file which includes the original illustrations4 ,see #cfhbe-;h4htm or #cfhbe-;h4zip3 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/cache_/epu b_/#cfhbe_/pg#cfhbe-;images4html7 or 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/files_/#cf hbe_/cfhbe-;h4zip7 ,images of the original pages are available through ,internet ,archive4 ,see http3_/_/www4archive4org_/details_/table tsamos#jj;alcorich ,,tablets by ,a4 ,,bronson ,,alcott ,for curious method expect none1 essays for the most part not being placed as at a feast1 but placing themselves as at an ordinary4 ,thomas ,fuller4 ,boston ,roberts ,brothers #ahfh4 ,entered according to ,act of ,congress1 in the year #ahfh1 by ,a4 ,bronson ,alcott1 ,in the ,clerk's ,office of the ,district ,court of the ,district of ,massachusetts4 ,electrotyped and ,printed by ,alfred ,mudge ,son1 ,no4 #cd ,school ,st41 ,boston4 ,,contents4 ,,book ,i4--,,practical4 ,i4 ,,the ,,garden4 ,,page4 #a ,antiquity #e #b ,ornaments #aa #c ,pleasures #ad #d ,orchard #bj #e ,sweet ,herbs #be #f ,table ,plants #bh #g ,rations #cf #h ,economies #da #i ,rural ,culture #dh ,,ii4 ,,recreation4 #a ,the ,fountains #ei #b ,the ,cheap ,physician #fe ,,iii4 ,,fellowship4 #a ,hospitality #fi #b ,conversation #ge ,,iv4 ,,friendship4 #a ,persons #ha #b ,woman #hh #c ,family #ib #d ,children #ie ,v4 ,,culture4 #a ,modern ,teaching #ajc #b ,socratic ,dialectic #ajh #c ,pythagorean ,discipline #aac #d ,mother ,tongue #aah ,,vi4 ,,books4 #abg ,,vii4 ,,counsels4 #a ,religious #aci #b ,personal #ade #c ,political #adh #d ,soul's ,errand #aea ,,book ,,ii4--,,speculative4 ,i4 ,,instrumentalities4 #a ,tendencies #aei #b ,method #afb #c ,man #aff ,,ii4 ,,mind4 #a ,ideas #agc #b ,the ,gifts #agi #c ,person #aha #d ,choice #ahd ,,iii4 ,,genesis4 #a ,vestiges #ahi #b ,serpent ,symbol #aia #c ,embryons #aic #d ,temperament #aie ,,iv4 ,,metamorphoses4 #a ,sleep #bja #b ,reminiscence #bjc #c ,immortality #bje ,,tablets ,,book ,i ,,practical ,philosophy1 the formatrix of judgment and manners1 has the privilege of having a hand in everything4--,,montaigne4 ,i4 ,,the ,,garden4 ,if ,eden be on earth at all1 ',tis that which we the country call4 ,,henry ,,vaughan4 ,illustration3 ,decorative banner of bird among grapes and leaves ,,the ,,garden ,i4--,,antiquity4 ,i never had any desire so strong and so like to covetousness1 says ,cowley1 as that one which ,i have had always that ,i might be master at last of a small house and ample garden1 with very moderate conveniences joined to them1 and there to dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature4 ,virgil's first wish was to be a wise man1 the second to be a good husbandman4 ,but since nature denies to most men the capacity or appetite1 and fortune allows but to very few the opportunities or possibility of applying themselves wholly to wisdom1 the best mixture of human affairs we can make1 are the employments of a country life4 ,it is1 as ,columella calls it1 the nearest neighbor or next in kindred to philosophy4 ,and ,varro says the principles of it are the same which ,ennius made to be the principles of all nature2 earth1 water1 air1 and the sun4 ,there is no other sort of life that affords so many branches of praise to a panegyrist2 the utility of it to a man's self1 the usefulness or rather necessity of it to all the rest of mankind1 the innocence1 the pleasure1 the antiquity1 the dignity4 ,this wish of the poet's appears to be nearly universal4 ,almost every one is drawn to the country1 and takes pleasure in rural pursuits4 ,the citizen hopes to become a countryman1 and contrives to secure his cottage or villa1 unless he fail by some reverse of fortune or of character4 ',tis man's natural position1 the ,paradise designed for him1 and wherein he is placed originally in the ,sacred ,books of the cultivated peoples2 their first man being conceived a gardener and countryman by inspiration as by choice4 ,gardens and orchards plant themselves by sympathy about our dwellings1 as if their seeds were preserved in us by inheritance4 ,they distinguish ,man properly from the forester and hunter4 ,the country1 as discriminated from the woods1 is of man's creation4 ,the savage has no country4 ,nor are farms and shops1 trade1 cities1 but civilization in passing and formation4 ,civilization begins with persons1 ideas2 the garden and orchard showing the place of their occupants in the scale2 these dotting the earth with symbols of civility wherever they ornament its face4 ,thus by mingling his mind with nature1 and so transforming the landscape into his essence1 ,man generates the homestead1 and opens a country to civilization and the arts4 ,in like manner1 are the woods meliorated and made ours4 ,melancholy and morose1 standing in their loneliness1 we trim them into keeping with our wishes and so adopt them into our good graces1 as ornaments of our estates1 heraldries of our gentility4 ,our human history neither opens in forests nor in cities1 but in gardens and orchards whose mythologies are woven into the faith of our race2 the poets having made these their chosen themes from the beginning4 ,and we turn1 as with emotions of country and consanguinity to the classic pictures of the ,paradise1 planted by the ,lord ,god eastward in ,eden1 and wherein he put the man1 whom he had formed to dress and keep it2 where1 ,out of the fertile ground he caused to grow ,all trees of noblest kind for sight1 smell1 taste2 ,groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balms1 ,others whose fruit1 burnished with golden rind1 ,hung amiable1-- ,flowers of all hue1 and without thorn the rose2-- to this2 or1 of scarce inferior fame1 to the gardens of the ,hesperides with their golden apples2--or1 to those other ----gardens feigned ,or of revived ,adonis1 or renowned ,alcinous1 whereof ,homer sings3 ,without the hall and close upon the gate ,a goodly orchard ground was situate ,of near ten acres1 about which was led ,a lofty quickset4 ,in it flourished ,high and broad fruit trees that pomegranates bore2 ,sweet figs1 pears1 olives1 and a number more ,most useful plants did there produce their store1 ,whose fruits the hardest winter could not kill1 ,nor hottest summers wither4 ,there was still ,fruit in his proper season2 all the year ,sweet zephyr breathed upon them blasts that were ,of varied tempers3 these1 he made to bear ,ripe fruits2 these blossoms2 pear grew after pear1 ,apple succeeded apple1 grape the grape1 ,fig after fig2 ,time made never rape ,of any dainty there4 ,a sprightly vine ,spread here her roots1 whose fruit a hot sunshine ,made ripe betimes2 there grew another green1 ,here some were gathering2 here some pressing seen2 ,a large allotted several each fruit had1 ,and all th' adorn'd grounds their appearance made ,in flower and fruit4 ,or again to those preferred by the royal guest of ,solomon above all other splendors of his court1 ,though she on silver floors did tread1 ,with bright ,assyrian carpets on them spread1 ,to hide the metal's poverty2 ,though she looked up to roofs of gold1 ,and naught around her could behold ,but silk and rich embroidery1 ,and ,babylonian tapestry1 ,and wealthy ,hiram's princely dye2 ,tho' ,ophir's starry stones met everywhere her eye1 ,though she herself and her gay host were drest ,with all the shining glories of the ,east1-- ,when lavish art her costly work had done1 ,the honor and the prize of bravery ,was by the garden from the palace won2 ,and every rose and lily there did stand ,better attired by nature's hand2 ,the case thus judged against the king you see1 ,by one that would not be so rich1 though wiser far than he4 ,so the orchard of ,academus suggests the ripest wisdom and most elegant learning of accomplished ,greece4 ,thus we associate gardens and orchards with the perfect condition of mankind4 ,gardeners ourselves by birthright1 we also mythologize and plant our ,edens in the ,east of us1 like our ancestors2 the sacredness of earth and heaven still clinging to the tiller of the ground4 ,him we esteem the pattern man1 the most favored of any4 ,his labors have a charming innocency4 ,they yield the gains of a self-respect denied to other callings4 ,his is an occupation friendly to every virtue2 the freest of any from covetousness and debasing cares4 ,it is full of honest profits1 manly labors1 and brings and administers all necessaries2 gives the largest leisure for study and recreation1 while it answers most tenderly the hospitalities of friendship and the claims of home4 ,the delight of children1 the pastime of woman1 the privilege of the poor man1 as it is the ornament of the gentleman1 the praise of the scholar1 the security of the citizen1 it places man in his truest relations to the world in which he lives4 ,and he who is insensible to these pleasures1 must lack some chord in the harp of humanity1 worshipping1 if he worship1 at some strange shrine4 ,who loves a garden still his ,eden keeps2 ,perennial pleasures plants1 and wholesome harvests reaps4 ,,ii4--,,ornaments4 ,in laying out a garden there must be protection from the north winds1 and if the hills are wooded thus much is gained for profit as for ornament4 ,every homestead supposes a wood-lot and forest paths for walking and meditation4 ,so the garden claims some shading down from pasture fields and the wilder scenery skirting it4 ,the orchard is an improvement on the garden1 and holds a nobler relation to the house and its occupants4 ,without suitable ornaments and enclosures1 these must be set to the side of the farm solely1 not to the house1 humanity1 nor art4 ,eyes and feet have their claims along with the hands upon the landscape1 beauty and convenience having one mind concerning the best ways of dealing with it4 ,it is clear that art has an interest1 and should have its hand1 in a good well1 wholesome cellar1 as in the fertility of the soil1 the modesty of the grasses and shrubbery4 ,alleys are best determined by the nature of the grounds4 ,they have a picturesque effect2 so have gates1 especially when they open into a wood1 or are seen in perspective at the end of an avenue or a lane4 ,winding paths give pleasing surprises1 if accommodated to the grounds1 take us by the most attractive route2 slopes1 swells1 irregularities of surface1 heightening the pleasure attending the prospect4 ,there are spots1 too1 that plead for their clump of trees1 for a single one1 for an alcove1 an arbor1 a conservatory1 for a fence1--structure of some sort1 be it ever so plain--and these once there1 please the eye as if grown there4 ,arbors are especially ornamental4 ,no country residence is furnished without the embellishment of a summer-house4 ,it may be constructed of the simplest stuff grown near at hand in the woods4 ,for one shall not range far in that direction without falling soon upon every curve in the geometry of beauty1 as if nature designing to surprise him anticipated his coming1 and had grown his materials in the underwood along the lines especially of ancient fence rows1 where young pines bent by the lopping of the axe1 snow falls1 or other accident1 in seeking to recover their rectitude1 describe every graceful form of curve or spiral suited to his rustic works4 ,these may be combined in ways wonderfully varied2 and the pleasure attending the working them into a shapely whole1 has charms akin to the composing of poems and pictures4 ,there is a delight1 too1 in surprising these stags of the woods in their coverts1 of which only artists can speak4 ,neath hemlocks dark and whispering pines1 ,wandering he loiters curiously1 ,the forest ,muse her searching sense combines ,to range the shades their cunning curves to see-- ,brackets grotesque1 strange gnarled things1 ,wreathed rails and balusters in twisted pairs1 ,rhyming their rival coils for sportful stairs2 ,scrolls1 antlers1 volutes--full-armed he brings ,his fagot sheaf of spoils1 and binds2 ,while frolic fancy sylvan serpents finds1 ,and ,druid lyres for poet's pleasance strings4 ,then for rainy days1 one has the choice of books1 pen1 or handicraft1 to vary his pleasures4 ,there is a charm in using tools to him who has cunning in his hands for converting woods to ornamental uses1--the simplest1 roughest sticks even1--in setting trellises1 hurdles1 espaliers for vines1 ----auxiliary poles for hops1 ,ascending spiral1 ranged in meet array2 in making or mending articles and implements of any kind1 for house or grounds1 to be objects of interest whenever he views them afterwards4 ,the eyes have a property in things and territories not named in any title deeds1 and are the owners of our choicest possessions4 ,nor do we dwell in this emblematic world1 and call it ours1 any part of it1 without using them3 that is ours which they have assisted the hands in creating4 ,nature sketches rudely the outlines of her plans on the landscape2 'tis the artist's privilege to fill out and finish these draughts1 improving upon her suggestions4 ,nor is there a spot which does not kindly take ornament1 as if its canvas were spread awaiting the finishing touches4 ,and had he a thousand hands1 uninterrupted leisure1 the taste and genius1 what pleasure were comparable to that of devoting them to drawing lines thereon which shall survive him1 to enrich every eye beholding them1 though it were only in passing6 ,so a good man impresses his image on the landscape he improves1 and imparts qualities that perpetuate its occupant to after times4 ,,iii4--,,pleasures4 ,days may conclude with nights1 and suns may rest ,as dead within the west1 ,yet the next morn regilds the fragrant east4 ,i know not how it is with others1 to me the spring's invitations are irresistible4 ,i may be scholarly inclined1 and my tasks indoors delightful1 yet my garden claims me1 monopolizing all my morning hours2 and ,i know for me has come the season's summons which ,i shall not set aside3 no1 not for studies nor hospitalities which become rivals for my time and attentions4 ,my garden waits2 is the civiller host1 the better entertainer4 ,then ,i have a religion in this business1 and duties must waive compliments4 ,my tasks are not postponable during the summer days2 if called away from these engagements1 ,i shall first take counsel of my plants for leave of absence1 with intent of hastening back4 ,importunities were impertinent while the spell is on me4 ,would the sun but shine all night long for my work to continue6 ,sure of gathering the better crop1 ,i bend to my task1 foreseeing the avails of leisure coming in at the close of my autumn rounds4 ,me1 let my poverty to ease resign ,when my bright hearth reflects its blazing cheer1 ,in season let me plant the pliant vine1 ,and1 with light hand1 my swelling apples rear4 ,such toils are wholesome4 ,one cannot afford to dispense with their income of vigor4 ,then they fill the days with varied business1 the mind gliding from head to hands1 from hands to head1 in pleasing interludes1 to pour for him so deep a draught of ,lethe1 and so refreshing1 that the morning breaks only to release the sleeper to begin anew his labors with the old enthusiasm4 ,even the stiffness of his fatigues promotes rectitude and probity of carriage3 his hearty affection for his pursuit1 shedding lustre on all he takes in hand4 ,his garden is ever charming1 always opportune4 ,he walks there at all hours1 at sunrise1 noon1 nightfall1 finding more than he sought in it1 each successive visit being as new as the first4 ,all living things1 says the ,bhagavad ,gita1 are generated from the bread they eat2 bread is generated from rain1 rain from divine worship1 and divine worship from good works4 ,a creed dealing thus supersensibly with the elements must have fertilizing properties1 and bring the gardener to his task little tinctured by noxious notions of any kind4 ,if he fall short of being the reverent naturalist1 the devout divine1 surrounded thus by shapes of skill1 types of beauty1 tokens of design1 every hue in the chromatic1 every device in the symbolic gamut1 ,i see not what shall make him these2 nor why ,newton1 ,goethe1 ,boehme1 should have published their discoveries for his benefit2 why it should occur to him to use his eyes at all when he looks through this glass1 regards these signatures1 views these blooms1 these clasping tendrils1 laughing leaves1 ,tyrian draperies1 the sympathies of his plants and trees with the weather1 their sleep1 their thirst for the mists1 and worship of the ,east2 as if ,moistures their mothers were1 ,their fathers flames1 and earth were virtually wife of heaven1 as ,homer says4 ,his is no mere cloud tillage1 nor unproductive earth culture4 ,the firmament overhead reflects its lustre in his mind1 the mists ascend there from the watered ground beneath1 and he sows the mingled sense and sunshine over his fields1 enriching both them and himself4 ,he takes account of the double harvest of profits3 both rewarding him for his pleasures and painstakings4 ,his faithful counsellor and genial moralist1 the ground1 holds strict terms with him2 nor weeds nor nettles have tales to tell1 since they cannot thrive under his shadow4 ,he minds his proper affairs2 is industrious1 punctual2 home keeper1 and time keeper no less1 taking his tasks diligently as they rise4 ,his work begins with the spring1 and continues till winter2 nor has he many spare minutes2 the slipping away of twelve hours being the loss of a twelvemonth1 unless he do that instantly which ought to be done at the moment4 ,taking timely counsel of his experience1 he adapts his labors to the seasons as they pass2 has his eye on sun and soil at once4 ,nor shall ,i think the less of his piety1 if he be touched a little with that amiable superstition concerning the planetary influences2 since it ill becomes him to hold lightly any faith that serves to brighten his affections and establish sweet relationships between himself and natural things4 ,in sympathy with earth and heaven1 these conspire for his benefit3 all helping to fructify and ripen his crops4 ,it is unlawful to regard them as enemies of human tillage4 ,gracefully the seasons come round for weaving into his fancy1 if not his faith1 the old world's ritual as a religion of engagements4 ,he is an ephemeris and weather-glass4 ,he has his signs too1 and aspects1 his seasons1 periods and stints4 ,the months sway him4 ,what if he sympathize with the year as it rolls2 take equinoxially his ,march and ,september8 ,will his intermediate times be the less genial in consequence1 or his ,april fail of distilling mystic moods with her fertilizing rains8 ,his winter may come hoar with ideas1 and brown ,october shall be his golden age of orchards and their ambrosia4 ,and as ,june best displays the garden's freshness1 so ,october celebrates the orchard's opulence1 to crown the gardener for his labors4 ,the golden days running fast and full have not run to waste4 ,orchards and gardens bloom again4 ,he harvests the richer crop these have ripened2 bright effluences of the stars1 for the feast of thought and the flow of discourse4 ,having thus gathered the first roses of spring and the last apples of autumn1 he is ready to dispute felicity with the happiest man living1 and to chant his paean of praise for his prosperity3-- ,the earth is mine and mine the sheaves1 ,i'll harvest all her bounty leaves1 ,nor stinted store she deals to me1 ,gives all she has1 and gives it free1 ,since from myself ,i cannot stir ,but ,i become her pensioner3 ,sun1 cloud1 flame1 atom1 ether1 sea1 ,beauteous she buildeth into me1 ,seasons my frame with flowing sense1 ,insinuates intelligence2 ,feeds me and fills with sweet contents1 ,deals duteously her elements3 ,dawn1 day1 the noon1 the sunset clear1 ,delight my eye2 winds1 woods1 my ear1 ,while apple1 melon1 strawberry1 peach1 ,she plants and puts within my reach2 ,regales with all the garden grows1 ,whate'er the orchard buds and blows2 ,lifts o'er my head her sylvan screens1 ,and sows my slopes with evergreens1 ,while odorous roses1 mint1 and thyme1 ,steep soul and sense in softer clime2 ,preserves me when lapsed memory slips ,fading in sleep's apocalypse2 ,surprising tasks and leisures sends1 ,and crowns herself to give me friends2 ,the morn's elixir pours for me1 ,and brims my brain with ecstasy4 ,earth all is mine and mine the sheaves1 ,i harvest all her ,planter leaves4 ,,iv4--,,the ,,orchard4 ,orchards are even more personal in their charms than gardens1 as they are more nearly human creations4 ,ornaments of the homestead1 they subordinate other features of it2 and such is their sway over the landscape that house and owner appear accidents without them4 ,so men delight to build in an ancient orchard1 when so fortunate as to possess one1 that they may live in the beauty of its surroundings4 ,orchards are among the most coveted possessions2 trees of ancient standing1 and vines1 being firm friends and royal neighbors forever4 ,the profits1 too1 are as wonderful as their longevity4 ,and if antiquity can add any worth to a thing1 what possession has a man more noble than these8 so unlike most others1 which are best at first and grow worse till worth nothing2 while fruit-trees and vines increase in worth and goodness for ages4 ,an orchard in bloom is one of the most pleasing sights the eye beholds2 as if the firmament had stooped to the tree-tops and touched every twig with spangles1 and man had mingled his essence with the seasons1 in its flushing tokens4 ,and how rich the spectacle at the autumnal harvest3 ,behold the bending boughs1 with store of fruit they tear1 ,and what they have brought forth1 for weight1 they scarce can bear4 ,apples are general favorites4 ,every eye covets1 every hand reaches to them4 ,it is a noble fruit3 the friend of immortality1 its virtues blush to be tasted4 ,every ,muse delights in it1 as its mythology shows1 from the gardens of the ,hesperides to the orchard of ,plato4 ,a basket of pearmains1 golden russets1 or any of the choice kinds1 standing in sight1 shall perfume the scholar's composition as it refreshes his genius4 ,he may snatch wildness from the woods1 get shrewdness from cities1 learning from libraries and universities1 compliments from courts4 ,but for subtlety of thought1 for sovereign sense1 for color1 the graces of diction and behavior1 he best betakes himself ,where on all sides the apples scattered lie1 ,each under its own tree4 ,or to his bins1 best1 ,columella says1 when beechen chests1 such as senators' and judges' robes were laid in in his day2 these to be placed in a dry place1 free from frosts1 where neither smoke1 nor any thing noisome may come2 the fruit spread on sawdust1 and so arranged that the fleurets1 or blossom ends1 may look downwards1 and the pedicles1 or stalks1 upwards1 after the same manner as it grew upon the tree2 and so as not to touch one another4 ,and better if gathered a little green2 the lids of the chests covering them close4 ,the ancient rustic authors give very little information concerning the apples and pears of their time1 thinking them too well known to be described1 as an author writing of our time might of ours4 ,most of them had their names from men who brought them into ,italy and there cultivated them1 and1 by so small a matter1 says ,pliny1 have rendered their names immortal4 ,phillips thus describes the favorites of his time1 most of which we find in our own orchards1 and still in good repute3-- ,now turn thine eye to view ,alcinous' groves1 ,the pride of the ,phoeacian isle1 from whence1 ,sailing the spaces of the boundless deep1 ,to ,ariconian precious fruits arrived3-- ,the pippin burnished o'er with gold1 the moyle ,of sweetest honied taste1 the fair pearmain1 ,tempered1 like comeliest nymph1 with red and white2 ,nor does the ,eliot least deserve thy care1 ,nor ,john's apple1 whose withered rind1 intrenched ,with many a furrow1 aptly represents ,decrepit age2 nor that from ,harvey named1 ,quick relishing4 ,why should we sing the thrift1 ,codling1 or ,pomroy1 or of pimpled coat ,the russet2 the red-streak1 that once ,was of the sylvan kind1 uncivilized1 ,of no regard1 till ,scudamore's skilful hand ,improved her1 and by courtly discipline ,taught her the savage nature to forget3 ,let every tree in every garden own ,the red-streak as supreme1 whose pulpous fruit ,with gold irradiate1 and vermilion spires1 ,tempting1 not fatal1 as the birth of that ,primeval interdicted plant1 that won ,fond ,eve1 in hapless hour1 to taste and die4 ,a quaint old ,englishman1 writing about orchards1 quotes the proverb3 ,it will beggar a doctor to live where orchards thrive4 ,so ,cowley writes3-- ,nor does this happy place only dispense ,its various pleasures to the sense1 ,here health itself doth live1 ,that salt of life which doth to all a relish give2 ,its standing pleasure and intrinsic wealth1 ,the body's virtue1 and the soul's good fortune1 health4 ,the tree of life when it in ,eden stood1 ,did its immortal head to heaven rear2 ,it lasted a tall cedar till the flood1 ,now a small thorny shrub it doth appear1 ,nor will it thrive too everywhere2 ,it always here is freshest seen1 ',tis only here an evergreen3 ,if1 through the strong and beauteous fence ,of temperance and innocence1 ,and wholesome labors and a quiet mind1 ,diseases passage find1 ,they must fight for it1 and dispute it hard ,before they can prevail2 ,scarce any plant is growing here1 ,which against death some weapon does not bear3 ,let cities boast that they provide ,for life the ornaments of pride2 ,but 'tis the country and the field ,that furnish it with staff and shield4 ,nor can we spare his praises of budding and grafting from our account3-- ,we nowhere art do so triumphant see1 ,as when it grafts or buds a tree2 ,in other things we count it to excel ,if it a docile scholar can appear ,to nature1 and but imitates her well3 ,it overrules and is her master here3 ,it imitates her ,maker's power divine1 ,and changes her sometimes1 and sometimes does refine2 ,it does like grace1 the fallen tree restore ,to its blest state of ,paradise before2 ,who would not joy to see his conquering hand ,o'er all the vegetable world command1 ,and the wild giants of the wood1 receive ,what laws he's pleased to give8 ,he bids the ill-natured crab produce ,the gentle apple's winy juice1 ,the golden fruit that worthy is ,of ,galatea's purple kiss2 ,he does the savage hawthorn teach ,to bear the medlar and the pear2 ,he bids the rustic plum to rear ,a noble trunk and be a peach2 ,even ,daphne's coyness he does mock1 ,and weds the cherry to her stock1 ,though she refused ,apollo's suit1 ,even she1 that chaste and virgin tree1 ,now wonders at herself to see ,that she's a mother made1 and blushes in her fruit4 ,v4--,,sweet ,,herbs4 ,thick growing thyme1 and roses wet with dew1 ,are sacred to the sisterhood divine4 ,as orchards to man1 so are flowers and herbs to women4 ,indeed the garden appears celibate1 as does the house1 without womanly hands to plant and care for it4 ,here she is in place1--suggests lovely images of her personal accomplishments1 as if civility were first conceived in such cares1 and retired unwillingly1 even to houses and chambers2 something being taken from their elegancy and her nobleness by an undue absorption of her thoughts in household affairs4 ,but there is a fitness in her association with flowers and sweet herbs1 as with social hospitalities1 showing her affinities with the magical and medical1 as if she were the plant ,all-,heal1 and mother