,,transcriber',s ,,note ,italic text is denoted by underscores4 ,footnote anchors are denoted by number1 and the footnotes have been placed at the end of the chapter4 ,some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book4 ,,natural ,,history ,,of ,,intellect ,,and ,,other ,,papers ,,by ,,ralph ,,waldo ,,emerson ,illustration3 7,publisher colophon7 ,,boston ,,and ,,new ,,york ,,houghton1 ,,mifflin ,,and ,,company ,the ,riverside ,press1 ,cambridge #ahic ,copyright1 #ahic1 ,,by ,,edward ,w4 ,,emerson4 ,all rights reserved4 ,the ,riverside ,press1 ,cambridge1 ,mass41 ,u4 ,s4 ,a4 ,electrotyped and ,printed by ,h4 ,o4 ,houghton ,company ,,prefatory ,,note4 ,the first two pieces in this volume are lectures from the 8,university ,courses0 on philosophy1 given at ,harvard ,college in #ahgj and #ahga1 by persons not members of the ,faculty4 8,the ,natural ,history of the ,intellect0 was the subject which ,emerson chose4 ,he had from his early youth cherished the project of a new method in metaphysics1 proceeding by observation of the mental facts1 without attempting an analysis and cordination of them1 which must1 from the nature of the case1 be premature4 ,with this view1 he had1 at intervals from #ahdh to #ahff1 announced courses on the 8,natural ,history of ,intellect10 8,the ,natural ,method of ,mental ,philosophy10 and 8,philosophy for the ,people40 ,he would1 he said1 give anecdotes of the spirit1 a calendar of mental moods1 without any pretense of system4 ,none of these attempts1 however1 disclosed any novelty of method1 or1 indeed1 after the opening statement of his intention1 any marked difference from his ordinary lectures4 ,he had always been writing anecdotes of the spirit1 and those which he wrote under this heading were used by him in subsequently published essays so largely that ,i find very little left for present publication4 ,the lecture which gives its name to the volume was the first of the earliest course1 and it seems to me to include all that distinctly belongs to the particular subject4 ,the lecture on 8,memory0 is from the same course2 that on 8,boston0 from the course on 8,life and ,literature10 in #ahfa4 ,the other pieces are reprints from the 8,north ,american ,review0 and the 8,dial40 ,j4 ,e4 ,,cabot4 ,september #i1 #ahic4 ,,contents4 ,,page ,,natural ,,history ,,of ,,intellect #g ,,memory #ee ,,boston #gc ,,michael ,,angelo #ig ,,milton #aba ,,papers ,,from ,,the ,,dial #adg ,i4 ,,thoughts ,,on ,,modern ,,literature #adi ,,ii4 ,,walter ,,savage ,,landor #afh ,,iii4 ,,prayers #agg ,,iv4 ,,agriculture ,,of ,,massachusetts #ahc ,v4 ,,europe ,,and ,,european ,,books #ahg ,,vi4 ,,past ,,and ,,present #aig ,,vii4 ,a ,,letter #bjf ,,viii4 ,,the ,,tragic #baf ,,natural ,,history ,,of ,,intellect4 ,illustration3 7decorative banner7 ,,natural ,,history ,,of ,,intellect4 ,i have used such opportunity as ,i have had1 and lately#a in ,london and ,paris1 to attend scientific lectures2 and in listening to ,richard ,owen's masterly enumeration of the parts and laws of the human body1 or ,michael ,faraday's explanation of magnetic powers1 or the botanist's descriptions1 one could not help admiring the irresponsible security and happiness of the attitude of the naturalist2 sure of admiration for his facts1 sure of their sufficiency4 ,they ought to interest you2 if they do not1 the fault lies with you4 ,then ,i thought--could not a similar enumeration be made of the laws and powers of the ,intellect1 and possess the same claims on the student8 ,could we have1 that is1 the exhaustive accuracy of distribution which chemists use in their nomenclature and anatomists in their descriptions1 applied to a higher class of facts2 to those laws1 namely1 which are common to chemistry1 anatomy1 astronomy1 geometry1 intellect1 morals1 and social life2--laws of the world8 ,why not8 ,these powers and laws are also facts in a ,natural ,history4 ,they also are objects of science1 and may be numbered and recorded1 like stamens and vertebr4 ,at the same time they have a deeper interest1 as in the order of nature they lie higher and are nearer to the mysterious seat of power and creation4 ,for at last1 it is only that exceeding and universal part which interests us1 when we shall read in a true history what befalls in that kingdom where a thousand years is as one day1 and see that what is set down is true through all the sciences2 in the laws of thought as well as of chemistry4 ,in all sciences the student is discovering that nature1 as he calls it1 is always working1 in wholes and in every detail1 after the laws of the human mind4 ,every creation1 in parts or in particles1 is on the method and by the means which our mind approves as soon as it is thoroughly acquainted with the facts2 hence the delight4 ,no matter how far or how high science explores1 it adopts the method of the universe as fast as it appears2 and this discloses that the mind as it opens1 the mind as it shall be1 comprehends and works thus2 that is to say1 the ,intellect builds the universe and is the key to all it contains4 ,it is not then cities or mountains1 or animals1 or globes that any longer command us1 but only man2 not the fact1 but so much of man as is in the fact4 ,in astronomy1 vast distance1 but we never go into a foreign system4 ,in geology1 vast duration1 but we are never strangers4 ,our metaphysic should be able to follow the flying force through all transformations1 and name the pair identical through all variety4 ,i believe in the existence of the material world as the expression of the spiritual or the real1 and in the impenetrable mystery which hides 7and hides through absolute transparency7 the mental nature1 ,i await the insight which our advancing knowledge of material laws shall furnish4 ,every object in nature is a word to signify some fact in the mind4 ,but when that fact is not yet put into ,english words1 when ,i look at the tree or the river and have not yet definitely made out what they would say to me1 they are by no means unimpressive4 ,i wait for them1 ,i enjoy them before they yet speak4 ,i feel as if ,i stood by an ambassador charged with the message of his king1 which he does not deliver because the hour when he should say it is not yet arrived4 ,whilst we converse with truths as thoughts1 they exist also as plastic forces2 as the soul of a man1 the soul of a plant1 the genius or constitution of any part of nature1 which makes it what it is4 ,the thought which was in the world1 part and parcel of the world1 has disengaged itself and taken an independent existence4 99 99 99 99 99 ,my belief in the use of a course on philosophy is that the student shall learn to appreciate the miracle of the mind2 shall learn its subtle but immense power1 or shall begin to learn it2 shall come to know that in seeing and in no tradition he must find what truth is2 that he shall see in it the source of all traditions1 and shall see each one of them as better or worse statement of its revelations2 shall come to trust it entirely1 as the only true2 to cleave to ,god against the name of ,god4 ,when he has once known the oracle he will need no priest4 ,and if he finds at first with some alarm how impossible it is to accept many things which the hot or the mild sectarian may insist on his believing1 he will be armed by his insight and brave to meet all inconvenience and all resistance it may cost him4 ,he from whose hand it came will guide and direct it4 ,yet these questions which really interest men1 how few can answer4 ,here are learned faculties of law and divinity1 but would questions like these come into mind when ,i see them8 ,here are learned academies and universities1 yet they have not propounded these for any prize4 ,seek the literary circles1 the stars of fame1 the men of splendor1 of bon-mots1 will they afford me satisfaction8 ,i think you could not find a club of men acute and liberal enough in the world4 ,bring the best wits together1 and they are so impatient of each other1 so vulgar1 there is so much more than their wit1--such follies1 gluttonies1 partialities1 age1 care1 and sleep1 that you shall have no academy4 ,there is really a grievous amount of unavailableness about men of wit4 ,a plain man finds them so heavy1 dull and oppressive1 with bad jokes and conceit and stupefying individualism1 that he comes to write in his tablets1 ,avoid the great man as one who is privileged to be an unprofitable companion4 ,for the course of things makes the scholars either egotists or worldly and jocose4 ,in so many hundreds of superior men hardly ten or five or two from whom one can hope for a reasonable word4 ,go into the scientific club and hearken4 ,each savant proves in his admirable discourse that he and he only knows now or ever did know anything on the subject3 8,does the gentleman speak of anatomy8 ,who peeped into a box at the ,custom ,house and then published a drawing of my rat80 ,or is it pretended discoveries of new strata that are before the meeting8 ,this professor hastens to inform us that he knew it all twenty years ago1 and is ready to prove that he knew so much then that all further investigation was quite superfluous2--and poor nature and the sublime law1 which is all that our student cares to hear of1 are quite omitted in this triumphant vindication4 ,was it better when we came to the philosophers1 who found everybody wrong2 acute and ingenious to lampoon and degrade mankind8 ,and then was there ever prophet burdened with a message to his people who did not cloud our gratitude by a strange confounding in his own mind of private folly with his public wisdom8 ,but if you like to run away from this besetting sin of sedentary men1 you can escape all this insane egotism by running into society1 where the manners and estimate of the world have corrected this folly1 and effectually suppressed this overweening self-conceit4 ,here each is to make room for others1 and the solidest merits must exist only for the entertainment of all4 ,we are not in the smallest degree helped4 ,great is the dazzle1 but the gain is small4 ,here they play the game of conversation1 as they play billiards1 for pastime and credit4 ,yes1 'tis a great vice in all countries1 the sacrifice of scholars to be courtiers and diners-out1 to talk for the amusement of those who wish to be amused1 though the stars of heaven must be plucked down and packed into rockets to this end4 ,what with egotism on one side and levity on the other we shall have no ,olympus4 ,but there is still another hindrance1 namely1 practicality4 ,we must have a special talent1 and bring something to pass4 ,ever since the ,norse heaven made the stern terms of admission that a man must do something excellent with his hands or feet1 or with his voice1 eyes1 ears1 or with his whole body1 the same demand has been made in ,norse earth4 ,yet what we really want is not a haste to act1 but a certain piety toward the source of action and knowledge4 ,in fact we have to say that there is a certain beatitude--,i can call it nothing less--to which all men are entitled1 tasted by them in different degrees1 which is a perfection of their nature1 and to which their entrance must be in every way forwarded4 ,practical men1 though they could lift the globe1 cannot arrive at this4 ,something very different has to be done1--the availing ourselves of every impulse of genius1 an emanation of the heaven it tells of1 and the resisting this conspiracy of men and material things against the sanitary and legitimate inspirations of the intellectual nature4 ,what is life but the angle of vision8 ,a man is measured by the angle at which he looks at objects4 ,what is life but what a man is thinking of all day8 ,this is his fate and his employer4 ,knowing is the measure of the man4 ,by how much we know1 so much we are4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the laws and powers of the ,intellect have1 however1 a stupendous peculiarity1 of being at once observers and observed4 ,so that it is difficult to hold them fast1 as objects of examination1 or hinder them from turning the professor out of his chair4 ,the wonder of the science of ,intellect is that the substance with which we deal is of that subtle and active quality that it intoxicates all who approach it4 ,gloves on the hands1 glass guards over the eyes1 wire-gauze masks over the face1 volatile salts in the nostrils1 are no defence against this virus1 which comes in as secretly as gravitation into and through all barriers4 ,let me have your attention to this dangerous subject1 which we will cautiously approach on different sides of this dim and perilous lake1 so attractive1 so delusive4 ,we have had so many guides and so many failures4 ,and now the world is still uncertain whether the pool has been sounded or not4 ,my contribution will be simply historical4 ,i write anecdotes of the intellect2 a sort of ,farmer's ,almanac of mental moods4 ,i confine my ambition to true reporting of its play in natural action1 though ,i should get only one new fact in a year4 ,i cannot myself use that systematic form which is reckoned essential in treating the science of the mind4 ,but if one can say so without arrogance1 ,i might suggest that he who contents himself with dotting a fragmentary curve1 recording only what facts he has observed1 without attempting to arrange them within one outline1 follows a system also1--a system as grand as any other1 though he does not interfere with its vast curves by prematurely forcing them into a circle or ellipse1 but only draws that arc which he clearly sees1 or perhaps at a later observation a remote curve of the same orbit1 and waits for a new opportunity1 well-assured that these observed arcs will consist with each other4 ,i confess to a little distrust of that completeness of system which metaphysicians are apt to affect4 ',tis the gnat grasping the world4 ,all these exhaustive theories appear indeed a false and vain attempt to introvert and analyze the ,primal ,thought4 ,that is upstream1 and what a stream6 ,can you swim up ,niagara ,falls8 ,we have invincible repugnance to introversion1 to study of the eyes instead of that which the eyes see2 and the belief of men is that the attempt is unnatural and is punished by loss of faculty4 ,i share the belief that the natural direction of the intellectual powers is from within outward1 and that just in proportion to the activity of thoughts on the study of outward objects1 as architecture1 or farming1 or natural history1 ships1 animals1 chemistry1--in that proportion the faculties of the mind had a healthy growth2 but a study in the opposite direction had a damaging effect on the mind4 ,metaphysic is dangerous as a single pursuit4 ,we should feel more confidence in the same results from the mouth of a man of the world4 ,the inward analysis must be corrected by rough experience4 ,metaphysics must be perpetually reinforced by life2 must be the observations of a working-man on working-men2 must be biography1--the record of some law whose working was surprised by the observer in natural action4 ,i think metaphysics a grammar to which1 once read1 we seldom return4 ',tis a ,manila full of pepper1 and ,i want only a teaspoonful in a year4 ,i admire the ,dutch1 who burned half the harvest to enhance the price of the remainder4 ,i want not the logic but the power1 if any1 which it brings into science and literature2 the man who can humanize this logic1 these syllogisms1 and give me the results4 ,the adepts value only the pure geometry1 the aerial bridge ascending from earth to heaven with arches and abutments of pure reason4 ,i am fully contented if you tell me where are the two termini4 ,my metaphysics are to the end of use4 ,i wish to know the laws of this wonderful power1 that ,i may domesticate it4 ,i observe with curiosity its risings and settings1 illumination and eclipse2 its obstructions and its provocations1 that ,i may learn to live with it wisely1 court its aid1 catch sight of its splendor1 feel its approach1 hear and save its oracles and obey them4 ,but this watching of the mind1 in season and out of season1 to see the mechanics of the thing1 is a little of the detective4 ,the analytic process is cold and bereaving and1 shall ,i say it8 somewhat mean1 as spying4 ,there is something surgical in metaphysics as we treat it4 ,were not an ode a better form8 ,the poet sees wholes and avoids analysis2 the metaphysician1 dealing as it were with the mathematics of the mind1 puts himself out of the way of the inspiration2 loses that which is the miracle and creates the worship4 ,i think that philosophy is still rude and elementary4 ,it will one day be taught by poets4 ,the poet is in the natural attitude2 he is believing2 the philosopher1 after some struggle1 having only reasons for believing4 99 99 99 99 99 ,what ,i am now to attempt is simply some sketches or studies for such a picture2 ,mmoires pour servir toward a ,natural ,history of ,intellect4 ,first ,i wish to speak of the excellence of that element1 and the great auguries that come from it1 notwithstanding the impediments which our sensual civilization puts in the way4 ,next ,i treat of the identity of the thought with ,nature2 and ,i add a rude list of some by-laws of the mind4 ,thirdly ,i proceed to the fountains of thought in ,instinct and ,inspiration1 and ,i also attempt to show the relation of men of thought to the existing religion and civility of the present time4 ,i4 ,we figure to ourselves ,intellect as an ethereal sea1 which ebbs and flows1 which surges and washes hither and thither1 carrying its whole virtue into every creek and inlet which it bathes4 ,to this sea every human house has a water front4 ,but this force1 creating nature1 visiting whom it will and withdrawing from whom it will1 making day where it comes and leaving night when it departs1 is no fee or property of man or angel4 ,it is as the light1 public and entire to each1 and on the same terms4 ,what but thought deepens life1 and makes us better than cow or cat8 ,the grandeur of the impression the stars and heavenly bodies make on us is surely more valuable than our exact perception of a tub or a table on the ground4 ,to ,be is the unsolved1 unsolvable wonder4 ,to ,be1 in its two connections of inward and outward1 the mind and nature4 ,the wonder subsists1 and age1 though of eternity1 could not approach a solution4 ,but the suggestion is always returning1 that hidden source publishing at once our being and that it is the source of outward nature4 ,who are we and what is ,nature have one answer in the life that rushes into us4 ,in my thought ,i seem to stand on the bank of a river and watch the endless flow of the stream1 floating objects of all shapes1 colors and natures2 nor can ,i much detain them as they pass1 except by running beside them a little way along the bank4 ,but whence they come or whither they go is not told me4 ,only ,i have a suspicion that1 as geologists say every river makes its own valley1 so does this mystic stream4 ,it makes its valley1 makes its banks and makes perhaps the observer too4 ,who has found the boundaries of human intelligence8 ,who has made a chart of its channel or approached the fountain of this wonderful ,nile8 ,i am of the oldest religion4 ,leaving aside the question which was prior1 egg or bird1 ,i believe the mind is the creator of the world1 and is ever creating2--that at last ,matter is dead ,mind2 that mind makes the senses it sees with2 that the genius of man is a continuation of the power that made him and that has not done making him4 ,i dare not deal with this element in its pure essence4 ,it is too rare for the wings of words4 ,yet ,i see that ,intellect is a science of degrees1 and that as man is conscious of the law of vegetable and animal nature1 so he is aware of an ,intellect which overhangs his consciousness like a sky1 of degree above degree1 of heaven within heaven4 ,every just thinker has attempted to indicate these degrees1 these steps on the heavenly stair1 until he comes to light where language fails him4 ,above the thought is the higher truth1--truth as yet undomesticated and therefore unformulated4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is a steep stair down from the essence of ,intellect pure to thoughts and intellections4 ,as the sun is conceived to have made our system by hurling out from itself the outer rings of diffuse ether which slowly condensed into earths and moons1 by a higher force of the same law the mind detaches minds1 and a mind detaches thoughts or intellections4 ,these again all mimic in their sphericity the first mind1 and share its power4 ,life is incessant parturition4 ,there are viviparous and oviparous minds2 minds that produce their thoughts complete men1 like armed soldiers1 ready and swift to go out to resist and conquer all the armies of error1 and others that deposit their dangerous unripe thoughts here and there to lie still for a time and be brooded in other minds1 and the shell not be broken until the next age1 for them to begin1 as new individuals1 their career4 ,the perceptions of a soul1 its wondrous progeny1 are born by the conversation1 the marriage of souls2 so nourished1 so enlarged4 ,they are detached from their parent1 they pass into other minds2 ripened and unfolded by many they hasten to incarnate themselves in action1 to take body1 only to carry forward the will which sent them out4 ,they take to themselves wood and stone and iron2 ships and cities and nations and armies of men and ages of duration2 the pomps of religion1 the armaments of war1 the codes and heraldry of states2 agriculture1 trade1 commerce2--these are the ponderous instrumentalities into which the nimble thoughts pass1 and which they animate and alter1 and presently1 antagonized by other thoughts which they first aroused1 or by thoughts which are sons and daughters of these1 the thought buries itself in the new thought of larger scope1 whilst the old instrumentalities and incarnations are decomposed and recomposed into new4 ,our eating1 trading1 marrying1 and learning are mistaken by us for ends and realities1 whilst they are properly symbols only2 when we have come1 by a divine leading1 into the inner firmament1 we are apprised of the unreality or representative character of what we esteemed final4 ,so works the poor little blockhead manikin4 ,he must arrange and dignify his shop or farm the best he can4 ,at last he must be able to tell you it1 or write it1 translate it all clumsily enough into the new sky-language he calls thought4 ,he cannot help it1 the irresistible meliorations bear him forward4 ,,ii4 ,whilst we consider this appetite of the mind to arrange its phenomena1 there is another fact which makes this useful4 ,there is in nature a parallel unity which corresponds to the unity in the mind and makes it available4 ,this methodizing mind meets no resistance in its attempts4 ,the scattered blocks1 with which it strives to form a symmetrical structure1 fit4 ,this design following after finds with joy that like design went before4 ,not only man puts things in a row1 but things belong in a row4 ,it is certain that however we may conceive of the wonderful little bricks of which the world is builded1 we must suppose a similarity and fitting and identity in their frame4 ,it is necessary to suppose that every hose in nature fits every hydrant2 so only is combination1 chemistry1 vegetation1 animation1 intellection possible4 ,without identity at base1 chaos must be forever4 ,and as mind1 our mind or mind like ours reappears to us in our study of nature1 nature being everywhere formed after a method which we can well understand1 and all the parts1 to the most remote1 allied or explicable1--therefore our own organization is a perpetual key1 and a well-ordered mind brings to the study of every new fact or class of facts a certain divination of that which it shall find4 ,this reduction to a few laws1 to one law1 is not a choice of the individual1 it is the tyrannical instinct of the mind4 ,there is no solitary flower and no solitary thought4 ,it comes single like a foreign traveller1--but find out its name and it is related to a powerful and numerous family4 ,wonderful is their working and relation each to each4 ,we hold them as lanterns to light each other and our present design4 ,every new thought modifies1 interprets old problems4 ,the retrospective value of each new thought is immense1 like a torch applied to a long train of gunpowder4 ,to be isolated is to be sick1 and in so far1 dead4 ,the life of the ,all must stream through us to make the man and the moment great4 ,well1 having accepted this law of identity pervading the universe1 we next perceive that whilst every creature represents and obeys it1 there is diversity1 there is more or less of power2 that the lowest only means incipient form1 and over it is a higher class in which its rudiments are opened1 raised to higher powers2 that there is development from less to more1 from lower to superior function1 steadily ascending to man4 ,if man has organs for breathing1 for sight1 for locomotion1 for taking food1 for digesting1 for protection by house-building1 by attack and defence1 for reproduction and love and care of his young1 you shall find all the same in the muskrat4 ,there is a perfect correspondence2 or 'tis only man modified to live in a mud-bank4 ,a fish in like manner is man furnished to live in the sea2 a thrush1 to fly in the air2 and a mollusk is a cheap edition with a suppression of the costlier illustrations1 designed for dingy circulation1 for shelving in an oyster-bank or among the sea-weed4 ,if we go through the ,british ,museum or the ,jardin des ,plantes in ,paris1 or any cabinet where is some representation of all the kingdoms of nature1 we are surprised with occult sympathies2 we feel as if looking at our own bone and flesh through coloring and distorting glasses4 ,is it not a little startling to see with what genius some people take to hunting1 with what genius some people fish1--what knowledge they still have of the creature they hunt8 ,the robber1 as the police-reports say1 must have been intimately acquainted with the premises4 ,how lately the hunter was the poor creature's organic enemy2 a presumption inflamed1 as the lawyers say1 by observing how many faces in the street still remind us of visages in the forest1--the escape from the quadruped type not yet perfectly accomplished4 99 99 99 99 99 ,from whatever side we look at ,nature we seem to be exploring the figure of a disguised man4 ,how obvious is the momentum in our mental history6 ,the momentum1 which increases by exact laws in falling bodies1 increases by the same rate in the intellectual action4 ,every scholar knows that he applies himself coldly and slowly at first to his task1 but1 with the progress of the work1 the mind itself becomes heated1 and sees far and wide as it approaches the end1 so that it is the common remark of the student1 ,could ,i only have begun with the same fire which ,i had on the last day1 ,i should have done something4 ,the affinity of particles accurately translates the affinity of thoughts1 and what a modern experimenter calls 8the contagious influence of chemical action0 is so true of mind that ,i have only to read the law that its application may be evident3 8,a body in the act of combination or decomposition enables another body1 with which it may be in contact1 to enter into the same state40 ,and if one remembers how contagious are the moral states of men1 how much we are braced by the presence and actions of any ,spartan soul2 it does not need vigor of our own kind1 but the spectacle of vigor of any kind1 any prodigious power of performance wonderfully arms and recruits us4 ,there are those who disputing will make you dispute1 and the nervous and hysterical and animalized will produce a like series of symptoms in you1 though no other persons ever evoke the like phenomena1 and though you are conscious that they do not properly belong to you1 but are a sort of extension of the diseases of this particular person into you4 ,the idea of vegetation is irresistible in considering mental activity4 ,man seems a higher plant4 ,what happens here in mankind is matched by what happens out there in the history of grass and wheat4 ,this curious resemblance repeats1 in the mental function1 the germination1 growth1 state of melioration1 crossings1 blight1 parasites1 and in short all the accidents of the plant4 ,under every leaf is the bud of a new leaf1 and not less under every thought is a newer thought4 ,the plant absorbs much nourishment from the ground in order to repair its own waste by exhalation1 and keep itself good4 ,increase its food and it becomes fertile4 ,the mind is first only receptive4 ,surcharge it with thoughts in which it delights and it becomes active4 ,the moment a man begins not to be convinced1 that moment he begins to convince4 ,in the orchard many trees send out a moderate shoot in the first summer heat1 and stop4 ,they look all summer as if they would presently burst into bud again1 but they do not4 ,the fine tree continues to grow4 ,the same thing happens in the man4 ,every man has material enough in his experience to exhaust the sagacity of ,newton in working it out4 ,we have more than we use4 ,i never hear a good speech at caucus or at cattle-show but it helps me1 not so much by adding to my knowledge as by apprising me of admirable uses to which what ,i know can be turned4 ,the commonest remark1 if the man could only extend it a little1 would make him a genius2 but the thought is prematurely checked1 and grows no more4 ,all great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second1 a third1 and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line4 ,many a man had taken their first step4 ,with every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first4 ,the botanist discovered long ago that ,nature loves mixtures1 and that nothing grows well on the crab-stock1 but the blood of two trees being mixed a new and excellent fruit is produced4 ,and not less in human history aboriginal races are incapable of improvement2 the dull1 melancholy ,pelasgi arrive at no civility until the ,phnicians and ,ionians come in4 ,the ,briton1 the ,pict1 is nothing until the ,roman1 the ,saxon1 the ,norman1 arrives4 ,it is observed that our mental processes go forward even when they seem suspended4 ,scholars say that if they return to the study of a new language after some intermission1 the intelligence of it is more and not less4 ,a subject of thought to which we return from month to month1 from year to year1 has always some ripeness of which we can give no account4 ,we say the book grew in the author's mind4 ,in unfit company the finest powers are paralyzed4 ,no ambition1 no opposition1 no friendly attention and fostering kindness1 no wine1 music or exhilarating aids1 neither warm fireside nor fresh air1 walking or riding1 avail at all to resist the palsy of mis-association4 ,genius is mute1 is dull2 there is no genius4 ,ask of your flowers to open when you have let in on them a freezing wind4 ,the mechanical laws might as easily be shown pervading the kingdom of mind as the vegetative4 ,a man has been in ,spain4 ,the facts and thoughts which the traveller has found in that country gradually settle themselves into a determinate heap of one size and form and not another4 ,that is what he knows and has to say of ,spain2 he cannot say it truly until a sufficient time for the arrangement of the particles has elapsed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,these views of the source of thought and the mode of its communication lead us to a whole system of ethics1 strict as any department of human duty1 and open to us the tendencies and duties of men of thought in the present time4 ,wisdom is like electricity4 ,there is no permanent wise man1 but men capable of wisdom1 who being put into certain company or other favorable conditions become wise1 as glasses rubbed acquire power for a time4 ,an individual body is the momentary arrest or fixation of certain atoms1 which1 after performing compulsory duty to this enchanted statue1 are released again to flow in the currents of the world4 ,an individual mind in like manner is a fixation or momentary eddy in which certain services and powers are taken up and minister in petty niches and localities1 and then1 being released1 return to the unbounded soul of the world4 ,in this eternal resurrection and rehabilitation of transitory persons1 who and what are they8 ',tis only the source that we can see2--the eternal mind1 careless of its channels1 omnipotent in itself1 and continually ejaculating its torrent into every artery and vein and veinlet of humanity4 ,wherever there is health1 that is1 consent to the cause and constitution of the universe1 there is perception and power4 ,each man is a new power in ,nature4 ,he holds the keys of the world in his hands4 ,no quality in ,nature's vast magazines he cannot touch1 no truth he cannot see4 ,silent1 passive1 even sulkily ,nature offers every morning her wealth to man4 ,she is immensely rich2 he is welcome to her entire goods1 but she speaks no word1 will not so much as beckon or cough2 only this1 she is careful to leave all her doors ajar1--towers1 hall1 storeroom and cellar4 ,if he takes her hint and uses her goods she speaks no word2 if he blunders and starves she says nothing4 ,to the idle blockhead ,nature is poor1 sterile1 inhospitable4 ,to the gardener her loam is all strawberries1 pears1 pineapples4 ,to the miller her rivers whirl the wheel and weave carpets and broadcloth4 ,to the sculptor her stone is soft2 to the painter her plumbago and marl are pencils and chromes4 ,to the poet all sounds and words are melodies and rhythms4 ,in her hundred-gated ,thebes every chamber is a new door4 ,but he enters the world by one key4 ,herein is the wealth of each4 ,his equipment1 though new1 is complete2 his prudence is his own2 his courage1 his charity1 are his own4 ,he has his own defences and his own fangs2 his perception and his own mode of reply to sophistries4 ,whilst he draws on his own he cannot be overshadowed or supplanted4 ,there are two mischievous superstitions1 ,i know not which does the most harm1 one1 that 8,i am wiser than you10 and the other that 8,you are wiser than ,i40 ,the truth is that every man is furnished1 if he will heed it1 with wisdom necessary to steer his own boat1--if he will not look away from his own to see how his neighbor steers his4 ,every man is a new method and distributes things anew4 ,if he could attain full size he would take up1 first or last1 atom by atom1 all the world into a new form4 ,and our deep conviction of the riches proper to every mind does not allow us to admit of much looking over into one another's virtues4 ,let me whisper a secret2 nobody ever forgives any admiration in you of them1 any overestimate of what they do or have4 ,i acquiesce to be that ,i am1 but ,i wish no one to be civil to me4 ,strong men understand this very well4 ,power fraternizes with power1 and wishes you not to be like him but like yourself4 ,echo the leaders and they will fast enough see that you have nothing for them4 ,they came to you for something they had not4 ,there is always a loss of truth and power when a man leaves working for himself to work for another4 ,absolutely speaking ,i can only work for myself4 ,all my good is magnetic1 and ,i educate not by lessons but by going about my business4 ,when1 moved by love1 a man teaches his child or joins with his neighbor in any act of common benefit1 or spends himself for his friend1 or rushes at immense personal sacrifice on some public1 self-immolating act1 it is not done for others1 but to fulfil a high necessity of his proper character4 ,the benefit to others is contingent and not contemplated by the doer4 ,the one thing not to be forgiven to intellectual persons is that they believe in the ideas of others4 ,from this deference comes the imbecility and fatigue of their society1 for of course they cannot affirm these from the deep life2 they say what they would have you believe1 but what they do not quite know4 ,profound sincerity is the only basis of talent as of character4 ,the temptation is to patronize ,providence1 to fall into the accepted ways of talking and acting of the good sort of people4 ,each has a certain aptitude for knowing or doing somewhat which1 when it appears1 is so adapted and aimed on that1 that it seems a sort of obtuseness to everything else4 ,well1 this aptitude1 if he would obey it1 would prove a telescope to bring under his clear vision what was blur to everybody else4 ',tis a wonderful instrument1 an organic sympathy with the whole frame of things4 ,there is no property or relation in that immense arsenal of forces which the earth is1 but some man is at last found who affects this1 delights to unfold and work it1 as if he were the born publisher and demonstrator of it4 ,as a dog has a sense that you have not1 to find the track of his master or of a fox1 and as each tree can secrete from the soil the elements that form a peach1 a lemon1 or a cocoa-nut1 according to its kind1 so individual men have secret senses1 each some incommunicable sagacity4 ,and men are primary or secondary as their opinions and actions are organic or not4 ,i know well what a sieve every ear is4 ,teach me never so much and ,i hear or retain only that which ,i wish to hear1 what comports with my experience and my desire4 ,many eyes go through the meadow1 but few see the flowers4 ,a hunter finds plenty of game on the ground you have sauntered over with idle gun4 ,white huckleberries are so rare that in miles of pasture you shall not find a dozen4 ,but a girl who understands it will find you a pint in a quarter of an hour4 ,though the world is full of food we can take only the crumbs fit for us4 ,the air rings with sounds1 but only a few vibrations can reach our tympanum4 ,perhaps creatures live with us which we never see1 because their motion is too swift for our vision4 ,the sun may shine1 or a galaxy of suns2 you will get no more light than your eye will hold4 ,what can ,plato or ,newton teach1 if you are deaf or incapable8 ,a mind does not receive truth as a chest receives jewels that are put into it1 but as the stomach takes up food into the system4 ,it is no longer food1 but flesh1 and is assimilated4 ,the appetite and the power of digestion measure our right to knowledge4 ,he has it who can use it4 ,as soon as our accumulation overruns our invention or power to use1 the evils of intellectual gluttony begin1--congestion of the brain1 apoplexy and strangulation4 ,,iii4 ,in reckoning the sources of our mental power it were fatal to omit that one which pours all the others into its mould2--that unknown country in which all the rivers of our knowledge have their fountains1 