can hardly conceive of the consternation and disgust which overwhelmed our forefathers when the majesty of virtue and the still majesty of the law were insulted it was as heir of these virtues and impressed with education that arthur a clergyman believing in and applying all the moral of the times found himself a criminal we learn nothing of his experience during the seven long years in which his guilt was secretly at his breast unless it be the experience of pain ana remorse he speaks no word of wisdom he and behind the protection of his profession and his social position neither growing wiser nor stronger but day after day paler and paler more and more abject we do not find that out of his sin came any revelation of virtue no doubt exists of his repentance of that repentance which is made up of sorrow for sin and which grows out of fear of consequences but we learn nowhere that his enlightened conscience rising above the and of the day by dint of his own deep and solemn spiritual experiences taught him what obligations had gathered around him children of his crime which he was bound to acknowledge before men as they stood revealed to god why had his religious wisdom brought him no more heroism he loved he had bound himself to her by an bond and yet he had neither moral courage nor moral honesty with all his impressive piety to come forth and assert their sins and their mutual obligations he was evidently a man of powerful nature his delicate his s scarlet letter his upon those about him and above all his sin committed when the tides of his heart rushed in and swept away all the he had heaped up against them through years of self discipline show what a spirit what forces he had against none of these forces had he and yet he was halting and wavering and becoming more and more perplexed and worn down with woe because he had the of his position and had broken a law which his education had made more prominent than any law in his own soul in this way he presented the nature belongs to us as members of society a nature bom from ourselves and our associations and all the and all the harmony of our individual and social duties of either our fitness for both and when we remember that in th development no truth comes except from harmony no beauty except from a fit of the individual with society and of society with the individual can we wonder that the great elements of arthur s character should have been by a detestable crowd of mean and qualities warmed life by the hot he felt upon himself and all his fellow men from the society in which he moved and from which he received his moral nature he in the arms of society and fell almost beyond his companion in guilt became an outcast and a flood of heroic qualities gathered around her was this the work of social influences besides all this we see in him the of belief alone to furnish true justification through repentance the dull and may be satisfied with the result of this machinery in its operations upon their souls but the sensitive and the clear sighted require peace with themselves growing out of a dignified and true position taken and held it is not the relief afforded by the great as that relief may be which brings self and support under a sense of sin or the consciousness of actual crime but it is faith in the power of a confident soul to stand upright before god by means of that god given strength which raises it above sin and this every soul can do until it is taught that it can not and must not the spirit of the young clergyman struggled for this right which his soul still recognized he was a by education alone not by nature his crime by his theories and by those religious s scarlet letter which destroyed all his of his soul s elements and rights made him selfish and while his heart against such a course and demanded with an at last fatal to him that	37
he should become justified before man as he was before god and longed to be before his own conscience by the sincerity of his position after unwonted strength from an interview with her whom worldly scorn had rendered resolute he made an open which this wary enemy and gave a calm and peaceful death to himself in the same way might he have earned a peaceful life and in no other not a human eye could look on him and recognize the sinner his secret was well locked and guarded but all this safety was the poorest shame to him whose nobility of nature demanded assertion in this matter of crime as soon as he became involved he appeared before himself no longer a clergyman but a man a human being he answered society in the cowardly way we have seen he answered himself in that way which every soul where crime does not penetrate the physical facts of crime alone with which has to do in reality constitute sin crimes are committed under protest of ihe soul more or less decided as the weary soul itself has been more or less and broken the war in the individual begins and the result of the fierce struggle is the victory of the over the spiritual when the criminal act is committed if there is no such war there is no crime let the deed be what it may and be what it may by society the soul never to sin and with the angels when the form in which it dwells the sacred obligations it upon it when this human form with its passions and tendencies the and at the same time society it is to thi latter where it receives its judgment while the soul to her god dismayed and crushed by the conflict but not deprived of her d inheritance between the individual and his god here remains a spot larger or smaller as the soul has been kept where no sin can enter where no can come where all the of his life are resolved into the most delicious and his whole existence becomes illuminated by a divine intelligence sorrow and sin reveal this spot to all men as through death we are bom to an immortal life they reveal what and and they produce that intense consciousness with s scarlet out which virtue can not rise above they are the toil and trial which give strength and and which like all other toil produce and and if pursued beyond the limit where reaction and the process begin we can not with too much awe upon the temptations and trials which beset the powerful the solemn gloom which down over a nature during the struggle which it with vivid sense between its demon and its divinity is like that fearful night in which no star appears to relieve the darkness and yet from such a night as this and from no other the grandeur of virtue has risen to and warm and bless the universe of human hearts and to make the whole spiritual creation blossom like the rose the temptation and these are the miracles which have mankind thus it stands with the individual and his soul with himself and society come up other obligations other influences other laws the before which he stands as a social being cannot be disregarded with the effects of education and of inheritance cling around us with the of living of our own bodies and they govern with intimacy the estimate of deeds which constitute the catalogue of vice and virtue and which in their commission or our spiritual condition we doubt if there is a stronger element in our natures than that which our resisting with surrounding social institutions however much we may m the attempt it is always attended with some loss the reverence which so beautifully the purity and innocence of childhood often receives its death blow from that very wisdom out of which comes our mature virtue those whose foundation is the universe and without an apprehension of which we may go and through life may draw us away from the devotion which deepened and gilded the narrow world in which we were strong by belief alone the institutions in which we were bom controlled in a great degree the mental condition of our parents as surrounding nature did their physical and we owe to these two classes of internal and external operations the characters we inherit an attack therefore upon these institutions affects us to a certain degree as if we were ourselves and conscience and our sense of duty may call us to the work of reform instinct the energy called for in die is felt throng our whole frames with a influence while our children seem to have been bom with the spirit of that harmonious out of which alone healthy can appeals to all man s interests even when the quiet sky he is admiring an ill cultivated and field as he puts in his for the of the first he looks over the expanse which the rest of ages has and sighs a farewell to the failure of the past and a sad and ul welcome to the toil and doubt and promise of the future this law of our nature which applies to the well directed and honest efforts of good intentions applies also to and sinful actions the stormy life of the mother affords no rest for the healthy development of her child it to but for her to say with what we did had a of its own unless that produces a heavenly calm as if all nature joined in harmony pearl that wild and fiery little bom of love was also bom of conflict and had the of its parents extended no farther than the of this world the debt due this involved fearful how vividly this little child all their startled instincts	37
their efforts in life and thought their and their self inflicted contest with and distrust of all mankind arthur shrinking from intimate contact and intercourse with his child shrunk from a visible and representation of the actual life which his love had created for himself and love guilty because secured as it may have been to them it drove them bom the moral centre around which they we have seen that this was most especially the case with the man who was bound and the clergyman that he h d raised a storm in his own heavens which he could not and had cast the over the life of his own child how was it with on this beautiful and luxuriant woman we see the effect i of open conviction of sin and the continued punishment the heroic traits awakened in her character by her position were the great self properties of woman which in and perplexity her so far above man the sullen defiance in her was imparted to her by fl scarlet letter society the met only scorn a brand within the deep and sacred love for which she was suffering for her crime thus in her own apprehension was turned into a store of perplexity distrust and madness which darkened all her little pearl was a token more scarlet than the scarlet letter of her guilt for the child with a birth presided by the most intense conflict of love and fear in the mother s heart nourished at a breast swelling with anguish and surrounded with burning marks of its mother s shame in its daily life developed day by day into a void little demon perched upon the most sacred horn of the mother s altar even this child whose young nature caught the impress which surrounding circumstances most naturally gave bewildered and her the pledge of love which ood had given her seemed into an emblem of hate and yet how patiently and she labored on bearing her the more because in its she recognized no higher hand that of civil authority in her earnest appeal to be allowed to retain her child she swept away all external influences and seems to have inspired the young clergyman even now fainting with his own sense of guilt to speak words of truth which in those days must have seemed bom of heaven there la truth in what she says began the minister with a voice sweet tremulous but powerful that the hall and the hollow rung with it truth in what says and in the feeling which inspired her i god gave her the child and gave her too an instinctive knowledge of its nature and both seemingly so peculiar which no other mortal being can possess and moreover is there not a quality of awful in the relation between this mother and this child ay i how is that good master interrupted the governor make that plain i pray you it must be even so resumed the minister for if we deem it otherwise do we not thereby say that the heavenly father the creator of all flesh hath lightly recognized a deed of sin and made of no account the distinction between lust and holy love this child of its father s guilt and its mother s shame hath come from the hand of to work in many ways upon her heart who so earnestly and with such bitterness of spirit the right to keep her it was meant for a blessing for the one blessing of her life it was meant doubtless as the mother ha a scarlet letter herself hath tom n for a also a torture to be felt at many an of moment a pang a an ever agony in the midst of troubled joy i hath she not expressed this thought in the garb of the poor child so forcibly reminding us of that red symbol which her bosom well said again cried good mr feared the woman had no better thought than to make a of her child oh not so i not so continued mr she believe the solemn miracle which god hath wrought in the existence of that child and may she feel too what is very truth that this boon was meant above all things else to keep the mother s soul alive and to preserve her from depths of into which satan might else have sought to plunge her therefore it is good for this poor sinful woman that she hath an infant immortality a being capable of eternal joy or sorrow confided to her care to be trained up by her to to remind her every moment of her fall yet to teach her as it were by the creator s sacred pledge that if she bring the child to heaven the child also will bring its parent is the sinful mother happier than the sinful father for s sake then and no less for the poor child s let us leave as providence hath seen to place her social forced her back upon the true basis of her life she alone of all the world knew the length and breadth of her own secret her lawful husband no pretended to hold a claim which may always have been a pretence the father of her child her own relation to both and the tragic life which was going on beneath tiiat surface which all men saw were known to her alone how poor and must have seemed the punishment which society bad the scarlet letter was a poor type of the awful truth which she carried within her heart without deceit before the world she stands forth the most heroic person in all that drama when from the platform of shame she bade farewell to that world she retired to a and sought for such peace as a soul cast out by men may always find this was	37
her right no lie hung over her head society had heard her story and had done its worst and while arthur cherished in the arms of that society which he had outraged his life with a false which made it beautiful to all was dying of an i inward anguish stood upon her true ground denied by no xii s scarlet letter this world and learning that wisdom which comes honesty and self justification in casting her out the world had torn from her all the support of its with which it its in their inevitable sufferings and had compelled her to rely upon that great religious truth which flows instinctively around a life of agony with its daring freedom how far behind her in moral and religious excellence was the religious teacher who was her companion in guilt each day which bound her closer and closer to that heaven which was now her only home drove him farther and farther from the spiritual world whose glories he so fervently taught others it is no pleasant matter to contemplate what is called the of this woman but it may be instructive nevertheless we naturally shrink from any apparent of virtue and and are very ready to forget in our eager nation how much that is beautiful and holy may be in it we forget that what society calls is often far the reverse and that a of this virtue may be a sad sorrowful and tearful beauty which we would silently and contemplate silently lest a harsh word of the law wound our hearts as we would listen to the fervent prayer while we dread that moral hardness which would allow a human being to be wrecked in a storm of passion let us not be of the holy love which may and for its development man s heart this society will or not the struggle and the sacrifice which the latter calls a crime the former receives as an air of virtue it is this recognition which taught the rude and gentle humanity of john to offer such kind words to his loving and as he thought dot all out of his great and natural heart it is this recognition which brought forth the words neither do i condemn thee and it is only when we our hearts to a capacity for receiving the utmost of the law and render them cold keen and by the of social virtue that we are ready to cast out the sinner properly we look earnestly into his life in search of that hidden virtue which hie crime stand pointing at we would not condemn the vigilance and of society were it really a tribute paid to the true of but is there no deeper sense which wears out a life of in obedience to the of the world is i s letter there no suffering which goes it with no rights is there no of social law more radical and threatening than any act of passion can be it may be necessary perhaps that the safety of associated man demands all the which the of social law but the sorrow may be none the less acute because the evil is necessary we see in the lives of arthur and that the severity of law and morals could not keep them from and we see too that this very severity drove them both into a state of insanity and does any benefit arise from such a sacrifice not a gentle word or look or thought met those two mortals revenge the heart of the old outraged severity and and was the social atmosphere which surrounded them we doubt not that to many minds this severity the saving virtue of the book but it is always with a fearful sacrifice of all the feelings of the breast of all the most comprehensive humanity of all the most delicate affections and that we thus rudely shut out the wanderer from us especially when the path of error leads through the land whence come our warmest and tender est we gain nothing by this hardness except a to sin without remorse the elements of character upon which vice and virtue hang are so nearly allied that the rude attempts to destroy the one may result in a fatal of the other the harvest the from the wheat with the only safety who has not felt the forbidding aspect of that and complacent virtue which never the thought of forgiveness and who that has recognized the deep and holy meaning of the human affections has not been frozen into demanding a warm hearted crime as a relief for the cold false vulgar and cowardly which is sometimes called the father the mother and the child in this picture the holy what had the world done for them and so they waited for the divine of an hereafter can this be a true and earnest assurance that we may hope for the best development there this imaginary tale of wrong is but a shadow of the realities which daily occur around us the opportunities for opening our hearts to the gentle of tender error and crushed virtue lie all along our pathway and we pass by on the other j ot a deed to which the in has yet been committed that society has not resisted with the ferocity of a tyrant not a word has been spoken for the captive the wounded the and the oppressed that has not met with religious opposition not the first line of that which would represent error in its alliance with virtue i yet been drawn that has not been as r to those who would gladly learn the confidence and power and patient endurance and depth of which love can create in the human heart we would present the life of this woman in her long hours of suffering and loneliness made sweeter than	37
all the world beside by the cause in which she we dare not call that a wicked which f brought its possessor into that state of strong and fiery resolution and elevation which enabled her to raise her lover from his sense of guilt into a solemn devotion to his better nature she guided him rightly by her clear vision of what was in accordance with the of her true heart aided by this she learned what all his had never taught him the power of love to sustain and guide and teach the soul this bore her through her trial and this at that glowing hour when both rose above the weight which bowed thorn down tore the scarlet letter from her breast and made her young and pure again the gone heaved a long deep sigh in which the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit o exquisite relief she had not known the weight till she felt the freedom by another impulse she took off the formal cap that confined her hair and down it fell upon her shoulders dark and rich with at once a shadow and a light in its abundance and the charm of softness to her features there her mouth and beamed out of her eyes a and tender smile that seemed from the very heart of womanhood a crimson flush was glowing on her cheek that had long been so pale her sex her youth and the whole richness of her beauty came back from what men call the past and clustered themselves with her maiden hope and a happiness before unknown within the magic circle of this hour and as if the gloom of the earth and sky had been but the of these two mortal hearts it vanished with their sorrow all at once as with a sudden smile of heaven forth burst the sunshine pouring a very flood into the obscure forest each green l the ones to and b the gray trunks of the solemn trees the objects that had made a shadow hitherto embodied the brightness now the course of the little k might be traced by its gleam afar into the wood s heart of mystery which had become a mystery of joy the ecstasy of s the calm solemn of the sterling wealth of beauty in s and the appealing and teaching heart of woman in all these come crowd before us as we with to this holy exaltation the wisdom and power which came to this woman from the scarlet letter which society on her breast may come to every one who will honestly this token to his own as who of us may not it is only an open confession of our weakness which brings ua strength the flattering self assurance that we pursue virtue with conscientious diligence never us to reach what we are striving for we may perchance escape the dangers which beset our path but never through ignorance shall we overcome the obstacles there is no more fatal error than moral ignorance and and superstition and may around the mind until intellectual springs up more pitiful than the most abject ignorance and the instincts of the heart will almost always be found to protest against them moral may the and the effect is temporary aad social influences may produce the and as the circle the magic may but that cowardice which to the denial of error to one s own soul which refuses to receive the impression that all experience brings with honesty and intelligence and behind good intentions feels safe from attacks of sin is the most hopeless of all mortal defects there is a false delicacy which the contemplation of evil and which severe experience may destroy there is a sweeping belief that vice stands at one pole and virtue at the other which the deep trials of life may there is a want of sympathy for the and an ignorant closing of the heart against those whose entrance would and and warm our souls which the knowledge of our own temptations may remove but no experience no knowledge no power short of miracle will bring the needed relief to that spirit which will not confess its guilt either to itself or to its the heroic power which comes through is like the and earth life to a and compared and growth of virtues it and the deepest and most startling wisdom by which to test our fellow men but is it not most sad and most that love the great parent of all power and virtue and wisdom and the guardian of the tree of knowledge of good and evil the of all that is rich and generous luxuriant in f nature should rise up in society to be by the strange features of the scarlet letter iy lake superior u h and compared with tho e of other and a narrative of the j and by other gentlemen by louis c c boston and present concern is with that portion of he work furnished by m in fifty three pages and a valuable addition to our knowledge of the north american a large proportion of this is taken up by of the plants observed accompanied also by many interesting foot notes we consider all such local of either the or the of any particular section of any country as far more useful than a hasty reader would be apt to regard them it is true that they are often so far as names are concerned merely a repetition of scientific names still there are other considerations connected with them which claim attention such as with precision not so much perhaps in every instance the limits of vegetation as the or the in which such vegetation is found to every aspect of nature points to some other connecting phenomenon and nothing therefore in which science itself can be looked upon as we	37
have presented to us in these pages to which we have alluded what we have reason to think a faithful record of the and plants noticed on a tour to some of the most peculiar and romantic regions of this continent a record based on a examination of facts presented and on a plan which also both strict and general american and compared every region of the earth has been found to its own peculiar animals and plants so remarkable is this fact that m portions of and even in the physical character of those re seems to the structure of such beings before these natural productions were carefully and even studied the and of distinct and even widely separated re were thought to be really identical plants the most familiar to our eyes blooming on the return of near our dwellings but in native the bold with its blue pet under the few genial sunny days of april the timidly raising itself above the dead and dry leaves of a former summer s glory which on the ground beneath the proud trees that bore them with honor have protected it in their during a long and silent winter and many such gems beside are so similar in aspect and exterior guise to their co species in european as to have been considered identical until more careful inspection indicated a distinction as we rise or as wo descend the series of vegetation we find stronger or less strong proofs of this assertion of the their habits are more and as yet so far as we can perceive many of them seem identical all the world over borne of these are indeed almost and sustained mostly by conditions are in their mode of and like the winged of the atmosphere seem to ask for no fixed habitation but have the range affecting no particular various causes have been assigned to account for this peculiarity and this and among these many natural phenomena all under the general term of climate a review of these is made by the author and many facts he considers the influence of temperature the power of heat upon vegetation the opening upon its approach of of forms of flowers and plants yet increase of temperature is affected by other agents and in countries where the summer temperature may be very great but following very long and severe the character of the is altogether to that of those countries in which the mean heat is the same but under different conditions of the atmosphere heat however is not the only essential to vegetation for we shall find under excessive degrees of a heated atmosphere a of all vegetable an t p a from which not even the trees and plants of temperate regions can escape and while heat they remain as and and as in a rest as the native plants around them ac the cape of good hope according to the observations of sir john and others the earth some inches beneath the becomes heated to the extraordinary degree of and baked to a like extraordinary hardness yet in this and heated soil are to be found forms of vegetable life full of vigor and prepared for renewed energy when a more moderate condition of the atmosphere shall succeed the other essential requisite then is moisture when on its occurrence new changes in the and internal organization of plants take place and wherever we find these two elements most happily combined nothing it is said can exceed the of vegetation the of plants to the variety of of these two important conditions is singularly marked and beautiful as seen in the changes which take place in the scanty of regions on the approach of at those extreme boundaries of vegetation and on the return of moisture after long periods of intense heat on the other extreme limits every form of plant from to lily from moss to tree and with its aspect this refreshing to life and activity our occasional mild and rainy we can notice in every rock and over our barren pastures the native their delicate points destined to into seed vessels or else suddenly in ever renewed yet beauty a denial meanwhile that winter the scene at low conditions of temperature the of temperate in many families of these plants seem to best a rule which probably wherever such tribes of plants may be found nor do heat and moisture alone the character of the of a region but particular species particular districts of the earth in the that such heat or such moisture is distributed we have noticed in what manner the return of rains and their absence influence vegetation as at cape hope in like manner frequent falls of rain or great quantities of moisture in the form of snow each the style of vegetation in regions where these elements obtain nor do we find that it requires and compared any remarkable strength of nor a certain in particular plants to themselves to which are for months together under the dominion of cold on the contrary protected by deep it is the most delicate forms which the regions during the brief that follow such intensity of frost as must reign there supreme heat and moisture being essential to vegetation the influence of light is to be considered as somewhat secondary though its presence in the majority of cases is also essential some on the one hand the highest forms of life and on the other certain which are not the lowest in the scale of vegetation are capable of perfect development even to the acquiring of brilliant tints and colors under conditions to the presence of light and many plants of a higher grade will not endure the direct light in which most vegetables grow and which they even require so that while climate may have a wide and may embrace a variety of natural phenomena the presence and	37
of heat and moisture principally the conditions of the vegetable kingdom in order however as it were to do ample justice to all the which produce peculiarities of organized life m several other conditions of which he considers pressure as having only a very subordinate influence on vegetation he thinks however that he a between plants for instance under a less degree of pressure and those of northern which although not identical yet are similar it appears in the fragrance of the species which adds so much to the sweet and soothing influence this reduced pressure can not he thinks account for the peculiarities of their forms for their and warm covering their or indicate the power of much of their from the atmosphere but the fact that many plants of the highest live veiy well at the foot of the which descend into the lower valleys would seem to show that pressure has only a limited influence upon plants but the moment we have satisfied ourselves that the most fragrant of these species never prosper below we must admit that the relation between fragrance and pressure to which i have alluded above is well i p no and the author that however se other causes may be even when moat uniform the nature of e soil perhaps as powerfully as any other agent the of certain natural to the various cultivated seems to indicate this fact and the that such are prepared to tlie growth of varieties of grain certainly seems to bear us out in this view this statement applied to most plants will not be found to be true as it is well known that the cultivated plants in familiar use are of widely separated regions of the globe and yet grow side by side in soil essentially distinct from that of their own but while much allowance is therefore to be made on this score we find in the lower series of vegetable life how singularly the particular situations the may be readily according to the where they live the occur almost upon the bark of trees and upon granite and the with the and some the occur only in or in waters charged with the generally upon animal in the upon rocks whilst the greatest number of the and cover large of rotten vegetables and if we take into consideration the which temperature in the habitation of some we are enabled to account even for the of some species which like the would seem to be less influenced than others by the nature of the soil upon which they grow the examination of the which attach themselves commonly to the surface of woods and rocks leads to conclusions still more striking some species live exclusively upon others upon others upon various kinds of granite and others finally upon certain species of trees or other vegetables the analysis of the upon which live has if not completely explained at least led to the understanding of the causes of the remarkable distribution of these plants p yet one other element affecting climate that of is to be taken into consideration as of intensity of vegetation still wider and considerations among other natural phenomena are to be noticed which decide the character of a country s and the form of the direction of mountain chains the of wide american and compared extended plains and the presence of sheets of water not be overlooked the manner in which seeds of plants are distributed not only by their winged the agency of the winds but by the course of rivers on whose waters they are borne and by ocean currents which washing distant deposit their burdens at wide intervals and in distant the character and the vegetation of shores of and with vegetable and perhaps with some forms of animal life distinct and distant islands besides these where identity exists at such distances the character of and seas may entirely the of other islands so as to exhibit an entirely different character even in parallel with those of inland plains every one knows what influence the presence of extensive sheets of water has in the temperature of its immediate shores permitting the culture of tender plants under aspects which would otherwise prove so likewise the range and direction of high mountain chains must determine the character of natural productions as they permit or deny the passage of cold winds from regions beyond them it is obvious for instance that a mountain chain like the running from east to west and thus forming a barrier between the colder region and the warmer will have a tendency to lower the temperature of the northern plains and to increase that of the southern below or above the mean which such would otherwise present while the influence of a chain running north and south like the and the will be quite the reverse and tend to increase the natural differences between the eastern and western shores of the continent and laying open the north to southern influences renders its climate excessive that is its summer warmer and its winter colder p the natural phenomena which constitute indicate it is asserted a certain progress in their action by the of which the character of the natural productions of any region can be thus in regard to re that are wide apart a certain elevation above sea level and degrees of latitude will exhibit through this general agreement an or sub character may obtain in northern and at certain heights of mountains in a very much lower latitude may be found the of a higher latitude the plants of the summit of our white mountains in new represent the of and in the and e regions of on near the we find a to that of the northern countries towards the pole so that vegetation in both a most uniform character the exceptions to this general and compel us however to be	37
as we are advised m as the reasons for the distribution of beings certain plants as the and occur in the as high as ten and even eleven thousand feet above the level of the sea notwithstanding the usual limit of vegetation is there indicated at about eight thousand and five hundred feet nor does the limit of forest round the circle with either the line of or with the limits of the lone so likewise we are assured that the eastern and the same continent show similar differences even when the circumstances are the same and that the same of northern and southern have distinct and as seen in the and of america or in the strange animals of new holland so that we are persuaded that climate does not account for all those peculiarities in each of these of nature for whose explanation we have called in its ud the author from these considerations upon his readers his own convictions of the design of creation as the expression of a thought and us of g a agency with an original cause he as an instance of thoughtful the repetition of similar animals and plants all over the world and notices the fitness of an ancient condition of beings with the order of this earth it might be easily s from the peculiarities of the surface of north america so bv its mountain chains by its vast deserts its lakes of fresh water of great expanse by its varied sea coast and its ocean that a very vegetation would present itself if characteristics were considered on comparing this vegetation with that of other countries m arrives at some remarkable conclusions he notices particularly the vegetation of the temperate and colder parts of north america comparing it with that of the elevated regions of central and compared europe in doing so he himself to the forest vegetation more particularly as this kind represents more fairly that of northern temperate regions a few families of trees constitute the entire forest growth and the of such forests over that in the old and new world is very striking the and their distribution is marked for as we advance farther north the pines at last all other trees in the warmer portions of the temperate the pines are mixed with trees as the and and also with the and and many other species so likewise the northern forests are more continuous in this respect unlike those of the warmer in the temperate where may be found several species of shrubs and plants with them in this arrangement may be seen a remarkable coincidence with that of districts especially of the we notice here a certain series so decided that the author looks upon it as indicating a positive and universal law a detailed comparison of the northern and the vegetation will show that they agree and that under similar circumstances in different parts of the old and new worlds there are corresponding species following each other in the same succession from north to south from plains to mountain modified only by those influences which constitute the peculiarities of the eastern and western shores of america europe and asia this correspondence and is exhibited in the view presented in the alluded to in the beginning of this article by comparing however the vegetation with that of the temperate northern regions of this country m that the aspect of such vegetation greatly notwithstanding the correspondence of species in both there is yet a great monotony in extensive tracts of our northern forests so unlike the rapid and highly vegetation of the there is a aspect presented also in the vegetation of the eastern and western shores of thus the atlantic and pacific of temperate in america are not clothed with the same families of trees the are oftener met with in the eastern than in the western forests and they even here in where in europe there is only one species growing wild these and similar examples serve to confirm m in his opinion that notwithstanding there may exist a between american and compared climate and vegetation still climate and its influences do not produce these differences inasmuch as they are repeated under the same lines between the eastern and western shores of the old world in the same order as along the eastern and western shores of north america so much so that the northern chinese and vegetation very closely with that of the atlantic states whilst that of the pacific of america and that of europe agree more p by a comparison of the present living vegetation of the eastern portion of north america with the plants those of for instance an unexpected and extraordinary development is presented namely that our and that of have a more ancient character than that of europe and western north america we have been accustomed all our lifetime to see in our c so familiar to our scenery the living types of an ancient bearing an old fashioned aspect agreeing indeed as we are informed with the character of this region in which we reside so that we have been actually living on land of antique birth which was of a respectable age long before other countries had been raised above the level of tiie sea the mean annual temperature of the period it is thought could be easily calculated from this hint on the part of our derived from the character of our trees and shrubs thus also it is plain how dependent on the condition of any country are the beings which are found in its area and how through ages the general features of animals and plants are preserved in every new creation to show that nature is ever true to herself in repeating under and differences the results of the same universal laws we beg leave to refer once more to the of the species of plants which were observed by some	37
of the party which accompanied professor and which were collected on the northern shores of the lake it would appear that the of these shores closely with that of the higher tracts of the and may be considered in its character as really sub so much so indeed that in many instances the species are pronounced identical the lists of plants are under four heads the first containing such plants as are really sub in their character or correspond to those of the forests of the lower i and compared in this list only plants are as have true representatives in central europe the second containing the plants of the lake proper or the plants the third com the plants purely american and the fourth the plants or those which extend beyond the sub region p and notes in examining these lists we notice some peculiarities as for instance the occurrence of plants in this sub region which belong also to more southern regions such extensive of particular plants are attributed to the general direction of our chains and to the form of the american continent which allow both animals and plants peculiar to and temperate to extend to considerable distances beyond again the absence of species of the is accounted for by the observed fact that although abundant in the districts of europe yet they belong both to re and to and are not at home in or sub regions no species of nor of families intervening between them and the are represented about lake superior the former belong to warm countries and the latter like the are either plants of higher regions or else are to be found in the lower plains of plants representing the several beautiful forms as seen about the lake are to be the same as those of europe a group indeed more than any other in its distribution affecting the pine forests and following them to more or less elevated spots with few exceptions the s about lake superior are represented as the same as the european while the resemblance of the pines is so as to require the eye of the to be satisfied that they are only corresponding species we have already noticed the character of the so identical are the species of and observed by the party with those of the sub regions of europe that with the same observations applied to the and no parallel list was deemed necessary the specific conditions of their occurrence in the being merely noted some new species of plants were detected of which mention is made of a beautiful first discovered by in west canada and several new species and varieties of as brought to light through the study of the collection by mr whose extensive american and compared edge and whose scientific in this particular department of are well known to render complete this comparative view of the vegetation with that of the and the m a special comparison of the distribution of trees and other plants found in each the series of vegetation on the sides and slopes of mountains are defined with such an accuracy as to enable us to divide them into or as the heights he will notice the disappearance of certain species and the appearance of others until by degrees he is introduced to a style of vegetation entirely distinct from any thing he has before seen if these features should be represented upon a wide surface of country it would be found necessary to pass over many of latitude such a comparison being attempted it places at the north latitude that of vegetation which in this country with the upper limit of the culture of the vine in the above this at an elevation of from sixteen hundred to seventeen hundred feet begins the region of oaks and of shrubs represented by our forest trees and shrubs so well described by mr in his report on the forest trees of as we travel towards the degrees of latitude where the st towards the north east we shall find great changes in the growth of trees along the northern shores of lake for instance the the chestnut the the white oak and the begin to disappear at the height of two thousand feet in the and above the region of the oaks is a narrow region particularly by one or two species of trees and with a great variety of ornamental shrubs above this elevation and to three thousand five hundred feet the while from the line of the to four thousand five hundred feet in the and to six thousand feet in the may be seen the region of the pines or which is represented by the forest growth about where the black ash fir white black american white pine mountain ash and low shrubs entirely obtain the point visited by professor was bay latitude where the pine forests prevailed with occasional instances of ash and a region still within the limits of a sub vegetation from an inspection of the plants growing on the summit of i and compared a upon st island one thousand feet above the level of the lake no difference could be perceived which such made in the character of the from that seen on the shores this seeming is attributed to the influence which such an extensive sheet of water as lake superior is would have upon the temperature about its shores and also upon considerable in its vicinity such an exception is thought of not sufficient importance to the laws of the distribution of plants and bj a view of the distribution of the plants of the white mountains of new where the climate of their slopes is removed from any such disturbing agency the of vegetation are well marked thus at the head waters of the an alteration in the aspect of the forests is to be seen while at fifteen hundred feet above the	37