of comforts and spices4 ,once the herb garden was a necessary part of every homestead2 every country house had one well stocked1 and there was a matron inside skilled in their secret virtues1 having the knowledge of how her ,herbs gladly cure our flesh1 because that they ,have their acquaintance there1 her memory running back to the old country from whence they first came1 and of which they retained the fragrance4 ,are not their names refreshing8 with the superstitions concerning the sign under which they were to be gathered1 the quaint spellings2--mint1 roses1 fennel1 coriander1 sweet-cicely1 celandine1 summer savory1 smellage1 rosemary1 dill1 caraway1 lavender1 tanzy1 thyme1 balm1 myrrh2 these and many more1 and all good for many an ail2 sage1 too1 sovereign sage1 best of all--excellent for longevity--of which to-day's stock seems running low1--for ,why should man die8 so doth the sentence say1 ,when sage grows in his garden day by day8 ,this persuasion that the things near us1 and under our feet1 stand in that relationship from some natural affinity they have to our welfare1 appears to be most firmly rooted with respect to the medical herbs1 whether growing wild in the fields and woods1 or about the old homesteads1 though the names of most of them are now forgotten4 ,a slight reference to the herbals and receipt books of the last century would show the good uses to which they were applied1 as that the virtues of common sense are also disowned1 and oftentimes trodden under foot4 ,certainly1 they are less esteemed than formerly1 being superseded1 for the most part1 by drugs less efficacious because less related geographically to our flesh1 and not finding acquaintance therewith4 ,doubtless many superstitions were cherished about them in ancient heads1 yet all helpful to the cure4 ,the sweet fennel had its place in the rural garden1 and was valued1 not as a spice merely1 but as a sacred seed1 associated with worship1 sprigs of it1 as of caraway and dill1 being taken to the pews1 for appetizing the service4 ,so the balm and rue had their sacredness4 ,pliny commends these natives to every housekeeper4 ,a good housewife1 he says1 goes to her herb garden1 instead of a spice shop1 for seasonings1 and thus preserves the health of her family1 by saving her purse4 ,so the poet sends her there1 too1 for spouse-keeping4 ,when ,venus would her dear ,ascanius keep1 ,a prisoner in the downy bands of sleep1 ,she odorous herbs and flowers beneath him spread1 ,as the most soft and sweetest bed1 ,not her own lap would more have charmed his head4 ,,vi4--,,table ,,plants4 ,the last two centuries have added several plants of eminent virtues to the products of the orchard and garden4 ,the cucumber1 the potato1 sweet corn1 the melon1 are the principal acquisitions1 especially the last named1 for that line of ,marvell's-- ,stumbling on melons as ,i pass1 must be taken rhetorically1 since ,evelyn informs us1 this fruit had but just been introduced into ,england from ,spain1 in the poet's time1 and the others but a little before4 ,he says1 ,i myself remember when an ordinary melon would have sold for five or six shillings4 ',tis a fruit not only superior to all of the gourd kind1 but paragon with the noblest of the garden4 ,and of the cucumber1 ,this fruit1 now so universally eaten1 was accounted little better than poison within my memory4 ,columella shows some good ones growing in the ,roman gardens3-- ,the crooked cucumber1 the pregnant gourd1 ,sometimes from arbors pendant1 and sometimes ,snake-like1 through the cold shades of grass they creep1 ,and from the summer's sun a shelter seek4 ,whittier has sung our sweet corn1 as ,marvell the melon for ,old ,england4 ,but ,raleigh declined that service for his new ,roanoke plant1 the potato1 leaving it for the books to give this prose version instead3--,sir ,walter gave some samples of it to his gardener as a fine fruit from ,virginia1 desiring him to plant them4 ,the roots flowered in ,august1 and in ,september produced the fruit2 but the berries were so different from what the gardener expected1 that1 in ill-humor1 he carried them to his master1 asking1 if this was the fine fruit which he had praised so highly8 ,sir ,walter either was1 or pretended to be ignorant of the matter1 and desired the gardener1 since that was the case1 to dig up the weed and throw it away4 ,it appears1 however1 that the gardener1 who was an ,irishman1 and had the best of rights to christen it1 soon returned with the good parcel of potatoes1 from whose thrift his own country was supplied1 and in time distributed so widely as almost to supersede the ancient turnips1 once the favorite of husbandmen2 the more religious of them1 ,columella tells us1 in his time1 sprinkling the seed when they sowed it as if they meant to supply the ,king1 and his subjects also4 ,the turnip and the bean--this last held sacred by the ,greeks1 and which ,pythagoras honored with a symbol--have lost much of the solid repute they once enjoyed here in ,new ,england and elsewhere4 ,good citizens and loyal republicans were fed chiefly from their stanch virtues1 knowing how to prize their independence1 and to secure it to their descendants4 ,the great staples were grown on their farms and manufactured into substantial comforts without loss of self-respect4 ,bread was home-grown1 kneaded of fresh flour1 ground in the neighborhood2 the grain sown in hope1 their ,six months' sunshine bound in sheaves1 being brought home in thankfulness4 ,the grain harvesting was the pride and praise of the country round1 as good to be sung as the ,syrian pastoral of ,ruth gleaning in the fields of ,boaz4 ,but this1 and other customs1 introduced with the cultivation of wheat into ,britain1 and brought here by the ,puritan planters1 are fast fading from memory1 and the coming generation will need commentaries on ,tusser and ,thomson to make plain our reaping-idyl4 ,as kindles now the blazing ,east ,afield ,i haste1 ,eager the sickle's feat to play1 ,sweeping along the stalked fields my widening way2 ,vexing the eared spires1 ,pricked with desires1 ,my golden gavels on the stubble spend1 ,and to the fair achievement every member lend1 ,the laughing breeze my colleague in my forte1 ,while the grave sun beams zealous on the sport4 ,nor doth penurious gain famish my fist1 ,as earing fast it sheds abundant grist1 ,and gleaning damsels kerchief all they list1-- ,kindly conceive me friendliest of peers1 ,and glad my brows adorn with yellow ears2 ,the wide-spread field1 its sheafed hoard1 ,the lively symbol of their liberal ,lord1 ,whose plenteous crop1 and ripe supply ,areaped is of every hand and eye-- ,an opulent shock for poor humanity4 ,their garments1 too1 were home-spun4 ,every house1 the scene of sprightly industry1 was ,homeric as were the employments in the garden of ,alcinous1 ,where to encounter feast with housewifery1 ,in one room1 numerous women did apply ,their several tasks2 some apple-colored corn ,ground in fair querns1 and some did spindles turn2 ,some work in looms2 no hand least rest receives1 ,but all have motion apt as aspen leaves2 ,and from the weeds they wove1 so fast they laid ,and so thick thrust together thread by thread1 ,that the oil of which the wool had drank its fill1 ,did with his moisture in bright dews distil4 ,it was plain wool and flax which they spun and wove thus innocently1 nor suspected the web of sophistries that was to be twisted and coiled about the countries' liberties from a coming rival4 ,the weed which1 planted long ago by the kings of ,tyre1 made their city a great nation1 their merchantmen princes1 and spread the ,tyrian dye throughout the world2 of which ,solomon obtained a branch1 and made his little kingdom the admiration of surrounding nations2 of which ,alexander sowed the seed in the city to which he gave his name1 and ,constantine transplanted to ,constantinople2 which the first ,edward sowed on the banks of the ,thames1 and ,elizabeth lived to see blossom through the nourishment which her enlightened mind procured1 not only from the original soil of the ,levant but from the eastern and newly discovered western world1 as well as from the ,north1--this famous plant1 thus cherished by kings1 has now become ,,king1 and wields its sceptre over the most cultivated and prosperous nations of the earth2 its history for the last half century being more closely woven with civilization1 than perhaps any other commodity known to commerce4 ,and whether it shall be woven into robes of coronation or the shroud of freedom1 for the freest of ,republics1 the fortunes of races1 the present moment is determining4 ,lettuce has always been loyal4 ,herodotus tells us that it was served at royal tables some centuries before the ,christian era1 and one of the ,roman families ennobled its name with that of ,lactucinu4 ,so spinach1 asparagus and celery have been held in high repute among the eastern nations1 as with us4 ,and the parable of the mustard seed shows that plant was known in ,christ's time4 ,the ,greeks are said to have esteemed radishes so highly that1 in offering oblations to ,apollo1 they presented them in beaten gold4 ,and the ,emperor ,tiberius held parsnips in such high repute that he had them brought annually from the ,rhine for his table4 ,the beet is still prized1 but the carrot has lost the reputation it had in ,queen ,elizabeth's time1 the leaves being used in the head-dresses of the ladies of her court1 from whence the epithet applied to the hair is derived4 ,peas had scarcely made their appearance at the tables of the court of ,elizabeth1 being very rare1 ,fuller says1 in the early part of her reign1 and seldom seen except they were brought from ,holland1 and these were dainties for ladies1 they came so far and cost so dear4 ,nor did the currant appear much earlier in ,european gardens1 coming first under the name of the ,corinthian grape3 ,evelyn calls the berries ,corinths4 ,so the damson took its name from ,damascus2 the cherry from ,cerasus1 a city of ,pontus2 and the peach from ,persia4 ,the quince1 first known as the ,cydonian apple1 was dedicated to the goddess of love2 and pears1 like apples1 are from ,paradise4 ,the apple is the representative fruit1 and owes most to culture in its ancient varieties of quince1 pear1 pomegranate1 citron1 peach2 as it comprehended all originally4 ,of these1 pears and peaches have partaken more largely of man's essence1 and may be called creations of his1 being civilized in the measure he is himself2 as are the apple and the grape4 ,these last are more generally diffused over the earth1 and their history embraces that of the origin and progress of mankind1 the apple being coeval with man2 ,eve's apple preserving the traditions of his earliest experiences1 and the grape appears in connection with him not long after his story comes into clearness from the dimness of the past4 ,fruits have the honor of being most widely diffused geographically1 grown with the kindliest care1 and of being first used by man as food4 ,they still enter largely into the regimen of the cultivated nations1 and are the fairest of civilizers2 like ,orpheus1 they tame the human passions to consonance and harmony by their lyric influence4 ,the use of them is of that universal importance that we cannot subsist in any plenty or elegance without them4 ,and everywhere beside the cultivated man grows the orchard1 to intimate his refinement in those excellences most befitting his race4 ,the ,romans designated the union of all the virtues in the word we render fruit2 and bread comes from ,pan1 the representative of ,nature1 whose stores we gather for our common sustenance in our pantries4 ,biography shows that fruit has been the preferred food of the most illuminated persons of past times1 and of many of the ablest4 ,it is friendly to the human constitution1 and has been made classic by the pens of poets who have celebrated its beauty and excellence4 ,,vii4--,,rations4 ,the food of a people may be taken as a natural gauge of their civility4 ,in any scale of the relative virtues of plants1 fruits take their place at the top1 the grains next1 then the herbs1 last and lowest the roots4 ,the rule seems this3 ,whatever grows above ground1 and tempered in the solar ray1 is most friendly to the strength1 genius and beauty proper to man4 ,the poet has intimated the law3 ,plants in the root with earth do most comply1 ,their leaves with water and humidity2 ,the flowers to air draw near and subtilty1 ,and seeds a kindred fire have with the sky4 ,so the ancient doctrine affirms that the originals of all bodies are to be found in their food1 every living creature representing its root and feeding upon its mother2 and that from the food chosen1 is derived the spirit and complexion of each2 persons1 plants1 animals1 being tempered of earth or sun1 according to their likings4 ,apollo feeds his fair ones1 ,ceres hers1 ,pomona1 ,pan1 dun ,jove1 and ,luna pale2 ,so ,nox her olives1 so swarth ,niobe4 ,it was the doctrine of the ,samian ,sage1 that whatsoever food obstructs divination1 is prejudicial to purity and chastity of mind and body1 to temperance1 health1 sweetness of disposition1 suavity of manners1 grace of form1 and dignity of carriage1 should be shunned4 ,especially should those who would apprehend the deepest wisdom and preserve through life the relish for elegant studies and pursuits1 abstain from flesh1 cherishing the justice which animals claim at man's hands1 nor slaughtering them for food nor profit4 ,and1 anciently1 there existed what is called the ,orphic ,life1 men keeping fast to all things without life1 and abstaining wholly from those that had4 ,and1 aside from all considerations of humanity for the animals1 genius and grace alike enjoin abstinence from every indulgence that impairs the beauty and order of things4 ,our instincts instruct us to protect1 to tame and transform1 as far as may be1 the animals we domesticate into the image of gentleness and humanity1 and that these traits in ourselves are impaired by converting their flesh into ours4 ,nor do any pleas of necessity avail4 ,since the experience of large classes of mankind in different climates shows conclusively that health1 strength1 beauty1 agility1 sprightliness1 longevity1 the graces and attainments appertaining to body and mind1 are insured1 if not best promoted1 by abstinence from animal food4 ,science1 moreover1 favors this experience1 since it teaches that man extracts his bodily nourishment mediately or immediately from the vegetable kingdom1 and thus lives at the cost of the atmosphere1 needing not the interfusion of the spirit of beasts into his system to animalize and sustain him4 ,he feeds on air alone1 springs from it1 and returns to it again4 ,a purer civilization than ours can yet claim to be1 is to inspire the genius of mankind with the skill to deal dutifully with soils and souls1 exalt agriculture and manculture into a religion of art2 the freer interchange of commodities which the current world-wide intercourse promotes1 spread a more various1 wholesome1 classic table1 whereby the race shall be refined of traits reminding too plainly of barbarism and the beast4 ,ye desire from the gods excellent health and a beautiful old age1 but your table opposes itself1 since it fetters the hands of ,zeus4,a ,footnote ,a3 ,grillis having been transformed from a beast into a man1 used to discourse with his table companions1 about how much better he fed while in that state than his present one1 since he then took instinctively what was best for him1 avoiding what was hurtful2 but now1 he said1 though endowed with reason and natural knowledge to guide him in the selection1 he yet seemed to have fallen below the beast he was1 since he found he liked what did not like him1 and took it1 moreover1 without shame4 ,time may come when man ,with angels may participate and find ,no inconvenient diet1 no too light fare1 ,and1 from these corporal nutriments1 perhaps1 ,their bodies may at last turn all to ,spirit ,improved by tract of time1 and winged ascend ,ethereal as they2 or may at choice ,here1 or in heavenly ,paradises1 dwell4 ,an elegant abstinence is complimentary to any one1 as1 fed from the virgin essences of the season1 his genius1 dispositions1 tastes1 have no shame to blush for1 and modestly claim the honor of being well bred4 ,and one's table1 like ,apelles'1 may be fitly pictured with the beauty of sobriety on the one side1 the deformity of excess on the other1 the feast substantial as it is lyrical1 praising itself and those who partake2 and his guests as ready to compliment him1 as ,timotheus did ,plato1 when he said3 ,they who dine with the philosopher never complain the next morning4 ,,the ,,seer',s ,,rations4 ,takes sunbeams1 spring waters1 ,earth's juices1 meads' creams1 ,bathes in floods of sweet ethers1 ,comes baptized from the streams2 ,guest of ,him1 the sweet-lipp'd1 ,the ,dreamer's quaint dreams4 ,mingles morals idyllic ,with ,samian fable1 ,sage seasoned from cruets1 ,of ,plutarch's chaste table4 ,pledges ,zeus1 ,zoroaster1 ,tastes ,cana's glad cheer1 ,suns1 globes1 on his trencher1 ,the elements there4 ,bowls of sunrise for breakfast ,brimful of the ,east1 ,foaming flagons of frolic ,his evening's gay feast4 ,sov'reign solids of nature1 ,solar seeds of the sphere1 ,olympian viand ,surprising as rare4 ,thus baiting his genius1 ,his wonderful word ,brings poets and sibyls ,to sup at his board4 ,feeds thus and thus fares he1 ,speeds thus and thus cares he1 ,thus faces and graces ,life's long euthanasies1 ,his gifts unabated1 ,transfigured1 translated-- ,the idealist prudent1 ,saint1 poet1 priest1 student1 ,philosopher1 he4 ,,viii4--,,economies4 ----,much will always wanting be ,to him who much desires4 ,thrice happy he ,to whom the indulgency of heaven1 ,with sparing hand1 but just enough has given4 ,life1 when hospitably taken1 is a simple affair4 ,very little suffices to enrich us4 ,being1 a fountain and fireside1 a web of cloth1 a garden1 a few friends1 and good books1 a chosen task1 health and peace of mind--these are a competent estate1 embracing all we need4 ,like to one's fortune should be his expense1 ,men's fortunes rightly held in reverence4 ,the country opens the best advantages for these enjoyments4 ,and where one has the privilege of choosing for himself1 he prefers the scope for seclusion and society that a homestead implies4 ,for his human satisfactions1 he draws upon his dispositions and gifts4 ,his appetites he willingly digs for1 nor cares to cherish any that he is ashamed to own4 ,for nobler pleasures he delights to climb4 ,his best estate is in himself4 ,he needs little beside4 ,with good sense for his main portion to make the most of that little1 he may well consider ,hesiod's opinion of weight3 ,the half is better far than whole4 ,if his house is an ancient one1 or ancestral1 by so much the stronger are the ties that bind his affections to it2 especially if it stand in an orchard1 and have a good garden4 ,even if inconvenient in some respects1 he will hesitate about pulling it down in hopes of pleasing himself better in a new one4 ,the genius that repairs an old house successfully may fail in building another4 ,besides1 there were many comforts provided for by our ancestors1 who were old ,englishmen even here in ,new ,england1 and knew well what a house was built for1 and they built for that1 against any odds of counsel or expense4 ,then 'tis fatal to take time out of a building1 which so consecrates it4 ,an old house1 well built1 pleases more with the repairs rendered necessary than a costlier new one4 ,there are good points about it which have been proved by a century or two1 and these may be adopted as parts for preserving1 while any additions may be made for holding the whole in keeping with the orignal design1 or as improvements on it4 ,perhaps there are snug recesses1 and window-seats1 spacious entries1 hospitable stairways1 wainscoting1 finished summers running across the ceilings1 a dry cellar1 a good well1 fence rows in natural places1 shrubbery1 which if not well set can be reset in the grounds2 an orchard and garden whose mould is infused with the genius of years and humanized for culture4 ,then the tenement has its genealogy1 and belongs to the race who have built into it a history4 ,trees1 too1 venerable with age it has1 or it could not have been the residence of gentlemen4 ,outbuildings of any kind1 useful or ornamental1 have found their proper sites1 and meet the eye as if they had always been there4 ,it takes some generations to complete and harmonize any place with the laws of beauty1 as these best honor themselves in that fairest of structures1 a human mansion2 which1 next to its occupant1 is the noblest symbol of the mind that art can render to the senses4 ,one may spend largely upon it1 if he have not ousted his manliness in amassing the money4 ,that is an honest house which has the owner's honor built into its apartments1 and whose appointments are his proper ornaments4 ,building is a severe schoolmaster1 and gets the best and worst out of us1 both1 before it has done with us4 ,i conclude no man knows himself on terms cheaper than the building of one house at least1 and paying for it out of his pains4 ,the proverb says3 ',tis a sweet impoverishment1 and a great waste of gall4 ,do we not build ourselves into its foundations1 to stand or fall with its beams and rafters1 every nail being driven in trouble from sills to roof-tree1 and the whole proving often a defeat and disappointment3 no one liking it1 the builder least of all8 ,one may thank heaven1 and not himself1 if he do not find ,he builded costlier than he knew1 ,unhoused himself and virtues too1 at the dismission of his carpenters1 and occupancy of it4 ,perhaps the idea of a house is too precious to be cut into shapes of comfort and comeliness on cheaper conditions than this trial of his manliness by the payment of his equanimity as the fair equivalent for the privilege4 ,nor is this the end of the matter1 since it costs many virtues to deal dutifully by his household1 by servants--if served by second hands--day by day1 and come forth from the stewardship with credit and self-respect4 ,but a garden is a feasible matter4 ',tis within the means of almost every one2 none1 or next to none1 are so destitute1 or indifferent1 as to be without one4 ,it may be the smallest conceivable1 a flower bed only1 yet is prized none the less for that4 ,it is loved all the more for its smallness1 and the better cared for4 ,virgil advises to ----,commend large fields1 ,but cultivate small ones4 ,and it was a saying of the ,carthaginians1 that the land should be weaker than the husbandman1 since of necessity he must wrestle with it1 and if the ground prevailed1 the owner must be crushed by it4 ,the little is much to the frugal and industrious2 and the least most to him who puts that little to loving usury4 ,we are the farmers of ourselves1 yet may ,if we can stock ourselves and thrive1 repay ,much1 much good treasure for the great rent day4 ',tis a pity that men want eyes1 oftentimes1 to harvest crops from their acres never served to them from their trenchers4 ,civilization has not meliorated mankind essentially while men hold themselves to services they make menial and degrading4 ,aeleas1 king of ,scythia1 was wont to say ingeniously1 that while he was doing nothing1 he differed in nothing from his groom1 thus discriminating between services proper to freemen and slaves4 ,the humblest labors may ennoble us4 ,honorable in themselves when properly undertaken1 they promote us from things to persons4 ,they give us the essential goods of existence as we deserve and can best enjoy them3 order1 namely1 industry1 leisure1 of which idleness defrauds1 and distraction deprives us4 ,labor suffices4 ,putting us1 for the time1 beyond anxiety and our caprices1 it calls into exercise the sentiments proper to the citizen4 ,it softens and humanizes other pleasures4 ,like philosophy1 like religion1 it revenges on fortune1 and so keeps us by ,,the ,,one amidst the multitude of our perplexities--against reverses1 and above want4 ,by making us a party in the administration of affairs1 and superior to ,fate1 it puts into our hands the iron keys for unlocking her wards1 and thus gives us to opulence and independence4 ,we become1 thereby1 the subjects and friends of ,saturn1 ever known to be a person of so strict justice as he forces none to serve him unwillingly1 and has nothing private to himself1 but all things in common1 as of one universal patrimony4 ,and so1 owning nothing1 because wanting nothing1 he had all things desirable to make life rich and illustrious4 ----,this ,golden ,age ,met all contentment in no surplusage ,of dainty viands1 but1 7as we do still17 ,drank the pure water of the crystal rill1 ,fed on no other meats than those they fed-- ,labor the salad that their stomachs bred4 ,labor saves us from the chaos of sloth1 the pains of shiftlessness4 ,it sweetens the fountains of our enjoyments2 'tis neighbor to the elements4 ,coming in from ,july heats1 we taste the sweetness of ,pindar's line1 ,water with purest lustre flows1 of whose zest the idler knows nothing1 and which the sensualist soils and spoils4 ,besides1 there are advantages to be gained from intimacy with farmers1 whose wits are so level with the world they measure and work in4 ,we become one of them for the time1 by sympathy of employment1 and get the practical skill and adaptedness that comes from yoking our idealism in their harness of uses4 ,thus1 too1 we come to comprehend the better the working classes which minister so largely to the comforts of all men1 and are so deserving of consideration for their services4 ,moreover1 this laboring with plain men is the best cure for any foolishness one may have never sounded in the depths of his egotism1 or scorn of persons in humbler stations than his own2 and the swiftest leap across the gulf yawning between his pride and the humility gracing a gentleman in any walk of life4 ,x4--,,rural ,,culture4 ,nor need the muse to palaces resort1 ,or bring examples only from the court1 ,the country strives to do our subject right1 ,and gard'ning is the gentleman's delight4 ,i consider it the best part of an education to have been born and brought up in the country2 the arts of handicraft and husbandry coming by mother wit1 like the best use of books1 the language one speaks4 ,there is virtue in country houses1 in gardens and orchards1 in fields1 streams and groves1 in rustic recreations and plain manners1 that neither cities nor universities enjoy4 ,nor is it creditable to the teaching that so few college graduates take to husbandry and rural pursuits4 ,held subordinate to thought1 as every calling should be1 these promote intellectual freshness and moral vigor4 ,they have been made classic by the genius of antiquity2 are recreations most becoming to men of every profession and rank in life3-- ,books1 wise discourse1 garden and fields1 ,and all the joys that unmixed nature yields4 ,rural influences seem to be most desirable1 if not necessary1 for cherishing the home virtues1 especially in a community like ours1 where1 by prejudices of tradition1 we seek culture more through books and universities than from that closer contact with men and things to which newer communities owe so much1 which agriculture promotes1 and for which the classic authors chiefly