and which1 by its qualities and structure1 determines both the nature of the waters and the direction in which they flow4 ,the healthy mind lies parallel to the currents of nature and sees things in place1 or makes discoveries4 ,newton did not exercise more ingenuity but less than another to see the world4 ,right thought comes spontaneously1 comes like the morning wind2 comes daily1 like our daily bread1 to humble service2 comes duly to those who look for it4 ,it does not need to pump your brains and force thought to think rightly4 ,o no1 the ingenious person is warped by his ingenuity and mis-sees4 ,instinct is our name for the potential wit4 ,each man has a feeling that what is done anywhere is done by the same wit as his4 ,all men are his representatives1 and he is glad to see that his wit can work at this or that problem as it ought to be done1 and better than he could do it4 ,we feel as if one man wrote all the books1 painted1 built1 in dark ages2 and we are sure that it can do more than ever was done4 ,it was the same mind that built the world4 ,that is ,instinct4 ,ask what the ,instinct declares1 and we have little to say4 ,he is no newsmonger1 no disputant1 no talker4 ',tis a taper1 a spark in the great night4 ,yet a spark at which all the illuminations of human arts and sciences were kindled4 ,this is that glimpse of inextinguishable light by which men are guided2 though it does not show objects1 yet it shows the way4 ,this is that sense by which men feel when they are wronged1 though they do not see how4 ,this is that source of thought and feeling which acts on masses of men1 on all men at certain times1 with resistless power4 ,ever at intervals leaps a word or fact to light which is no man's invention1 but the common instinct1 making the revolutions that never go back4 ,this is ,instinct1 and ,inspiration is only this power excited1 breaking its silence2 the spark bursting into flame4 ,instinct is a shapeless giant in the cave1 massive1 without hands or fingers or articulating lips or teeth or tongue2 ,behemoth1 disdaining speech1 disdaining particulars1 lurking1 surly1 invincible1 disdaining thoughts1 always whole1 never distributed1 aboriginal1 old as nature1 and saying1 like poor ,topsy1 8never was born1 growed40 ,indifferent to the dignity of its function1 it plays the god in animal nature as in human or as in the angelic1 and spends its omniscience on the lowest wants4 ,the old ,hindoo ,gautama says1 8,like the approach of the iron to the loadstone is the approach of the new-born child to the breast40 ,there is somewhat awful in that first approach4 ,the ,instinct begins at this low point1 at the surface of the earth1 and works for the necessities of the human being2 then ascends step by step to suggestions which are when expressed the intellectual and moral laws4 ,the mythology cleaves close to nature2 and what else was it they represented in ,pan1 god of shepherds1 who was not yet completely finished in godlike form1 blocked rather1 and wanting the extremities2 had emblematic horns and feet8 ,pan1 that is1 ,all4 ,his habit was to dwell in mountains1 lying on the ground1 tooting like a cricket in the sun1 refusing to speak1 clinging to his behemoth ways4 ,he could intoxicate by the strain of his shepherd's pipe1--silent yet to most1 for his pipes make the music of the spheres1 which because it sounds eternally is not heard at all by the dull1 but only by the mind4 ,he wears a coat of leopard spots or stars4 ,he could terrify by earth-born fears called panics4 ,yet was he in the secret of nature and could look both before and after4 ,he was only seen under disguises1 and was not represented by any outward image2 a terror sometimes1 at others a placid omnipotence4 ,such homage did the ,greek1 delighting in accurate form1 not fond of the extravagant and unbounded1 pay to the inscrutable force we call ,instinct1 or nature when it first becomes intelligent4 ,the action of the ,instinct is for the most part negative1 regulative1 rather than initiative or impulsive4 ,but it has a range as wide as human nature1 running over all the ground of morals1 of intellect1 and of sense4 ,in its lower function1 when it deals with the apparent world1 it is common-sense4 ,it requires the performance of all that is needful to the animal life and health4 ,then it requires a proportion between a man's acts and his condition1 requires all that is called humanity2 that symmetry and connection which is imperative in all healthily constituted men1 and the want of which the rare and brilliant sallies of irregular genius cannot excuse4 99 99 99 99 99 ,if we could retain our early innocence we might trust our feet uncommanded to take the right path to our friend in the woods4 ,but we have interfered too often2 the feet have lost1 by our distrust1 their proper virtue1 and we take the wrong path and miss him4 ',tis the barbarian instinct within us which culture deadens4 ,we find ourselves expressed in nature1 but we cannot translate it into words4 ,but ,perception is the armed eye4 ,a civilization has tamed and ripened this savage wit1 and he is a ,greek4 ,his ,aye and ,no have become nouns and verbs and adverbs4 ,perception differs from ,instinct by adding the ,will4 ,simple percipiency is the virtue of space1 not of man4 ,the senses minister to a mind they do not know4 ,at a moment in our history the mind's eye opens and we become aware of spiritual facts1 of rights1 of duties1 of thoughts1--a thousand faces of one essence4 ,we call the essence ,truth2 the particular aspects of it we call thoughts4 ,these facts1 this essence1 are not new2 they are old and eternal1 but our seeing of them is new4 ,having seen them we are no longer brute lumps whirled by ,fate1 but we pass into the council-chamber and government of nature4 ,in so far as we see them we share their life and sovereignty4 ,the point of interest is here1 that these gates1 once opened1 never swing back4 ,the observers may come at their leisure1 and do at last satisfy themselves of the fact4 ,the thought1 the doctrine1 the right hitherto not affirmed is published in set propositions1 in conversation of scholars and philosophers1 of men of the world1 and at last in the very choruses of songs4 ,the young hear it1 and as they have never fought it1 never known it otherwise1 they accept it1 vote for it at the polls1 embody it in the laws4 ,and the perception thus satisfied reacts on the senses1 to clarify them1 so that it becomes more indisputable4 99 99 99 99 99 ,this is the first property of the ,intellect ,i am to point out2 the mind detaches4 ,a man is intellectual in proportion as he can make an object of every sensation1 perception and intuition2 so long as he has no engagement in any thought or feeling which can hinder him from looking at it as somewhat foreign4 ,a man of talent has only to name any form or fact with which we are most familiar1 and the strong light which he throws on it enhances it to all eyes4 ,people wonder they never saw it before4 ,the detachment consists in seeing it under a new order1 not under a personal but under a universal light4 ,to us it had economic1 but to the universe it has poetic relations1 and it is as good as sun and star now4 ,indeed this is the measure of all intellectual power among men1 the power to complete this detachment1 the power of genius to hurl a new individual into the world4 ,an intellectual man has the power to go out of himself and see himself as an object2 therefore his defects and delusions interest him as much as his successes4 ,he not only wishes to succeed in life1 but he wishes in thought to know the history and destiny of a man2 whilst the cloud of egotists drifting about are only interested in a success to their egotism4 ,the senses report the new fact or change2 the mind discovers some essential copula binding this fact or change to a class of facts or changes1 and enjoys the discovery as if coming to its own again4 ,a perception is always a generalization4 ,it lifts the object1 whether in material or moral nature1 into a type4 ,the animal1 the low degrees of intellect1 know only individuals4 ,the philosopher knows only laws4 ,that is1 he considers a purely mental fact1 part of the soul itself4 ,we say with ,kenelm ,digby1 8,all things that she knoweth are herself1 and she is all that she knoweth40 ,insight assimilates the thing seen4 ,is it only another way of affirming and illustrating this to say that it sees nothing alone1 but sees each particular object in just connections1--sees all in ,god8 ,in all healthy souls is an inborn necessity of presupposing for each particular fact a prior ,being which compels it to a harmony with all other natures4 ,the game of ,intellect is the perception that whatever befalls or can be stated is a universal proposition2 and contrariwise1 that every general statement is poetical again by being particularized or impersonated4 ,a single thought has no limit to its value2 a thought1 properly speaking1--that is a truth held not from any man's saying so1 or any accidental benefit or recommendation it has in our trade or circumstance1 but because we have perceived it is a fact in the nature of things1 and in all times and places will and must be the same thing1--is of inestimable value4 ,every new impression on the mind is not to be derided1 but is to be accounted for1 and1 until accounted for1 registered as an indisputable addition to our catalogue of natural facts4 ,the first fact is the fate in every mental perception1--that my seeing this or that1 and that ,i see it so or so1 is as much a fact in the natural history of the world as is the freezing of water at thirty-two degrees of ,fahrenheit4 ,my percipiency affirms the presence and perfection of law1 as much as all the martyrs4 ,a perception1 it is of a necessity older than the sun and moon1 and the ,father of the ,gods4 ,it is there with all its destinies4 ,it is its nature to rush to expression1 to rush to embody itself4 ,it is impatient to put on its sandals and be gone on its errand1 which is to lead to a larger perception1 and so to new action4 ,for thought exists to be expressed4 ,that which cannot externize itself is not thought4 ,do not trifle with your perceptions1 or hold them cheap4 ,they are your door to the seven heavens1 and if you pass it by you will miss your way4 ,say1 what impresses me ought to impress me4 ,i am bewildered by the immense variety of attractions and cannot take a step2 but this one thread1 fine as gossamer1 is yet real2 and ,i hear a whisper1 which ,i dare trust1 that it is the thread on which the earth and the heaven of heavens are strung4 ,the universe is traversed by paths or bridges or stepping-stones across the gulfs of space in every direction4 ,to every soul that is created is its path1 invisible to all but itself4 ,each soul1 therefore1 walking in its own path walks firmly2 and to the astonishment of all other souls1 who see not its path1 it goes as softly and playfully on its way as if1 instead of being a line1 narrow as the edge of a sword1 over terrific pits right and left1 it were a wide prairie4 ,genius is a delicate sensibility to the laws of the world1 adding the power to express them again in some new form4 ,the highest measure of poetic power is such insight and faculty to fuse the circumstances of to-day as shall make transparent the whole web of circumstance and opinion in which the man finds himself1 so that he releases himself from the traditions in which he grew1--no longer looks back to ,hebrew or ,greek or ,english use or tradition in religion1 laws1 or life1 but sees so truly the omnipresence of eternal cause that he can convert the daily and hourly event of ,new ,york1 of ,boston1 into universal symbols4 ,i owe to genius always the same debt1 of lifting the curtain from the common and showing me that gods are sitting disguised in every company4 ,the conduct of ,intellect must respect nothing so much as preserving the sensibility4 ,my measure for all subjects of science as of events is their impression on the soul4 ,that mind is best which is most impressionable4 ,there are times when the cawing of a crow1 a weed1 a snow-flake1 a boy's willow whistle1 or a farmer planting in his field is more suggestive to the mind than the ,yosemite gorge or the ,vatican would be in another hour4 ,in like mood an old verse1 or certain words1 gleam with rare significance4 ,but sensibility does not exhaust our idea of it4 ,that is only half4 ,genius is not a lazy angel contemplating itself and things4 ,it is insatiable for expression4 ,thought must take the stupendous step of passing into realization4 ,a master can formulate his thought4 ,our thoughts at first possess us4 ,later1 if we have good heads1 we come to possess them4 ,we believe that certain persons add to the common vision a certain degree of control over these states of mind2 that the true scholar is one who has the power to stand beside his thoughts or to hold off his thoughts at arm's length and give them perspective4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is not to be concealed that the gods have guarded this privilege with costly penalty4 ,this slight discontinuity which perception effects between the mind and the object paralyzes the will4 ,if you cut or break in two a block or stone and press the two parts closely together1 you can indeed bring the particles very near1 but never again so near that they shall attract each other so that you can take up the block as one4 ,that indescribably small interval is as good as a thousand miles1 and has forever severed the practical unity4 ,such is the immense deduction from power by discontinuity4 ,the intellect that sees the interval partakes of it1 and the fact of intellectual perception severs once for all the man from the things with which he converses4 ,affection blends1 intellect disjoins subject and object4 ,for weal or woe we clear ourselves from the thing we contemplate4 ,we grieve but are not the grief2 we love but are not love4 ,if we converse with low things1 with crimes1 with mischances1 we are not compromised4 ,and if with high things1 with heroic actions1 with virtues1 the interval becomes a gulf and we cannot enter into the highest good4 ,artist natures do not weep4 ,goethe1 the surpassing intellect of modern times1 apprehends the spiritual but is not spiritual4 ,there is indeed this vice about men of thought1 that you cannot quite trust them2 not as much as other men of the same natural probity1 without intellect2 because they have a hankering to play ,providence and make a distinction in favor of themselves from the rules they apply to the human race4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the primary rule for the conduct of ,intellect is to have control of the thoughts without losing their natural attitudes and action4 ,they are the oracle2 we are not to poke and drill and force1 but to follow them4 ,yet the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets4 ,you must formulate your thought or 'tis all sky and no stars4 ,there are men of great apprehension1 discursive minds1 who easily entertain ideas1 but are not exact1 severe with themselves1 cannot connect or arrange their thoughts so as effectively to report them4 ,a blending of these two--the intellectual perception of truth and the moral sentiment of right--is wisdom4 ,all thought is practical4 ,wishing is one thing2 will another4 ,wishing is castle-building2 the dreaming about things agreeable to the senses1 but to which we have no right4 ,will is the advance to that which rightly belongs to us1 to which the inward magnet ever points1 and which we dare to make ours4 ,the revelation of thought takes us out of servitude into freedom4 ,so does the sense of right4 ,will is the measure of power4 ,to a great genius there must be a great will4 ,if the thought is not a lamp to the will1 does not proceed to an act1 the wise are imbecile4 ,he alone is strong and happy who has a will4 ,the rest are herds4 ,he uses2 they are used4 ,he is of the ,maker2 they are of the ,made4 ,will is always miraculous1 being the presence of ,god to men4 ,when it appears in a man he is a hero1 and all metaphysics are at fault4 ,heaven is the exercise of the faculties1 the added sense of power4 ,all men know the truth1 but what of that8 ,it is rare to find one who knows how to speak it4 ,a man tries to speak it and his voice is like the hiss of a snake1 or rude and chiding4 ,the truth is not spoken but injured4 ,the same thing happens in power to do the right4 ,his rectitude is ridiculous4 ,his organs do not play him true4 ,there is a meter which determines the constructive power of man1--this1 namely1 the question whether the mind possesses the control of its thoughts1 or they of it4 ,the new sect stands for certain thoughts4 ,we go to individual members for an exposition of them4 ,vain expectation4 ,they are possessed by the ideas but do not possess them4 ,one meets contemplative men who dwell in a certain feeling and delight which are intellectual but wholly above their expression4 ,they cannot formulate4 ,they impress those who know them by their loyalty to the truth they worship but cannot impart4 ,sometimes the patience and love are rewarded by the chamber of power being at last opened2 but sometimes they pass away dumb1 to find it where all obstruction is removed4 ,by and by comes a facility2 some one that can move the mountain and build of it a causeway through the ,dismal ,swamp1 as easily as he carries the hair on his head4 ,talent is habitual facility of execution4 ,we like people who can do things4 ,the various talents are organic1 or each related to that part of nature it is to explore and utilize4 ,somewhat is to come to the light1 and one was created to fetch it1--a vessel of honor or of dishonor4 ',tis of instant use in the economy of the ,cosmos1 and the more armed and biassed for the work the better4 ,each of these talents is born to be unfolded and set at work for the use and delight of men1 and1 in the last result1 the man with the talent is the need of mankind2 the whole ponderous machinery of the state has really for its aim just to place this skill of each4 ,but idea and execution are not often entrusted to the same head4 ,there is some incompatibility of good speculation and practice1 for example1 the failure of monasteries and ,brook ,farms4 ,to hammer out phalanxes must be done by smiths2 as soon as the scholar attempts it he is half a charlatan4 ,the grasp is the main thing4 ,most men's minds do not grasp anything4 ,all slips through their fingers1 like the paltry brass grooves that in most country houses are used to raise or drop the curtain1 but are made to sell1 and will not hold any curtain but cobwebs4 ,i have heard that idiot children are known from their birth by the circumstance that their hands do not close round anything4 ,webster naturally and always grasps1 and therefore retains something from every company and circumstance4 ,as a talent ,dante's imagination is the nearest to hands and feet that we have seen4 ,he clasps the thought as if it were a tree or a stone1 and describes as mathematically4 ,i once found ,page the painter modelling his figures in clay1 ,ruth and ,naomi1 before he painted them on canvas4 ,dante1 one would say1 did the same thing before he wrote the verses4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i have spoken of ,intellect constructive4 ,but it is in degrees4 ,how it moves when its pace is accelerated6 ,the pace of ,nature is so slow4 ,why not from strength to strength1 from miracle to miracle1 and not as now with this retardation--as if ,nature had sprained her foot--and plenteous stopping at little stations8 ,the difference is obvious enough in ,talent between the speed of one man's action above another's4 ,in debate1 in legislature1 not less in action2 in war or in affairs1 alike daring and effective4 ,but ,i speak of it in quite another sense1 namely1 in the habitual speed of combination of thought4 ,the same functions which are perfect in our quadrupeds are seen slower performed in palontology4 ,many races it cost them to achieve the completion that is now in the life of one4 ,life had not yet so fierce a glow4 ,shakespeare astonishes by his equality in every play1 act1 scene or line4 ,one would say he must have been a thousand years old when he wrote his first line1 so thoroughly is his thought familiar to him1 and has such scope and so solidly worded1 as if it were already a proverb and not hereafter to become one4 ,well1 that millennium in effect is really only a little acceleration in his process of thought4 ,but each power is commonly at the expense of some other4 ,when pace is increased it will happen that the control is in a degree lost4 ,reason does not keep her firm seat4 ,the ,delphian prophetess1 when the spirit possesses her1 is herself a victim4 ,the excess of individualism1 when it is not corrected or subordinated to the ,supreme ,reason1 makes that vice which we stigmatize as monotones1 men of one idea1 or1 as the ,french say1 enfant perdu d'une conviction isole1 which give such a comic tinge to all society4 ,every man has his theory1 true1 but ridiculously overstated4 ,we are forced to treat a great part of mankind as if they were a little deranged4 ,we detect their mania and humor it1 so that conversation soon becomes a tiresome effort4 ,you laugh at the monotones1 at the men of one idea1 but if we look nearly at heroes we may find the same poverty2 and perhaps it is not poverty1 but power4 ,the secret of power1 intellectual or physical1 is concentration1 and all concentration involves of necessity a certain narrowness4 ,it is a law of nature that he who looks at one thing must turn his eyes from every other thing in the universe4 ,the horse goes better with blinders1 and the man for dedication to his task4 ,if you ask what compensation is made for the inevitable narrowness1 why1 this1 that in learning one thing well you learn all things4 ,immense is the patience of ,nature4 ,you say thought is a penurious rill4 ,well1 we can wait4 ,nature is immortal1 and can wait4 ,nature having for capital this rill1 drop by drop1 as it trickles from the rock of ages1--this rill and her patience1--she husbands and hives1 she forms reservoirs1 were it only a phial or a hair-tube that will hold as it were a drop of attar4 ,not having enough to support all the powers of a race1 she thins her stock and raises a few individuals1 or only a pair4 ,not sufficing to feed all the faculties synchronously1 she feeds one faculty and starves all the rest4 ,i am familiar with cases1 we meet them daily1 wherein the vital force being insufficient for the constitution1 everything is neglected that can be spared2 some one power fed1 all the rest pine4 ',tis like a withered hand or leg on a ,hercules4 ,it makes inconvenience in society1 for we presume symmetry1 and because they know one thing we defer to them in another1 and find them really contemptible4 ,we can't make half a bow and say1 ,i honor and despise you4 ,but ,nature can2 she whistles with all her winds1 and does as she pleases4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is much to write sentences2 it is more to add method and write out the spirit of your life symmetrically4 ,but to arrange general reflections in their natural order1 so that ,i shall have one homogeneous piece1--a ,lycidas1 an ,allegro1 a ,hamlet1 a ,midsummer ,night's ,dream1--this continuity is for the great4 ,the wonderful men are wonderful hereby4 ,such concentration of experiences is in every great work1 which1 though successive in the mind of the master1 were primarily combined in his piece4 ,but what we want is consecutiveness4 ',tis with us a flash of light1 then a long darkness1 then a flash again4 ,ah6 could we turn these fugitive sparkles into an astronomy of ,copernican worlds4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i must think this keen sympathy1 this thrill of awe with which we watch the performance of genius1 a sign of our own readiness to exert the like power4 ,i must think we are entitled to powers far transcending any that we possess2 that we have in the race the sketch of a man which no individual comes up to4 ,every sincere man is right1 or1 to make him right1 only needs a little larger dose of his own personality4 ,excellent in his own way by means of not apprehending the gift of another4 ,when he speaks out of another's mind1 we detect it4 ,he can't make any paint stick but his own4 ,no man passes for that with another which he passes for with himself4 ,the respect and the censure of his brother are alike injurious and irrelevant4 ,we see ourselves2 we lack organs to see others1 and only squint at them4 ,don't fear to push these individualities to their farthest divergence4 ,characters and talents are complemental and suppletory4 ,the world stands by balanced antagonisms4 ,the more the peculiarities are pressed the better the result4 ,the air would rot without lightning2 and without the violence of direction that men have1 without bigots1 without men of fixed idea1 no excitement1 no efficiency4 ,the novelist should not make any character act absurdly1 but only absurdly as seen by others4 ,for it is so in life4 ,nonsense will not keep its unreason if you come into the humorist's point of view1 but unhappily we find it is fast becoming sense1 and we must flee again into the distance if we would laugh4 ,what strength belongs to every plant and animal in nature4 ,the tree or the brook has no duplicity1 no pretentiousness1 no show4 ,it is1 with all its might and main1 what it is1 and makes one and the same impression and effect at all times4 ,all the thoughts of a turtle are turtles1 and of a rabbit1 rabbits4 ,but a man is broken and dissipated by the giddiness of his will2 he does not throw himself into his judgments2 his genius leads him one way but 'tis likely his trade or politics in quite another4 ,he rows with one hand and with the other backs water1 and does not give to any manner of life the strength of his constitution4 ,hence the perpetual loss of power and waste of human life4 ,the natural remedy against this miscellany of knowledge and aim1 this desultory universality of ours1 this immense ground-juniper falling abroad and not gathered up into any columnar tree1 is to substitute realism for sentimentalism2 a certain recognition of the simple and terrible laws which1 seen or unseen1 pervade and govern4 ,you will say this is quite axiomatic and a little too true4 ,i do not find it an agreed point4 ,literary men for the most part have a settled despair as to the realization of ideas in their own time4 ,there is in all students a distrust of truth1 a timidity about affirming it2 a wish to patronize ,providence4 ,we disown our debt to moral evil4 ,to science there is no poison2 to botany no weed2 to chemistry no dirt4 ,the curses of malignity and despair are important criticism1 which must be heeded until he can explain and rightly silence them4 8,croyez moi1 l'erreur aussi a son mrite10 said ,voltaire4 ,we see those who surmount by dint of egotism or infatuation obstacles from which the prudent recoil4 ,the right partisan is a heady man1 who1 because he does not see many things1 sees some one thing with heat and exaggeration2 and if he falls among other narrow men1 or objects which have a brief importance1 prefers it to the universe1 and seems inspired and a godsend to those who wish to magnify the matter and carry a point4 ',tis the difference between progress by railroad and by walking across the broken country4 ,immense speed1 but only in one direction4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there are two theories of life2 one for the demonstration of our talent1 the other for the education of the man4 ,one is activity1 the busy-body1 the following of that practical talent which we have1 in the belief that what is so natural1 easy and pleasant to us and desirable to others will surely lead us out safely2 in this direction lie usefulness1 comfort1 society1 low power of all sorts4 ,the other is trust1 religion1 consent to be nothing for eternity1 entranced waiting1 the worship of ideas4 ,this is solitary1 grand1 secular4 ,they are in perpetual balance and strife4 ,one is talent1 the other genius4 ,one is skill1 the other character4 ,we are continually tempted to sacrifice genius to talent1 the hope and promise of insight to the lust of a freer demonstration of those gifts we have2 and we buy this freedom to glitter by the loss of general health4 ,it is the levity of this country to forgive everything to talent4 ,if a man show cleverness1 rhetorical skill1 bold front in the forum or the senate1 people clap their hands without asking more4 ,we have a juvenile love of smartness1 of showy speech4 ,we like faculty that can rapidly be coined into money1 and society seems to be in conspiracy to utilize every gift prematurely1 and pull down genius to lucrative talent4 ,every kind of meanness and mischief is forgiven to intellect4 ,all is condoned if ,i can write a good song or novel4 ,wide is the gulf between genius and talent4 ,the men we know1 poets1 wits1 writers1 deal with their thoughts as jewellers with jewels1 which they sell but must not wear4 ,like the carpenter1 who gives up the key of the fine house he has built1 and never enters it again4 ,there is a conflict between a man's private dexterity or talent and his access to the free air and light which wisdom is2 between wisdom and the habit and necessity of repeating itself which belongs to every mind4 ,peter is the mould into which everything is poured like warm wax1 and be it astronomy or railroads or ,french revolution or theology or botany1 it comes out ,peter4 ,but there are quick limits to our interest in the personality of people4 ,they are as much alike as their barns and pantries1 and are as soon musty and dreary4 ,they entertain us for a time1 but at the second or third encounter we have nothing more to learn4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the daily history of the ,intellect is this alternating of expansions and concentrations4 ,the expansions are the invitations from heaven to try a larger sweep1 a higher pitch than we have yet climbed1 and to leave all our past for this enlarged scope4 ,present power1 on the other hand1 requires concentration on the moment and the thing to be done4 ,the condition of sanity is to respect the order of the intellectual world2 to keep down talent in its place1 to enthrone the instinct4 ,there must be perpetual rallying and self-recovery4 ,each talent is ambitious and self-asserting2 it works for show and for the shop1 and the greater it grows the more is the mischief and the misleading1 so that presently all is wrong4 99 99 99 99 99 ,no wonder the children love masks and costumes1 and play horse1 play soldier1 play school1 play bear1 and delight in theatricals4 ,the children have only the instinct of the universe1 in which becoming somewhat else is the perpetual game of nature1 and death the penalty of standing still4 ',tis not less in thought4 ,i cannot conceive any good in a thought which confines and stagnates4 ,the universe exists only in transit1 or we behold it shooting the gulf from the past to the future4 ,we are passing into new heavens in fact by the movement of our solar system1 and in thought by our better knowledge4 ,transition is the attitude of power4 ,a fact is only a fulcrum of the spirit4 ,it is the terminus of a past thought1 but only a means now to new sallies of the imagination and new progress of wisdom4 ,the habit of saliency1 of not pausing but proceeding1 is a sort of importation and domestication of the divine effort into a man4 ,routine1 the rut1 is the path of indolence1 of cows1 of sluggish animal life2 as near gravitation as it can go4 ,but wit sees the short way1 puts together what belongs together1 custom or no custom2 in that is organization4 ,inspiration is the continuation of the divine effort that built the man4 ,the same course continues itself in the mind which we have witnessed in nature1 namely1 the carrying-on and completion of the metamorphosis from grub to worm1 from worm to fly4 ,in human thought this process is often arrested for years and ages4 ,the history of mankind is the history of arrested growth4 ,this premature stop1 ,i know not how1 befalls most of us in early youth2 as if the growth of high powers1 the access to rare truths1 closed at two or three years in the child1 while all the pagan faculties went ripening on to sixty4 ,so long as you are capable of advance1 so long you have not abdicated the hope and future of a divine soul4 ,that wonderful oracle will reply when it is consulted1 and there is no history or tradition1 no rule of life or art or science1 on which it is not a competent and the only competent judge4 ,man was made for conflict1 not for rest4 ,in action is his power2 not in his goals but in his transitions man is great4 ,instantly he is dwarfed by self-indulgence4 ,the truest state of mind rested in becomes false4 ,the spiritual power of man is twofold1 mind and heart1 ,intellect and morals2 one respecting truth1 the other the will4 ,one is the man1 the other the woman in spiritual nature4 ,one is power1 the other is love4 ,these elements always coexist in every normal individual1 but one predominates4 ,and as each is easily exalted in our thoughts till it serves to fill the universe and become the synonym of ,god1 the soul in which one predominates is ever watchful and jealous when such immense claims are made for one as seem injurious to the other4 ,ideal and practical1 like ecliptic and equator1 are never parallel4 ,each has its vices1 its proper dangers1 obvious enough when the opposite element is deficient4 ,intellect is skeptical1 runs down into talent1 selfish working for private ends1 conceited1 ostentatious and malignant4 ,on the other side the clear-headed thinker complains of souls led hither and thither by affections which1 alone1 are blind guides and thriftless workmen1 and in the confusion asks the polarity of intellect4 ,but all great minds and all great hearts have mutually allowed the absolute necessity of the twain4 ,if the first rule is to obey your genius1 in the second place the good mind is known by the choice of what is positive1 of what is advancing4 ,we must embrace the affirmative4 ,but the affirmative of affirmatives is love4 ,quantus amor tantus animus4 ,strength enters as the moral element enters4 ,lovers of men are as safe as the sun4 ,goodwill makes insight4 ,sensibility is the secret readiness to believe in all kinds of power1 and the contempt of any experience we have not is the opposite pole4 ,the measure of mental health is the disposition to find good everywhere1 good and order1 analogy1 health and benefit1--the love of truth1 tendency to be in the right1 no fighter for victory1 no cockerel4 ,we have all of us by nature a certain divination and parturient vaticination in our minds of some higher good and perfection than either power or knowledge4 ,knowledge is plainly to be preferred before power1 as being that which guides and directs its blind force and impetus2 but ,aristotle declares that the origin of reason is not reason but something better4 ,the height of culture1 the highest behavior1 consists in the identification of the ,ego with the universe2 so that when a man says ,i hope1 ,i find1 ,i think1 he might properly say1 ,the human race thinks or finds or hopes4 ,and meantime he shall be able continually to keep sight of his biographical ,ego1--,i have a desk1 ,i have an office1 ,i am hungry1 ,i had an ague1--as rhetoric or offset to his grand spiritual ,ego1 without impertinence1 or ever confounding them4 ,i may well say this is divine1 the continuation of the divine effort4 ,alas6 it seems not to be ours1 to be quite independent of us4 ,often there is so little affinity between the man and his works that we think the wind must have writ them4 ,also its communication from one to another follows its own law and refuses our intrusion4 ,it is in one1 it belongs to all2 yet how to impart it8 ,we need all our resources to live in the world which is to be used and decorated by us4 ,socrates kept all his virtues as well as his faculties well in hand4 ,he was sincerely humble1 but he utilized his humanity chiefly as a better eyeglass to penetrate the vapors that baffled the vision of other men4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the superiority of the man is in the simplicity of his thought1 that he has no obstruction1 but looks straight at the pure fact1 with no color of option4 ,profound sincerity is the only basis of talent as of character4 ,the virtue of the ,intellect is its own1 its courage is of its own kind1 and at last it will be justified1 though for the moment it seem hostile to what it most reveres4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we wish to sum up the conflicting impressions by saying that all point at last to a unity which inspires all4 ,our poetry1 our religion are its skirts and penumbr4 ,yet the charm of life is the hints we derive from this4 ,they overcome us like perfumes from a far-off shore of sweetness1 and their meaning is that no tongue shall syllable it without leave2 that only itself can name it2 that by casting ourselves on it and being its voice it rushes each moment to positive commands1 creating men and methods1 and ties the will of a child to the love of the ,first ,cause4 ,,footnotes3 #a #ahej ,,memory4 ,illustration3 7decorative banner7 ,,memory4 ,memory is a primary and fundamental faculty1 without which none other can work2 the cement1 the bitumen1 the matrix in which the other faculties are imbedded2 or it is the thread on which the beads of man are strung1 making the personal identity which is necessary to moral action4 ,without it all life and thought were an unrelated succession4 ,as gravity holds matter from flying off into space1 so memory gives stability to knowledge2 it is the cohesion which keeps things from falling into a lump1 or flowing in waves4 ,we like longevity1 we like signs of riches and extent of nature in an individual4 ,and most of all we like a great memory4 ,the lowest life remembers4 ,the sparrow1 the ant1 the worm1 have the same memory as we4 ,if you bar their path1 or offer them somewhat disagreeable to their senses1 they make one or two trials1 and then once for all avoid it4 ,every machine must be perfect of its sort4 ,it is essential to a locomotive that it can reverse its movement1 and run backward and forward with equal celerity4 ,the builder of the mind found it not less needful that it should have retroaction1 and command its past act and deed4 ,perception1 though it were immense and could pierce through the universe1 was not sufficient4 ,memory performs the