sea the oaks disappear to be succeeded in a large proportion by the pines still higher at forty three hundred and fifty feet the and which compose the vegetation have become mere shrubs above this level the forests cease and plants reminding one of the of and which grow also on the northern shores of lake superior are now met with while at the summit itself at the height of six thousand two hundred and eighty feet are found the representatives of the climate of we have thus the principal features of the portion of this work of professor is devoted to considerations regarding it as an interesting and valuable document nor would we omit to notice the list of foreign plants found growing between boston and as presenting some curious facts the list is a large one and it shows how are vegetables how attendant on the footsteps of man wherever he has trod and carried with him the arts of life flowers have sprung up around his footsteps would they were of his mission everywhere on the earth s surface in the highest cause of along the and over the cultivated fields of peaceful and beside the iron tracks of commercial intercourse where they appear coming from afar to his presence may they that of and of common interest shall all mankind in one bond of brotherhood no xii different of the new art v some thoughts on the different opinions in the new testament relative to the personality of i let as first ascertain the opinion in the lifetime of himself as the basis of oar inquiry it appears from the now testament that the of regarded him as the son of joseph and mary john his brothers and sisters also are mentioned oi and is called the first bom son of mary in some and the common in the third gospel the author calls joseph and mary his parents ol a and mary herself is represented as calling joseph his father in the gospel philip speaks of as the son of joseph of john the still preserved in the first and third gospel in curious contradiction to his divine origin proceed on the supposition that had two human parents a mortal father as well as a mortal mother so on the side of his father his descent is traced back to in the one author aiid to adam in the other the who were the primitive christians it seems always to the opinion that was a man bom and in the common way selected and and so becoming the christ not by his birth but his selection and inspiration it seems highly probable tiiat this was the opinion of the earliest church at it seems that the celebrated according to the regarded as a man bom after the common way and made his divinity commence only with the by john for after the descent of the holy spirit it is stated there came a voice out of heaven and said thou art my beloved son day have i thee found this passage in the of the in his time t and it is still preserved with many other curious and instructive see mar dial cap ed tom il p and h e m ed tom see also b l p er t dial com cap tom ii p see too is and z c b l p ei i different of the new in the celebrated cambridge manuscript the b these very plainly refer us to a period when it may reasonably be supposed that the opinion among the followers of was that he was a man bom after the common way of two human parents and subsequently became the christ the hebrew this is the nature and this the office assigned hun such is the basis on which successive of speculation have been made and continue to be made it is no part of our present concern to determine what the christians at first thought of his of his miracles and of his for we limit our inquiry to the nature and office of n in the first and third as they now stand in and it is taught that was the son of mary and a holy spirit and it is in both cases not t he was bom with no human father he is also the christ the hebrew predicted in the old testament he is called the son of god d vi to he is endowed with miraculous powers is returns to life after his and is to come back yet once more such is the highest office and such is the highest nature assigned him in the first and gospel there is however one curious passage in and in is represented as saying all are delivered to me by my father and no one knows who is the son except the and who is the father except the son and he to whom the son is pleased to reveal him this passage may possibly mean only that is the complete possessor of his powers and he alone knows who is the and alone understands the character of god but to us it seems to have a different meaning and to stand in plain contradiction to the general notion of entertained m these two it will presently appear to what a different class of this verse seems to belong the second gospel calls a son of god not vi except ac where persons speak but is not quite so definite in its statements as the two other already referred to but it does not seem probable that the author designed to set forth a distinct theory of the nature and office of christ peculiar to himself only to avoid ties by the of ihe of however is characteristic of the third gospel n and a middle coarse between the hebrew and the christians this as well as	37
following their text and the passages where tiie text is doubtful paul goes no higher in his description of the nature and function of christ he is a man bom of a woman the among oi is a bv ra bom these words seem to the cause or ground of all things the or efficient cause thereof j and uie of all things whose they were to many he had a pre distinct and self he is the cause of all his coming is the fulfilment of the law which is now and void he is the of all men through a sacrifice on his part and on their part the addition which paul makes to the of his is a more distinct statement of his personal pre and function as minister of the and as of the in the wilderness a of his function to that of a universal christ and and the destruction of the law y in some of the other ascribed to paul though with a disputed certainty we find the personality of christ goes still higher passing over the passages in the to the which are vague in their character or uncertain in their text we come to the and find there more remarkable expressions thus it is said that was in the form of god though not equal to god as we understand it he from this eminence and receives the form of a servant but has since received the name above every name all beings earthly and are to do homage to him in christ is an image of god the invisible too do the first bom of all creatures for in him y a a were made all in heaven and upon the earth the seen and the unseen all are made by him and for him di a y by him as instrument and for him as possessor he is before all and all things continue to by him he is the beginning that in all respects he might be the first for in him it has god that all the fulness of the deity should dwell all the fulness of the deity in f a am and he is all in all the absolute the same appears in the to the which is indeed little more than an of that to the only the doctrine is not quite so clearly set forth and there is some in the of the in important passages the other minor ascribed to paul are not important in respect to their and so we pass them by but in the important to tbe remarkable are made to the of the early age here the christ is am heir of all things e agent by whom god made the a reflected image of his s glory and stamp of his i g d not f t and all things by the word of his power he sits at the right hand of above he is the word of god ov he is the first bom is superior to the angels and in the old ment has been called god s son tbe angels serve him the old testament is referred to as calling him by the title of the true god and authority is eternal it is christ who in e be established the the heavens are the work of his hands the universe will perish but christ will the same forever and his years will have no end the angels are to worship him for they exist only for the sake of mankind while christ is the object and final cause of all creation yet notwithstanding this exaltation of nature he was made a little lower than the angels so that he might suffer death for tbe sake of all mankind in his human form he became perfect by temptation and suffering such is us nature his function is it he is a priest forever by his own blood has obtained eternal and all sacrifices he has appeared once to remove sin and will come to bring such as wait for him to salvation he took the form of flesh and blood that he might by death destroy the devil who had the power of death and deliver mankind who were subject to fear thereof he is the cause of eternal salvation to all that obey him and in all his achievement is the of mankind he is a priest not according to a temporary but in virtue of the power of life the old law is set aside and its at an end for there has come a high priest holy free from evil in his nature in his ufe thereby separated from and become higher than the heavens he is the of an everlasting in which the law will be that written on the heart of man in these it is plain a much higher dignity is claimed for the b and function of christ all the fulness of god in him he is even called god the still he is man also wholly a creature and dependent on god for existence i of the new there the bo and the second and third ascribed to john have no value and require no examination the first and the fourth gospel represent another addition made to the not wholly we fear in tranquil seas here we find the nation and development of ideas found in the works attributed to paul but before we speak of the we must say a few words by way of the christians and jews bad amongst others this point of ideal agreement a common reverence for the the christ but this point of ideal agreement became a point of practical and quarrel for the christians that of was that christ while the jews declared that he was only a the attempt was made by paul to bring the jews to attach their reverence for	37
the ideal christ to the person of then discord between the christians and jews would end had taught in well known passages that god could not come into direct with man at an older contemporary of was of the same but though a in his philosophy continued also a jew in the form of his religion and believed that ood did actually come into communication with men according to his it must be by beings between the man and the infinite god at the head of these was the whom calls a god and god junior bs g and he found a preparation for his doctrine of the in the language of the old testament and in e wisdom of god ia ov and of god but in the old testament and wisdom or word does not appear detached from god but still attached to him we think it is still the same the is not completely detached from god and become a distinct personality though this may be thought doubtful all this has been abundantly discussed of late years and requires no examination here in this manner he found a point of agreement on the one hand with the jews and on the other with the philosophers so the jew could accept much of the without giving up his form of religion and his might find itself dignified into a philosophical scheme no different of the new testament thus the and the jews had a point in common namely the which belonged to the current philosophy of the time and which had found in the old testament in this way a preliminary step was taken to promote a reconciliation between the philosophers and the jews between the representatives of science voluntary reflection on the one and the representatives of inspiration passive of god on the other side it seems the attempt was not wholly unsuccessful the doctrine of the had great influence in the development of philosophy we have mentioned already tne point of agreement which the christians had with the jews and the point of difference the first of the christians with others related to the of to make out their case the christians were forced to alter the features of the expected a good deal to make the ideal of prophecy fit the actual of history this they did by a peculiar manner of the old testament specimens of a most remarkable of its language in order to prove that of was the hebrew appear in abundance in the new testament the jews rejected the christian doctrine that was the and along with it the christian mode of the in eighteen hundred years little progress has been made in turning the point of between them into a point of agreement the new christians had numerous points of general agreement with the about them and paul finds an argument in the inscription on an altar and in a verse from a heathen book the christian and the philosophers agree in this that there were between man and god the author of the gospel finds an important and special point of agreement with the philosophy in particular he the doctrine of the christians in general might have done so as indeed they did with no to their christianity but we find a new and vital doctrine common to christianity and philosophy christ is the this author has two important doctrines to set forth along with many others namely the doctrine of all christians that was the christ of the old testament this was addressed to the jews and of small consequence to the who had not heard of the promise until were told of its fulfilment and his peculiar that christ of the new testament was the if the jews rejected the first doctrine as indeed they did the might accept the other which really came to pass in due time we are not however to suppose that the author of this scheme wrought with a distinct consciousness of the work he was doing and of its relation to the thought of mankind in philosophy as in nature is done by leaps in the hebrew literature in the old testament and there had been a gradual but preparation for the idea of the and a similar preparation is visible in the heathen literature in the successive of the person of which we have seen in the three earlier and the there was a preparation for the still farther elevation of his person it would have been abrupt sudden and unnatural if had been called a ood in the according to the it is not surprising at all in the to the had been a gradual sloping up from considered as the son of joseph and mary to considered as the maker of the worlds from the man to the god if extended over many years the ascent is not violent it is not per but that the difficulty is overcome is true of more than fame the first life of published by his friend fifteen years after s death records no miracle the enlarged edition some twenty years later no miracle but at his more than two hundred miracles were claimed for him and the of six hundred and seventy five witnesses were used in the process the of the fourth gospel is quite remarkable the author states his design at the end of what has been thought the portion of the book these things are written that you may believe that is the christ the son of god and tiiat you might have life in name he begins with the in the beginning was the and the was with god and the was god these are some of tiie powers ascribed to tiie we will still use the word in the and speak thereof as all things were made iy by it life was in it and the life was the light of men	37
it every man it was in the world but not known thereby to such as received it it gave power to become children of a l ig their from a ood not from man ji it had seen god it only brought him to ihe knowledge q of men it was in the bosom of the father at length the was made flesh ad and dwelt amongst men b person of ch nothing is said about the of the author puts his divine so high that a birth would add to his dignity we pass over the and general peculiarities of the fourth gospel to speak of its peculiarities is not merely the first bom of created things but the only son r y he came down from heaven and is in heaven r ip ra o yo believes m him will not perish but have everlasting life the author makes a distinction between the and tiie has the absolutely not in limited quantities i v the leather has given all things to christ the christ is identical with the father ee ol it is not merely an identity of function but of nature there is a perfect between the two however there is a between the two with the father all is primitive with the son all is the son can do nothing of himself d the son is also inferior to the father et al the son has self continuing life y ir he is the bread that came down from heaven he alone has seen the father men are not to be saved by piety and goodness as in the et but by belief in him are even to pray in us name t r et al he will send them the t x l g who will remind them of au christ s and teach them all things christ is the son of man but he is also the son of god vi s v and the most intimate relation with god he with the father for his and will have the glory which he had the w was made of the x r to t s ao top cf he new are wholly dependent on without him they can do nothing he is me vine and they but branches is they abide in him they may ask what they wiu and it will be them et the is to proceed from god but to communicate the things of christ he desires that there may be the same and among his as between himself and the father et et al and that they may be in the same place with him et the conditions of are these a in seems to mean a that he is christ and and love of each other the consequence of such is eternal life oi v the of the spirit of christ and of god his shall be where he is it is not promised that they shall be what he is or a he is only where he is it does not appear that they are to bear the same relation to god which christ bears to they are not to be sons of god in the same sense as christ the same appears in the first however it is not so fully expressed in the as in the gospel and there are some minor differences of opinion only one of which is important for the present purpose namely christ is a sin offering x s he is even a sm offering for all and not for the christians alone the doctrine of the death of christ we think does not appear at all in the gospel but is obvious in the the passage which we mentioned before and seems to belong to the writings and not to the but we have no conjecture to offer as to its origin we thus see the gradual elevation of the personality of christ from the son of joseph and mary to the son of god with a distinct pre before he was made flesh a god who was m the beginning who made all things is one with the father but dependent on him and inferior to him the christ m the gospel the christ in the of the he is however widely different from the christ of the of the the subsequent steps were easily taken and then christ was represented as thb god d c equal with the father in all things the i to urn t short review and notice ad van der accurate et et non car lips vo xx and this new edition of the hebrew bible is superior to any of its as we think in accuracy numerous errors found to exist in former have been corrected in this and considering the nature of the work it is probably one of die most perfect books that ever passed through the press we have not as yet detected die smallest error in the of points and accents it is printed on good white and strong paper and sold in pi r covers for about one dollar and sixty two cents a copy it is a favorable omen for literature in america that die hebrew bible has been in this country and copies of it can now be furnished as cheap even as at any errors in the american plates can easily be corrected by the help of this new at in our last number p we as an error of mr that he said maintained that men s souls mortal by generation are made immortal by christ s purchase is never asleep it was the critic die editor and not the author who was mistaken for the opinion and the language may be found in s of christianity the editor s farewell to the readers the editor wishes to announce that is die last number of the review and in bidding his readers	37
r names are wrought into the of language their works and are in our houses and every circumstance of the day 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 c representative men are hospitable in the climate is delicious and in the hills of the there is gold for the gathering yes but i do not travel to find comfortable rich and hospitable people or clear sky or that cost too much but if there were any that would point to the countries and the houses where are the persons who are rich and powerful i would sell all to 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 the man who invented the railroad raises credit of all the citizens but enormous if they be beggars are disgusting like moving cheese like hills of or of the more the worse our religion is the love and of these the gods of fable are the shining moments of great men we run all our vessels into one mould our colossal of are the necessary and action of the human mind the student of history is like a man going into a to buy or carpets he fancies he has a new article if he go into the factory he shall find that his new stuff still the and which are found on the interior walls of the of our is the 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 our affection towards others a sort of or purchase which nothing will supply i can do that by another uses of great men i do alone i can say to what i can a t say to myself other men are through which we read our own minds each man seek of different quality from his w and as are good of their kind that is he seeks other men and the the stronger the nature the more it is re let us have the quality pure a little genius let ua leave alone a main difference men is whether they attend their own or not man is that noble plant which grows like the palm from within outward his own affair though impossible to others he can open with and in sport it is easy to sugar to be sweet and to to be salt we take a great deal of pains to and that will of itself fall into our hand i count him a great man who a higher sphere of thought into which other men rise with labour and difficulty he has but to open his eyes to see things in a true light and in large relations whilst they must make and keep a eye on many sources f error his service to us is of sort it a beautiful person no tion to paint her image on ur eyes yet how splendid is that benefit it no more for a wise soul to his quality to other men and every one can do his best thing easiest de 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 that there are persons who in their characters and actions answer questions which i have not skill to put one man answers some question none of his put and is isolated the past and passing and answer some other question certain men us as rich possibilities but helpless to themselves and to their times the sport perhaps b men 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 makes for itself room food and a sound apple produces seed a does not is a man in his place he is fertile armies with his purpose which is thus executed the river makes it own shores and each legitimate idea makes its own channels and welcome for food institutions for expression weapons to fight with and to explain it the true artist has the planet for his the adventurer after years of strife has nothing broader than his own shoes our common discourse respects two kinds of use or service from superior men direct giving is agreeable to the early belief of men direct giving of material or aid as of health eternal youth fine senses arts of healing power and prophecy the boy believes there is a teacher who can sell him wisdom churches believe in merit but in we are not much of direct serving man is and education is his 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 are central and go from the soul outward gift is contrary to the law of the universe serving others is serving us i	37
must me to myself mind thy affair says the spirit would you with the skies or with other people y service is left men have a or representative quality and serve us in the intellect and saw that things were representative men are also representative first of things and secondly of ideas as plants convert the into food for animals each man some raw material in nature to uses of great hen human use the of fire iron lead glass linen silk cotton the makers of tools the of the the engineer the make an easy way for all through unknown and impossible each man is by secret liking connected with some district of nature whose agent and he is as of plants of bees of van of of forms of lines of a man is a centre for nature running out threads of relation through everything and solid material and the earth rolls every and stone comes to the so every organ function crystal grain of dust has its relation to the brain it waits long but its turn comes each plant has its and each created thing its lover and poet justice has already been done to steam to iron to wood to coal to to to corn to 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 each must be 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 must be made man in some or or before the general mind can come to entertain its powers if we limit ourselves to the first advantages a sober grace to the and kingdom which in the highest moments of life comes up as the charm of nature the glitter of the the of the 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 the day of life the eye every day the first on he saw that they were good we know where to find them and these are mere after a little of the pretending faces we are entitled also to higher advantages something i wanting to science until it ha been the table of is one thing and its play in in music in and architecture another there are to numbers architecture suspected at when by union of intellect and will they ascend into the life and in conversation character and but this comes later we speak new only of oar acquaintance with them hi their own sphere aad the way in which they seem to aad draw to them some genius who himself with one thing all his long the possibility of interpretation lies in the identity of the observer with tile observed each material thin has its celestial side has its into the spiritual and necessary sphere where it play part as as any other and to these things continually ascend the gather to the solid the c lump arrives at the plant and grows arrives at the and walks arrives at man and thinks but also the the vote of the representative he is not merely representative but like can only be known by 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 knows of and of their quality makes his and he can 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 will one day speak aad reason nature have its whole secret told shall we say that mountains will into von and beau of great and the of the atmosphere holds in solution i know not what and thus we nt by the fire and take hold on the poles of the earth this supplies the 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 its immense beauty in many ways and places is this fancy well in good faith we are multiplied by our how easily we adopt their labours every ship that comes to america got its from every novel is a to every carpenter who with a fore plane the genius of a forgotten life k ail round with a of the contribution of men who have perished to add their point of light to cur sky engineer physician and every man inasmuch as he has any science is a and map maker of the and of our condition these road makers on every hand us we must extend the area of life and our relations we are as much by finding a new property in the old earth as by acquiring la new planet we are too passive in the reception of these material or semi material we must not be and to ascend one step j we are better served through our sympathy activity is looking where others look and conversing with the same things we catch the charm which 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 mm men are through the intellect and the affections other help i find a false appearance if you affect to	37
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 vigour of any kind great power of performance without fresh resolution we are of all that man can do s saying of sir walter i know that he can toil terribly is an electric touch so are s portraits of 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 who was so severe an of truth that he could as easily have given himself leave to steal as to we cannot read without a of the blood and i accept the saying of the chinese a sage is the 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 our genius and us in wonderful manners there is a power in love to divine another s destiny better than that other can and by heroic to hold him to his task what has friendship so signal as its sublime attraction to whatever virtue is in us we will never more think of ourselves or of life we are to some purpose and the industry of the on the railroad will not again shame us this head too falls that homage very pure of great as i think which all ranks pay to the hero of the day from and down to 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 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 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 the mountain of ore s principal merit maybe conveyed in saying that he of all men best understands the english language and can say what he will yet these channels and of expression are only health or fortunate constitution s name suggests other and purely intellectual benefits and sovereigns have no compliment with their swords and coats like the addressing to a human being thoughts out of a certain height and his intelligence this honour which is possible in personal intercourse scarcely twice in a lifetime genius perpetually pays contented if now and then in a century the is accepted the of the of matter are degraded to a sort of and on the appearance of the of ideas genius is the or of the regions and draws their map and by us with new fields of activity 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 and swimming school to see the power and beauty of the body there is the like pleasure and a higher benefit from witnessing intellectual of all kinds as of memory of combination great power of abstraction the jo of the imagination even and as these acts expose the invisible organs and members of the mind which member for member to the parts of the body for we thus enter a new and to choose by their truest marks taught with to choose those who can without aid iron the eyes or any other senses proceed to truth and to being foremost among these are the and wrought by the imagination when this wakes a man seems to ten times or a thousand times his force it opens the delicious sense of size and an audacious mental habit we are as elastic as the gas of and a sentence in a book or a word dropped in conversation sets free our fancy and instantly our heads are bathed with and our feet tread the floor ef the rt and this benefit is real because we are entitled to these and once having passed the bounds shall never again be quite the miserable we were the high functions of the intellect are so that some imaginative power usually in all em i minds even in of the first but especially in meditative men of an habit of thought this class serve us so that they have the perception of identity and the perception of the eyes of never shut on either ef these laws the perception of these laws is a kind of of the mind little minds are little through failure to see them even these have their our delight in into of the herald especially when a mind of powerful method has instructed men we find the of oppression the dominion of the the credit of ef bacon of in religion the history of of saints and the which have taken the name of each founder are in point alas my of great u man is such a victim the of men is always inviting the impudence of power it is the delight of vulgar talent to and bind the but true genius seeks to defend us from true genius will not but will and add new senses if a wise man should appear	37
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 equality calm us with assurances that we could not be cheated as every one would discern the and of condition the rich would see their mistakes and poverty the poor their escapes and their resources but nature brings all this about m due time is her remedy the soul is impatient of masters and eager for change say of a domestic who has been valuable she had lived with me long enough we are tendencies or rather symptoms and none of us complete we touch and go and the foam of many lives is the law of nature when nature 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 but now a great then a road then a student of fishes then a hunting or a semi savage western general thus we make a stand against our 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 but to the idea to which also was 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 man kind have in all ages attached themselves to a few persons who either by the quality of that idea they representative men embodied or by the of their reception were entitled to the position of leaders and these teach us the qualities of nature admit us to the constitution of things we swim day by day on a river of and are effectually amused with houses and towns in the air of which the men about us are but life is a sincerity in intervals we say let there be an entrance open for me into realities i have worn the fool s cap too long we will know the meaning of our and politics give us the 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 a rich and related existence what they know they know for us with each new mind a new secret of nature 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 these for the highest place witness the multitude of statues pictures and which their genius in every city village house and ship ever their arise before us our 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 benefit of ideas the service rendered by those who introduce moral truths into the general mind i am in all my living with a perpetual of prices if i work in my garden and an apple tree i am well enough entertained and could continue 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 of great men 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 on which sat should have his desire but a piece of the skin was gone for every wish i go to a do what i can i cannot keep ray eyes ofi the clock but if there should appear in the company some gentle soul who knows little of persons or parties of or but who a law that these particulars and so me of the which every false player every self and me of my independence on any conditions of country or time or human body that man 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 my possession of good here is great competition of rich and poor we live in a market where is only so much wheat or wood 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 and and of his but in these new fields there is room here are no self no i admire great men of all classes those who stand for facts and or thoughts i like rough and smooth of god and of the human race i like the first caesar and charles v of spain and charles of richard and in france i a sufficient man an officer equal to his office captains ministers i like a master standing firm on legs of iron well born rich handsome eloquent loaded with advantages drawing all men by fascination into and sup of his power sword and staff or talent or staff like carry on the work of the world but i find him greater when he can himself and all heroes by letting in this element of reason of persons this and irresistible upward force into our thought destroying	37
itself and whilst every individual to grow and and to and grow to the 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 only by 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 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 as we if we and them they soon come not to mind it and get a self reliance and if we indulge them to folly they learn the elsewhere we need not fear excessive influence a more generous trust is permitted serve the great stick at no humiliation grudge no office thou render be the limb of their body the breath of their mouth compromise thy who cares for that so thou gain aught wider and nobler never mind the of the devotion may easily be greater than c the wretched pride which is guarding its own skirts be another not but a not a soul but a christian not a but a not a poet but a in vain the wheels of tendency will not stop nor will all the forces of fear or of love itself hold thee there on and for ever onward the a or among the in water presently a dot appears on the animal which to a and it becomes two perfect animals the ever proceeding 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 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 the of nature c generous and handsome he says s your hero but look at yonder poor whose country is his look at his whole nation of why are the masses from the dawn of history down food for knives and powder the idea a few leaders who have sentiment opinion love and self devotion and they make war and death sacred but what for the wretches whom they hire and kill the 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 school all are teachers and pupils in turn we are equally served by receiving and by 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 yon let off water from a lake by cutting a lower basin it seems a mechanical advantage and great benefit it is to uses of great met each speaker as he can now paint oat 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 bat always to stand and serve h is because we do not see the company in a sufficiently long period for the whole 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 somewhere fair play and an open field and to all who have won them i but heaven an equal scope for every creature each is uneasy until he has produced his private ray unto the sphere and beheld his talent also in its last nobility and exaltation the heroes of the hour are 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 t 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 from these studies that there is true in our love the of the nineteenth century will one day be quoted to prove its the genius of humanity is the real subject whose biography is written in our annals we must infer much and supply many in the record the history of the universe is and life is no man in all the procession of famous men is reason or illumination or that essence we were looking for but an exhibition in some quarter of new possibilities could we one day complete the immense figure which these points compose the study of many individuals leads us to an c ve men region wherein the individual is lost or wherein all touch by their thought and feeling that break out there cannot be by any fence of personality this is the key to the power of the greatest men their spirit itself a new quality of mind travels by night and by day in circles from its origin and itself by unknown methods the union of all minds appears intimate what gets admission to one cannot be kept out	37
of any other the smallest acquisition of truth or of energy in any quarter is so much good to the of souls if the 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 when we ascend to the central identity of all the individuals and know that they are made of the substance which and 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 they are gone the world is not therefore the vessels on which you read sacred turn out to be common 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 or of progress once they were angels of knowledge and their figures touched the sky then we drew near saw their means culture and limits they yielded their place to other 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 content us with their social and quality all that respects the individual is temporary and like the individual uses of great men 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 more as an effect then he appears as the of a mind and will the 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 and who can tell its limits it is for men 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 and the of love and benefit may be multiplied ob the philosopher among books only is entitled to s compliment to the when he said burn the 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 a discipline it is in logic taste poetry language morals or practical wisdom there was never such range of speculation out of come all things that are still written and among men of thought great makes he among our we have reached the mountain from which all these drift 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 is some reader of into the his good things even the men of proportion suffer some from the misfortune shall i say of coming after this st are likewise his and must say after him for it is fair to credit the with all the particulars from his is philosophy and philosophy at once the glory and the shame of mankind since neither saxon nor roman have availed to add any idea to his no wife no children had he and the 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 aw men the a of genius the not less sir thomas more henry more john john smith lord bacon thomas and is in his christianity is in it draws all its philosophy in its hand book of morals the y from him finds in all its this citizen of a town in greece is no nor an englishman reads and says how english t a german how p an italian how roman and how greek as they say that of had that universal beauty that everybody felt related to her so seems to a reader in new england an american genius his broad humanity all lines this range of us what to think of the vexed question concerning his works what are genuine what it is singular that wherever we find a man higher by a whole head than any of his it is sure to come into doubt what are his real works thus with for these men their 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 lime it is not easy to say what is the work of the master and what is only of his school representative men too like every great man consumed his own times what is a great man but one of great who takes up into himself all arts all as his food he can spare nothing he can dispose of every thing what is not good for virtue is good for knowledge hence his tax him with but the only knows how to borrow and society is glad to forget the innumerable who to this and all its gratitude for him when we are it seems we are from and and be it so every book is a quotation and every house is a quotation out of all forests mines and stone and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors and this grasping puts all nations under contribution absorbed the learning of his times and what	37