deserve to be studied4 ,men follow what they love1 and the love of rural enjoyments is almost universal4 ,every one likes the country whose tastes are cultivated in the least1 and who enjoys what is primitive and pure4 ,the citizen tires of city pleasures4 ,he soon finds that there is no freedom comparable to that which the country affords2 for though he dwell in the city for advantages of libraries1 and social entertainments1 he seeks the country for inspiration when these lose their attractions1 his spirits as his friendships1 crave refreshment and renewal4 ,who in sad cities dwell1 ,are of the green trees fully sensible4 ,we see how this appetite declares itself in the general swarming during the summer season from the cities to the suburban towns1 if not to the hill countries1 for the freedom1 the health1 found there2 and how to gratify and meet the demand for more natural satisfactions1 our ,guide ,books have become1 not only the most attractive geographies of the territories therein described1 but works of taste1 combining some of the choicest illustrations of poetry and prose in our literature3 sketches of such scenes and parties are sure of an eager reading4 ,the rustic books1 too1 are beginning to be inquired after2 translations of the ancient authors1 which bring the sentiment of the originals within the grasp of the plainest minds4 ,and we look forward to the time1 when1 according to the recommendation of ,cowley and ,milton1--poets who did so much for the culture of their time1--these authors will be studied in our schools and universities1 as ,virgil and ,horace have been so long1 for cultivating the love of nature1 of rural pursuits1 beauty of sentiment1 the graces of style1 without an acquaintance with which1 the epithet of a liberal and elegant culture were misapplied on any graduate4 ,nor need the students be restricted to ,greek and ,roman pastoral poets1 when some of our own authors have given charming examples of treating ,new ,england life and landscape in their pages4 ,a people's freshest literature springs from free soil1 tilled by free men4 ,every man owes primary duty to the soil1 and shall be held incapable by coming generations if he neglect planting an orchard at least1 if not a family1 or book1 for their benefit4 ,agriculture1 for an honorable and high-minded man1 says ,xenophon1 is the best of all occupations and arts by which men procure the means of living4 ,for it is a pursuit that is most easy to learn and most pleasant to practise2 it puts the bodies of men in the fairest and most vigorous condition1 and is far from giving such constant occupation to their minds as to prevent them from attending to the interests of their friends or their country4 ,and it affords some incitement to those who pursue it to become courageous1 as it produces and sustains what is necessary for human life without the need of walls or fortresses4 ,a man's home and fireside are the sweetest of all human possessions4 ,i have always admired the good sense and fine ambition of a friend of mine1 who1 on quitting ,college1 with fair prospects of winning respect in any of the learned professions1 chose rather to step aside into the quiet retreat of a cottage1 and there give himself to the pleasures and duties of cultivating his family and grounds4 ,and this he did from a sense of its suitableness to promote the best ends and aims2 esteeming his gifts and accomplishments due to pursuits which seemed the natural means of securing self-respect and independence4 ,his first outlay was moderate--a sequestered field1 on which he erected a comfortable dwelling1 planned for convenience and hospitality4 ,his grounds were laid out and planted with shrubbery1 the slopes dotted with evergreens and shapely trees4 ,a nursery was set2 a conservatory1 with suitable outbuildings and ornaments4 ,as he gave himself personally to the work1 everything prospered that he touched4 ,a few years' profits paid for his investment1 and his thrift soon enabled him to add an adjoining orchard to his first purchase4 ,and so successful was his adventure1 that his most sceptical neighbors1 the old farmers1 confessed him to be the better husbandman2 his gold was ruddier than theirs2 his fields the neater4 ,nor did our ,evelyn disgrace social engagements4 ,his friendships were kept in as good plight as his grounds4 ,he was none the worse citizen for being the better neighbor and gentleman they found him to be1 nor the less worthy of the honors of his college4 ',tis impossible that he who is a true scholar1 and has attained besides the felicity of being a good gardener1 should give jealousy to the ,state in which he lives4 ,civilization has a deeper stake in the tillage of the ground than in the other arts1 since its roots are fast planted therein1 and it thrives only as this flourishes4 ,omit the garden1 degrade this along with the orchard to mere material uses1 treat these as of secondary importance1 and the ,state falls fast into worldliness and decay4 ,oh blessed shades6 oh gentle1 cool retreat ,from all the immoderate heat ,in which the frantic world does burn and sweat6 ,this does the ,lion-star1 ,ambition's rage2 ,this ,avarice1 the ,dog-star's thirst assuage2 ,everywhere else their fatal power we see1 ,they make and rule man's wretched destiny2 ,they neither set1 nor disappear1 ,but tyrannize o'er all the year1-- ,whilst we ne'er feel their heat nor influence here4 ,the birds that dance from bough to bough1 ,and sing above in every tree1 ,are not from fears and cares more free1 ,than we who muse or toil below1 ,and should by right be singers too4 ,what ,prince's quire of music can excel ,that which within this shade does dwell8 ,to which we nothing pay or give8 ,they1 like all other poets1 live ,without reward or thanks for their obliging pains2 ',tis well if they become not prey3 ,the whistling winds add their less ardent strains1 ,and a grave bass the murmuring fountains play4 ,nature does all this harmony bestow2 ,but1 to our plants1 arts1 music1 too1 ,the pipe1 theorbo1 and guitar1 we owe1 ,the lute itself1 which once was green and mute2 ,when ,orpheus struck the inspired lute ,the trees danced round and understood1 ,by sympathy1 the voice of wood4 ,methinks ,i see great ,dioclesian walk ,in the ,salonian garden's noble shade1 ,which by his own imperial hands was made2 ,i see him smile1 methinks1 as he does talk ,with the ambassadors1 who come in vain ,to entice him to a throne again4 ,if ,i1 my friends1 said he1 should to you show ,all the delights that in these gardens grow1 ',tis likelier much that you should with me stay1 ,than 'tis that you should carry me away2 ,and trust me not1 my friends1 if every day ,i walk not here with more delight ,than ever1 after the most happy fight1 ,in triumph to the capitol ,i ride1 ,to thank the gods1 and to be thought myself almost a god4 ,do we ask1 on viewing the rural pictures which the ,pastoral ,poets afford us1--,whither is our modern civilization tending8 ,what solid profits has it gained on the state of things they describe1 seeing the primitive virtues and customs1 once enjoyed by our ancestors1 are fading1--the generosity1 the cheer1 the patriotism1 the piety1 the republican simplicity and heartiness of those times8 ,machinery is fast displacing the poetry of farm and fireside2 the sickle1 the distaff1 the chimney-piece1 the family institution1 being superseded by prose powers2 and1 with their sway1 have come slavery1 pusillanimity1 dishonor4 ,i know there are reconciling compensations for all risks of revolution4 ,for while the ,demos thus takes his inch1 ,divinity secures his ell2 so the garment of mankind comes the fuller from the loom in this transfer of labors4 ,the fig leaf thus cunningly woven1 costs fair honors1 nevertheless1 and we covet in our hearts the florid simplicity of times of sturdier virtues and unassailable integrity4,b ,footnote ,b3 ,evelyn draws a lively picture of those old times1 though not without sadness at the contrast with his own4 ,the style and method of life are quite changed as well as the language1 since the days of our ancestors1 simple and plain as they were1 courting their wives for their modesty1 frugality1 keeping at home1 good housewifery1 and other economical virtues then in reputation4 ,and when the young damsels were taught all these at home in the country at their parents' houses2 the portion they brought being more in virtue than money1 she being a richer match than any one who could bring a million and nothing else to commend her4 ,the presents then made when all was concluded1 were a ring1 a necklace of pearls1 and perhaps the fair jewel1 the paraphernalia of her prudent mother1 whose nuptial kirtle1 gown and petticoat1 lasted as many anniversaries as the happy couple lived together1 and were at last bequeathed with a purse of old gold1 as an heir-loom to her granddaughter4 ,the virgins and young ladies of that golden age1 put their hands to the spindle1 nor disdained the needle2 were obsequious and helpful to their parents1 instructed in the management of the family1 and gave presage of making excellent wives4 ,their retirements were devout and religious books1 their recreations in the distillery and knowledge of plants1 and their virtues for the comfort of their poor neighbors1 and use of the family1 which wholesome diet and kitchen physic preserved in health4 ,nor were the young gentlemen1 though extremely modest1 at all melancholy1 or less gay and in good humor4 ,they could touch the lute and virginal1 sing ,like to the damask rose1 and their breath was as sweet as their voices4 ,then things were natural1 plain and wholesome2 nothing was superfluous1 nothing necessary wanting4 ,men of estate studied the public good1 and gave examples of true piety1 loyalty1 justice1 sobriety1 charity2 and the good of the neighborhood composed most differences4 ,laws were reasons1 not craft2 men's estates were secure3 they served their generation with honor1 left patrimonial estates improved to a hopeful heir1 who1 passing from the free school to the college1 and thence to ,inns of ,court1 acquainting himself with a competent tincture of the laws of his country1 followed the example of his worthy ancestors4 ,and if he travelled abroad1 it was not to count steeples1 and bring home feather and ribbon and the sins of other nations1 but to gain such experience as rendered him useful to his ,prince and his countrymen upon occasion1 and confirmed him in the love of both of them above any other4 ,hospitality was kept up in town and country1 by which the tenants were enabled to pay their landlords at punctual day4 ,the poor were relieved bountifully1 and charity was as warm as the kitchen1 where the fire was perpetual4 ,illustration3 ,small decoration of a flower and leaves ,,ii4 ,,recreation4 ,thou who wouldst know the things that be1 ,bathe thy heart in the sunrise red1 ,till its stains of earthly dross are fled4 ,,goethe4 ,illustration3 ,decorative banner of a beetle among flowers and leaves ,,recreation4 ,i4--,,the ,,fountains4 ,nature is wholesome4 ,without her elixirs daily taken we perish of lassitude and inanity4 ,the fountains must be stirred to their depths and their torrents sent bounding along their sluices1 else we sink presently into the pool of inertia1 victims of indecision and slaves of fate4 ,thy body1 ,o well disposed man1 is a meadow through which flow three hundred and sixty-five rivulets4 ,every pulse pushes nature's quaternion along life's currents recreating us afresh2 the morn feeding the morn1 ,memnon's music issuing from every stop1 as if the ,orient itself had sung4 ,nature is virtuous4 ,imparting sanity and sweetness1 it spares from decay1 giving life with temperance and a continency that keeps our pleasures chaste and perennial4 ,nothing short of her flowing atmosphere suffices to refill our urns4 ,neither books1 company1 conversation1--not ,genius even1 the power present in persons1 nature's nature pouring her floods through mind1--not this is enough4 ,nature is the good ,baptist plunging us in her ,jordan streams to be purified of our stains1 and fulfil all righteousness4 ,and wheresoever our lodge1 there is but the thin casement between us and immensity4 ,nature without1 mind within1 inviting us forth into the solacing air1 the blue ether1 if we will but shake our sloth and cares aside1 and step forth into her great contentments4 ,as from himself he fled1 ,possessed1 insane1 ,tormenting demons drove him from the gate3 ,away he sped1 ,casting his woes behind1 ,his joys to find1 ,his better mind4 ',tis passing strange1 ,the glorious change1 ,the pleasing pain6 ,recovered1 ,himself again ,over his threshold led1 ,peace fills his breast1 ,he finds his rest2 ,expecting angels his arrival wait4 ,if we cannot spin our tops briskly as boys do theirs1 the wailers may chant their dirges over us4 ,enthusiasm is existence2 earnestness1 life's exceeding great reward4 ,how busy then1 and above criticism4 ,our cup runs over4 ,but a parted activity1 divorcing us from ourselves1 degrades our noblest parts to the sway of the lowest and renders our task a drudgery and shame4 ,for what avails1 if while one's mind hovers about ,olympus1 his members flounder in ,styx1 and he is drawn asunder in the conflict8 ,let the days deify the days1 the work the workman1 giving the joyous task that leaves pleasant memories behind1 and ennobles in the performance3 ,tasked days ,above delays2 ,hours that borrow ,speed of the morrow1 ,light from sorrow3 ,business bate not1 ,want nor wait not1 ,doubt nor date not2 ,life from limb forbid to sever1 ,recreate in rapt endeavor4 ,we come as a muse to our toil and find amusement in it2 to a taskmaster whose company never tires4 ',tis life1 the partaking of immortality4 ,a day lived so1 glorifies all moments afterwards4 ,long postponed1 perhaps1 the hours wearisome1 till broke this immortal morning with engagements that time can complete never1 nor compel1 and whose importunity outlasts the hours4 ,sleep1 too1 having the keys of life in its keeping4 ,how we rise from its delectable divinations with eyes sovereign and anointed for the day's occupations4 ,all our powers are touched with flame1 all things are possible4 ,but last night1 the world had come to an end2 the floods ebbed low1 as if the fates were reversing the torch4 ,how we blazed all the morning1 to be cinders yesternight4 ,then came the god to re-kindle our faded embers1 the ,phoenix wings her way to meet the rising dawn and embrace the young world once more4 ,sleep took the sleep out of us4 ,from forth the void there rises a roseate morn upon us4 ,the flattering ,east her gates impearled1 ,we hunt the morning round the world4 ,nor is a day lived if the dawn is left out of it1 with the prospects it opens4 ,who speaks charmingly of nature or of mankind1 like him who comes bibulous of sunrise and the fountains of waters8 ,mornings are mysteries1 the first world's youth1 ,man's resurrection1 and the future's bud ,shown in their birth2 they make us happy1 ,make us rich4 ,rise in the morning1 rise ,while yet the streaming tide ,flames o'er the blue acclivities1 ,and pours its splendors wide2 ,kindling its high intent ,along the firmament1 ,silence and sleep to break1 ,imaginations wake1 ,ideas insphere ,and bring them here4 ,loiter nor play ,in soft delay2 ,speed glad thy course along ,the orbs and globes among1 ,and as yon toiling sun ,attain thy high meridian3 ,radiant and round thy day2-- ,speed1 speed thee on thy way4 ,every day is a festival1 and that which makes it the more splendid is gladness4 ,for as the world is a spacious and beautiful temple1 so is life the most perfect institution that introduces us into it4 ,and it is but just that it should be full of cheerfulness and tranquillity4 ,our dispositions are the atmosphere we breathe1 and we carry our climate and world in ourselves4 ,good humor1 gay spirits are the liberators1 the sure cure for spleen and melancholy4 ,deeper than tears1 these irradiate the tophets with their glad heavens4 ,go laugh1 vent the pits1 transmuting imps into angels by the alchymy of smiles4 ,the satans flee at the sight of these redeemers4 ,and he who smiles never is beyond redemption4 ,once clothed in a suit of light we may cast aside forever our sables4 ,our best economist of this flowing estate is good temper1 without whose presidency life is a perplexity and disaster4 ,luck is bad luck and ourselves a disappointment and vexation4 ,victims of our humors1 we victimize everybody4 ,how the swift repulsions play3 our atoms all insular1 insulating2 demonized1 demonizing1 from heel to crown2 at the mercy of a glance1 a gesture1 a word1 and ourselves overthrown4 ,equanimity is the gem in ,virtue's chaplet and ,st4 ,sweetness the loveliest in her calendar4 ,on beholding thyself1 fear1 says the oracle4 ,only the saints are sane and wholesome4 ,,ii4--,,the ,,cheap ,,physician4 ,that which makes us have no need ,of physic1 that's physic indeed4 ,hark1 hither1 reader1 wilt thou see ,nature her own physician be8 ,wilt see a man all his own wealth1 ,his own music1 his own health1-- ,a man whose sober soul can tell ,how to wear her garments well3 ,her garments that upon her sit1 ,as garments should do1 close and fit2 ,a well-clothed soul that's not oppressed1 ,nor choked with what she should be dressed2 ,a soul sheathed in a crystal shrine1 ,through which all her bright features shine1 ,as when a piece of wanton lawn1 ,a thin1 aerial veil is drawn ,o'er beauty's face1 seeming to hide1 ,more sweetly shows the blushing bride3 ,a soul1 whose intellectual beams ,no mists do mask1 no lazy streams3 ,a happy soul that all the way ,to heaven rides in a summer's day8 ,wouldst see a man whose well-warmed blood ,bathes him in a genuine flood1-- ,a man whose tuned humors be ,a seat of rarest harmony8 ,wouldst see blithe looks1 fresh cheeks beguile ,age2 wouldst see ,december smile8 ,wouldst see nests of new roses grow ,in a bed of reverend snow8 ,warm thought1 free spirits flattering ,winter's self into a spring8 ,in sum1 wouldst see a man that can ,live to be old1 and still a man ,whose latest and most leaden hours ,fall with soft wings1 stuck with soft flowers2 ,and when life's sweet fable ends1 ,soul and body part like friends2 ,no quarrels1 murmurs1 no delay1 ,a kiss1 a sigh1--and so away1-- ,this rare one1 reader1 wouldst thou see8 ,hark within1 and thyself be he4 ,illustration3 ,triangular decoration of two intertwined griffins ,,iii4 ,,fellowship4 ,health is the first good lent to men1 ,a gentle disposition then1 ,next competence by no by ways1 ,lastly with friends to enjoy one's days4 ,,herrick4 ,illustration3 ,decorative banner of two birds among leaves and flowers ,,fellowship4 ,i4--,,hospitality4 ,evelyn writes of the manners and architecture of his times3 ',tis from the want of symmetry in our buildings1 decorum in our houses1 that the irregularity of our humors and affections may be shrewdly discerned4 ,but not every builder is gifted with the genius and personal qualities to harmonize the apartments to the dispositions of the inmates4 ,i confess to a partiality for the primitive style of architecture commended by ,evelyn1 and question whether in our refinements on these we have not foregone comforts and amenities essential to true hospitality4 ,what shall make good to us the ample chimney-piece of his day1 with the courtesies it cherished1 the conversation1 the cheer1 the entertainments8 ,very welcome were the spacious yards and hospitable door-knockers on those ancestral mansions1 fast disappearing from our landscape1 supplanted by edifices and surroundings more showy and pretentious2 yet1 with all their costliness1 looking somewhat asquint on the visitor1 as if questioning his right to enter them2 and1 when admitted1 seem unfamiliar1 solitary1 desolate1 with their elaborate decorations and furnishings4 ,can we not build an elegant comfort1 convenience1 ease1 into the walls and apartments1 rendering the mansion an image of the nobilities becoming the residence of noblemen8 ,to what end the house1 if not for conversation1 kindly manners1 the entertainment of friendships1 the cordialities that render the house large1 and the ready receptacle of hosts and guests8 ,if one's hospitalities fail to bring out the better qualities of his company1 he fails of being the noble host1 be his pretensions what they may4 ,let him entertain the dispositions1 the genius1 of his guests1 the conversation being the choicer banquet2 for1 without baits for these1 what were the table but a manger1 alike wanting in elegancy as in hospitality1 and the feast best taken in silence as an animal qualification1 and no more4 ,what solitude like those homes where no home is1 no company1 no conversation1 into which one enters with dread1 and from which he departs with sadness1 as from the sight of hostile tribes bordering on civilization1 strangers to one another1 and of mixed bloods6 ,civility has not completed its work if it leave us unsocial1 morose1 insultable4 ,sympathy wanting1 all is wanting2 its personal magnetism is the conductor of the sacred spark that lights our atoms1 puts us in human communion1 and gives us to company1 conversation1 and ourselves4 ,oh wretched and too solitary1 he ,who loves not his own company2 ,he'll find the weight of it many a day1 ,unless he call in sin and vanity1 ,to help to bear it away4 ,the surest sign of age is loneliness4 ,while one finds company in himself and his pursuits1 he cannot be old1 whatever his years may number4 ,perhaps those most prize society who find the best in solitude1 being equal to either2 strong enough to enjoy themselves aside from companies they would gladly meet and repay by a freedom from prejudices and scruples in which these share and pride themselves1 yet whose exclusiveness thrusts them out of their own houses and themselves also4 ,it ever hath been known1 ,they others' virtues scorn who doubt their own4 ,if solitude makes us love ourselves1 society gives us to others1 peopling what were else a solitude4 ,it takes us out of ourselves as from a multitude to partake of closer intimacies and satisfactions4 ,alone and apart1 however well occupied1 we lose the elasticity and dignity that come from sympathy with the aims and prospects of others4 ,nor has any been found equal to uninterrupted solitude4 ,our virtues need the enamel of intercourse4 ,exalting us above our private piques1 prejudices1 egotisms1 into the commonwealth of charities1 good company makes us catholic1 courteous1 sane2 we retire from it with a new estimate of ourselves and of mankind4 ,if intercourse have not this wholesome effect1 it is dissipating and best shunned4 ,nor is fellowship possible without a certain delicacy and respect of diffidence4 ,there hides a natural piety in this personal grace1 while nothing good comes of brass1 from whose embrasures there vollies forth but impudence1 insolence1 defiance4 ,but the more influential powers are attended by a bashful genius1 and step forth from themselves with a delicacy of boldness alike free from any blemishes of egotism or pretence4 ,nor do we accept as genuine the person not characterized by this blushing bashfulness1 this youthfulness of heart1 this sensibility to the sentiment of suavity and self-respect4 ,modesty is bred of self-reverence4 ,fine manners are the mantle of fair minds4 ,none are truly great without this ornament4 ,a fine genius has the timidity1 the graces of a virgin nature1 whose traits are as transparent in the boldest flights of imagination as discernible in the stateliest tread of reason1 the play of fancy3 a pleasing hesitancy1 a refrain1 setting off the more boldly by such graceful carriage1 the natural graces due to beauty and truth2 and bearing down all else by its charming persuasions4 ,affinities tell4 ,every one is not for every one2 nor any one good enough to flatter or scorn any2 the kindly recognition being due to the meanest2 even the humblest conferring a certain respect by his call4 ,yet one might as properly entertain every passing vagary in the presence chamber of his memory as every vagrant visitor seeking his acquaintance4 ,introductions are of small account4 ,what are one's claims1 a glance detects2 if ours1 he stays1 and house and heart are his by silent understanding4 ,if not ours1 nor we his1 the way is plain4 ,he leaves presently as a traveller the innkeeper's door1 an inmate for his meal only and the night4 ,the heroic bearing is always becoming4 ,egotists of the amiable species1 one kindly considers4 ,but the sour malcontents1 devastators of one's time and patience1--what to do with such8 ,summon your fairest sunshine forthwith3 give your visitor's humors no quarters from the shafts2 smite him with the kindly radiance for dissipating his melancholy1 and so send him away the wholesomer1 the sweeter for the interview1 if not a convert to the sun's catholicism1 the courtesies due to civility and good fellowship4 ,so when ,x1 your worst sample approaches1 meet him blandly at your door1 and ask him civilly to leave his dog outside4 ,but if he persist in bringing him along into your parlor1 never hesitate on setting the cur forthwith upon his master though you should find him at your throat straightways4 ,it were giving your visitor the warmest reception possible under the circumstances1 and an interview very memorable to all parties4 ,one need not fear dealing his compliments short and significant on the occasion2 the deer running down the dogs for a wonder4 ,does it seem cold and unhandsome1 this specular survey of persons8 ,yet all hearts crave eyes whereby to measure themselves4 ,and what better foil for one's egotism than this reflection of himself in the mirror of another's appreciation8 ,the frank sun withholds his beams from none for any false delicacy4 ,nor till one rejoices in being helped to discern excellence in another1 desiring to comprehend and compliment his own therein1 is he freed from the egotism that excludes him from the best benefits one can bestow4 ,happy if we have dissolved our individualism in the fluent affections1 and so made intercourse possible and delightful between us4 ,we have three friends most useful to us2 a sincere friend1 a faithful friend1 a friend that hears every thing1 examines what is told him1 and speaks little4 ,but we have three also whose friendship is pernicious2 a hypocrite1 a flatterer1 and a great talker4 ,contract friendship with the man whose heart is upright and sincere1 who loves to learn and can teach you something in his turn4 ,and in what part of the world soever thou chance to spend thy life1 correspond with the wisest and associate with the best4 ,,ii4--,,conversation4 ,good humor1 flowing spirits1 a sprightly wit1 are essentials of good discourse4 ,add genial dispositions1 graceful elocution1 and to these accomplishments diffidence as the flower of the rest4 ,there can be no eloquence where these are wanting4 ,any amount of sense1 of logic1 matter1 leaves the discourse incomplete1 interest flags1 and disappointment ensues4 ,none has command of himself till he can wield his powers sportfully1 life sparkling from all his gifts and taking captive alike speaker and hearer1 as they were docile children of his genius and surprised converts for the moment4 ,and ,i1 says ,socrates1 through my youth often change my mind1 but looking to you and apprehending that you speak the