impossible for man by the strength of his divine arms2 holds together past and present1 beholding both1 existing in both1 abides in the flowing1 and gives continuity and dignity to human life4 ,it holds us to our family1 to our friends4 ,hereby a home is possible2 hereby only a new fact has value4 ,opportunities of investment are useful only to those who have capital4 ,any piece of knowledge ,i acquire to-day1 a fact that falls under my eyes1 a book ,i read1 a piece of news ,i hear1 has a value at this moment exactly proportioned to my skill to deal with it4 ,to-morrow1 when ,i know more1 ,i recall that piece of knowledge and use it better4 ,the ,past has a new value every moment to the active mind1 through the incessant purification and better method of its memory4 ,once it joined its facts by color and form and sensuous relations4 ,some fact that had a childish significance to your childhood and was a type in the nursery1 when riper intelligence recalls it means more and serves you better as an illustration2 and perhaps in your age has new meaning4 ,what was an isolated1 unrelated belief or conjecture1 our later experience instructs us how to place in just connection with other views which confirm and expand it4 ,the old whim or perception was an augury of a broader insight1 at which we arrive later with securer conviction4 ,this is the companion1 this the tutor1 the poet1 the library1 with which you travel4 ,it does not lie1 cannot be corrupted1 reports to you not what you wish but what really befel4 ,you say1 8,i can never think of some act of neglect1 of selfishness1 or of passion without pain40 ,well1 that is as it should he4 ,that is the police of the ,universe3 the angels are set to punish you1 so long as you are capable of such crime4 ,but in the history of character the day comes when you are incapable of such crime4 ,then you suffer no more1 you look on it as heaven looks on it1 with wonder at the deed1 and with applause at the pain it has cost you4 ,memory is not a pocket1 but a living instructor1 with a prophetic sense of the values which he guards2 a guardian angel set there within you to record your life1 and by recording to animate you to uplift it4 ,it is a scripture written day by day from the birth of the man2 all its records full of meanings which open as he lives on1 explaining each other1 explaining the world to him and expanding their sense as he advances1 until it shall become the whole law of nature and life4 ,as every creature is furnished with teeth to seize and eat1 and with stomach to digest its food1 so the memory is furnished with a perfect apparatus4 ,there is no book like the memory1 none with such a good index1 and that of every kind1 alphabetic1 systematic1 arranged by names of persons1 by colors1 tastes1 smells1 shapes1 likeness1 unlikeness1 by all sorts of mysterious hooks and eyes to catch and hold1 and contrivances for giving a hint4 ,the memory collects and re-collects4 ,we figure it as if the mind were a kind of looking-glass1 which being carried through the street of time receives on its clear plate every image that passes2 only with this difference that our plate is iodized so that every image sinks into it1 and is held there4 ,but in addition to this property it has one more1 this1 namely1 that of all the million images that are imprinted1 the very one we want reappears in the centre of the plate in the moment when we want it4 ,we can tell much about it1 but you must not ask us what it is4 ,on seeing a face ,i am aware that ,i have seen it before1 or that ,i have not seen it before4 ,on hearing a fact told ,i am aware that ,i knew it already4 ,you say the first words of the old song1 and ,i finish the line and the stanza4 ,but where ,i have them1 or what becomes of them when ,i am not thinking of them for months and years1 that they should lie so still1 as if they did not exist1 and yet so nigh that they come on the instant when they are called for1 never any man was so sharp-sighted1 or could turn himself inside out quick enough to find4 ',tis because of the believed incompatibility of the affirmative and advancing attitude of the mind with tenacious acts of recollection that people are often reproached with living in their memory4 ,late in life we live by memory1 and in our solstices or periods of stagnation2 as the starved camel in the desert lives on his humps4 ,memory was called by the schoolmen vespertina cognitio1 evening knowledge1 in distinction from the command of the future which we have by the knowledge of causes1 and which they called matutina cognitio1 or morning knowledge4 ,am ,i asked whether the thoughts clothe themselves in words8 ,i answer1 ,yes1 always2 but they are apt to be instantly forgotten4 ,never was truer fable than that of the ,sibyl's writing on leaves which the wind scatters4 ,the difference between men is that in one the memory with inconceivable swiftness flies after and re-collects the flying leaves1--flies on wing as fast as that mysterious whirlwind1 and the envious ,fate is baffled4 ,this command of old facts1 the clear beholding at will of what is best in our experience1 is our splendid privilege4 8,he who calls what is vanished back again into being enjoys a bliss like that of creating10 says ,niebuhr4 ,the memory plays a great part in settling the intellectual rank of men4 ,we estimate a man by how much he remembers4 ,a seneschal of ,parnassus is ,mnemosyne4 ,this power will alone make a man remarkable2 and it is found in all good wits4 ,therefore the poets represented the ,muses as the daughters of ,memory1 for the power exists in some marked and eminent degree in men of an ideal determination4 ,quintilian reckoned it the measure of genius4 8,tantum ingenii quantum memori40 ,we are told that ,boileau having recited to ,daguesseau one day an epistle or satire he had just been composing1 ,daguesseau tranquilly told him he knew it already1 and in proof set himself to recite it from end to end4 ,boileau1 astonished1 was much distressed until he perceived that it was only a feat of memory4 ,the mind disposes all its experience after its affection and to its ruling end2 one man by puns and one by cause and effect1 one to heroic benefit and one to wrath and animal desire4 ,this is the high difference1 the quality of the association by which a man remembers4 ,in the minds of most men memory is nothing but a farm-book or a pocket-diary4 ,on such a day ,i paid my note2 on the next day the cow calved2 on the next ,i cut my finger2 on the next the banks suspended payment4 ,but another man's memory is the history of science and art and civility and thought2 and still another deals with laws and perceptions that are the theory of the world4 ,this thread or order of remembering1 this classification1 distributes men1 one remembering by shop-rule or interest2 one by passion2 one by trifling external marks1 as dress or money4 ,and one rarely takes an interest in how the facts really stand1 in the order of cause and effect1 without self-reference4 ,this is an intellectual man4 ,nature interests him2 a plant1 a fish1 time1 space1 mind1 being1 in their own method and law4 ,napoleon was such1 and that saves him4 ,but this mysterious power that binds our life together has its own vagaries and interruptions4 ,it sometimes occurs that memory has a personality of its own and volunteers or refuses its informations at its will1 not at mine4 ,one sometimes asks himself1 ,is it possible that it is only a visitor1 not a resident8 ,is it some old aunt who goes in and out of the house1 and occasionally recites anecdotes of old times and persons which ,i recognize as having heard before1 and she being gone again ,i search in vain for any trace of the anecdotes8 ,we can help ourselves to the modus of mental processes only by coarse material experiences4 ,a knife with a good spring1 a forceps whose lips accurately meet and match1 a steel-trap1 a loom1 a watch1 the teeth or jaws of which fit and play perfectly1 as compared with the same tools when badly put together1 describe to us the difference between a person of quick and strong perception1 like ,franklin or ,swift or ,webster or ,richard ,owen1 and a heavy man who witnesses the same facts or shares experiences like theirs4 ',tis like the impression made by the same stamp in sand or in wax4 ,the way in which ,burke or ,sheridan or ,webster or any orator surprises us is by his always having a sharp tool that fits the present use4 ,he has an old story1 an odd circumstance1 that illustrates the point he is now proving1 and is better than an argument4 ,the more he is heated1 the wider he sees2 he seems to remember all he ever knew2 thus certifying us that he is in the habit of seeing better than other people2 that what his mind grasps it does not let go4 ',tis the bull-dog bite2 you must cut off the head to loosen the teeth4 ,we hate this fatal shortness of ,memory1 these docked men whom we behold4 ,we gathered up what a rolling snow-ball as we came along1--much of it professedly for the future1 as capital stock of knowledge4 ,where is it now8 ,look behind you4 ,i cannot see that your train is any longer than it was in childhood4 ,the facts of the last two or three days or weeks are all you have with you1--the reading of the last month's books4 ,your conversation1 action1 your face and manners report of no more1 of no greater wealth of mind4 ,alas6 you have lost something for everything you have gained1 and cannot grow4 ,only so much iron will the loadstone draw2 it gains new particles all the way as you move it1 but one falls off for every one that adheres4 ,as there is strength in the wild horse which is never regained when he is once broken by training1 and as there is a sound sleep of children and of savages1 profound as the hibernation of bears1 which never visits the eyes of civil gentlemen and ladies1 so there is a wild memory in children and youth which makes what is early learned impossible to forget2 and perhaps in the beginning of the world it had most vigor4 ,plato deplores writing as a barbarous invention which would weaken the memory by disuse4 ,the ,rhapsodists in ,athens it seems could recite at once any passage of ,homer that was desired4 ,if writing weakens the memory1 we may say as much and more of printing4 ,what is the newspaper but a sponge or invention for oblivion8 the rule being that for every fact added to the memory1 one is crowded out1 and that only what the affection animates can be remembered4 ,the mind has a better secret in generalization than merely adding units to its list of facts4 ,the reason of the short memory is shallow thought4 ,as deep as the thought1 so great is the attraction4 ,an act of the understanding will marshal and concatenate a few facts2 a principle of the reason will thrill and magnetize and redistribute the whole world4 ,but defect of memory is not always want of genius4 ,by no means4 ,it is sometimes owing to excellence of genius4 ,thus men of great presence of mind who are always equal to the occasion do not need to rely on what they have stored for use1 but can think in this moment as well and deeply as in any past moment1 and if they cannot remember the rule they can make one4 ,indeed it is remarked that inventive men have bad memories4 ,sir ,isaac ,newton was embarrassed when the conversation turned on his discoveries and results2 he could not recall them2 but if he was asked why things were so or so he could find the reason on the spot4 ,a man would think twice about learning a new science or reading a new paragraph1 if he believed the magnetism was only a constant amount1 and that he lost a word or a thought for every word he gained4 ,but the experience is not quite so bad4 ,in reading a foreign language1 every new word mastered is a lamp lighting up related words and so assisting the memory4 ,apprehension of the whole sentence aids to fix the precise meaning of a particular word1 and what familiarity has been acquired with the genius of the language and the writer helps in fixing the exact meaning of the sentence4 ,so is it with every fact in a new science3 they are mutually explaining1 and each one adds transparency to the whole mass4 ,the damages of forgetting are more than compensated by the large values which new thoughts and knowledge give to what we already know4 ,if new impressions sometimes efface old ones1 yet we steadily gain insight2 and because all nature has one law and meaning1--part corresponding to part1--all we have known aids us continually to the knowledge of the rest of nature4 ,thus1 all the facts in this chest of memory are property at interest4 ,and who shall set a boundary to this mounting value8 ,shall we not on higher stages of being remember and understand our early history better8 ,they say in ,architecture1 8,an arch never sleeps20 ,i say1 the ,past will not sleep1 it works still4 ,with every new fact a ray of light shoots up from the long buried years4 ,who can judge the new book8 ,he who has read many books4 ,who1 the new assertion8 ,he who has heard many the like4 ,who1 the new man8 ,he that has seen men4 ,the experienced and cultivated man is lodged in a hall hung with pictures which every new day retouches1 and to which every step in the march of the soul adds a more sublime perspective4 ,we learn early that there is great disparity of value between our experiences2 some thoughts perish in the using4 ,some days are bright with thought and sentiment1 and we live a year in a day4 ,yet these best days are not always those which memory can retain4 ,this water once spilled cannot be gathered4 ,there are more inventions in the thoughts of one happy day than ages could execute1 and ,i suppose ,i speak the sense of most thoughtful men when ,i say1 ,i would rather have a perfect recollection of all ,i have thought and felt in a day or a week of high activity than read all the books that have been published in a century4 ,the memory is one of the compensations which ,nature grants to those who have used their days well2 when age and calamity have bereaved them of their limbs or organs1 then they retreat on mental faculty and concentrate on that4 ,the poet1 the philosopher1 lamed1 old1 blind1 sick1 yet disputing the ground inch by inch against fortune1 finds a strength against the wrecks and decays sometimes more invulnerable than the heyday of youth and talent4 ,i value the praise of ,memory4 ,and how does ,memory praise8 ,by holding fast the best4 ,a thought takes its true rank in the memory by surviving other thoughts that were once preferred4 ,plato remembered ,anaxagoras by one of his sayings4 ,if we recall our own favorites we shall usually find that it is for one crowning act or thought that we hold them dear4 ,have you not found memory an apotheosis or deification8 ,the poor1 short1 lone fact dies at the birth4 ,memory catches it up into her heaven1 and bathes it in immortal waters4 ,then a thousand times over it lives and acts again1 each time transfigured1 ennobled4 ,in solitude1 in darkness1 we tread over again the sunny walks of youth2 confined now in populous streets you behold again the green fields1 the shadows of the gray birches2 by the solitary river hear again the joyful voices of early companions1 and vibrate anew to the tenderness and dainty music of the poetry your boyhood fed upon4 ,at this hour the stream is still flowing1 though you hear it not2 the plants are still drinking their accustomed life and repaying it with their beautiful forms4 ,but you need not wander thither4 ,it flows for you1 and they grow for you1 in the returning images of former summers4 ,in low or bad company you fold yourself in your cloak1 withdraw yourself entirely from all the doleful circumstance1 recall and surround yourself with the best associates and the fairest hours of your life3-- 8,passing sweet are the domains of tender memory40 ,you may perish out of your senses1 but not out of your memory or imagination4 ,the memory has a fine art of sifting out the pain and keeping all the joy4 ,the spring days when the bluebird arrives have usually only few hours of fine temperature1 are sour and unlovely2 but when late in autumn we hear rarely a bluebird's notes they are sweet by reminding us of the spring4 ,well1 it is so with other tricks of memory4 ,of the most romantic fact the memory is more romantic2 and this power of sinking the pain of any experience and of recalling the saddest with tranquillity1 and even with a wise pleasure1 is familiar4 ,the memory is as the affection4 ,sampson ,reed says1 8,the true way to store the memory is to develop the affections40 ,a souvenir is a token of love4 ,remember me means1 ,do not cease to love me4 ,we remember those things which we love and those things which we hate4 ,the memory of all men is robust on the subject of a debt due to them1 or of an insult inflicted on them4 8,they can remember10 as ,johnson said1 8who kicked them last40 ,every artist is alive on the subject of his art4 ,the ,persians say1 8,a real singer will never forget the song he has once learned40 ,michael ,angelo1 after having once seen a work of any other artist1 would remember it so perfectly that if it pleased him to make use of any portion thereof1 he could do so1 but in such a manner that none could perceive it4 ,we remember what we understand1 and we understand best what we like2 for this doubles our power of attention1 and makes it our own4 ,captain ,john ,brown1 of ,ossawatomie1 said he had in ,ohio three thousand sheep on his farm1 and could tell a strange sheep in his flock as soon as he saw its face4 ,one of my neighbors1 a grazier1 told me that he should know again every cow1 ox1 or steer that he ever saw4 ,abel ,lawton knew every horse that went up and down through ,concord to the towns in the county4 ,and in higher examples each man's memory is in the line of his action4 ,nature trains us on to see illusions and prodigies with no more wonder than our toast and omelet at breakfast4 ,talk of memory and cite me these fine examples of ,grotius and ,daguesseau1 and ,i think how awful is that power and what privilege and tyranny it must confer4 ,then ,i come to a bright school-girl who remembers all she hears1 carries thousands of nursery rhymes and all the poetry in all the readers1 hymn-books1 and pictorial ballads in her mind2 and 'tis a mere drug4 ,she carries it so carelessly1 it seems like the profusion of hair on the shock heads of all the village boys and village dogs2 it grows like grass4 ',tis a bushel-basket memory of all unchosen knowledge1 heaped together in a huge hamper1 without method1 yet securely held1 and ready to come at call2 so that an old scholar1 who knows what to do with a memory1 is full of wonder and pity that this magical force should be squandered on such frippery4 ,he is a skilful doctor who can give me a recipe for the cure of a bad memory4 ,and yet we have some hints from experience on this subject4 ,and first1 health4 ,it is found that we remember best when the head is clear1 when we are thoroughly awake4 ,when the body is in a quiescent state in the absence of the passions1 in the moderation of food1 it yields itself a willing medium to the intellect4 ,for the true river ,lethe is the body of man1 with its belly and uproar of appetite and mountains of indigestion and bad humors and quality of darkness4 ,and for this reason1 and observing some mysterious continuity of mental operation during sleep or when our will is suspended1 'tis an old rule of scholars1 that which ,fuller records1 8',tis best knocking in the nail overnight and clinching it next morning40 ,only ,i should give extension to this rule and say ,yes1 drive the nail this week and clinch it the next1 and drive it this year and clinch it the next4 ,but ,fate also is an artist4 ,we forget also according to beautiful laws4 ,thoreau said1 8,of what significance are the things you can forget4 ,a little thought is sexton to all the world40 ,we must be severe with ourselves1 and what we wish to keep we must once thoroughly possess4 ,then the thing seen will no longer be what it was1 a mere sensuous object before the eye or ear1 but a reminder of its law1 a possession for the intellect4 ,then we relieve ourselves of all task in the matter1 we put the onus of being remembered on the object1 instead of on our will4 ,we shall do as we do with all our studies1 prize the fact or the name of the person by that predominance it takes in our mind after near acquaintance4 ,i have several times forgotten the name of ,flamsteed1 never that of ,newton2 and can drop easily many poets out of the ,elizabethan chronology1 but not ,shakespeare4 ,we forget rapidly what should be forgotten4 ,the universal sense of fables and anecdotes is marked by our tendency to forget name and date and geography4 8,how in the right are children10 said ,margaret ,fuller1 8to forget name and date and place40 ,you cannot overstate our debt to the past1 but has the present no claim8 ,this past memory is the baggage1 but where is the troop8 ,the divine gift is not the old but the new4 ,the divine is the instant life that receives and uses1 the life that can well bury the old in the omnipotency with which it makes all things new4 ,the acceleration of mental process is equivalent to the lengthening of life4 ,if a great many thoughts pass through your mind you will believe a long time has elapsed1 many hours or days4 ,in dreams a rush of many thoughts1 of seeming experiences1 of spending hours and going through a great variety of actions and companies1 and when we start up and look at the watch1 instead of a long night we are surprised to find it was a short nap4 ,the opium-eater says1 8,i sometimes seemed to have lived seventy or a hundred years in one night40 ,you know what is told of the experience of some persons who have been recovered from drowning4 ,they relate that their whole life's history seemed to pass before them in review4 ,they remembered in a moment all that they ever did4 ,if we occupy ourselves long on this wonderful faculty1 and see the natural helps of it in the mind1 and the way in which new knowledge calls upon old knowledge--new giving undreamed-of value to old2 everywhere relation and suggestion1 so that what one had painfully held by strained attention and recapitulation now falls into place and is clamped and locked by inevitable connection as a planet in its orbit 7every other orb1 or the law or system of which it is a part1 being a perpetual reminder71--we cannot fail to draw thence a sublime hint that thus there must be an endless increase in the power of memory only through its use2 that there must be a proportion between the power of memory and the amount of knowables2 and since the ,universe opens to us1 the reach of the memory must be as large4 ,with every broader generalization which the mind makes1 with every deeper insight1 its retrospect is also wider4 ,with every new insight into the duty or fact of to-day we come into new possession of the past4 ,when we live by principles instead of traditions1 by obedience to the law of the mind instead of by passion1 the ,great ,mind will enter into us1 not as now in fragments and detached thoughts1 but the light of to-day will shine backward and forward4 ,memory is a presumption of a possession of the future4 ,now we are halves1 we see the past but not the future1 but in that day will the hemisphere complete itself and foresight be as perfect as aftersight4 ,,boston4 8,we are citizens of two fair cities10 said the ,genoese gentleman to a ,florentine artist1 8and if ,i were not a ,genoese1 ,i should wish to be ,florentine40 8,and ,i10 replied the artist1 8if ,i were not ,florentine0--8,you would wish to be ,genoese10 said the other4 8,no10 replied the artist1 8,i should wish to be ,florentine40 ,the rocky nook with hill-tops three ,looked eastward from the farms1 ,and twice each day the flowing sea ,took ,boston in its arms4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the sea returning day by day ,restores the world-wide mart2 ,so let each dweller on the ,bay ,fold ,boston in his heart4 ,let the blood of her hundred thousands ,throb in each manly vein1 ,and the wits of all her wisest ,make sunshine in her brain4 ,and each shall care for other1 ,and each to each shall bend1 ,to the poor a noble brother1 ,to the good an equal friend4 ,a blessing through the ages thus ,shield all thy roofs and towers6 ,,god ,,with ,,the ,,fathers1 ,,so ,,with ,,us1 ,thou darling town of ours6 ,illustration3 7decorative banner7 ,,boston4 ,the old physiologists said1 8,there is in the air a hidden food of life20 and they watched the effect of different climates4 ,they believed the air of mountains and the seashore a potent predisposer to rebellion4 ,the air was a good republican1 and it was remarked that insulary people are versatile and addicted to change1 both in religious and secular affairs4 ,the air that we breathe is an exhalation of all the solid material globe4 ,an aerial fluid streams all day1 all night1 from every flower and leaf1 from every water and soil1 from every rock-ledge2 and from every stratum a different aroma and air according to its quality4 ,according to quality and according to temperature1 it must have effect on manners4 ,there is the climate of the ,sahara3 a climate where the sunbeams are vertical2 where is day after day1 sunstroke after sunstroke1 with a frosty shadow between4 8,there are countries10 said ,howell1 8where the heaven is a fiery furnace1 or a blowing bellows1 or a dropping sponge1 most parts of the year40 ,such is the assimilating force of the ,indian climate1 that1 ,sir ,erskine ,perry says1 8the usage and opinion of the ,hindoos so invades men of all castes and colors who deal with them that all take a ,hindoo tint4 ,parsee1 ,mongol1 ,afghan1 ,israelite1 ,christian1 have all passed under this influence and exchanged a good part of their patrimony of ideas for the notions1 manner of seeing1 and habitual tone of ,indian society40 ,he compares it to the geologic phenomenon which the black soil of the ,dhakkan offers1--the property1 namely1 of assimilating to itself every foreign substance introduced into its bosom4 ,how can we not believe in influences of climate and air1 when1 as true philosophers1 we must believe that chemical atoms also have their spiritual cause why they are thus and not other2 that carbon1 oxygen1 alum and iron1 each has its origin in spiritual nature8 ,even at this day men are to be found superstitious enough to believe that to certain spots on the surface of the planet special powers attach1 and an exalted influence on the genius of man4 ,and it appears as if some localities of the earth1 through wholesome springs1 or as the habitat of rare plants and minerals1 or through ravishing beauties of ,nature1 were preferred before others4 ,there is great testimony of discriminating persons to the effect that ,rome is endowed with the enchanting property of inspiring a longing in men there to live and there to die4 99 99 99 99 99 ,who lives one year in ,boston ranges through all the climates of the globe4 ,and if the character of the people has a larger range and greater versatility1 causing them to exhibit equal dexterity in what are elsewhere reckoned incompatible works1 perhaps they may thank their climate of extremes1 which at one season gives them the splendor of the equator and a touch of ,syria1 and then runs down to a cold which approaches the temperature of the celestial spaces4 ,it is not a country of luxury or of pictures2 of snows rather1 of east-winds and changing skies2 visited by icebergs1 which1 floating by1 nip with their cool breath our blossoms4 ,not a luxurious climate1 but wisdom is not found with those who dwell at their ease4 ,give me a climate where people think well and construct well1--,i will spend six months there1 and you may have all the rest of my years4 ,what ,vasari says1 three hundred years ago1 of the republican city of ,florence might be said of ,boston2 8that the desire for glory and honor is powerfully generated by the air of that place1 in the men of every profession2 whereby all who possess talent are impelled to struggle that they may not remain in the same grade with those whom they perceive to be only men like themselves1 even though they may acknowledge such indeed to be masters2 but all labor by every means to be foremost40 ,we find no less stimulus in our native air2 not less ambition in our blood1 which ,puritanism has not sufficiently chastised2 and at least an equal freedom in our laws and customs1 with as many and as tempting rewards to toil2 with so many philanthropies1 humanities1 charities1 soliciting us to be great and good4 ,new ,england is a sort of ,scotland4 ',tis hard to say why4 ,climate is much2 then1 old accumulation of the means1--books1 schools1 colleges1 literary society2--as ,new ,bedford is not nearer to the whales than ,new ,london or ,portland1 yet they have all the equipments for a whaler ready1 and they hug an oil-cask like a brother4 ,i do not know that ,charles ,river or ,merrimac water is more clarifying to the brain than the ,savannah or ,alabama rivers1 yet the men that drink it get up earlier1 and some of the morning light lasts through the day4 ,i notice that they who drink for some little time of the ,potomac water lose their relish for the water of the ,charles ,river1 of the ,merrimac and the ,connecticut1--even of the ,hudson4 ,i think the ,potomac water is a little acrid1 and should be corrected by copious infusions of these provincial streams4 ,of great cities you cannot compute the influences4 ,in ,new ,york1 in ,montreal1 ,new ,orleans and the farthest colonies1--in ,guiana1 in ,guadaloupe1--a middle-aged gentleman is just embarking with all his property to fulfil the dream of his life and spend his old age in ,paris2 so that a fortune falls into the massive wealth of that city every day in the year4 ,astronomers come because there they can find apparatus and companions4 ,chemist1 geologist1 artist1 musician1 dancer1 because there only are grandees and their patronage1 appreciators and patrons4 ,demand and supply run into every invisible and unnamed province of whim and passion4 ,each great city gathers these values and delights for mankind1 and comes to be the brag of its age and population4 ,the ,greeks thought him unhappy who died without seeing the statue of ,jove at ,olympia4 ,with still more reason1 they praised ,athens1 the 8,violet ,city40 ,it was said of ,rome in its proudest days1 looking at the vast radiation of the privilege of ,roman citizenship through the then-known world1--8the extent of the city and of the world is the same0 7spatium et urbis et orbis idem74 ,london now for a thousand years has been in an affirmative or energizing mood2 has not stopped growing4 ,linnus1 like a naturalist1 esteeming the globe a big egg1 called ,london the punctum saliens in the yolk of the world4 99 99 99 99 99 ,this town of ,boston has a history4 ,it is not an accident1 not a windmill1 or a railroad station1 or cross-roads tavern1 or an army-barracks grown up by time and luck to a place of wealth2 but a seat of humanity1 of men of principle1 obeying a sentiment and marching loyally whither that should lead them2 so that its annals are great historical lines1 inextricably national2 part of the history of political liberty4 ,i do not speak with any fondness1 but the language of coldest history1 when ,i say that ,boston commands attention as the town which was appointed in the destiny of nations to lead the civilization of ,north ,america4 ,a capital fact distinguishing this colony from all other colonies was that the persons composing it consented to come on the one condition that the charter should be transferred from the company in ,england to themselves2 and so they brought the government with them4 ,on the #c;d of ,november1 #afbj1 ,king ,james incorporated forty of his subjects1 ,sir ,f4 ,gorges and others1 the council established at ,plymouth in the county of ,devon for the planting1 ruling1 ordering and governing of ,new ,england in ,america4 ,the territory--conferred on the patentees in absolute property1 with unlimited jurisdiction1 the sole power of legislation1 the appointment of all officers and all forms of government--extended from the #djth to the #dhth degree of north latitude1 and in length from the ,atlantic to the ,pacific4 ,john ,smith writes 7#afbd73 8,of all the four parts of the world that ,i have yet seen not inhabited1 could ,i but have means to transplant a colony1 ,i would rather live here than anywhere2 and if it did not maintain itself1 were we but once indifferently well fitted1 let us starve4 ,here are many isles planted with corn1 groves1 mulberries1 salvage gardens and good harbours4 ,the sea-coast as you pass shows you all along large corn-fields and great troops of well-proportioned people40 ,massachusetts in particular1 he calls 8the paradise of these parts10 notices its high mountain1 and its river1 8which doth pierce many days' journey into the entrails of that country40 ,morton arrived in #afbb1 in ,june1 beheld the country1 and 8the more he looked1 the more he liked it40 ,in sixty-eight years after the foundation of ,boston1 ,dr4 ,mather writes of it1 8,the town hath indeed three elder ,sisters in this colony1 but it hath wonderfully outgrown them all1 and her mother1 ,old ,boston in ,england1 also2 yea1 within a few years after the first settlement it grew to be the metropolis of the whole ,english ,america40 ,how easy it is1 after the city is built1 to see where it ought to stand4 ,in our beautiful bay1 with its broad and deep waters covered with sails from every port2 with its islands hospitably shining in the sun2 with its waters bounded and marked by light-houses1 buoys and sea-marks2 every foot sounded and charted2 with its shores trending steadily from the two arms which the capes of ,massachusetts stretch out to sea1 down to the bottom of the bay where the city domes and spires sparkle through the haze1--a good boatman can easily find his way for the first time to the ,state ,house1 and wonder that ,governor ,carver had not better eyes than to stop on the ,plymouth ,sands4 ,but it took ten years to find this out4 ,the colony of #afbj had landed at ,plymouth4 ,it was ,december1 and the ground was covered with snow4 ,snow and moonlight make all places alike2 and the weariness of the sea1 the shrinking from cold weather and the pangs of hunger must justify them4 ,but the next colony planted itself at ,salem1 and the next at ,weymouth2 another at ,medford2 before these men1 instead of jumping on to the first land that offered1 wisely judged that the best point for a city was at the bottom of a deep and islanded bay1 where a copious river entered it1 and where a bold shore was bounded by a country of rich undulating woodland4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the planters of ,massachusetts do not appear to have been hardy men1 rather1 comfortable citizens1 not at all accustomed to the rough task of discoverers2 and they exaggerated their troubles4 ,bears and wolves were many2 but early1 they believed there were lions2 ,monadnoc was burned over to kill them4 ,john ,smith was stung near to death by the most poisonous tail of a fish1 called a sting-ray4 ,in the journey of ,rev4 ,peter ,bulkeley and his company through the forest from ,boston to ,concord they fainted from the powerful odor of the sweetfern in the sun2--like what befell1 still earlier1 ,biorn and ,thorfinn1 ,northmen1 in their expedition to the same coast2 who ate so many grapes from the wild vines that they were reeling drunk4 ,the lions have never appeared since1--nor before4 ,their crops suffered from pigeons and mice4 ,nature has never again indulged in these exasperations4 ,it seems to have been the last outrage ever committed by the sting-rays or by the sweetfern1 or by the fox-grapes2 they have been of peaceable behavior ever since4 ,any geologist or engineer is accustomed to face more serious dangers than any enumerated1 excepting the hostile ,indians4 ,but the awe was real and overpowering in the superstition with which every new object was magnified4 ,the superstition which hung over the new ocean had not yet been scattered2 the powers of the savage were not known2 the dangers of the wilderness were unexplored2 and1 in that time1 terrors of witchcraft1 terrors of evil spirits1 and a certain degree of terror still clouded the idea of ,god in the mind of the purest4 ,the divine will descends into the barbarous mind in some strange disguise2 its pure truth not to be guessed from the rude vizard under which it goes masquerading4 ,the common eye cannot tell what the bird will be1 from the egg1 nor the pure truth from the grotesque tenet which sheathes it4 ,but by some secret tie it holds the poor savage to it1 and he goes muttering his rude ritual or mythology1 which yet conceals some grand commandment2 as courage1 veracity1 honesty1 or chastity and generosity4 ,so these ,english men1 with the ,middle ,ages still obscuring their reason1 were filled with ,christian thought4 ,they had a culture of their own4 ,they read ,milton1 ,thomas ,kempis1 ,bunyan and ,flavel with religious awe and delight1 not for entertainment4 ,they were precisely the idealists of ,england2 the most religious in a religious era4 ,an old lady who remembered these pious people said of them that 8they had to hold on hard to the huckleberry bushes to hinder themselves from being translated40 ,in our own age we are learning to look as on chivalry at the sweetness of that ancient piety which makes the genius of ,st4 ,bernard1 ,latimer1 ,scougal1 ,jeremy ,taylor1 ,herbert1 and ,leighton4 ,who can read the fiery ejaculations of ,st4 ,augustine1 a man of as clear a sight as almost any other2 of ,thomas ,kempis1 of ,milton1 of ,bunyan even1 without feeling how rich and expansive a culture--not so much a culture as a higher life--they owed to the promptings of this sentiment2 without contrasting their immortal heat with the cold complexion of our recent wits8 ,who can read the pious diaries of the ,englishmen in the time of the ,commonwealth and later1 without a sigh that we write no diaries to-day8 ,who shall restore to us the odoriferous ,sabbaths which made the earth and the humble roof a sanctity8 ,this spirit1 of course1 involved that of ,stoicism1 as1 in its turn1 ,stoicism did this4 ,yet how much more attractive and true that this piety should be the central trait and the stern virtues follow1 than that ,stoicism should face the gods and put ,jove on his defence4 ,that piety is a refutation of every skeptical doubt4 ,these men are a bridge to us between the unparalleled piety of the ,hebrew epoch and our own4 ,these ancient men1 like great gardens with great banks of flowers1 send out their perfumed breath