else then his master and finding himself still capable of a larger beyond all example then or since he travelled into italy to gain what had for him then into egypt and perhaps still farther east to import the other element which europe wanted into the european mind this breadth him to stand as the representative of philosophy he says in the 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 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 expression mainly is not a poet because he chose to use the poetic gift to an purpose great have the shortest their cousins can tell you nothing about them they lived in jo their writing and their house and street life was trivial and common place if you would know their tastes and the most admiring of their readers most them 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 the value of all his fortunes into his intellectual performances he was born a c about the time of the death of was of in his times and city and is said to have had an early inclination for war but in his twentieth year meeting with was easily from this pursuit and remained for ten years his scholar until the death of he then went to accepted the invitations of and of to the court of and went thither three times though very treated he travelled into italy then into egypt where he stayed a long time some say three some say thirteen years it i said he went farther into this is uncertain returning to 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 is interior we are to account for the supreme elevation of this man in the intellectual history of our race how it happens in proportion of the culture of men they become his scholars that as our bible has itself in the table talk and household life of every man and woman in the european and american nations so the writings of have pre occupied every school of learning every lover of thought every church every poet making it impossible to think on certain except through him he stands between the truth and every man s mind and has almost impressed language and the forms of thought with his name and representative men seal i am struck in reading him with the extreme of his style and spirit here is the of that europe we know so well in its long history of arts and arms here are all its traits already in the mind of and in none before him it has spread itself since into a hundred histories but has added no new element this perpetual is the measure of merit in every work of art since the author of it was not by anything short lived or local but abode by real and abiding traits how 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 honour 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 and 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 life whilst the are men and women talk vehemently and blunder and quarrel t 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 and masses but accurately distributed they from that weak vehemence and explain their meaning in detail if the tongue had not been framed for 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 one who 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 favour of their good genius they meet some one so related as to assist their estate and good communication being once established they are good citizens it is ever thus the progress is to accuracy to skill to from blind force there is a moment in the history of every nation when proceeding out of this brute youth the powers reach their and have not yet become so that man at that instant extends across the entire scale and with his feet still planted on the immense forces of night by his eyes and brain with and creation that is the moment of health the of power such is the history of europe in all points and such in philosophy its early records almost perished are of the from asia bringing with them the dreams of a confusion of crude notions of morals and of natural philosophy gradually through the partial insight of single teachers before came the seven wise masters and	37
we have the of and then the the origin of things from or water or from air or from fire or from mind all mix with these causes pictures at last comes the who needs no paint or or for he can define he leaves with asia the vast and he is the arrival of accuracy and intelligence he shall be as a god to me who can rightly divide and define this is philosophy philosophy is the account which the human mind gives to itself of the constitution of the world two cardinal facts lie at the base the one and the two unity or identity and variety we unite all things by perceiving the law which them by perceiving their superficial differences and their profound but every mental act this very perception of identity or the difference of things and it is impossible to speak or to think without embracing both the mind is urged to ask for one cause of many then for the cause of that representative men and again the cause still into the profound 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 being say the all philosophy of east and west has the same urged by an opposite necessity the mind returns from the one to that which is not one j but other or many from cause to effect and 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 contradictory and exclusive and ea so fast into the other that we can never say is one what it is not j the is as the highest as in the lowest grounds when we contemplate the one the true the good as in the and of matter in all nations there are minds which incline to dwell in the conception of the unity the 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 in the the and the those writings contain little else than this idea and they rise to pure and sublime strains in it the same the same friend and foe are of one stuff the the plough and the are of one stuff and the stuff is such and so much that the variations of form are unimportant you are fit says the supreme 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 with ignorance the words i and mine constitute ignorance what is the great end of all you ow learn from me it is soul one in all bodies uniform perfect pre eminent over nature and birth growth and decay made up of true knowledge independent with 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 air passing through the of a 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 form as that of god or the rest is destroyed there is no distinction the whole world a of who is identical w things and is to be regarded by the wise as 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 and animals and stars are transient paintings and light is and are and form is imprisonment and heaven itself a that which the soul seeks is resolution into being above form out of and out of heaven from nature if speculation thus to a terrific unity in which all things are absorbed action directly backwards to the first is the course or of mind the second is the power of nature nature is the manifold the unity and or nature opens and these two principles re appear and inter penetrate all things all thought the one the many one is being the other intellect one is necessity the other freedom one is rest the other motion one is power the other distribution one is strength the other pleasure one is consciousness the mother definition one genius the other talent one earnestness the other knowledge one possession men the other trade one caste the other culture one king the other and if we dare these 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 or use of means or deity each student by temperament and by habit to the first or to the second of these gods of the mind by religion he to unity by intellect or by the senses to the many a too rapid and an excessive to parts and particulars are the twin dangers of speculation to this partiality the history of nations the country of unity of immovable institutions the seat of a philosophy in of men faithful in doctrine and in practice to the idea of a deaf immense fate is	37
asia and it this faith in the social institution of caste on the other side the genius of europe is active and it caste by culture its philosophy was a discipline it is a land of arts inventions trade freedom if the east loved the west delighted in boundaries european civility is the triumph of talent the extension of system the sharpened understanding skill delight in forms delight in in results greece had been working in this element with the joy of genius not yet chilled by any foresight of the of an excess they saw before them no sinister political economy no ominous no paris or london no pitiless of classes the doom of the the doom of the of of of of of no ireland no indian caste 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 marble as if it were snow and their per feet works in architecture and seemed things of course not more difficult than the completion of a new ship at the yards or new mills at these things are in course and may be taken for granted the roman english trade the of the of paris the steam boat steam coach may all be seen in perspective the town meeting the box the newspaper and cheap press meantime in egypt and in eastern the idea of one deity in which all things are absorbed the unity of asia and the detail of europe the of the soul and the result loving machine making surface seeking europe came to join and by contact to the energy of each the excellence of europe and asia are in his brain and natural philosophy expressed the genius of europe he the religion of asia as the base in short a balanced soul was born 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 there is not only no presumption against them but the strongest presumption in favour 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 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 so familiar in nature the upper and the under side of the of jove the union of which re appears 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 the most popular of representative hen all principles the absolute good which rules rulers and judges the judge if he made distinctions he fortified himself by drawing all his illustrations from sources by and polite from and from and soup from and the shops of and he cannot forgive in himself a partiality but is resolved that the two poles of thought shall appear in his statement his argument and his sentence are self poised and the two poles appear yes and become two hands to grasp and appropriate their own every great artist has been such by our strength is or shall i say a thread of two the sea shore sea seen from shore shore seen from sea the taste of two hi contact and our enlarged powers at the approach and at the departure of a friend the experience of poetic which is not found in staying at home nor yet in travelling but in from one to the other which must therefore be managed to present as much surface as possible this command of two elements must explain the power and the charm of 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 keeps the two one of and one of at his side and invariably uses both things added to things as civil history are mere things used as language are attractive turns incessantly the and the reverse of the of jove to take an example the physical philosophers had each his theory of the world the theory of of fire of of spirit theories mechanical and in their genius a master of of all natural laws and causes feels these as second causes to be no theories of the world i but bare and lists to the study of nature he therefore the let us declare the cause which led the supreme to produce and compose the universe he was good and he who i good has no kind of envy from envy he wished that all things should be as much as possible like himself taught by wise men shall admit this as the prime cause of the origin and tion 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 and his philosophy the which makes the character of his mind appears in all his talents where there is great com pass of wit we usually find that combine easily in the living man but in description appear in the mind of 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 la him the is united with the precision of a his daring imagination gives him the more solid grasp of facts as the birds of highest flight have the strongest bones his polish his elegance edged by an irony	37
so subtle that it and adorn the health and strength of frame according to the old sentence if jove should descend to the earth he would speak in the style of with this air there is for the direct aim of several of his works and running through the tenor of them all a certain earnestness which in the and in the to piety he has been charged with sickness at the time of the death of but the anecdotes that have come down from the times his manly interference before the people in his master s behalf since even the cry of the assembly to is preserved and the indignation towards popular in many of his pieces hen expresses a personal he has a a native reverence for justice and honour a humanity which makes him tender for the of the people add to this he believes that poetry prophecy and the high insight are from a wisdom of which man is not master that the gods never but by a celestial these miracles are accomplished on these winged 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 the the with the rock and and hears the hum of their but his never him one would say he had read the inscription on the gates of be bold and on the second gate be bold and be bold and then again had paused well at the third gate be not too bold his strength is like the 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 one is not more secure than in following in his flights nothing can be colder than his head when the of his imagination are playing in the sky he has finished his thinking before he brings it to the reader and he in the surprises of a literary master he has that which 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 or instrument which is fit for the hour and the need so in his plenty is never but has the fit word there is indeed no weapon in all the of wit which he did not possess and use music analysis and irony down to the customary and polite his illustrations are poetry and his illustrations profession of art is good philosophy and hi finding tbe word f and art for in the is a substantial service still no orator can measure in effect with him who can give good what moderation and under statement and checking his thunder in mid he has good furnished the and citizen with all that can be said against the schools for philosophy is an elegant thing if any one modestly with it but if he is with it more than is becoming it the man he could well afford to be generous he who from the sun like 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 and 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 am persuaded by these accounts and consider how i may exhibit my soul before the judge in a healthy condition wherefore the honours that most men value and looking to the truth i shall endeavour in reality to live as 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 all 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 be the world s he has reason as all the philosophic and class but he has also j they have not this strong sense to reconcile his poetry with the appearances of the world and build bridge from the of cities to the her never this but slopes h a thought p representative men however picturesque the precipice on one side to an access from the plain he never writes in ecstasy or catches us up into poetic apprehended the cardinal facts he could prostrate himself on the earth and covers his eyes whilst he adored that which cannot be numbered or or known or named that of which everything can be affirmed and denied that which is and he called it essential he even stood ready as in the to that it was so that this being exceeded the limits of intellect no man ever more fully acknowledged the having paid his homage as for the human race to the he then stood erect and for the human race affirmed and yet things are that is the asia in his mind was first heartily honoured the ocean of love and power before form before will before knowledge the same the good the one and now refreshed and by this worship the instinct of europe namely culture returns and he cries yet things are i they are 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 a science of quantities called	37
only annoy me i shall seem to yon stupid and hie reputation i have false quite above beyond the will of you or me is this secret or laid all my good is and i not by lessons but by going about my business he said culture he said nature he did not fail to there is also the divine there is no thought in ny mind but it quickly to convert itself into a power and a huge of means i lover of limits loved the saw the and nobility which came 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 representative men homage it for the immense soul te receive and yet homage becoming the intellect to render he ud then our faculties run out into and return to us thence we can define but a little way bat here is a fact which will net be 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 and what we call results are a key to the method and completeness of is his twice 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 and the other section of truths to these four sections the four operations of the soul correspond conjecture faith understanding reason as every pool the image of the sun so every thought and thing us an image and creature of the supreme good the universe is by a channels for his activity all things mount and mount all his thought has this in teaching that beauty is the most lovely of all things exciting 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 us with its perfect reality he has the same regard to it as the source of excellence in works of art when an in the of any work looks to that which always according to the tame and a model of this kind expresses its idea and power in his work it follows that his production must be beautiful but when he that which is born and dies it will be r 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 and 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 the of all his body cannot teach wisdom god only in the same mind he constantly that virtue cannot be taught that it is not a science but an inspiration that the greatest goods are produced to us through 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 that the historic facts are lost in the light of s mind and are the double star which the most powerful instruments will not entirely separate again in his traits and genius is the best example of that which s extraordinary power a man of humble stem but honest enough of the commonest history of a personal 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 him on the stage the copied his ugly face on their stone he was a cool fellow adding to his humour a perfect temper and a knowledge of his man be he who representative men lie might whom he talked with which laid the companion open to certain defeat in any debate and in debate he delighted the young men are fond of liim and invite him to their whither he goes for conversation he can drink too has the strongest head in and after leaving the whole party the table goes away as if nothing had happened to begin new somebody that is sober in short he was what our country people call am one he affected a good many citizen like tastes was fond of hated trees never willingly went beyond the walls knew the old characters valued the and thought everything in a better than anything in any other place he was plain as a in habit and speech low phrases and illustrations from and soup and and and offices especially if he talked with any person he had a like wisdom thus he showed one who was afraid to go on foot to that it was no more than his daily walk within doors if extended would easily reach plain old uncle as he was with his great ears and immense the rumour ran that on	37
one or two occasions in the war with 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 usually in the 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 under garment his upper garment was the same for summer and winter and he i went and it is mid that to procure the pleasure which he loves of talking at his ease all day with the most elegant and cultivated young men lie mil now and then return to his shop and 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 pretence of knowing nothing he attacks and brings down all the fine all the fine philosophers of 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 if he did not speak the truth and who willingly others asserting what was and not less pleased when than when for he thought not any evil happened to men of such a magnitude as opinion respecting the just and unjust a pitiless who knows nothing but the bounds of whose conquering intelligence no man had ever reached whose temper was i whose dreadful logic was always leisurely and so careless and ignorant as to the and draw them in the 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 by his and the and with their grand as a boy his balls the has a thousand times at length on virtue before many companies and very as it appeared to him but at this moment he cannot even tell what it is this fish of a has so him this hard headed whose strange and diverted the young whilst the rumour of his sayings and gets abroad every day turns out in the to have a as invincible as his logic and to be either insane or at least under cover of this play in his religion when accused before the judges of the popular creed he the immortality of the soul the future reward and punishment and refusing to in a caprice of the popular government was condemned to die and sent to the prison entered the prison and took away all from the place which could not be a prison whilst he was there the but would not go oat by treachery whatever inconvenience nothing is to be preferred before justice these things i hear like pipes and drums whose sound makes me deaf to everything you say n the fame of this prison the fame of the there and the drinking of the 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 with the sweetest saint known to any history at that lame had forcibly struck the mind of so of these and the figure of by a necessity placed itself in the of the scene as the of the intellectual treasures he had to communicate it was a rare fortune that this of the mob and this scholar should meet make each other immortal in their mutual faculty the strange in the character of the in the mind of moreover by this means he was able in the direct way and without envy to avail himself of the wit and weight of to which unquestionably his own debt was great and these derived again their principal advantage from the perfect art of it remains to say that the defect of 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 into the pit 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 from the merit of that his writings have not what is no doubt incident to this of intellect in his work the vital authority which the screams of and the sermons of and jews possess there is an interval and to 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 and are at 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 nor an end not a mark of haste or or second thought but the theory of the world is a thing of and patches the longest wave is quickly lost in the sea would willingly have a a known and accurate expression for the world and it should be accurate	37
it shall be the world passed through the mind of nothing less every shall have the tinge every every relation or quality you know before you shall know again and find here but now ordered not nature but art and you shall feel that alexander indeed 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 morsel has become he has clapped men on the world this is the ambition of but the proves too large has good will to eat it but he is he falls abroad in the attempt and biting gets the bitten world holds the by his own teeth there he lives on and forgets him so it with all so most it fare with in view of eternal nature turns out to be philosophical he on this side and on that the german the could never tell what was indeed admirable can be quoted on both sides of every great question from him these things we are forced to say if we consider the effort of or any philosopher to dispose of which will not be disposed of no power of genius has ever yet had the smallest success in explaining existence the perfect remains but there is an injustice in assuming this ambition for let us not seem to treat with his venerable name men in proportion to their intellect have admitted his 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 a chief structure of human wit like or the or the remains it requires all the breadth of human faculty to know it i think it is seen when seen with the most respect his sense his merits with study when we say here is a fine collection of or when we praise the style or the common sense or we speak as boys and of our impatient criticism of the i suspect is no better the criticism is our impatience of miles when we are in a hurry but it is still best that a mile should have yards the great eyed the lights and shades after the genius of our life new the publication in mr s library of the excellent of 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 like the journals of at the latest dates modern science by the extent of its has learned to the student of man for the of individuals by tracing growth and ascent in races and by the simple expedient of lighting up the vast background a feeling of complacency and hope the human being has the and the plant in his rear his arts and the easy issue of his brain look glorious when beheld from the distant brain of ox and fish it seems as if nature in regarding the night behind her when in five or six she had turned out five or six men as and was discontented with the results these the virtue of the tree these were a clear of and and a good basis for further proceeding with this artist time and space are cheap and she is insensible to what you say of tedious preparation she waited the flowing periods of for the hour to be struck when man should arrive then period must pass before the motion of the earth can be then before the map of the instincts representative men and the powers can be drawn but as of races so the succession of individual men is fatal and beautiful and has the fortune in the history of mankind to mark an epoch s fame does not stand on a or on any of the reasoning or on any as for example the immortality of the soul he is more than an expert or a or a or the prophet of a peculiar message he represents the privilege of the intellect the power namely of carrying up every fact to successive and so in every fact a of these are in the essence of thought the would never help us to them by any discoveries of the extent of the universe but is as poor when the resolved of as when measuring the angles of an acre but the republic of by these may be said to require and so to anticipate the of the are the mind does not create what it any more than the eye the rose in to 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 or 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 round the universe therefore every word becomes an of nature whatever he looks upon a second sense and senses his perception of the generation of of death out of life and life out of death that law by which in nature is and and are only of a new creation his of the little in the large and the large in the small studying the state in die citizen and the citizen in the state and leaving it doubtful whether he exhibited the as an on education of the private soul his beautiful of ideas of time of form of figure of the line sometimes given as his of virtue	37
courage justice his love of the and his themselves the cave of the ring of the and two horses the golden silver brass and iron and and the visions of and the which have themselves in the human memory the signs of the his eye and his soul his doctrine of his doctrine of his clear vision of the laws of return or reaction which secure instant justice through out the universe everywhere but especially in the doctrine what comes from god to us returns from us to god and in belief that the laws below are sisters of the laws above more striking examples are his moral conclusions the coincidence of science and virtue for vice can never know itself and virtue but virtue knows both itself and vice the eye that justice was best as long as it was profitable that it is profitable throughout that the profit is 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 punishment that the lie was more than and that ignorance or the involuntary lie was more than involuntary that the soul is unwillingly deprived of true opinions and that no man sins willingly that the order or proceeding of nature was from the mind to the body and that though a sound body cannot restore an mind yet a good soul can by its virtue b ken reader the body ike best possible the intelligent have a right over the ignorant namely the right of them the right 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 pa he saw that the o earth was not more lawful and precise than was the that a celestial was in place there as a logic of lines and angles here below that the world throughout was the proportions are constant of and lime there is just so much water and slate and not less are the proportions constant of the moral elements this eldest and falsehood delighted in revealing the real at the base of the accidental in discovering and representation everywhere he appears like the god of wealth among the of opening power and in everything he touches science was new and vacant when 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 honours and arising while as respects either of them in itself and by its own power in the soul of the possessor and concealed both from gods and men no one has yet sufficiently 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 for ever them from the notions of the understanding marks an era in the world he was bom to behold the self power ol spirit endless of ends a power which is the key at once tor the and the of things k so that he well spare au his thus the fact of knowledge and idea to him the fact of eternity and the doctrine of he offers as the most probable particular that fanciful it matter not the between our knowledge and th abyss of being is still real and the must be not less he has indicated every eminent point in speculation he wrote on the scale of the mind itself so that all things have in hid 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 had out each a farm or a district or an island in intellectual geography but that first drew the sphere he the soul in nature man is the all the circles of the visible heaven represent as many circles in the rational soul there is no lawless and there is nothing casual in the of the human mind the names of things too are fatal the nature of things all the gods of the are by their names significant of a profound sense the gods are the ideas pan is speech or the jove the soul and passion is proportion the soul of the world intellectual illustration these thoughts in of light had appeared and poetic souls but this well bred greek comes with them a up into rank and the of and the two parts of nature before all men f lie saw the intellectual va ue of the moral me sentiment he describes his own ideal when he in a god leading things from disorder into order he kindled a fire so truly in the centre that we see the sphere illuminated and can distinguish poles and lines of latitude every arc and a theory so so that you would say the winds of ages had swept through this structure and not that it was the brief of one short lived hence it has happened that a very well marked class of souls namely those who delight in giving a spiritual that is an intellectual expression to every truth by exhibiting an end which is yet legitimate to it are said to thus michael is a in his is a when he writes nature is made better by no mean but nature makes that mean or he that can endure to follow	37
out again all the rest if he have but courage and faint not in the midst of his for inquiry and learning is all how much more if he that be a holy and soul for by being to the original soul by whom and after whom all things 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 called it ecstasy or absence a getting out of their bodies to think all religious history contains traces of the trance of saints a but without any sign of joy earnest solitary even sad the flight called it of the alone to the alone the closing of the eyes whence our word mystic the of r fox will readily come to mind but what as readily comes to mind is the accompaniment of disease this comes in terror and with to the mind of the it o er the of clay and drives the man mad or gives a certain violent bias which his judgment in the chief examples of religious illumination somewhat morbid has mingled in spite of the increase of mental power must the highest good drag after it a quality which and it indeed it takes from our achievements when performed at height the and of our attribute shall we say that the economical mother so much earth and so much fire by weight and to make a man and will not add a though a nation is for a leader therefore the men of god purchased their science by folly or pain if you will have pure or diamond to make the brain transparent the trunk and organs shall be so much the instead of they are clay or mud in modern times no such remarkable example of this mind has occurred as in born in in this man who a to his a visionary and of no doubt led the most real life of any man then in the world and now when the royal and and of that day have slid into oblivion he begins to spread himself into the of thousands as happens in great men he by the variety and amount of his power to be a composition of several persons like the giant fruits are in gardens by the union of four or five single blossoms his frame is on a larger scale and p ea es the advantages of size as it is easier to see men the reflection of the great sphere in large though by crack or than in drops of water so men of large though with some or madness like or help as more than balanced minds his youth and training could not mil to be such a boy could not whistle or dance bat goes into mines and mountains into and and to find images fit for the measure of his and brain he was a scholar from a child and was educated at at the age of twenty eight he was made of the board of mines by charles xii in he left home for four years and visited the of england holland france and germany he performed a notable feat of in at the siege of ty two five boats and a some fourteen english miles over land for the royal service in he over europe to examine mines and works he published in his and from this time for the next thirty years was employed in the composition and publication of bis scientific works with the like force lie threw into in when he was fifty four years old what is called his began all hi and of ships oyer land absorbed into this ecstasy he ceased to publish any more scientific books withdrew from h practical our and devoted himself to the writing and publication of his works which were printed at his own expense or at that of the duke of or other at london or later he resigned his office of e salary attached to this office to be paid to him during his life his duties had brought him into intimate acquaintance with king charles by whom he was much consulted and honoured the like favour continued to him by his successor at the diet of count says the most solid on were from his pen in he appears to have attracted a marked regard his rare science and practical skill and the added of second sight and extraordinary religious knowledge and drew to him queens clergy and people about the ports through which he was wont to pass in his many voyages the clergy interfered a little with the and publication of his 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 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 eminent and died at london march th of in his th year he is described when in london a man of a quiet habit not averse to tea and coffee and kind to children he wore a sword in full velvet dress and whenever he walked out carried a gold headed these is a common portrait of him in antique coat and wig but the face has a wandering or ai the genius which was to penetrate the of the age with a far subtle science to pass the bound of space and time venture into the dim spirit realm and attempt to establish anew religion in the world began ite lessons in and in the in ship yards and no one man is perhaps able to	37
perpetually on successive in the old nature is always in the plant the eye or point opens to a leaf then to another leaf with a power of the leaf into or seed the whole art of the plant is still to repeat leaf em leaf without end the more ox less of heat light moisture and food the form it shall assume in the animal nature makes a or a of and helps herself still by a new with a limited power of its form on to the end of the world a poetic in our own day teaches that a snake being a line and man being an erect line constitute a right angle and between the lines of this all animated beings find their place and he the the or the snake as the type or of the at the end of the nature puts out smaller as arms at the end of the arms new as hands at the other end she the process as legs and feet at the top of the column she puts out another which or itself over as a into a ball and forms the skull again the hands being now the upper jaw the feet the lower jaw the fingers and toes being represented time by upper and lower teeth this new 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 idea in the within it on a higher plane all that was representative men done in the trunk itself nature her lesson once more in a higher mood the mind is a finer body and its functions of feeding absorbing and in a new and ethereal element here in the brain is all the process of repeated in the acquiring comparing and 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 repeating every organ and process of the last we are adapted to 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 into and celestial natures force like a musical goes on repeating a simple air or theme now high now low in in chorus ten thousand times till it fills earth and heaven with the chant as explained by is good but when we find only an extension of the law of masses into and that the theory shows the action of to be mechanical also shows us a sort of also in the mental phenomena and the terrible of the french brings every piece of and humour to be also to exact if one man in twenty thousand or in thirty thousand eats shoes or his grandmother then in every twenty thousand or thirty thousand is found one man who eats shoes or his grandmother what we call and fancy ultimate is one fork of a stream for which we have yet no name is excellent but it must come up into life to have its full value and not remain there in and spaces the of blood around its own 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 eating sleep or motion which is seen in eggs as in these grand or rev turns in nature the dear best known 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 pro eye of and he must be reckoned a leader in that revolution which by giving to science an idea has given to an tion of experiments guidance and form and a beating heart i own with some regret that his printed works amount to about fifty stout his scientific works being about half of the whole number and it appears that a mass of manuscript still remains in the royal library at the scientific works have just now been translated into english in an excellent edition printed these scientific books in the ten years from to and they remained from that time neglected and now after their century is complete he has at last found a pupil in mr in london a philosophic critic with a co equal vigour of understanding and imagination only to lord bacon s who has produced his master s buried hooks to the day and transferred them with every ad from their forgotten latin into english to go round the world in our commercial and conquering tongue this startling re appearance of after a hundred years in his pupil is not the least re fact in his history aided it is said by the of mr and also by his literary skill this piece of poetic justice is done the admirable preliminary with which mr has enriched these volumes throw all the men of england into shade and leave me nothing to say on their proper grounds the animal kingdom is a book of merits it was written with the highest end to pot science and the soul long foam each other it one again it was an account of the body in the highest style of poetry nothing can exceed the bold and brilliant treatment of a subject usually so dry and repulsive nature through an everlasting with wheels ant dry on that never and sometimes sought to those secret recesses where native k sitting at the fires in the depths of her whilst	37
the picture comes recommended by the hard fidelity with which it is based on practical it is remarkable that this sublime genius the against the method and in a book whose genius is a daring poetic claims to confine himself to rigid experience he knows if he only the flowing of nature and how wise was that old answer of to him who bade him drink up the sea yes willingly if yon will the rivers that flow in few knew aa much about nature and her subtle manners or expressed more her 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 there was no state through which she did not pass as if her path lay through all things for as often as she herself upward from visible phenomena or in other words herself inward she instantly as it were while so 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 the inquiry under the light of an end or final cause gives wonderful animation a sort ot personality to the whole writing this book his favourite the ancient of that the brain is a and of that the may be known hj the s or is the by and in the verses of et de inter se co ex e ex i the principle of all things made of smallest of smallest bone blood of small sanguine drops reduced to one of small earth of small sands small drops to water sparks to fire contracted and which had in his hat nature entire in is a favourite thought of it is a constant law of the body that large compound or visible forms exist and from smaller and ultimately from invisible forms which act 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 of each organ are so many little organs with their compound the of the tongue are little tongues those of the stomach little those of the heart are little hearts this fruitful idea a key to every secret what was too small for the eye to detect was read by the what was too large by the there is no end to his application of the thought hunger is an of very many little or losses of by the little veins all over the body it is a key to his also man is a kind of very minute heaven corresponding to the world of spirits and to heaven every f particular idea of man and every affection yea every smallest part of his affection is an image and k him a spirit may be known from only a single thought god is the grand man the and 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 or the and the second and next higher form is the circular which is also called the perpetual because the of a circle is a perpetual angle the form above this is the parent and measure of circular forms its are not but circular and have a surface for centre therefore it is called the perpetual circular the form above this is the or perpetual next the 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 to the meaning of the world in the first volume of the animal kingdom he i the subject in a remarkable note in our doctrine of j representations and we treat of both these and typical and of the astonishing things which occur i will not say the living body only but throughout nature and which correspond so entirely to supreme and spiritual thing that one would swear that the physical world was purely of the spiritual world that if w choose to express any natural truth in physical and definite terms and to convert these terms only into the corresponding spiritual terms we shall by this means a spiritual truth or in place of the physical truth or although n j mortal would have predicted that anything of the kin could possibly arise by bare literal much as the one considered separately from fr other appears to have absolutely no relation to it i intend hereafter to communicate a number of examples of such together with a containing the terms of spiritual things as well as of the physical things for which they are to be this the living body the fact thus stated is implied in all poetry in in fable in the use of and in the structure of language knew of it as is evident from his twice line in the sixth book of the republic lord bacon had found that truth and nature differed only as seal and print and he some physical with their into a moral or political sense and all 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 was known for ages as a toy 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 because the mental series exactly with the material series it required an insight that could rank things in order and series or rather it required such of position that the poles of the eye should with the of the world the earth had fed its mankind	37