things that are divine1 ,i think so too4 ,if one cannot inspire faith in what he says1 no arts avail4 ,earnestness1 sincerity1 are orators whose persuasions are irresistible2 they hold all gifts in fusion1 magnetize1 divinize1 harmonize all4 ,good conversation is lyrical3 a pentecost of tongues1 touching the chords of melody in all minds1 it prompts to the best each had to give1 to better than any knew they had1 what none claims as his own1 as if he were the organ of some invisible player behind the scenes4 ,what abandonments1 reserves1 which no premeditation1 no cunning could have checked or called forth4 ,what chasms are spanned with a trope1 what pits forded1 summits climbed1 prospects commanded1 perspectives gained1--the tour of the spheres made at a glance1 a sitting2 the circle coming safely out of the adventure4 ,all men talk1 few converse2 of gossip we have enough1 of argument more than enough1 rhetoric1 debate--omit these1 speak from the heart to the heart underlying all differences1 and we have conversation4 ,for disputing there is the crowd2 for ruminating1 the woods2 the clubs for wit and the superficial fellowship4 ,companionableness comes by nature4 ,for though culture may mellow and refine1 it cannot give the flush of nobility to the current wherein ride our credentials for the posts of persuasion and of power4 ,we meet magically1 and pass with sounding manners2 else encounter repulses1 strokes of fate2 temperament telling against temperament1 precipitating us into vortices from which the nimblest finds no escape4 ,we pity the person who shows himself unequal to the occasion2 the scholar1 for example1 whose intellect is so exacting1 so precise1 that he cannot meet his company otherwise than critically2 cannot descend to meet1 through the senses or the sentiments1 that common level where intercourse is possible with most4 ,we pity him the more1 who1 from caprice or confusion can meet through these only4 ,still more1 the case of him who can meet neither as sentimentalist nor idealist1 or1 rather1 not at all in a human way4 ,intellect interblends with sentiment in the companionable mind1 wit with humor4 ,we detain the flowing tide at the cost of lapsing out of perception into memory1 into the limbo of fools4 ,excellent people wonder why they cannot meet and converse4 ,they cannot4 ,no4 ,their wits have ebbed away1 and left them helpless4 ,why1 but because of hostile temperaments1 states of animation8 ,the personal magnetism finds no conductor4 ,one is individual1 the other is individual no less4 ,individuals repel4 ,persons meet4 ,and only as one's personality is sufficiently overpowering to dissolve the other's individualism1 can the parties flow together and become one4 ,but individuals have no power of the sort4 ,they are two1 not one1 perhaps many4 ,prisoned within themselves by reason of their egotism1 like animals1 they stand aloof1 are separate even when they touch2 are solitary in any company1 having none in themselves4 ,but the freed personal mind meets all1 is apprehended by all1 by the least cultivated1 the most gifted2 magnetizes all2 is the spell-binder1 the liberator of every one4 ,we speak of sympathies1 antipathies1 fascinations1 fates1 for this reason4 ,illustration3 ,small decoration of a leaf ,,iv4 ,,friendship4 ,so great a happiness do ,i esteem it to be loved1 that ,i really fancy every blessing both from gods and men ready to descend spontaneously upon him who is loved4--,,xenophon4 ,illustration3 ,decorative banner of two swans among flowers ,,friendship4 ,i4--,,persons4 ,it was a charming fancy of the ,pythagoreans to exchange names when they met that so they might partake of the virtues each admired in the other4 ,and knowing the power of names they used only such as were musical and pleasing4 ,the compliment thus bestowed upon the sentiment of friendship is most deserved1 and suggestive of the magic of its influence at every age1 throughout every period of our existence2 our life1 properly speaking1 opening with the birth of fancy and the affections1 and maintaining its freshness only as we are under their sway4 ,a friendship formed in childhood1 in youth1--by happy accident at any stage of rising manhood1--becomes the genius that rules the rest of life4 ,what aspirations it awakens6 what prospects6 ,to what advantages1 adventures1 sacrifices1 successes1 does it not lead its votaries6 ,what if these early unions are sometimes less tempered with discretion than those formed later1 if they maintain their freshness and open out sure prospects of an endless future8 ,he surely has no future who is without friends to share it with him1 and is wasting an existence meant to give him that assurance4 ,with this sentiment there comes every felicity into the breasts of those who partake of it4 ,how large the dividend of delight6 how diffusive6 ,we are the richer for every outlay4 ,we dip our pitchers in these fountains to come away overspilling with satisfaction4 ,and had we a thousand friends1 every spring within us would gush forth at the touch of these wands of tenderness1 and the days pass as uncounted moments in their company4 ,o friend1 the bosom said1 ,through thee alone the sky is arched1 ,through thee the rose is red2 ,all things through thee take nobler form1 ,and look beyond the earth1 ,and is the millround of our fate ,a sunpath in thy worth3 ,me1 too1 thy nobleness has taught ,to master my despair2 ,the fountains of my hidden life1 ,are through thy friendship fair4 ,how handsome our friends are6 ,say they were not moulded at the celestial potteries1 we paint them fair behind the plain exterior they wear to indifferent eyes1 and as they appear in our gallery of enamels4 ,for who has not seen the plainest features light with a beauty the eyes had not conceived at the rise of a tender sentiment8 a lively thought1 the recollection of a noble deed1 effacing every trace of ancestral meanness2 the friend we love all there without blemish or spot1 the image we clasp to our breast and cannot forget4 ,spectral and cold1 indeed1 were life surveyed from the senses alone1 not from the soul1 wanting the enthusiasm that persons inspire1 the faith which exalts us above ourselves1 giving us friends to love1 and a ,god to adore4 ,we enter heaven through the gates of friendship4 ',tis by some supreme fellowship that we complete ourselves1 and are united to our kind4 ,i esteem friendship the fairest as the eldest of religious faiths1 being the worship of the unseen through the seen1 and excusing many superstitions coloring the need of a personal object of worship4 ,the love and service rendered to persons symbolizes love and service due the ,supreme ,person2 and he must be pronounced deficient in piety who fails of winning the noblest of victories1--a friend4 ,a need of the heart1 the best of our life is embosomed in others1 much of it taken upon trust in some one or more whom we call by tender names1 and whose words accost us with persuasions irresistible4 ,how affectionately one name is pronounced throughout a revering ,christendom1 because it symbolizes man's friend1--that fairest word in the human vocabulary4 ,fair flowery name1 in none like thee ,and thy nectareal fragrancy1 ,hourly there meets ,a universal synod of all sweets1 ,by whom it is defined thus3 ,that no perfume ,may yet presume ,to pass for odoriferous1 ,but such alone whose sacred pedigree ,can prove itself some kin1 sweet name1 to thee4 ,we crave objects abreast and above us4 ,and are bereft of ourselves without such4 ,friends are the leaders of the bosom1 being more ourselves than we are1 and we complement our affections in theirs4 ,the passionless laws that sway our unseen ,personality are not made lovely to us till thus clothed in human attributes and brought near to our hearts1 person embracing person4 ,not some ,it in our friends1 but the sentiment that transfigures the ,it into ,him1 into ,her1--this alone makes them ours personally and beloved4 ,theists in our faith1 we pay our vows to the ,friend in our friend1 thus becoming personally ,one with the ,three1 and alone no longer4 ,nor elsewise man shall fellow meet1 ,in public place1 in converse sweet1 ,in holy aisles1 at market gate1 ,in learning's halls1 or courts of state1 ,nor persons properly shall find1 ,save in the commonwealth of ,mind2 ,fair forms herein their souls intrude1 ,peopling what else were solitude4 ,persons are love's world4 ,our ,paradise is too fair to be planted out of our breasts4 ,we chase the fleeing beauty all our lives long2 ,nor is there near so brisk a fire ,in fruition1 as desire2 ,the niggard sense1 too poor for bliss1 ,pays us but dully with what is4 ,on1 onwards1 ever onwards are we led4 ,our ,edens abreast of us journeying with ever-opening prospects in the distance4 ,,the ,,chase4 ,o'er earth and seas1 ,in sunshine1 shade1 ,blest ,beauty crossed1 ,nor stopt nor stayed1 ,nor temples took1 ,nor idols hewed1 ,apart she dwelt ,in solitude4 ,in solitude1 ,heart said3 ,where find the maid8 ,my bride's a fugitive1 ,from sight doth live1 ,and hearts are hunters of the game1 ,pursuers of the same ,through every passing form1 ,the ,beauty that all eyes do seek1 ,all eyes do but deform2 ,the love our faithless lips would speak ,dies on the listless air1 ,nature befriends us not1 ,nor hearthside doth prepare ,in all her ample plot2 ,life's but illusion1 ,cunning confusion2 ,flings shadows pale about our path1 ,she shadow is1 and nothing hath2 ,eyes are divorced from seeing1 ,hearts cloven clean from being2 ,my bride ,i cannot find1 ,my love ,i cannot bind2 ,the thousand fair ones of our sphere1 ,fond1 false ones all1 nor mine1 nor dear2 ,the ,paradise ,i would surprise1 ,from all my following flies1 ,and ,i'm a thousand infidelities2 ,there's none for me ,in all ,i see2 ,surely the ,fair ,one bides not here1 ,where dwells she1 where1 in any sphere8 ,in any sphere8 ,love whispered3 ,where1 where1 if not here8 ,here in thy breast the maiden find1 ,ideas sole imparadise the mind2 ,here heart's hymeneals begin1 ,here's ours and only ours housed here within3 ,through parting gates of human kind ,enter thou blest the ,unseen ,mind4 ,,ii4--,,woman4 ,virtue sure ,were blind as fortune1 should she choose the poor ,rough cottage man to live in1 and despise ,to dwell in woman's stately edifice2 ,woman's approved the fairer sex1 and we ,mean men repent our pedigree4 ,why choose the father's name1 when we may take ,the mother's a more honor'd blood to make1 ,woman's of later1 though of nobler birth1 ,for she of man was made1 man made of earth1 ,the son of dust1 and though her sin did breed ,his fall1 again she raised him in her seed2 ,who had he not her blest creation seen1 ,an ,anchorite in ,paradise had been4 ,pythagoras said that only good things were to be predicted of women1 since they were the mothers of ornaments1 of conversation and of confidence1 and that he who invented names1 perceiving that women were adapted to piety and friendship1 gave to each of their ages the name of some ,deity--to a maiden1 ,core1 or ,proserpine1 to a bride ,nymphe1 to a mother1 ,mater1 to a grandmother1 according to the ,dorian dialect1 ,maia4 ,and in accordance with the like persuasion the oracles were always unfolded into light by women4 ,tacitus tells us that the ,northern nations also held women in high esteem1 believing ladies had something divine about them4 ,and this faith has descended to men of the ,saxon name1 the best regarding her as endowed with magical properties1 the type of the highest culture the advanced nations have attained4 ,endowed with magnetic gifts2 by necessity of sex1 a realist and diviner1 she lives nearest the cardinal facts of existence1 instinct with the mysteries of love and fate2 a romance ever attaching itself to her name and destiny4 ,entering the school of sensibility with life1 she seizes personal qualities by a subtlety of logic overleaping all deductions of the slower reason2 her divinations touching the quick of things as if herself were personally part of the chemistry of life itself4 ,we cannot conceive her as distinct1 distant1 unrelated1 she seems so personal1 concrete1 so near2 yet can never come quite up to her discernments1 nor gainsay their delicacy and truthfulness4 ,then constancy1 fidelity1 fortitude1 kindness1 gratitude1 grace1 courtesy1 discretion1 taste1 conversation1 the adornments of life1 were bare names without the splendor of illustration of which the history of the sex affords so many brilliant examples4 ,it seems as if in moulding his world the ,creator reserved his choicest work till the last1 and consummated his art in her endowments4 ,shall our sex confess to some slight in not having been mingled more freely of her essence1 that so we too might have had access to the crypts into which she is privileged by birthright to enter8 ,hers is the way of persuasion1 of service1 forbearance3 ,if thou dost anything confer that's sweet1 ,in me a grateful relish it shall meet1 ,but if thy bounties thou dost take away1 ,the least repining word ,i will not say4 ,as there was only solitude till she brought company1 conversation1 civility1 so stooping still to conquer1 she is fast gaining ascendancy over passions and prejudices that have held her subservient and their victim4 ,can we doubt the better rule will be furthered indefinitely by a partnership in power thus intimate and acknowledged by ,states8 ,what ideal republics have fabled1 ours is to be4 ,nor need we fear the boldest experiments which the moral sense of the best women conceive and advocate4 ,certainly liberty is in danger of running into license while woman is excluded from exercising political as well as social restraint upon its excesses4 ,nor is the state planted securely till she possess equal privileges with man of forming its laws and taking a becoming part in their administration4 ,no jury of men1 however honorable or wise1 are equal to pronounce upon questions relating to woman2 questions involving considerations that concern the whole structure1 not only of society1 but of humanity itself4 ,the public morals are insecure till the family is chastely planted1 the state guarded by the continency of its male members4 ,a man defines his standing at the court of chastity by his views of women4 ,he cannot be any man's friend nor his own if not hers4 ,either nature dealt coldly by him in his descent1 else he is the victim of vices which his passions have inflamed till they have their own way with him4 ,they meet but with unwholesome springs1 ,and summers which infectious are2 ,they hear but when the mermaid sings1 ,and only see the falling star ,who ever dare ,affirm no woman chaste and fair4 ,the very name of woman becomes soiled if we seek to be related to her by the coarse ties of appetite1 instead of the tender threads of affection1 the charm of ideas4 ,there are pleasures for keeping as enjoying1--for using delicately1 the zest lasting long1 the more affluent when tasted with moderation and seldom4 ,who can to love more rich gift make ,than to love's self1 for love's own sake8 ,love1 that imports in every sense delight1 ,is fancied in the soul1 not appetite3 ,why love among the virtues is scarce known ,is that love is them all contract in one4 ,,iii4--,,family4 ,how fruitful may the smallest circle grow ,when we the secret of its culture know4 ,here is room enough1 however humble and unfurnished1 for the most expansive friendships1 the purest delights1 the noblest labors2 for where women are1 there open forth all possibilities of culture4 ,here high o'er head of spiteful fate1 ,jove cradles safe the ideal state4 ,a married life is most beautiful4 ,for what other thing can be such an ornament to a family as the association of husband and wife8 ,for it must not be said that sumptuous edifices1 walls covered with pictures1 and piazzas adorned with stones1--so admired by those who are ignorant of the ,good2 nor yet painted windows1 myrtle walks2 nor anything else which is the subject of astonishment to the stupid1--are the ornaments of a family4 ,but the beauty of a household consists in the conjunction of man and wife who are united to each other by destiny1 are consociated to the gods who preside over nuptials1 births1 and houses2 and who accord1 indeed1 with each other1 and have all things in common as far as to their bodies1 or rather their souls themselves2--who exercise a becoming authority over their house and servants1 are properly solicitous about the education of their children and pay an attention to the necessaries of life1 which is neither expensive nor negligent1 but moderate and appropriate4 ,for what can be better and more excellent1 as the most admirable ,homer says1 ',than when at home the husband and the wife ,unanimously live4' ,,the ,,goblet4 ,i drank delights from every cup1 ,arts1 institutions1 ,i drank up2 ,athirst1 ,i quaffed life's flowing bowls1 ,and sipped the flavors of all souls4 ,a sparkling cup remained for me1 ,the brimming fount of ,family2 ,this ,i am still drinking1 ,since1 to my thinking1 ,good wine beads here1 ,flagons of cheer1 ,nor laps the soul ,in ,lethe's bowl4 ,wine of immortal power ,into my chalice now doth pour2 ,prevailing wine1 ,juice of the ,nine1 ,flavored of sods1 ,vintage of gods2 ,joyance benign ,this wondrous wine ,ever at call2-- ,wine maddening none1 ,wine saddening none1 ,wine gladdening all1 ,makes love's cup ruddier glow1 ,genius and grace its overflow4 ,i drained the drops of every cup1 ,times1 institutions ,i drank up3 ,still ,beauty pours the enlivening wine1 ,fills high her glass to me and mine2 ,her cup of sparkling youth1 ,of love first found1 and loyal truth3 ,i know1 again ,i know1 ,her fill of life and overflow4 ,when ,i find my friends are not of the same age as when ,i first knew them1 ,i may conclude myself1 not them1 to be decaying and losing flavor4 ,still youth and innocency are the sole solvents of all doubts and infidelities2 the faiths of women and children in friendship1 ever fresh demonstrations of life's sufficiency and imperishableness4 ,families never die1 since they trace their pedigree to ,adam the ,first1 who is of immortal ancestry4 ,first suckled at our mother's breast our faiths survive all subsequent modifications2 embrace the friendships we form1 and color the whole of life4 ,our intellectual creed may change2 temperament1 calling1 social position1 fortune1 sect1 may phrase differently the delightful lay she sang to us--its tone still lingers in the memory of our affections1 holding the heart loyal1 and if trusted to the end takes us triumphantly through life4 ,ever the feminine leadeth us on4 ,every prospect the mother gains is soon commanded by her children3 our comforts and satisfactions life-long having the voice and countenance of woman4 ,,iv4--,,children4 ,heaven lies about us in our infancy4 ,our notion of the perfect society embraces the family as its centre and ornament4 ,nor is there a paradise planted till the children appear in the foreground to animate and complete the picture4 ,without these1 the world were a solitude1 houses desolate1 hearts homeless2 there were neither perspectives1 nor prospects2 ourselves were not ourselves1 nor were there a future for us3 ,in their good gifts we hopeful see ,the fairer selves we fain would be4 ,socrates comprised all objects of his search in ,whate'er of good or ill can man befall ,in his own house1 rightly conceiving this to be the seminary of the virtues and foundation of states4 ,there it stands1 the ornament of the landscape1 and for the human hospitalities3 we cannot render it too attractive4 ,let it be the home of beauty1 the haunt of affection1 of ideas4 ,let its chambers open eastward admitting the sunshine for our own and children's sake4 ,do they not covet the clear sky1 delighting in the blue they left so lately1 nay cannot wholly leave in coming into nature1 whereof they are ever asking news8 ,these gay enthusiasts must run eagerly1 and never have enough of it4 ,how soon the clouds clear away from their faces6 ,how sufficient they are to the day1 and the joy it brings them6 ,their poise and plenitude rebuke us4 ,happy those early days when ,i ,shined in my angel infancy2 ,before ,i taught my soul to wound ,my conscience with a sinful sound1 ,or taught my soul to fancy aught ,but a white celestial thought1 ,or had the black art to dispense ,a several sin to every sense1 ,but felt through all this fleshly dress ,bright shoots of everlastingness4 ,charming pictures these bright boys1 confiding girls1 as full of promise to themselves as we were at their age2 are still1 if faithful to the beautiful vision4 ,why else should the flame pale as we come up into life1 we pleasing ourselves nor others more1 perhaps despair of maintaining the virtues we espoused so eagerly in our youth8 ,must we ,when we've enjoyed our ends then lose them1 ,and all our appetites be but as dreams ,to laugh at in our ages8 ,if this fresh score of years did not deceive us1 shall a life of threescore1 with its deeper glances into the mystery1 lead us to doubt the longevity of a sentiment of whose imperishableness that life itself is the best evidence we need ask8 ,are we to be left orphans when taken from nature's arms1 robbed of all that made life desirable before8 ,nature cared for us2 ,persons failed us1 and all unawares we lapsed out of our paradise1 its gates barred against us4 ,i cannot reach it2 and my striving eye ,dazzles at it1 as at eternity4 ,were now that chronicle alive1 ,those white designs which children drive1 ,and the thoughts of each harmless hour1 ,with their content too in my power1 ,quickly would ,i make my path even1 ,and by mere playing go to heaven4 ,dear harmless age1 the short1 swift span ,where weeping virtue parts with man2 ,where love without lust dwells1 and bends ,what way we please1 without self-ends3 ,an age of mysteries6 which he ,must live twice that would ,god's face see2 ,where angels guard1 and with it play1 ,angels1 which foul men drive away4 ',tis sad to consider how long time is consumed in wiping away the stains which had been insinuated into the breast during these earlier years and up to coming manhood1--to what we call the maturity of our powers4 ,life is too much for most4 ,so much of age1 so little youth2 living for the most part in the moment1 and dating existence by the memory of its burdens4 ,men think they once were not1 and fear the like fate may overtake them1 as if time were older than their minds4 ',tis because we always were that we cannot trace our beginnings to the atheism of no-being and resolve ourselves into nothing4 ,children save us4 ,rather are we saved by remaining children1 as ,christ said4 ,have we forgotten how things looked to us when we were young2 how the dull world the old people lived in seemed to us8 ',twas not ours1 nor their dry theism2 and our fresh hearts whispered reverently3 ,is not your paradise an ,inferno8 ,please never name it4 ,while in ,heaven ,i speak not of it3 ,i hum that song to myself4 ,will you spoil my paradise too8 ,come with me1 come1 and ,i will show you ,elysium2 ,i know all about it2 ,i am not deceived4 ,i feel it to be solid1 safe4 ,it makes good its pledges always4 ,i have a home of all delights--am admitted when ,i please1 while you seem vagabonds and woebegones1 bereft of friends1 the ,friend of friends4 ,am ,i to quit my present satisfactions for your promised joys4 ,unkind6 this taking me from my paradise1 unless you conduct me to a happier4 ,v4 ,,culture4 ,o for the coming of that glorious time1 ,when1 prizing knowledge as their noblest wealth ,and best protection1 liberal states shall own ,an obligation on their part to teach ,them1 who are born to serve her and obey2 ,binding themselves by statute to secure ,for all the children whom their soil maintains ,the rudiments of letters2 and to inform ,the mind with moral and religious truth ,both understood and practised--so that none ,however destitute1 be left to drop ,by timely culture unsustained1 or run ,into a wild disorder2 or be forced ,to drudge through life without the aid ,of intellectual implements and tools2 ,a savage horde among the civilized1 ,a servile band among the lordly free4 ,,wordsworth4 ,illustration3 ,decorative banner of thistle blooms and leaves ,,culture4 ,i4--,,modern ,,teaching4 ,saxon ,alfred decreed that every man who had so much as two hides of land1 should bring up his children to learning till they were fifteen years of age at least1 that they might be religious and live happily2 else1 he said1 they were but beasts and sots1 dangerous to themselves and the state4 ,and the state's true glory lies in its calling forth into fullest exercise and giving scope and right direction to the gifts of its children2 seeking out especially and fostering the best born as they rise1 and training these for educators of the coming generations4 ,the ,parent of parents1 the guardian of all gifts born into it1 society should neglect none1 sequester none from places and honors to which they are entitled by birthright of genius or acquirement4 ,every child1 the gifted by divine right1 is sent to cherish and redeem the race2 whom to neglect or divert from its aim were base oversight and abuse of the race itself4 ,far too noble1 too precious be any to be used for ends merely secondary1 secular1 and thus spoiled for their own and ,god's intents4 ,yet simple as this duty seems1 society with all its aims and appliances1 has not as yet attained the refinement of culture needful to the receiving of a child into its bosom1 and of educating it to the full demands of its endowments4 ,with the child comes the seed of states2 the family being the nursery of the citizen1 the measure of a people's civilization4 ,as the homes1 so the state2 as the parents1 so the children4 ,nor has society fathered its functions till all children1 befriended from the first1 are fashioned into the image each is capable of attaining4 ,other goods are but aids to this end2 all are necessary for educating the human being1 since the child is the summary of all gifts1 and the most precious of all trusts committed to the state for trial and training4 ,yet still the decease of gifts follows fast on their birth1 and parents are oftener called beside the bier of these children of the sun than to their nuptials or coronation4 ,they hold their jubilees in weeds rather2 and the untimeliness of genius is the tragedy of life as of letters4 ,amidst the sickliness and wane of things1 neither poet nor saint survives his laurel for more than a day4 ,far from treating the human being with anything like the subtlety and skill displayed by the ancient masters1 we wait for the first hint of an institution for training youth into the fulness of their powers1 by the genial touch of sensibility1 the magnetism of thought4 ,left instead to the superficial culture of the sects1 the traditions of the elders1 the guidance of worldlings1 they slide soon into vague conjectures1 run adrift on the sea of doubt1 the shoals of expediency1 bereft of faith in themselves as in things unseen and ideal4 ,see gifted youths rush out to feed on whims2 ,fashion craves their hours1 low hopes their aim1 ,to win not noble women for their brides1 ,but titled slaves1 heirs to some teasing caste1 ,for beauty without culture seems mere show2 ,as if great nature laid not on her tints ,with more contrivance than the brush of art2 ,or schools where