across the great tracts of time4 ,how needful is ,david1 ,paul1 ,leighton1 ,fnelon1 to our devotion4 ,of these writers1 of this spirit which deified them1 ,i will say with ,confucius1 8,if in the morning ,i hear of the right way1 and in the evening die1 ,i can be happy40 ,i trace to this deep religious sentiment and to its culture great and salutary results to the people of ,new ,england2 first1 namely1 the culture of the intellect1 which has always been found in the ,calvinistic church4 ,the colony was planted in #afbj2 in #afch ,harvard ,college was founded4 ,the ,general ,court of ,massachusetts1 in #afdg1 8,to the end that learning may not be buried in the graves of the forefathers1 ordered1 that every township1 after the ,lord has increased them to the number of fifty householders1 shall appoint one to teach all children to write and read2 and where any town shall increase to the number of a hundred families1 they shall set up a ,grammar ,school1 the ,masters thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the ,university40 ,many and rich are the fruits of that simple statute4 ,the universality of an elementary education in ,new ,england is her praise and her power in the whole world4 ,to the schools succeeds the village ,lyceum1--now very general throughout all the country towns of ,new ,england1--where every week through the winter1 lectures are read and debates sustained which prove a college for the young rustic4 ,hence it happens that the young farmers and mechanics1 who work all summer in the field or shop1 in the winter often go into a neighboring town to teach the district school arithmetic and grammar4 ,as you know too1 ,new ,england supplies annually a large detachment of preachers and schoolmasters and private tutors to the interior of the ,south and ,west4 99 99 99 99 99 ,new ,england lies in the cold and hostile latitude which by shutting men up in houses and tight and heated rooms a large part of the year1 and then again shutting up the body in flannel and leather1 defrauds the human being in some degree of his relations to external nature2 takes from the muscles their suppleness1 from the skin its exposure to the air2 and the ,new ,englander1 like every other northerner1 lacks that beauty and grace which the habit of living much in the air1 and the activity of the limbs not in labor but in graceful exercise1 tend to produce in climates nearer to the sun4 ,then the necessity1 which always presses the northerner1 of providing fuel and many clothes and tight houses and much food against the long winter1 makes him anxiously frugal1 and generates in him that spirit of detail which is not grand and enlarging1 but goes rather to pinch the features and degrade the character4 ,as an antidote to the spirit of commerce and of economy1 the religious spirit--always enlarging1 firing man1 prompting the pursuit of the vast1 the beautiful1 the unattainable--was especially necessary to the culture of ,new ,england4 ,in the midst of her laborious and economical and rude and awkward population1 where is little elegance and no facility2 with great accuracy in details1 little spirit of society or knowledge of the world1 you shall not unfrequently meet that refinement which no education and no habit of society can bestow2 which makes the elegance of wealth look stupid1 and unites itself by natural affinity to the highest minds of the world2 nourishes itself on ,plato and ,dante1 ,michael ,angelo and ,milton2 on whatever is pure and sublime in art1--and1 ,i may say1 gave a hospitality in this country to the spirit of ,coleridge and ,wordsworth1 and to the music of ,beethoven1 before yet their genius had found a hearty welcome in ,great ,britain4 ,i do not look to find in ,england better manners than the best manners here4 ,we can show native examples1 and ,i may almost say 7travellers as we are7 natives who never crossed the sea1 who possess all the elements of noble behavior4 ,it is the property of the religious sentiment to be the most refining of all influences4 ,no external advantages1 no good birth or breeding1 no culture of the taste1 no habit of command1 no association with the elegant1--even no depth of affection that does not rise to a religious sentiment1 can bestow that delicacy and grandeur of bearing which belong only to a mind accustomed to celestial conversation4 ,all else is coarse and external2 all else is tailoring and cosmetics beside this2#b for thoughts are expressed in every look or gesture1 and these thoughts are as if angels had talked with the child4 ,by this instinct we are lifted to higher ground4 ,the religious sentiment gave the iron purpose and arm4 ,that colonizing was a great and generous scheme1 manly meant and manly done4 ,when one thinks of the enterprises that are attempted in the heats of youth1 the ,zoars1 ,new-,harmonies and ,brook-,farms1 ,oakdales and ,phalansteries1 which have been so profoundly ventilated1 but end in a protracted picnic which after a few weeks or months dismisses the partakers to their old homes1 we see with new increased respect the solid1 well-calculated scheme of these emigrants1 sitting down hard and fast where they came1 and building their empire by due degrees4 ,john ,smith says1 8,thirty1 forty1 or fifty sail went yearly in ,america only to trade and fish1 but nothing would be done for a plantation1 till about some hundred of your ,brownists of ,england1 ,amsterdam and ,leyden went to ,new ,plymouth2 whose humorous ignorances caused them for more than a year to endure a wonderful deal of misery1 with an infinite patience40 ,what should hinder that this ,america1 so long kept in reserve from the intellectual races until they should grow to it1 glimpses being afforded which spoke to the imagination1 yet the firm shore hid until science and art should be ripe to propose it as a fixed aim1 and a man should be found who should sail steadily west sixty-eight days from the port of ,palos to find it1--what should hinder that this ,new ,atlantis should have its happy ports1 its mountains of security1 its gardens fit for human abode where all elements were right for the health1 power and virtue of man8 ,america is growing like a cloud1 towns on towns1 ,states on ,states2 and wealth 7always interesting1 since from wealth power cannot be divorced7 is piled in every form invented for comfort or pride4 ,if ,john ,bull interest you at home1 come and see him under new conditions1 come and see the ,jonathanization of ,john4 ,there are always men ready for adventures1--more in an over-governed1 over-peopled country1 where all the professions are crowded and all character suppressed1 than elsewhere4 ,this thirst for adventure is the vent which ,destiny offers2 a war1 a crusade1 a gold mine1 a new country1 speak to the imagination and offer swing and play to the confined powers4 ,the ,american idea1 ,emancipation1 appears in our freedom of intellection1 in our reforms1 and in our bad politics2 it has1 of course1 its sinister side1 which is most felt by the drilled and scholastic1 but if followed it leads to heavenly places4 ,european and ,american are each ridiculous out of his sphere4 ,there is a ,columbia of thought and art and character1 which is the last and endless sequel of ,columbus's adventure4 99 99 99 99 99 ,european critics regret the detachment of the ,puritans to this country without aristocracy2 which a little reminds one of the pity of the ,swiss mountaineers when shown a handsome ,englishman3 8,what a pity he has no goitre60 ,the future historian will regard the detachment of the ,puritans without aristocracy the supreme fortune of the colony2 as great a gain to mankind as the opening of this continent4 ,there is a little formula1 couched in pure ,saxon1 which you may hear in the corners of streets and in the yard of the dame's school1 from very little republicans3 8,i'm as good as you be10 which contains the essence of the ,massachusetts ,bill of ,rights and of the ,american ,declaration of ,independence4 ,and this was at the bottom of ,plymouth ,rock and of ,boston ,stone2 and this could be heard 7by an acute ear7 in the ,petitions to the ,king1 and the platforms of churches1 and was said and sung in every tone of the psalmody of the ,puritans2 in every note of ,old ,hundred and ,hallelujah and ,short ,particular ,metre4 ,what is very conspicuous is the saucy independence which shines in all their eyes4 ,they could say to themselves1 ,well1 at least this yoke of man1 of bishops1 of courtiers1 of dukes1 is off my neck4 ,we are a little too close to wolf and famine than that anybody should give himself airs here in the swamp4 ,london is a long way off1 with beadles and pursuivants and horse-guards4 ,here in the clam-banks and the beech and chestnut forest1 ,i shall take leave to breathe and think freely4 ,if you do not like it1 if you molest me1 ,i can cross the brook and plant a new state out of reach of anything but squirrels and wild pigeons4 ,bonaparte sighed for his republicans of #aghi4 ,the soul of a political party is by no means usually the officers and pets of the party1 who wear the honors and fill the high seats and spend the salaries4 ,no1 but the theorists and extremists1 the men who are never contented and never to be contented with the work actually accomplished1 but who from conscience are engaged to what that party professes1--these men will work and watch and rally and never tire in carrying their point4 ,the theology and the instinct of freedom that grew here in the dark in serious men furnished a certain rancor which consumed all opposition1 fed the party and carried it1 over every rampart and obstacle1 to victory4 ,boston never wanted a good principle of rebellion in it1 from the planting until now2 there is always a minority unconvinced1 always a heresiarch1 whom the governor and deputies labor with but cannot silence4 ,some new light1 some new doctrinaire who makes an unnecessary ado to establish his dogma2 some ,wheelwright or defender of ,wheelwright2 some protester against the cruelty of the magistrates to the ,quakers2 some tender minister hospitable to ,whitefield against the counsel of all the ministers2 some ,john ,adams and ,josiah ,quincy and ,governor ,andrew to undertake and carry the defence of patriots in the courts against the uproar of all the province2 some defender of the slave against the politician and the merchant2 some champion of first principles of humanity against the rich and luxurious2 some adversary of the death penalty2 some pleader for peace2 some noble protestant1 who will not stoop to infamy when all are gone mad1 but will stand for liberty and justice1 if alone1 until all come back to him4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i confess ,i do not find in our people1 with all their education1 a fair share of originality of thought2--not any remarkable book of wisdom2 not any broad generalization1 any equal power of imagination4 ,no ,novum ,organon2 no ,mcanique ,cleste2 no ,principia2 no ,paradise ,lost2 no ,hamlet2 no ,wealth of ,nations2 no ,national ,anthem2 have we yet contributed4 ,nature is a frugal mother and never gives without measure4 ,when she has work to do she qualifies men for that and sends them equipped for that4 ,in ,massachusetts she did not want epic poems and dramas yet1 but first1 planters of towns1 fellers of the forest1 builders of mills and forges1 builders of roads1 and farmers to till and harvest corn for the world4 ,corn1 yes1 but honest corn2 corn with thanks to the ,giver of corn2 and the best thanks1 namely1 obedience to his law2 this was the office imposed on our ,founders and people2 liberty1 clean and wise4 ,it was to be built on ,religion1 the ,emancipator2 ,religion which teaches equality of all men in view of the spirit which created man4 ,the seed of prosperity was planted4 ,the people did not gather where they had not sown4 ,they did not try to unlock the treasure of the world except by honest keys of labor and skill4 ,they knew1 as ,god knew1 that command of nature comes by obedience to nature2 that reward comes by faithful service2 that the most noble motto was that of the ,prince of ,wales1--8,i serve10--and that he is greatest who serves best4 ,there was no secret of labor which they disdained4 ,they accepted the divine ordination that man is for use2 that intelligent being exists to the utmost use2 and that his ruin is to live for pleasure and for show4 ,and when within our memory some flippant senator wished to taunt the people of this country by calling them 8the mudsills of society10 he paid them ignorantly a true praise2 for good men are as the green plain of the earth is1 as the rocks1 and the beds of rivers are1 the foundation and flooring and sills of the ,state4 ,the power of labor which belongs to the ,english race fell here into a climate which befriended it1 and into a maritime country made for trade1 where was no rival and no envious lawgiver4 ,the sailor and the merchant made the law to suit themselves1 so that there was never1 ,i suppose1 a more rapid expansion in population1 wealth and all the elements of power1 and in the citizens1 consciousness of power and sustained assertion of it1 than was exhibited here4 ,moral values become also money values4 ,when men saw that these people1 besides their industry and thrift1 had a heart and soul and would stand by each other at all hazards1 they desired to come and live here4 ,a house in ,boston was worth as much again as a house just as good in a town of timorous people1 because here the neighbors would defend each other against bad governors and against troops2 quite naturally house-rents rose in ,boston4 ,besides1 youth and health like a stirring town1 above a torpid place where nothing is doing4 ,in ,boston they were sure to see something going forward before the year was out4 ,for here was the moving principle itself1 the primum mobile1 a living mind agitating the mass and always afflicting the conservative class with some odious novelty or other2 a new religious sect1 a political point1 a point of honor1 a reform in education1 a philanthropy4 ,from ,roger ,williams and ,eliot and ,robinson and the ,quaker women who for a testimony walked naked into the streets1 and as the record tells us 8were arrested and publicly whipped1--the baggages that they were20 from ,wheelwright the ,antinomian and ,ann ,hutchinson and ,whitefield and ,mother ,ann the first ,shaker1 down to ,abner ,kneeland and ,father ,lamson and ,william ,garrison1 there never was wanting some thorn of dissent and innovation and heresy to prick the sides of conservatism4 ,with all their love of his person1 they took immense pleasure in turning out the governor and deputy and assistants1 and contravening the counsel of the clergy2 as they had come so far for the sweet satisfaction of resisting the ,bishops and the ,king4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,massachusetts colony grew and filled its own borders with a denser population than any other ,american ,state 7,kossuth called it the ,city ,state71 all the while sending out colonies to every part of ,new ,england2 then ,south and ,west1 until it has infused all the ,union with its blood4 ,we are willing to see our sons emigrate1 as to see our hives swarm4 ,that is what they were made to do1 and what the land wants and invites4 ,the towns or countries in which the man lives and dies where he was born1 and his son and son's son live and die where he did1 are of no great account4 ,i know that this history contains many black lines of cruel injustice2 murder1 persecution1 and execution of women for witchcraft4 ,i am afraid there are anecdotes of poverty and disease in ,broad ,street that match the dismal statistics of ,new ,york and ,london4 ,no doubt all manner of vices can be found in this1 as in every city2 infinite meanness1 scarlet crime4 ,granted4 ,but there is yet in every city a certain permanent tone2 a tendency to be in the right or in the wrong2 audacity or slowness2 labor or luxury2 giving or parsimony2 which side is it on8 ,and ,i hold that a community1 as a man1 is entitled to be judged by his best4 ,we are often praised for what is least ours4 ,boston too is sometimes pushed into a theatrical attitude of virtue1 to which she is not entitled and which she cannot keep4 ,but the genius of ,boston is seen in her real independence1 productive power and northern acuteness of mind1--which is in nature hostile to oppression4 ,it is a good city as cities go2 ,nature is good4 ,the climate is electric1 good for wit and good for character4 ,what public souls have lived here1 what social benefactors1 what eloquent preachers1 skilful workmen1 stout captains1 wise merchants2 what fine artists1 what gifted conversers1 what mathematicians1 what lawyers1 what wits2 and where is the middle class so able1 virtuous and instructed8 ,and thus our little city thrives and enlarges1 striking deep roots1 and sending out boughs and buds1 and propagating itself like a banyan over the continent4 ,greater cities there are that sprung from it1 full of its blood and names and traditions4 ,it is very willing to be outnumbered and outgrown1 so long as they carry forward its life of civil and religious freedom1 of education1 of social order1 and of loyalty to law4 ,it is very willing to be outrun in numbers1 and in wealth2 but it is very jealous of any superiority in these1 its natural instinct and privilege4 ,you cannot conquer it by numbers1 or by square miles1 or by counted millions of wealth4 ,for it owes its existence and its power to principles not of yesterday1 and the deeper principle will always prevail over whatever material accumulations4 ,as long as she cleaves to her liberty1 her education and to her spiritual faith as the foundation of these1 she will teach the teachers and rule the rulers of ,america4 ,her mechanics1 her farmers will toil better2 she will repair mischief2 she will furnish what is wanted in the hour of need2 her sailors will man the ,constitution2 her mechanics repair the broken rail2 her troops will be the first in the field to vindicate the majesty of a free nation1 and remain last on the field to secure it4 ,her genius will write the laws and her historians record the fate of nations4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in an age of trade and material prosperity1 we have stood a little stupefied by the elevation of our ancestors4 ,we praised the ,puritans because we did not find in ourselves the spirit to do the like4 ,we praised with a certain adulation the invariable valor of the old war-gods and war-councillors of the ,revolution4 ,washington has seemed an exceptional virtue4 ,this praise was a concession of unworthiness in those who had so much to say of it4 ,the heroes only shared this power of a sentiment1 which1 if it now breathes into us1 will make it easy to us to understand them1 and we shall not longer flatter them4 ,let us shame the fathers1 by superior virtue in the sons4 ,it is almost a proverb that a great man has not a great son4 ,bacon1 ,newton and ,washington were childless4 ,but1 in ,boston1 ,nature is more indulgent1 and has given good sons to good sires1 or at least continued merit in the same blood4 ,the elder ,president ,adams has to divide voices of fame with the younger ,president ,adams4 ,the elder ,otis could hardly excel the popular eloquence of the younger ,otis2 and the ,quincy of the ,revolution seems compensated for the shortness of his bright career in the son who so long lingers among the last of those bright clouds1 8,that on the steady breeze of honor sail ,in long succession calm and beautiful40 ,here stands to-day as of yore our little city of the rocks2 here let it stand forever1 on the man-bearing granite of the ,north6 ,let her stand fast by herself6 ,she has grown great4 ,she is filled with strangers1 but she can only prosper by adhering to her faith4 ,let every child that is born of her and every child of her adoption see to it to keep the name of ,boston as clean as the sun2 and in distant ages her motto shall be the prayer of millions on all the hills that gird the town1 8,as with our ,fathers1 so ,god be with us60 ,,sicut ,,patribus1 ,,sit ,,deus ,,nobis6 ,,footnotes3 #b 8,come dal fuoco il caldo1 esser diviso1 ,non puo'l bel dall' eterno40 ,,michel ,,angelo4 ,as from fire heat cannot be separated1--neither can beauty from the eternal4 ,,michael ,,angelo4 ,never did sculptor's dream unfold ,a form which marble doth not hold ,in its white block2 yet it therein shall find ,only the hand secure and bold ,which still obeys the mind4 ,,michael ,,angelo',s ,sonnets4 ,non ha l' ottimo artista alcun concetto1 ,ch'un marmo solo in s non circoscriva ,col suo soverchio1 e solo a quello arriva ,la man che obbedisce all' intelletto4 ,m4 ,,angelo1 ,sonnetto primo4 ,illustration3 7decorative banner7 ,,michael ,,angelo4#c ,few lives of eminent men are harmonious2 few that furnish1 in all the facts1 an image corresponding with their fame4 ,but all things recorded of ,michael ,angelo ,buonarotti agree together4 ,he lived one life2 he pursued one career4 ,he accomplished extraordinary works2 he uttered extraordinary words2 and in this greatness was so little eccentricity1 so true was he to the laws of the human mind1 that his character and his works1 like ,sir ,isaac ,newton's1 seem rather a part of nature than arbitrary productions of the human will4 ,especially we venerate his moral fame4 ,whilst his name belongs to the highest class of genius1 his life contains in it no injurious influence4 ,every line in his biography might be read to the human race with wholesome effect4 ,the means1 the materials of his activity1 were coarse enough to be appreciated1 being addressed for the most part to the eye2 the results1 sublime and all innocent4 ,a purity severe and even terrible goes out from the lofty productions of his pencil and his chisel1 and again from the more perfect sculpture of his own life1 which heals and exalts4 8,he nothing common did1 or mean10 and dying at the end of near ninety years1 had not yet become old1 but was engaged in executing his grand conceptions in the ineffaceable architecture of ,st4 ,peter's4 ,above all men whose history we know1 ,michael ,angelo presents us with the perfect image of the artist4 ,he is an eminent master in the four fine arts1 ,painting1 ,sculpture1 ,architecture and ,poetry4 ,in three of them by visible means1 and in poetry by words1 he strove to express the ,idea of ,beauty4 ,this idea possessed him and determined all his activity4 ,beauty in the largest sense1 beauty inward and outward1 comprehending grandeur as a part1 and reaching to goodness as its soul1--this to receive and this to impart1 was his genius4 ,it is a happiness to find1 amid the falsehood and griefs of the human race1 a soul at intervals born to behold and create only beauty4 ,so shall not the indescribable charm of the natural world1 the great spectacle of morn and evening which shut and open the most disastrous day1 want observers4 ,the ancient ,greeks called the world 1 ,beauty2 a name which1 in our artificial state of society1 sounds fanciful and impertinent4 ,yet1 in proportion as man rises above the servitude to wealth and a pursuit of mean pleasures1 he perceives that what is most real is most beautiful1 and that1 by the contemplation of such objects1 he is taught and exalted4 ,this truth1 that perfect beauty and perfect goodness are one1 was made known to ,michael ,angelo2 and we shall endeavor by sketches from his life to show the direction and limitations of his search after this element4 ,in considering a life dedicated to the study of ,beauty1 it is natural to inquire1 what is ,beauty8 ,can this charming element be so abstracted by the human mind1 as to become a distinct and permanent object8 ,beauty cannot be defined4 ,like ,truth1 it is an ultimate aim of the human being4 ,it does not lie within the limits of the understanding4 8,the nature of the beautiful10--we gladly borrow the language of ,moritz1 a ,german critic1--8consists herein1 that because the understanding in the presence of the beautiful cannot ask1 #8,why is it beautiful8' for that reason is it so4 ,there is no standard whereby the understanding can determine whether objects are beautiful or otherwise4 ,what other standard of the beautiful exists1 than the entire circuit of all harmonious proportions of the great system of nature8 ,all particular beauties scattered up and down in nature are only so far beautiful1 as they suggest more or less in themselves this entire circuit of harmonious proportions40 ,this great ,whole1 the understanding cannot embrace4 ,beauty may be felt4 ,it may be produced4 ,but it cannot be defined4 ,the ,italian artists sanction this view of beauty by describing it as il pi nell' uno1 8the many in one10 or multitude in unity1 intimating that what is truly beautiful seems related to all nature4 ,a beautiful person has a kind of universality1 and appears to have truer conformity to all pleasing objects in external nature than another4 ,every great work of art seems to take up into itself the excellencies of all works1 and to present1 as it were1 a miniature of nature4 ,in relation to this element of ,beauty1 the minds of men divide themselves into two classes4 ,in the first place1 all men have an organization corresponding more or less to the entire system of nature1 and therefore a power of deriving pleasure from ,beauty4 ,this is ,taste4 ,in the second place1 certain minds1 more closely harmonized with nature1 possess the power of abstracting ,beauty from things1 and reproducing it in new forms1 on any object to which accident may determine their activity2 as stone1 canvas1 song1 history4 ,this is ,art4 ,since ,beauty is thus an abstraction of the harmony and proportion that reigns in all nature1 it is therefore studied in nature1 and not in what does not exist4 ,hence the celebrated ,french maxim of ,rhetoric1 ,rien de beau que le vrai2 8,nothing is beautiful but what is true40 ,it has a much wider application than to ,rhetoric2 as wide1 namely1 as the terms of the proposition admit4 ,in art1 ,michael ,angelo is himself but a document or verification of this maxim4 ,he labored to express the beautiful1 in the entire conviction that it was only to be attained unto by knowledge of the true4 ,the common eye is satisfied with the surface on which it rests4 ,the wise eye knows that it is surface1 and1 if beautiful1 only the result of interior harmonies1 which1 to him who knows them1 compose the image of higher beauty4 ,moreover1 he knew well that only by an understanding of the internal mechanism can the outside be faithfully delineated4 ,the walls of houses are transparent to the architect4 ,the symptoms disclose the constitution to the physician2 and to the artist it belongs by a better knowledge of anatomy1 and1 within anatomy1 of life and thought1 to acquire the power of true drawing4 8,the human form10 says ,goethe1 8cannot be comprehended through seeing its surface4 ,it must be stripped of the muscles1 its parts separated1 its joints observed1 its divisions marked1 its action and counter action learned2 the hidden1 the reposing1 the foundation of the apparent1 must be searched1 if one would really see and imitate what moves as a beautiful inseparable whole in living waves before the eye40 ,michael ,angelo dedicated himself1 from his childhood to his death1 to a toilsome observation of nature4 ,the first anecdote recorded of him shows him to be already on the right road4 ,granacci1 a painter's apprentice1 having lent him1 when a boy1 a print of ,st4 ,antony beaten by devils1 together with some colors and pencils1 he went to the fish-market to observe the form and color of fins and of the eyes of fish4 ,cardinal ,farnese one day found him1 when an old man1 walking alone in the ,coliseum1 and expressed his surprise at finding him solitary amidst the ruins2 to which he replied1 8,i go yet to school that ,i may continue to learn40 ,and one of the last drawings in his portfolio is a sublime hint of his own feeling2 for it is a sketch of an old man with a long beard1 in a go-cart1 with an hour-glass before him2 and the motto1 ,ancora imparo1 8,i still learn40 ,in this spirit he devoted himself to the study of anatomy for twelve years2 we ought to say rather1 as long as he lived4 ,the depth of his knowledge in anatomy has no parallel among the artists of modern times4 ,most of his designs1 his contemporaries inform us1 were made with a pen1 and in the style of an engraving on copper or wood2 a manner more expressive but not admitting of correction4 ,when ,michael ,angelo would begin a statue1 he made first on paper the skeleton2 afterwards1 upon another paper1 the same figure clothed with muscles4 ,the studies of the statue of ,christ in the ,church of ,minerva at ,rome1 made in this manner1 were long preserved4 ,those who have never given attention to the arts of design1 are surprised that the artist should find so much to study in a fabric of such limited parts and dimensions as the human body4 ,but reflection discloses evermore a closer analogy between the finite form and the infinite inhabitant4 ,man is the highest1 and indeed the only proper object of plastic art4 ,there needs no better proof of our instinctive feeling of the immense expression of which the human figure is capable1 than the uniform tendency which the religion of every country has betrayed towards ,anthropomorphism1 or attributing to the ,deity the human form4 ,and behold the effect of this familiar object every day6 ,no acquaintance with the secrets of its mechanism1 no degrading views of human nature1 not the most swinish compost of mud and blood that was ever misnamed philosophy1 can avail to hinder us from doing involuntary reverence to any exhibition of majesty or surpassing beauty in human clay4 ,our knowledge of its highest expression we owe to the ,fine ,arts4 ,not easily in this age will any man acquire by himself such perceptions of the dignity or grace of the human frame1 as the student of art owes to the remains of ,phidias1 to the ,apollo1 the ,jove1 the paintings and statues of ,michael ,angelo1 and the works of ,canova4 ,there are now in ,italy1 both on canvas and in marble1 forms and faces which the imagination is enriched by contemplating4 ,goethe says that he is but half himself who has never seen the ,juno in the ,rondanini palace at ,rome4 ,seeing these works true to human nature and yet superhuman1 8we feel that we are greater than we know40 ,seeing these works1 we appreciate the taste which led ,michael ,angelo1 against the taste and against the admonition of his patrons1 to cover the walls of churches with unclothed figures1 8improper10 says his biographer1 8for the place1 but proper for the exhibition of all the pomp of his profound knowledge40 ,the love of beauty which never passes beyond outline and color1 was too slight an object to occupy the powers of his genius4 ,there is a closer relation than is commonly thought between the fine arts and the useful arts2 and it is an essential fact in the history of ,michael ,angelo1 that his love of beauty is made solid and perfect by his deep understanding of the mechanic arts4 ,architecture is the bond that unites the elegant and the economical arts1 and his skill in this is a pledge of his capacity in both kinds4 ,his ,titanic handwriting in marble and travertine is to be found in every part of ,rome and ,florence2 and even at ,venice1 on defective evidence1 he is said to have given the plan of the bridge of the ,rialto4 ,nor was his a skill in ornament1 or confined to the outline and designs of towers and faades1 but a thorough acquaintance with all the secrets of the art1 with all the details of economy and strength4 ,when the ,florentines united themselves with ,venice1 ,england and ,france1 to oppose the power of the ,emperor ,charles ,v41 ,michael ,angelo was appointed ,military ,architect and ,engineer1 to superintend the erection of the necessary works4 ,he visited ,bologna to inspect its celebrated fortifications1 and1 on his return1 constructed a fortification on the heights of ,san ,miniato1 which commands the city and environs of ,florence4 ,on the #bdth of ,october1 #aebi1 the ,prince of ,orange1 general of ,charles ,v41 encamped on the hills surrounding the city1 and his first operation was to throw up a rampart to storm the bastion of ,san ,miniato4 ,his design was frustrated by the providence of ,michael ,angelo4 ,michael made such good resistance1 that the ,prince directed the artillery to demolish the tower4 ,the artist hung mattresses of wool on the side exposed to the attack1 and by means of a bold projecting cornice1 from which they were suspended1 a considerable space was left between them and the wall4 ,this simple expedient was sufficient1 and the ,prince was obliged to turn his siege into a blockade4 ,after an active and successful service to the city for six months1 ,michael ,angelo was informed of a treachery that was ripening within the walls4 ,he communicated it to the government with his advice upon it2 but was mortified by receiving from the government reproaches at his credulity and fear4 ,he replied1 8that it was useless for him to take care of the walls1 if they were determined not to take care of themselves10 and he withdrew privately from the city to ,ferrara1 and thence to ,venice4 ,the news of his departure occasioned a general concern in ,florence1 and he was instantly followed with apologies and importunities to return4 ,he did so1 and resumed his office4 ,on the #bast of ,march1 #aecj1 the ,prince of ,orange assaulted the city by storm4 ,michael ,angelo is represented as having ordered his defence so vigorously1 that the ,prince was compelled to retire4 ,by the treachery however of the general of the ,republic1 ,malatesta ,baglioni1 all his skill was rendered unavailing1 and the city capitulated on the #ith of ,august4 ,the excellence of the works constructed by our artist has been approved by ,vauban1 who visited them and took a plan of them4 ,in ,rome1 ,michael ,angelo was consulted by ,pope ,paul ,,iii4 in building the fortifications of ,san ,borgo4 ,he built the stairs of ,ara ,celi leading to the ,church once the temple of ,jupiter ,capitolinus2 he arranged the piazza of the ,capitol1 and built its porticoes4 ,he was charged with rebuilding the ,pons ,palatinus over the ,tiber4 ,he prepared1 accordingly1 a large quantity of blocks of travertine1 and was proceeding with the work1 when1 through the intervention of his rivals1 this work was taken from him and intrusted to ,nanni di ,bacio ,bigio1 who plays but a pitiful part in ,michael's history4 ,nanni sold the travertine1 and filled up the piers with gravel at a small expense4 ,michael ,angelo made known his opinion1 that the bridge could not resist the force of the current2 and1 one day riding over it on horseback1 with his friend ,vasari1 he cried1 8,george1 this bridge trembles under us2 let us ride faster lest it fall whilst we are upon it40 ,it fell1 five years after it was built1 in #aeeg1 and is still called the 8,broken ,bridge40 ,versatility of talent in men of undoubted ability always awakens the liveliest interest2 and we observe with delight1 that1 besides the sublimity and even extravagance of ,michael ,angelo1 he possessed an unexpected dexterity in minute mechanical contrivances4 ,when the ,sistine ,chapel was prepared for him that he might paint the ceiling1 he found the platform on which he was to work1 suspended by ropes which passed through the ceiling4 ,michael demanded of ,san ,gallo1 the ,pope's architect1 how these holes were to be repaired in the picture8 ,san ,gallo replied2 8,that was for him to consider1 for the platform could be constructed in no other way40 ,michael removed the whole1 and constructed a movable platform to rest and roll upon the floor1 which is believed to be the same simple contrivance which is used in ,rome1 at this day1 to repair the walls of churches4 ,he gave this model to a carpenter1 who made it so profitable as to furnish a dowry for his two daughters4 ,he was so nice in tools1 that he made with his own hand the wimbles1 the files1 the rasps1 the chisels and all other irons and instruments which he needed in sculpture2 and1 in painting1 he not only mixed but ground his colors himself1 trusting no one4 ,and not only was this discoverer of ,beauty1 and its teacher among men1 rooted and grounded in those severe laws of practical skill1 which genius can never teach1 and which must be learned by practice alone1 but he was one of the most industrious men that ever lived4 ,his diligence was so great that it is wonderful how he endured its fatigues4 ,the midnight battles1 the forced marches1 the winter campaigns of ,julius ,csar or ,charles ,,xii4 do not indicate greater strength of body or of mind4 ,he finished the gigantic painting of the ceiling of the ,sistine ,chapel in twenty months1 a fact which enlarges1 it has been said1 the known powers of man4 ,indeed he toiled so assiduously at this painful work1 that1 for a long time after1 he was unable to see any picture but by holding it over his head4 ,a little bread and wine was all his nourishment2 and he told ,vasari that he often slept in his clothes1 both because he was too weary to undress1 and because he would rise in the night and go immediately to work4 8,i have found10 says his friend1 8some of his designs in ,florence1 where1 whilst may be seen the greatness of his genius1 it may also be known that when he wished to take ,minerva from the head of ,jove1 there needed the hammer of ,vulcan40 ,he used to make to a single figure nine1 ten1 or twelve heads before he could satisfy himself1 seeking that there should be in the composition a certain universal grace such as nature makes1 saying1 that 8he needed to have his compasses in his eye1 and not in his hand1 because the hands work whilst the eye judges40 ,he was accustomed to say1 8,those figures alone are good1 from which the labor is scraped off1 when the scaffolding is taken away40 ,at near eighty years1 he began in marble a group of four figures for a dead ,christ2 because1 he said1 to exercise himself with the mallet was good for his health4 ,and what did he accomplish8 ,it does not fall within our design to give an account of his works1 yet for the sake of the completeness of our sketch we will name the principal ones4 ,sculpture he called his art1 and to it he regretted afterwards he had not singly given himself4 ,the style of his paintings is monumental2 and even his poetry partakes of that character4 ,in sculpture1 his greatest work is the statue of ,moses in the ,church of ,pietro in ,vincolo1 in ,rome4 ,it is a sitting statue of colossal size1 and is designed to embody the ,hebrew ,law4 ,the lawgiver is supposed to gaze upon