through five or six and they had and yet had failed to see the of meaning between every part and every other part and down to this hour literature has no book in which the of things is 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 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 would all faculties men that each man would ask of all objects what th ey me an why does the horizon hold me fast with my joy and grief in this centre why hear i the same from countless voices and read one never quite expressed fact in endless language yet whether it he that these things will net he learned or that many centuries must elaborate and compose so rare and a there is no fish spider or that for itself does not interest more scholars land class hers than the meaning and of the frame of things but was not content with the use of the world in his fifty year thought held him fast and his profound mind the perilous opinion too frequent in religious history hat he was an 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 order of nature he added the comprehension of the moral laws in their social aspects but whatever he saw through some excessive to form in his constitution he saw net but n heard it in constructed it in events when he attempted to announce the law most he was forced to couch it in modem offers no similar example of a balance the principal powers to main tain a healthy action and to a reader who can make due allowance in the report far the s peculiarities the results are still instructive and a more striking testimony to the sublime laws he announced than any that balanced afford attempts to give some account of the of the new state 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 and he that he sees with the internal sight the things that are in another life more clearly than he the things that are here in this world having adopted the belief that certain books of the old and new testament were exact or written in the and mode he employed his remaining years in from the literal the universal sense he had borrowed from the fine fable of a most ancient people men better than we and dwelling to the gods and added that they used the earth that these when they saw objects did not think at all about them but only about those which they signified the correspondence between thoughts and things occupied him the very form the end inscribed on it a man is in general and in particular an organized justice or injustice or gratitude and the cause of this harmony he assigned in the the reason why all and single things in the heavens and on earth are representative is because they exist from an of the lord through heaven this design of exhibiting such which if executed would be the poem of the world in which all history and science would play an essential part was and defeated by the exclusively thee logic direction which his inquiries took his perception of nature is not human and universal but is and he each natural object to a notion a horse understanding a tree perception the moon faith a cat means an that an this other and poorly every symbol to a several sense the slippery is not so easily caught in nature each individual symbol plays innumerable parts as each of matter in torn through every system the central identity any representative men one symbol to express all the qualities and shades of real being in the of the waters every fits every nature herself speedily on the hard that would chain her waves she is no everything must be taken and we must be at the top of our condition to understand anything rightly his bias thus his interpretation of nature and the dictionary of is yet to be written but the whom mankind must still expect will find no who has approached so near to the true problem himself in the title page of his books servant of the lord christ n and by force of intellect and in effect he is the last father in he church and is not likely to have a successor no wonder that his depth of wisdom should give him influence as a teacher to the withered church yielding dry he let in nature again and the escaping from the of and 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 and every circumstance instead of a religion which visited him 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 his thoughts descend into society and showed by what he was to his equals and his into natural objects and showed their origin and meaning what are friendly and what are and opened the future	37
world by indicating the of the same laws his that their intellect is by the study of his books there is no such problem lor criticism as his writings their merits are so commanding yet such grave must be made their immense and sandy is like the or the desert and their are like the last he k and his feeling of the ignorance of men strangely exaggerated men take truths of this nature very fast yet he in he is a rich and of things which most import us to know his thought dwells in essential 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 what earnestness and weigh his eye never without one swell of vanity or one look to self in any common form of literary pride a or man but whom no practical man in the universe affect to scorn is a his garment though of purple and almost sky woven is an robe and action with its folds but this mystic is awful to caesar himself would bow the moral insight of the of popular errors the announcement of laws take him out of comparison with any other modern writer and him to a place vacant for some ages among the of mankind that slow but commanding influence which he has acquired like that of other religious must be excessive also and have its tides before it into a permanent amount of course what is real and universal cannot be confined to the circle of those who strictly with his genius but will pass forth into the common stock of wise and men just thinking the world has a sore by which it what is excellent in its children and lets the and of the mind that which is familiar is the old of the in s and in the indian and is there or really takes place in bodies by alien bt s mind has a more philosophic character it is or depends the thought of the person ah thing in the universe arrange themselves to each person anew according to his ruling lore man is aa his and thought are man is man by virtue of wi net of knowing end understanding as he is so he sees the marriages of the world ate broken up associate all in the spiritual world whatever the looked upon them celestial each satan appeals to himself a man to those at as he a comely man to the a heap of nothing can assist states everything like to what we call poetic justice takes effect en the spot we have come into a world which is a poem everything is as i am bird and beast is not bud and beast hut and of the minds and wills of men there present every one makes his own 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 file societies which they approach discover their quality and drive them away the seem to themselves to be abiding in where their money is deposited and these to be wish 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 golden sayings which express with singular beauty the laws as when he uttered that sentence that in heaven the are advancing continually to the of their youth that the eldest angel appears the youngest the more angels the more room the of man is the love of use man in his perfect form is heaven always ascend as nature what is from him is him and poetic of the writing in the inmost heaven which as it consists of according to the form of heaven can he read without he almost his claim to natural vision by strange 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 which is from the lord is disturbed the angels from the sound of the voice know a man s love from the of the sound his wisdom and from the sense of the words his science in the love he has unfolded the science of marriage of this book one would say that the highest elements it has failed of success it came near to be die hymn of love which attempted in the banquet the love which says sang among the angels in paradise and which as rightly celebrated in its and effect might well entrance the souls as it would lay open the of ail institutions customs and manners the book had been grand if the had been omitted and the law stated without as and with that scope for of state which the nature of things requires it is a fine development of the science of marriage teaching that sex is universal and not local in the male every organ act and thought representative and the feminine in woman therefore in the real or spiritual world the union is not momentary hut incessant and total and not a local hut a universal virtue being discovered as much in the trading or planting or speaking as in generation and that though the he saw in heaven were beautiful the wives were more beautiful and went on increasing in beauty yet after his mode pinned his theory to a temporary form he the circumstance of marriage and though he finds false marriages on	37
wants central it is hot vital and power to life there is no individual in it the universe is a gigantic crystal all whose and lie in order and with unbroken unity but cold and still what seems an individual and a will is none there is an immense chain of extending from centre to extremes which every agency of all freedom and character the universe in his poem under a sleep and only the mind of the 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 be they who they may to this complexion must they come at last this them all over in his boat kings doctors sir sir king george ii and and all gather one of hue and style only when comes by our gentle sticks a little at saying he talked with and with a touch of human remarks one whom it was given me to believe was and when the n di opens his mouth borne and its eloquence have away it is plain like the rest his heavens and are dull fault of want of the thousand fold relation of men is not there the interest that in nature to each man because he is right by his wrong and wrong by his right because he all and so many and and are to be taken into account strong by his vices often by his virtues sinks into entire sympathy with his society this want re acts to the centre 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 from the centre and which should the immense of beings the vice of s mind is its 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 men had the same excess of influence for him it has had for the nations the mode as well as the essence was sacred is ever the more valuable as a chapter in universal history and ever the less an available element in education the genius of largest of all modern souls in g this department of thought wasted itself in the endeavour to and what had already arrived at its natural term and in the great providence was retiring from its before western modes of thought and expression and both failed by themselves to the christian symbol instead of to the moral sentiment which carries innumerable in its bosom the excess of influence shows itself in the of a foreign what have i to do asks the impatient reader with and and what with and and what with and what with heave and bread of fire crowned and or good for these are nothing to me the more learning you bring to explain them the more glaring the impertinence the more and elaborate the system the less i like it i say with the 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 this of some foreigner proposing to take away my and substitute his own and amuse me with and instead of and robin palm trees and wood instead of and seems the most needless said god when he makes the prophet does not the man s history points the remark the parish in the church between the friends and foes of and concerning faith alone and works alone intrude themselves into his g men upon the economy of the universe and of the celestial societies the bishop s son for whom the heavens are opened so that he sees with eyes and in the richest forms the truth of things and again in his books as under a heavenly the secrets of moral nature with all these resting upon him remains the bishop s son his judgments are those of a and his vast purchased by he carries his memory with him in his visits to the souls he is like michael who in his put the cardinal who had offended him to roast under a mountain of devils or like who in all his private wrongs or perhaps still more like s parish priest who if a passes over the village thinks the day of doom is come and the already have got the us not less with his pains of and and and his own books which he among the angels under the same many of his are bound his cardinal position in morals is that evils should be 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 as evil i doubt not he was led by the desire to the element of personality of deity but nothing is added one man say show him that this dread is evil or o e hell show him that dread is evil he who loves goodness angels reverence and lives with god the less we have to do with oar the better no man afford to waste his moments in that is active duty say the which k not for our bond age that is knowledge which is for oar all other duty is good only unto weariness another growing out of this is this has devils evil according to old philosophers is good in the making that pure can exist is the extreme proposition of it is not to be entertained by	37
a rational agent it is it is the last rightly said goodness and being in the gods are one he who ill to them makes them none to what a painful had arrived that admitted no for evil spirits but the divine effort is never relaxed the in the sun will convert itself to grass and flowers and man though in or or on is on his way to all that is good and true burns with the wild humour of his to poor old ben o ye a thought and mend has the advantage of the everything is superficial and but love and truth only the largest is always the truest sentiment and we feel the more generous spirit of the indian c 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 of a virtuous spirit and eternal happiness for the of revelations of g men the other world only his and genius can it to any serious regard his revelations destroy their credit by running into detail if a man say that the holy ghost has informed him that the last judgment or the last of the judgments took place in 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 and in laws the of ghosts and gossip and tell fortunes the of the high spirit are and in regard to particulars negative genius did not him to act or to find but if he to do somewhat not advantageous it him what god is he said i know not what he is not i know the have the supreme being the internal check the illuminated explained their light not as somewhat which leads to any action but it appears as an to anything unfit but the right examples are private experiences which are absolutely at one on this point strictly speaking s revelation is a of a capital offence in so learned a this is to carry the law of surface into the plane of substance to carry and its into the realm of and which is and chaos the secret of heaven is kept from age to age no no angel ever an early syllable to answer the of saints the fears of mortals we should have listened on our knees to any favourite who by obedience had brought his thoughts into 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 with what is best in nature it must not be inferior in tone to the already known works of the artist who the of the and writes the moral law it must be than than mountains agreeing with flowers with tides and the rising and setting of stars melodious poets shall be hoarse as street 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 of blood and the sap of trees in this mood we hear the rumour that the has arrived and his tale is told but there is no beauty no heaven for angels the sad muse loves night and death and the pit his is his spiritual world bears the same relation to the and joys of truth of which human souls have already made us 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 into a wretch like a dog about the outer yards and of creation when he into the heaven 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 be less majestic and sweet than the figures that have actually walked the earth these angels that give us no very high idea of their discipline and culture they are all country their heaven is a he c an or french distribution of prize to virtuous strange man who classes of souls as a of a and visits as a of chalk or horn he has no sympathy he goes up and down the ken world of men a modern in cane and and with and ike air of a souls the warm many passionate peopled world ia to him a grammar of or an how different is jacob he is tremulous with emotion and awe struck with the humanity to the teacher whose he and when he that in some sort love is greater than god his heart beats so high that the against his coat is audible across the centuries tis a great difference is and beautifully wise notwithstanding the is wise and with all his accumulated gifts and it is the best sign of a great nature that it opens a and like the breath of morning us onward is nor can we him of his and some minds are for ever restrained from descending into nature others are for ever pre from ascending out of it with a force of many men he could never break the cord which held him to nature and he did not rise to the platform of pore genius it is remarkable that this man who by his perception of saw the poetic construction of things and the relation of mind to matter remained entirely devoid of the whole	37
apparatus of expression which that perception he knew the grammar and of the mother tongue how could he not read off one strain into music was he like who in his vision designed to fill his lap with the celestial flowers as presents for his friends hut the fragrance of the roses so him that the skirt dropped from his hands or is a breach of the manners of that heavenly society or was it that he saw the vision and hence that of the intellectual that his hooks be it as it may books have no melody ne no humour no relief to the dead level la his and accurate is no pleasure for there k bo beauty we wander forlorn in a lack lustre landscape no bird ever sung in all these gardens of the dead the entire want of poetry in so a mind the disease and like a hoarse voice in a beautiful person is a kind of warning i think sometimes he will not he read longer his great name will turn a sentence his book have become a monument his laurel so largely mixed with a so with the temple that boys and maids will the spot yet in this 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 of nature many opinions conflict as to the true centre in the some cling to running some to and barrel some to 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 favour or on compassion to folly or on prudence on common sense the old usage and of men nothing can keep you not fate n or health nor admirable intellect none can keep you but only for ever and ever and with a that never in all his studies inventions dreams he to this brave choice i think of him as of some men of indian legend who says though i be dog or or in the last of nature under what or ferocity i to right as the sure ladder that leads up to man and to god 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 and causes he was fired with piety at the 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 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 of spiritual nature not less glorious or less beautiful to himself ob the 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 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 he turns it over to see the reverse life is a of this penny heads or tails we never tire of the 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 himself what this good luck 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 the cause of that beauty which must be more beautiful he his fortunes the laws his children but he asks himself why and this head and this tail are called in the language of philosophy infinite and relative and absolute apparent and real and many fine names each man is born with a to one or hen 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 with facts and cities and persons and the bringing certain things to pass the men of talent and action another class haye the perception of identity and are men of faith and philosophy men of genius each of these drives too fast believes only in philosophers in saints and in poets read the haughty language in which and the speak of all men who are not devoted to their own other men are rats and the literary class is usually proud and exclusive the correspondence of pope and swift describes mankind around them as monsters and that of and in our own tune k scarcely more kind it is easy to see how this comes the genius is a genius by the first look he casts on any object is his eye does he not rest in angles and colours but the design he will presently the actual in moments his thought has dissolved the of art and nature into their causes so that toe works appear heavy and he has a conception of beauty which the cannot picture statue temple rail road steam engine existed to in an artist s mind without flaw mistake or tion which the executed models did the church the state college court social circle and all the institutions it is not strange that these men remembering	37
what they have seen and hoped of ideas should affirm the superiority of ideas having at some time seen that the happy soul will carry all the arts in power they say why ourselves with superfluous and like dreaming beggars they assume to speak and act as if these were already 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 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 causes thinks nothing of the force which 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 of the value of these 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 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 property without acquiring with it a little 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 more have lost some charm after dinner is the only science ideas are disturbing follies of young men by the solid portion of society and a man comes to be valued by his and animal qualities relates that mr pope was with sir one day when his nephew a guinea came in nephew said sir you have the honour 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 men 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 the tongue that is hot matches are to be avoided and hold up 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 pie they hold that had milk in him when he said und der and when he advised a young scholar perplexed with fore and free will to get well drunk the nerves says they are the man my neighbour a jolly farmer in the tavern bar room thinks that the use of money is sure and speedy spending for his part he says t he puts his down his neck and gets the good of it the inconvenience of this way of thinking is that it runs into and then into disgust life is eating us up we shall be 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 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 a there s nothing new true and no matter with a little more bitterness the our life is like an ass led to market by a bundle of bay being carried before him he sees nothing but the bundle of hay there is so much trouble in coming into the world said lord 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 who was accustomed briefly to sum up his experience of human nature in saying mankind is a damned rascal and the natural is pretty sure to follow the world lives by and so will i the and the thus each other and the expressing the worst of there arises a third party to occupy the middle ground between these two the namely he finds both wrong by being in extremes he labours to plant his feet to be the beam of the balance he will not go beyond his card he sees the of these men of the street he will not be a he stands for the intellectual faculties a cool head and whatever serves to keep it cool no industry no self devotion no loss of the brains in toil am i an ox or a you are both in extremes he says you that will have all solid and a world of pig lead deceive yourselves you believe yourselves rooted and on and yet if we the last facts of our knowledge you are spinning like on a river you know not whither or whence and you are and and wrapped in neither will he be betrayed to a book and wrapped m a gown the 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 hunger and representative hen if you come near them and see what they entertain they axe and spend their days and nights in dreaming some dream in expecting the homage of society to some precious scheme built on a truth but destitute of proportion in its in its application and of all energy of will in the to and it but i see plainly he says that i cannot	37
see i know that human strength is not in extremes hat in avoiding extremes i at least will the weakness of beyond my depth what is the use of pretending to powers we hare not what is the use of pretending to assurances we have not respecting the other life why the power of virtue why he 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 to make up his mind yea or nay why not the judgment i weary of these i tire of these of routine who deny the 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 rattle off theories of society religion and nature when i know that practical objections lie in the way by me and by my mates why so in public when each of my hours can pin me to my seat by arguments i cannot why pretend that life is so simple a game when we know how subtle and the is why think to shut up all things in your narrow when we know there are not one or two only but ten twenty a thousand things and unlike f why fa ey that you have all the truth in your keeping there is much to say on all sides who shall forbid a wise seeing that there is no practical question on which anything more than an 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 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 and the only defence set up is the fear of doing worse in 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 eh er of these kinds is quite 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 labour the generous minds embrace the proposition of labour shared by all it is the only honesty nothing else is sale it is from the poor man s hut alone that strength and virtue come and yet on the other side it is alleged that labour the form and breaks the spirit of main and die cry we have no thoughts culture how indispensable i cannot forgive you the want of accomplishments and yet culture will destroy that beauty of span representative men excellent is culture for a savage but once let him read in the book and he is no longer able not to think of 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 come no 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 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 ghosts this then is the right ground of the this of consideration of self containing not at all of not at all of universal denying nor of universal doubting doubting even that he doubts least of all of and at all that is stable and good these are no more his moods than are those of religion and philosophy he is the considered the prudent taking in sail counting stock 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 ranged on one side and this little conceited that a man is up and down into every danger on the other it is a position taken up for better defence 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 and the and schemes are too and stiff for our occasion a theory of saint john and of non resistance seems on the other hand too thin and we want some coat woven of elastic steel stout as the first and as the second we want a ship in these	37
we an house would be rent to and 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 is the peculiarity of human nature we are golden or errors houses founded on the sea the wise 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 to 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 and the range of qualities which among his and countrymen 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 or but to their some wise h men as the modern phrase is some condition between the extremes and having itself a positive some and sufficient man who ia 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 whom cities cannot but who uses them k the fit person to occupy this ground of speculation these qualities meet in the character of and yet since the personal regard which i entertain for may be great i will under the shield of this prince of as an apology lor him as the representative of 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 former life so sincerely it spoke to my thought and experience it happened when in paris in that in the of le chaise i came to a tomb of who died in aged years and who said the monument lived to do right and had formed himself to virtue on the essays of some years later i became acquainted with an accomplished english poet john sterling and in my correspondence i found that from a love of lie had made a pilgrimage to his still standing near in and after years had copied from the walls of his library the which had written there that journal of mr sterling s published in the westminster review mr has in the to his edition of the essays i heard with pleasure that one of the newly of william was in a copy of s translation of it is the only book which we certainly know to have been in the poet s library and oddly enough the copy of which the british museum purchased with a view of protecting the as i was informed in the museum turned out to have the of ben on the fly leaf hunt relates of lord that was the only great writer of past times whom he read with satisfaction other not needful to be mentioned here to make this old still new and immortal for me in on the death of his father then years old retired from the practice of law at and settled himself on his estate though he had been a man of pleasure and sometimes a his now grew on him and he loved the compass 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 to be deceived or to deceive he was esteemed in the country for his sense and in the civil wars of the league which converted every house into a fort kept his gates open and his house without defence all parties freely came and went his courage and honour being universally esteemed the neighbouring lords and gentry brought jewels and papers to him for safe keeping in these times but two men of liberality in france henry iy and is the and of all writers his french freedom runs into h but he has anticipated all censure by the of his own in his times books were written to one sex only and almost all were written in latin so that in a a certain of statement was permitted which our manners of a literature addressed equally to both sexes do not allow but though a coupled with a most levity may shut his pages to many sensitive readers yet the offence is superficial he it he makes the most of it nobody can think or say worse of him than he does he to most of the vices and if there be any virtue in him he says it got in by there is no man in his opinion who has not deserved hanging five or six times and he 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 grows into every reader s mind	37
when i the most strictly and confess myself i find that the best virtue i have has in it some of vice and i am afraid that 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 sound of human mixture but faint and remote and only to be perceived by himself here is an impatience and at colour or pretence 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 use flash and street he has stayed in doors 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 and is so nervous by life that he thinks the more barbarous man is the better he is he likes his saddle tou may read and grammar and elsewhere whatever you get here shall of the earth and of real life sweet or smart or 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 over his name he drew an pair of scales and wrote seeds je under it as i look at his opposite the title page i seem to hear him say you may play old if you will you may rail and i stand here for truth and will not for all the states and churches and and personal of europe the dry fact as i see it i will rather and prose about what i certainly know my house and my father my wife and my tenants my old lean bald my knives and forks what i eat and what drinks i prefer and a hundred just as ridiculous than i will write with a fine a fine romance i like gray days and autumn and winter weather i am gray and myself and think an and old shoes that do not pinch my feet and old friends who do not me and plain topics where i do not need to strain myself and pump my brains the most suitable our condition as men is and enough one cannot be sure of himself and his fortune an hour but he may be off into some pitiable or ridiculous plight why should i and play the philosopher instead of the best i can this dancing 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 i men 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 on every random topic that comes into his head treating everything without ceremony yet masculine sense there have heen men with deeper insight bat one would ay never a man with sack abundance of thoughts be is never doll never and has the genius to make the reader for all he cares for the sincerity and of ike reaches te his sentences i know not anywhere the book at seems less written it is the language of transferred to a book out these words and they would they are and alive one has the same pleasure in it that we have m to the speech of men about their when any unusual gives to the dialogue for and 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 and too and from the matter to the expression talks with knows the would and books and himself and uses the positive degree ever shrieks or or no weakness no mo does not wish to jump out of ms or play any or space or time nt is stout and solid tastes every moment td the day likes pain because it makes him feel himself and realize things as we pinch te that we are awake he keeps the plain or sinks likes to feel ground land the tones underneath his writing has no contented self respecting and the middle of the road there is but me his love for in speaking of him for once bis cheek and his style rises to passion died of a at the age of sixty in 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 hare had my own will i would not have married wisdom herself if she would have had me but tis to much purpose to 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 seeds je t what do i know this book of the world has by k into all tongues and seventy five of it in europe and that too a circulation somewhat chosen namely among soldiers princes men of the world and men of wit and generosity shall we say that has spoken wisely and given the right and permanent expression of the human mind on the conduct of life we are natural truth or the between cause and effect alone interests us we are persuaded that a thread runs through all 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 only that we may know the direction and	37
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 us seen or we believe the tie exists talent makes ties genius finds the real ones we to the man of science because we anticipate hie in natural phenomena which he representative men whatever preserves and dislike what or down one man appears whose nature is to all men s eyes and his presence a society trade large institutions and empire if these did not exist they would begin to exist through his therefore he cheers and comforts men who feel all this in him very readily the and the rebel say all manner of 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 contemplated might be a very modest or prosperity yet men rightly go for him and reject the so long as he comes only with axe and but though we are natural and and reject a sour the class which represents have reason and every man at some time belongs to it every superior mind will pass through this domain of i should rather say will know how to avail himself of the and in nature as a natural weapon against the exaggeration and of and is the attitude assumed by the student in relation to the particulars which society but which he sees to be reverend only in their tendency and spirit the ground occupied by the is the of the temple society does not like to have any breath of question blown on the existing order but the of custom at ail 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 is a bad citizen no he sees the selfishness of property and the of institutions but neither is he fit to work with any party that ever was constituted for parties wish every one committed and he the popular patriotism his politics are those of the souls errand of sir walter or of in the there is none who is worthy of my love or hatred whilst he sentences law divinity commerce and custom he is a yet he is no better member of the association it turns out that he is not the champion of the the 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 to play the part of devil s attorney and every doubt and sneer that the sun for him but he says there are doubts i mean to use the occasion and the day of our saint michael de by counting and describing these doubts or i wish to them out of their holes and sun them a little we must do with them as the police do with old who are shown up to the public at the s office they will never be so formidable when once they have been identified and 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 of the i know the opinion will not prevail it men is of bo importance what 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 are light how respectable is earnestness on every platform but intellect it nay ban my subtle and admirable friend one of the most penetrating of men finds that all direct even of lofty piety leads to this ghastly insight and sends back the my astonishing san thought the and saints 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 this frost in july this blow from a bride there was still a worse namely the or of the saints in the mount of vision ere they have yet risen from their knees they say we discover that our homage and is partial and we must fly for relief to the suspected and intellect to the understanding the to the of talent this is the first and it has been the subject of much in our nineteenth century from and other poets of less fame not to mention many distinguished private i confess it is net very affecting to my imagination for it seems to concern the of baby houses and shops what the church of borne or of england or of or of boston yet maybe very far from touching of faith i think that the intellect and moral sentiment are unanimous and that though philosophy yet it supplies the natural of vice and to the soul i think that the wiser a man is the more he finds the natural and moral economy and lifts himself to a more absolute reliance there is the power of moods each setting at all but its own of facts and there is the power of obviously the dispositions and sentiments the ami appear to	37
be and as soon as each man the 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 believing in the iron links of destiny and will not turn on our heel to save our hfe but a book or a bust or only the sound of a name shoots a spark through the nerves and we believe in will my finger ring shall be the seal of solomon fate is for all is possible to the resolved mind presently a new experience gives a new turn to our thoughts common sense its tyranny we say well the army after all is the gate to fame manners and poetry and task you on the whole selfishness best beat makes the best commerce and the best ar the opinions of a man cm right and wrong m fate and at the mercy of a broken sleep or an is his belief in god and no deeper than a stomach evidence and what for the of his opinions not the french a new and state once a week this is the second and i shall let it pass for what it will as far as it 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 df all the states does the general voice of ages affirm any principle or is no community of sentiment in distant times and places and when it shows the power of self interest i accept that as part of the divine law and must reconcile it with 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 but often hurt and crush us fate in the shape of or nature grows over us like grass we paint time with the love and fortune blind and destiny deaf we have too little power of resistance against this ferocity which us up what front can we make against these victorious forces f what can i do against the influence of race in my history what can i do against hereditary and constitutional habits against against climate against 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 impulse finds and one including all others is in the doctrine of the there is a painful rumour in circulation that we have been practised upon in all the principal performances of life and free agency is the name we have been and with the air with food with woman with children with with events which leave us exactly where they found us the tis complained leave the mind where they find it so do all and so do all events and actions i find a man who has passed through all the the he was and through all the offices learned civil social can detect the child we are not the less to 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 owned the goddess the great energy of by whom as utter ignorance the whole world is 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 reality the law is apprehended now and then for a serene and profound moment amidst the 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 it in time we may in fifty years have half a dozen reasonable hours but what are these care and works the better a method in the world we do not see but this of great and little which never on each other nor discover the smallest tendency to experiences fortunes writings are nothing to the purpose as when a man comes into the room it does not appear whether he has been fed on or he has contrived to get so much bone and fibre as he wants out of rice or out of snow so vast is the between the sky of law and the of performance under it that whether he is a man of worth or a is not so great a matter as we say shall i add as one of this enchantment the non intercourse law which makes co operation impossible the young spirit to enter society but all the ways of culture and greatness lead to solitary imprisonment he has been often he did not expect a sympathy with from the village but he went with sit to the chosen and intelligent and found no entertainment men to mb mere and men are strangely and and the excellence of is aa which him more there are these and more than these of thought which our ordinary teachers do not attempt to remove now shall we because a good nature us to virtue s side say there are no doubts sad lie for the right is to be led in a brave or in a manner and is not the satisfaction of the doubts essential to all is the name of virtue to be a barrier to that which is virtue can not believe that a man of earnest and habit may find small good in tea essays and and want a instruction want men labour trade farming war plenty love hatred doubt and terror to make things plain to	37