grammars hide the place of sense1 ,and shallow stammering drowns the native voice4 ,not letters but life chiefly educate if we are educatable4 ,but experience follows oftenest too late for most and too distant from the work to help us directly without an interpreter to assist in making timely use of it4 ,fortunate will it be1 if by instinct and mother wit we take life at first hand1 converting it forthwith into thought and habit4 ,character comes of temperament far more than of acquirement4 ,and the most that culture performs is the drawing forth1 fashioning and polishing the natural gifts4 ,but we cannot create what is not inborn4 ,a fine brain is a spiritual endowment1 as from the head of ,jove sprang ,minerva4 ,centuries of culture pass into pure power2 piety and genius are parents of piety and genius4 ,but less discriminating than were the ancient carvers in wood and ivory1 who1 when they had an order for a head of ,hermes1 or any ordinary god even1 searched carefully for substances adapted to receive the proper form1 states attempt to fashion saints and rulers out of any materials that chance brings to hand4 ,omitting mind1 or overriding it in our haste to come at immediate and superficial results1 we ignore ideas and principles altogether4 ,aiming at little we attain little4 ,for while our country opens the freest scope for the exercise of the higher gifts of genius and character1 we cherish these but feebly in our public or private training4 ,the highest prizes held forth to youth are not only beneath the aims of a noble ambition1 but the stimulus for their attainment is wanting4 ,even in ,new ,england1 culture is external1 provincial2 neglectful of the better parts of body and mind2 behind the old countries1 that of the ancient states4 ,we cram the memory with the lore of foreign tongues1 the understanding with a medley of learning1 leaving fancy1 imagination1 the moral sentiment1 mainly to shift for themselves--the forming of the manners1 motives1 aims and aspirations4 ,then what substitutes have we1 for the falconry1 archery1 the hunting1 fishing1 of earlier and what we deem barbarous times8 ,yet these were sports1 heroic and wholesome1 giving a national coloring and strength of character3 the wrestling too1 throwing the quoit1 and other manly games1 horsemanship1 boating1 swimming1 were a natural gymnastic for body and mind4 ,war also had its advantages4 ,so the plays and games were schools of genius and valor3 the people were refined by contact with the refinements of the best citizens1 the guardians of public taste and honor providing hereby a polite and manly culture suited to the needs of the state4 ,education extended into the age of ripe maturity4 ,nor was the disciple committed to himself till he became the master4 ,and through life he was prompted by incentives of virtue and fame4 ,the state was venerable1 ennobled as it was by the genius and services of great men2 great men earning honorably their renown by teaching4 ',tis noble minds who noble men create1 ,and they who have great manners form mankind4 ,happy the man who wins the confidence of the rising youth of his time4 ,he becomes priest and professor elect without degrees of synods or universities4 ,he shapes the future of the next generation as of the succeeding4 ,a noble artist he cherishes visions of excellence not easily impersonated or spoken4 ,his life and teachings are studies for high ideals4 ,,ii4--,,socratic ,,dialectic4 ,the highest end of instruction is to discipline and liberalize mind and character by familiarizing the thoughts with those of the learned and wise4 ,character is inspired by admiration of character1 intellect by participating in intellect4 ,the masters form masters4 ,and had ,i the choice of my class1 ,i would put ,plato's works at once into its hands4 ,and1 for a beginning1--say the ,alcibiades of the earlier ,dialogues4 ,i know of no discipline under the care of a thoughtful instructor so fitting for educating the reason1 quickening the moral sense1 refining the sensibilities1 fashioning the manners1 ennobling the character1 as exercises in the ,socratic dialectic3 opening the whole armory of gifts1 it sharpens and polishes these for the victories of life4 ,the youth who masters ,plato wins fairly his degree alike in humanity and divinity4 ,he has the key to the mysteries1 ancient and modern4,c ,footnote ,c3 ,it might be thought serious trifling1 says the accomplished ,bishop ,berkeley1 to tell my readers that the greatest of men had ever a high esteem of ,plato1 whose writings are the touchstone of a hasty and shallow mind1 whose philosophy has been the admiration of ages2 which supplied patriots1 magistrates and lawgivers to the most flourishing states1 as well as fathers of the church and doctors of the schools4 ,albeit1 in these days1 the depths of that old learning are rarely fathomed4 ,and yet it were happy for these lands if our young nobility and gentry1 instead of modern maxims would imbibe the notions of the great men of antiquity4 ,but in these loose times many an empty head is shook at ,aristotle and ,plato1 as well as the ,holy ,scriptures4 ,certainly1 where a people are well educated1 the art of piloting a state is best learned from the writings of ,plato4 ,take the following as an example of the pure dialectic method as of metaphysic2 ,in what way1 asks ,socrates1 may we attain to know the soul itself with the greatest clearness8 for when we know this1 it seems we shall know ourselves4 ,now1 in the name of the gods1 whether are we not ignorant of the right meanings of that ,delphic inscription just now mentioned1 ',know thyself8' ,alcibiades4 ,what meaning8 what have you in your thoughts1 ,socrates1 when you ask the question8 ,socrates4 ,i will tell you what ,i suspect this inscription means1 and what particular thing it advises us to do4 ,for a just resemblance of it is1 ,i think1 not to be found wherever one pleases1 but in only one thing1 the sight4 ,alcibiades4 ,how do you mean8 ,socrates4 ,consider it jointly with me4 ,were a man to address himself to the outward human eye1 as it were some other man2 and were he to give it this counsel1 ,see yourself1 what particular thing should we suppose that he advises the eye to do8 ,should we not suppose that it was to look at such a thing as that the eye by looking at it1 might see itself8 ,alcibiades4 ,certainly we should4 ,socrates4 ,what kind of thing then do we think of by looking at which we see things at which we look1 and at the same time see ourselves8 ,alcibiades4 ',tis evident1 ,socrates1 that for this purpose we must look at mirrors and other things of like kind4 ,socrates4 ,you are right4 ,and has not the eye itself1 with which we see1 something of the same kind belonging to it8 ,alcibiades4 ,most certainly it has4 ,socrates4 ,you have observed then1 that the face of the person who looks in the eye of another person1 appears visible to himself in the eye of the person opposite to him1 as in a mirror4 ,and we therefore call this the pupil1 because it exhibits the image of that person who examines it4 ,alcibiades4 ,what you say is true4 ,socrates4 ,the eye beholding an eye and looking in the most excellent part of it in that which it sees1 may thus see itself8 ,alcibiades4 ,apparently so4 ,socrates4 ,but if the eye look at any other part of the man1 or at anything whatever1 except what this part of the eye happens to be like1 it will not see itself4 ,alcibiades4 ,it is true4 ,socrates4 ,if therefore the eye would see itself1 it must look in an eye1 and in that place of the eye1 too1 where the virtue of the eye is naturally seated2 and the virtue of the eye is sight4 ,alcibiades4 ,i am aware that it is so4 ,socrates4 ,whether then is it not true1 my friend ,alcibiades1 that the soul if she know herself1 must look at soul1 and especially at that place in the soul in which wisdom1 the virtue of the soul1 is ingenerated1 and also at whatsoever else this virtue of the soul resembles8 ,alcibiades4 ,to me1 ,socrates1 it seems true4 ,socrates4 ,do we know of any place in the soul more divine than that which is the seat of knowledge and intelligence8 ,alcibiades4 ,we do not4 ,socrates4 ,this1 therefore1 in the soul resembles the divine nature4 ,and a man1 looking at this1 and realizing all that which is divine and ,god and wisdom1 would gain the most knowledge of himself4 ,alcibiades4 ,it is apparent4 ,socrates4 ,and to know one's self we acknowledge to be wisdom4 ,alcibiades4 ,by all means4 ,socrates4 ,shall we not say1 therefore1 that as mirrors are clearer1 purer1 and more splendid than that which is most analogous to a mirror in the eye1 in like manner1 ,god is purer and more splendid than that which is best in our soul8 ,alcibiades4 ,it is likely1 ,socrates4 ,socrates4 ,looking therefore at ,god1 we should make use of him as the most beautiful mirror1 and among human concerns we should look at the virtue of the soul1 and thus by so doing shall we especially see and know our very self4 ,alcibiades4 ,yes4 ,and yet knowing the fascinations that beset gifted young men1 one might say to them at parting1 as ,socrates did to the accomplished ,alcibiades1 when the latter intimated that he would begin thenceforward to cultivate the science of justice3 ,i wish you may persevere4 ,but ,i am terribly afraid for you2 not that ,i in the least distrust the goodness of your disposition2 but perceiving the torrent of the times1 ,i fear you may be borne away with it1 in spite of your own resistance and all my endeavors in your aid4 ,,iii4--,,pythagorean ,,discipline4 ,let us see1 too1 how wisely the great master ,pythagoras went to his work4 ,he prepared his disciples for learning by many trials2 for he did not receive into the number of his associates any who came to him till he had subjected them to various examinations4 ,in the first place1 he inquired after what manner they associated with their parents and relations generally2 next1 he surveyed their unreasonable laughter1 their silence1 their speaking when it was not proper2 and farther1 still1 what were their desires1 their intimacies with their companions1 their conversation2 how they employed their leisure time1 and what were the subjects of their joy and grief4 ,he likewise surveyed their form1 their gait1 gestures and whole motion of their body1 their voice1 complexion and physiognomy1 considering all these natural indications to be the manifest signs of the unapparent manners of the soul4 ,having thus subjected them to this scrutiny1 he next suffered them to pass a good while seemingly unobserved by him1 that he might the better judge of each one how he was disposed towards stability and a love of learning1 and whether he was sufficiently fortified against the flatteries of popularity and false honor and glory4 ,after this1 he advised such to maintain a long silence1 that he might observe how far they were disposed towards continence in speech1 and that most difficult of all victories--the victory over the tongue4 ,thus practically he made trial of their aptitudes to be educated1 for he was as anxious that they should be modest and discreet1 as that they should not speak unadvisedly4 ,he likewise directed his attention to every other particular1 such as whether they were astonished at the outbreaks of immoderate passion and desire4 ,nor did he superficially consider how they were affected by these2 or whether they were contentious or ambitious1 or how they were disposed as to friendship and strife4 ,and if on his surveying all these particulars accurately1 they appeared to him endued with worthy manners1 he next directed his attention to their facility in learning and memory2 first whether they were able to follow what was said with rapidity and perspicuity2 and in the next place1 whether a certain love and temperance attracted them to the disciplines by which they were taught2 whether they loved to learn and to be governed2 also how they were disposed as to gentleness1 which he called elegance of manners2 conceiving all ferocity of temper as hostile to his mode of education4 ,for impudence1 shamelessness1 intemperance1 slothfulness1 slowness of learning1 unrestrained licentiousness1 disgrace and the like1 are attendants of savage manners1 but the contrary of these are gentleness and mildness4 ,of food he held that whatsoever obstructs divination should be shunned4 ,and that the juvenile age should make trial of temperance--this being alone of all the virtues alike adapted to youths and maidens1 and comprehends the good both of body and mind1 and also the desire for the most excellent studies and pursuits4 ,boys he thought were especially dear to divinity1 and he exhorted women to use words of good omen through the whole of life1 and to endeavor that others may predict good things of them4 ,he paid great attention to the health of body and mind1 using unction and the bath often1 wrestling1 leaping with weights in the hands1 also pantomimes with a view to strengthening the body1 selecting for this purpose opposite exercises4 ,music he thought contributed greatly to health1 as well as to purifying the heart and manners1 and he called it a medicine when he so used it1 conceiving that each faculty had its particular melody4 ,he placed in the middle a player on the lyre1 and seated around him were those who were able to sing4 ,and when the person struck the lyre1 they sang certain paeans1 through which they were sure to be delighted1 and to become orderly and graceful1 and he had melodies devised as remedies against the passions1 as anger1 despondency1 complaint1 inordinate desire and the rest1 which afforded the greatest relief to these distempers of the soul4 ,he likewise used dancing1 walking and conversation4 ,rulers1 who received their country from the multitude of citizens as a common deposit1 were to transmit it faithfully to their posterity as a hereditary possession2 their language was to be such as to render them worthy of belief without an oath4 ,and as parents1 they were so to manage their domestic affairs as to make the government of them the object of deliberate choice1 being kindly disposed towards their offspring1 as they were the only animals that were susceptible of moral obedience4 ,and they were to associate with their wives as companions for life1 being mindful that other compacts were engraved on tablets and pillars1 but those with wives were inserted in children1 and that they should endeavor to be beloved by them1 not through nature alone1 of which they were not the causes1 but through choice2 for this was voluntary beneficence2 they remembering1 also1 that they received their wives from the vestal hearth with libations1 and brought them home as if they were suppliants of the gods themselves4 ,by orderly conduct and temperance1 they were to be examples both to their families and the city in which they lived1 revering beautiful and worthy manners1 expelling sluggishness from all their actions1 opportunity being the chief good in all4 ,separation of parents and children from one another was the greatest of injuries both to themselves and the ,state4 ,youths and virgins were to be educated in labor and exercises conducing to health1 using food convenient thereto1 and in a temperate and tolerant life4 ,of things in human life1 there were many in which to be late conversant was best4 ,a boy was to be so educated and fed1 as not to have the desires awakened till the nuptial hour4 ,parents benefited their children prior to their birth1 and were the causes of their good conduct afterwards4 ,hence the children owed them as many thanks as a dead man would owe to him who should be able to restore him back to life4 ,and they were to associate with one another in such a manner as not be in a state of hostility1 and be easily reconciled after any disputes1 exhibiting a modesty of behavior to their elders1 benevolent dispositions towards parents and love and regard to all deserving these4 ,all who aspired after true glory1 were to be such in reality as they wished to appear to be to others4 ,the most pure and unadulterated character was that of him who gave himself to the contemplation and practice of the most beautiful things1 and was a lover as well as student of wisdom4 ,it was by disciplines and inventions like these that he sought to heal and purify the soul1 to revive and save its divine part1 and thus conduct to the intelligible ,one its divine ,eye1 which is better worth saving than ten thousand corporeal eyes3 since by its sight alone when thus strengthened and clarified1 the truth pertaining to all beings is clearly perceived4 ,,iv4--,,mother ,,tongue4 ,let foreign nations of their language boast ,what fine variety each tongue affords1 ,i like our language as our men and coast1 ,who cannot dress it well want wit not words4 ,great1 verily1 says ,camden1 was the glory of our tongue before the ,norman conquest1 in this1 that the old ,english could express most aptly all the conceptions of the mind in their own speech without borrowing from any4 ,we still draw from the same wells of meaning as did ,chaucer and ,camden2 the language1 by additions from foreign sources1 as by native growth1 having now become the most composite of any2 it is the one we speak1 and affect to teach4 ,if we have few masters1 it is because we yet cultivate other tongues at its cost4 ,scholars praise the exceeding richness and beauty of the best writers of the age of ,elizabeth1 but fail to inform us by what happy chances1 whether by force of genius altogether1 or more natural methods of study1 the language and literature came to its prime in that period4 ,meanwhile it were not amiss for us to listen to the great authors and teachers of those golden days when our tongue had the sweep and splendor1 the force1 depth1 accuracy1 the grace and flexibility proper to its genius and idiom1 if we may learn from these authorities by what method they attained to their proficiency in its use2 instructors of ,princes1 as they were1 and inspirers of those who made the literature4 ,roger ,ascham--,queen ,elizabeth's school-master--proposed after teaching the common rudiments of grammar to begin a course of double translation1 first from ,latin into ,english1 and shortly after from ,english into ,latin1 correcting the mistakes of the student and leading to the formation of a classical style1 by pointing out the differences between the re-translation and the original1 and explaining their reasons4 ,his whole system is built upon the principle of dispensing as much as possible with the details of grammar1 and he supports his theory by a triumphant reference to its practical effects1 especially as displayed in the case of ,queen ,elizabeth1 whose well known proficiency in ,latin1 he declares to have been obtained without grammatical rules1 after the very simplest had been mastered4 ,sir ,philip ,sidney1 whose opinions are of the highest importance in these matters1 speaking in his ,defence of ,poesie1 says3 ,another will say that ,english wanteth grammar4 ,nay1 truly1 it hath that praise that it wants not grammar2 for grammar it might have1 but needs not1 being so easie in itselfe and so void of those cumbersome differencies of cases1 genders1 moods and tenses1 which ,i think was a piece of the tower of ,babylon's curse1 that a man should be put to schoole to learn his mother tongue4 ,but for the uttering sweetly and properly the conceit of the minde which is the end of speech1 that it hath equally with any other tongue in the world4,d ,footnote ,d3 ,we learn languages1 says ,luther1 much better by way of mouth at home1 in the street1 than out of books4 ,letters are dead words2 the utterances of the mouth1 are living words1 which in writing can never stand forth so distinct and excellent1 as the soul of man bodies them forth through the mouth4 ,tell me where was there ever a language1 which men could learn to speak with correctness and propriety by the rules of grammar4 ,yet let none think or conclude from all this1 that ,i would reject the grammars altogether4 ,milton1 to whom1 next to ,shakespeare our tongue owes most1 and who spent much time in compiling an ,english ,dictionary1 writes in one of his ,italian ,letters3 ,whoever in a state1 knows how to form wisely the manners and men and to rule them at home and in war1 by excellent institutions1 him in the first place above all others ,i should esteem worthy of honor4 ,but next to him1 the man who strives in maxims and rules the method and habit of speaking and writing derived from a good age of the nation1 and as it were to fortify the same round with a kind of wall1 the daring to overleap which a law only short of that of ,romulus should be used to prevent4 ,should we choose to compare the two in respect to utility1 it is the former alone that can make the social existence of the citizens just and holy1 but it is the latter that makes it splendid and beautiful1 which is the next thing to be desired4 ,the one1 as ,i believe1 supplies a noble courage and intrepid counsels against an enemy invading the territory2 the other takes to himself the task of extirpating and defeating by means of a learned detective police of ears1 and a light-infantry of good authors1 that barbarism which makes large inroads upon the minds of men and is a destructive intestine enemy to genius4 ,nor is it to be considered of small importance what language1 pure or corrupt1 a people has1 or what is their customary degree of propriety in speaking it--a matter which oftener than once was the salvation of ,athens4 ,nay1 as it is ,plato's opinion1 that1 by a change in the manner and habit of dress1 serious commotions and mutations are portended in a commonwealth1 ,i1 for my part1 would rather believe that the fall of that city1 and low and obscure condition1 followed on the general vitiation of its usage in the matter of speech4 ,for let the words of a country be in part unhandsome and offensive in themselves1 in part debased by wear1 and wrongly uttered1 and what do they declare but by no light indication1 that the inhabitants of that country are an indolent1 idly-yawning race1 with minds already prepared for any amount of servility8 ,on the other hand1 we have never heard that any empire1 any state1 did not flourish in at least a middling degree as long as its liking and care for its language lasted4 ,devotees of grammatical studies have not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression4 ,if we consult our experience we shall find that we owe much to the home dialect1 the school1 the books we read1 the letters we write2 to our fellowships1 the practice of such living speakers and writers as chance threw in our way1 our habits of thinking1 observations of life and things1 the cultivation of the sensibilities1 imagination1 the common sense1 more than all else besides4 ,a man's speech is the measure of his culture2 a graceful utterance the first born of the arts4 ,nature is the armory of genius4 ,cities serve it poorly2 books and colleges at second hand2 the eye craves the spectacle of the horizon1 of mountain1 ocean1 river and plain1 the clouds and stars3 actual contact with the elements1 sympathy with the seasons as these rise and roll4 ,and whoever will strike bold strokes for institutions and literature1 must be often afoot with nature and thought in his eye for grasping the select rhetoric for his theme4 ,illustration3 ,small decoration of a mask ,,vi4 ,,books4 ,as great a store ,have we of books as bees of herbs1 or more1 ,and the great task to try them1 know the good1 ,to discern weeds and judge of wholesome food1 ,is a rare scant performance4 ,,daniel4 ,illustration3 ,decorative banner of a bee among flowers and leaves ,,books4 ,good books1 like good friends1 are few and chosen2 the more select the more enjoyable2 and like these are approached with diffidence1 nor sought too familiarly nor too often1 having the precedence only when friends tire4 ,the most mannerly of companions1 accessible at all times1 in all moods1 they frankly declare the author's mind1 without giving offence4 ,like living friends they too have their voice and physiognomies1 and their company is prized as old acquaintances4 ,we seek them in our need of counsel or of amusement1 without impertinence or apology1 sure of having our claims allowed4 ,a good book justifies our theory of personal supremacy1 keeping this fresh in the memory and perennial4 ,what were days without such fellowship8 ,we were alone in the world without it4 ,nor does our faith falter though the secret we search for and do not find in them will not commit itself to literature1 still we take up the new issue with the old expectation1 and again and again1 as we try our friends after many failures at conversation1 believing this visit will be the favored hour and all will be told us4 ,nor do ,i know what book ,i can well spare1 certainly none that has admitted me1 though it be but for the moment and by the most oblique glimpse1 into the mind and personality of its author2 though few there are that prefer such friendly claim to one's regard1 and satisfy expectation as he turns their leaves4 ,our favorites are few2 since only what rises from the heart reaches it1 being caught and carried on the tongues of men wheresoever love and letters journey4 ,nor need we wonder at their scarcity or the value we set upon them2 life1 the essence of good letters as of friendship1 being its own best biographer1 the artist that portrays the persons and thoughts we are1 and are becoming4 ,and the most that even he can do1 is but a chance stroke or two at this fine essence housed in the handsome dust1 but too fugitive and coy to be caught and held fast for longer than the passing glance2 the master touching ever and retouching the picture he leaves unfinished4 ,my life has been the poem ,i would have writ1 ,but ,i could not both live and utter it4 ,i find books like persons more attractive as they are the more suggestive1 more mythical and difficult to render at once to the senses1 and enjoy them the more for this blending of nature with mind1--the text sparkling with the author's personality4 ,what is thus implied is more gracefully delivered than if written literally2 it piques then the fancy more and calls the higher gifts into play2 and an author best serves me who1 speaking alike to imagination and reason1 arms with figures apt for occasions1 thus pluming the genius for discourse4 ,and the like may be said of the dictionaries3 opened at hazard in lively moods1 the columns become charged with thought1 as if each word were blood-wise and fleshed with meaning4 ,again1 books professing system and completeness are wont to be dry and unprofitable save for their facts and inferences2 truth the flowing essence of things1 the substance of being1 accosting the mind most gracefully as a flowing form1 fixed for the moment of passing only in the mind's eye1 and is studied to best advantage rather in books of biography and poetry than of history or science1 wherein the personality is oftenest lost in abstractions of fact4 ,reading1 like conversation1 is an idealism most profitable as it calls imagination into play1 and thus leads forth all other gifts4 ,books of table-talk have this advantage over most others2 being the best companions for the moment1 they can be taken up and laid down without loss1 and when sensible are best whetstones for the wits4 ,with the essayists1 