the worshippers of the golden calf4 ,the majestic wrath of the figure daunts the beholder4 ,in the ,piazza del ,gran ,duca at ,florence1 stands1 in the open air1 his ,david1 about to hurl the stone at ,goliah4 ,in the ,church called the ,minerva1 at ,rome1 is his ,christ2 an object of so much devotion to the people1 that the right foot has been shod with a brazen sandal to prevent it from being kissed away4 ,in ,st4 ,peter's1 is his ,piet1 or dead ,christ in the arms of his mother4 ,in the ,mausoleum of the ,medici at ,florence1 are the tombs of ,lorenzo and ,cosmo1 with the grand statues of ,night and ,day1 and ,aurora and ,twilight4 ,several statues of less fame1 and bas-reliefs1 are in ,rome and ,florence and ,paris4 ,his ,paintings are in the ,sistine ,chapel1 of which he first covered the ceiling with the story of the creation1 in successive compartments1 with the great series of the ,prophets and ,sibyls in alternate tablets1 and a series of greater and smaller fancy-pieces in the lunettes4 ,this is his capital work painted in fresco4 ,every one of these pieces1 every figure1 every hand and foot and finger1 is a study of anatomy and design4 ,slighting the secondary arts of coloring1 and all the aids of graceful finish1 he aimed exclusively1 as a stern designer1 to express the vigor and magnificence of his conceptions4 ,upon the wall1 over the altar1 is painted the ,last ,judgment4 ,of his designs1 the most celebrated is the cartoon representing soldiers coming out in the bath and arming themselves2 an incident of the war of ,pisa4 ,the wonderful merit of this drawing1 which contrasts the extremes of relaxation and vigor1 is conspicuous even in the coarsest prints4 ,of his genius for ,architecture1 it is sufficient to say that he built ,st4 ,peter's1 an ornament of the earth4 ,he said he would hang the ,pantheon in the air2 and he redeemed his pledge by suspending that vast cupola1 without offence to grace or to stability1 over the astonished beholder4 ,he did not live to complete the work2 but is there not something affecting in the spectacle of an old man1 on the verge of ninety years1 carrying steadily onward with the heat and determination of manhood1 his poetic conceptions into progressive execution1 surmounting by the dignity of his purposes all obstacles and all enmities1 and only hindered by the limits of life from fulfilling his designs8 ,very slowly came he1 after months and years1 to the dome4 ,at last he began to model it very small in wax4 ,when it was finished1 he had it copied larger in wood1 and by this model it was built4 ,long after it was completed1 and often since1 to this day1 rumors are occasionally spread that it is giving way1 and it is said to have been injured by unskilful attempts to repair it4 ,benedict ,,xiv41 during one of these panics1 sent for the architect ,marchese ,polini1 to come to ,rome and examine it4 ,polini put an end to all the various projects of repairs1 by the satisfying sentence2 8,the cupola does not start1 and if it should start1 nothing can be done but to pull it down40 ,the impulse of his grand style was instantaneous upon his contemporaries4 ,every stroke of his pencil moved the pencil in ,raphael's hand4 ,raphael said1 8,i bless ,god ,i live in the times of ,michael ,angelo40 ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds1 two centuries later1 declared to the ,british ,institution1 8,i feel a self-congratulation in knowing myself capable of such sensations as he intended to excite40 ,a man of such habits and such deeds1 made good his pretensions to a perception and to delineation of external beauty4 ,but inimitable as his works are1 his whole life confessed that his hand was all inadequate to express his thought4 8,he alone10 he said1 8is an artist whose hands can perfectly execute what his mind has conceived20 and such was his own mastery1 that men said1 8the marble was flexible in his hands40 ,yet1 contemplating ever with love the idea of absolute beauty1 he was still dissatisfied with his own work4 ,the things proposed to him in his imagination were such1 that1 for not being able with his hands to express so grand and terrible conceptions1 he often abandoned his work4 ,for this reason he often only blocked his statue4 ,a little before he died1 he burned a great number of designs1 sketches and cartoons made by him1 being impatient of their defects4 ,grace in living forms1 except in very rare instances1 did not satisfy him4 ,he never made but one portrait 7a cartoon of ,messer ,tommaso di ,cavalieri71 because he abhorred to draw a likeness unless it were of infinite beauty4 ,such was his devotion to art4 ,but let no man suppose that the images which his spirit worshipped were mere transcripts of external grace1 or that this profound soul was taken or holden in the chains of superficial beauty4 ,to him1 of all men1 it was transparent4 ,through it he beheld the eternal spiritual beauty which ever clothes itself with grand and graceful outlines1 as its appropriate form4 ,he called eternal grace 8the frail and weary weed1 in which ,god dresses the soul which he has called into ,time40 8,as from the fire1 heat cannot be divided1 no more can beauty from the eternal40 ,he was conscious in his efforts of higher aims than to address the eye4 ,he sought1 through the eye1 to reach the soul4 ,therefore1 as1 in the first place1 he sought to approach the ,beautiful by the study of the ,true1 so he failed not to make the next step of progress1 and to seek ,beauty in its highest form1 that of ,goodness4 ,the sublimity of his art is in his life4 ,he did not only build a divine temple1 and paint and carve saints and prophets4 ,he lived out the same inspiration4 ,there is no spot upon his fame4 ,the fire and sanctity of his pencil breathe in his words4 ,when he was informed that ,paul ,,iv4 desired he should paint again the side of the chapel where the ,last ,judgment was painted1 because of the indecorous nudity of the figures1 he replied1 8,tell the ,pope that this is easily done4 ,let him reform the world and he will find the pictures will reform themselves40 ,he saw clearly that if the corrupt and vulgar eyes1 that could see nothing but indecorum in his terrific prophets and angels1 could be purified as his own were pure1 they would only find occasion for devotion in the same figures4 ,as he refused to undo his work1 ,daniel di ,volterra was employed to clothe the figures2 hence ludicrously called ,il ,braghettone4 ,when the ,pope suggested to him that the chapel would be enriched if the figures were ornamented with gold1 ,michael ,angelo replied1 8,in those days1 gold was not worn2 and the characters ,i have painted were neither rich nor desirous of wealth1 but holy men1 with whom gold was an object of contempt40 ,not until he was in the seventy-third year of his age1 he undertook the building of ,st4 ,peter's4 ,on the death of ,san ,gallo1 the architect of the church1 ,paul ,,iii4 first entreated1 then commanded the aged artist1 to assume the charge of this great work1 which though commenced forty years before1 was only commenced by ,bramante1 and ill continued by ,san ,gallo4 ,michael ,angelo1 who believed in his own ability as a sculptor1 but distrusted his capacity as an architect1 at first refused and then reluctantly complied4 ,his heroic stipulation with the ,pope was worthy of the man and the work4 ,he required that he should be permitted to accept this work without any fee or reward1 because he undertook it as a religious act2 and1 furthermore1 that he should be absolute master of the whole design1 free to depart from the plans of ,san ,gallo and to alter what had been already done4 ,this disinterestedness and spirit1--no fee and no interference1--reminds one of the reward named by the ancient ,persian4 ,when importuned to claim some compensation of the empire for the important services he had rendered it1 he demanded1 8that he and his should neither command nor obey1 but should be free40 ,however1 as it was undertaken1 so was it performed4 ,when the ,pope1 delighted with one of his chapels1 sent him one hundred crowns of gold1 as one month's wages1 ,michael sent them back4 ,the ,pope was angry1 but the artist was immovable4 ,amidst endless annoyances from the envy and interest of the office-holders and agents in the work whom he had displaced1 he steadily ripened and executed his vast ideas4 ,the combined desire to fulfil1 in everlasting stone1 the conceptions of his mind1 and to complete his worthy offering to ,almighty ,god1 sustained him through numberless vexations with unbroken spirit4 ,in answer to the importunate solicitations of the ,duke of ,tuscany that he would come to ,florence1 he replies that 8to leave ,st4 ,peter's in the state in which it now was1 would be to ruin the structure1 and thereby be guilty of a great sin20 that he hoped he should shortly see the execution of his plans brought to such a point that they could no longer be interfered with1 and this was the capital object of his wishes1 8if10 he adds1 8,i do not commit a great crime1 by disappointing the cormorants who are daily hoping to get rid of me40 ,a natural fruit of the nobility of his spirit is his admiration of ,dante1 to whom two of his sonnets are addressed4 ,he shared ,dante's 8deep contempt of the vulgar1 not of the simple inhabitants of lowly streets or humble cottages1 but of that sordid and abject crowd of all classes and all places who obscure1 as much as in them lies1 every beam of beauty in the universe40 ,in like manner1 he possessed an intense love of solitude4 ,he lived alone1 and never or very rarely took his meals with any person4 ,as will be supposed1 he had a passion for the country1 and in old age speaks with extreme pleasure of his residence with the hermits in the mountains of ,spoleto2 so much so that he says he is 8only half in ,rome1 since1 truly1 peace is only to be found in the woods40 ,traits of an almost savage independence mark all his history4 ,although he was rich1 he lived like a poor man1 and never would receive a present from any person2 because it seemed to him that if a man gave him anything1 he was always obligated to that individual4 ,his friend ,vasari mentions one occasion on which his scruples were overcome4 ,it seems that ,michael was accustomed to work at night with a pasteboard cap or helmet on his head1 into which he stuck a candle1 that his work might be lighted and his hands at liberty4 ,vasari observed that he did not use wax candles1 but a better sort made of the tallow of goats4 ,he therefore sent him four bundles of them1 containing forty pounds4 ,his servant brought them after night-fall1 and presented them to him4 ,michael ,angelo refused to receive them4 8,look you1 ,messer ,michael ,angelo10 replied the man1 8these candles have well nigh broken my arm1 and ,i will not carry them back2 but just here1 before your door1 is a spot of soft mud1 and they will stand upright in it very well1 and there ,i will light them all40--8,put them down1 then10 returned ,michael1 8since you shall not make a bonfire at my gate40 ,meantime he was liberal to profusion to his old domestic ,urbino1 to whom he gave at one time two thousand crowns1 and made him rich in his service4 ,michael ,angelo was of that class of men who are too superior to the multitude around them to command a full and perfect sympathy4 ,they stand in the attitude rather of appeal from their contemporaries to their race4 ,it has been the defect of some great men1 that they did not duly appreciate or did not confess the talents and virtues of others1 and so lacked one of the richest sources of happiness and one of the best elements of humanity4 ,this apathy perhaps happens as often from preoccupied attention as from jealousy4 ,it has been supposed that artists more than others are liable to this defect4 ,but ,michael ,angelo's praise on many works is to this day the stamp of fame4 ,michael ,angelo said of ,masaccio's pictures that when they were first painted they must have been alive4 ,he said of his predecessor1 the architect ,bramante1 that he laid the first stone of ,st4 ,peter's1 clear1 insulated1 luminous1 with fit design for a vast structure4 ,he often expressed his admiration of ,cellini's bust of ,altoviti4 ,he loved to express admiration of ,titian1 of ,donatello1 of ,ghiberti1 of ,brunelleschi4 ,and it is said that when he left ,florence to go to ,rome1 to build ,st4 ,peter's1 he turned his horse's head on the last hill from which the noble dome of the ,cathedral 7built by ,brunelleschi7 is visible1 and said1 8,like you1 ,i will not build2 better than you ,i cannot40 ,indeed1 as we have said1 the reputation of many works of art now in ,italy derives a sanction from the tradition of his praise4 ,it is more commendation to say1 8,this was ,michael ,angelo's favorite10 than to say1 8,this was carried to ,paris by ,napoleon40 ,michael1 however1 had the philosophy to say1 8,only an inventor can use the inventions of others40 ,there is yet one more trait in ,michael ,angelo's history1 which humanizes his character without lessening its loftiness2 this is his platonic love4 ,he was deeply enamored of the most accomplished lady of the time1 ,vittoria ,colonna1 the widow of the ,marquis di ,pescara1 who1 after the death of her husband1 devoted herself to letters1 and to the writing of religious poetry4 ,she was also an admirer of his genius1 and came to ,rome repeatedly to see him4 ,to her his sonnets are addressed2 and they all breathe a chaste and divine regard1 unparalleled in any amatory poetry except that of ,dante and ,petrarch4 ,they are founded on the thought that beauty is the virtue of the body1 as virtue is the beauty of the soul2 that a beautiful person is sent into the world as an image of the divine beauty1 not to provoke but to purify the sensual into an intellectual and divine love4 ,he enthrones his mistress as a benignant angel1 who is to refine and perfect his own character4 ,condivi1 his friend1 has left this testimony2 8,i have often heard ,michael ,angelo reason and discourse upon love1 but never heard him speak otherwise than upon platonic love4 ,as for me1 ,i am ignorant what ,plato has said upon this subject2 but this ,i know very well1 that1 in a long intimacy1 ,i never heard from his mouth a single word that was not perfectly decorous and having for its object to extinguish in youth every improper desire1 and that his own nature is a stranger to depravity40 ,the poems themselves cannot be read without awakening sentiments of virtue4 ,an eloquent vindication of their philosophy may be found in a paper by ,signor ,radici in the ,london 8,retrospective ,review10 and1 by the ,italian scholar1 in the ,discourse of ,benedetto ,varchi upon one sonnet of ,michael ,angelo1 contained in the volume of his poems published by ,biagioli1 from which1 in substance1 the views of ,radici are taken4 ,towards his end1 there seems to have grown in him an invincible appetite of dying1 for he knew that his spirit could only enjoy contentment after death4 ,so vehement was this desire that1 he says1 8my soul can no longer be appeased by the wonted seductions of painting and sculpture40 ,a fine melancholy1 not unrelieved by his habitual heroism1 pervades his thoughts on this subject4 ,at the age of eighty years1 he wrote to ,vasari1 sending him various spiritual sonnets he had written1 and tells him he 8is at the end of his life1 that he is careful where he bends his thoughts1 that he sees it is already twenty-four o'clock1 and no fancy arose in his mind but ,,death was sculptured on it40 ,in conversing upon this subject with one of his friends1 that person remarked1 that ,michael might well grieve that one who was incessant in his creative labors should have no restoration4 8,no10 replied ,michael1 8it is nothing2 for1 if life pleases us1 death1 being a work of the same master1 ought not to displease us40 ,but a nobler sentiment1 uttered by him1 is contained in his reply to a letter of ,vasari1 who had informed him of the rejoicings made at the house of his nephew ,lionardo1 at ,florence1 over the birth of another ,buonarotti4 ,michael admonishes him that 8a man ought not to smile1 when all those around him weep2 and that we ought not to show that joy when a child is born1 which should be reserved for the death of one who has lived well40 ,amidst all these witnesses to his independence1 his generosity1 his purity and his devotion1 are we not authorized to say that this man was penetrated with the love of the highest beauty1 that is1 goodness2 that his was a soul so enamored of grace1 that it could not stoop to meanness or depravity2 that art was to him no means of livelihood or road to fame1 but the end of living1 as it was the organ through which he sought to suggest lessons of an unutterable wisdom2 that here was a man who lived to demonstrate that to the human faculties1 on every hand1 worlds of grandeur and grace are opened1 which no profane eye and no indolent eye can behold1 but which to see and to enjoy1 demands the severest discipline of all the physical1 intellectual and moral faculties of the individual8 ,the city of ,florence1 on the river ,arno1 still treasures the fame of this man4 ,there1 his picture hangs in every window2 there1 the tradition of his opinions meets the traveller in every spot4 8,do you see that statue of ,st4 ,george8 ,michael ,angelo asked it why it did not speak40--8,do you see this fine church of ,santa ,maria ,novella8 ,it is that which ,michael ,angelo called #8his bride4'0--8,look at these bronze gates of the ,baptistery1 with their high reliefs1 cast by ,ghiberti five hundred years ago4 ,michael ,angelo said1 #8they were fit to be the gates of ,paradise4'0--,here is the church1 the palace1 the ,laurentian library he built4 ,here is his own house4 ,in the church of ,santa ,croce are his mortal remains4 ,whilst he was yet alive1 he asked that he might be buried in that church1 in such a spot that the dome of the cathedral might be visible from his tomb when the doors of the church stood open4 ,and there and so is he laid4 ,the innumerable pilgrims whom the genius of ,italy draws to the city1 duly visit this church1 which is to ,florence what ,westminster ,abbey is to ,england4 ,there1 near the tomb of ,nicholas ,machiavelli1 the historian and philosopher2 of ,galileo1 the great-hearted astronomer2 of ,boccaccio1 and of ,alfieri1 stands the monument of ,michael ,angelo ,buonarotti4 ,three significant garlands are sculptured on the tomb2 they should be four1 but that his countrymen feared their own partiality4 ,the forehead of the bust1 esteemed a faithful likeness1 is furrowed with eight deep wrinkles one above another4 ,the traveller from a distant continent1 who gazes on that marble brow1 feels that he is not a stranger in the foreign church2 for the great name of ,michael ,angelo sounds hospitably in his ear4 ,he was not a citizen of any country2 he belonged to the human race2 he was a brother and a friend to all who acknowledge the beauty that beams in universal nature1 and who seek by labor and self-denial to approach its source in perfect goodness4 ,,footnotes3 #c ,reprinted from the ,north ,american ,review1 ,june1 #ahcg4 ,,milton4 ,i framed his tongue to music1 ,i armed his hand with skill1 ,i moulded his face to beauty1 ,and his heart the throne of will4 ,illustration3 7decorative banner7 ,,milton4#d ,the discovery of the lost work of ,milton1 the treatise 8,of the ,christian ,doctrine10 in #ahbc1 drew a sudden attention to his name4 ,for a short time the literary journals were filled with disquisitions on his genius2 new editions of his works1 and new compilations of his life1 were published4 ,but the new-found book having in itself less attraction than any other work of ,milton1 the curiosity of the public as quickly subsided1 and left the poet to the enjoyment of his permanent fame1 or to such increase or abatement of it only as is incidental to a sublime genius1 quite independent of the momentary challenge of universal attention to his claims4 ,but if the new and temporary renown of the poet is silent again1 it is nevertheless true that he has gained1 in this age1 some increase of permanent praise4 ,the fame of a great man is not rigid and stony like his bust4 ,it changes with time4 ,it needs time to give it due perspective4 ,it was very easy to remark an altered tone in the criticism when ,milton re-appeared as an author1 fifteen years ago1 from any that had been bestowed on the same subject before4 ,it implied merit indisputable and illustrious2 yet so near to the modern mind as to be still alive and life-giving4 ,the aspect of ,milton1 to this generation1 will be part of the history of the nineteenth century4 ,there is no name in ,english literature between his age and ours that rises into any approach to his own4 ,and as a man's fame1 of course1 characterizes those who give it1 as much as him who receives it1 the new criticism indicated a change in the public taste1 and a change which the poet himself might claim to have wrought4 ,the reputation of ,milton had already undergone one or two revolutions long anterior to its recent aspects4 ,in his lifetime1 he was little or not at all known as a poet1 but obtained great respect from his contemporaries as an accomplished scholar and a formidable pamphleteer4 ,his poem fell unregarded among his countrymen4 ,his prose writings1 especially the 8,defence of the ,english ,people10 seem to have been read with avidity4 ,these tracts are remarkable compositions4 ,they are earnest1 spiritual1 rich with allusion1 sparkling with innumerable ornaments2 but1 as writings designed to gain a practical point1 they fail4 ,they are not effective1 like similar productions of ,swift and ,burke2 or1 like what became also controversial tracts1 several masterly speeches in the history of the ,american ,congress4 ,milton seldom deigns a glance at the obstacles that are to be overcome before that which he proposes can be done4 ,there is no attempt to conciliate1--no mediate1 no preparatory course suggested1--but1 peremptory and impassioned1 he demands1 on the instant1 an ideal justice4 ,therein they are discriminated from modern writings1 in which a regard to the actual is all but universal4 ,their rhetorical excellence must also suffer some deduction4 ,they have no perfectness4 ,these writings are wonderful for the truth1 the learning1 the subtilty and pomp of the language2 but the whole is sacrificed to the particular4 ,eager to do fit justice to each thought1 he does not subordinate it so as to project the main argument4 ,he writes whilst he is heated2 the piece shows all the rambles and resources of indignation1 but he has never integrated the parts of the argument in his mind4 ,the reader is fatigued with admiration1 but is not yet master of the subject4 ,two of his pieces may be excepted from this description1 one for its faults1 the other for its excellence4 ,the 8,defence of the ,people of ,england10 on which his contemporary fame was founded1 is1 when divested of its pure ,latinity1 the worst of his works4 ,only its general aim1 and a few elevated passages1 can save it4 ,we could be well content1 if the flames to which it was condemned at ,paris1 at ,toulouse1 and at ,london1 had utterly consumed it4 ,the lover of his genius will always regret that he should not have taken counsel of his own lofty heart at this1 as at other times1 and have written from the deep convictions of love and right1 which are the foundations of civil liberty4 ,there is little poetry or prophecy in this mean and ribald scolding4 ,to insult ,salmasius1 not to acquit ,england1 is the main design4 ,what under heaven had ,madame de ,saumaise1 or the manner of living of ,saumaise1 or ,salmasius1 or his blunders of grammar1 or his niceties of diction1 to do with the solemn question whether ,charles ,stuart had been rightly slain8 ,though it evinces learning and critical skill1 yet1 as an historical argument1 it cannot be valued with similar disquisitions of ,robertson and ,hallam1 and even less celebrated scholars4 ,but1 when he comes to speak of the reason of the thing1 then he always recovers himself4 ,the voice of the mob is silent1 and ,milton speaks4 ,and the peroration1 in which he implores his countrymen to refute this adversary by their great deeds1 is in a just spirit4 ,the other piece is his 8,areopagitica10 the discourse1 addressed to the ,parliament1 in favor of removing the censorship of the press2 the most splendid of his prose works4 ,it is1 as ,luther said of one of ,melancthon's writings1 8alive1 hath hands and feet1--and not like ,erasmus's sentences1 which were made1 not grown40 ,the weight of the thought is equalled by the vivacity of the expression1 and it cheers as well as teaches4 ,this tract is far the best known and the most read of all1 and is still a magazine of reasons for the freedom of the press4 ,it is valuable in history as an argument addressed to a government to produce a practical end1 and plainly presupposes a very peculiar state of society4 ,but deeply as that peculiar state of society1 in which and for which ,milton wrote1 has engraved itself in the remembrance of the world1 it shares the destiny which overtakes everything local and personal in nature2 and the accidental facts on which a battle of principles was fought have already passed1 or are fast passing1 into oblivion4 ,we have lost all interest in ,milton as the redoubted disputant of a sect2 but by his own innate worth this man has steadily risen in the world's reverence1 and occupies a more imposing place in the mind of men at this hour than ever before4 ,it is the aspect which he presents to this generation1 that alone concerns us4 ,milton the polemic has lost his popularity long ago2 and if we skip the pages of 8,paradise ,lost0 where 8,god the ,father argues like a school divine10 so did the next age to his own4 ,but1 we are persuaded1 he kindles a love and emulation in us which he did not in foregoing generations4 ,we think we have seen and heard criticism upon the poems1 which the bard himself would have more valued than the recorded praise of ,dryden1 ,addison and ,johnson1 because it came nearer to the mark2 was finer and closer appreciation2 the praise of intimate knowledge and delight2 and1 of course1 more welcome to the poet than the general and vague acknowledgment of his genius by those able but unsympathizing critics4 ,we think we have heard the recitation of his verses by genius which found in them that which itself would say2 recitation which told1 in the diamond sharpness of every articulation1 that now first was such perception and enjoyment possible2 the perception and enjoyment of all his varied rhythm1 and his perfect fusion of the classic and the ,english styles4 ,this is a poet's right2 for every masterpiece of art goes on for some ages reconciling the world unto itself1 and despotically fashioning the public ear4 ,the opposition to it1 always greatest at first1 continually decreases and at last ends2 and a new race grows up in the taste and spirit of the work1 with the utmost advantage for seeing intimately its power and beauty4 ,but it would be great injustice to ,milton to consider him as enjoying merely a critical reputation4 ,it is the prerogative of this great man to stand at this hour foremost of all men in literary history1 and so 7shall we not say87 of all men1 in the power to inspire4 ,virtue goes out of him into others4 ,leaving out of view the pretensions of our contemporaries 7always an incalculable influence71 we think no man can be named whose mind still acts on the cultivated intellect of ,england and ,america with an energy comparable to that of ,milton4 ,as a poet1 ,shakspeare undoubtedly transcends1 and far surpasses him in his popularity with foreign nations2 but ,shakspeare is a voice merely2 who and what he was that sang1 that sings1 we know not4 ,milton stands erect1 commanding1 still visible as a man among men1 and reads the laws of the moral sentiment to the new-born race4 ,there is something pleasing in the affection with which we can regard a man who died a hundred and sixty years ago in the other hemisphere1 who1 in respect to personal relations1 is to us as the wind1 yet by an influence purely spiritual makes us jealous for his fame as for that of a near friend4 ,he is identified in the mind with all select and holy images1 with the supreme interests of the human race4 ,if hereby we attain any more precision1 we proceed to say that we think no man in these later ages1 and few men ever1 possessed so great a conception of the manly character4 ,better than any other he has discharged the office of every great man1 namely1 to raise the idea of ,man in the minds of his contemporaries and of posterity1--to draw after nature a life of man1 exhibiting such a composition of grace1 of strength and of virtue1 as poet had not described nor hero lived4 ,human nature in these ages is indebted to him for its best portrait4 ,many philosophers in ,england1 ,france and ,germany1 have formerly dedicated their study to this problem2 and we think it impossible to recall one in those countries who communicates the same vibration of hope1 of self-reverence1 of piety1 of delight in beauty1 which the name of ,milton awakens4 ,lord ,bacon1 who has written much and with prodigious ability on this science1 shrinks and falters before the absolute and uncourtly ,puritan4 ,bacon's ,essays are the portrait of an ambitious and profound calculator1--a great man of the vulgar sort4 ,of the upper world of man's being they speak few and faint words4 ,the man of ,locke is virtuous without enthusiasm and intelligent without poetry4 ,addison1 ,pope1 ,hume and ,johnson1 students1 with very unlike temper and success1 of the same subject1 cannot1 taken together1 make any pretension to the amount or the quality of ,milton's inspirations4 ,the man of ,lord ,chesterfield is unworthy to touch his garment's hem4 ,franklin's man is a frugal1 inoffensive1 thrifty citizen1 but savors of nothing heroic4 ,the genius of ,france has not1 even in her best days1 yet culminated in any one head1--not in ,rousseau1 not in ,pascal1 not in ,fnelon1--into such perception of all the attributes of humanity as to entitle it to any rivalry in these lists4 ,in ,germany1 the greatest writers are still too recent to institute a comparison2 and yet we are tempted to say that art and not life seems to be the end of their effort4 ,but the idea of a purer existence than any he saw around him1 to be realized in the life and conversation of men1 inspired every act and every writing of ,john ,milton4 ,he defined the object of education to be1 8to fit a man to perform justly1 skilfully and magnanimously all the offices1 both private and public1 of peace and war40 ,he declared that 8he who would aspire to write well hereafter in laudable things1 ought himself to be a true poem2 that is1 a composition and pattern of the best and honorablest things1 not presuming to sing high praises of heroic men or famous cities1 unless he have in himself the experience and the practice of all that which is praiseworthy40 ,nor is there in literature a more noble outline of a wise external education1 than that which he drew up1 at the age of thirty-six1 in his ,letter to ,samuel ,hartlib4 ,the muscles1 the nerves and the flesh with which this skeleton is to be filled up and covered1 exist in his works and must be sought there4 ,for the delineation of this heroic image of man1 ,milton enjoyed singular advantages4 ,perfections of body and of mind are attributed to him by his biographers1 that1 if the anecdotes had come down from a greater distance of time1 or had not been in part furnished or corroborated by political enemies1 would lead us to suspect the portraits were ideal1 like the ,cyrus of ,xenophon1 the ,telemachus of ,fnelon1 or the popular traditions of ,alfred the ,great4 ,handsome to a proverb1 he was called the lady of his college4 ,aubrey says1 8,this harmonical and ingenuous soul dwelt in a beautiful and well-proportioned body40 ,his manners and his carriage did him no injustice4 ,wood1 his political opponent1 relates that 8his deportment was affable1 his gait erect and manly1 bespeaking courage and undauntedness40 ,aubrey adds a sharp trait1 that 8he pronounced the letter ,r very hard1 a certain sign of satirical genius40 ,he had the senses of a ,greek4 ,his eye was quick1 and he was accounted an excellent master of his rapier4 ,his ear for music was so acute1 that he was not only enthusiastic in his love1 but a skilful performer himself2 and his voice1 we are told1 was delicately sweet and harmonious4 ,he insists that music shall make a part of a generous education4 ,with these keen perceptions1 he naturally received a love of nature and a rare susceptibility to impressions from external beauty4 ,in the midst of ,london1 he seems1 like the creatures of the field and the forest1 to have been tuned in concord with the order of the world2 for1 he believed1 his poetic vein only flowed from the autumnal to the vernal equinox2 and1 in his essay on ,education1 he doubts whether1 in the fine days of spring1 any study can be accomplished by young men4 8,in those vernal seasons of the year when the air is calm and pleasant1 it were an injury and sullenness against nature not to go out and see her riches and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth40 ,his sensibility to impressions from beauty needs no proof from his history2 it shines through every page4 ,the form and the voice of ,leonora ,baroni seemed to have captivated him in ,rome1 and to her he addressed his ,italian sonnets and ,latin epigrams4 ,to these endowments it must be added that his address and his conversation were worthy of his fame4 ,his house was resorted to by men of wit1 and foreigners came to ,england1 we are told1 8to see the ,lord ,protector and ,mr4 ,milton40 ,in a letter to one of his foreign correspondents1 ,emeric ,bigot1 and in reply apparently to some compliment on his powers of conversation1 he writes3 8,many have been celebrated for their compositions1 whose common conversation and intercourse have betrayed no marks of sublimity or genius4 ,but1 as far as possible1 ,i aim to show myself equal in thought and speech to what ,i have written1 if ,i have written anything well40 ,these endowments received the benefit of a careful and happy discipline4 ,his father's care1 seconded by his own endeavor1 introduced him to a profound skill in all the treasures of ,latin1 ,greek1 ,hebrew and ,italian tongues2 and1 to enlarge and enliven his elegant learning1 he was sent into ,italy1 where he beheld the remains of ancient art1 and the rival works of ,raphael1 ,michael ,angelo and ,correggio2 where1 also1 he received social and academical honors from the learned and the great4 ,in ,paris1 he became acquainted with ,grotius2 in ,florence or ,rome1 with ,galileo2 and probably no traveller ever entered that country of history with better right to its hospitality1 none upon whom its influences could have fallen more congenially4 ,among the advantages of his foreign travel1 ,milton certainly did not count it the least that it contributed to forge and polish that great weapon of which he acquired such extraordinary mastery1--his power of language4 ,his lore of foreign tongues added daily to his consummate skill in the use of his own4 ,he was a benefactor of the ,english tongue by showing its capabilities4 ,very early in life he became conscious that he had more to say to his fellow-men than they had fit words to embody4 ,at nineteen years1 in a college exercise1 he addresses his native language1 saying to it that it would be his choice to leave trifles for a grave argument1 8,such as may make thee search thy coffers round1 ,before thou clothe my fancy in fit sound2 ,such where the deep transported mind may soar ,above the wheeling poles1 and at ,heaven's door ,look in1 and see each blissful deity1 ,how he before the thunderous throne doth lie40 ,michael ,angelo calls 8him alone an artist1 whose hands can execute what his mind has conceived40 ,the world1 no doubt1 contains many of that class of men whom ,wordsworth denominates 8silent poets10 whose minds teem with images which they want words to clothe4 ,but ,milton's mind seems to have no thought or emotion which refused to be recorded4 ,his mastery of his native tongue was more than to use it as well as any other2 he cast it into new forms4 ,he uttered in it things unheard before4 ,not imitating but rivalling ,shakspeare1 he scattered1 in tones of prolonged and delicate melody1 his pastoral and romantic fancies2 then1 soaring into unattempted strains1 he made it capable of an unknown majesty1 and bent it to express every trait of beauty1 every shade of thought2 and searched the kennel and jakes as well as the palaces of sound for the harsh discords of his polemic wrath4 ,we may even apply to his performance on the instrument of language1 his own description of music3 8--,notes1 with many a winding bout ,of linkd sweetness long drawn out1 ,with wanton heed and giddy cunning1 ,the melting voice through mazes running1 ,untwisting all the chains that tie ,the hidden soul of harmony40 ,but1 whilst ,milton was conscious of possessing this intellectual voice1 penetrating through ages and propelling its melodious undulations forward through the coming world1 he knew that this mastery of language was a secondary power1 and he respected the mysterious source whence it had its spring2 namely1 clear conceptions and a devoted heart4 8,for me10 he said1 in his 8,apology for ,smectymnuus10 8although ,i cannot say that ,i am utterly untrained in those rules which best rhetoricians have given1 or unacquainted with those examples which the prime authors of eloquence have written in any learned tongue1 yet true eloquence ,i find to be none but the serious and hearty love of truth2 and that whose mind soever is fully possessed with a fervent desire to know good things1 and with the dearest charity to infuse the knowledge of them into others1 when such a man would speak1 his words1 by what ,i can express1 like so many nimble and airy servitors1 trip about him at command1 and in well-ordered files1 as he would wish1 fall aptly into their own places40 ,but1 as basis or fountain of his rare physical and intellectual accomplishments1 the man ,milton was just and devout4 ,he is rightly dear to mankind1 because in him1 among so many perverse and partial men of genius1--in him humanity rights itself2 the old eternal goodness finds a home in his breast1 and for once shows itself beautiful4 ,his gifts are subordinated to his moral sentiments4 ,and his virtues are so graceful that they seem rather talents than labors4 ,among so many contrivances as the world has seen to make holiness ugly1 in ,milton