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 of the soul in denying them some minds are incapable of 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 for they are secure of a return once admitted to the heaven of thought they see no into night but infinite invitation on the other side heaven is within heaven and sky over sky and they are with others there are to whom the heaven is brass and it down to the surface of the earth it is a question of temperament or of more or less in nature the last class must needs have a or faith not a sight of realities but an instinctive reliance on the ill and of realities the manners and thoughts of astonish them and convince thai these have sea something which is hid from themselves but their habit would fix the to his last position whilst he as inevitably advances and presently the for love of belief the great are always reckoned fantastic and really men of no account the finds himself driven to express his faith by a series of charitable come with their projects and ask his how can he hesitate it is the rule of mere and courtesy to agree where you can and to turn your sentence with something and not and sinister but he is forced to say o these things will be as they must be what can do these particular and crimes are the foliage and fruit of such trees as we see growing it is in vain to complain of the leaf or the cot it oft it will bear another as bad you must begin your cure lower down the of the day prove an element for him the people s questions are not his their methods are not his and against all the 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 neighbours cannot put the statement so that he shall affirm it but he out of more faith and not less he out of honesty he had rather stand charged with the of than with i believe he in the moral design of the universe it exists for the of souls but your seem to me why should i make believe them will any say this is cold and the wise and ken will not say so they will in his which can abandon to the adversary all the ground of tradition and common belief without losing a of strength it sees to the end of all 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 is lost is in the moral sentiment which never its all moods may be safely tried and their weight allowed to all objections the moral sentiment as easily them all as any one this is the drop which the sea i play with the of facts and take those superficial views which we call but i know that they will presently appear to me in that order which makes impossible a man of thought must feel the thought that is parent of the universe that the masses of nature do and flow this faith to the whole emergency of life and objects the world is with deity and law he is content with just and unjust with 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 announced that the attractions of man are to his in other words that every desire its own satisfaction yet all experience the reverse of this the of power is the universal grief of young and ardent minds they accuse the divine providence of a certain it has shown the heaven and earth to every child and filled him with a desire for the whole a desire raging infinite a as of space to be filled with a cry of famine a of devils for souls then for the to each man is administered a single drop a bead of dew of vital power per day a cap as large as space and one drop of the water of life in jl each man woke in the morning with an appetite that could eat the system like a cake a spirit for and passion without bounds he could lay his hand on the morning star he could try conclusions with or 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 ail whistling and still the sang the attractions are to the 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 nature of truth comes to our elastic not to be surrounded man helps himself by larger the lesson of life is practically to to believe what the years and the centuries say against the hours to resist the of particulars to penetrate to their catholic sense things seem to say one thing and say the reverse the appearance is the result is moral things seem to tend	37
downward to justify despondency to promote to defeat the just and by as by the just cause is carried forward although win in every political struggle although society seems to be delivered over from the hands of one set of into the hands of another set of as fast as the government is changed and the march of civilization is a train of yet general ends are somehow i men answered we see now events forced oh which seem to or the civility of ages but the world spirit is a good and storms and waves cannot drown him he 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 a great and beneficent tendency irresistibly streams let a man learn to look for the permanent in the and fleeting let him learn to bear the disappearance of things he was wont to reverence without losing his reverence let him learn that be is here not to work but to be worked upon and that though abyss open under abyss and opinion opinion all are at last contained in the eternal cause if my bark sink tis to another sea os 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 in finding clay and making bricks and building the house no great men are original nor does valuable originality consist in 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 saying what comes uppermost and because he says everything saying at last something good but a heart in with his time and country there is nothing and fantastic in his production but sweet and sad earnest with the 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 does not wake up on some fine morning and i representative ken say i am fall of life i will go to sea and find continent to day i will square the circle i will and find a new food for man i have a new architecture in my mind i foresee a new power no but he finds himself in the river of thoughts and events forced onward by the ideas and necessities of his 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 and he carries out the advice which her music gave him and a cathedral needed by her and he finds a war raging it him by trumpet in and he the he finds two groping to bring coal or flour or fish from the place of production to the place of and he on a railroad every master has found his materials collected and his power lay in his sympathy with his people and in his we of the materials he wrought in what an economy of power and what a for the of life all is done to hi hand the world has brought him thus far on bis way the human race has gone out before him sunk the halls filled the hollows and the i rivers men nations poets women ail have worked for him and he enters into their labours choose any other thing out of the line of tendency out of the national feeling and history and he 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 in letting i world do al and the spirit of the hour t pass through the mind s youth in a time when the l were for dramatic the court took offence easily at political allusions and attempted to suppress them the a growing and energetic party and the religious among the church would suppress them but the people wanted them inn yards houses without roofs and at country 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 or alone or united suppress an organ which was ballad newspaper lecture punch and library at the same time probably king and 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 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 ford and 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 an audience and expectation prepared in the ease of there is much more at the time when he left 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 which the audience will bear hearing some part of every week the death of caesar and other stories out of	37
out of which to build his house he 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 to steal from the writings of others at discretion thought is the property of him who can entertain it and of him who can 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 is the learned member of the at westminster or at washington speaks and for thousands show us the and the new invisible channels by which the is made aware of their wishes the crowd of practical and knowing men who by correspondence or representative men tion are feeding him with evidence anecdotes and and it will his fine attitude and resistance of something of their as sir robert and mr so and think for thousands and so there were fountains ail around or milton from which they drew friends lovers books traditions all perished which if seen would go to reduce the wonder did the bard speak with authority did he feel himself by any companion the appeal is to the consciousness of the writer is there at last in his breast a whereof to ask concerning any thought or thing whether it be verily so yea or nay and to have an answer and to rely on that all the debts which such a man could contract to other wit would never disturb his consciousness of originality for the of books and of other minds are a 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 labour 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 admired for its energy and pathos is an 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 meditation of every saint and sacred writer all over the world makes the like remark in respect to the lord s prayer that the f single of which it is composed were already in use in the time of christ in the forms he picked out the 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 gets its excellence by being translation on translation there never was a time when there was none all the truly and national phrases are kept and all others picked out and thrown away something like the same process had gone on long before with the of these books the world takes liberties with world books s nights did robin hood are not the work of single men in the composition of such works the time thinks the market thinks the the carpenter the merchant the farmer the all think for us every book supplies it time with one good word every law every trade every folly of the day and the catholic genius who is not afraid or ashamed to own his originality to the originality of all stands with the next age as the and of his own we have to thank the of and the society for the steps of the english drama from the mysteries celebrated in churches and by and the final from the church and the completion of plays from and and s needle down to the possession of the stage by the very pieces which altered and finally made his own elated with success and men the growing interest of the problem they left no chest in a no file of old yellow accounts to in damp and worms so keen was the hope to discover whether the boy or not whether he held horses at the theatre door whether he kept school and why he left in us only his second best bed to ann his wife there is somewhat touching in the madness with which the passing age the object on which shine and all eyes are turned the care with which it every trifle touching queen elizabeth and james and the and and lets pass without a single valuable note the founder of another which alone will cause the to be remembered the man who carries the saxon race in him by the inspiration which 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 and frivolous people bacon who took the of the human understanding for his times never mentioned his name ben though we have strained his few words of regard and had no suspicion of the elastic fame whose first he was attempting he no doubt thought the praise he has 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	37
s time should be capable of it sir henry was born four years after and died twenty three years after him and i find among his and acquaintances the following persons sir philip earl of lord bacon sir walter john milton sir henry dr charles cotton john john paul with all of whom exists some token of his having many others whom doubtless he saw two and the rest since the of great men who appeared in greece in the time of 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 yon 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 till now for he is the father of german literature it was on the introduction of into german by and the translation of his works by and that the rapid burst of german literature was most intimately connected it was not until the nineteenth century whose genius is a sort of living hamlet that the tragedy of hamlet could find such wondering readers now literature philosophy and thought are his mind is the horizon beyond which at present we do not see our ears are educated to music by his and are the only critics who have expressed our convictions with any adequate fidelity but there is in all cultivated minds a silent men tion of his power and beauty which like christianity the period the society have inquired in all directions advertised the missing facts offered money for any information that will lead to proof and with what result beside some important illustration of the history of the english stage to which i they have 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 theatre its wardrobe and other were his that he bought an estate in his native village with his as writer and that he lived in the best house in was by his neighbours with their in london as of money and the like that he was a veritable farmer about the time when he was writing he philip in the court of for thirty five shillings and for corn delivered to him at different times and in all respects appears as a good husband with no reputation for or excess he was a good natured sort of man an actor and in the theatre not in any striking manner distinguished from other actors and 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 may have rescued they can shed no light upon that infinite invention which is the concealed of his attraction for us we are very clumsy writers of history we tell the chronicle of birth earning of money marriage of books death and when we hare 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 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 the past and refuse all history and have wasted their oil the theatres garden lane the park and have vainly assisted and their lives to this genius him they crown obey and express the genius knows them not the begins one golden word leaps out immortal from all this painted and sweetly us with invitations to its own inaccessible homes i remember i went once to see the hamlet of a the pride of the english stage and all i then heard and all i now remember of the was that in which the had no part simply hamlet s question to the ghost what may this mean that thou dead again in complete steel st thus the glimpses of the moon that imagination which the closet he writes in to the world s crowds it with agents in rank and order as quickly the big reality to be the glimpses of the moon these tricks of his magic spoil for us the illusions of the can any biography shed light on the into which the night s dream admits met did confide to any or or in the men of that delicate creation the forest of the air of castle the moonlight of s villa the vast and idle of s where is the third or grand nephew the s file of accounts or private letter that has kept one word of those in fine in this drama as in all great works of art in the architecture ef egypt and india in the the the italian painting the of spain and scotland the genius draws op the ladder after him when the age goes up to heaven and gives way to a new who sees the works and asks in vain for a history is the only of and even he can tell nothing except to the in us that is to our most apprehensive and sympathetic hour he cannot step from off his and give us anecdotes of his inspiration bead the antique documents and compared by the and and i now read one of those sentences 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	37
historical insight into the man hence though our external history is so meagre yet with for instead of and 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 i 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 of life and the ways whereby we come at them on the characters of men and the influences and open which affect their fortunes and on those mysterious and powers which defy our science and which yet their malice and their gift in our brightest hours who ever read the volume of the without finding that the poet had there revealed under that are no to the in 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 or what trait of his private mind has he hidden in his one can discern in his ample pictures of the gentleman and the king what forms and pleased him his delight in troops of friends in large hospitality in cheerful giving let let let the merchant answer for his great heart far from s 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 taught napoleon what maiden has not found him finer than her delicacy what lover has he not what sage has he not what gentleman has he not instructed in the of his behaviour some able and critics think no criticism on valuable that does not rest purely on the dramatic merit that he is judged as poet and philosopher i think highly as these critics of his dramatic merit but still think it k toy he was a fall man who liked to talk s thoughts and images which seeking found the drama next at hand had he bees we should hare had to consider how he filled place how good he was and he i the best hi the world bat it oat that what he has te say ur of that weight as te withdraw some the vehicle and he is like some saint whose history is to be rendered into all y into and prose into songs and pictures and cut up into so that the occasion which gave the saint s meaning the form of at conversation or of a prayer or of a code of laws is compared with the of its application so it the wise and his book of 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 and their and the of innocence and the by which virtues and vices slide into their he could divide the mother s part from the father s part in the face of the or draw the fine of freedom and of fate he knew the laws of 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 wisdom of life sinks the form as of drama or out of notice like making a question concerning the paper on which a hinges message is written is as much out of the of eminent authors as he is out of the crowd he is wise the others a good reader can in a sort into hate s brain and think from thence bat not into s wo are still out of doors for faculty for creation is unique no man can imagine it better he was the farthest reach of with an individual self the of authors and only just within the possibility of author ship with this wisdom of life is the equal of imaginative and of power he clothed the creatures of his legend with form and sentiments as if they were people who had lived under his and few real men have left such distinct characters as these and they spoke in language as sweet as it was fit yet his talents never him into an nor did he harp on one string an humanity co all his fa give a man of talents a story to tell and his partiality will presently appear he has certain observations opinions topics which have some and which he all to ex he this part and that other part consulting not the fitness of the thing but his fitness and strength but has no no topic but all is duly given no veins no no no no is he he has no the great he tells greatly the small 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 as she a in the air and likes as to do the one as the other this makes that equality of power in farce tragedy narrative and love songs a merit so that each reader is incredulous of the perception of other readers this power of expression or of the k representative ken inmost truth of things into music and verse makes him the type	37
of the poet and has added a new problem to this is that which throws him into natural history as a main production of the globe and as announcing new and things were in his poetry without loss or he could paint the fine with precision the great with compass the tragic and the comic indifferently and without any or favour he carried his powerful execution into minute details to a hair point an or a as firmly as he draws a mountain and yet these like nature s will bear the scrutiny of the 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 learned how to let one flower its image on his plate of and then proceeds at leisure to 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 can be given for the making of a but the possibility of the translation of things into song is his power lies in the genius of the piece the though their excellence is lost m the splendour of the are as as they and it is not a merit of lines but a total merit of the piece like the tone of voice of some person so is this a speech of poetic beings and any as now as a whole poem though the speeches in the plays and single lines have a beauty which the ear to pause on them for their yet the sentence is so loaded with meaning and so linked with its and followers that the is his means are as admirable as his ends every subordinate invention by which he helps himself to connect some is a poem too he is not reduced to 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 bag suffered a 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 and that is the sense thus remains it is a 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 this generosity with we say from the truth and of his pictures that he knows the lesson by heart yet there is not a trace of 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 its grace he delights in the world in man in woman for the lovely light that from them beauty the spirit of joy and he sheds over the universe relates that poetry hath such charms that a lover might his mistress to partake of them and the true have been noted for their firm and cheerful temper lies in sunshine is glad and erect and says it was abroad that i was penitent but what had i to do with repentance much more sovereign and cheerful is the tone of his name suggests joy and to the heart of men if he should appear in representative men any company of human souls who would not march in his troop he touches nothing that does not borrow health and from his style and now how stands the account of man with this bard and benefactor when in solitude shutting our ears to the 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 also and finds him to share the and of humanity saw the splendour 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 and roads that these things bore a and finer harvest to the mind being of its thoughts aid conveying in all their natural history a certain mute on human life employed them as colours 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 in these and this power what is that which they themselves say he converted the elements which waited on his command into he was master of the to mankind is k not as if one should have through majestic powers of science the given into his handy or the and their and should draw them from their to glare with the on a holiday night and in all towns very superior this evening are the agents of nature and the power to understand them worth no more than a street or the breath of a cigar one remembers again the trumpet text in the the heavens and the earth and all that is between them think as long as the question is of talent and mental power the world of men has not his equal to show bat when the question is to life and its materials and its how does he profit me what does it signify it is but a twelfth or night s dream or a winter evening s tale what another picture more or less the egyptian verdict of the 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	37
had he been less had he reached only the common measure of great authors of bacon milton 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 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 german and beheld the same objects they also saw through them that which was contained and to what purpose the beauty straightway vanished they read all duty an obligation a sadness as of piled mountains fell on them and life became ghastly a pilgrim s progress a round with histories of adam s fall and curse behind us with and and fires before us and the heart of the and the heart of the listener sunk in them it most be that these are half views of half men the world still wants its poet priest a who shall not trifle with the player nor shall in graves with the but who shall see speak and act with equal inspiration for knowledge will the sunshine right is more beautiful than private affection and love is with universal wisdom napoleon the man of the among the eminent persons of the nineteenth century is far the best known and the most powerful and owes his 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 s theory that every organ is made up of or as it is sometimes expressed that every whole is made of that is the lungs are composed of infinitely small lungs the liver of infinitely small the of little c following this 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 are little in our society there is a standing between the and the classes between those who have made their fortunes and the young and the poor who have fortunes to make between the interests of dead labour that is the labour of hands long ago still in the grave which men labour is now in money stocks or in land and buildings owned by idle and the interests of living labour which seeks to possess itself of land and buildings and money stocks the first class is timid selfish and continually losing numbers by death the second class is selfish also bold self always the other and its numbers every hour by it desires to keep open every avenue to the competition of all and to 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 he had their virtues and their vices above all he had their spirit or aim that tendency u material pointing at a success and the richest and most various means to that end with mechanical powers highly widely and accurately learned and but all intellectual and spiritual forces into means to a material success to be the rich man is the end god has granted the to every people a prophet in its own tongue and london and new york the spirit of of money and material power were also to have their prophet and was qualified sent every one of the million readers of or or lives of napoleon delights in ike page he in it his own history napoleon is thoroughly modem and at the highest point ef fortunes has the very spirit of the newspapers he is no saint to use his no and he is no hero in the high sense man in the street finds in the qualities m powers of j 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 travelling 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 of pictures statues music palaces and conventional honours 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 to the mind of the masses around him becomes not merely representative but actually a and of other minds thus every good thought every good word that was spoken in france relates that he sat in the gallery of the and heard make a speech it struck that he could fit it with a which he wrote in pencil immediately and showed to lord who sat by him lord approved it and in the evening showed it to read it pronounced it admirable and declared he would it into his to morrow to the assembly it is impossible said as unfortunately i have shown it to lord if you have shown it to lord and to fifty persons beside i shall still speak it to morrow and he did speak it with much elect at the next day s for 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 of them gave them their weight much more absolute and was the successor to s popularity and	37
to much more than his men in france indeed a man of napoleon s stamp almost ceases to have a private speech and opinion he is so largely and is so placed that he comes to be a for all the intelligence wit and power of the age and country he gains the battles he makes the code he makes the system of and measures he the he the roads all distinguished report to him so likewise do all good heads in every kind he the best measures sets his stamp on them and not on 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 was the idol of common men because he had in 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 wrought in common with that great class he represented for power and wealth but specially without any scruple as to the means all the sentiments which men s pursuit of these objects he set aside the sentiments were for women and children in expressed napoleon s own sense when in behalf of the he addressed him the desire of perfection is the worst disease that ever afflicted the human mind the of liberty and of progress are a word of contempt often in his mouth is an is an an italian proverb too well known declares that u if you would succeed you must not be too good it is an advantage within certain limits to have the dominion of the sentiments of piety gratitude and generosity since what was an in hi 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 into the of all roads napoleon 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 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 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 in things as farmers sailors and generally and we know how real and solid such men appear in the presence of scholars and but these men ordinarily lack the power of arrange ment and are like hands without a head but to this and animal force insight and so that men saw in him combined the natural and intellectual power as if the sea and land had taken flesh and begun to therefore the land and sea seem to pre suppose him he came unto his own and they received him this 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 and required that each should do after its kind the art of war was the game in which he exerted his 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 and to march always on the men enemy at an angle and destroy his forces in detail it is obvious that a very small force and rapidly so as always to bring two men against one at the point of engagement will be an for a much larger body of men the times his constitution and his early combined to develop this pattern he had the virtues of his class and the conditions lot 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 and of means the and 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 modem party nature most 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 m iron capable of sitting on horseback sixteen or seventeen hours of going many days together without rest or food except by 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 not suffer itself to he or by any of others ox 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 himself like inferior men on his and war with nature bis favourite lay in allusions to his star and he pleased himself as well as the people when he himself the u child of destiny they charge me he said with the commission of great crimes men of iy stamp do not commit crimes nothing has hear lore than my elevation tis in vain to to or crime it was owing to the peculiarity i th times and to my reputation of having fought against the enemies of my i hare marched with the opinion of great masses and events of what use then would crimes he to oe r again he said speaking of	37
his son my sob replace me i could not replace myself i a the creature of circumstances he had a of action never com with so much comprehension he is a to all and confused persons he sees where the matter hinges throws on the precise point of resistance and ill other considerations he is strong in the right banner namely by insight he never into victory but won his battles in his head before be won them on the field his principal means are in he asks counsel of no other in he writes to the i have conducted the campaign without consulting any one i should have done no good if i had been under the necessity of to the notions of another person i we gained some advantages over superior forces and when totally destitute of everything because in the persuasion that your confidence was in my actions were as prompt as my thoughts history is full down to day of the kings and they are a class of persons to be pitied for they know not what they should do the strike for bread and the king and his ministers not knowing what to do meet them with but napoleon understood his v business here man who hi each moment and emergency knew what to do next it is an immense comfort and refreshment to the spirits not only of representative men kings but of citizen 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 confidence and vigour by the extraordinary unity of his action he is firm sure self denying self sacrificing everything to his aim money troops and his own safety also to his aim not like common by the splendour 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 were only so many doors and he never for a moment lost sight of his way onward in the and uproar of the present circumstance he knew what to do and he flew to his mark he would 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 bis but he must not therefore be set down as cruel but only as one who knew no to his will not blood thirsty not cruel but woe to what thing or person stood in his way not but not of blood and pitiless he saw only the object the obstacle must give way general cannot combine with general for the dreadful fire of the battery let him carry the battery every regiment that approaches the heavy is sacrificed what orders v forward forward a colonel of light gives in his military the following sketch of a scene after the battle of 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 towards the you are losing time he cried fire upon those masses they must be fire upon the v the order remained for ten minutes in tain several and myself were placed on the slope of a hill i produce the effect their balls and mine rolled upon the ice without breaking it up seeing that i tried a simple method of light the almost perpendicular fall of the heavy produced the desired effect my method was immediately followed by the adjoining and in less than no time we buried b thousands of and under the waters of the lake in the of his resources every obstacle to vanish there shall be no he said and he built his perfect roads climbing by galleries their 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 nor money nor troops nor nor himself we to see everything lo its office after its kind whether it be a cow or a and if fighting be the best mode of national differences as large of men seem to agree certainly 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 as i quote at second hand and cannot procure dare not adopt the h h figure i find l representative men his but on a hostile rained a torrent of iron shells balls shot to all defence on any point of resistance lie concentrated on in overwhelming numbers until it was swept out of existence to a regiment of horse at two days before the battle of napoleon said my lads you must not fear death when soldiers brave death they drive him into the enemies 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 the were between him and his troops in the and he was brought off with desperate efforts at and at other places he was on the point	37
courage and the he said u do not know the of time i should him in hie earlier as a model of prudence his power does consist in any or force in any enthusiasm like ma s or singular power of persuasion bat in the exercise of common sense on each emergency instead of abiding by and customs the lesson he teaches is that which vigour always teaches that there is room for it to what heaps of cowardly doubts is not man s life an answer he appeared it waa the belief of all military men that there be new in war as iti is the belief of men today that nothing new can be undertaken in or church or in letters on in trade or in or in our social and customs and as it is all times the belief oi society that the world is need up but knew better than society and moreover knew that he knew better think all men know better than they do know that the institutions we so commend are go carts and bat they not trust their relied on his own sense and did not care a for other people s the world treated his ve men just as it treats everybody s made infinite objection all the but he snapped his finger at their objections what 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 he will never stir and all his will fail an example of his common sense is what he says of the passage of the in winter which all writers one repeating after the other had described as the winter says napoleon is not the most season for the passage of lofty mountains the snow is then firm the weather settled and there is nothing to fear from the real only danger to be apprehended in the on those high mountains there are often very fine days in december of a dry cold with extreme calmness in the air bead his account too of the way in which battles are gained in all battles a moment occurs when the 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 pretence to restore confidence to them the art is to give rise to the opportunity and to invent the pretence at i won the battle with twenty five i seized that moment of and giving to every man a trumpet gained the day with this handful you see that two armies are two bodies which meet and endeavour 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 that moment without difficulty it is as easy as casting up an addition this of the nineteenth century added to napoleon 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 turned on questions of religion the different kinds of government and the art of war one day he asked whether the 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 of and the interpretation of dreams he was very fond of talking of religion in he conversed with bishop of on matters of there were two points on which they could not agree namely that of hell and that of salvation out of the pale of the church the emperor told 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 one fine night on deck amid a clatter of 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 and but the men of letters he they were of phrases of medicine too he was fond of talking and with those of its whom he most esteemed with at paris and with at st believe me he said to the last we had better leave off all these life is a fortress which neither you nor i know anything about why men throw obstacles in the way of its defence its own means are superior to all the apparatus of your candidly agreed me that all year filthy are good for nothing medicine is a collection of uncertain the of which taken are than useful to mankind water air and cleanliness are the chief articles in my his dictated to count and general at st hare great value after all the that it seems is to be made from them on account of his known he has the good nature of strength and superiority i admire his simple dear narrative of his battles good as caesar s his good natured and sufficiently respectful account of sad his other 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 directing on abstract questions the native appetite for truth	37
and the impatience of words he was wont to show in war he could enjoy every play of invention a romance m ho as well as in a campaign he delighted to and her in a dim lighted apartment by the terrors of a fiction to which ins 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 shops counting houses ships of the modern world to be rich he was the the of the internal the liberal the radical the of means the of doors and the of and abuse of course the rich and aristocratic did not like him england the centre of capital and home and of tradition and opposed him the consternation of the dull and classes the terror of the foolish old men and old women of the roman who in their took hold of anything and would cling to red hot iron the vain attempts of to amuse and deceive him of the emperor of 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 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 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 career without any or scruple concerning the means 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 and stealing the credit of their great actions from from to involve his faithful in hopeless in order to drive him to a distance from paris because the familiarity of his manners the new pride of his throne he is a boundless liar the official paper his and all his are for saying what he wished to be believed and worse he sat in his premature old age in his lonely island coldly facts and dates representative and characters and giving to history a theatrical like all 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 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 favourite 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 in after ages his doctrine of immortality is simply fame his theory of influence is not flattering there are two for moving men interest and fear love is a silly 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 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 in purpose or they should have nothing to do with war and government he was thoroughly he would steal drown and poison as his interest dictated he had no generosity but mere vulgar hatred he was intensely selfish he was 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 some morsel of intelligence concerning the men and women about him that he knew everything and interfered with the cutting of the dresses of the women and listened after the and the compliments of the street his manners were coarse he treated women with low familiarity he had the habit of pulling their ears and their cheeks when he was in good humour and of pulling the ears and whiskers of men and of striking and horse play with them to bis last days it does not appear that he listened at or at least that he was caught at it in short when you have penetrated through all the circle of power and splendour you were not dealing with a gentleman at last but with an and a rogue and he fully deserved the epithet of or a sort of in describing the two parties into which modern society itself the and the i said represents the or the party of men of business against the stationary or party i omitted then to say what is material to the statement namely that these two parties differ only as young and old the is a young the is an old the is the ripe and gone to seed because both parties stand on the one ground of the supreme value of property which one to get and the other to keep 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 favourable conditions of	37