the poets1 books of letters and lives1 one's library were always alive and inviting4 ,good for moments these are always good3 we may open by chance1 dip anywhere1 read in any order1 begin at the last paragraph and read backward as well2 obvious consecutiveness being of less consequence4 ,nor do ,i find the logic the worse when thus seemingly broken and obscure1 since each paragraph is a unit standing apart yet all related in the perspective which the reader commands4 ,we could not spare from our galaxy the great essayists and moralists1 ,pliny1 ,plutarch1 ,xenophon1 ,plato1 ,epictetus1 ,seneca1 ,marcus ,aurelius1 ,montaigne1 ,bacon1 ,sir ,thomas ,browne ,cowley1 ,coleridge1 and the rest2 each delineating in his proper way that antique faith in man and the world1 which being one and universal in essence1 unites all mankind4 ,we know the history of these pieces of life1 these experiences recorded for us by their inspired authors1 as if themselves were scribes of the spirit and committed it to letters for our especial benefit4 ,any library is an attraction4 ,and there is an indescribable delight--who has not felt it that deserves the name of scholar--in mousing at choice among the alcoves of antique book-shops especially1 and finding the oldest of these sometimes newest of the new1 fresher1 more suggestive than the book just published and praised in the reviews4 ,nor is the pleasure scarcely less of cutting the leaves of the new volume1 opening by preference at the end rather than title-page1 and seizing the author's conclusions at a glance4 ,very few books repay the reading in course4 ,nor can we excuse an author if his page does not tempt us to copy passages into our common places1 for quotation1 proverbs1 meditation1 or other uses4 ,a good book is fruitful of other books2 it perpetuates its fame from age to age1 and makes eras in the lives of its readers4 ,one must be rich in thought and character to owe nothing to books1 though preparation is necessary to profitable reading2 and the less reading is better than more2--book-struck men are of all readers least wise1 however knowing or learned4 ,books cannot make the mind1 ,which we must bring apt to be set aright1 ,yet do they rectify it in that kind ,and touch it so as that they turn that way ,where judgment lies4 ,and though we may not find ,the certain place of truth1 yet do they stay ,and entertain us near about the same1 ,and give the soul the best delight that may ,encheer it most1 and make our spirits enflame ,to thoughts of glory and to worthy deeds4 ,moreover for gifts1 what so gracefully bestowed as fitting books conveying what no words of the giver could convey8 ,were the history of the few books of the heart published1 what more enduring compliment would this confer on their authors6 ,perhaps the finest books have least fame and find but a few choice readers4 ',tis high praise bestowed on an author that his book is taken up with love and expectation1 we coming to his page again and again without disappointment4 ,to be enjoyable a book must be wholesome like nature1 and flavored with the religion of wisdom4 ,books of letters bring the reader nearest to the life and personality of the writer3 ,for more than kisses letters mingle souls1 ,for then friends absent meet4 ,written with this advantage of perspective1 the epistle is oftentimes more acceptable than were the interview1 more discreet and opportune1 since committing ourselves to the writing with a kind of reserved abandonment1 if ,i may thus characterize our mood1 which in conversation we might naturally overleap1 we give that only in which another may modestly sympathize and share--so shading our egotism as to tell all about ourselves with the delicacy of self-respect without wounding that of others4 ,epistolary correspondence is the most difficult and delicate of all composition4 ,and this perhaps accounts for the few books of the kind in our or any language2 and the best of these mostly written by women who give themselves heartily to sentiment4 ,one may think himself fortunate if the gift be his1 and his experience find expression in his correspondence4 ,perhaps the diary has this advantage over letters2 we make it our confidant committing to its leaves what we would not to another2 sure of the sacred trust being kept for us4 ,and the most interesting biographies are composed largely of these4 ,the more autobiographical the more attractive4 ,the keeping of a journal is an education4 ,let every one try his hand at one and begin young4 ,if it get the best of his hours and an autobiography out of him1 neither his time has been misspent nor has he lived in vain4 ,a life worth living is worth recording4 ,to what end lives any1 if he fail of getting apparent order at least into it2 living in a manner worthy of celebrity8 ,life were poor enough that does not organize the chaos and bring the joy of creation1 pronouncing it and all things good1 excellence ever falling naturally into order and melody4 ,let one value above all literary fame the gift of seizing and portraying his privatest thought1--the homely furnitures and primogenitures1--and if but partially successful consider himself as having attained the fairest laurels the muse has to bestow4 ,as the best fruits of the season fall latest and keep the longest1 so those of a lifetime2 and fortunate is he whose genius thus gathers his choicest samples housed carefully in a book for any who may relish their flavor4 ,one cannot be well read unless well seasoned in thought and experience4 ,life makes the man4 ,and he must have lived in all his gifts and become acclimated herein to profit by his readings4 ,living at the breadth of ,shakspeare1 the depth of ,plato1 the height of ,christ1 gives the mastery1 or if not that1 a worthy discipleship4 ,life alone divines life4 ,we read as we live2 the book being for us the deeper or the shallower as we are4 ,if read from the reason1 it answers to the reason1 but fails of finding imagination1 the moral sentiment1 the affections1 fails of making valid its claims upon the deepest instincts of the heart1--those critics of inspiration and interpreters1--all books owing their credibility to the fact of being written from1 and addressed to these1 as eye-witnesses and sponsors4 ,mothers of our mothers we are ever at their teats4 ,most owe more to tradition than to culture or literature2 the best of literature as of nurture1 being still largely tinctured with tradition4 ,our debt to the ,hebrew scriptures has been greater doubtless than to any literature hitherto accessible to us of the ,saxon stock2 greater than to all foreign literatures besides4 ,and now the instincts prompt thoughtful minds as never before to explore the prime sources and drink freely at the fountains4 ,are mouldy records now the living springs1 ,whose healing waters slake the thirst within8 ,oh6 never yet hath mortal drank ,a draught restorative ,that well'd not from the depths of his own soul4 ,very desirable it were since the gates of the ,east are now opening wide and giving the free commerce of mind with mind1 to collect and compare the ,bibles of the races for general circulation and careful reading4 ,for still out of the ,theban night rays the light of our day and blends with all our thinking and doing--,china1 ,egypt1 ,assyria1 ,persia1 ,palestine1 ,greece1 ,rome1 ,britain--the christendom and world of to-day4 ,why nibbling always where ,ye nothing fresh can find ,upon those rocks8 ,lo6 meadows green and fair6 ,come pasture here your mind1 ,ye bleating flocks4 ,,vii4 ,,counsels4 ,counsel is not so sacred a thing as praise1 since the former is only useful among men1 but the latter is for the most part reserved for the gods4--,,pythagoras4 ,illustration3 ,decorative banner of a butterfly among leaves ,,counsels4 ,i4--,,religious4 ,who shapes his ,godhead out of flesh or stone1 ,knows not a ,god2 but he who lives like one4 ,know1 that seeing you1 ,i divine your gods also4 ,why name them then one by one so sentimentally and so often8 ,being yours individually1 so unmistakably in your image1 surely none needs question or desire them4 ,a thousand thanks if you will lisp never a syllable more about them4 ,as ,i treat them civilly by my silence1 why persist thus pertinaciously in thrusting their claims upon my attention and then questioning my piety for not christening them8 ,o6 rare respecting silence1 deep is the religion that fathoms thine2 speaking most reverently when deepest1 and divining mysteries that none names devoutly4 ,what if the sacred name were the silent syllable in the saint's devotions1 and he ,one of the few1 who in his town ,honors all preachers1 is his own8 ,sermons ne'er hears1 or not so many ,as leaves no time to practise any8-- ,hears1 ponders reverently1 and then ,his practice preaches o'er again4 ,his parlor sermons rather are ,those to the eye than to the ear2 ,his prayers taking price and strength ,not from their loudness nor their length3 ,his murmurs have their music too1 ,ye mighty pipes1 as well as you2 ,nor yields the noblest nest ,of warbling seraphim to the ears of love ,a choicer lesson1 than the joyful breast ,of some poor panting turtle dove4 ,one sometimes thinks silence for a century were most worshipful since speech babbles so badly4 ,has not harlequin in bands and book played out his part the world over8--the drawl of sacred names been heard till sacred names seem profane1 and it were devout to fall into silence about them more eloquent than any speeches about sanctity8 ,if infidelity1 indifference1 scepticism1 sweep secretly the breadth and depths of ,christendom1 'tis but the binding spell of these superstitions about the name of ,one whom the love and admiration of all good men hold precious and will not let perish from love and remembrance4 ,what were ,christ ,jesus' life and gospel sweet1 ,if not in loving hearts he fix his holy seat8 ,if one's life is not worshipful1 no one cares for his professions4 ,piety is a sentiment3 the more natural it is1 the wholesomer4 ,nor is there piety where charity is wanting4 ,if one love not his brother whom he hath seen1 how can he love ,god whom he hath not seen4 ,none are deceived as to the spirit of their acquaintances3 the instinct of every village1 every home1 intimates true character4 ,we recognize goodness wherever we find it4 ',tis the same helpful influence1 beautifying the meanest as the greatest service by its manners1 doing most when least conscious1 as if it did it not4 ,a man's best things are nearest him1 ,lie at his feet2 ,it is the distant and the dim ,that we are sick to greet4 ,let us have unspoken creeds and these quick and operative4 ,i wish mine to be so1 for though it embosoms doctrines fit to shine in words1 it seems most becoming to publish truths thus vital by example rather1 sentiments so private shrinking from the frost of distrust1 the heat of controversy4 ,personal in their traits and colored with individual hues1 they court the confidences of silence1 and are unspeakable4 ,one needs but brighten his eyes to look deep into the depths of his heart and settle all disputes4 ,enlarge by a thought our view1 exalt it by a sentiment1 we find all men of our creed2 or1 far better1 superior to party or creed4 ,the uprise of an idea1 perception of a principle1 makes many one and inseparable4 ,the liberal mind is of no sect2 it shows to sects their departures from the ideal standard1 and thus maintains pure religion in the world4 ,but there are those whose minds1 like the pupil of the eye1 contract as the light increases4 ',tis a poor egotism that sees only its own image reflected in its vision4 ,only as thou beest it thou seest it4 ,how differently the different sects interpret the scriptures1 each according to its light and training6 ,i imagine our ,bible is more loosely read1 least understood of any book in the ,english tongue3 conceive a fresh generation coming to its perusal as to a volume just issued in modern type from a popular bookstore and reviewed in the journals4 ,how better acquit ourselves to the ,bibles of the world than by fairly measuring our private convictions with their spirit and teachings8 ,let us first acquaint ourselves with these ,records of ,revelation before we claim for ours the merit of being the only inspired volume2 ourselves the favored people--as if the ,truth were a geographical resident dwelling in our neighborhood only4 ,when thou approachest to ,the ,one1 ,self from thyself thou first must free1 ,thy cloak duplicity cast clean aside1 ,and in the ,being's ,being ,be4 ,one does not like to disturb the faith of his neighbors1 yet cannot speak truly on religious themes without touching the sensibilities of the weak1 and sometimes wounding where he sought sympathy and support4 ,it takes a good man to speak tenderly of matters of faith and practice in which good people have been bred1 their hearts being prompt to feel and act without questioning the head4 ,precious souls1 if not overwise1 or strong for reform2 the weak saints being as formidable impediments as the strong sinners1 both blocking the ways to amendment4 ,but temperament1 inborn tendencies1 predispositions1 determine one's cast of thinking or no-thinking1 and go far to shape his religious opinions4 ,our instincts1 faithfully drawn out and cherished by purity of life1 lead to ,theism as their flower and fruit4 ,if swayed by the senses we are natural ,pantheists1 at best idolaters and unbelievers in the ,personal ,mind4 ,the passions prevailing1 incline us to ,atheism1 or some superstition ending in scepticism1 and indifference to all religious considerations4 ,some whom we call virtuous1 are not so ,in their whole substance1 but their virtues grow ,but in their humors1 and at seasons show4 ,for when through tasteless1 flat humility1 ,in dough-baked men some harmlessness we see1 ',tis but his phlegm that's virtuous and not he4 ,so is the blood sometimes3 whoever ran ,to danger unimportuned1 he was then ,no better than a sanguine1 virtuous man4 ,so cloistered men1 who1 on pretence of fear ,all contributions to this world forbear1 ,have virtue in melancholy1 and only there4 ,spiritual1 choleric critics1 who in all ,religions find fault1 and forgive no fall1 ,have through their zeal virtue but in their gall4 ,we're thus but parcel gilt1 to gold we're grown ,when virtue is our soul's complexion-- ,who knows his virtue's name or place has none4 ,,ii4--,,personal4 ,persist in being yourself1 and against fate and yourself4 ,faith and persistency are life's architects1 while doubt and despair bury all under the ruins of any endeavor4 ,you may pull all your paradises about your ears save your earliest2 that is to be yours sometime4 ,strive and have2 still striving till striving is having4 ,we mount to heaven mostly on the ruins of our cherished schemes1 finding our failures were successes4 ,nor need we turn sour if we fail to draw the prizes in life's lottery4 ,it were the speck in the fruit1 the falling of our manliness into decay4 ,these blanks were all prizes had we the equanimity to take them without whimpering or discontent4 ,the calamities we suffer arise not from circumstances chiefly1 but from ourselves4 ,if the dose is nauseous or bitter1 'tis because we are1 else it were not drank off with the disgust we manifest4 ,sweet1 bitter or sour1--we taste one thing in everything tasted1 and that is ourselves4 ,could each once be clean delivered of himself how salutary were all things and sufficing4 ',tis in morals as in dietetics1 one cannot see his fault till he has got rid of it4 ,only virtue is fame2 nor is it forward in sounding its own praises1 being sure that merit never sleeps untold1 nor dies without honors4 ,it cannot3 once lived and whispered ever so faintly in private places1 it publishes itself in spite of every concealment and sometime blazes its fame abroad by myriads of trumpets4 ,the light trembling in the socket of bashfulness1 or hidden under the bushel of misapprehension1 or inopportunity1 flames forth at fitting moment1 irradiates the world thereafter forever1 streaks the dawn1 as a visitation of the day-spring from on high4 ,it is as ignoble to go begging conditions as to go begging bread4 ,if too feeble1 too proud or unapt to create these1 one may make up his mind to dispense with any advantage that power on that side of life confers4 ,not a circumstance1 like the animal whose place in nature is determined1 but a creator of circumstances1 man brings to his help freedom1 opportunity1 art1 to build a world out of the world in harmony with his wants4 ,if his occupation is spoiling him 'tis the dictate of virtue as of prudence1 to quit it for one that in maintaining shall enrich him also4 ,he must be a bad economist who squanders himself on his maintenance2 wasting both his days and himself4 ,his gifts are too costly for such cheap improvidence4 ,one's character is the task allotted him to form1 his faculties the implements1 his genius the workman1 life the engagement1 and with these gifts of nature and of ,god1 shall he fail to quarry forth from his opportunities a man for his heavenly task-master8 ,the wise man does not submit to employments which he may undertake1 but accommodates and lends himself to them only4 ,nor is any man greatest standing apart in his individualism2 his strength and dignity come by sympathy with the aims of the best men of the community of which he is a member4 ,yet whoever seeks the crowd1 craving popularity for propping repute1 forfeits his claim to reverence and expires in the incense he inhales4 ,the truly great stand upright as columns of the temple whose dome covers all1 against whose pillared sides multitudes lean2 at whose base they kneel in times of trouble4 ,stand fast by your convictions and there maintain yourself against every odds4 ,one with yourself1 you are one with ,almighty ,god1 and a majority against all the world3 ,vox priva1 vox ,dei4 ,,iii4--,,political4 ,to ,god1 thy country1 and thyself be true1 ,if priest and people change1 keep thou thy guard4 ,both conformity and nonconformity are alike impracticable4 ,when the conformist can stay clean in his conformity1 the nonconformist come clean out of his nonconformity1 it will be time to plead self-consistency4 ,nor let any stay to make proselytes4 ,i have never known the followers of either to come clean out of themselves even1 but casting their tributes to expediency or authority1 surrender unreservedly to party or sect and sink the man4 ,born free into free institutions1 it behooves all to preserve that freedom unimpaired1 neither intimidated nor bribed by persons or parties3 see that these take nothing of theirs with consent1 least of all that which gives consent its dignity and worth1--one's integrity4 ,good men should not obey bad laws too well1 lest bad men taking courage from the precedent1 disobey good ones4 ,know there's on earth a yet auguster thing1 ,veiled though it be1 than ,president or ,king4 ,the honorable man prefers his privilege of standing uncommitted to parties when these fail to represent the whole of honor and justice for the state4 ,but when politics become attractive by being principled1 senates and cabinets the legislators and executives of justice and common rights1 servants of the ,high ,laws1 then1 as an honorable man and faithful citizen1 he is won to the polls to cast a pious and patriotic suffrage for having affairs administered through the best men1 whom best men promote to offices to which their virtues give dignity and distinction4 ,there are times nevertheless in one's history when abstinence from this first privilege of a freeman and republican1 seems a duty best performed in its non-performance1 the true means of preserving self-respect1 by standing magnanimously as a protest for the right against the wrong--a vote less on the wrong side of a mixed issue1 being as two cast on the right side1 the silent significance of a name known as the representative of honor and justice1 showing where lies the wrong and the shame--the blush of a defeat on the cheek of an ill-gotten victory4 ,of no party properly1 a good man votes by his virtues for mankind1 too just to be claimed by any unless to save it from dishonor4 ,at best the state's polity is deliberative1 ruling the right as far as is practicable under the circumstances4 ,of mixed elements1 it contents itself with mixed results1--the best permitted under the mixed conditions4 ,but the statesman may not compromise principle for the sake of accommodating legislation to suit the interests of party4 ,if he ride that horse too fearlessly1 he is sure to be overthrown4 ,general intelligence interposes the effective check upon political ambition and carries forward state affairs4 ,but if1 unequal to self-government1 the people have attained to that sense of freedom and no more1 which renders liberty a snare1 then the state stumbles towards a despotism1 call the rule by any fine name you please4 ,no greater calamity can befall a people than that of deliberating long on issues imperilling liberty2 any impotency of indecision betraying a lapse into slavery from which the gravest deliberative wisdom cannot rescue them4 ,knowingly to put on the yoke and wear it restively meanwhile1 were a servitude that only slavery itself can cure4 ,where sleep the gods ,there mob-rule sways the state1 ,treason hath plots and fell debate1 ,brother doth brother darkly brand1 ,few faithful midst sedition's storm do stand1 ,the whole of virtue theirs to stay the reeling land4 ,states are destroyed1 not so much from want of courage as for want of virtue1 and the most pernicious of all ignorance is1 when men do not love what they approve2 written laws being but images of1 or substitutes for those true laws which ought to be present in every human soul through a perfect insight into good4 ,,the ,,soul',s ,,errand4 ,go1 ,soul1 the ,body's guest1 ,upon a thankless errand2 ,fear not to touch the best1 ,the truth shall be thy warrant2 ,go1 since all else must die1 ,and give all else the lie4 ,go tell the ,court it glows ,and shines like rotten wood2 ,go tell the ,church it shows ,what's good1 but does not good3 ,if ,court and ,church reply1 ,give ,court and ,church the lie4 ,tell ,potentates they live ,acting1 but base their actions2 ,not loved1 unless they give1 ,nor strong1 save by their factions3 ,if ,potentates reply1 ,give ,potentates the lie4 ,tell men of high condition1 ,that rule affairs of state1 ,their purpose is ambition1 ,their practice chiefly hate3 ,and if they do reply1 ,then give them all the lie4 ,tell those that brave it most1 ,they beg for more by spending2 ,who1 in their greatest cost1 ,seek nothing but commending3 ,and if they make reply1 ,spare not to give the lie4 ,tell ,zeal it lacks devotion2 ,tell ,love it is but lust2 ,tell ,time it is but motion2 ,tell ,help it is but dust3 ,and wish them no reply1 ,for thou must give the lie4 ,tell ,age it daily wasteth2 ,tell ,honor how it alters2 ,tell ,beauty that it blasteth2 ,tell ,favor that she falters3 ,and as they do reply1 ,give every one the lie4 ,tell ,wit how much she wrangles ,in fickle points of niceness2 ,tell ,wisdom she entangles ,herself in over niceness2 ,and if they do reply ,then give them both the lie4 ,tell ,physic of her boldness2 ,tell ,skill it is pretension2 ,tell ,charity of coldness2 ,tell ,law it is contention2 ,and if they yield reply1 ,then give them all the lie4 ,tell ,fortune of her blindness2 ,tell ,nature of decay2 ,tell ,friendship of unkindness2 ,tell ,justice of delay2 ,and if they do reply1 ,then give them still the lie4 ,tell ,arts they have no soundness1 ,but vary by esteeming2 ,tell ,schools they lack profoundness ,and stand too much on seeming3 ,if ,arts and ,schools reply1 ,give ,arts and ,schools the lie4 ,tell ,faith it's fled the city2 ,tell how the country erreth2 ,tell manhood1 shakes off pity1 ,tell ,virtue least preferreth2 ,and if they do reply1 ,spare not to give the lie4 ,so when thou hast1 as ,i ,commanded thee1 done blabbing2 ,although to give the lie ,deserves no less than stabbing2 ,yet stab at thee who will1 ,no stab the soul can kill4 ,illustration3 ,small triangular decoration of two stylized fish ,,book ,,ii ,,speculative ,philosophy is one of the richest presents that man ever received from heaven1 being that which raises the mind into the contemplation of eternal things1 and is the science which of all others affords the most agreeable entertainment4--,,evelyn4 ,i4 ,,instrumentalities4 ,the age1 the present times1 are not ,to snudge in1 and embrace a cot2 ,action and blood now get the game1 ,disdain treads on the peaceful name3 ,who sits at home1 too1 bears a load ,greater than those that gad abroad4 ,,henry ,,vaughan4 ,illustration3 ,decorative banner of two mythical animals among leaves ,,instrumentalities4 ,i4--,,tendencies4 ,our time is revolutionary4 ,it drifts strong and fast into unitarianism and the empire of ideas4 ,all things are undergoing reform and reconstruction2 the fellowship of all souls intent on laying broad and deep the foundations of the new institutions4 ,the firm of ,globe ,brothers ,co41 prospers in both hemispheres1 every citizen being a partner in the concern4 ,the nations are leagued together on the basis of mutual assistance1 finding the old alliances founded on force and fear to be insecure2 the people seeing it best to be friends and copartners in conducting the world's affairs2--trade the natural knot tying them by the coarser wants only2 world-politics their bond of union and prosperity4 ,no longer playing independent parts safely1 they co-operate and conspire for the common welfare1 interposing such checks as each individually requires for his security4 ,ruling is conducted not by legislation nor diplomacy1 but by social and commercial inter-communication2 every man opening out for himself the sphere suited to his gifts1 and taking his thinking and doing into head and hands as a loyal man and citizen4 ,power is stealing with a speed and momentum unprecedented from the few to the many2 is played out on a theatre world-wide1 whole populations taking part in affairs2 the distance once separating extremes being bridged2 middle men with human sympathies and broad common-sense taking the lead and setting the old pretensions aside4 ,a daring realism overleaping the old barriers gives government into the hands of the whole people1 rulers being their servants1 not masters2 presidents and kings the representatives of ideas and paying loyal homage to these crowned heads2 the old virtues of reverence for man1 fidelity to principle1 so venerable and sacred in private stations1 seeking reappearance in public life4 ,if once the great1 the wise1 were in the minority1 and none dreamed of reason becoming popular1 reason is fast becoming republicanized2 from being the exclusive property of the few is diffusing itself universally as the common possession of the multitude4 ,imperial thought now holds her powerful sway1 ,and drives the peoples on their prosperous way4 ,the freshest1 best thoughts of the best minds of all times are claimed by the community2 itself the awakened critic and prompter of the best2 all thirsting for information1--world-wisdom1--and drinking off eagerly the lore of centuries4 ,knowledge everywhere diffused is accessible to all1 rolls with the globe1 dashes against the shores of every sea1 delves the caverns1 climbs the hill-tops with