at least it was so pure a flame1 that the foremost impression his character makes is that of elegance4 ,the victories of the conscience in him are gained by the commanding charm which all the severe and restrictive virtues have for him4 ,his virtues remind us of what ,plutarch said of ,timoleon's victories1 that they resembled ,homer's verses1 they ran so easy and natural4 ,his habits of living were austere4 ,he was abstemious in diet1 chaste1 an early riser1 and industrious4 ,he tells us1 in a ,latin poem1 that the lyrist may indulge in wine and in a freer life2 but that he who would write an epic to the nations1 must eat beans and drink water4 ,yet in his severity is no grimace or effort4 ,he serves from love1 not from fear4 ,he is innocent and exact1 because his taste was so pure and delicate4 ,he acknowledges to his friend ,diodati1 at the age of twenty-one1 that he is enamored1 if ever any was1 of moral perfection3 8,for1 whatever the ,deity may have bestowed upon me in other respects1 he has certainly inspired me1 if any ever were inspired1 with a passion for the good and fair4 ,nor did ,ceres1 according to the fable1 ever seek her daughter ,proserpine with such unceasing solicitude1 as ,i have sought this 1 this perfect model of the beautiful in all forms and appearances of things40 ,when he was charged with loose habits of living1 he declares1 that 8a certain niceness of nature1 an honest haughtiness and self-esteem either of what ,i was or what ,i might be1 and a modesty1 kept me still above those low descents of mind beneath which he must deject and plunge himself1 that can agree0 to such degradation4 8,his mind gave him10 he said1 8that every free and gentle spirit1 without that oath of chastity1 ought to be born a knight2 nor needed to expect the gilt spur1 or the laying of a sword upon his shoulder1 to stir him up1 by his counsel and his arm1 to secure and protect0 attempted innocence4 ,he states these things1 he says1 8to show1 that1 though ,christianity had been but slightly taught him1 yet a certain reservedness of natural disposition and moral discipline1 learned out of the noblest philosophy1 was enough to keep him in disdain of far less incontinences than these10 that had been charged on him4 ,in like spirit1 he replies to the suspicious calumny respecting his morning haunts4 8,those morning haunts are where they should be1 at home2 not sleeping1 or concocting the surfeits of an irregular feast1 but up and stirring1 in winter1 often ere the sound of any bell awake men to labor or devotion2 in summer1 as oft with the bird that first rouses1 or not much tardier1 to read good authors1 or cause them to be read1 till the attention be weary1 or memory have its perfect fraught2 then with useful and generous labors preserving the body's health and hardiness1 to render lightsome1 clear1 and not lumpish obedience to the mind1 to the cause of religion and our country's liberty1 when it shall require firm hearts in sound bodies to stand and cover their stations4 ,these are the morning practices40 ,this native honor never forsook him4 ,it is the spirit of 8,comus10 the loftiest song in the praise of chastity that is in any language4 ,it always sparkles in his eyes4 ,it breathed itself over his decent form4 ,it refined his amusements1 which consisted in gardening1 in exercise with the sword1 and in playing on the organ4 ,it engaged his interest in chivalry1 in courtesy1 in whatsoever savored of generosity and nobleness4 ,this magnanimity shines in all his life4 ,he accepts a high impulse at every risk1 and deliberately undertakes the defence of the ,english people1 when advised by his physicians that he does it at the cost of sight4 ,there is a forbearance even in his polemics4 ,he opens the war and strikes the first blow4 ,when he had cut down his opponents1 he left the details of death and plunder to meaner partisans4 ,he said1 8he had learned the prudence of the ,roman soldier1 not to stand breaking of legs1 when the breath was quite out of the body40 ,to this antique heroism1 ,milton added the genius of the ,christian sanctity4 ,few men could be cited who have so well understood what is peculiar in the ,christian ethics1 and the precise aid it has brought to men1 in being an emphatic affirmation of the omnipotence of spiritual laws1 and1 by way of marking the contrast to vulgar opinions1 laying its chief stress on humility4 ,the indifferency of a wise mind to what is called high and low1 and the fact that true greatness is a perfect humility1 are revelations of ,christianity which ,milton well understood4 ,they give an inexhaustible truth to all his compositions4 ,his firm grasp of this truth is his weapon against the prelates4 ,he celebrates in the martyrs 8the unresistible might of weakness40 ,he told the bishops that 8instead of showing the reason of their lowly condition from divine example and command1 they seek to prove their high preminence from human consent and authority40 ,he advises that in country places1 rather than to trudge many miles to a church1 public worship be maintained nearer home1 as in a house or barn4 8,for1 notwithstanding the gaudy superstition of some still devoted ignorantly to temples1 we may be well assured1 that he who disdained not to be born in a manger1 disdains not to be preached in a barn40 ,and the following passage1 in the 8,reason of ,church ,government10 indicates his own perception of the doctrine of humility4 8,albeit ,i must confess to be half in doubt whether ,i should bring it forth or no1 it being so contrary to the eye of the world1 that ,i shall endanger either not to be regarded1 or not to be understood4 ,for who is there1 almost1 that measures wisdom by simplicity1 strength by suffering1 dignity by lowliness80 ,obeying this sentiment1 ,milton deserved the apostrophe of ,wordsworth3-- 8,pure as the naked heavens1 majestic1 free1 ,so didst thou travel on life's common way ,in cheerful godliness2 and yet thy heart ,the lowliest duties on itself did lay40 ,he laid on himself the lowliest duties4 ,johnson petulantly taunts ,milton with 8great promise and small performance10 in returning from ,italy because his country was in danger1 and then opening a private school4 ,milton1 wiser1 felt no absurdity in this conduct4 ,he returned into his revolutionized country1 and assumed an honest and useful task1 by which he might serve the state daily1 whilst he launched from time to time his formidable bolts against the enemies of liberty4 ,he felt the heats of that 8love0 which 8esteems no office mean40 ,he compiled a logic for boys2 he wrote a grammar2 and devoted much of his time to the preparing of a ,latin dictionary4 ,but the religious sentiment warmed his writings and conduct with the highest affection of faith4 ,the memorable covenant1 which in his youth1 in the second book of the 8,reason of ,church ,government10 he makes with ,god and his reader1 expressed the faith of his old age4 ,for the first time since many ages1 the invocations of the ,eternal ,spirit in the commencement of his books are not poetic forms1 but are thoughts1 and so are still read with delight4 ,his views of choice of profession1 and choice in marriage1 equally expect a divine leading4 ,thus chosen1 by the felicity of his nature and of his breeding1 for the clear perception of all that is graceful and all that is great in man1 ,milton was not less happy in his times4 ,his birth fell upon the agitated years when the discontents of the ,english ,puritans were fast drawing to a head against the tyranny of the ,stuarts4 ,no period has surpassed that in the general activity of mind4 ,it is said that no opinion1 no civil1 religious1 moral dogma can be produced1 that was not broached in the fertile brain of that age4 ,questions that involve all social and personal rights were hasting to be decided by the sword1 and were searched by eyes to which the love of freedom1 civil and religious1 lent new illumination4 ,milton1 gentle1 learned1 delicately bred in all the elegancy of art and learning1 was set down in ,england in the stern1 almost fanatic society of the ,puritans4 ,the part he took1 the zeal of his fellowship1 make us acquainted with the greatness of his spirit as in tranquil times we could not have known it4 ,susceptible as ,burke to the attractions of historical prescription1 of royalty1 of chivalry1 of an ancient church illustrated by old martyrdoms and installed in cathedrals1--he threw himself1 the flower of elegancy1 on the side of the reeking conventicle2 the side of humanity1 but unlearned and unadorned4 ,his muse was brave and humane1 as well as sweet4 ,he felt the dear love of native land and native language4 ,the humanity which warms his pages begins as it should1 at home4 ,he preferred his own ,english1 so manlike he was1 to the ,latin1 which contained all the treasures of his memory4 8,my mother bore me10 he said1 8a speaker of what ,god made mine own1 and not a translator40 ,he told the ,parliament1 that 8the imprimaturs of ,lambeth ,house had been writ in ,latin2 for that our ,english1 the language of men ever famous and foremost in the achievements of liberty1 will not easily find servile letters enow to spell such a dictatory presumption40 ,at one time he meditated writing a poem on the settlement of ,britain1 and a history of ,england was one of the three main tasks which he proposed to himself4 ,he proceeded in it no further than to the ,conquest4 ,he studied with care the character of his countrymen1 and once in the 8,history10 and once again in the 8,reason of ,church ,government10 he has recorded his judgment of the ,english genius4 ,thus drawn into the great controversies of the times1 in them he is never lost in a party4 ,his private opinions and private conscience always distinguish him4 ,that which drew him to the party was his love of liberty1 ideal liberty2 this therefore he could not sacrifice to any party4 ,toland tells us1 8,as he looked upon true and absolute freedom to be the greatest happiness of this life1 whether to societies or single persons1 so he thought constraint of any sort to be the utmost misery2 for which reason be used to tell those about him the entire satisfaction of his mind1 that he had constantly employed his strength and faculties in the defence of liberty1 and in direct opposition to slavery40 ,truly he was an apostle of freedom2 of freedom in the house1 in the state1 in the church2 freedom of speech1 freedom of the press1 yet in his own mind discriminated from savage license1 because that which he desired was the liberty of the wise man1 containing itself in the limits of virtue4 ,he pushed1 as far as any in that democratic age1 his ideas of civil liberty4 ,he proposed to establish a republic1 of which the federal power was weak and loosely defined1 and the substantial power should remain with primary assemblies4 ,he maintained1 that a nation may try1 judge1 and slay their king1 if he be a tyrant4 ,he pushed as far his views of ecclesiastical liberty4 ,he taught the doctrine of unlimited toleration4 ,one of his tracts is writ to prove that no power on earth can compel in matters of religion4 ,he maintained the doctrine of literary liberty1 denouncing the censorship of the press1 and insisting that a book shall come into the world as freely as a man1 so only it bear the name of author or printer1 and be responsible for itself like a man4 ,he maintained the doctrine of domestic liberty1 or the liberty of divorce1 on the ground that unfit disposition of mind was a better reason for the act of divorce than infirmity of body1 which was good ground in law4 ,the tracts he wrote on these topics are1 for the most part1 as fresh and pertinent to-day as they were then4 ,the events which produced them1 the practical issues to which they tend1 are mere occasions for this philanthropist to blow his trumpet for human rights4 ,they are all varied applications of one principle1 the liberty of the wise man4 ,he sought absolute truth1 not accommodating truth4 ,his opinions on all subjects are formed for man as he ought to be1 for a nation of ,miltons4 ,he would be divorced when he finds in his consort unfit disposition2 knowing that he should not abuse that liberty1 because with his whole heart he abhors licentiousness and loves chastity4 ,he defends the slaying of the king1 because a king is a king no longer than he governs by the laws2 8it would be right to kill ,philip of ,spain making an inroad into ,england1 and what right the king of ,spain hath to govern us at all1 the same hath the king ,charles to govern tyrannically40 ,he would remove hirelings out of the church1 and support preachers by voluntary contributions2 requiring that such only should preach as have faith enough to accept so self-denying and precarious a mode of life1 scorning to take thought for the aspects of prudence and expediency4 ,the most devout man of his time1 he frequented no church2 probably from a disgust at the fierce spirit of the pulpits4 ,and so1 throughout all his actions and opinions1 is he a consistent spiritualist1 or believer in the omnipotence of spiritual laws4 ,he wished that his writings should be communicated only to those who desired to see them4 ,he thought nothing honest was low4 ,he thought he could be famous only in proportion as he enjoyed the approbation of the good4 ,he admonished his friend 8not to admire military prowess1 or things in which force is of most avail4 ,for it would not be matter of rational wonder1 if the wethers of our country should be born with horns that could batter down cities and towns4 ,learn to estimate great characters1 not by the amount of animal strength1 but by the habitual justice and temperance of their conduct40 ,was there not a fitness in the undertaking of such a person to write a poem on the subject of ,adam1 the first man8 ,by his sympathy with all nature2 by the proportion of his powers2 by great knowledge1 and by religion1 he would reascend to the height from which our nature is supposed to have descended4 ,from a just knowledge of what man should be1 he described what he was4 ,he beholds him as he walked in ,eden3-- 8,his fair large front and eye sublime declared ,absolute rule2 and hyacinthine locks ,round from his parted forelock manly hung ,clustering1 but not beneath his shoulders broad40 ,and the soul of this divine creature is excellent as his form4 ,the tone of his thought and passion is as healthful1 as even1 and as vigorous1 as befits the new and perfect model of a race of gods4 ,the perception we have attributed to ,milton1 of a purer ideal of humanity1 modifies his poetic genius4 ,the man is paramount to the poet4 ,his fancy is never transcendent1 extravagant2 but1 as ,bacon's imagination was said to be 8the noblest that ever contented itself to minister to the understanding10 so ,milton's ministers to the character4 ,milton's sublimest song1 bursting into heaven with its peals of melodious thunder1 is the voice of ,milton still4 ,indeed1 throughout his poems1 one may see under a thin veil1 the opinions1 the feelings1 even the incidents of the poet's life1 still reappearing4 ,the sonnets are all occasional poems4 8,l',allegro0 and 8,il ,penseroso0 are but a finer autobiography of his youthful fancies at ,harefield2 the 8,comus0 a transcript1 in charming numbers1 of that philosophy of chastity1 which1 in the 8,apology for ,smectymnuus10 and in the 8,reason of ,church ,government10 he declares to be his defence and religion4 ,the 8,samson ,agonistes0 is too broad an expression of his private griefs to be mistaken1 and is a version of the 8,doctrine and ,discipline of ,divorce40 ,the most affecting passages in 8,paradise ,lost0 are personal allusions2 and1 when we are fairly in ,eden1 ,adam and ,milton are often difficult to be separated4 ,again1 in 8,paradise ,regained10 we have the most distinct marks of the progress of the poet's mind1 in the revision and enlargement of his religious opinions4 ,this may be thought to abridge his praise as a poet4 ,it is true of ,homer and ,shakspeare that they do not appear in their poems2 that those prodigious geniuses did cast themselves so totally into their song1 that their individuality vanishes1 and the poet towers to the sky1 whilst the man quite disappears4 ,the fact is memorable4 ,shall we say that in our admiration and joy in these wonderful poems we have even a feeling of regret that the men knew not what they did2 that they were too passive in their great service2 were channels through which streams of thought flowed from a higher source1 which they did not appropriate1 did not blend with their own being8 ,like prophets1 they seem but imperfectly aware of the import of their own utterances4 ,we hesitate to say such things1 and say them only to the unpleasing dualism1 when the man and the poet show like a double consciousness4 ,perhaps we speak to no fact1 but to mere fables1 of an idle mendicant ,homer1 and of a ,shakspeare content with a mean and jocular way of life4 ,be it how it may1 the genius and office of ,milton were different1 namely1 to ascend by the aids of his learning and his religion1--by an equal perception1 that is1 of the past and the future1--to a higher insight and more lively delineation of the heroic life of man4 ,this was his poem2 whereof all his indignant pamphlets and all his soaring verses are only single cantos or detached stanzas4 ,it was plainly needful that his poetry should be a version of his own life1 in order to give weight and solemnity to his thoughts2 by which they might penetrate and possess the imagination and the will of mankind4 ,the creations of ,shakspeare are cast into the world of thought to no further end than to delight4 ,their intrinsic beauty is their excuse for being4 ,milton1 fired 8with dearest charity to infuse the knowledge of good things into others10 tasked his giant imagination and exhausted the stores of his intellect for an end beyond1 namely1 to teach4 ,his own conviction it is which gives such authority to his strain4 ,its reality is its force4 ,if out of the heart it came1 to the heart it must go4 ,what schools and epochs of common rhymers would it need to make a counterbalance to the severe oracles of his muse3 8,in them is plainest taught and easiest learnt1 ,what makes a nation happy1 and keeps it so40 ,the lover of ,milton reads one sense in his prose and in his metrical compositions2 and sometimes the muse soars highest in the former1 because the thought is more sincere4 ,of his prose in general1 not the style alone but the argument also is poetic2 according to ,lord ,bacon's definition of poetry1 following that of ,aristotle1 8,poetry1 not finding the actual world exactly conformed to its idea of good and fair1 seeks to accommodate the shows of things to the desires of the mind1 and to create an ideal world better than the world of experience40 ,such certainly is the explanation of ,milton's tracts4 ,such is the apology to be entered for the plea for freedom of divorce2 an essay1 which1 from the first until now1 has brought a degree of obloquy on his name4 ,it was a sally of the extravagant spirit of the time1 overjoyed1 as in the ,french ,revolution1 with the sudden victories it had gained1 and eager to carry on the standard of truth to new heights4 ,it is to be regarded as a poem on one of the griefs of man's condition1 namely1 unfit marriage4 ,and as many poems have been written upon unfit society1 commending solitude1 yet have not been proceeded against1 though their end was hostile to the state2 so should this receive that charity which an angelic soul1 suffering more keenly than others from the unavoidable evils of human life1 is entitled to4 ,we have offered no apology for expanding to such length our commentary on the character of ,john ,milton2 who1 in old age1 in solitude1 in neglect1 and blind1 wrote the ,paradise ,lost2 a man whom labor or danger never deterred from whatever efforts a love of the supreme interests of man prompted4 ,for are we not the better2 are not all men fortified by the remembrance of the bravery1 the purity1 the temperance1 the toil1 the independence and the angelic devotion of this man1 who1 in a revolutionary age1 taking counsel only of himself1 endeavored1 in his writings and in his life1 to carry out the life of man to new heights of spiritual grace and dignity1 without any abatement of its strength8 ,,footnotes3 #d ,reprinted from the ,north ,american ,review1 ,july1 #ahch4 ,,papers ,,from ,,the ,,dial4 ,the tongue is prone to lose the way2 ,not so the pen1 for in a letter ,we have not better things to say1 ,but surely say them better4 ,illustration3 7decorative banner7 ,,papers ,,from ,,the ,,dial4 ,i4 ,,thoughts ,,on ,,modern ,,literature4#e ,in our fidelity to the higher truth we need not disown our debt1 in our actual state of culture1 in the twilights of experience1 to these rude helpers4 ,they keep alive the memory and the hope of a better day4 ,when we flout all particular books as initial merely1 we truly express the privilege of spiritual nature1 but alas1 not the fact and fortune of this low ,massachusetts and ,boston1 of these humble ,junes and ,decembers of mortal life4 ,our souls are not self-fed1 but do eat and drink of chemical water and wheat4 ,let us not forget the genial miraculous force we have known to proceed from a book4 ,we go musing into the vault of day and night2 no constellation shines1 no muse descends1 the stars are white points1 the roses brick-colored leaves1 and frogs pipe1 mice cheep1 and wagons creak along the road4 ,we return to the house and take up ,plutarch or ,augustine1 and read a few sentences or pages1 and lo6 the air swims with life1 secrets of magnanimity and grandeur invite us on every hand1 life is made up of them4 ,such is our debt to a book4 ,observe moreover that we ought to credit literature with much more than the bare word it gives us4 ,i have just been reading poems which now in memory shine with a certain steady1 warm1 autumnal light4 ,that is not in their grammatical construction which they give me4 ,if ,i analyze the sentences it eludes me1 but is the genius and suggestion of the whole4 ,over every true poem lingers a certain wild beauty1 immeasurable2 a happiness lightsome and delicious fills the heart and brain1 as they say every man walks environed by his proper atmosphere1 extending to some distance around him4 ,this beautiful result must be credited to literature also in casting its account4 ,in looking at the library of the ,present ,age1 we are first struck with the fact of the immense miscellany4 ,it can hardly be characterized by any species of book1 for every opinion1 old and new1 every hope and fear1 every whim and folly has an organ4 ,it exhibits a vast carcass of tradition every year with as much solemnity as a new revelation4 ,along with these it vents books that breathe of new morning1 that seem to heave with the life of millions1 books for which men and women peak and pine2 books which take the rose out of the cheek of him that wrote them1 and give him to the midnight a sad1 solitary1 diseased man2 which leave no man where they found him1 but make him better or worse2 and which work dubiously on society and seem to inoculate it with a venom before any healthy result appears4 ,in order to any complete view of the literature of the present age1 an inquiry should include what it quotes1 what it writes and what it wishes to write4 ,in our present attempt to enumerate some traits of the recent literature1 we shall have somewhat to offer on each of these topics1 but we cannot promise to set in very exact order what we have to say4 ,in the first place it has all books4 ,it reprints the wisdom of the world4 ,how can the age be a bad one which gives me ,plato and ,paul and ,plutarch1 ,st4 ,augustine1 ,spinoza1 ,chapman1 ,beaumont and ,fletcher1 ,donne and ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 beside its own riches8 ,our presses groan every year with new editions of all the select pieces of the first of mankind1--meditations1 history1 classifications1 opinions1 epics1 lyrics1 which the age adopts by quoting them4 ,if we should designate favorite studies in which the age delights more than in the rest of this great mass of the permanent literature of the human race1 one or two instances would be conspicuous4 ,first2 the prodigious growth and influence of the genius of ,shakspeare1 in the last one hundred and fifty years1 is itself a fact of the first importance4 ,it almost alone has called out the genius of the ,german nation into an activity which spreading from the poetic into the scientific1 religious and philosophical domains1 has made theirs now at last the paramount intellectual influence of the world1 reacting with great energy on ,england and ,america4 ,and thus1 and not by mechanical diffusion1 does an original genius work and spread himself4 ,the poetry and speculation of the age are marked by a certain philosophic turn1 which discriminates them from the works of earlier times4 ,the poet is not content to see how 8,fair hangs the apple from the rock10 8,what music a sunbeam awoke in the groves10 nor of ,hardiknute1 how 8,stately steppes he east the way1 and stately steppes he west10 but he now revolves1 ,what is the apple to me8 and what the birds to me8 and what is ,hardiknute to me8 and what am ,i8 ,and this is called subjectiveness1 as the eye is withdrawn from the object and fixed on the subject or mind4 ,we can easily concede that a steadfast tendency of this sort appears in modern literature4 ,it is the new consciousness of the one mind1 which predominates in criticism4 ,it is the uprise of the soul1 and not the decline4 ,it is founded on that insatiable demand for unity1 the need to recognize one nature in all the variety of objects1 which always characterizes a genius of the first order4 ,accustomed always to behold the presence of the universe in every part1 the soul will not condescend to look at any new part as a stranger1 but saith1--8,i know all already1 and what art thou8 ,show me thy relations to me1 to all1 and ,i will entertain thee also40 ,there is a pernicious ambiguity in the use of the term subjective4 ,we say1 in accordance with the general view ,i have stated1 that the single soul feels its right to be no longer confounded with numbers1 but itself to sit in judgment on history and literature1 and to summon all facts and parties before its tribunal4 ,and in this sense the age is subjective4 ,but1 in all ages1 and now more1 the narrow-minded have no interest in anything but in its relation to their personality4 ,what will help them to be delivered from some burden1 eased in some circumstance1 flattered or pardoned or enriched2 what will help to marry or to divorce them1 to prolong or to sweeten life1 is sure of their interest2 and nothing else4 ,every form under the whole heaven they behold in this most partial light or darkness of intense selfishness1 until we hate their being4 ,and this habit of intellectual selfishness has acquired in our day the fine name of subjectiveness4 ,nor is the distinction between these two habits to be found in the circumstance of using the first person singular1 or reciting facts and feelings of personal history4 ,a man may say ,i1 and never refer to himself as an individual2 and a man may recite passages of his life with no feeling of egotism4 ,nor need a man have a vicious subjectiveness because he deals in abstract propositions4 ,but the criterion which discriminates these two habits in the poet's mind is the tendency of his composition2 namely1 whether it leads us to nature1 or to the person of the writer4 ,the great always introduce us to facts2 small men introduce us always to themselves4 ,the great man1 even whilst he relates a private fact personal to him1 is really leading us away from him to an universal experience4 ,his own affection is in nature1 in what is1 and1 of course1 all his communication leads outward to it1 starting from whatsoever point4 ,the great never with their own consent become a load on the minds they instruct4 ,the more they draw us to them1 the farther from them or more independent of them we are1 because they have brought us to the knowledge of somewhat deeper than both them and us4 ,the great never hinder us2 for their activity is coincident with the sun and moon1 with the course of the rivers and of the winds1 with the stream of laborers in the street and with all the activity and well-being of the race4 ,the great lead us to nature1 and in our age to metaphysical nature1 to the invisible awful facts1 to moral abstractions1 which are not less nature than is a river or a coal-mine1--nay1 they are far more nature1--but its essence and soul4 ,but the weak and wicked1 led also to analyze1 saw nothing in thought but luxury4 ,thought for the selfish became selfish4 ,they invited us to contemplate nature1 and showed us an abominable self4 ,would you know the genius of the writer8 ,do not enumerate his talents or his feats1 but ask thyself1 ,what spirit is he of8 ,do gladness and hope and fortitude flow from his page into thy heart8 ,has he led thee to nature because his own soul was too happy in beholding her power and love8 ,or is his passion for the wilderness only the sensibility of the sick1 the exhibition of a talent which only shines whilst you praise it2 which has no root in the character1 and can thus minister to the vanity but not to the happiness of the possessor2 and which derives all its clat from our conventional education1 but would not make itself intelligible to the wise man of another age or country8 ,the water we wash with never speaks of itself1 nor does fire or wind or tree4 ,neither does the noble natural man3 he yields himself to your occasion and use1 but his act expresses a reference to universal good4 ,another element of the modern poetry akin to this subjective tendency1 or rather the direction of that same on the question of resources1 is the ,feeling of the ,infinite4 ,of the perception now fast becoming a conscious fact1--that there is ,one ,mind1 and that all the powers and privileges which lie in any1 lie in all2 that ,i as a man may claim and appropriate whatever of true or fair or good or strong has anywhere been exhibited2 that ,moses and ,confucius1 ,montaigne and ,leibnitz are not so much individuals as they are parts of man and parts of me1 and my intelligence proves them my own1--literature is far the best expression4 ,it is true1 this is not the only nor the obvious lesson it teaches4 ,a selfish commerce and government have caught the eye and usurped the hand of the masses4 ,it is not to be contested that selfishness and the senses write the laws under which we live1 and that the street seems to be built and the men and women in it moving1 not in reference to pure and grand ends1 but rather to very short and sordid ones4 ,perhaps no considerable minority1 no one man1 leads a quite clean and lofty life4 ,what then8 ,we concede in sadness the fact4 ,but we say that these low customary ways are not all that survives in human beings4 ,there is that in us which mutters1 and that which groans1 and that which triumphs1 and that which aspires4 ,there are facts on which men of the world superciliously smile1 which are worth all their trade and politics2 which drive young men into gardens and solitary places1 and cause extravagant gestures1 starts1 distortions of the countenance1 and passionate exclamations2 sentiments1 which find no aliment or language for themselves on the wharves1 in court1 or market1 but which are soothed by silence1 by darkness1 by the pale stars1 and the presence of nature4 ,all over the modern world the educated and susceptible have betrayed their discontent with the limits of our municipal life1 and with the poverty of our dogmas of religion and philosophy4 ,they betray this impatience by fleeing for resource to a conversation with nature1 which is courted in a certain moody and exploring spirit1 as if they anticipated a more intimate union of man with the world than has been known in recent ages4 ,those who cannot tell what they desire or expect1 still sigh and struggle with indefinite thoughts and vast wishes4 ,the very child in the nursery prattles mysticism1 and doubts and philosophizes4 ,a wild striving to express a more inward and infinite sense characterizes the works of every art4 ,the music of ,beethoven is said1 by those who understand it1 to labor with vaster conceptions and aspirations than music has attempted before4 ,this feeling of the ,infinite has deeply colored the poetry of the period4 ,this new love of the vast1 always native in ,germany1 was imported into ,france by ,de ,stal1 appeared in ,england in ,coleridge1 ,wordsworth1 ,byron1 ,shelley1 ,felicia ,hemans1 and finds a most genial climate in the ,american mind4 ,scott and ,crabbe1 who formed themselves on the past1 had none of this tendency2 their poetry is objective4 ,in ,byron1 on the other hand1 it predominates2 but in ,byron it is blind1 it sees not its true end--an infinite good1 alive and beautiful1 a life nourished on absolute beatitudes1 descending into nature to behold itself reflected there4 ,his will is perverted1 he worships the accidents of society1 and his praise of nature is thieving and selfish4 ,nothing certifies the prevalence of this taste in the people more than the circulation of the poems1--one would say most incongruously united by some bookseller1--of ,coleridge1 ,shelley and ,keats4 ,the only unity is in the subjectiveness and the aspiration common to the three writers4 ,shelley1 though a poetic mind1 is never a poet4 ,his muse is uniformly imitative2 all his poems composite4 ,a good ,english scholar he is1 with ear1 taste1 and memory2 much more1 he is a character full of noble and prophetic traits2 but imagination1 the original1 authentic fire of the bard1 he has not4 ,he is clearly modern1 and shares with ,richter1 ,chateaubriand1 ,manzoni and ,wordsworth1 the feeling of the infinite1 which so labors for expression in their different genius4 ,but all his lines are arbitrary1 not necessary4 ,when we read poetry1 the mind asks1--,was this verse one of twenty which the author might have written as well2 or is this what that man was created to say8 ,but1 whilst every line of the true poet will be genuine1 he is in a boundless power and freedom to say a million things4 ,and the reason why he can say one thing well1 is because his vision extends to the sight of all things1 and so he describes each as one who knows many and all4 ,the fame of ,wordsworth is a leading fact in modern literature1 when it is considered how hostile his genius at first seemed to the reigning taste1 and with what limited poetic talents his great and steadily growing dominion has been established4 ,more than any poet his success has been not his own but that of the idea which he shared with his coevals1 and which he has rarely succeeded in adequately expressing4 ,the ,excursion awakened in every lover of ,nature the right feeling4 ,we saw stars shine1 we felt the awe of mountains1 we heard the rustle of the wind in the grass1 and knew again the ineffable secret of solitude4 ,it was a great joy4 ,it was nearer to ,nature than anything we had before4 ,but the interest of the poem ended almost with the narrative of the influences of ,nature on the mind of the ,boy1 in the ,first ,book4 ,obviously for that passage the poem was written1 and with the exception of this and of a few strains of the like character in the sequel1 the whole poem was dull4 ,here was no poem1 but here was poetry1 and a sure index where the subtle muse was about to pitch her tent and find the argument of her song4 ,it was the human soul in these last ages striving for a just publication of itself4 ,add to this1 however1 the great praise of ,wordsworth1 that more than any other contemporary bard he is pervaded with a reverence of somewhat higher than 7conscious7 thought4 ,there is in him that property common to all great poets1 a wisdom of humanity1 which is superior to any talents which they exert4 ,it is the wisest part of ,shakspeare and of ,milton4 ,for they are poets by the free course which they allow to the informing soul1 which through their eyes beholdeth again and blesseth the things which it hath made4 ,the soul is superior to its knowledge1 wiser than any of its works4 ,with the name of ,wordsworth rises to our recollection the name of his contemporary and friend1 ,walter ,savage ,landor--a man working in a very different and peculiar spirit1 yet one whose genius and accomplishments deserve a wiser criticism than we have yet seen applied to them1 and the rather that his name does not readily associate itself with any school of writers4 ,of ,thomas ,carlyle1 also1 we shall say nothing at this time1 since the quality and energy of his influence on the youth of this country will require at our hands1 erelong1 a distinct and faithful acknowledgment4 ,but of all men he who has united in himself1 and that in the most extraordinary degree1 the tendencies of the era1 is the ,german poet1 naturalist and philosopher1 ,goethe4 ,whatever the age inherited or invented1 he made his own4 ,he has owed to ,commerce and to the victories of the ,understanding1 all their spoils4 ,such was his capacity1 that the magazines of the world's ancient or modern wealth1 which arts and intercourse and skepticism could command1--he wanted them all4 ,had there been twice so much1 he could have used it as well4 ,geologist1 mechanic1 merchant1 chemist1 king1 radical1 painter1 composer1--all worked for him1 and a thousand men seemed to look through his eyes4 ,he learned as readily as other men breathe4 ,of all the men of this time1 not one has seemed so much at home in it as he4 ,he was not afraid to live4 ,and in him this encyclopdia of facts1 which it has been the boast of the age to compile1 wrought an equal effect4 ,he was knowing2 he was brave2 he was clean from all narrowness2 he has a perfect propriety and taste1--a quality by no means common to the ,german writers4 ,nay1 since the earth as we said had become a reading-room1 the new opportunities seem to have aided him to be that resolute realist he is1 and seconded his sturdy determination to see things for what they are4 ,to look at him one would say there was never an observer before4 ,what sagacity1 what industry of observation4 ,to read his record is a frugality of time1 for you shall find no word that does not stand for a thing1 and he is of that comprehension which can see the value of truth4 ,his love of ,nature has seemed to give a new meaning to that word4 ,there was never man more domesticated in this world than he4 ,and he is an apology for the analytic spirit of the period1 because1 of his analysis1 always wholes were the result4 ,all conventions1 all traditions he rejected4 ,and yet he felt