the powers of intellect without conscience never was such a leader so endowed and so never leader found such and followers and what was the result of this vast talent x men power of these immense armies burned cities treasures of men of this it came to no result all passed away like the smoke f his and left no he left france smaller poorer than he found it and the whole contest for freedom was to be begun again the attempt was in principle 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 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 in their they deserted him men found that his absorbing was deadly to all other men it resembled the which a succession of on any one who takes hold of it producing which contract the muscles of the hand so that the man open his fingers and the animal new and more violent until he and his victim so this and absorbed the power and existence of those who served him and the universal cry of france and of europe in was enough of him de it was not s fault he did all that in him lay to live and without moral principle it was the nature of things the eternal law of man and of the world which and ruined him and the result in a million experiments will be the same every experiment by multitudes or by individuals that has a and selfish aim will mil the pacific will be as as the napoleon as long as our civilization is essentially one of property of fences of exclusive napoleon ness it will be by 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 the 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 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 he reported all things are engaged in writing their history the planet the goes attended by its shadow the rolling rock leaves its on the mountain the river its channel in the soil the animal its bones in the the and leaf their modest in the coal the falling drop makes its 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 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 and and every object covered over with hints which speak to the intelligent in nature this self is incessant and the narrative is the print of the seal li neither nor comes short of the fact but nature 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 is 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 them in a new order the which do not lie in it but some and others shine so that soon we have a new picture composed of the eminent experiences the man he loves to communicate and that which is for him to say lies as a load on his heart until it k delivered but besides the universal joy of conversation some men are born with exalted powers far this second creation men are born to write the gardener every slip and seed and his is to he a of plants not less does the writer attend his affair whatever he experiences comes to him as a model and sits for its tore he counts it all nonsense that they say thai some things are 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 his eyes a man is the faculty of and the universe is the possibility of being reported in conversation in calamity he finds new material 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 he the power f talking wisely and a tempest of passion only fill his sail as the good writes when i am angry i can pray well and preach well and i men if we knew the of fine strokes of eloquence they might the of who struck off some heads that his physician might see the in the muscles of the neck his failures are the preparation of his a new thought or a crisis of passion him that all that he has yet learned and written is is not the fact but some rumour of the feet what then does he throw away the pen no he begins again to describe in the new light which has on him if by some means he may yet save some true word nature whatever can be thought can be spoken and still rises for utterance though by	37
rude and organs if they cannot compass it it waits and works until at last it them to its perfect will and is this striving after expression which one meets everywhere is significant of the aim of nature but is mere there are higher degrees and nature has more splendid for those whom she to a superior office for the class of scholars or writers namely who see where the multitude see fragments and who are impelled to exhibit the facts in order and so to supply the on which the frame of things turns nature has dearly at heart the formation of the man or scholar it is an end never lost sight of and is prepared in the original casting of things he is no or accidental appearance but an agent in nature one of the estates of the realm provided and prepared from of old and from ing in the knitting and of things impulses cheer him there is a certain heat in the breast which the perception of a truth which is the shining of the spiritual sun down into the shaft of the mine every thought which on the mind in the moment of its its own rank whether it is some or whether it is a power if he have his 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 hold up each object of in its right relations the ambitious and bring their last new whether railroad or and by 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 or cured by the opposite multitude who are kept from this particular insanity by an equal frenzy on another but let one man have the comprehensive eye that can replace this isolated in its right neighbourhood and bearings the illusion and the returning reason of the community thanks the reason of the the scholar is the man of the ages but he must also wish with other men to stand well with his but there is a certain ridicule among superficial people thrown on the scholars or which is of no import unless the scholar heed it in this country the emphasis of conversation and of public opinion the practical man and the solid portion of the community is named with significant respect in every circle our people are of s opinion concerning ideas are 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 or the running up and down to procure a company of to set a going five or ten thousand or the of a and the representative men on the prejudices and facility of country to secure their in november is practical and 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 favour of the former mankind have such a deep stake in illumination that there is much to be said by the or in defence of his me of thought and prayer a certain partiality a and loss of balance is the tax which aft action must pay if you like but you do it at your peril men s are too strong for them show me a man who has acted and who has not been the victim and slave of bis action what they have done and them to do the same again the first aft which was to be an experiment becomes a the fiery his in same or and he and his friends to the form and lose their the has established the has established his and his dance and although each of spirit there is no spirit but repetition which is but where are his new things of to day is actions of enthusiasm this appears bat m those tower 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 from the practical faculty and put a ban on reason and sentiment there is nothing else but and the write in their sacred books children only and not the learned speak of the and the practical faculties as two they are but one for both obtain the self same end and the place which is gained by the followers of the one is gained by the followers of the other that man who that the and the practical doctrines we one for great action must draw cm 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 this will net come from the leaders bat from inferior persons the robust gentlemen who stand at the head of the practical share the ideas of the time and have too much sympathy with the class it is not from men excellent in any kind that of any other is to be looked for with such s question is ever the one not is ho rich is he committed is he has he or thai faculty is he of the movement is he of the but i he am does he stand for something he must be good of his kind that is all that 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 a master and does net whether h he orator artist or king society has really no graver interest than the of the literary class	37
and it is not to be denied that men are cordial in their recognition and welcome of intellectual accomplishments still the writer 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 the first hymns the the tragic songs verses sentences inscribed on temple every word was true and woke the nations to new life he wrote without and without choice every word was carved before his eyes into the earth and the sky and the representative men gun and stars were only letters of the same purport and of no more necessity but how can he be honoured when he does not honour himself when he loses himself in the crowd when he is no longer the but the to the giddy opinion of a reckless public when he must sustain with some bad government or must bark all the year round in opposition or write conventional criticism or novels or at any rate write without thought and without by day and by 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 to represent the powers and duties of the scholar or writer i described as a representative of the popular external life and aims of the nineteenth century its other half its poet is a man quite 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 co operation have come in there is no poet but scores of poetic writers no but hundreds of post captains with and concentrated soup and no no but any number of clever and no prophet or saint but of divinity no learned man but learned societies a cheap press reading rooms and book clubs without number there was never such a 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 affair but modern life to respect a multitude of things which is was the philosopher of this hundred handed eyed able and happy to cope with this rolling of facts and and by his own to dispose of them with ease a manly mind by the variety of coats of with which life had got en easily able by his to pierce these and to draw his strength from nature with which he lived in fall 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 pride such as might have cheered a french or english or once a roman or genius yet there is no trace of provincial in his muse he is not a to his position but was born with a free and genius the or the second part of is a philosophy of literature set in poetry the work of one who found himself the master of histories k and national in the manner of modern with its intercourse of the whole earth s population into indian and all arts and every one of these assuming a certain and poetic character by reason of the multitude one looks at a king with reverence but if one should chance to be at a of kings the eye would take liberties with the peculiarities of each these are not wild miraculous songs but ken to which the poet ha the of eighty years of observation this aad critical wisdom makes the poem more truly flower of thia time it dates itself still he is a poet poet of a laurel than any and plague of for he to see out of every pore of bis akin strikes the harp with a hero s strength and grace the of the book is its superior intelligence in the of this s wit the past and the present ages and their and modes of thinking are dissolved into and ideas what new sail through head the said thai alexander went as far as chaos went only the other day as far and one step farther he aad brought safe hack there is a heart cheering freedom in his speculation the immense horizon which journeys with us its majesty to trifles and to matters el and necessity as to solemn and performances be was the soul of his century if that was learned and had become by population compact organization and of one great exploring expedition a of facts and fruits too fast for any hitherto existing to this man s mind had ample chambers for th distribution of all he had a power to unite the detached again by their own law he has clothed our modern existence with poetry amid and detail he detected the genius of the old cunning dose beside us and showed that the aad prose we to the age was only another of has his very flight is presence fa disguise that he had put off a gay uniform for fatigue dress and was not a whit or mil in liverpool or in the than once in rome or he sought him in public squares and main streets in and hotels and is the kingdom of routine and the senses ha showed the lurking power that in actions of routine a thread of	37
and fable itself and this by tracing the of every usage and practice every institution and means home to its origin in the structure of man he had an extreme impatience of conjecture and of i have enough of my own if a man write a book let him set down only what he knows he writes in the and lowest tone a great deal more than he writes and ever a thing for a word he has explained the distinction between the antique and 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 and poetry and humanity remain to ns and they have some eyes are better on the whole than or he has contributed a key to many parts of mature through the rare turn for unity and simplicity la his mind thus suggested the leading idea of that a leaf or the eye of a leaf is the of 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 hke in he assumed that one of the might be considered the of the skeleton the head was only the uppermost transformed the plant goes from knot to knot at last with flower and the seed so the the goes from knot to representative men knot and with the head man and the higher animals are built up through the the powers being concentrated in the head in again he rejected the artificial theory of seven colours and considered that every colour 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 towards truth he will realize what you say he hates to be 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 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 of property of paper money of periods of belief of of luck of whatever else refuses to be forgotten take the most remarkable example that could occur of this tendency to realize or every term in popular use the devil had played an important part in in all times 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 he shall be real he shall be modern he shall be european he shall dress like a gentleman and accept the manners and walk in the streets and be well in the life of and of in or he shall not exist accordingly he stripped him of gear of horns foot tail 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 that in crowds or in solitude 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 which had hovered in shadow about the of men ever since there 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 the first figure that has been added for some ages and which will remain as long as the i have no design to enter into any analysis of his numerous works they consist of and every other description of poems literary journals and portraits of distinguished men yet i cannot omit to the is a novel in every sense the first of its kind called by its admirers the only 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 read by very intelligent persons with wonder and delight it is pre 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 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 or 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 of the laurel to its toils and have also reason to complain we had an english ro hen not long ago to ike hope ef a new age and to the political hope of tie party called young england in which the only reward of virtue is a seat in parliament and a s romance has a conclusion as lame and george sand in and its has a truer and more dignified picture in the progress of the story the characters of the hero and heroine at a rate that the table of aristocratic they quit the society and habits	37
of their rank they lose their wealth they become the servants ef great ideas and of the most generous social ends until at last the hero who is the centre and fountain of as association for the rendering of the noblest benefits to the human race no longer answers to his own name it sounds foreign and remote in his ear i am only man he says u i breathe and work foi man and this in poverty and extreme sacrifices s hero on the contrary has so many weaknesses and and keeps such bad company that the sober english public when the book i 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 drawn and with such few strokes and a word too much the book remains ever so new and 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 of readers yet to serve the argument is the passage of a to the aristocracy using both words id their best sense and this passage is not made in any mean or creep ing way but through the nature and character assist and the rank w made real hj sense and in the no generous youth can in escape this of reality in the book that it is highly to intellect and courage the ardent ami the book as thoroughly modern and the romantic is in it so is the poetry of nature the wonderful the book treats only of the after of men it is a and domestic story the in it is expressly treated as fiction enthusiastic dreaming and yet what is also te soon te turned to this book and it remained his favourite reading to hie end of life what 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 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 is occupied the taste so many columns so many hours filled in a lively and creditable way the german intellect wants the french the fine practical of the english and the american adventure but it has a certain which never rests in a superficial performance bat asks steadily to what end t a german public asks for a sincerity here is activity of thought but what is it for i what does the man mean i whence whence au these thoughts talent alone cannot make a writer there must he 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 j representative hen and not otherwise holding things because they are things if he cannot rightly express himself today the same things and will open them selves to morrow there lies the burden on his mind the burden of truth to be declared more or less understood and it his business and calling in the world to see those facts through and to make them known what that he and that his voice is harsh or hissing that his method or his are inadequate that message will find method and 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 how 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 shadow oftener some or some who hopes in the mask and robes of his paragraph to pass for somebody but through every and part of speech of a right book i meet the eyes of the most determined of men his force and terror every word the and are alive so that the writing is and can go far and live long in england and america one may be an in the writing of a greek or latin poet without any poetic taste or fire that a man has spent years on and does not afford a presumption that he holds heroic opinions or 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 on the lessons and the professor cannot himself of the fancy that the truths of philosophy have some application to and this earnestness them to men of much more talent hence almost all the valuable distinctions which are current in higher conversation hare 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 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 his wisdom however excellent his sentence is he has somewhat better in view it my curiosity he has the formidable independence which converse with truth gives hear you or forbear his fact and your interest in the writer is not confined to his story and he dismissed from memory when he has performed his task as a baker when be has left	37
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 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 hat sounded there are writers poorer in talent whose tone is purer and more touches the heart 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 nor deceived nor of a self command and self denial and having one test for all men what am you teach met all n representative ken 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 and events artistic but not artist spiritual but not there is nothing he had not a right to know there is no weapon in the of universal genius he did not take into his hand but with 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 the lurking sat to him and the saint who saw the and the elements took form u piety itself is no aim hut 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 still more his affections help him like women employed by to worm out the secret of 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 from your ruin enemy and welcome but enemy on high terms he cannot hate anybody his time is worth too much may be suffered but like of who fight across his 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 result an intellectual man can see himself as a third person therefore his faults and interest him equally with his though he wishes to prosper in affairs he wishes more to know the history and destiny of man whilst the clouds of drifting about him are only interested in a low success this idea in the and the selection of the incidents and the external importance of events the rank of the personages or the bulk of of course the book affords slender materials for what would be reckoned with us a life of few dates no correspondence no details of offices or no light on his marriage and a period of ten years that should be the most active in his life after his settlement at is sunk in silence meantime certain love affairs that came to nothing as people say have the strangest importance he crowds us with details certain opinions and of his own invention and especially his relations to remarkable minds and to critical of these he his daily and yearly journal his italian travels his campaign in france and the historical part of his theory of colours have the same interest in the last he rapidly notices bacon c and the charm of this portion of the book consists in the simplest statement of the relation these of european scientific history and himself the mere drawing of the lines from to from to bacon from to the drawing of the line is for the time and person a solution of the formidable problem and gives pleasure when and do not without any cost of invention to that of and this of art is not an artist was it that he knew too much that his sight was k men and interfered with the just perspective the seeing of the whole he is a writer of poems and of an of sentences when he sits down to write a drama or a tale he and sorts his observations from a hundred sides and them into the body as as he can a great deal refuses to this he adds loosely as letters of the parties leaves from their journals or the like a great deal still is that will not find any place this the alone can give any to and hence notwithstanding the of many of his works we have volumes of detached i ice 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 galleries architecture and leisure were to be had and who did not quite trust the of poverty and loved paris and madame de said she was only em that side namely of paris it has its favourable aspect all the are usually so ill and sickly that one is ever wishing them somewhere else we seldom see anybody who ra not uneasy or afraid to live there is a slight blush of shame on the cheek of good men and men and a of 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	37
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 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 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 coming into an over civilized time and country when original talent was oppressed under the load of books and mechanical and the variety of claims taught men how to dispose of this and make it i join napoleon with him as being both representatives of the impatience and reaction of nature against the of two stern who with their scholars have set the axe at the root of the tree of cant and seeming for this time and for all time this cheerful with no external popularity or provocation drawing his motive and his plan from his own breast himself with for a giant and without or rest except by his pursuits worked on for eighty years with the 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 man is the most of all creatures the wheel insect is at the other extreme we shall learn to draw rents and from the immense of the old and the recent ages teaches courage and the of all times that the of any epoch exist only to the faint hearted genius with his sunshine and music close by the darkest and no no will hold on men or hours the world is young the former great men call to us affectionately we too must write to unite again the heavens and the earthly world the secret of genius is to suffer no fiction to representative men exist for us to realize all that we know ia the high refinement of modern life in arts in in books in men to exact good faith reality and a purpose and first last midst and without end to honour every truth hy use the complete works in portrait and plates cloth at in price to the complete works op thomas of now first collected and bt william with a life of the author a view of his philosophy amongst those great and original who daring the th century placed the moral and political upon a firm and basis none held a higher place or possessed greater intellectual powers than thomas houses of his on logic human nature and government were and are still admired as well for depth of thought as for exquisite precision of style both in latin and english the influence of these works is manifest throughout the speculations of the most distinguished philosophers by whom there is no doubt they were studied with the greatest care thus many of the most important opinions of bishop and nay not a few which form the very of their systems will be found clearly in the works of language is so and that it would almost be as improper to put an process in different terms as some of his introduction to the literature of europe wherein he hat given an excellent analysis of writing the contains in it good learning of all kinds politely extracted and very and in a very and in a very vigorous and pleasant style lord view of the thomas of may be numbered among those eminent persons born in the latter half of the sixteenth century who gave a new character to european philosophy in the succeeding age a permanent foundation of his fame consists in his admirable style which seems to be the very perfection of language short clear precise and his language never has more than one by george meaning which never requires a second thought to find by the hei of ins exact method it takes so firm a hold on the mind it m not allow attention to his little on human has scarcely an or a needless word he has so great a of choosing the moat significant term that he never is reduced to tin poor expedient of using many in its stead he had so thoroughly the genius of the language and knew so well to steer between pe and vulgarity that two centuries have not pie more than a dozen of his words sir j seem in m is a great name in philosophy on account both of th value of what he taught and the extraordinary impulse which he com to the spirit of free inquiry in europe mill fragment m thomas had in language more precise and luminous thai has ever been employed by any other writer t b in hi history of england chapter of the in three with r e a d to a of the reign king george the second by earl of with an introduction and notes st thk late lord holland we are to an oc vo edition of this work has conferred a boon on the public by the in a work of greater interest ham been placed before the public for considerable time the abound te matter is both useful and the wed value and interest and f even to the moat win a student i ng the railway library in price on shilling each or cloth full hack under this title it is proposed to publish monthly in a convenient size printed on good paper and bound in fancy boards at the lowest possible price many of thb most popular standard works of celebrated authors the following cure now ready by p h pleasing description happy narrative and quiet humour in every	37
all the facts of history in the mind as laws each law in turn is made by i and the limits of nature give power to but one at a time a man is the whole of facts the creation of a thousand forests is in one and egypt greece rome britain america lie folded already in the first man epoch after epoch camp kingdom empire republic are merely the application of bis manifold spirit to the manifold world this human wrote history and this must read it the must solve her own riddle jf the whole of history is in one man it is all to be explained from individual experience there is a relation between the hours of our life and the centuries of time as the air i breathe is drawn from the great of nature as the light on my book is yielded by a star a hundred millions of miles distant as the of my body depends on the of and forces so the hours should be instructed by the ages and the ages explained by the hours of the universal mind each individual man is one more all its properties consist in him each new fact in his private experience flashes a light on what great bodies of men have done and the of his life refer to national every revolution was first a thought in one man s mind and when the same thought occurs to another man it is the key to that era every reform was a private and when it shall be a private opinion again it will solve the problem of the age the fact must correspond to something in me to be or intelligible we as we read must become priest and king martyr and must fasten these images to some reality in our secret experience or we shall learn nothing rightly what or caesar is as much an illustration of the s powers and as what has befallen us each new law and political movement has meaning for you stand before each of its and say under this mask did my nature hide itself this the defect of our too great to ourselves this throws our actions into perspective and as the balance and the lose their meanness when hung as signs in the so i can see my own vices without heat in the distant persons of solomon and it is the universal nature which gives worth to particular men and things human life as containing this is mysterious and and we hedge it round with and laws all laws derive hence their ultimate reason all express more or less distinctly some command of this supreme essence property also holds of the soul covers great spiritual facts and instinctively we at first hold to it with swords and laws and wide and complex the obscure of this fact ii the of all our day the of claims die plea for education for justice for charity the of friendship and love and of the and grandeur which belong to acts of self reliance it is remarkable that we always read as su beings universal history the poets the do not in their pictures in the the imperial palaces in the triumphs of will or of genius anywhere lose our ear anywhere make us feel that we intrude that this is for better men but rather is it true that in strokes we feel most at home all that says of the king yonder slip of a boy that reads in the corner feels to be true of himself we hi the great moments of history in the great discoveries the great the great of men because there law was the set was searched the land was found or the blow was struck far as we ourselves in that place would have done or applauded we have the same interest m condition and character we honor the rich because they have the freedom power and grace which we feel to be proper to man proper to us all that b said of the wise man by or oriental or modem describes to each reader his own idea describes his but self all writes the of the wise man books monuments pictures are portraits in which he the he b forming the silent and the eloquent praise him and him and he is stimulated wherever he moves as hj per allusions a true therefore never needs lock for personal and in dis course he hears the not of himself but more sweet of that character he seeks in every word that is said concerning character yea in every fact and circumstance in the run river and the rustling com praise is looked homage love flows from mute nature from the mountains and the lights of the these hints dropped as it were from sleep and ni t let us use in broad day the student is to read history and not to esteem his own life the text and books the thus compelled the muse of history will utter as never to those who do not respect i have no expectation that any man will read aright who thinks that what was done in a remote age by men whose names have has any deeper sense than what he is doing today the world exists for the education c each man there is no age or state of society or mode of action m history to which there is not somewhat e s bat m his life every thing in a won manner to itself and yield its own to him he should see that he can live au history m his own person he must sit at home and not suffer himself to be by kings or but know that he is greater than all the geography and all the government of the he must transfer the of view from which	37
his tory is commonly read from rome and and london to himself and not deny his conviction that he is the court and if england or egypt have any thing to say to him he will try the case if not let them for ever be silent he must attain and that lofty sight where facts yield their secret sense and poetry and annals are alike the instinct of the mind the purpose of nature itself in the use we make of the signal of history time to shining the solid of facts no anchor no cable no fences avail to keep a fact a fact and even early rome are passing already into fiction the garden of the sun standing still in is poetry to all nations who cares what the fact was when we have made a of it to hang in heaven an immortal sign london and paris and new york must go the same way what is history said napoleon but a fable agreed n this life of ours is stuck round with egypt greece war church court and commerce as with so many flowers and wild ornaments and gay i will not make more account of them i believe in eternity i mm find greece asia italy spain and the islands the genius and principle of each and of all in my own mind we are always coming up with the emphatic facts of history in our private experience and them here all history becomes in other words there is properly no history only biography every mind must know the whole lesson for itself must go over the whole ground what it does not see what it does not live it will not know what the former age has into a or rule for convenience it will lose all the good of for itself by means of the wall of that rule somewhere sometime it will demand and find compensation for that loss by doing the work itself discovered many things in which had long been known the better for him history must be this or it is every law which the state a fact in human nature that is all we must in ourselves see the necessary reason of every fact see how it could and must be so stand before every public and i private work more an of before t victory of napoleon before a of sir thomas more of of robinson before a french reign of terror and a hanging of before a revival and the animal in paris or in providence v assume that we under like should be alike affected and should achieve the like and we aim to master the steps and reach the same height or the same degradation that our fellow our has done all inquiry into antiquity all curiosity respecting the the cities the circles is the desire to do away this wild savage and preposterous there or then and introduce in its place the here and the now and measures in the and of until be can see the end of the difference between the monstrous work and himself when he has satisfied himself in general and in detail that it was made by such a person as he so armed and so and to ends to which he himself should also have worked the problem is solved his thought lives along the whole line of temples and and passes them all with satisfaction and they live again to the mind or are a cathedral that it was done by as and not done by us surely jt was by man but we find it not in our man but we apply ourselves to the of its production we put into the place and state of the we remember the forest the first temples the to the first type and the of it as the wealth of the nation increased the value is given to wood by carving led to the carving over the whole mountain of stone of a cathedral when we have gone through this process and added the catholic church its cross its music its its saints days and image worship we have as it were been the man that made the we have seen how it could and must b e we have the reason the between men is m their principle of association some men objects by color and size and other accidents of appearance others by likeness or by the relation of cause and e the ess of the intellect is to the clearer of causes which surface differences to die poet to the philosopher to the saint all things are friendly and sacred all events profitable all days holy all divine for the eye is fastened on the life and die every substance every plants every animal in its growth teaches the unity of cause the variety of appearance and as we are by this all nature soft and as a cloud or the air should we be such hard and forms why should we make account of tim of magnitude or of figure the soul knows not and genius obeying its law knows how to with them as a young child plays with in churches genius studies the thought far back in the of things sees the rays from one that ere they fall by g watches the through a as he the of na genius through the fly through the lar through the through the egg the through countless individuals the species through many species the thi all the steadfast through all the of organized life the eternal unity cloud which is always and never the s she casts the same thought into troops of poet makes twenty with one moral thi the and of matter a subtle all things to its own will the streams into soft but precise form before it whilst i look at it its	37
outline and texture are nothing is so fleeting as form yet i does it quite deny in man we still trace remains or of all that we esteem of in the lower races yet in him they his and grace as lo in transformed to a cow the imagination but how changed when as in egypt she meets e a beautiful woman with nothing of the left but the horns as the splendid of her brows the identity of history is equally the equally obvious there is at the surface infinite variety of things at the centre there is of cause how many are the acts of one man in which we recognize the same character observe the sources of our information in respect to the greek genius we have the civil history of that people as and have given it a very account of what manner of persons they were and what they did we have the same national mind expressed for us again in their literature in and poems drama and philosophy a very complete form then we have it once more in their architecture a beauty as of itself limited to the straight line and the square a we have it once again in the tongue on the balance of expression a multitude of forms in the utmost freedom of action and never die ideal serenity like performing some religious dance before the gods and though in con bs at i pain or mortal combat never daring to the figure and decorum of their dance thus of thi genius of one remarkable people we have a representation and to the senses what more than an of a marble the of the and the last actions of every one must have observed faces and which without any resembling feature make a impression on the a particular picture rf copy of verses if it do not awaken the same train of images will yet the same sentiment u some wild mountain walk although the is obvious to the senses but is and of the reach of the nature is m endless combination and repetition of a very laws she the old well known air variations nature is full of a sublime family likeness out her works and delights in startling us with m the most unexpected quarters i have seen the head of an old of the which at once reminded the eye of a bald summit and the of the brow suggested ths of the rock there are men whose have the same essential splendor as the simple and awful on the of the and the remains of the earliest greek art and thai m of tbe same strain to be ia im books of all ages is s but a morning thought as the horses in it are a morning cloud if any one will but take to observe the variety of actions to which he is inclined in certain moods of mind and those which he is averse be will see how deep is the of a painter told me that nobody could draw a tree in some sort becoming a tree ot draw a by the of its form merely lit by watching for a time motions and plays lie painter enters into his nature and can then draw im at will in every attitude so tbe inmost nature of a sheep i knew a employed in a public survey who found bat he could not sketch the rocks until their structure was first explained to him in a certain of thought is the of very it is the spirit and not the fact that is bj a deeper apprehension and not by a painful acquisition of many manual the die power of awakening other souls to a given activity it has been said that common souls pay with what they do nobler souls with that which they are and why because a profound nature in us by its actions and words by its z veiy looks and manners the same power and that a gallery of or of pictures addresses civil and natural history the history of art and of literature must be explained from individual or must remain words there is nothing but is related to us nothing that does not interest us kingdom college tree horse or iron shoe the of all are in man and the dome of st peter s are lame copies after a model cathedral is a material of the soul of of the poem is the poet s mind the true ship is the in the man could we lay him open should see the reason for the last flourish and of his work as every and tint in the sea shell in the organs of the fish the whole of and of chivalry is in courtesy a man of fine manners shall pronounce your name with all tlie ornament that titles of nobility could ever the trivial experience of every day is always ven some old to us and things the words and signs which we had heard and seen without heed a lady with whom i was riding in tlie forest said to that the woods always seemed to her to as if the who them suspended their deeds until the passed onward a thought which poetry has in the dance of die which breaks off oil the approach of human feet the man who has seen the rising moon break out of the clouds at midnight has been present like an at the creation of light of the world i remember one day in the fields my companion pointed out to me a broad cloud which might extend a quarter of a mile parallel to the horizon quite accurately in the form of a as painted over churches a round ck in the centre which it was easy to and mouth supported on either side by wide stretched what	37
appears in the atmosphere may appear often and it was undoubtedly the of that familiar ornament z have seen in the sky a chain of summer lightning which at showed to me that the drew from nature when they painted the in hand of jove i have seen a snow drift the of the stone wall which obviously gave the idea of the to a tower by surrounding ourselves with the original circumstances we invent anew the orders and the ornaments of architecture as we see each people merely decorated its primitive the temple preserves the semblance of the wooden cabin io which the dwelt the chinese it plainly a tent the indian and stiu betray the and i houses of their forefathers the custom of making houses and m the rock says in his on the determined very naturally the principal character of the egyptian architecture to the colossal form which it assumed in these already prepared by nature the eye was accustomed to dwell on huge shapes and masses so that when art came to the assistance of nature it could not move on a small scale without degrading itself what would statues of the i size or neat and wings have been associated with those gigantic halls before which only could sit as or lean on the pillars of the interior the church plainly originated in a rude of the forest trees with all their to a or solemn as the bands about the pillars still indicate the green that tied them no one can walk in a road cut through pine woods without struck with the appearance of the grove especially in winter when the of all other trees shows the low arch of the in the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the glass window with which the are adorned in the colors of the western sky seen the bare and crossing branches of the forest nor can lover of nature the ou piles of oxford and the english without feeling that the forest overpowered the mind of the and that his his saw and plane still its its of flowers its elm oak pine fir and the cathedral is a in stone subdued by the demand of harmony in man the mountain of granite into an eternal flower with the lightness and delicate finish as well as the proportions and perspective of vegetable beauty in like manner all public facts are to be all private facts are to be then at once history becomes and true and biography deep and sublime as the in the slender shafts and of his architecture the stem and flower of the and palm so the court in its magnificent era never gave over the of its barbarous tribes but travelled firom where the spring was spent to in summer and to for the winter in the early history of asia and africa and are the two facts the geography of asia and of africa a life but the were the terror of all those whom the soil or the advantages of a market had induced to build towns therefore was a religious because of the perils of i the state from aod in these late and civil countries of england and america these still fight out the old battle in the and m the individual the of africa were constrained to wander by the attacks of the which drives the cattle mad and so the tribe to in the rainy season and to drive off the cattle to the higher sandy regions the of asia follow the from month to month in america and europe the is of trade and curiosity a progress certainly from the ay of to the and of boston bay sacred cities to which a religious pilgrimage was or laws and customs tending to the national bond were the check on the old and the of long residence are the on the of the present day the of the two tendencies is not less active in individuals as the love of adventure or the love of repose happens to a man of rude health and flowing spirits has the faculty of rapid lives in his wagon and rooms through all as easily as a at sea or in the forest or in the snow be sleeps as warm with as good appetite nd associates as happily as beside his own or perhaps his facility is deeper seated in tiie increased e of his faculties of observation which him of interest wherever fresh objects meet his eyes the pastoral nations were and hungry to desperation and this intellectual in its excess the mind through the of power on a of objects the home keeping wit on the other hand is that or content which finds all the elements of life in its own soil and which has its own perils of monotony and if not stimulated by foreign every thing the individual sees without him to his states of mind and every thing is in turn intelligible to him as his onward thinking leads him into the truth to which that fact or series belongs the world the fore world as the say i can to it in myself as well as for it with fingers in and the broken and of ruined what is the foundation of that interest all men feel in greek history letters art and poetry in all its periods from the heroic or age down to the domestic life of the and four or five centuries later what but this that every n an passes personally through a period the state is the era of the bodily nature the perfection of the senses of the spirit bs at i nature unfolded in strict unity with the in it those human forms which supplied the with his of and jove not like the forms in the streets of modem cities wherein	37