sun and moon1 for the common benefit4 ,if ,hesiod wrote for his times that ,riches are the soul of feeble men1 our time is fast translating his line practically3 ,riches are the hand of able men2 ,capitalists holding kings and presidents in check while playing the better game of civilization1 equalizing indirectly by legislative philanthropies the extremes--every man's needs being taken as drafts drawn by ,providence on opulence1 to be honored at sight3 ,stewards of the gods alone ,are we2 have nothing of our own ,save what to us the gods commit1 ,and take away when they see fit4 ,once all crimes were capital and punished with death4 ,now this ,draconian code has been so meliorated and softened by the diffusion of mercy and humanity as to take life for life only2 is pleading powerfully for the abolition of the death-penalty altogether4 ,the sects are losing their monopoly in the heavenly luminary1 closing no longer their brazen cope of darkening doctrines on the religious horizon to vitiate the social and political morals of mankind4 ,the faiths of the cultivated nations are being revised1 ,christendom itself drifting with irresistible speed and momentum into a world-religion1 commensurate with the advancing thought of advancing minds everywhere4 ,as the ,greeks received their ,gods from ,egypt and ,phoenicia1 ,rome hers from ,greece1 and we ours from ,rome1 ,judea and ,britain1 by the law of interfusion we are ripening into a cosmopolitan faith1 with its ,pantheon for all races4 ,,ii4--,,method4 ,ours were a trivial time if busied in building solely from the senses in facts of understanding1 having nothing ideal to enshrine4 ,without symbols1 peoples perish4 ,things must be exalted into some fair image of mind1 the senses and gifts magnetized to body forth thoughts2 the eye beholding these in what the hands fashion4 ,ideas supplement and symbolize facts3 the field of realities lying behind unseen2 the paddock of the common sense being but an enclosure within the immeasurable spaces of which thought is royal ranger1--owner of domains far larger and richer than these confine or survey1 ideal estates which only mind can claim2 quarries out of which nature itself is hewn1 eye and hand are shapen4 ,head and hand should go abreast with thought4 ,if the age of iron and bronze has been welding chains and fetters about the forehead and limbs1 here1 too1 is the ,promethean thought1 using the new agencies let loose by the ,daedalus of mechanic invention in the service of soul as of the senses4 ,having recovered the omnipotence in nature1 the omnipresence1 graded space1 tunnelled the abyss1 joined ocean and land by living wires1 stolen the chemistry of the solar ray1 made light our painter1 the lightning our runner1 discovered the polar axis1 set matter on fire1 thought is pushing its inquiries into the hitherto unexplored regions of man's personality1 for whose survey and service every modern instrumentality lends the outfit and means--facilities ample1 unprecedented--new instruments for the new discoveries--new eyes for the new spectacles4 ,using no longer contentedly the fumbling fingers of the old circuitous logic1 the genius takes the track of the creative thought1--intuitively1 cosmically1 ontologically4 ,a subtler analysis is finely discriminated1 a broader synthesis generalized from the materials accumulated in the mind during the centuries1 the globe's contents being gathered in from all quarters1 the ,book of ,creation illustrated anew1 and posted to date4 ,the new calculus is ours4 ,an organon alike serviceable to metaphysician and naturalist--whereby things answer to thought1 facts are resolved into truths1 images into ideas1 matter into mind1 power into personality1 man into ,god2 the ,one soul in all souls revealed as the ,creative ,spirit pulsating in all breasts1 immanent in all atoms1 prompting all wills1 and personally embosoming all persons in one unbroken synthesis of ,being4,e ,footnote ,e3 ,truth can be known by the thinking reason4 ,it has been known by speculative thinkers scattered through the ages4 ,their systems exist and may be mastered4 ,their differences are not radical1 but lie rather in the mode of exposition--the point of departure1 the various obstacles overcome1 and the character of the technique used4 ,their agreement is central and pervading4 ,the method of speculative cognition is to be distinguished from that of sensuous certitude1 and from the reflection of the understanding by the exhaustive nature of its procedure4 ,it considers its subject in a universal manner and its steps are void of all arbitrariness4 ,in order to detect a speculative system1 ask the following questions of it3 #a4 ,is the highest principle regarded as a fixed1 abstract1 and rigid one1 or as a concrete and self-moving one8 #b4 ,is the starting point of the system regarded as the highest principle1 and the onward movement of the same merely a result deduced analytically2 or is the beginning treated as the most abstract and deficient1 while the final result is the basis of all8 ,in other words1 ,is the system a descent from a first principle or an ascent to one8 ,this will detect a defect of the method1 while the former question1 7#a17 will detect defects in the content or subject matter of the system4--,,william ,t4 ,,harris4 ,it has hitherto1 unhappily1 been the misfortune of the mere materialist1 in his mania for matter on the one hand and dread of ideas on the other1 to invert this creative order1 and thus hang the world's picture as a man with his heels upwards--a process conducting of necessity to conclusions as derogatory to himself as to ,nature's author4 ,assuming matter as his basis of investigation1 force as father of thought1 he confounds faculties with organs1 life with brute substance1 piles his atom atop of atom1 cements cell on cell1 in constructing his column1 sconce mounting sconce aspiringly as it rises1 till his shaft of gifts crown itself surreptitiously with the ape's glorified effigy1 as ,nature's frontispiece and head--life's atomy with life omitted altogether1 man wanting4 ,contrarywise reads the ideal naturalist the book of lives4 ,opening at ,spirit1 and thence proceeding to ideas1 he finds their types in matter1 life unfolds itself naturally in organs1 faculties begetting forces1 mind moulding things substantially1 its connections and interpendencies appear in series and degrees as he traces the leaves1 thought the key to originals1 man connexus1 archetype1 and classifier of things2 he1 straightway1 leading forth abreast of himself the animated creation from the chaos1--the primeval ,adam naming his mates1 himself their ancestor1 contemporary and survivor4,f ,footnote ,f3 ,there are four modes of knowledge which we are able to acquire in the present life3 #a4 ,the first of these results from opinion1 by which we learn that a thing is1 without knowing the why2 and this constitutes that part of knowledge which was called by ,aristotle and ,plato1 erudition2 and which consists in moral instructions for the purpose of purifying ourselves from immoderate desires4 #b4 ,but the second is produced by the sciences1 which from establishing certain principles as hypotheses1 conduct to necessary conclusions whereby we arrive at the knowledge of the why1 as in the mathematical sciences1 but at the same time are ignorant with respect to the principles of these conclusions1 because they are merely hypothetical4 #c4 ,the third species of knowledge is that which results from ,plato's dialectic2 in which by a progression through ideas1 we arrive at the first principles of things1 and at that which is no longer hypothetical1 and thus dividing some things and analyzing others1 by producing many things from one1 and one from many4 #d4 ,but the fourth species is still more simple than this2 because it no longer uses analyses or compositions1 but whole things themselves by intuition1 and becomes one with the object of its perception2 and this energy is the ,divine ,reason1 which ,plato speaks of1 and which far transcends other modes of knowledge4--,,thomas ,,taylor4 ,,iii4--,,man4 ,imago ,dei in animo2 mundi1 in corpore4 ,man is a soul1 informed by divine ideas1 and bodying forth their image4 ,his mind is the unit and measure of things visible and invisible4 ,in him stir the creatures potentially1 and through his personal volitions are conceived and brought forth in matter whatsoever he sees1 touches1 and treads under foot1 the planet he spins4 ,he omnipresent is1 ,all round himself he lies1 ,osiris spread abroad1 ,upstaring in all eyes3 ,nature his globed thought1 ,without him she were not1 ,cosmos from chaos were not spoken1 ,and ,god bereft of visible token4 ,a theometer--an instrument of instruments--he gathers in himself all forces1 partakes in his plenitude of omniscience1 being the ,spirit's acme1 and culmination in nature4 ,a quickening spirit and mediator between mind and matter1 he conspires with all souls1 with the ,soul of souls1 in generating the substance in which he immerses his form1 and wherein he embosoms his essence4 ,not elemental1 but fundamental1 essential1 he generates elements and forces1 perpetually replenishing his waste2--the final conflagration a current fact of his existence4 ,does the assertion seem incredible1 absurd8 ,but science1 grown luminous and transcendent1 boldly declares that life to the senses is a blaze refeeding steadily its flame from the atmosphere it kindles into life1 its embers the spent remains from which rises perpetually the new-born ,phoenix into regions where flame is lost in itself1 and light is its resolvent emblem4,g ,footnote ,g3 ,man feeds upon air1 the plant collecting the materials from the atmosphere and compounding them for his food4 ,even life itself1 as we know it1 is but a process of combustion1 of which decomposition is the final conclusion4 ,through this combustion all the constituents return back into air1 a few ashes remaining to the earth from whence they came4 ,but from these embers1 slowly invisible flames arise into regions where our science has no longer any value4--,,schleiden4 ,thee1 eye of heaven1 the great soul envies not1 ,by thy male force is all we have1 begot4 ,this kindles the fire which exists in every thing1 is received by every thing4 ,while it sheds a full light1 it is itself hidden4 ,its presence is unknown1 unless some material be given to induce the exertion of its power4 ,it is invisible1 as well as unquenchable2 and it has the faculty of transforming into itself every thing it touches4 ,it renovates every thing by its vital heat1 it illumines every thing by its flashing beams2 it can neither be confined nor intermingled2 it divides and yet is immutable4 ,it always ascends1 it is constantly in motion2 it moves by its own will and power1 and sets in motion every thing around it4 ,it has the power of seizing1 but cannot itself be grasped4 ,it needs no aid4 ,it increases silently and breaks forth in majesty upon all4 ,it generates1 it is powerful1 invisible1 and omnipotent4 ,if neglected1 its existence might be forgotten1 but on friction being applied1 it flashes out again like the sword from its scabbard1 shines resplendently by its own natural properties1 and soars into the air4 ,many other powers may yet be noticed as belonging to it4 ,for this reason theologians have asserted that all substances being formed of fire1 are thus created as nearly as possible in the image of ,god4 ,illustration3 ,small decoration of a flower and leaves ,,ii4 ,,mind4 ,but all the ,gods we have are in ,the ,mind1 ,by whose proportions only we redeem ,our thoughts from out confusion1 and do find ,the measure of ourselves and of our powers1 ,and that all happiness remains confined ,within the kingdom of this breast of ours1 ,without whose bounds all that we look on lies ,in others' jurisdiction1 others' powers1 ,out of the circuit of our liberties4 ,,daniel4 ,illustration3 ,decorative banner of a grasshopper among greenery ,,mind4 ,i4--,,ideas4 ,the ,ancients had a happy conception of mind in their ,pantheon of its ,powers4 ,they fabled these as gods celestial1 mundane1 infernal1 according to their several prerogatives and uses4 ,it appears their ideal metaphysic has not as yet been surpassed or superseded altogether1 as the classic mythology still holds its high place in modern thought and the schools as a discipline and culture4 ,and for the reason that thought is an ,olympian1 and man a native of the cloudlands1 whatever his metaphysical pretensions4 ,it is only as we sit aloft that we oversee the world below and comprehend aright its drift and revolutions4 ,ixion falling out of the mist1 which he illicitly embraced1 is the visionary mistaking images for ideas1 and thus paying the cost in his downfall4 ,plumage1 wings or none1 imagination or understanding1 the fledged idea or the footed fact1 the fleet reason or slow--these distribute mankind into thinkers or observers4 ,only genius combines the double gifts in harmonious proportions and interplay1 possessing the mind entire1 and is a denizen of both hemispheres4 ,the idealist is the true realist1 grasping the substance and not its shadow4 ,the man of sense is the visionary or illusionist1 fancying things as permanencies1 and thoughts as fleeting phantoms4 ,a ,ptolemaist in theory1 and earth-bound1 he fears to venture above his terra firma into the real firmament whereinto mind is fashioned to spring1 and command the wide prospect around4 ,things divine are not attained by mortals who understand body merely1 ,but only those who are lightly armed arrive at the summit4 ,thought is the ,mercury2 and things are caught on the wing1 and by the flying spectator only4 ,nature is thought in solution4 ,like a river whose current is flowing steadily1 drop displacing drop1 particle following particle of the passing stream1 nothing abides but the spectacle4 ,so the flowing world is fashioned in the idealist's vision1 and is the reality which to slower wits seems fixed in space and apart from thought1 subsisting in itself4 ,but thought works in the changing and becoming1 not in the changed and become2 all things sliding by imperceptible gradations into their contraries1 the cosmos rising out of the chaos by its agency4 ,nothing abides2 all is image and expression out of our thought4 ,so ,speech represents the flowing essence as sensitive1 transitive2 the word signifying what we make it at the moment of using1 but needing life's rounded experiences to unfold its manifold senses and shades of meaning4,h ,definitions1 however precise1 fail to translate the sense4 ,they confine in defining2 good for the occasion1 but leaps in the dark2 at best1 guesses at the meanings we seek2 parapets built in the air1 the lighter the safer2 mere ladders of sound1 whose rounds crumble as we tread4 ,we write as we speak4 ,the silence bars away the sense1 closing shape and significance from us4 ,here is the mind facing its image the world1 and wishing to see the reflection at a glance1 a trope4 ,no4 ,the world is but the symbol of mind1 and speech a mythology woven of both4 ,each thing suggests the thought imperfectly1 and thought is translatable only by thought4 ,our standards are ideas1 those things of the mind and originals of words4 ,footnote ,h3 ,,categories ,,of ,,speech1 ,,being3 ,flowing1 ,fixed1 ,subjective4 ,objective4 ,i4 ,,iii4 ,,ii4 ,actions1 ,participles1 ,things1 ,verbs4 ,nouns4 ,,iv4 ,qualities1 ,adverbs1 ,adjectives4 ,v4 ,relations1 ,prepositions1 ,conjunctions1 ,pronouns4 ,thought's winged hand1 ,marshals in trope and tone ,the ideal band4 ,genius alone ,holds fast in eye ,the fleeing ,god-- ,brings ,beauty nigh-- ,senses descry ,footsteps he trod1 ,figures he drew1 ,shapes old and new1 ,the fair1 the true1 ,in soul and sod4 ,nature is thought immersed in matter1 and seen differently as viewed from the one or the other4 ,to the laborer it is a thing of mere uses2 to the scholar a symbol and a muse4 ,the same landscape is not the same as seen by poet and plowman4 ,it stands for material benefit to the one1 immaterial to the other4 ,the artist's point of view is one of uses seen as means of beauty1 that being the complement of uses4 ,his faculties handle his organs2 the hands1 like somnambulists1 playing their under parts to ideas2 these1 again1 serving uses still higher4 ,the poet1 awakened from the sleep of things1 beholds beauty in essence and form1 being thus admitted to the secret of causes1 the laws of pure ,being4 ,the like of ,persons4 ,every one's glass reflects his bias4 ,if the thinker views men as troglodytes--like ,plato's groundlings1 unconscious of the sun shining overhead2 men of the senses1 and mere makeweights--they in turn pronounce him the dreamer1 sitting aloof from human concerns1 an unproductive citizen and waste power in the world4 ,still1 thought makes the world and sustains it2 atom and idea alike being its constituents4 ,nor can thought1 from its nature1 at once become popular4 ,it is the property and delight of the few fitted by genius and culture for discriminating truth from adhering falsehood1 and of setting it forth in its simplicity and truth to the understandings of the less favored4 ,apart by pursuit from the mass of mankind1 or at most taking a separate and subordinate part in affairs that engage their sole attention1 the thinker seems useless to all save those who can apprehend and avail themselves of his immediate labors2 and the less is he known and appreciated as his studies are of lasting importance to his race4 ,yet time is just1 and brings all men to the side of thought as they become familiar with its practical benefits1 else the victory were not gained for philosophy1 and wisdom justified in him of her chosen children4 ,ideas alone supplement nature and complement mind4 ,our senses neither satisfy our sensibility nor intellect4 ,the mind's objects are mind itself2 imagination the mind's eye1 memory the ear1 ideas of the one imaging the other1 and the mind thus rounding its history4 ,and hence the pleasurable perspective experienced in surveying our personality from obverse sides in the landscape of existence--culture1 in its inclusive sense1 making the tour of our gifts1 and acquainting us with ourselves and the world we live in4 ,all men gain a residence in the senses and the family of natural things2 few come into possession of their better inheritance and home in the mind--the ,palace of ,power and ,personality4 ,sons of earth rather by preference1 and chiefly emulous for their little while of its occupancy1 its honors1 emoluments1 they here pitch their tents1 here plant fast their hopes1 and roll through life they know not whither4 ,,ii4--,,the ,,gifts4 ,instinct is the fountain of ,personal power1 and mother of the ,gifts4 ,with instinct there may be an embryo1 but sense must be superinduced to constitute an animal--memory1 moral sentiment1 reason1 imagination1 personality1 to constitute the man4 ,the mind is the man1 not the outward shape3 all is in the ,will4 ,the animal may mount to fancy in the grade of gifts2 but reason1 imagination1 conscience1 choice--the mediating1 creative1 ruling powers--the personality--belong to man alone4 ,but not to all men1 save in essence and possibility4 ,man properly traverses the hierarchy of ,powers--spiritual1 intellectual1 moral1 natural1 animal--their full possession and interplay enabling him to hold free colloquy with all1 giving the whole mind voice in the dialogue4 ,thus3 ,asking for ,the ,who8 ,will responds1 ,the ,person4 ,the ,ought8 ,conscience ,the ,right4 ,the ,how8 ,imagination ,the ,idea4 ,the ,why8 ,reason ,the ,truth4 ,the ,thus8 ,fancy ,the ,image4 ,the ,where8 ,understanding ,the ,fact4 ,the ,when8 ,memory ,the ,event4 ,the ,which8 ,sense ,the ,thing4 ,the ,what8 ,instinct ,the ,life4 ,in accordance with this gradation of gifts1 man and animals may be classified as to their measures of intelligence respectively2 instinct being taken as the initial gift and prompter of the rest in their order of genesis1 growth and adaptability3 man alone1 when fully unfolded in harmony1 being capable of ranging throughout the entire scale4,i ,footnote ,i3 ,one would think nothing were easier for us than to know our own mind1 discern what was our main scope and drift1 and what we proposed to ourselves as our end in the several occurrences of our lives4 ,but our thoughts have such an obscure1 implicit language1 that it is the hardest thing in the world to make them speak out distinctly2 and for this reason the right method is to give them voice and accent4 ,and this1 in our default1 is what the philosophers endeavor to do to our hand1 when1 holding out a kind of vocal looking-glass1 they draw sound out of our breast1 and instruct us to personate ourselves in the plainest manner4--,,lord ,,shaftesbury4 ,thus3 ,illustration3 ,sketch of human head marked with ,instinct1 ,sense1 ,memory1 ,understanding1 ,fancy1 ,reason1 ,imagination1 ,conscience1 ,personality ,,class ,i4 ,instinct1 ,sense1 ,memory1 ,understanding1 ,fancy1 ,reason1 ,imagination1 ,conscience1 ,personality4 ,,ii4 ,instinct1 ,sense1 ,memory1 ,understanding1 ,fancy1 ,reason1 ,imagination1 ,conscience4 ,,iii4 ,instinct1 ,sense1 ,memory1 ,understanding1 ,fancy1 ,reason1 ,imagination4 ,,iv4 ,instinct1 ,sense1 ,memory1 ,understanding1 ,fancy1 ,reason4 ,v4 ,instinct1 ,sense1 ,memory1 ,understanding1 ,fancy4 ,,vi4 ,instinct1 ,sense1 ,memory1 ,understanding4 ,,vii4 ,instinct1 ,sense1 ,memory4 ,,viii4 ,instinct1 ,sense4 ,,man ,,is ,spiritual as he experiences1 ,personality1 ,thought ,moral ,choice1 ,conscience4 ,intellectual ,imagination1 ,reason4 ,natural ,fancy1 ,understanding4 ,brute ,memory1 ,sense4 ,demonic ,appetite1 ,passion4 ,nature does not contain the ,personal man4 ,he is the mind with the brute omitted1 or1 conversely1 the animal transfigured and divinized by the ,spirit4 ,it is a slow process2 long for the individual1 longeval for the race4 ,centuries1 millenniads elapse1 mind meanwhile travailing with man1 the birth arrested for the most part1 or premature1 the translation from germ to genius being supernatural1 thought hardly delivered from spine and occiput into face and forehead1 the mind uplifted and crowned in personality4 ,pure mind alone is face1 ,brute matter surface all2 ,as souls immersed in space1 ,ideal rise1 or idol fall4 ,,iii4--,,person4 ,the lapsed ,personality1 or deuce human and divine1 has played the prime part in metaphysical theology of times past1 as it does still4 ,but rarely has thought freed itself from the notion of duplicity1 triplicity1 and grounded its faith in the ,idea of the ,one ,personal ,spirit1 as a pure theism1 and planted therein a faith and cultus4 ,if we claim this for the ,hebrew thought1 as it rose to an intuition in the mind of its inspired thinker1 it passed away with him2 since ,christendom throughout mythologizes1 rather than thinks about his attributes2 is divided1 subdivided into sects1 schools of doctrine2 each immersed so deeply in its special individualism as to be unable to rise to the comprehension of the ,personal ,one4 ,nor1 considering the demands mind makes upon the senses1--these inclining always to idolatry1--is it surprising that this spiritual theism1 seeking its symbols in pure thought1 without image graven or conceived1 should find any considerable number of followers4 ,yet a faith less supersensuous and ideal1 any school of thought1 code of doctrine1 creed founded on substance1 force1 law1 tradition1 authority1 miracle1 is a covert superstition1 ending logically in atheism1 necessity1 nihilism1 disowning alike personality1 free agency4 ,nature is sufficient for the creature1 but person alone for man1 without whose immanency and inspirations1 man were heartless and worshipless4 ,the ,person wanting all is wanting4 ,for where ,god is disembosomed1 spectres rule the chaos within and without4,j ,footnote ,j3 ,the first principle of all things is ,living ,goodness1 armed with ,wisdom and all-powerful ,love4 ,but if a man's soul be once sunk by evil fate or desert1 from the sense of this high and heavenly truth into the cold conceit that the original of all lies either in shuffling chance or in the stark root of unknowing nature and brute necessity1 all the subtle cords of reason1 without the timely recovery of that divine torch within the hidden spirit of his heart1 will never be able to draw him out of that abhorred pit of atheism and infidelity4 ,so much better is innocency and piety than subtle argument1 and sincere devotion than curious dispute4 ,but contemplations concerning the dry essence of the ,godhead have for the most part been most confusing and unsatisfactory4 ,far better is it to drink of the blood of the grape than to bite the root of the grape1 to smell the rose than to chew the stalk4 ,and blessed be ,god1 the meanest of men are capable of the former1 very few successful in the latter2 and the less1 because the reports of those that have busied themselves that way have not only seemed strange to most men1 but even repugnant to one another4 ,but we should in charity refer this to the nature of the pigeon's neck than to mistake and contradiction4 ,one and the same object in nature affords many different aspects4 ,and ,god is infinitely various and simple2 like a circle1 indifferent whether you suppose it of one uniform line1 or an infinite number of angles4 ,wherefore it is more safe to admit all possible perfections of ,god than rashly to deny what appears not to us from our particular posture4--,,henry ,,more4 ,make us a god1 said man3 ,power first the voice obeyed1 ,and soon a monstrous form ,its worshippers dismayed2 ,uncouth and huge1 by nations rude adored1 ,with savage rites and sacrifice abhorred4 ,make us a god1 said man3 ,art next the voice obeyed1 ,lovely1 serene1 and grand1 ,uprose the ,athenian maid3 ,the perfect statue1 ,greece with wreathed brows1 ,adores in festal rites and lyric vows4 ,make us a god1 said man3 ,religion followed art1 ,and answered1 ,look within2 ,find ,god in thine own heart-- ,his noblest image there1 and holiest shrine1 ,silent revere--and be thyself divine4 ,,iv4--,,choice4 ,heaven hell's pit copes3 ,nor fathoms any sin's abyss1 or clambers out1 ,save by the steps his choice hath delved4 ,the gods descend in the likeness of men1 and ascending transfigure the man into their ,personal likeness4 ,descending below himself he debases and disfigures this image2 as by choice he leaps upwards1 so by choice he lapses downwards4 ,yet1 while free to choose1 he sinks himself never beneath himself absolutely1 his beneath subsisting by his election only4 ,his choices free or fetter1 elevate or debase1 deify or demonize his humanity4 ,superior to all forces is the ,spirit within1 doing or defying his determinations1 ever holding him fast to the consequences4 ,obeying its dictates or disobeying1 frees or binds4 ,it has golden chains for the good1 for others iron4 ,love is its soft1 yet mighty curb2 freedom its easy yoke2 fate its fetter4 ,nor man in evil willingly doth rest1 ,nor ,god in good unwillingly is blest4 ,there is no appeal from the decisions of this ,high ,court of ,duty in the breast4 ,the ,ought is the ,must and the ,inevitable4 ,one may misinterpret the voice1 may deliberate1 disobey the commandment1 but cannot escape the consequences of his election4 ,the deed decides4 ,nor is the ,conscience appeased till sooner or later our deserts