the face is a confused of features but composed of sharply defined and features whose eye are so formed that it would be impossible for such eyes to and take glances on this side and on that but they must turn the whole head the manners of that period are plain and fierce the reverence exhibited is for personal qualities courage address self command justice strength swiftness a loud voice a broad chest luxury and elegance are not known a population and want make every man his own cook butcher and soldier and the habit of supplying his own needs the body to wonderful performances such are the and of and not far different is the picture gives of himself and his in the retreat of the ten thousand after the army had crossed the river in there fell much snow and the troops lay miserably on the ground covered with it but arose naked and taking an axe began to wood whereupon others rose and did the like throughout his army exists a boundless liberty of speech they quarrel for plunder they h t bt with the on each new order and is as sharp as any and than most and so gives as good as he gets who does not see that thb is a gang of great with such a code of honor and such discipline as great boys have the costly charm of the ancient tragedy and indeed of all the old literature is that the persons speak simply speak as persons who have great good sense without knowing it before yet the habit has become the habit of the mind our admiration of the antique is not admiration of the old but of the natural the are not but perfect in their senses and in their health with the finest physical organization in the world acted with the simplicity and grace of children they made and statues such as healthy senses should that is in good taste such things have continued to be made in all ages and are now wherever a healthy but as a class from their superior organization they have surpassed all they combine the energy of manhood with the engaging of childhood the attraction of these manners is that they belong to man and are known to every man in of his being once a child besides that there are always individuals who retain these a person of genius and energy m k still a greek and our love of the muse of i admire the love of nature in the in reading those fine to sleep to the stars rocks mountains and waves i feel time passing away as an sea i feel the eternity of man the identity of his thought the greek bad it seems the same fellow beings as l the sun and moon water and fire met bis heart precisely as they meet mine then the distinction between greek and english between and seems superficial and when a thought of becomes a thou t to me when a truth that fired the soul of fires mine time is no more when i feel that we two meet in a perception that our two souls are tinged with the same hue and do as it were run into one why should i measure degrees of latitude why should i count egyptian years the student the age of chivalry by his own age of chivalry and the days of adventure and by quite parallel miniature experiences of his own to the sacred history of the world be has the same key when the voice of a prophet out of the of antiquity merely echoes to him a sentiment of hb infancy a prayer of his youth he then to the truth through all the confusion of tradition and the of it s rare extravagant spirits come by us at intervals who disclose to us new facts in nature i see that men of god have from time to time walked among men and made their commission felt in the heart and soul of the commonest hence evidently the the priest the inspired by the divine and people they cannot unite h un to history or reconcile him with themselves as they come to their and to live their own piety explains every fact every word how easily these old of moses of of of themselves in the mind i cannot find any in them they are mine as much as theirs i have seen the first and without crossing seas or centuries more than once some individual has appeared to me with such of labor and such commanding contemplation a haughty begging in the name of god as made good to the century the the and the first the of the east and west of the and is in the private life the influence of a hard on a young child in his spirits and the understanding and x sat l that without producing indignation but fear and obedience and even much s with the is a familiar fact explained to the child when he becomes a man only by seeing that the of his youth is himself a child over by those names and words and forms of whose influence he was merely the organ to the youth the fact teaches him how was worshipped and how the were built better than the by of the names of all the workmen and the cost of every tile he finds and the of at his door and himself has laid the courses again in that protest which each considerate person makes against the superstition of his times be step for step the part of old and in the search after truth finds like them new perils to virtue he again what moral vigor is needed to supply the of a superstition a great on the heels of a how many times in the history	37
of the world has the of the day had to lament the decay of piety in his own household doctor said his wife to martin one day how is it that whilst subject to we prayed so often and with such whilst now we pray with the utmost coldness and very seldom the advancing man ho deep a proper he has in literature in all fable as well as in all history he finds that the poet was no odd fellow o described strange and impossible situations but that man wrote by his pen a confession true for one and true for all hb own secret biography he finds in lines to him dotted down before he was bom one after another he comes up in his private adventures with every of of of of of of scott and them with his own head and hands the beautiful of the being proper of the imagination and not of the fancy are universal what a range of and what perpetual has the story of beside its value as the first chapter of the history of europe the facts the invention of the arts and the of colonies it gives the history of religion with some to the faith of later ages is the of the old he is the friend of man stands between the justice of the eternal father and the race of mortals and readily suffers all things on their account but where it from the christianity and him as the of jove it a state of mind which readily appears wherever the of is taught in a crude s sat i form and which seems the self defence of man against this namely a discontent with the believed fact that a god exists and a feeling that the of reverence is it would steal if it could the fire of the creator and apart from him and independent of him the pro is the romance of not less true to au time are the details of that stately ap kept the flocks of said the poets when the gods come among men they are not known was not and were not was by the of but every time he touched in mother earth his strength was renewed man is the broken giant and in all his weakness both his and his mind are by habits of conversation with nature the power of music the power of poetry to and as it were clap wings to solid nature the riddle of the perception of identity through endless of form makes him know the what am i who laughed or wept yesterday who slept last night like a corpse and this morning stood and ran and what see i on any side but the of i can my thought by the name of any creature of any fact because every creature is man agent or patient is but a name for you and me means the of drinking the waters of thought which are always gleaming and waving sight of the the of souls is no fable i would it were but men and women are only half human every animal of the bam yard the field and the forest of the earth and of the waters that are und the earth has contrived to get a footing and to leave the print of its features and form in some one or other of these upright heaven facing ah brother stop the ebb of thy soul downward into tlie forms into whose habits thou hast now for many years slid as near and proper to us is also that old fable of the who was said to sit in the road side and put to every passenger if the man could not answer she swallowed him alive if he could solve the riddle the was slain what is our life but an endless flight of winged facts or events in splendid variety these changes come au putting questions to the human spirit those men who cannot answer by a superior wisdom these facts or questions of time serve them facts them over them and make the men of routine the men of sense in whom a literal obedience to facts has extinguished every spark of that light by s man is truly man but if the man is true to instincts or sentiments and refuses the dominion of facts as one that comes of a higher race remains fast by the soul and sees the principle then sat i the facts fall and into their places know their master and the meanest of them him ee in s the same desire that word should be a these figures he i would say these h dr en and are somewhat and do exert a specific influence on the mind so far then are thej eternal as real to day as in the first much revolving them he writes out his humor and gives them body to his own imagination and although that poem be as vague and fantastic as a dream yet is it much more attractive than the more regular dramatic pieces of the same author for the reason that it a relief to the mind from the routine of customary images the reader s invention and by the wild freedom of the design and by the succession of brisk of surprise the universal nature too strong for the petty nature of the bard sits on bis neck and writes through his hand so that when he seems to a mere caprice and wild romance the issue is an exact hence said that poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand au the of the middle age explain as a or expression of that which m grave earnest the mind of bi that period toiled to achieve magic and all that is ascribed to it is a deep of the powers of	37
science the shoes of swiftness the sword of the power of the elements of using the secret virtues of of understanding the voices of birds are the obscure efforts of the mind in a right direction the of the hero the gift of perpetual youth and the like are alike the endeavour of the human spirit to bend the shows of things to the desires of the mind in and de a and a rose bloom on the head of her who is faithful and fade on the brow of the in the story of the boy and the mantle even a mature reader may be surprised with a glow of virtuous pleasure at the triumph of the and indeed all the of annals that the do not like to be named that their gifts are capricious and not to be trusted that who seeks a treasure must not speak and the like i find true in however they might be in or is it otherwise in the romance i read the bride of sir william is a mask for a vulgar temptation wood castle a fine name for proud poverty and the foreign mission of state only a disguise for honest industry we may all shoot a wild that would t toss tbe good and bv down die and is name far which is always and always to calamity in world but along the civil and of another history goes daily forward of the external world in which he is not less he is the of time be b the of nature his power consists in tbe multitude of his in die fact that his life is with the whole of and being in old rome die public roads beginning at the proceeded south east west to the centre of every of tbe em making each market town of spain and to the soldiers of die capital so out of the human heart go as it were to the heart of every object in nature to reduce it under the dominion of man a man is a bundle of relations a knot of roots whose flower and b the world his faculties refer to natures out of him and tbe he b to as tbe of the fish that water or the wings of an eagle in the egg air he cannot live without a world put napoleon in an bland prison let hb faculties find do men to act on no to climb no stake id tt y for and he would beat the air and appear i transport him to countries dense complex interests and power you shall see that the man napoleon bounded lt is by such a and outline is not the napoleon this is but s shadow his substance is not here for what see is but the smallest part and least proportion of humanity but were the whole frame here it is of such a spacious lofty pitch your roof were not sufficient to contain it henry vl needs a planet to shape his course upon and need of ages and celestial one may say a lar system is already in the nature of s mind not less does the brain of of ay from childhood exploring the and of anticipate the of organization does not the eye of the burn the light the ear of the of sound do not fingers of the hard and of the properties of stone water and k d do not the lovely attributes of the maiden the and of civil here also we are reminded of the action i of man on man a mind might its for ages and not gain so much self knowledge as the passion of love teach it in a day who knows himself before he has been thrilled with at an outrage or has heard an eloquent tongue or has shared the throb of thousands in a national or alarm no man can hb experience or guess what faculty or feeling a new object shall any more than he can draw to day the face of a person whom he shall see to morrow for the first time i will not now go behind the general statement to explore the reason of this let it suffice that in the light of these two namely that the mind is one and that nature is its history is to be read and written thus in all ways does the soul and its treasures for each pupil he too shall pass through the whole of experience he shall collect a the rays of nature history no longer shall be a dull book it walk in every just and wise man too shall not tell me by languages and titles a catalogue of the volumes you have read you shall make me feel what periods you have lived a man shall be the temple of fame he shall walk as the poets have described that goddess in a robe painted all over with wonderful events and experiences hit ei t bt x own and features by their exalted shall he that rest i shall find in him the fore world in his childhood the age of gold die apples of knowledge the expedition the calling of the building of the temple the advent of christ dark ages the revival of letters the the discovery of new lands the of new and new regions in man he shall be the priest of pan and bring with him into humble cottages the blessing of the morning stars and all the recorded benefits of heaven and earth is there somewhat in this i then i reject all i have written for what is the use of pretending to know what we know not but it is the fault of our that we cannot strongly state one fact without seeming to some other i hold our actual knowledge very cheap hear the rats	37
in the wall see the on the fence the under foot the i on the log what do i morally of either of these worlds of life as old as the man perhaps older these creatures have kept their counsel be side him and there is no record of any word or sign that has passed from one to the other t do the books show between the fifty or sixty elements and the historical nay what does history yet record of the b at i annals of man what light does it shed on those mysteries which we hide under the names death and immortality yet every history should be written in a wisdom which divined the range of our and looked at facts as i am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so t is how many times we must say rome and paris and what does rome know of rat and what are and con to these neighbouring systems of being nay what food or experience or have thej for the seal hunter for the in his for tl e the the porter broader and deeper we must write our annals from an from an of the ever new ever conscience if we would express our central and wide related nature instead of this old of selfishness and pride to which we have too long lent our eyes already that day exists for us shines in on us at unawares but the path of science and of letters is not the way into nature the idiot the indian the child and farmer s boy stand nearer to the light by which nature b to be read than the or the self reliance ne te extra man is his own star and the soul that can render an honest and a perfect man commands all light all influence all nothing to him falls early or too late our acts our angels are or good or ill our fatal shadows that walk by us still to a id cast the cm the him with the she with the and power and be and lee ii self reliance i read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional the soul always hears an in such lines let the subject be what it may the sentiment they is of more value than any thought they may contain to believe your own thought to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men that is genius speak your latent conviction and it shall be the universal sense for the inmost in due time becomes the and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the last judgment familiar as the voice of the mind is to each the highest merit we to moses and milton is that they set at naught books and traditions and spoke not what men but what they thought a man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within more than the lustre of essay ii the of and yet he without notice his thought because it is his every work of genius we recognize our own thoughts they come back to us with a certain majesty great works of art have no m affecting lesson for us than this they teach us abide by our spontaneous impression with good then most when the whole cry voices is on the other side else to morrow stranger will say with good sense what we have thought and felt all the time and shall be forced to take with shame our own from another there is a time in every man s education when arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance t imitation is suicide that he must take himself better for worse as his portion that though wide universe is full of good no of corn can come to him but through his toil on that plot of ground which is given to him to the power which in him is new in and none but he knows what that is which he can nor does he know until he has tried not for no ing one face one character one fact makes mi impression on him and another none t is sou ture in the memory is not without harmony the eye was placed where one should fall that it might testify of that particular r self e but half express ourselves and are ashamed that divine idea which each of us represents it ly be safely trusted as and of good so it be faithfully imparted but god will not ve his work made manifest by a man relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his and done his best but what he has said or ne otherwise shall give him no peace it is a which does not deliver in the attempt his deserts him no muse no no hope trust every heart to that iron ing accept the place the divine providence has md for you the society of your connection of events great men have always ne so and confided themselves to the of their age betraying their perception that absolutely was seated at their heart through their hands in all ir being and we are now men and must in the highest mind the same and not and in a not before a revolution t guides and obeying almighty effort and advancing on chaos and dark what pretty nature us on this text the face and behaviour of children and even es at il brutes i that divided and rebel that of a sentiment because our has the strength and means opposed to our purpose these have not their mind being whole their eye is u yet and when we look	37
in their faces we are disconcerted infancy to nobody all to it so that one babe commonly makes four or ve out of the who and play to it so god has armed youth and and no less witli its own and charm and made it and gracious and its claims not to be put by if it will stand by itself do not the youth has no force because he cannot speak to yoa and me hark in the next room his voice u clear and emphatic it seems he knows bow to speak to his or bold then he will know how to make us very unnecessary the of boys who are sure of a dinner and would disdain as much as a lord to do or say aught to one is the healthy attitude of human nature a boy is in the parlour what the pit is in the independent looking out from his corner on such people and facts as pass by he tries and sentences them on their merits in the swift summary way of boys as good bad interesting silly eloquent troublesome he himself never about consequences about interests b es an genuine verdict yon must him he does not court you but the man is were clapped jail by his consciousness on he has once acted or spoken with i committed person watched by the sympathy hatred of hundreds whose affections must now into his account there is no for this he could pass again into his can thus avoid all and having observed e again from the same unaffected lie innocence must always be he would utter opinions on all pass which being seen to be not private but would sink like into the ear of men lit them in fear are the voices which we hear in solitude grow faint and as we enter into the society everywhere is in conspiracy against of every one of its members joint stock company in which the members f for the better securing of his bread to each to surrender the liberty and culture of the virtue in most request is is its aversion it loves not but names and customs would be a man must be a would gather immortal must not be red by the name of goodness but must n if it be goodness nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind you to self and you shall have the of the world i remember an answer which when quite young i prompted to make to a valued adviser who was wont to me with the dear old doctrines of the church on my saying what have i to do with the of traditions if i live wholly from within my friend suggested but these may be from below not from above i replied they do not seem to me to be such but if i im the devil s child i will live then from the devil no law can be sacred to me but that of my nature good and bad are but names very readily to that or this the only right is what is after my constitution the only wrong what is against it a man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition as if every thing were and but he i am ashamed to think how easily we to and names to large societies and dead institutions every decent and well spoken individual affects and me more than is right i ought to go upright and vital and speak the rude truth in all ways if malice and vanity wear the coat of shall that pass if an angry this cause of and comes to me with his last news from why should i not say to him go love thy infant love thy self i ood be good natured and modest bat grace and never your bard de ambition with incredible tenderness for black i a thousand miles off thy love afar is spite at rough and would be such greet but truth is than the affectation of your goodness must have some edge to it it is none the doctrine of hatred must be reached as the of the doctrine of love that and i father and and wife and brother when my genius ne i would write on the of the door post i hope it is somewhat better than whim at but we cannot spend the day in explanation me not to show cause why i seek or why i company then again do not tell me as i good man did to day of my obligation to put all men in good situations are they my poor tell thee thou foolish that i grudge lie dollar the the cent i give to such men as o not belong to me and to whom i do not belong there is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual t am bought and sold for them i will go to prison if need be but your miscellaneous popular the al college of the building q houses to the vain end to which many now stand to and the relief societies though i confess with shame i sometimes and give the dollar it it wicked dollar which by and by i shall have the hood to virtues are in the popular estimate rather the a than the rule there is the man and hi virtues men do what is called a good action i some piece of courage or charity much as the would pay a fine in of daily non ance on parade their works are done as an or of their living in the world i and the insane pay a high board virtues are i do not wish to bi to live my life is for itself and not for a i much prefer that it should be of	37
a lower strain i it be genuine and equal than that it should be and unsteady i wish it to be sound an sweet and not to need diet and bleeding i ask mary evidence that you are a man and refuse tu appeal from the man to his actions i know that fo myself it makes no difference whether i do or for bear those actions which are reckoned excellent cannot consent to pay for a privilege where i right few and mean as my gifts may be i actually am and do not need for my own ance or the assurance of my any testimony what i must do is all that concerns me not the people think this rule equally in s ind in intellectual life may serve for the whole between greatness and meanness it b the because you will always find those who think tbey know what is your duty better than you know it it is easy in the world to live after the world s opinion it is easy in solitude to l ve after our own but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude the objection to to that have become dead to you is that it your force t loses your time and the impression of your character if you maintain a dead church contribute to a dead bible society vote with a great party either for the government or against it spread your table like base under all these i have difficulty to detect the precise man you are and of course so much force is withdrawn from your proper life but do your work and i shall know you do your work and you shall yourself a man must consider what a s is this game of if i know your i anticipate your argument i hear a preacher announce for his text and topic the of one of the institutions of his church do i not know beforehand that not possibly can he say a new and spontaneous word do i not know that with all this of examining the grounds n of the be will do no such thing do i not know that he is pledged to himself not to look but at one side the permitted side not as a man but as a parish minister he is a retained and these airs of the bench are the i tion well most men have bound their eyes one or another handkerchief and attached themselves to some one of these of this makes them not false in a few pa authors of a few lies but false in all particulars their every truth is not quite true their two is not the real two their four not the real four so that every they say us and we know not where to begin to set them right nature is not slow to us in the prison uniform of the party to which we we come to wear one cut of face and figure and acquire degrees the expression there is a experience in particular which does not fail to itself also in the general i mean the foolish face of praise the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease in answer to conversation which does not interest us the muscles not moved but moved by a low grow about the outline of the face with the most disagreeable sensation for the world you with iti self and therefore a man must know how to estimate a sour face the by look on him in the public street or in the friend s parlour if this had its origin b contempt and resistance like his own he might well go home with a sad countenance but the sour faces of the multitude like their sweet faces have lo deep cause but are put on and off as the wind t and a newspaper yet is the it of the multitude more formidable than that of the and the college it is easy enough for a firm who knows the world to brook the rage of the cultivated classes their rage is and for they are timid as being very but when to their feminine rage the of the people is added when the and the poor are aroused when tlie force that lies at the bottom of society is made o growl and it needs the habit of to treat it as a trifle of no the other terror that us from self trust is ur a reverence for our past act or because the eyes of others have no other for our than our past acts and ve are to disappoint them but why should you keep your head over your why drag about this corpse of your s sat u lest you contradict somewhat have stated in this or that public place suppose a should contradict yourself what then it to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on y ur alone scarcely even in acts of pure memory but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand eyed present and live ever in a new day in your you have denied personality to the yet when the devout motions of the soul come to them heart and life thou they should clothe god with shape and color leave your theory as joseph his coat in the hand of the and flee a foolish is the of little minds adored by little and and with a great soul has sim nothing to do he may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall speak what you think now in hard words and to morrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again though it contradict every thing you said to day ah so yoa shall be sure	37
to be misunderstood is it so bad then to be misunderstood was misunderstood and and and and and and and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh to be great is to be misunderstood i suppose no man can his nature ad the of his will are rounded in by the law of his be self as the of and are insignificant in the curve of the sphere nor does it matter how you and try him a character is like an or read it forward backward or across it still the same thing in this pleasing wood life which god allows me let me record day by day my honest thought without prospect or and i cannot doubt it will be found though i mean it not and see it not my book should smell of pines and with the hum of insects the swallow over my window should that thread or straw he carries in his bill into my web also we pass for what we are character teaches above our wills men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by actions and do not see that or vice a breath every moment there will be an agreement in whatever variety of actions so they be each honest and natural in their hour for of one will the actions will be harmonious however unlike they seem these varieties are lost sight of at a little distance at a little height of thought one tendency them all the voyage of the best ship is a line of a hundred see the line from a distance and it itself to the average tendency your genuine action will explain itself and will ii other genuine actions your nothing act singly and what you have done singly will justify you now greatness u to tl c future if i can be firm enough tor to do right and scorn eyes i must have done so right l as to defend me now be it bow it will do right now always scorn and you always may the force of character h all the days of virtue work into this what makes the majesty of i u of the and the field which so fills imagination the consciousness of a train of days and behind they shed an light on the advancing actor he is attended us by a visible escort of angels that is it which throws into s voice and dignity into s port and america into s eye is venerable to us because it is no it is ancient virtue we worship it to day b it is not of to day we love it and pay it b i i because it is not a trap for our love and iii if r but is self derived and if ol old even if shown in u i person i in these days we have heard the last of and let the words be g ridiculous instead of the for dinner let us hear a whistle fix m the self tan let us never bow and more a great man is coming to eat at ray house i do not to please him i wish that he should wish to please me i will stand here for humanity and though i would make it kind i would make it true let us and the smooth and contentment of the times and in the face of custom and trade and office the fact which is the of all history that there is a responsible and actor working wherever a man works that a true man belongs to no other time or place but is the centre of things where he is there is nature he measures you and all men and all events ordinarily every body in society reminds us of somewhat else or of some other person character reality reminds you of nothing else it takes place of the whole creation the man must be so much that he must make all circumstances indifferent every true man is a cause a country and an age requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to accomplish his design and posterity seem to follow his steps as a train of a man caesar is bom and for ages after we have a roman empire christ is bom and millions of minds so grow and to his genius that he is confounded with virtue and the possible of man an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man as of the the of essay n of fox of of milton called the height of rome and all history itself very easily into the biography of a few stout and earnest persons let a man then know his worth and keep things under his feet let him not peep or steal or up and down with the air of a charity boy a or an in the world which exists for him but the man in the street finding no worth in himself which to the force which built a tower or a marble god feels poor when he on these to liim a palace a statue or a book have an alien and forbidding air much like a gay and seem to say like that who are you sir yet they all are his for his notice to his faculties that they will come out and take possession the picture waits for my verdict it is not to command me but i am to its claims to praise that popular fable of the who was picked up dead drunk in the street carried to the duke s house washed and dressed and laid m the duke s bed and on his waking treated with ad ceremony like the duke and assured that he liad been insane owes its popularity to the fact that it so well the state of man who is in the world a	37
sort of but now and then v up exercises his reason and finds himself a true prince self reliance our reading is and in our imagination plays us false kingdom and power and estate are a than private john and edward in a small house and common day s work but the things of h fe are the same to both the sum total of both is the same why all this deference to alfred and and suppose they were virtuous did they wear out virtue f as great a stake depends on private act to day as followed their public and renowned steps when private men shall act with original views the lustre be transferred from the actions of kings to those of gentlemen the world has been instructed by its kings who so the eyes of nations it has been taught by this colossal symbol the mutual reverence that is due from man to man the joyful loyalty with which men have everywhere suffered the king the noble or the great proprietor to walk among them by a law of his own make his own scale of men and things and reverse theirs pay for benefits not with money but with honor and represent the law m his person was the by which they signified their consciousness of their own right and the right of every man the which all original action is explained when we inquire the reason of self trust who is the what is the self il on which a universal reliance may be what is the nature and power of that science star without without elements which shoots a ray of beauty even into trivial and actions if tlie least mark of independence appear the inquiry leads us to that source at once the essence of genius of virtue and of life which we call or instinct we this wisdom as whilst all later are in that deep force the last fact behind which analysis cannot go all things find their common origin for the sense of being which in calm hours rises we know not how in the soul is from things from space from light time from man but one with them and proceeds obviously from the same source whence their life and being also proceed we first share the life by which things exist and afterwards see them as appearances in nature and forgot tliat we have shared their cause here is tlie fountain of action and of thought here lungs of that inspiration which man wisdom and which cannot be denied without and we lie in the lap of immense li s us of its truth and organs of its activity when we discern justice when we discern truth we do of ourselves but allow a passage to its beams if we ask whence this comes if we to into the soul causes all philosophy self fault its presence or its absence is all we can n every man between the of his mind and his involuntary and knows that to his involuntary perfect faith is due he may in the of them but he knows that these things o like day and night not to be disputed my actions and are but the t reverie the faintest native e notion command curiosity and respect thoughtless people as readily the statement of as of or rather much more readily for they do between perception and notion they f that i choose to see this or that thing but is not but fatal if i see a my children will see it after me and in course me all mankind although it may chance that ne has seen it before me for my perception is as much a fact as the sun he relations of the soul to tlie divine spirit are so that it is profane to seek to helps it i be that when god he should not one thing but au things should fill the d with his voice should scatter forth light na time souls from tlie centre of the present and new date and new create the whole never a mind is simple and receives a divine old things pass away means teachers u temples fall it lives now and and future into the present hour all things are made sacred by relation to it one as much as another all things are dissolved to their centre by their cause and in the universal miracle petty and particular disappear if therefore a man claims to know and speak of god and carries you backward to the of some old nation in er country in another world believe him not is better than the oak which is its fulness and completion is the parent better than the child into whom he has cast his being whence then tliis worship of the past the centuries are against the and authority of the soul time and space are but colors which the eye makes but the soul is light where it is is day where it was is night and history an impertinence and an injury if it be any thing more a cheerful or of my being and becoming man is timid and he is no longer upright ho dares not say i think i am but some saint or sage he is ashamed before blade of grass or the blowing rose these under my window make no reference to former or to better ones they are for what they are they exist god to day there is no time to them there is simply the rose it is perfect in self reliance very moment of its existence before a leaf bud burst its whole life acts in the full blown flower there is no more in the root there is no less its nature is satisfied and it nature in all moments alike but man or remembers he does not live in the	37
present but with eye the past or heedless of the riches th t surround him stands on to foresee the future he cannot be happy and strong until be too lives with nature in the present above time this should be plain enough yet see what strong dare not yet hear god himself unless he speak the of i know not what david or or paul we shall not set so great a price on a few on a few lives we are like children who repeat by the sentences of and and as they older of the men of talents and character they i to see painfully the exact they spoke afterwards when they come into the point of view which those had who uttered these sayings they understand them and are willing to let the words go for at any time they can use i as good when occasion comes if we live truly we shall see truly it is as easy for the strong man to be strong as it is for the weak to be weak when we have new perception we shall gladly the memory of its treasures as ii old rubbish when a man lives with god lis shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook and the rustle of the com and now at last the highest truth on this remains probably cannot be said for all that we say is the far off remembering of the that thought by what i can now nearest approach to say it is this when good is near you when you have life in yourself it is not by any known or accustomed way you shall not discern the foot prints of any other you shall not see the face of man you shall not hear any name the way the thought the good shall be strange and new it shall example and experience you take the way from man not to man all persons that ever existed are its foi ministers fear and hope are alike beneath it there is somewhat low even in hope in the hour of vision there is nothing that can be called gratitude nor properly joy the soul raised over passion identity and eternal the self existence of truth and right and itself with knowing that all things go well vast spaces of nature tlie atlantic ocean the south sea long intervals of lime years centuries are of no account this which i think and feel every former state of life and circumstances as it does my present and what is called life and what is called death self reliance life only not the having lived power ceases in the of repose it in the moment of transition from a past to a new state in the shooting of the gulf in the darting to an aim this one fact the world hates that the soul becomes for that for ever the past turns ill riches to poverty all reputation to a shame tne saint with the rogue and equally aside why then do we of self reliance inasmuch as the soul is present will he power not confident but agent to talk of reliance is a poor external way of speaking speak rather of that wliich because it and is who has more obedience than i me though he should not raise his finger round him i must by the of spirits we fancy it when we speak of eminent virtue we do not j et see that virtue h and that a man or a company of men md to principles by the law of nature and ride all cities nations kings men poets who are not this b the ultimate fact which we so quickly each on this as on every topic the resolution of all the ever blessed one self existence is the of the supreme cause and it the of good by the degree in which it enters in o au lower forms all things real are so by so much ii virtue as they contain commerce hunting war eloquence personal are somewhat and engage my respect as examples of its presence and action i see the same law working in nature for and i power is in nature the essential measure of right nature suffers nothing to remain in her which cannot help itself the and tion of a planet its and the tree recovering itself from the strong wind the resources of every animal and vegetable are of the self and therefore soul thus all let us not let us sit at home with the cause let us and astonish the of men and books and institutions by a simple declaration of the divine fact bid the take the shoes from off their feet for god is here within let our simplicity judge them and our to our own law the poverty of nature and fortune beside our native riches but now wc are a mob man does not stand in awe of man nor is his genius to stay at home to put itself in communication with the internal but it goes abroad to beg a cup of water of thi of other men we must go alone i like tho church before the service begins better any preaching how far off how cool how self the persons look each one with a or so let us always sit why should e assume the faults of our friend or wife or or child because they sit around our hearth or re said to have the same blood ah men have my and i have all men s not for that will i their or folly even to the extent f being ashamed of it but your must ot be mechanical but spiritual that is must be at times the whole world seems to be conspiracy to you with emphatic tries friend child sickness	37
fear want all knock at once at thy closet door and ly come out unto us but keep thy state ome not into their confusion the power men to annoy me i give them by a weak no man can come near me but through my ct what we love that we have but by desire re ourselves of the love if we cannot at once rise to the of and faith let us at least resist our temptations t us enter into the state of war and wake nd courage and constancy in our saxon this is to be done in our smooth times by the truth check this lying hospitality and ng affection live no longer to the expectation of deceived and deceiving people with whom we say to them o father o mother o b sat ii wife o brother o friend i have lived with after hitherto i am die truth s be it known unto you that i obey no law less than the eternal law i wiu hare no but i shall endeavour to my parents to support my family to be the and of one wife but these i must fill after a new and way i appeal from your customs i must be myself i cannot break myself any longer for you or you if you can love me for what i am we shall be the happier if you cannot i will still seek to deserve that should i will not hide my tastes or i will so trust that what is deep is holy that i will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever me and the heart if you are i will love you if you are not i will not hurt you and myself by attentions if you are true but not in the same truth with me to your companions i will seek my own i do this but humbly and truly it is alike your interest and mine and all men s however long we have dwelt in lies to live in truth does this sound harsh to day you will soon love what is dictated hj your nature as well as mine and if we follow the truth it will bring us out safe at last but so may give these friends pain yes but i cannot my liberty and my power to save their sensibility besides til have moments of reason when they look out into the region of absolute truth then will thej justify me and do the same thing the that your of popular standards is a of all standard and mere and the bold will use the name of philosophy to his crimes but the law of consciousness there are two in one or the other of which we mist be you may fulfil your round of duties by clearing in the or in the way consider whether you have satisfied your relations to father mother cousin neighbour town cat and dog whether any of these can you but i may also neglect this standard and me to myself i have my own stem claims and perfect circle it the name of duty to many offices that are called duties but if i can discharge its debts it me to dispense with the popular code if any one that this law is let him keep its one day and truly it demands something in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity and has ventured to trust himself for a hi be his heart faithful his will clear his sight he may in good earnest be doctrine society law to himself that a simple purpose may be to him as strong a iron necessity is to others r i l s at n if any man consider the present aspects of what is by distinction society he will see the need of these the and heart of man seem to be drawn out and we are become we are afraid of truth afraid of fortune afraid of death and afraid of each other our age no great and perfect persons we want men and women who shall life and our social state but we see that most natures are cannot satisfy their own wants have an ambition out of all proportion to their practical force and do lean and beg day and night continually our housekeeping is our arts our occupations our marriages our religion we have not chosen but society has chosen for us we are parlour soldiers we the rugged battle of fate where strength is bom if our young men in their first they lose all heart if the young merchant fails say he is ruined if the finest genius studies at one of our and is not in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or of boston or new york it seems to his friends and to himself that he is right in being and in complaining the rest of his life a sturdy lad firom new or who in turn tries as the professions who farms it keeps a school a newspaper goes to self reliance a and so forth in successive years and always like a cat falls on his feet is worth a hundred of these city he walks abreast with his days and feels no shame in not studying a profession for he does not his life but lives already he has not one chance but a hundred chances let a open th resources of man and tell men they are not leaning but can and must themselves that with the exercise of self trust new powers shall appear that a man is the word made flesh bom to shed to the nations that he should be ashamed of our compassion and that the moment he acts from himself tossing the laws the books and customs out of the window we pity	37
beauty and lose my sadness i pack my trunk embrace my on the ii sea and at last wake up in and there beside me is the stem fact the sad self identical that i fled from i seek the and the palaces i affect to be with sights and suggestions but i am not my giant goes with me wherever i go but the rage of travelling is a symptom of a deeper affecting the whole intellectual action the intellect is vagabond and our system of education restlessness our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home we imitate and what is imitation but the of the mind our houses are built with foreign taste our shelves are with foreign ornaments oar opinions our tastes our faculties lean and the past and the distant the soul created the arts wherever they have flourished it was in hb own mind that the artist sought his model it was an application of his own thought to the thing to be done and the conditions to be observed and why need we copy the or the model beauty convenience grandeur of thought and quaint expression are as near to us as to any and if the american artist will study with hope and love tlie precise thing to be done by him considering the climate the soil the length of the day the wants of tlie people the habit and form of the government he will create a house in which all these will self s find themselves fitted and taste and sentiment wiu be satisfied also insist on yourself never imitate your own gift you can present every moment with the of a whole life s cultivation but of the adopted talent of another you have only an half possession that which each can do best none but his maker can teach him no man yet knows what it is nor can till that person has exhibited it where is the master who could have taught where is the master who could have instructed or washington or bacon or every great man is a unique the of is precisely that part he could not borrow will never be made by the study of do that which is assigned you and you cannot hope too much or dare too much there is at this moment for you an utterance brave and grand as that of the colossal of or of the or the pen of moses or but different from all these not possibly will the soul all rich all eloquent with thousand tongue to repeat itself but if you can hear what these say you can reply to them in the same pitch of voice for the ear and the tongue are two organs of one nature abide in the simple and noble regions of life obey thy heart and thou shalt again ii as our religion our education our abroad so does our spirit of all men themselves on the improvement of society and no man society never advances it as fast on one side as it gains on the other it changes it is barbarous it is civilized it is it is rich it is scientific but this change is not for every thing that b given something is taken society new arts and loses old instincts what a contrast between the well clad writing thinking american with a watch a pencil and a bill of exchange in bis pocket and the naked new whose property is a club a spear a mat and an twentieth of a shed to sleep under but compare the health of the two men and you shall see that the white man has lost his strength it the traveller tell us truly strike the savage with a broad axe and in a day or two the flesh shall unite and heal as if you struck the blow into soft pitch and the same blow shall send the white to his grave the civilized man has built a coach but has lost the use of his feet he is supported on but so much support of muscle he has a fine watch but he fails of the skill to teu the hour by the sun a he has and so being sure of the information self reliance he wants it the man in the street does not know a star in the sky the he does not observe the he knows as little and the whole bright of the year is without a dial in his mind his note books his memory his his wit the of ce the number of accidents and it may be a question whether machinery does not whether we have not lost by refinement some energy by a christianity in and forms some vigor of wild virtue for every was a but in where is the christian i there is no more in the moral standard than in the standard of height or bulk no greater men are now than ever were a singular equality may be observed between the great men of the first and of the last ages nor can all the science art religion and philosophy of the nineteenth century avail to greater men than s heroes three or four and twenty centuries ago not in time is the race are great men but they leave no class he who is really of their class will not be called by their name but will be his own man and in his turn the founder of a the arts and inventions of each period are only its costume and do not men the essay ii harm of the improved its good and accomplished so much in their fishing boats as to and whose exhausted the resources of science and art with an discovered a more splendid series of celestial phenomena than any one since foi the new in an boat it is curious	37
to see the and of means and machinery which were introduced with loud a few years or centuries before the great genius returns to essential man we reckoned the improvements of the art of war among the triumphs of science and yet napoleon conquered europe by the which consisted of falling back on naked and it of all the emperor held it impossible to make a perfect army says without our arms magazines and carriages until in imitation of the roman custom the soldier should receive his supply of com grind it in his hand mill and his bread himself society is a wave the wave moves onward but the water of which it is composed does not the same does not rise fi om the valley to the ridge its unity is only the persons who make up a nation to day next year die and their experience with them self and so the reliance on property die reliance on which protect it is the want of self reliance men have looked away from themselves and at things so long that they have come to esteem the religious learned and civil institutions as guards of property and they on these because they feel them to be on property they measure their esteem of each other by what each has and not by what each is but a cultivated man becomes ashamed of his property out of new respect for his nature especially he hates what he has if he see that it is accidental came to him by inheritance or gift or crime then be feels that it is not having it does not belong to him has no root in him and merely lies there be cause no revolution or no robber takes it away but that which a man is does always by necessity acquire and what the man is living property which does not wait the of rulers or or or fire or storm or but perpetually itself wherever the man breathes thy lot or portion of life said the is seeking after thee therefore be at rest from seeking after it our dependence on these foreign goods leads us to our respect for numbers the parties meet in numerous the greater the and with each new uproar of announcement the from the i b at n from new the of the young feels himself stronger than before by a new thousand of eyes and arms in like manner the summon and vote and resolve in multitude not so o friends will the god to enter and you but by a method precisely the reverse it is as a man puts off all foreign support and stands alone that i see him to be strong and to prevail he is weaker by every to his banner is not a man better than a town ask nothing of men and in the endless thou only firm column must appear the of all that thee he who knows that power is that be is weak because he has looked for good out of him and else where and so perceiving throws himself on his thought instantly rights himself stands in the erect position commands his limbs works miracles just as a man who stands on his feet b stronger than a man who stands on his head so use all that is called fortune most men with her and gain all and lose all as her wheel rolls but do thou leave as these and deal with cause and effect the of god in the will work and acquire and thou hast chained the wheel of chance and shalt sit hereafter out of fear from her a political victory a rise of rents the recovery of your sick self reliance the return of your absent friend or some other event raises your spirits and you think od days are preparing for you do not believe nothing can bring you peace but yourself thing can bring you peace but the triumph of compensation the wings of time are black and white with morning and with night mountain tall and ocean deep trembling balance duly keep in changing moon in wave the of want and hare of more and less through electric star and pencil plays the lonely earth amid the that hurry through the eternal a flying to the void or spark shoots across the dark man the elm and wealth the and the though the frail thee none from its stock that vine can fear not then child there s no god dare wrong a worm laurel crowns to deserts and power to him who power hast not share on winged feet lo it rushes thee to meet and all that nature made thy own floating in air or pent in stone will the hills and swim the and like thy shadow follow thee essay iii compensation ever since i was a boy i have wished to write a discourse on compensation foi it seemed to me when very young that on this subject life was ahead of and the people knew more than the taught the documents too from which the doctrine is to be drawn charmed my fancy by their endless variety and lay always before me even m sleep for they are the tools in our hands the bread in our basket the transactions of the street the farm and the dwelling house greetings relations debts the influence of character the nature and of all men it seemed to me also that in it might be shown men a ray of divinity the present action of the soul of this world clean from all of tradition and so the heart of man might be bathed by an of eternal love conversing with that which he knows was always and always must be because it really is now essay iii it appeared moreover that if this doctrine could be stated in terms with	37
any resemblance to those in which this truth is sometimes revealed to us it would be a star in many dark hours and ed passages in our journey that would not suffer us to lose our way i was lately confirmed in these desires by hearing a sermon at church the preacher a man esteemed for his unfolded in the ordinary manner the doctrine of the last judgment he assumed tint judgment is not executed in this world that the wicked are successful that the good are miserable and then urged from reason and from scripture a compensation to be made to both parties in the next life no offence appeared to be taken by the congregation at this doctrine as far as i could observe when the meeting broke up they separated without remark on the sermon yet what was the import of this teaching did the preacher mean by saying that the good are miserable in tlie present life was it that and lands offices wine horses dress luxury are had by men whilst tlie saints are poor and despised and tliat a compensation is to be made to these last hereafter by giving them the like another day bank stock and and champagne this must be the intended for what else is it that tbey m compensation to have leave to pray and praise to love and serve men why that they can do now the legitimate the would draw was we are to have such a good time as the have now or to push it to its extreme import you sin now we shall sin by and by we would sin now if we could not being successful we expect our revenge to morrow the lay in the immense concession that the bad are successful that justice is not done now the blindness of the preacher consisted in to the base estimate of the market of what a manly success instead of and the world from the truth announcing the presence of the soul the of the will and so establishing the standard of good and ill of success and falsehood i find a similar base tone in the popular religious works of the day and the same doctrines assumed by the literary men when occasionally they treat the related topics i think that our popular has gained in decorum and not in principle over the it has but men are better than this their daily life gives it the lie every and soul leaves the doctrine behind him in his own experience and all men feel sometimes the falsehood which they cannot for men are wiser than they know that which they hear io schools and if said in conversation would probably be questioned in silence if a man m a mixed company on and the divine laws he is answered by a silence which wed to an observer the dissatisfaction of the er but his to make his own statement i attempt in this and the following chapter to record some facts that indicate the path of the law of compensation happy beyond my expectation if shall truly draw the smallest arc of this circle or action and reaction we meet in part of nature in darkness and light in hot and cold in the ebb and flow of waters in and female in the inspiration and of plants and animals in the of quantity and quality in the of the animal body in the and of tlie heart in the of and of sound in the and in and at one end of a needle opposite takes place at the other end if the north to empty hero you must there an inevitable so that each thing is a half and another thing to make it whole as man woman odd even ob compensation in out upper under motion rest nay whilst the world is thus so is every one of its parts the entire system of things gets represented in every there is somewhat that the ebb and flow of the sea day and night man and woman in a single needle of the pine in a of com in each individual of every animal tribe the reaction so grand in the elements is repeated within these small boundaries for example in the animal kingdom the has observed that no creatures are but a certain compensation every gift and every defect a given to one part is paid out of a from another part of the same creature if the head and neck are enlarged the trunk and are cut short the theory of the forces is another example what we gain in power is lost m time and the converse the or errors of the is another instance the influences of climate and soil in political history are another the cold climate the barren soil does not breed or the same the nature and condition of man every excess causes a defect every defect an excess every sweet hath its sour every evil its good every faculty which b a d essay iii pleasure has an equal penalty put on its abuse it is to answer for its moderation with its life for every grain of wit there is a grain of folly for every thing you have missed you have gained something else and for ever you gain you lose if riches increase they are increased that use if tlie too much nature takes out of the man what she puts into his chest estate but the owner nature hates and exceptions the waves of the set p not more speedily seek a level from their than tlie varieties of condition tend to there is always some puts do n the the strong the rich the fortunate on the same all is a man too strong and fierce for society and by temper and citizen a with a dash of the in him	37
is again to contrive to ut clean off this upper surface so thin as to leave it to get a one end without an other end the soul says eat the body would feast the says the man and woman shall be one flesh ind one soul the body would join the flesh only the soul says have dominion over all things to he ends of virtue the body would have the power ver things to its own ends the soul to live and through jl things it would be the only fact all things hall be added unto it power pleasure know beauty the particular man aims to be some to set up for to and or a private good and in particulars to ride that te may ride to dress that he may be dressed o eat that he may eat and to govern that he be seen men seek to be great they would lave offices wealth power and fame they think to be great is to possess one side of nature be sweet without the other side the bitter this dividing and is steadily up to this day it must be owned no has had the smallest success the part d water behind our hand pleasure is out of pleasant things profit out of profitable lungs power out of strong things as soon as we essay iii seek to separate them from the whole we can no more things and get the good by itself we can get an inside that shall no outside or a light without a shadow drive out nature with a fork she comes running back life itself with inevitable conditions which the unwise seek to which one and another that he does not know that they do not touch him but the is on his lips the conditions are in his soul if he escapes them m one part they attack him in another more vital part it he has escaped them in form and in the appearance it is because he has resisted his life and fled from himself and the is so much death so signal is the failure of all attempts to make this separation of the good from the tax that the experiment would not be tried since to try it is to be mad but for the circumstance that when the disease began in the will of and separation the intellect is at once so that the man ceases to see god whole in each but is able to see the of an object and not see the hurt he sees the s head but not the s tail and thinks he can cut off that which he would hare from that which he would not have how secret art thou who in the highest heavens in si o thou only great god with an compensation providence certain upon such as have desires the human soul is true to these facts in the painting of fable of history of law of of conversation it finds a tongue in literature unawares thus the called supreme mind but having ascribed to him many base actions they involuntarily made amends to reason by tying up the hands of so bad a god he is made as helpless as a king of england knows one secret which jove must bargain for another he cannot get his own keeps the key of them of all the gods i only know the keys that the solid doors within whose his sleep confession of the in working of the all and il moral aim the indian ends in the ni and it would seem impossible for any fable to be invented and get any which was not moral forgot to ask youth for her lover and though is immortal he is old is not quite the sacred waters did not wash the heel by ig held him in the is not quite for a leaf fell his back whilst he was bathing in the s and that spot which it covered is mortal st b i b sat lu and so it must be there is a crack in god has made it would seem there is always this circumstance stealing in at unawares even into tlie wild in which ttie fancy attempted to make bold holiday and to shake itself free of die old laws this back stroke kick of the gun that tlie law is fatal that in nature nothing can be given all things are sold this is that ancient doctrine of who keeps watch in the universe and lets no offence the they said are attendants on justice and if the sun in heaven should his path tliey would punish him the poets related that stone walls and iron swords and had an sympathy with the wrongs of their owners that the belt which gave dragged the hero over the field at the wheels of the car of and the sword which gave w s that on whose point fell they recorded that when tlie erected a statue to a victor in the games one of his rivals went to it by night and endeavoured to throw it down by repeated blows until at last hi moved it from its and was crushed to death beneath its fail this voice of fable has in it somewhat divine ft came from thought above the will of the that is the best part of each writer which has compensation ing private in it that which he does not now that which flowed out of his constitution and not from bis too active that which in the study of a single artist you might not easily find but in the study of many you would abstract as the spirit of them all it is not but the work of man in that early world that i would know the name and circumstance of however	37
convenient for history when we come to the highest criticism we are to see that which man was tending to do in a given period and was or if you will modified in doing by the interfering of of of the organ whereby man at the moment wrought still more striking is the expression of this fact in the of all nations which are always the literature of reason or the statements of an absolute truth without like the sacred books of each nation are the of the that which the world chained to appearances will not allow the to say in his own words it will suffer him to say in without contradiction and this law of laws the pulpit the and the college deny is preached in all and by flights of whose teaching is as true and as as that of birds and flies in all things are double one against another for an for an eye a tooth for a tooth blood for blood measure for measure love for love give and it shall be given you he shall be watered himself what will you have god pay for it and take it nothing venture nothing have thou shall be paid exactly for what thou hast done no more no less who doth not work shall not eat harm watch harm catch curses always on the head of him who them if you put a chain around the neck of a slave the other end itself around your own bad counsel the adviser the devil is an ass it is thus written because it is thus in life our action is and above our will by the law of nature we aim at a petty end quite aside from the public good but act itself by irresistible in a line with the poles of the world a man cannot speak but he judges himself with his will or against his will he draws his portrait to the eye of his companions by every word every opinion on him who it it b a thrown at a mark but the other end remains in the s bag or rather it is a hurled at the whale as it flies a of cord in the boat and if tlie is not good or not wed thrown it will go nigh to cut the in twain or to sink the boat you cannot do wrong without suffering wrong no man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him said the exclusive m fashionable life does not see that he himself from enjoyment in the attempt to appropriate it the in religion does not see that he the door of heaven on himself in striving to shut out others treat men as and and you shall suffer as well as they if you leave out their heart you shall lose your own the senses would make things of all persons of women of children of the poor the vulgar proverb i will get it from his purse or get it from his skin is sound philosophy all of love and in our social relations are speedily punished they are punished by fear i stand in simple to my fellow man i have no displeasure in meeting him we meet as water meets water or as two currents of air mix with perfect and of nature but as soon as there is any departure from simplicity and attempt at or good for me that is not good for him my neighbour feels tbe wrong he from me as far as i have shrunk from him his eyes no longer seek there is war between us there is hate in him and fear in me b at in all the old in society universal and par all unjust of property and power are in the same manner fear is an of great sagacity and the herald of all one thing he teaches that there is where he appears he is a crow and though you see not well what he for there is death somewhere our property is timid our laws are timid our cultivated classes are timid fear for ages has and and over government and property that bird is not there for nothing he great which must be of the like nature is that expectation of change which instantly follows the of our voluntary activity the terror of noon the of the awe of prosperity the which leads every generous soul to impose on itself tasks of a noble and virtue are the of the balance of justice through the heart and mind of man experienced men of the world know very wed that it is best to pay and lot as they go along and that a man often pays dear for a small the runs in his own debt has a man gained any thing who has received a hundred and rendered none has he by through or cunning his neighbour s wares c m or horses or money there arises on the deed the instant acknowledgment of on the one part and of debt on the other that is of superiority and inferiority the transaction remains in the memory of himself and his neighbour and every new transaction according to its nature their relation to each other he may soon come to see that he had better have broken his own bones than to have ridden in his neighbour s coach and that the highest price he can pay for a is to ask for it a wise man will extend this lesson to all parts of life and know that it is the part x f prudence to face every and pay every just demand on your time your talents or your heart always pay for first or last you must pay your entire debt persons and events may stand	37
for a time between you and justice but it is only a you must pay at last your own debt if you are wise you will dread a prosperity which only loads you with more benefit is the end of nature but for every benefit which you receive a tax is he is great who the most benefits he is base and that is the one base thing in the universe to receive and render none in the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them or only seldom but the benefit we receive must be rendered again line for line iii deed for deed cent for cent to somebody beware of too much good staying io your hand it will fast corrupt and worm worms pay it away quickly in some sort labor is watched over by the same pitiless laws say the prudent is the dearest labor what we buy in a a mat a wagon a knife is some application of good sense to a common want it is best to pay in your land a skilful gardener or to buy good sense applied to in your sailor good sense applied to in the house good sense applied to cooking sewing serving in your good sense applied to accounts and affairs so do you your presence or spread yourself throughout your estate but because of the constitution of things in labor as in life there can be no the thief from himself the himself for the real price of labor is knowledge and virtue whereof wealth and credit are signs these signs like paper money may be or stolen but that which they represent namely knowledge and virtue cannot be or stolen these ends of labor cannot be answered but by real exertions of the and in obedience to pure motives the cheat the the cannot the knowledge of material and moral nature which his honest care and pains yield to the the law of nature is do the thing and you shall have the power but they who do not the thing have not the power human labor through all its forms from the of a stake to the construction of a city or an is one immense illustration of the perfect compensation of the universe the absolute balance of give and take the doctrine that every thing has its price and if that price is not paid not that thing but something else is obtained and that it is impossible to get any thing without its price is not less sublime in the columns of a than in the of states in the laws of light and darkness in all the action and reaction of nature i cannot doubt that the high laws which each man sees in those processes with which he is the stern which sparkle on his edge which are measured out by his and foot rule which stand as manifest in the footing of the shop bill as in the history of a state do recommend to him his trade and though seldom named his business to his imagination the league between virtue and nature all things to assume a hostile front to vice the beautiful laws and of the world and whip the traitor he finds that are arranged for truth and benefit but there is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue a crime and the s at iii earth is made of glass commit a crime and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the such as in the woods the track of every and fox and and you recall the spoken word you cannot wipe out the foot track you cannot draw up the ladder so as to leave no or some circumstance always the laws and of nature water snow wind become to the thief on the other hand the law holds with for all right action love and you shall be loved all love is just as much as the two sides of an the good man has absolute good which like fire turns eveiy thing to its own nature so that you cannot do him any harm but as the royal armies sent against napoleon when he approached cast down their colors and from enemies became friends so of all kinds as sickness offence poverty prove winds blow and waters roll strength to the brave and power and yet in themselves are nothing the good are even by weakness mi defect as no man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him the in the fable admired horns and blamed his feet but when the hunter came his feet saved him and afterwards caught m the thicket his horns destroyed him every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults as no man thoroughly understands a truth until he has against it so no man has a thorough acquaintance with the or talents of men until he has suffered from the one and seen the triumph of the other over his own want of the same has he a defect of temper that him to live in society thereby he is driven to entertain himself alone and acquire habits of self help and thus like the wounded he his shell with pearl our strength grows out of our weakness the indignation which arms itself with secret forces does not awaken until we are pricked and stung and sorely assailed a great man is always willing to be little whilst he sits on the cushion of advantages he goes to sleep when he is pushed tormented defeated he has a chance to learn something he has been put on his wits on his manhood he has gained facts his ignorance is cured of	37
the insanity of conceit has got moderation and real skill the wise man throws himself on the side of his it is more his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point the wound and falls off from him like a dead skin and when they would triumph lo he has passed on m is safer than praise i hate to be defended m i newspaper as long as all that is said is said against me i feel a certain assurance of success but as soon as words of pr se are for me i feel as one that lies his enemies in general every evil to which we do not is a benefactor as the believes that the strength and of the enemy he passes into himself so we the strength of the temptation we resist the same guards which protect us from defect and enmity defend us if we will from and fraud and bars are not the bat of our institutions nor is in trade a mark of wisdom men suffer all their life long foolish superstition that they can be cheated but it is as impossible for a man to be cheated by any one but himself as for a thing to be and not to bo at the same time there is a third silent pa ty to all our the nature and soul of takes on itself the of the of contract so that honest service cannot cm to loss if you serve an master the more put god in your debt every shall be repaid the longer the payment if die better for you for compound on compound interest is the rate and usage of compensation the history of persecution is a history of to cheat nature to make water run up ii to twist a rope of sand it makes oo whether the actors be many or one a tyrant a mob a mob is a society of bodies themselves of reason and work the mob is man voluntarily descending the nature of the beast its fit hour of is night its actions are insane like its whole institution it a principle it would a right it would tar and feather justice by fire and outrage upon the houses and per ns of those who have these it the of boys who run with fire engines to put out e ruddy streaming to the stars the turns their spite against the the cannot be every lash inflicted is tongue of fame every prison a more illustrious k de every burned book or house the every suppressed or word through the earth from side to side hours of and consideration are always arriving to as to individuals when the truth is seen id the are justified thus do all things preach the of the man is all every thing has two des a good and an evil every advantage has its b t xii tax i learn to be content but the doctrine d compensation is not the doctrine of ths thoughtless say on hearing these representations what boots it to do well there is one event to good and evil if i gain any good i must pay for it if i lose any good i gain some other all actions are indifferent there is a deeper fact m the soul than to wit its own nature the soul is not a compensation but a life the soul is under all running sea of circumstance whose waters ebb and flow with perfect balance lies the abyss of real being essence or god is not a relation or a part but the whole being is the vast self balanced and ing up all relations parts and times within itself nature truth virtue are the from thence vice is the absence or departure of the same nothing falsehood may indeed stand as the night or shade on which as a background the universe itself but no fact is by it it cannot work for it is not it cannot work any good it cannot work any harm it b harm inasmuch as it is worse not to be than to be we feel of the due to evil acts because the criminal to his vice and and does not come to a crisis or ment anywhere in visible nature there is no compensation of his nonsense before men and an has he therefore the law as he carries the and the lie with he so far from nature in some there wiu be a of the wrong x the understanding also but should we not see t this deadly makes square the eternal neither can it be said on the other hand that he gain of must be bought by any loss is no penalty to virtue no penalty to they are proper additions of being in a action i properly am in a act add to the world i plant into deserts conquered rom chaos and nothing and see the darkness receding on the limits of the horizon there can e no excess to love none to knowledge none x beauty when these attributes are considered in lie purest sense the soul refuses limits and an never a his life is a progress and not a station his instinct is trust our instinct uses more and less m application to man of the presence of he and not of its absence the brave man is than the coward the true the benevolent the wise is more a man and not less than the fool there is no tax on the good of virtue for that is the of god himself or absolute bs at ni existence without any comparative material good has its tax and if it came without desert or has no root in me and the next wind will blow it away but all the good of nature is the soul s and may be had	37
if paid for in nature s coin that is by labor which the heart and the allow i no longer wish to meet a good i do not earn for example to find a pot of buried gold knowing that it brings with it new burdens i do not wish more external goods neither nor honors nor powers nor persons the apparent the tax is certain but there is no tn on the knowledge that the compensation aod that it is not desirable to dig up treasure i rejoice with a serene eternal peace i the boundaries of possible mischief i learn wisdom of st nothing can work me damage except myself the harm that i sustain i carry about with me and never am a real sufferer but by my own fault in the nature of the soul is the fir the of condition the radical tragedy of nature seems to be the distinction of more and less how can less not feel the pain how not feel in or towards more look tf those who have less faculty and one feels sad and knows not well what to make of it he their eye he fears they will god c n ill what should they do it seems a great injustice but see the facts nearly and these vanish love them as the sun the in the sea the heart and soul of all men being one this bitterness of his and his is mine i am my brother and my brother is me if i feel and by great neighbours i can yet love i can still receive and he that his own the grandeur he loves thereby i make the discovery that my brother is my guardian acting for me with the designs and the estate i so admired and envied is my own it is the nature of the soul to appropriate all things and are of the soul and by love i conquer and them in my own conscious domain his virtue is not that mine his wit if it cannot be made mine it is not wit such also is the natural history of calamity the changes which break up at short the prosperity of men are of a nature whose law is growth every soul is by this necessity its whole system of things its friends and home and laws and faith as the out of its beautiful but stony case because it no longer admits of its growth and slowly forms a new house in proportion to the vigor of the these are frequent until in bs at iii some happier mind they are incessant and all relations hang very loosely about him becoming as it were a transparent through which the living form is seen and not as in most men an fabric of dates and of no settled character in which the man is imprisoned then there can be aad the man of to day scarcely the man of yesterday and such should be the outward of man in time a putting off of dead circumstances day by day as he his day bj day but to us in our estate resting not advancing resisting not with the divine this growth comes by we cannot part with our friends we cannot let our angels go we do not see that they only go out that may come in we are of tlie old we do not believe in the riches of the soul m its proper eternity and we do not believe there is any force in to day to or that beautiful yesterday we linger in the ruins of the old tent where once we had bread and shelter and organs nor believe that the spirit can feed cover and nerve us again we again find aught so dear so sweet so graceful but we sit and weep in vain the voice of the al i mighty up and onward for we cannot stay amid the ruins neither will we rely on the new and so we walk ever with eyes like those monsters who look backwards and yet the of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also after long inter of time a fever a a cruel disappointment a loss of wealth a loss of friends seems at the moment loss and but the sure years reveal the deep force that all facts the of a dear friend wife brother lover which seemed nothing but somewhat later the aspect of a guide or genius for it commonly in our way of life an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed breaks up a occupation or a household or style of living and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character it or the formation of new acquaintances and the reception of new influences that prove of the first importance to the next years and the man or woman who would have remained a sunny with no room for its roots and too much sunshine for its head by the falling of the walls and the neglect of the gardener is made the of the forest yielding shade and fruit to wide of men spiritual laws the living heaven thy house at once and man s rejected eternal sole and self commanded works fears not days grows by and by the famous might that in reaction and makes flame to and ice to boil through arms of offence the silver seat of innocence essay iv spiritual laws the act of reflection takes place in the mind when we look at ourselves in the light ot thought we discover that our life is in beauty us as we go all things assume pleasing forms as clouds do far off not only familiar and stale but even the tragic and terrible are comely as they take their place in the pictures of memory the river	37

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