are pronounced--,the welcome well done1 or the dread depart4 ',tis vain to flee till gentle mercy show ,her better eye4 ,the further off we go ,the swing of justice deals the mightier blow4 ,only the repenting consciousness of freedom abused restores the lost holiness1 redeems from the guilty lapse--the sin that in separating us from the ,one1 revealed the fearful ,doubleness within1 opening the yawning pit down which we stumbled1 to become the prey of the undying worm4 ,meek love alone doth wash our ills away4 ,and with love enough1 knowledge were useless4 ,it comes in defect of love4 ,exhaustless in its sources1 love supersedes knowledge1 being the proper intellect of spirit and spring of intuition--,god being very ,god1 because his love absorbs all knowledge and contains his ,godhead4 ,knowing without loving is decease from love1 and lapse from pure intellect into sense4 ,knowledge is not enough4 ,the more knowledge1 the deeper the depths left unsounded1 the more exacting our faith in the certainty of knowing4 ,our faith feels after its objects1 if haply by groping in the darkness of our ignorance we may fathom its depths1 and find ourselves in ,him who is ever seeking us4 ,although no man knoweth the spirit of a man save ,the ,spirit within him1 yet is there something in him that not even man's spirit knoweth4 ,,who placed thee here1 did something then infuse ,which now can tell thee news4 ,illustration3 ,small decoration of a flower and leaves ,,iii4 ,,genesis4 ,had man withstood the trial1 his descendants would have been born one from another in the same way that ,adam--i4 e41 mankind--was1 namely1 in the image of ,god2 for that which proceeds from the ,eternal has eternal manner of birth4--,,behmen4 ,illustration3 ,decorative banner of a beetle among flowers and leaves ,,genesis4 ,i4--,,vestiges4 ,boehme1 the subtilest thinker on ,genesis since ,moses1 conceives that nature fell from its original oneness by fault of ,lucifer before man rose physically from its ruins2 and moreover1 that his present existence1 being the struggle to recover from nature's lapse1 is embarrassed with double difficulties by defection from rectitude on his part4 ,we think it needs no ,lucifer other than mankind collectively conspiring1 to account for nature's mishaps1 or man's1 since1 assuming man to be nature's ancestor1 and nature man's ruins rather1 himself were the impediment he seeks to remove2 nature being the child of his choices1 corresponding in large--or macrocosmically--to his intents4 ,eldest of creatures1 the progenitor of all below him1 personally one and imperishable in essence1 if debased forms appear in nature1 these are consequent on man's degeneracy prior to their genesis4 ,and it is only as he lapses out of his integrity1 by debasing his essence1 that he impairs his original likeness1 and drags it into the prone shapes of the animal kingdom--these being the effigies and vestiges of his individualized and shattered personality4 ,behold these upstarts of his loins1 everywhere the mimics jeering at him saucily1 or gaily parodying their fallen lord4 ,most happy he who hath fit place assigned ,to his beasts1 and disafforested his mind2 ,can use his horse1 goat1 wolf1 and every beast1 ,and is not ape himself to all the rest4 ,it is man alone who conceives and brings forth the beast in him that swerves and dies4 ,perversion of will by mis-choice precipitates him into serpentine form1 duplicated in sex1 ,parts of that ,part which once was all4 ',tis but one and the same soul in him1 entertaining a dialogue with himself1 that is symbolized in the ,serpent1 ,adam1 and the woman2 nor needs there fabulous ,paradises ,lost or ,regained1 for setting in relief this serpent symbol of temptation1 this ,lord or ,lucifer in our spiritual ,eden3 ,first state of human kind1 ,which one remains while man doth find ,joy in his partner's company2 ,when two1 alas6 adulterate joined1 ,the serpent made the three4 ,,ii4--,,serpent ,,symbol4 ,better is he who is above temptation1 than he who1 being tempted1 overcomes1 since the latter but suppresses the evil inclination stirring in his breast which the former has not4 ,whoever is tempted has so far sinned as to entertain the tempting lust within1 betraying his lapse from singleness or holiness4 ,the virtuous choose1 are virtuous by choice2 the holy1 being one1 deliberate not--their volitions answering spontaneously to their desires4 ,it is the cleft personality1 or other within1 which seduces the ,will1 and is the ,adversary and ,deuce we become individually1 and impersonate in the ,snake4 ,chaste love's a maid1 ,though shapen as a man4 ,but one were an ,o,edipus to expound this serpent mythology2 whereby is symbolized the mysteries of genesis1 and of ,the ,one rejoining man's parted personality1 and thus recreating mankind4 ,coeval with flesh1 the symbol appears wherever traces of civilization exist2 a remnant of it in the ancient ,phallus worship having come to us disguised in our ,mayday dance4 ,nor was it confined to carnal knowledge merely4 ,the serpent symbolized divine wisdom1 also2 and it was under this acceptation that it became associated with those traditionary teachers of mankind whose genial wisdom entitled them to divine honors4 ,an early ,christian sect1 called ,ophites1 worshipped it as the personation of natural knowledge4 ,so the injunction1 ,be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves1 becomes the more significant when we learn that seraph in the original means a serpent2 cherub1 a dove4 ,and these again symbolize facts in osteological science as connected with the latest theories of the vertebrated cranium1,k which view ,nature as ophiomorphous--a series of spines1 crowned1 winged1 webbed1 finned1 footed in structure--set erect1 prone1 trailing1 as charged with life in higher potency or lower2 man1 holding the sceptre of dominion as he maintains his inborn rectitude1 or losing his prerogative as lapsed from his integrity--hereby debasing his form and parcelling his gifts away in the prone shapes distributed throughout nature's kingdoms4 ,or1 again as aspiring for lost supremacy1 he uplift and crown his fallen form with forehead1 countenance1 speech1--thus liberating the genius from the slime of its prone periods1 and restoring it to rectitude1 religion1 science1 fellowship1 the ideal arts4 ,footnote ,k3 ,spix1 in his ',cephalogenesis1' aids ,oken's theory of the spinal cranium in endowing the artist's symbol of the cherub with all that it seemed to want before that discovery2 namely3 with a thorax1 abdomen and pelvis1 arms1 legs1 hands and feet4--,,owen4 ,unless above himself he can ,erect himself1 how poor a thing is man4 ,,iii4--,,embryons4 ,the form is in the archetype before it appears in the work1 in the divine mind before it exists in the creature4 ,as the male impregnates the female1 so mind charges matter with form and fecundity2 the spermatic world being life in transmission and body in embryo2 the egg a genesis and seminary of forms1 the kingdoms of animated nature sleeping coiled in its yolk1 and awaiting the quickening magnetism that ushers them into light4 ,herein the human embryon unfolds in series the lineaments of all forms in the living hierarchy1 to be fixed at last in its microcosm1 unreeling therefrom its faculties into filamental organs1 spinning so minutely the threads1 that were it physically possible to dissolve away all other members of the body1 there would still remain the full and perfect figure of a man4 ,and it is this perfect cerebro-spinal axis1 this statue-like tissue of filaments1 that1 physically speaking1 is the man4,l ,the mind contains him spiritually1 and reveals him physically to himself and his kind4 ,every creature assists in its own formation1 souls being essentially creative and craving form4 ,footnote ,l3 ,thou hast possessed my reins1 thou hast covered me in my mother's womb4 ,my substance was not hid from thee when ,i was made in a secret place1 and there curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth3 there thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect3 and in thy ,book were all my members written1 which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them4--,,psalm cxxxix3 #ac1 #ae1 #af4 ,the creature ever delights in the image of the ,creator2 ,and the soul of man will in a manner clasp ,god to herself2 ,having nothing mortal1 she is wholly inebriated of ,god2 ,for she glories in the harmony under which the human body exists4 ,throughout the domain of spirit desire creates substance wherein all creatures seek conjunction1 lodging and nurture4 ,nor is there anything in nature save desire holding substances together1 all things being dissolvable and recombinable in this spiritual menstruum4 ',tis the blossom whence there blows ,everything that lives and grows2 ,it doth make the heavens to move ,and the sun to burn in love3 ,the strong to weak it seeks to yoke1 ,and makes the ivy climb the oak1 ,under whose shadows lions wild1 ,softened thereby grow tame and mild4 ,it all medicine doth appease1 ,it burns the fishes in the seas1 ,not all the skill its wounds can stanch1 ,not all the sea its thirst can quench3 ,it did make the bloody spear ,once a leafy coat to wear1 ,while in his leaves there shrouded lay ,sweet birds for love that sing and play2 ,and of all the joyful flame1 ,bud and blossom this we name4 ,,iv4--,,temperament4 ,temperament is a fate1 oftentimes1 from whose jurisdiction its victims hardly escape1 but do its bidding herein1 be it murder or martyrdom4 ,virtues and crimes are mixed in one's cup of nativity1 with the lesser or larger margin of choice4 ,unless of chaste extraction1 his regeneration shall be wrought with difficulty through the struggling kingdom of evil into the peaceful realm of good4 ,blood is a destiny4 ,one's genius descends in the stream from long lines of ancestry1 from fountains whence rose ,adam the first and his ,eve4 ,the oldest and most persistent of forces1 if once ennobled by virtue and refined by culture1 it resists base mixtures long1 preserving its purity and power for generations4 ,all gifts descend in the torrent2 all are mingled in the ecstasy1 as purity or passion prevail2 genius being the fruit of chaste conjunctions1 brute force of adulterous--the virgin complexions or the mixed4,m ,footnote ,m3 ,boehme thus classifies and describes the temperaments3 ,lapsing out of her innocency1 man's soul enters into a strange inn or lodging1 wherein he is held sometime captive as in a dungeon1 wherein are four chambers or stories1 in one of which she is fated to remain1 though not without instincts of the upper wards 7if her place be the lowest7 and hope of finding the keys by which she may ascend into these also4 ,these chambers are the elements of his constitution1 and characterized as the four temperaments or complexions1 namely3 ,i4 ,the melancholic or earthy4 ,,ii4 ,the phlegmatic oraqueous4 ,,iii4 ,the choleric or fiery4 ,,iv4 ,the sanguine or ethereal4 ,i4 ,the splenetic or melancholic partakes of the properties of the earth1 being cold1 dark1 and hungry for the light4 ,it is timid1 incredulous1 empty1 consuming itself in corrosive cares1 anxieties and sorrows1 being sad when the sun shines1 and needs perpetual encouragement4 ,its color is dark4 ,,ii4 ,the phlegmatic being nourished from the earth's moisture1 is inclined to heaviness2 is gross1 effeminate1 dull of apprehension1 careless1 indifferent4 ,it has but faint glimpses of the light1 and needs much inculcation from without4 ,its color is brown4 ,,iii4 ,the choleric is of the fiery temper1 inclined to violence1 wrath1 obstinacy1 irreverence1 ambition4 ,it is impulsive1 contentious1 aspires for power1 and authority4 ,it is greedy of the sun1 and glories in its blazing beams4 ,its color is florid4 ,,iv4 ,the sanguine1 being tempered of ether1 and the least imprisoned1 is cheerful1 gentle1 genial1 versatile1 naturally chaste1 insinuating1 searching into the secret of things natural and spiritual1 and capable of divining the deepest mysteries4 ,it loves the light1 and aspires toward the sun4 ,its complexion is fair4 ,our generation moulds our state1 ,its virtues1 vices1 fix our fate2 ,nor otherwise experience proves1 ,the unseen hands make all the moves1 ,if some are great1 and some are small1 ,some climb to good1 some from good fortune fall1-- ,not figures these of speech1--forefathers sway us all4 ,me from the womb the midnight muse did take1 ,she clothed me1 nourished1 and mine head ,with her own hands she fashioned2 ,she did a cov'nant with me make1 ,and circumcised my tender soul1 and thus she spake3 ',thou of my church shalt be1 ,hate and renounce 7said she7 ,wealth1 honour1 pleasure1 all the world for me4 ,thou neither great at court1 nor in the war1 ,nor at th' exchange shalt be1 nor at the wrangling bar1 ,content thyself with the small barren praise1 ,that neglected verse does raise4' ,she spake1 and all my years to come ,took their determined doom3 ,their several ways of life1 let others choose1 ,their several pleasures let them use1 ,but ,i was born for love and for a muse4 ,with fate what boots it to contend8 ,such ,i began1 such am1 and so shall end3 ,the star that did my being frame ,was but a lambent flame2 ,some light indeed it did dispense1 ,but less of heat and influence4 ,no matter1 poet1 let proud fortune see ,that thou canst her despise no less than she does thee2 ,why grieve thyself or blush to be ,as all the inspired tuneful seers1 ,and all thy great forefathers were from ,shakspeare to thy peers4 ,yet1 biassed by temperament as we may be1 whether for good or for evil1 such measure of freedom is ours1 nevertheless1 as enables us to free ourselves from its tendencies and temptations4 ,in the breast of each is a liberating angel1 at whose touch1 when we will it persistently1 the doors of our dungeon fly open and loose their prisoner4 ,,iv4 ,,metamorphoses4 ,generation is not a creation of life1 but a production of things to sense1 and making them manifest4 ,neither is change death1 but a hiding of that which was4--,,hermes ,,trismegistus4 ,illustration3 ,decorative banner of two birds among leaves and flowers ,,metamorphoses4 ,i4--,,sleep4 ,life is a current of spiritual forces4 ,in perpetual tides1 the stream traverses its vessels to vary its pulsations and perspectives of things1 receding from forehead and face into cerebellum and spine1 to be replenished night by night from these springs of vigor4 ,the ,genius trims our lamps while we sleep4 ,it plumbs us by day and levels us by night4 ,here recumbent as at nature's navel1 her energies flood the spirits with puissance1 restoring tone and tension for the coming day's occupations4 ,then what varying scenes rise to fancy's eye1 while the mind lapses out of the globe of thought1 the house of the senses1 into the palaces of memory through the gate of dreams6 ,under the sway of occult forces we partake of preternatural insights1 having access to sources of information unopened to us in our wakeful hours4 ,vast systems of sympathies1 antedating and extending beyond our mundane experiences1 absorb us within their sphere1 relating us to other worlds of life and light2 as if stirred by the nocturnal impulse we climbed the empyrean1 still crediting the superstition of our affinities with the starry orbs-- ,eternal fathers of whate'er exists below4 ,or1 pursuing our peregrinations1 we plunge suddenly into the abyss of origins1 transformed for the moment into slumbering umbilici1 skirting the shores of our nativity2 or1 ascending spine-wise1 traverse the hierarchy of gifts4 ,how we grope strangely6 ,seeking the ,one amidst the many1 we lose ourselves in finding the ,one we lost4 ,we enter bodies of our bodies1 souls of our soul1 successively2 each organ our prisoner1 we in turn the prisoner of each1 till by chance the bewildered occupant recover the key to the wards of his apartments1 and forth issues into the haunts of his consciousness1 the world of natural things4 ,for never is the sleep so profound1 the dream so distracting1 as to obliterate all sense of the personality1--despite these vagaries of the night1 these opiates of the senses1 memory sometime dispels the oblivious slumber1 and recovers for the mind recollections of its descent and destiny4 ,some reliques of the ancient consciousness survive1 recalling our previous history and experiences4,n ,footnote ,n3 ',tis well known that according to the sense of antiquity1 these two considerations were always included in that one opinion of the soul's immortality--namely2 its pre-existence as well as its post existence4 ,neither were there ever any of the ancients before christianity1 that held the soul's future permanency after death1 who did not likewise assert its pre-existence1--they clearly perceiving that if it was once granted that the soul was generated1 it could never be proved but that it might be also corrupted4 ,and therefore the asserters of its immortality commonly began here--first1 to prove its pre-existence1 proceeding thence afterwards to establish its permanency after death4--,,cudworth4 ,,ii4--,,reminiscence4 ,heaven's exile straying from the orb of light4 ,and but for our surface and distracted lives1--lived here for the most part in the senses1--we should have never lost the consciousness of our descent into mortality1 nor have questioned our resurrection and longevity4 ,but as in descending1 all drink of oblivion--some more1 some less--it happens that while all are conscious of life1 by defect of memory1 our recollections are various concerning it2 those discerning most vividly who have drank least of oblivion1 they more easily recalling the memory of their past existence4 ,ancients of days1 we hardly are persuaded to believe that our souls are no older than our bodies1 and to date our nativity from our family registers1 as if time and space could chronicle the periods of the immortal mind by its advent into the flesh and decease out of it4 ,our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting2 ,the soul that rises with us1 our life's star1 ,hath had elsewhere its setting1 ,and cometh from afar2 ,not in entire forgetfulness1 ,nor yet in utter nakedness1 ,but trailing clouds of glory do we come ,from ,god who is our home4 ,none of us remember when we did not remember1 when memory was nought1 and ourselves were unborn4 ,memory is the premise of our sensations1 it dates our immortality4 ,nestling ever in the twilight of our earliest recollections1 it cradles our nativity1 canopies our hopes1 and bears us babes1 out of our bodies as into them2 opening vistas alike into our past and coming existence4 ,the thread of our experiences1 it cannot be severed by any accidents of our mortality2 time and space1 earliest found and last to leave us1 fading and falling away as we pass into recollections which these can neither date nor confine--the smiles that welcomed1 the tears that dismiss us1 being of no age1 nor place nor time4 ,o love6 thou makest all things even ,in earth and heaven3 ,finding thy way through prison bars ,up to the stars3 ,that out of dust created man1 ,thou lookest in a grave1 to see ,thine immortality4 ,,iii4--,,immortality4 ,if immortality inhere in objects known by us1 these surely are persons2 the ties of kindred being the liveliest1 most abiding of any2 our faith in the impossibility of being sundered forever1 remaining unshaken to the last1 and surviving all changes that our bodies may undergo4 ,deep love1 the godlike in us1 still believes ,its objects are immortal as itself4 ',tis not our bodies that contain us but our souls4 ,none beholds with bodily eyes the apparition of his person1 sees and survives the ghost he provokes4 ,the perturbed spirits alone linger about the tombs--dead before they die1 dead burying their dead--comfortless because these are bereft of bodies1 flesh being all of them they ever knew4,o ,footnote ,o3 ,let us remember that immortality signifies a negative1 or not having of mortality1 and that a positive term is required by which to express a change1 since nature teaches that whatever is1 will abide with the being it is1 unless forced out of it by something positive4 ,and as it appears that man's soul has these grounds in her which make all visible things to be perishable1 it is obvious that his soul is immortal and the cause of mortality itself4--,,sir ,,kenelm ,,digby4 ,moreover1 the insatiableness of our desires asserts our personal imperishableness4 ,yearning for full satisfactions while balked of these perpetually1 we still prosecute our search for them1 our faith in their attainment remaining unshaken under every disappointment4 ,our hope is eternal as ourselves--a never ending1 still beginning quest of our divinity4 ,infinite in essence1 we crave it in potence4 ,the boundlessness and elasticity of the mind1 its power of self-recovery1 uprise from temporary obstructions self-imposed1 or from temperament1 are assurances made doubly sure of our soul's infinitude and longevity4 ,so the lives of empires1 of men of genius and sanctity1 are grand illustrations of its heroic strife for the largest freedom1 the widest sway1--of instincts striving within1 which these pent confines of time and space can neither subjugate nor appease4 ,take this1 my child1 the father said1 ,this globe ,i give thy mind for bread2 ,eager we seize the proffered store1 ,the bait devour--then ask for more4 ,everything aspires to its own perfection and is restless till it attain it1 as the trembling needle till it find its beloved north4 ,and the knowledge of this is innate as is the desire1 else the last had been a torment and needless importunity4 ,nature shoots not at rovers4 ,even inanimate things1 while ignorant of their perfection1 are carried towards it by a blind impulse4 ,but that which conducts them knows4 ,the next order of beings have some sight of it1 and man most perfectly till he touch the apple4 ,our delights suckle us life long1 our desires being memories of past satisfactions1 and we here but sip pleasures once tasted to satiety4 ,the more exquisite our enjoyments1 the more transient2 the more eagerly sought1 the more elusive4 ,we cannot come out of our paradise1 nor stay in it contentedly1 the gates of bliss closing on opening4 ,e'en as the amorous needle joys to bend ,to her magnetic friend1 ,or as the greedy lover's eyeballs fly ,at his fair mistress' eye1 ,eager we kindle life's illumined stuff1 ,can tire1 nor tease1 nor kindle it enough4 ,still heaven is1 our hearts affirm against every disappointment2 and whether behind or before us1 as memory or as hope1 'tis to be ours1--our port and resting place sometime in the stream of ages4 ,all before us lies the way2 ,give the past unto the wind2 ,all before us is the day1 ,night and darkness are behind4 ,eden with its angels bold1 ,love and flowers and coolest sea1 ,is less an ancient story told ,than a glowing prophecy4 ,in the spirit's perfect air1 ,in the passions tame and kind1 ,innocence from selfish care1 ,the real ,eden we shall find4 ,when the soul to sin hath died1 ,true and beautiful and sound1 ,then all earth is sanctified1 ,upsprings paradise around4 ,from the spirit-land1 afar ,all disturbing force shall flee2 ,stir1 nor toil1 nor hope shall mar ,its immortal unity4 ,messrs4 ,roberts ,brothers' ,publications4 ,,the ,,layman',s ,,breviary4 ,a ,selection for ,every ,day in the ,year4 ,translated from the ,german of ,,leopold ,,schefer1 by ,charles ,t4 ,brooks4 ,in one square #afmo4 volume1 bevelled cloth1 gilt edges4 ,price1 #b4ej4 ,a cheaper edition4 ,price1 #a4ej4 ,the ',layman's ,breviary' will adorn drawing-room centre-tables1 boudoirs1 library nooks2 it will be a favorite travelling companion1 and be carried on summer excursions to read under trees and on verandas4 ,for every day of the year there are thoughts1 counsels1 aspirations--many of them ,oriental in tone1 or patriarchal in spirit2 there are delineations of nature1 pure utterances of faith2 each page contains fresh and earnest expressions of a poetic1 believing1 humane soul--often clad in exquisite language4 ,it is eminently a household book1 and one to be taken up and enjoyed at intervals4--,boston ,transcript4 ,each poem is in itself a sermon2 not of dry1 theological dogmas1 but the love and care of the ,infinite1 the yearning and outreaching of the human to grasp the divine4 ,it is a book not to be lightly read and carelessly tossed aside1 but to be studied daily until the lessons it conveys are learned1 and its comforting words written on every heart4 ,of the author's religious opinions we know nothing2 what creed he subscribes to we cannot tell2 but we do know that he is a true worshipper of ,god1 and lover of his fellow-men4 ,this book should be on every table2 all households should possess it2 we cannot too highly recommend it to the notice of all4 ,it has been truly said1 that 'these blooming pictures of ,nature1 praising the love1 the goodness1 the wisdom of the ,creator and ,his work1 form in truth a poetical book of devotion for the layman whom the dogma does not satisfy--a breviary for man4'--,the ,wide ,world4 ,,my ,,prisons4 ,memoirs of ,,silvio ,,pellico4 ,with an ,introduction by ,epes ,sargent1 and embellished with fifty ,illustrations from drawings by ,billings4 ,one square #abmo4 volume1 bevelled cloth1 gilt edges4 ,price1 #c4ej4 ,a cheaper edition4 ,price1 #b4jj4 ,some thirty-five years ago the publication of ,my ,prisons1 ,memoirs of ,silvio ,pellico1 first appealed to the sympathies of the ,italian people4 ,the history of a martyr to freedom is always entertaining1 and the pathos and beauty which surround the narrative in question have always kept alive the interest of all intelligent nations4 ,it ranks1 therefore1 deservedly high in biographical literature4 ,the present edition is a very superior one1 and is introduced by ,epes ,sargent1 who vigorously reviews the despotism of ,austria in the incarceration of ,pellico1 and the changes which have since occurred in ,european politics4--,chicago ,evening ,journal4 ,the story is simply told1 for adventures like those of the author need no graces of style or highly wrought figures4 ,the book has a charm which few novels possess2 indeed1 one can hardly believe that it is true1 and that so few years have passed since men of noble birth and fine culture were condemned to suffer for years in prison on account of their political opinions4--,boston ,transcript4 ,mailed1 post paid1 to any address1 on receipt of the price1 by the ,publishers4 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's note3 ,descriptions of illustrations were added for the convenience of readers4 ,in the ,table of ,contents1 section titles are in ,arabic numbers1 while in the text of the book1 ,roman numerals are used4 ,each is retained as printed4 ,footnotes are indented and placed following the paragraph to which they pertain4 ,alternate and obsolete spelling was retained4 ,other changes3 ,added hyphen to self-respect1 for consistency with remaining text4 444 without loss of self-respect4444 falcony changed to falconry 444 for the falconry1 archery1 the hunting1444 educuated changed to educated 444 ,a boy was to be so educated and fed 444 ,t'is changed to ',tis 444 ',tis but one and the same soul 444 ,added close quote mark to end of ,footnote ,m4 ,footnote ,n1 acccording changed to according 444 according to the sense of antiquity1444