his entire right and duty to stand before and try and judge every fact in nature4 ,he thought it necessary to dot round with his own pen the entire sphere of knowables2 and for many of his stories1 this seems the only reason3 ,here is a piece of humanity ,i had hitherto omitted to sketch2--take this4 ,he does not say so in syllables1--yet a sort of conscientious feeling he had to be up to the universe1 is the best account and apology for many of them4 ,he shared also the subjectiveness of the age1 and that too in both the senses ,i have discriminated4 ,with the sharpest eye for form1 color1 botany1 engraving1 medals1 persons and manners1 he never stopped at surface1 but pierced the purpose of a thing and studied to reconcile that purpose with his own being4 ,what he could so reconcile was good2 what he could not1 was false4 ,hence a certain greatness encircles every fact he treats2 for to him it has a soul1 an eternal reason why it was so1 and not otherwise4 ,this is the secret of that deep realism1 which went about among all objects he beheld1 to find the cause why they must be what they are4 ,it was with him a favorite task to find a theory of every institution1 custom1 art1 work of art1 which he observed4 ,witness his explanation of the ,italian mode of reckoning the hours of the day1 as growing out of the ,italian climate2 of the obelisk of ,egypt1 as growing out of a common natural fracture in the granite parallelopiped in ,upper ,egypt2 of the ,doric architecture1 and the ,gothic2 of the ,venetian music of the gondolier1 originating in the habit of the fishers' wives of the ,lido singing on shore to their husbands on the sea2 of the amphitheatre1 which is the enclosure of the natural cup of heads that arranges itself round every spectacle in the street2 of the coloring of ,titian and ,paul ,veronese1 which one may verify in common daylight in ,venice every afternoon2 of the ,carnival at ,rome2 of the domestic rural architecture in ,italy2 and many the like examples4 ,but also that other vicious subjectiveness1 that vice of the time1 infected him also4 ,we are provoked with his ,olympian self-complacency1 the patronizing air with which he vouchsafes to tolerate the genius and performances of other mortals1 8the good ,hiller10 8our excellent ,kant10 8the friendly ,wieland10 c4 c4 ,there is a good letter from ,wieland to ,merck1 in which ,wieland relates that ,goethe read to a select party his journal of a tour in ,switzerland with the ,grand ,duke1 and their passage through the ,vallais and over the ,st4 ,gothard4 8,it was10 says ,wieland1 8as good as ,xenophon's ,anabasis4 ,the piece is one of his most masterly productions1 and is thought and written with the greatness peculiar to him4 ,the fair hearers were enthusiastic at the nature in this piece2 ,i liked the sly art in the composition1 whereof they saw nothing1 still better4 ,it is a true poem1 so concealed is the art too4 ,but what most remarkably in this1 as in all his other works1 distinguishes him from ,homer and ,shakspeare1 is1 that the ,me1 the ,ille ego1 everywhere glimmers through1 although without any boasting and with an infinite fineness40 ,this subtle element of egotism in ,goethe certainly does not seem to deform his compositions1 but to lower the moral influence of the man4 ,he differs from all the great in the total want of frankness4 ,who saw ,milton1 who saw ,shakspeare1 saw them do their best1 and utter their whole heart manlike among their brethren4 ,no man was permitted to call ,goethe brother4 ,he hid himself1 and worked always to astonish1 which is egotism1 and therefore little4 ,if we try ,goethe by the ordinary canons of criticism1 we should say that his thinking is of great altitude1 and all level2 not a succession of summits1 but a high ,asiatic table-land4 ,dramatic power1 the rarest talent in literature1 he has very little4 ,he has an eye constant to the fact of life and that never pauses in its advance4 ,but the great felicities1 the miracles of poetry1 he has never4 ,it is all design with him1 just thought and instructed expression1 analogies1 allusion1 illustration1 which knowledge and correct thinking supply2 but of ,shakspeare and the transcendent muse1 no syllable4 ,yet in the court and law to which we ordinarily speak1 and without adverting to absolute standards1 we claim for him the praise of truth1 of fidelity to his intellectual nature4 ,he is the king of all scholars4 ,in these days and in this country1 where the scholars are few and idle1 where men read easy books and sleep after dinner1 it seems as if no book could so safely be put in the hands of young men as the letters of ,goethe1 which attest the incessant activity of this man1 to eighty years1 in an endless variety of studies1 with uniform cheerfulness and greatness of mind4 ,they cannot be read without shaming us into an emulating industry4 ,let him have the praise of the love of truth4 ,we think1 when we contemplate the stupendous glory of the world1 that it were life enough for one man merely to lift his hands and cry with ,st4 ,augustine1 8,wrangle who pleases1 ,i will wonder40 ,well1 this he did4 ,here was a man who1 in the feeling that the thing itself was so admirable as to leave all comment behind1 went up and down1 from object to object1 lifting the veil from every one1 and did no more4 ,what he said of ,lavater1 may trulier be said of him1 that 8it was fearful to stand in the presence of one before whom all the boundaries within which ,nature has circumscribed our being were laid flat40 ,his are the bright and terrible eyes which meet the modern student in every sacred chapel of thought1 in every public enclosure4 ,but now1 that we may not seem to dodge the question which all men ask1 nor pay a great man so ill a compliment as to praise him only in the conventional and comparative speech1 let us honestly record our thought upon the total worth and influence of this genius4 ,does he represent1 not only the achievement of that age in which he lived1 but that which it would be and is now becoming8 ,and what shall we think of that absence of the moral sentiment1 that singular equivalence to him of good and evil in action1 which discredit his compositions to the pure8 ,the spirit of his biography1 of his poems1 of his tales1 is identical1 and we may here set down by way of comment on his genius the impressions recently awakened in us by the story of ,wilhelm ,meister4 ,all great men have written proudly1 nor cared to explain4 ,they knew that the intelligent reader would come at last1 and would thank them4 ,so did ,dante1 so did ,machiavel4 ,goethe has done this in ,meister4 ,we can fancy him saying to himself3--,there are poets enough of the ,ideal2 let me paint the ,actual1 as1 after years of dreams1 it will still appear and reappear to wise men4 ,that all shall right itself in the long ,morrow1 ,i may well allow1 and my novel may wait for the same regeneration4 ,the age1 that can damn it as false and falsifying1 will see that it is deeply one with the genius and history of all the centuries4 ,i have given my characters a bias to error4 ,men have the same4 ,i have let mischance befall instead of good fortune4 ,they do so daily4 ,and out of many vices and misfortunes1 ,i have let a great success grow1 as ,i had known in my own and many other examples4 ,fierce churchmen and effeminate aspirants will chide and hate my name1 but every keen beholder of life will justify my truth1 and will acquit me of prejudging the cause of humanity by painting it with this morose fidelity4 ,to a profound soul is not austere truth the sweetest flattery8 ,yes1 ,o ,goethe6 but the ideal is truer than the actual4 ,that is ephemeral1 but this changes not4 ,moreover1 because nature is moral1 that mind only can see1 in which the same order entirely obtains4 ,an interchangeable ,truth1 ,beauty and ,goodness1 each wholly interfused in the other1 must make the humors of that eye which would see causes reaching to their last effect and reproducing the world forever4 ,the least inequality of mixture1 the excess of one element over the other1 in that degree diminishes the transparency of things1 makes the world opaque to the observer1 and destroys so far the value of his experience4 ,no particular gifts can countervail this defect4 ,in reading ,meister1 ,i am charmed with the insight2 to use a phrase of ,ben ,jonson's1 8it is rammed with life40 ,i find there actual men and women even too faithfully painted4 ,i am moreover instructed in the possibility of a highly accomplished society1 and taught to look for great talent and culture under a gray coat4 ,but this is all4 ,the limits of artificial society are never quite out of sight4 ,the vicious conventions1 which hem us in like prison walls and which the poet should explode at his touch1 stand for all they are worth in the newspaper4 ,we are never lifted above ourselves1 we are not transported out of the dominion of the senses1 or cheered with an infinite tenderness1 or armed with a grand trust4 ,goethe1 then1 must be set down as the poet of the ,actual1 not of the ,ideal2 the poet of limitation1 not of possibility2 of this world1 and not of religion and hope2 in short1 if we may say so1 the poet of prose1 and not of poetry4 ,he accepts the base doctrine of ,fate1 and gleans what straggling joys may yet remain out of its ban4 ,he is like a banker or a weaver with a passion for the country2 he steals out of the hot streets before sunrise1 or after sunset1 or on a rare holiday1 to get a draft of sweet air and a gaze at the magnificence of summer1 but dares not break from his slavery and lead a man's life in a man's relation to nature4 ,in that which should be his own place1 he feels like a truant1 and is scourged back presently to his task and his cell4 ,poetry is with ,goethe thus external1 the gilding of the chain1 the mitigation of his fate2 but the ,muse never assays those thunder-tones which cause to vibrate the sun and the moon1 which dissipate by dreadful melody all this iron network of circumstance1 and abolish the old heavens and the old earth before the freewill or ,godhead of man4 ,that ,goethe had not a moral perception proportionate to his other powers1 is not then merely a circumstance1 as we might relate of a man that he had or had not the sense of tune or an eye for colors1 but it is the cardinal fact of health or disease2 since1 lacking this1 he failed in the high sense to be a creator1 and1 with divine endowments1 drops by irreversible decree into the common history of genius4 ,he was content to fall into the track of vulgar poets and spend on common aims his splendid endowments1 and has declined the office proffered to now and then a man in many centuries in the power of his genius1 of a ,redeemer of the human mind4 ,he has written better than other poets only as his talent was subtler1 but the ambition of creation he refused4 ,life for him is prettier1 easier1 wiser1 decenter1 has a gem or two more on its robe1 but its old eternal burden is not relieved2 no drop of healthier blood flows yet in its veins4 ,let him pass4 ,humanity must wait for its physician still at the side of the road1 and confess as this man goes out1 that they have served it better who assured it out of the innocent hope in their hearts that a ,physician will come1 than this majestic ,artist1 with all the treasuries of wit1 of science1 and of power at his command4 ,the criticism1 which is not so much spoken as felt in reference to ,goethe1 instructs us directly in the hope of literature4 ,we feel that a man gifted like him should not leave the world as he found it4 ,it is true1 though somewhat sad1 that every fine genius teaches us how to blame himself4 ,being so much1 we cannot forgive him for not being more4 ,when one of these grand monads is incarnated whom nature seems to design for eternal men and draw to her bosom1 we think that the old weariness of ,europe and ,asia1 the trivial forms of daily life will now end1 and a new morning break on us all4 ,what is ,austria8 ,what is ,england8 ,what is our graduated and petrified social scale of ranks and employments8 ,shall not a poet redeem us from these idolatries1 and pale their legendary lustre before the fires of the ,divine ,wisdom which burn in his heart8 ,all that in our sovereign moments each of us has divined of the powers of thought1 all the hints of omnipresence and energy which we have caught1 this man should unfold1 and constitute facts4 ,and this is the insatiable craving which alternately saddens and gladdens men at this day4 ,the ,doctrine of the ,life of ,man established after the truth through all his faculties2--this is the thought which the literature of this hour meditates and labors to say4 ,this is that which tunes the tongue and fires the eye and sits in the silence of the youth4 ,verily it will not long want articulate and melodious expression4 ,there is nothing in the heart but comes presently to the lips4 ,the very depth of the sentiment1 which is the author of all the cutaneous life we see1 is guarantee for the riches of science and of song in the age to come4 ,he who doubts whether this age or this country can yield any contribution to the literature of the world1 only betrays his own blindness to the necessities of the human soul4 ,has the power of poetry ceased1 or the need8 ,have the eyes ceased to see that which they would have1 and which they have not8 ,have they ceased to see other eyes8 ,are there no lonely1 anxious1 wondering children1 who must tell their tale8 ,are we not evermore whipped by thoughts2 8,in sorrow steeped1 and steeped in love ,of thoughts not yet incarnated40 ,the heart beats in this age as of old1 and the passions are busy as ever4 ,nature has not lost one ringlet of her beauty1 one impulse of resistance and valor4 ,from the necessity of loving none are exempt1 and he that loves must utter his desires4 ,a charm as radiant as beauty ever beamed1 a love that fainteth at the sight of its object1 is new to-day4 8,the world does not run smoother than of old1 ,there are sad haps that must be told40 ,man is not so far lost but that he suffers ever the great ,discontent which is the elegy of his loss and the prediction of his recovery4 ,in the gay saloon he laments that these figures are not what ,raphael and ,guercino painted4 ,withered though he stand1 and trifler though he be1 the august spirit of the world looks out from his eyes4 ,in his heart he knows the ache of spiritual pain1 and his thought can animate the sea and land4 ,what then shall hinder the ,genius of the time from speaking its thought8 ,it cannot be silent1 if it would4 ,it will write in a higher spirit and a wider knowledge and with a grander practical aim than ever yet guided the pen of poet4 ,it will write the annals of a changed world1 and record the descent of principles into practice1 of love into ,government1 of love into ,trade4 ,it will describe the new heroic life of man1 the now unbelieved possibility of simple living and of clean and noble relations with men4 ,religion will bind again these that were sometime frivolous1 customary1 enemies1 skeptics1 self-seekers1 into a joyful reverence for the circumambient ,whole1 and that which was ecstacy shall become daily bread4 ,,ii4 ,,walter ,,savage ,,landor4#f ,we sometimes meet in a stage coach in ,new ,england an erect1 muscular man1 with fresh complexion and a smooth hat1 whose nervous speech instantly betrays the ,english traveller2--a man nowise cautious to conceal his name or that of his native country1 or his very slight esteem for the persons and the country that surround him4 ,when ,mr4 ,bull rides in an ,american coach1 he speaks quick and strong2 he is very ready to confess his ignorance of everything about him1 persons1 manners1 customs1 politics1 geography4 ,he wonders that the ,americans should build with wood1 whilst all this stone is lying in the roadside2 and is astonished to learn that a wooden house may last a hundred years2 nor will he remember the fact as many minutes after it has been told him3 he wonders that they do not make elder-wine and cherry-bounce1 since here are cherries1 and every mile is crammed with elder-bushes4 ,he has never seen a good horse in ,america1 nor a good coach1 nor a good inn4 ,here is very good earth and water and plenty of them2 that he is free to allow2 to all other gifts of nature or man his eyes are sealed by the inexorable demand for the precise conveniences to which he is accustomed in ,england4 ,add to this proud blindness the better quality of great downrightness in speaking the truth1 and the love of fair play1 on all occasions1 and moreover the peculiarity which is alleged of the ,englishman1 that his virtues do not come out until he quarrels4 ,transfer these traits to a very elegant and accomplished mind1 and we shall have no bad picture of ,walter ,savage ,landor1 who may stand as a favorable impersonation of the genius of his countrymen at the present day4 ,a sharp1 dogmatic man1 with a great deal of knowledge1 a great deal of worth1 and a great deal of pride2 with a profound contempt for all that he does not understand2 a master of all elegant learning1 and capable of the utmost delicacy of sentiment1 and yet prone to indulge a sort of ostentation of coarse imagery and language4 ,his partialities and dislikes are by no means culpable1 but are often whimsical and amusing2 yet they are quite sincere1 and1 like those of ,johnson and ,coleridge1 are easily separable from the man4 ,what he says of ,wordsworth is true of himself1 that he delights to throw a clod of dirt on the table1 and cry 8,gentlemen1 there is a better man than all of you40 ,bolivar1 ,mina and ,general ,jackson will never be greater soldiers than ,napoleon and ,alexander1 let ,mr4 ,landor think as he will2 nor will he persuade us to burn ,plato and ,xenophon1 out of our admiration of ,bishop ,patrick1 or 8,lucas on ,happiness10 or 8,lucas on ,holiness10 or even ,barrow's ,sermons4 ,yet a man may love a paradox without either losing his wit or his honesty4 ,a less pardonable eccentricity is the cold and gratuitous obtrusion of licentious images1 not so much the suggestion of merriment as of bitterness4 ,montaigne assigns as a reason for his license of speech1 that he is tired of seeing his ,essays on the work-tables of ladies1 and he is determined they shall for the future put them out of sight4 ,in ,mr4 ,landor's coarseness there is a certain air of defiance1 and the rude word seems sometimes to arise from a disgust at niceness and over-refinement4 ,before a well-dressed company he plunges his fingers in a cesspool1 as if to expose the whiteness of his hands and the jewels of his ring4 ,afterward1 he washes them in water1 he washes them in wine2 but you are never secure from his freaks4 ,a sort of ,earl ,peterborough in literature1 his eccentricity is too decided not to have diminished his greatness4 ,he has capital enough to have furnished the brain of fifty stock authors1 yet has written no book4 ,but we have spoken all our discontent4 ,possibly his writings are open to harsher censure2 but we love the man1 from sympathy as well as for reasons to be assigned2 and have no wish1 if we were able1 to put an argument in the mouth of his critics4 ,now for twenty years we have still found the 8,imaginary ,conversations0 a sure resource in solitude1 and it seems to us as original in its form as in its matter4 ,nay1 when we remember his rich and ample page1 wherein we are always sure to find free and sustained thought1 a keen and precise understanding1 an affluent and ready memory familiar with all chosen books1 an industrious observation in every department of life1 an experience to which nothing has occurred in vain1 honor for every just and generous sentiment and a scourge like that of ,furies for every oppressor1 whether public or private1--we feel how dignified is this perpetual ,censor in his curule chair1 and we wish to thank a benefactor of the reading world4 ,mr4 ,landor is one of the foremost of that small class who make good in the nineteenth century the claims of pure literature4 ,in these busy days of avarice and ambition1 when there is so little disposition to profound thought or to any but the most superficial intellectual entertainments1 a faithful scholar1 receiving from past ages the treasures of wit and enlarging them by his own love1 is a friend and consoler of mankind4 ,when we pronounce the names of ,homer and schylus2 ,horace1 ,ovid and ,plutarch2 ,erasmus1 ,scaliger and ,montaigne2 ,ben ,jonson and ,isaak ,walton2 ,dryden and ,pope1--we pass at once out of trivial associations and enter into a region of the purest pleasure accessible to human nature4 ,we have quitted all beneath the moon and entered that crystal sphere in which everything in the world of matter reappears1 but transfigured and immortal4 ,literature is the effort of man to indemnify himself for the wrongs of his condition4 ,the existence of the poorest play-wright and the humblest scrivener is a good omen4 ,a charm attaches to the most inferior names which have in any manner got themselves enrolled in the registers of the ,house of ,fame1 even as porters and grooms in the courts2 to ,creech and ,fenton1 ,theobald and ,dennis1 ,aubrey and ,spence4 ,from the moment of entering a library and opening a desired book1 we cease to be citizens1 creditors1 debtors1 housekeepers and men of care and fear4 ,what boundless leisure6 what original jurisdiction6 the old constellations have set1 new and brighter have arisen2 an ,elysian light tinges all objects3-- 8,in the afternoon we came unto a land ,in which it seemed always afternoon40 ,and this sweet asylum of an intellectual life must appear to have the sanction of nature1 as long as so many men are born with so decided an aptitude for reading and writing4 ,let us thankfully allow every faculty and art which opens new scope to a life so confined as ours4 ,there are vast spaces in a thought3 a slave1 to whom the religious sentiment is opened1 has a freedom which makes his master's freedom a slavery4 ,let us not be so illiberal with our schemes for the renovation of society and nature as to disesteem or deny the literary spirit4 ,certainly there are heights in nature which command this2 there are many more which this commands4 ,it is vain to call it a luxury1 and as saints and reformers are apt to do1 decry it as a species of day-dreaming4 ,what else are sanctities1 and reforms1 and all other things8 ,whatever can make for itself an element1 means1 organs1 servants1 and the most profound and permanent existence in the hearts and heads of millions of men1 must have a reason for its being4 ,its excellency is reason and vindication enough4 ,if rhyme rejoices us there should be rhyme1 as much as if fire cheers us we should bring wood and coals4 ,each kind of excellence takes place for its hour and excludes everything else4 ,do not brag of your actions1 as if they were better than ,homer's verses or ,raphael's pictures4 ,raphael and ,homer feel that action is pitiful beside their enchantments4 ,they could act too1 if the stake was worthy of them3 but now all that is good in the universe urges them to their task4 ,whoever writes for the love of truth and beauty1 and not with ulterior ends1 belongs to this sacred class2 and among these1 few men of the present age have a better claim to be numbered than ,mr4 ,landor4 ,wherever genius or taste has existed1 wherever freedom and justice are threatened1 which he values as the element in which genius may work1 his interest is sure to be commanded4 ,his love of beauty is passionate1 and betrays itself in all petulant and contemptuous expressions4 ,but beyond his delight in genius and his love of individual and civil liberty1 ,mr4 ,landor has a perception that is much more rare1 the appreciation of character4 ,this is the more remarkable considered with his intense nationality1 to which we have already alluded4 ,he is buttoned in ,english broadcloth to the chin4 ,he hates the ,austrians1 the ,italians1 the ,french1 the ,scotch1 and the ,irish4 ,he has the common prejudices of an ,english landholder2 values his pedigree1 his acres and the syllables of his name2 loves all his advantages1 is not insensible to the beauty of his watch seal1 or the ,turk's head on his umbrella2 yet with all this miscellaneous pride there is a noble nature within him which instructs him that he is so rich that he can well spare all his trappings1 and1 leaving to others the painting of circumstance1 aspire to the office of delineating character4 ,he draws his own portrait in the costume of a village schoolmaster1 and a sailor1 and serenely enjoys the victory of nature over fortune4 ,not only the elaborated story of ,normanby1 but the whimsical selection of his heads proves this taste4 ,he draws with evident pleasure the portrait of a man who never said anything right and never did anything wrong4 ,but in the character of ,pericles he has found full play for beauty and greatness of behavior1 where the circumstances are in harmony with the man4 ,these portraits1 though mere sketches1 must be valued as attempts in the very highest kind of narrative1 which not only has very few examples to exhibit of any success1 but very few competitors in the attempt4 ,the word ,character is in all mouths2 it is a force which we all feel2 yet who has analyzed it8 ,what is the nature of that subtle and majestic principle which attaches us to a few persons1 not so much by personal as by the most spiritual ties8 ,what is the quality of the persons who1 without being public men1 or literary men1 or rich men1 or active men1 or 7in the popular sense7 religious men1 have a certain salutary omnipresence in all our life's history1 almost giving their own quality to the atmosphere and the landscape8 ,a moral force1 yet wholly unmindful of creed and catechism1 intellectual1 but scornful of books1 it works directly and without means1 and though it may be resisted at any time1 yet resistance to it is a suicide4 ,for the person who stands in this lofty relation to his fellow-men is always the impersonation to them of their conscience4 ,it is a sufficient proof of the extreme delicacy of this element1 evanescing before any but the most sympathetic vision1 that it has so seldom been employed in the drama and in novels4 ,mr4 ,landor1 almost alone among living ,english writers1 has indicated his perception of it4 ,these merits make ,mr4 ,landor's position in the republic of letters one of great mark and dignity4 ,he exercises with a grandeur of spirit the office of writer1 and carries it with an air of old and unquestionable nobility4 ,we do not recollect an example of more complete independence in literary history4 ,he has no clanship1 no friendships that warp him4 ,he was one of the first to pronounce ,wordsworth the great poet of the age1 yet he discriminates his faults with the greater freedom4 ,he loves ,pindar1 schylus1 ,euripides1 ,aristophanes1 ,demosthenes1 ,virgil1 yet with open eyes4 ,his position is by no means the highest in literature3 he is not a poet or a philosopher4 ,he is a man full of thoughts1 but not1 like ,coleridge1 a man of ideas4 ,only from a mind conversant with the ,first ,philosophy can definitions be expected4 ,coleridge has contributed many valuable ones to modern literature4 ,mr4 ,landor's definitions are only enumerations of particulars2 the generic law is not seized4 ,but as it is not from the highest ,alps or ,andes but from less elevated summits that the most attractive landscape is commanded1 so is ,mr4 ,landor the most useful and agreeable of critics4 ,he has commented on a wide variety of writers1 with a closeness and extent of view which has enhanced the value of those authors to his readers4 ,his ,dialogue on the ,epicurean philosophy is a theory of the genius of ,epicurus4 ,the ,dialogue between ,barrow and ,newton is the best of all criticisms on the essays of ,bacon4 ,his picture of ,demosthenes in three several ,dialogues is new and adequate4 ,he has illustrated the genius of ,homer1 schylus1 ,pindar1 ,euripides1 ,thucydides4 ,then he has examined before he has expatiated1 and the minuteness of his verbal criticism gives a confidence in his fidelity when he speaks the language of meditation or of passion4 ,his acquaintance with the ,english tongue is unsurpassed4 ,he 8hates false words1 and seeks with care1 difficulty and moroseness those that fit the thing40 ,he knows the value of his own words4 8,they are not10 he says1 8written on slate40 ,he never stoops to explanation1 nor uses seven words where one will do4 ,he is a master of condensation and suppression1 and that in no vulgar way4 ,he knows the wide difference between compression and an obscure elliptical style4 ,the dense writer has yet ample room and choice of phrase1 and even a gamesome mood often between his valid words4 ,there is no inadequacy or disagreeable contraction in his sentence1 any more than in a human face1 where in a square space of a few inches is found room for every possible variety of expression4 ,yet it is not as an artist that ,mr4 ,landor commends himself to us4 ,he is not epic or dramatic1 he has not the high1 overpowering method by which the master gives unity and integrity to a work of many parts4 ,he is too wilful1 and never abandons himself to his genius4 ,his books are a strange mixture of politics1 etymology1 allegory1 sentiment1 and personal history2 and what skill of transition he may possess is superficial1 not spiritual4 ,his merit must rest1 at last1 not on the spirit of the dialogue or the symmetry of any of his historical portraits1 but on the value of his sentences4 ,many of these will secure their own immortality in ,english literature2 and this1 rightly considered1 is no mean merit4 ,these are not plants and animals1 but the genetical atoms of which both are composed4 ,all our great debt to the ,oriental world is of this kind1 not utensils and statues of the precious metal1 but bullion and gold-dust4 ,of many of ,mr4 ,landor's sentences we are fain to remember what was said of those of ,socrates2 that they are cubes1 which will stand firm1 place them how or where you will4 ,,iii4 ,,prayers4#g 8,not with fond shekels of the tested gold1 ,nor gems whose rates are either rich or poor ,as fancy values them3 but with true prayers1 ,that shall be up at heaven and enter there ,ere sunrise2 prayers from preserved souls1 ,from fasting maids1 whose minds are dedicate ,to nothing temporal40 ,,shakspeare4 ,pythagoras said that the time when men are honestest is when they present themselves before the gods4 ,if we can overhear the prayer we shall know the man4 ,but prayers are not made to be overheard1 or to be printed1 so that we seldom have the prayer otherwise than it can be inferred from the man and his fortunes1 which are the answer to the prayer1 and always accord with it4 ,yet there are scattered about in the earth a few records of these devout hours1 which it would edify us to read1 could they be collected in a more catholic spirit than the wretched and repulsive volumes which usurp that name4 ,let us not have the prayers of one sect1 nor of the ,christian ,church1 but of men in all ages and religions who have prayed well4 ,the prayer of ,jesus is 7as it deserves7 become a form for the human race4 ,many men have contributed a single expression1 a single word to the language of devotion1 which is immediately caught and stereotyped in the prayers of their church and nation4 ,among the remains of ,euripides we have this prayer3 8,thou ,god of all6 infuse light into the souls of men1 whereby they may be enabled to know what is the root from whence all their evils spring1 and by what means they may avoid them40 ,in the ,phdrus of ,plato1 we find this petition in the mouth of ,socrates3 8,o gracious ,pan6 and ye other gods who preside over this place6 grant that ,i may be beautiful within2 and that those external things which ,i have may be such as may best agree with a right internal disposition of mine2 and that ,i may account him to be rich1 who is wise and just40 ,wacic the ,caliph1 who died ,a4 ,d4 #hde1 ended his life1 the ,arabian historians tell us1 with these words3 8,o thou whose kingdom never passes away1 pity one whose dignity is so transient40 ,but what led us to these remembrances was the happy accident which in this undevout age lately brought us acquainted with two or three diaries1 which attest1 if there be need of attestation1 the eternity of the sentiment and its equality to itself through all the variety of expression4 ,the first is the prayer of a deaf and dumb boy3-- 8,when my long-attached friend comes to me1 ,i have pleasure to converse with him1 and ,i rejoice to pass my eyes over his countenance2 but soon ,i am weary of spending my time causelessly and unimproved1 and ,i desire to leave him1 7but not in rudeness71 because ,i wished to be engaged in my business4 ,but thou1 ,o my ,father1 knowest ,i always delight to commune with thee in my lone and silent heart2 ,i am never full of thee2 ,i am never weary of thee2 ,i am always desiring thee4 ,i hunger with strong hope and affection for thee1 and ,i thirst for thy grace and spirit4 8,when ,i go to visit my friends1 ,i must put on my best garments1 and ,i must think of my manner to please them4 ,i am tired to stay long1 because my mind is not free1 and they sometimes talk gossip with me4 ,but oh1 my ,father1 thou visitest me in my work1 and ,i can lift up my desires to thee1 and my heart is cheered and at rest with thy presence1 and ,i am always alone with thee1 and thou dost not steal my time by foolishness4 ,i always ask in my heart1 where can ,i find thee80 ,the next is a voice out of a solitude as strict and sacred as that in which nature had isolated this eloquent mute3-- 8,my ,father1 when ,i cannot be cheerful or happy1 ,i can be true and obedient1 and ,i will not forget that joy has been1 and may still be4 ,if there is no hour of solitude granted me1 still ,i will commune with thee4 ,if ,i may not search out and pierce thy thought1 so much the more may my living praise thee4 ,at whatever price1 ,i must be alone with thee2 this must be the demand ,i make4 ,these duties are not the life1 but the means which enable us to show forth the life4 ,so must ,i take up this cross1 and bear it willingly4 ,why should ,i feel reproved when a busy one enters the room8 ,i am not idle1 though ,i sit with folded hands1 but instantly ,i must seek some cover4 ,for that shame ,i reprove myself4 ,are they only the valuable members of society who labor to dress and feed it8 ,shall we never ask the aim of all this hurry and foam1 of this aimless activity8 ,let the purpose for which ,i live be always before me2 let every thought and word go to confirm and illuminate that end2 namely1 that ,i must become near and dear to thee2 that now ,i am beyond the reach of all but thee4 8,how can we not be reconciled to thy will8 ,i will know the joy of giving to my friend the dearest treasure ,i have4 ,i know that sorrow comes not at once only4 ,we cannot meet it and say1 now it is overcome1 but again1 and yet again1 its flood pours over us1 and as full as at first4 8,if but this tedious battle could be fought1 ,like ,sparta's heroes at one rocky pass1 #8,one day be spent in dying1' men had sought ,the spot1 and been cut down like mower's grass40 ,the next is in a metrical form4 ,it is the aspiration of a different mind1 in quite other regions of power and duty1 yet they all accord at last4 8,great ,god1 ,i ask thee for no meaner pelf ,than that ,i may not disappoint myself1 ,that in my action ,i may soar as high1 ,as ,i can now discern with this clear eye4 8,and next in value1 which thy kindness lends1 ,that ,i may greatly disappoint my friends1 ,howe'er they think or hope that it may be1 ,they may not dream how thou'st distinguished me4 8,that my weak hand may equal my firm faith1 ,and my life practise more than my tongue saith2 ,that my low conduct may not show1 ,nor my relenting lines1 ,that ,i thy purpose did not know1 ,or overrated thy designs40 ,the last of the four orisons is written in a singularly calm and healthful spirit1 and contains this petition3-- 8,my ,father3 ,i now come to thee with a desire to thank thee for the continuance of our love1 the one for the other4 ,i feel that without thy love in me ,i should be alone here in the flesh4 ,i cannot express my gratitude for what thou hast been and continuest to be to me4 ,but thou knowest what my feelings are4 ,when nought on earth seemeth pleasant to me1 thou dost make thyself known to me1 and teach that which is needful for me1 and dost cheer my travels on4 ,i know that thou hast not created me and placed me here on earth1 amidst its toils and troubles and the follies of those around me1 and told me to be like thyself when ,i see so little of thee here to profit by2 thou hast not done this1 and then left me here to myself1 a poor1 weak man1 scarcely able to earn my bread4 ,no2 thou art my ,father and ,i will love thee1 for thou didst first love me1 and lovest me still4 ,we will ever be parent and child4 ,wilt thou give me strength to persevere in this great work of redemption4 ,wilt thou show me the true means of accomplishing it4444 ,i thank thee for the knowledge that ,i have attained of thee by thy sons who have been before me1 and especially for him who brought me so perfect a type of thy goodness and love to men4444 ,i know that thou wilt deal with me as ,i deserve4 ,i place myself therefore in thy hand1 knowing that thou wilt keep me from harm so long as ,i consent to live under thy protecting care40 ,let these few scattered leaves1 which a chance 7as men say1 but which to us shall be holy7 brought under our eye nearly at the same moment1 stand as an example of innumerable similar expressions which no mortal witness has reported1 and be a sign of the times4 ,might they be suggestion to many a heart of yet higher secret experiences which are ineffable6 ,but we must not tie up the rosary on which we have strung these few white beads1 without adding a pearl of great price from that book of prayer1 the 8,confessions of ,saint ,augustine40 8,and being admonished to reflect upon myself1 ,i entered into the very inward parts of my soul1 by thy conduct2 and ,i was able to do it1 because now thou wert become my helper4 ,i entered and discerned with the eye of my soul 7such as it was71 even beyond my soul and mind itself1 the ,light unchangeable4 ,not this vulgar light which all flesh may look upon1 nor as it were a greater of the same kind1 as though the brightness of this should be manifold greater and with its greatness take up all space4 ,not such was this light1 but other1 yea1 far other from all these4 ,neither was it so above my understanding as oil swims above water1 or as the heaven is above the earth4 ,but it is above me1 because it made me2 and ,i am under it1 because ,i was made by it4 ,he that knows truth or verity1 knows what that light is1 and he that knows it1 knows eternity1 and it is known by charity4 ,o eternal ,verity6 and true ,charity6 and dear ,eternity6 thou art my ,god1 to thee do ,i sigh day and night4 ,thee when ,i first knew1 thou liftedst me up that ,i might see1 there was what ,i might see1 and that ,i was not yet such as to see4 ,and thou didst beat back my weak sight upon myself1 shooting out beams upon me after a vehement manner2 and ,i even trembled between love and horror1 and ,i found myself to be far off1 and even in the very region of dissimilitude from thee40 ,,iv4 ,,agriculture ,,of ,,massachusetts4#h ,in an afternoon in ,april1 after a long walk1 ,i traversed an orchard where boys were grafting apple-trees1 and found the ,farmer in his corn-field4 ,he was holding the plough1 and his son driving the oxen4 ,this man always impresses me with respect1 he is so manly1 so sweet-tempered1 so faithful1 so disdainful of all appearances1--excellent and reverable in his old weather-worn cap and blue frock bedaubed with the soil of the field2 so honest withal1 that he always needs to be watched lest he should cheat himself4 ,i still remember with some shame that in some dealing we had together a long time ago1 ,i found that he had been looking to my interest in the affair1 and ,i had been looking to my interest1 and nobody had looked to his part4 ,as ,i drew near this brave laborer in the midst of his own acres1 ,i could not help feeling for him the highest respect4 ,here is the ,csar1 the ,alexander of the soil1 conquering and to conquer1 after how many and many a hard-fought summer's day and winter's day2 not like ,napoleon1 hero of sixty battles only1 but of six thousand1 and out of every one he has come victor2 and here he stands1 with ,atlantic strength and cheer1 invincible still4 ,these slight and useless city limbs of ours will come to shame before this strong soldier1 for his have done his own work and ours too4 ,what good this man has or has had1 he has earned4 ,no rich father or father-in-law left him any inheritance of land or money4 ,he borrowed the money with which he bought his farm1 and has bred up a large family1 given them a good education1 and improved his land in every way year by year1 and this without prejudice to himself the landlord1 for here he is1 a man every inch of him1 and reminds us of the hero of the ,robin ,hood ballad1-- 8,much1 the miller's son1 ,there was no inch of his body ,but it was worth a groom40 ,innocence and justice have written their names on his brow4 ,toil has not broken his spirit4 ,his laugh rings with the sweetness and hilarity of a child2 yet he is a man of a strongly intellectual taste1 of much reading1 and of an erect good sense and independent spirit which can neither brook usurpation nor falsehood in any shape4 ,i walked up and down the field1 as he ploughed his furrow1 and we talked as we walked4 ,our conversation naturally turned on the season and its new labors4 ,he had been reading the ,report of the ,agricultural ,survey of the ,commonwealth1 and had found good things in it2 but it was easy to see that he felt toward the author much as soldiers do towards the historiographer who follows the camp1 more good-nature than reverence for the gownsman4 ,the ,first ,report1 he said1 is better than the last1 as ,i observe the first sermon of a minister is often his best1 for every man has one thing which he specially wishes to say1 and that comes out at first4 ,but who is this book written for8 ,not for farmers2 no pains are taken to send it to them2 it was by accident that this volume came into my hands for a few days4 ,and it is not for them4 ,they could not afford to follow such advice as is given here2 they have sterner teachers2 their own business teaches them better4 ,no2 this was written for the literary men4 ,but in that case1 the state should not be taxed to pay for it4 ,let us see4 ,the account of the maple sugar1--that is very good and entertaining1 and1 ,i suppose1 true4 ,the story of the farmer's daughter1 whom education had spoiled for everything useful on a farm1--that is good too1 and we have much that is like it in ,thomas's ,almanack4 ,but why this recommendation of stone houses8 ,they are not so cheap1 not so dry1 and not so fit for us4 ,our roads are always changing their direction1 and after a man has built at great cost a stone house1 a new road is opened1 and he finds himself a mile or two from the highway4 ,then our people are not stationary1 like those of old countries1 but always alert to better themselves1 and will remove from town to town as a new market opens or a better farm is to be had1 and do not wish to spend too much on their buildings4 ,the ,commissioner advises the farmers to sell their cattle and their hay in the fall1 and buy again in the spring4 ,but we farmers always know what our interest dictates1 and do accordingly4 ,we have no choice in this matter2 our way is but too plain4 ,down below1 where manure is cheap and hay dear1 they will sell their oxen in ,november2 but for me to sell my cattle and my produce in the fall1 would be to sell my farm1 for ,i should have no manure to renew a crop in the spring4 ,and thus ,necessity farms it2 necessity finds out when to go to ,brighton1 and when to feed in the stall1 better than ,mr4 ,colman can tell us4 ,but especially observe what is said throughout these ,reports of the model farms and model farmers4 ,one would think that ,mr4 ,d4 and ,major ,s4 were the pillars of the ,commonwealth4 ,the good ,commissioner takes off his hat when he approaches them1 distrusts the value of 8his feeble praise10 and repeats his compliments as often as their names are introduced4 ,and yet1 in my opinion1 ,mr4 ,d41 with all his knowledge and present skill1 would starve in two years on any one of fifty poor farms in this neighborhood1 on each of which now a farmer manages to get a good living4 ,mr4 ,d4 inherited a farm1 and spends on it every year from other resources2 otherwise his farm had ruined him long since2--and as for the ,major1 he never got rich by his skill in making land produce1 but in making men produce4 ,the truth is1 a farm will not make an honest man rich in money4 ,i do not know of a single instance in which a man has honestly got rich by farming alone4 ,it cannot be done4 ,the way in which men who have farms grow rich1 is either by other resources1 or by trade1 or by getting their labor for nothing1 or by other methods of which ,i could tell you many sad anecdotes4 ,what does the ,agricultural ,surveyor know of all this8 ,what can he know8 ,he is the victim of the 8,reports0 that are sent him1 of particular farms4 ,he cannot go behind the estimates to know how the contracts were made1 and how the sales were effected4 ,the true men of skill1 the poor farmers1 who1 by the sweat of their face1 without an inheritance and without offence to their conscience have reared a family of valuable citizens and matrons to the state1 reduced a stubborn soil to a good farm1--although their buildings are many of them shabby1 are the only right subjects of this ,report2 yet these make no figure in it4 ,these should be holden up to imitation1 and their methods detailed2 yet their houses are very uninviting and inconspicuous to ,state ,commissioners4 ,so with these premiums to farms1 and premiums at cattle-shows4 ,the class that ,i describe must pay the premium which is awarded to the rich4 ,yet the premium obviously ought to be given for the good management of a poor farm4 ,in this strain the ,farmer proceeded1 adding many special criticisms4 ,he had a good opinion of the ,surveyor1 and acquitted him of any blame in the matter1 but was incorrigible in his skepticism concerning the benefits conferred by legislatures on the agriculture of ,massachusetts4 ,i believe that my friend is a little stiff and inconvertible in his own opinions1 and that there is another side to be heard2 but so much wisdom seemed to lie under all his statement that it deserved a record4 ,v4 ,,europe ,,and ,,european ,,books4#i ,it was a brighter day than we have often known in our literary calendar1 when within a twelvemonth a single ,london advertisement announced a new volume of poems by ,wordsworth1 poems by ,tennyson1 and a play by ,henry ,taylor4 ,wordsworth's nature or character has had all the time it needed in order to make its mark and supply the want of talent4 ,we have learned how to read him4 ,we have ceased to expect that which he cannot give4 ,he has the merit of just moral perception1 but not that of deft poetic execution4 ,how would ,milton curl his lip at such slipshod newspaper style4 ,many of his poems1 as for example the ,rylstone ,doe1 might be all improvised4 ,nothing of ,milton1 nothing of ,marvell1 of ,herbert1 of ,dryden1 could be4 ,these are such verses as in a just state of culture should be vers de socit1 such as every gentleman could write but none would think of printing1 or of claiming the poet's laurel on their merit4 ,the ,pindar1 the ,shakspeare1 the ,dante1 whilst they have the just and open soul1 have also the eye to see the dimmest star that glimmers in the ,milky ,way1 the serratures of every leaf1 the test-objects of the microscope1 and then the tongue to utter the same things in words that engrave them on all the ears of mankind4 ,the poet demands all gifts1 and not one or two only4 ,the poet1 like the electric rod1 must reach from a point nearer the sky than all surrounding objects1 down to the earth1 and into the dark wet soil1 or neither is of use4 ,the poet must not only converse with pure thought1 but he must demonstrate it almost to the senses4 ,his words must be pictures1 his verses must be spheres and cubes1 to be seen and smelled and handled4 ,his fable must be a good story1 and its meaning must hold as pure truth4 ,in the debates on the ,copyright ,bill1 in the ,english ,parliament1 ,mr4 ,sergeant ,wakley1 the coroner1 quoted ,wordsworth's poetry in derision1 and asked the roaring ,house of ,commons what that meant1 and whether a man should have public reward for writing such stuff4 ,homer1 ,horace1 ,milton and ,chaucer would defy the coroner4 ,whilst they have wisdom to the wise1 he would see that to the external they have external meaning4 ,coleridge excellently said of poetry1 that poetry must first be good sense2 as a palace might well be magnificent1 but first it must be a house4 ,wordsworth is open to ridicule of this kind4 ,and yet ,wordsworth1 though satisfied if he can suggest to a sympathetic mind his own mood1 and though setting a private and exaggerated value on his compositions2 though confounding his accidental with the universal consciousness1 and taking the public to task for not admiring his poetry1--is really a master of the ,english language1 and his poems evince a power of diction that is no more rivalled by his contemporaries than is his poetic insight4 ,but the capital merit of ,wordsworth is that he has done more for the sanity of this generation than any other writer4 ,early in life1 at a crisis it is said in his private affairs1 he made his election between assuming and defending some legal rights1 with the chances of wealth and a position in the world1--and the inward promptings of his heavenly genius2 he took his part2 he accepted the call to be a poet1 and sat down1 far from cities1 with coarse clothing and plain fare to obey the heavenly vision4 ,the choice he had made in his will1 manifested itself in every line to be real4 ,we have poets who write the poetry of society1 of the patrician and conventional ,europe1 as ,scott and ,moore1 and others who1 like ,byron or ,bulwer1 write the poetry of vice and disease4 ,but ,wordsworth threw himself into his place1 made no reserves or stipulations2 man and writer were not to be divided4 ,he sat at the foot of ,helvellyn and on the margin of ,windermere1 and took their lustrous mornings and their sublime midnights for his theme1 and not ,marlow1 nor ,massinger1 not ,horace1 nor ,milton1 nor ,dante4 ,he once for all forsook the styles and standards and modes of thinking of ,london and ,paris1 and the books read there1 and the aims pursued1 and wrote ,helvellyn and ,windermere1 and the dim spirits which these haunts harbored4 ,there was not the least attempt to reconcile these with the spirit of fashion and selfishness1 nor to show1 with great deference to the superior judgment of dukes and earls1 that although ,london was the home for men of great parts1 yet ,westmoreland had these consolations for such as fate had condemned to the country life1--but with a complete satisfaction he pitied and rebuked their false lives1 and celebrated his own with the religion of a true priest4 ,hence the antagonism which was immediately felt between his poetry and the spirit of the age1 that here not only criticism but conscience and will were parties2 the spirit of literature and the modes of living and the conventional theories of the conduct of life were called in question on wholly new grounds1--not from ,platonism1 not from ,christianity1 but from the lessons which the country muse taught a stout pedestrian climbing a mountain and following a river from its parent rill down to the sea4 ,the ,cannings and ,jeffreys of the capital1 the ,court ,journals and ,literary ,gazettes were not well pleased1 and voted the poet a bore4 ,but that which rose in him so high as to the lips1 rose in many others as high as to the heart4 ,what he said1 they were prepared to hear and confirm4 ,the influence was in the air1 and was wafted up and down into lone and into populous places1 resisting the popular taste1 modifying opinions which it did not change1 and soon came to be felt in poetry1 in criticism1 in plans of life1 and at last in legislation4 ,in this country it very early found a stronghold1 and its effect may be traced on all the poetry both of ,england and ,america4 ,but1 notwithstanding all ,wordsworth's grand merits1 it was a great pleasure to know that ,alfred ,tennyson's two volumes were coming out in the same ship2 it was a great pleasure to receive them4 ,the elegance1 the wit and subtlety of this writer1 his rich fancy1 his power of language1 his metrical skill1 his independence of any living masters1 his peculiar topics1 his taste for the costly and gorgeous1 discriminate the musky poet of gardens and conservatories1 of parks and palaces4 ,perhaps we felt the popular objection that he wants rude truth2 he is too fine4 ,in these boudoirs of damask and alabaster1 one is farther off from stern nature and human life than in 8,lalla ,rookh0 and 8,the ,loves of the ,angels40 ,amid swinging censers and perfumed lamps1 amidst velvet and glory we long for rain and frost4 ,otto-of-roses is good1 but wild air is better4 ,a critical friend of ours affirms that the vice which bereaved modern painters of their power1 is the ambition to begin where their fathers ended2 to equal the masters in their exquisite finish1 instead of their religious purpose4 ,the painters are not willing to paint ill enough2 they will not paint for their times1 agitated by the spirit which agitates their country2 so should their picture picture us and draw all men after them2 but they copy the technics of their predecessors1 and paint for their predecessors' public4 ,it seems as if the same vice had worked in poetry4 ,tennyson's compositions are not so much poems as studies in poetry1 or sketches after the styles of sundry old masters4 ,he is not the husband1 who builds the homestead after his own necessity1 from foundation-stone to chimney-top and turret1 but a tasteful bachelor who collects quaint staircases and groined ceilings4 ,we have no right to such superfineness4 ,we must not make our bread of pure sugar4 ,these delicacies and splendors are then legitimate when they are the excess of substantial and necessary expenditure4 ,the best songs in ,english poetry are by that heavy1 hard1 pedantic poet1 ,ben ,jonson4 ,jonson is rude1 and only on rare occasions gay4 ,tennyson is always fine2 but ,jonson's beauty is more grateful than ,tennyson's4 ,it is a natural manly grace of a robust workman4 ,ben's flowers are not in pots at a city florist's1 arranged on a flower-stand1 but he is a countryman at a harvest-home1 attending his ox-cart from the fields1 loaded with potatoes and apples1 with grapes and plums1 with nuts and berries1 and stuck with boughs of hemlock and sweetbriar1 with ferns and pond lilies which the children have gathered4 ,but let us not quarrel with our benefactors4 ,perhaps ,tennyson is too quaint and elegant4 ,what then8 ,it is long since we have had as good a lyrist2 it will be long before we have his superior4 8,godiva0 is a noble poem that will tell the legend a thousand years4 ,the poem of all the poetry of the present age for which we predict the longest term1 is 8,abou ben ,adhem10 of ,leigh ,hunt4 ,fortune will still have her part in every victory1 and it is strange that one of the best poems should be written by a man who has hardly written any other4 ,and 8,godiva0 is a parable which belongs to the same gospel4 8,locksley ,hall0 and 8,the ,two ,voices0 are meditative poems1 which were slowly written to be slowly read4 8,the ,talking ,oak10 though a little hurt by its wit and ingenuity1 is beautiful1 and the most poetic of the volume4 8,ulysses0 belongs to a high class of poetry1 destined to be the highest1 and to be more cultivated in the next generation4 8none0 was a sketch of the same kind4 ,one of the best specimens we have of the class is ,wordsworth's 8,laodamia10 of which no special merit it can possess equals the total merit of having selected such a subject in such a spirit4 ,next to the poetry1 the novels1 which come to us in every ship from ,england1 have an importance increased by the immense extension of their circulation through the new cheap press1 which sends them to so many willing thousands4 ,we have heard it alleged with some evidence that the prominence given to intellectual power in ,bulwer's romances has proved a main stimulus to mental culture in thousands of young men in ,england and ,america4 ,the effect on manners cannot be less sensible1 and we can easily believe that the behavior of the ball-room and of the hotel has not failed to draw some addition of dignity and grace from the fair ideals with which the imagination of a novelist has filled the heads of the most imitative class4 ,we are not very well versed in these books1 yet we have read ,mr4 ,bulwer enough to see that the story is rapid and interesting2 he has really seen ,london society1 and does not draw ignorant caricatures4 ,he is not a genius1 but his novels are marked with great energy and with a courage of experiment which in each instance had its degree of success4 ,the story of ,zanoni was one of those world-fables which is so agreeable to the human imagination that it is found in some form in the language of every country1 and is always reappearing in literature4 ,many of the details of this novel preserve a poetic truth4 ,we read ,zanoni with pleasure1 because magic is natural4 ,it is implied in all superior culture that a complete man would need no auxiliaries to his personal presence4 ,the eye and the word are certainly far subtler and stronger weapons than either money or knives4 ,whoever looked on the hero would consent to his will1 being certified that his aims were universal1 not selfish2 and he would be obeyed as naturally as the rain and the sunshine are4 ,for this reason1 children delight in fairy tales4 ,nature is described in them as the servant of man1 which they feel ought to be true4 ,but ,zanoni pains us and the author loses our respect1 because he speedily betrays that he does not see the true limitations of the charm2 because the power with which his hero is armed is a toy1 inasmuch as the power does not flow from its legitimate fountains in the mind1 is a power for ,london2 a divine power converted into a burglar's false key or a highwayman's pistol to rob and kill with4 ,but ,mr4 ,bulwer's recent stories have given us who do not read novels1 occasion to think of this department of literature1 supposed to be the natural fruit and expression of the age4 ,we conceive that the obvious division of modern romance is into two kinds3 first1 the novels of costume or of circumstance1 which is the old style1 and vastly the most numerous4 ,in this class1 the hero1 without any particular character1 is in a very particular circumstance2 he is greatly in want of a fortune or of a wife1 and usually of both1 and the business of the piece is to provide him suitably4 ,this is the problem to be solved in thousands of ,english romances1 including the ,porter novels and the more splendid examples of the ,edgeworth and ,scott romances4 ,it is curious how sleepy and foolish we are1 that these tales will so take us4 ,again and again we have been caught in that old foolish trap4 ,had one noble thought opening the chambers of the intellect1 one sentiment from the heart of ,god been spoken by them1 the reader had been made a participator of their triumph2 he too had been an invited and eternal guest2 but this reward granted them is property1 all-excluding property1 a little cake baked for them to eat and for none other1 nay1 a preference and cosseting which is rude and insulting to all but the minion4 ,except in the stories of ,edgeworth and ,scott1 whose talent knew how to give to the book a thousand adventitious graces1 the novels of costume are all one1 and there is but one standard ,english novel1 like the one orthodox sermon1 which with slight variation is repeated every ,sunday from so many pulpits4 ,but the other novel1 of which 8,wilhelm ,meister0 is the best specimen1 the novel of character1 treats the reader with more respect2 the development of character being the problem1 the reader is made a partaker of the whole prosperity4 ,everything good in such a story remains with the reader when the book is closed4 ,a noble book was 8,wilhelm ,meister40 ,it gave the hint of a cultivated society which we found nowhere else4 ,it was founded on power to do what was necessary1 each person finding it an indispensable qualification of membership that he could do something useful1 as in mechanics or agriculture or other indispensable art2 then a probity1 a justice was to be its element1 symbolized by the insisting that each property should be cleared of privilege1 and should pay its full tax to the state4 ,then a perception of beauty was the equally indispensable element of the association1 by which each was dignified and all were dignified2 then each was to obey his genius to the length of abandonment4 ,they watched each candidate vigilantly1 without his knowing that he was observed1 and when he had given proof that he was a faithful man1 then all doors1 all houses1 all relations were open to him2 high behavior fraternized with high behavior1 without question of heraldry1 and the only power recognized is the force of character4 ,the novels of ,fashion1 of ,d',israeli1 ,mrs4 ,gore1 ,mr4 ,ward1 belong to the class of novels of costume1 because the aim is purely external success4 ,of the tales of fashionable life1 by far the most agreeable and the most efficient was ,vivian ,grey4 ,young men were and still are the readers and victims4 ,byron ruled for a time1 but ,vivian1 with no tithe of ,byron's genius1 rules longer4 ,one can distinguish the ,vivians in all companies4 ,they would quiz their father and mother and lover and friend4 ,they discuss sun and planets1 liberty and fate1 love and death1 over the soup4 ,they never sleep1 go nowhere1 stay nowhere1 eat nothing1 and know nobody1 but are up to anything1 though it were the genesis of nature1 or the last cataclysm1--,festus-like1 ,faust-like1 ,jove-like1 and could write an ,iliad any rainy morning1 if fame were not such a bore4 ,men1 women1 though the greatest and fairest1 are stupid things2 but a rifle1 and a mild pleasant gunpowder1 a spaniel1 and a cheroot1 are themes for ,olympus4 ,i fear it was in part the influence of such pictures on living society which made the style of manners of which we have so many pictures1 as1 for example1 in the following account of the ,english fashionist4 8,his highest triumph is to appear with the most wooden manners1 as little polished as will suffice to avoid castigation1 nay1 to contrive even his civilities so that they may appear as near as may be to affronts2 instead of a noble high-bred ease1 to have the courage to offend against every restraint of decorum1 to invert the relation in which our sex stand to women1 so that they appear the attacking1 and he the passive or defensive party40 ,we must here check our gossip in mid volley and adjourn the rest of our critical chapter to a more convenient season4 ,,vi4 ,,past ,,and ,,present4#aj ,here is ,carlyle's new poem1 his ,iliad of ,english woes1 to follow his poem on ,france1 entitled the ,history of the ,french ,revolution4 ,in its first aspect it is a political tract1 and since ,burke1 since ,milton1 we have had nothing to compare with it4 ,it grapples honestly with the facts lying before all men1 groups and disposes them with a master's mind1 and1 with a heart full of manly tenderness1 offers his best counsel to his brothers4 ,obviously it is the book of a powerful and accomplished thinker1 who has looked with naked eyes at the dreadful political signs in ,england for the last few years1 has conversed much on these topics with such wise men of all ranks and parties as are drawn to a scholar's house1 until such daily and nightly meditation has grown into a great connection1 if not a system of thoughts2 and the topic of ,english politics becomes the best vehicle for the expression of his recent thinking1 recommended to him by the desire to give some timely counsels1 and to strip the worst mischiefs of their plausibility4 ,it is a brave and just book1 and not a semblance4 8,no new truth10 say the critics on all sides4 ,is it so8 ,truth is very old1 but the merit of seers is not to invent but to dispose objects in their right places1 and he is the commander who is always in the mount1 whose eye not only sees details1 but throws crowds of details into their right arrangement and a larger and juster totality than any other4 ,the book makes great approaches to true contemporary history1 a very rare success1 and firmly holds up to daylight the absurdities still tolerated in the ,english and ,european system4 ,it is such an appeal to the conscience and honor of ,england as cannot be forgotten1 or be feigned to be forgotten4 ,it has the merit which belongs to every honest book1 that it was self-examining before it was eloquent1 and so hits all other men1 and1 as the country people say of good preaching1 8comes bounce down into every pew40 ,every reader shall carry away something4 ,the scholar shall read and write1 the farmer and mechanic shall toil1 with new resolution1 nor forget the book when they resume their labor4 ,though no theocrat1 and more than most philosophers a believer in political systems1 ,mr4 ,carlyle very fairly finds the calamity of the times1 not in bad bills of ,parliament1 nor the remedy in good bills1 but the vice in false and superficial aims of the people1 and the remedy in honesty and insight4 ,like every work of genius1 its great value is in telling such simple truths4 ,as we recall the topics1 we are struck with the force given to the plain truths2 the picture of the ,english nation all sitting enchanted1 the poor1 enchanted so that they cannot work1 the rich1 enchanted so that they cannot enjoy1 and are rich in vain2 the exposure of the progress of fraud into all arts and social activities2 the proposition that the laborer must have a greater share in his earnings2 that the principle of permanence shall be admitted into all contracts of mutual service2 that the state shall provide at least schoolmaster's education for all the citizens2 the exhortation to the workman that he shall respect the work and not the wages2 to the scholar that he shall be there for light2 to the idle1 that no man shall sit idle2 the picture of ,abbot ,samson1 the true governor1 who 8is not there to expect reason and nobleness of others1 he is there to give them of his own reason and nobleness20 and the assumption throughout the book1 that a new chivalry and nobility1 namely the dynasty of labor1 is replacing the old nobilities4 ,these things strike us with a force which reminds us of the morals of the ,oriental or early ,greek masters1 and of no modern book4 ,truly in these things is great reward4 ,it is not by sitting still at a grand distance and calling the human race larv1 that men are to be helped1 nor by helping the depraved after their own foolish fashion1 but by doing unweariedly the particular work we were born to do4 ,let no man think himself absolved because he does a generous action and befriends the poor1 but let him see whether he so holds his property that a benefit goes from it to all4 ,a man's diet should be what is simplest and readiest to be had1 because it is so private a good4 ,his house should be better1 because that is for the use of hundreds1 perhaps of thousands1 and is the property of the traveller4 ,but his speech is a perpetual and public instrument2 let that always side with the race and yield neither a lie nor a sneer4 ,his manners1--let them be hospitable and civilizing1 so that no ,phidias or ,raphael shall have taught anything better in canvas or stone2 and his acts should be representative of the human race1 as one who makes them rich in his having1 and poor in his want4 ,it requires great courage in a man of letters to handle the contemporary practical questions2 not because he then has all men for his rivals1 but because of the infinite entanglements of the problem1 and the waste of strength in gathering unripe fruits4 ,the task is superhuman2 and the poet knows well that a little time will do more than the most puissant genius4 ,time stills the loud noise of opinions1 sinks the small1 raises the great1 so that the true emerges without effort and in perfect harmony to all eyes2 but the truth of the present hour1 except in particulars and single relations1 is unattainable4 ,each man can very well know his own part of duty1 if he will2 but to bring out the truth for beauty1 and as literature1 surmounts the powers of art4 ,the most elaborate history of to-day will have the oddest dislocated look in the next generation4 ,the historian of to-day is yet three ages off4 ,the poet cannot descend into the turbid present without injury to his rarest gifts4 ,hence that necessity of isolation which genius has always felt4 ,he must stand on his glass tripod1 if he would keep his electricity4 ,but when the political aspects are so calamitous that the sympathies of the man overpower the habits of the poet1 a higher than literary inspiration may succor him4 ,it is a costly proof of character1 that the most renowned scholar of ,england should take his reputation in his hand and should descend into the ring2 and he has added to his love whatever honor his opinions may forfeit4 ,to atone for this departure from the vows of the scholar and his eternal duties to this secular charity1 we have at least this gain1 that here is a message which those to whom it was addressed cannot choose but hear4 ,though they die1 they must listen4 ,it is plain that whether by hope or by fear1 or were it only by delight in this panorama of brilliant images1 all the great classes of ,english society must read1 even those whose existence it proscribes4 ,poor ,queen ,victoria1--poor ,sir ,robert ,peel1 poor ,primate and ,bishops1--poor ,dukes and ,lords6 ,there is no help in place or pride or in looking another way2 a grain of wit is more penetrating than the lightning of the night-storm1 which no curtains or shutters will keep out4 ,here is a book which will be read1 no thanks to anybody but itself4 ,what pains1 what hopes1 what vows1 shall come of the reading6 ,here is a book as full of treason as an egg is full of meat1 and every lordship and worship and high form and ceremony of ,english conservatism tossed like a foot-ball into the air1 and kept in the air1 with merciless kicks and rebounds1 and yet not a word is punishable by statute4 ,the wit has eluded all official zeal2 and yet these dire jokes1 these cunning thrusts1 this flaming sword of ,cherubim waved high in air1 illuminates the whole horizon1 and shows to the eyes of the universe every wound it inflicts4 ,worst of all for the party attacked1 it bereaves them beforehand of all sympathy1 by anticipating the plea of poetic and humane conservatism1 and impressing the reader with the conviction that the satirist himself has the truest love for everything old and excellent in ,english land and institutions1 and a genuine respect for the basis of truth in those whom he exposes4 ,we are at some loss how to state what strikes us as the fault of this remarkable book1 for the variety and excellence of the talent displayed in it is pretty sure to leave all special criticism in the wrong4 ,and we may easily fail in expressing the general objection which we feel4 ,it appears to us as a certain disproportion in the picture1 caused by the obtrusion of the whims of the painter4 ,in this work1 as in his former labors1 ,mr4 ,carlyle reminds us of a sick giant4 ,his humors are expressed with so much force of constitution that his fancies are more attractive and more credible than the sanity of duller men4 ,but the habitual exaggeration of the tone wearies whilst it stimulates4 ,it is felt to be so much deduction from the universality of the picture4 ,it is not serene sunshine1 but everything is seen in lurid storm-lights4 ,every object attitudinizes1 to the very mountains and stars almost1 under the refraction of this wonderful humorist2 and instead of the common earth and sky1 we have a ,martin's ,creation or ,judgment ,day4 ,a crisis has always arrived which requires a deus ex machin4 ,one can hardly credit1 whilst under the spell of this magician1 that the world always had the same bankrupt look1 to foregoing ages as to us1--as of a failed world just re-collecting its old withered forces to begin again and try to do a little business4 ,it was perhaps inseparable from the attempt to write a book of wit and imagination on ,english politics1 that a certain local emphasis and love of effect1 such as is the vice of preaching1 should appear1--producing on the reader a feeling of forlornness by the excess of value attributed to circumstances4 ,but the splendor of wit cannot outdazzle the calm daylight1 which always shows every individual man in balance with his age1 and able to work out his own salvation from all the follies of that1 and no such glaring contrasts or severalties in that or this4 ,each age has its own follies1 as its majority is made up of foolish young people2 its superstitions appear no superstitions to itself2 and if you should ask the contemporary1 he would tell you1 with pride or with regret1 7according as he was practical or poetic71 that he had none4 ,but after a short time1 down go its follies and weakness and the memory of them2 its virtues alone remain1 and its limitation assumes the poetic form of a beautiful superstition1 as the dimness of our sight clothes the objects in the horizon with mist and color4 ,the revelation of ,reason is this of the unchangeableness of the fact of humanity under all its subjective aspects2 that to the cowering it always cowers1 to the daring it opens great avenues4 ,the ancients are only venerable to us because distance has destroyed what was trivial2 as the sun and stars affect us only grandly1 because we cannot reach to their smoke and surfaces and say1 ,is that all8 ,and yet the gravity of the times1 the manifold and increasing dangers of the ,english ,state1 may easily excuse some over-coloring of the picture2 and we at this distance are not so far removed from any of the specific evils1 and are deeply participant in too many1 not to share the gloom and thank the love and courage of the counsellor4 ,this book is full of humanity1 and nothing is more excellent in this as in all ,mr4 ,carlyle's works1 than the attitude of the writer4 ,he has the dignity of a man of letters1 who knows what belongs to him1 and never deviates from his sphere2 a continuer of the great line of scholars1 he sustains their office in the highest credit and honor4 ,if the good heaven have any good word to impart to this unworthy generation1 here is one scribe qualified and clothed for its occasion4 ,one excellence he has in an age of ,mammon and of criticism1 that he never suffers the eye of his wonder to close4 ,let who will be the dupe of trifles1 he cannot keep his eye off from that gracious ,infinite which embosoms us4 ,as a literary artist he has great merits1 beginning with the main one that he never wrote one dull line4 ,how well-read1 how adroit1 what thousand arts in his one art of writing2 with his expedient for expressing those unproven opinions which he entertains but will not endorse1 by summoning one of his men of straw from the cell1--and the respectable ,sauerteig1 or ,teufelsdrckh1 or ,dryasdust1 or ,picturesque ,traveller1 says what is put into his mouth1 and disappears4 ,that morbid temperament has given his rhetoric a somewhat bloated character2 a luxury to many imaginative and learned persons1 like a showery south-wind with its sun-bursts and rapid chasing of lights and glooms over the landscape1 and yet its offensiveness to multitudes of reluctant lovers makes us often wish some concession were possible on the part of the humorist4 ,yet it must not be forgotten that in all his fun of castanets1 or playing of tunes with a whip-lash like some renowned charioteers1--in all this glad and needful venting of his redundant spirits1 he does yet ever and anon1 as if catching the glance of one wise man in the crowd1 quit his tempestuous key1 and lance at him in clear level tone the very word1 and then with new glee return to his game4 ,he is like a lover or an outlaw who wraps up his message in a serenade1 which is nonsense to the sentinel1 but salvation to the ear for which it is meant4 ,he does not dodge the question1 but gives sincerity where it is due4 ,one word more respecting this remarkable style4 ,we have in literature few specimens of magnificence4 ,plato is the purple ancient1 and ,bacon and ,milton the moderns of the richest strains4 ,burke sometimes reaches to that exuberant fulness1 though deficient in depth4 ,carlyle1 in his strange1 half-mad way1 has entered the ,field of the ,cloth of ,gold1 and shown a vigor and wealth of resource which has no rival in the tourney-play of these times2--the indubitable champion of ,england4 ,carlyle is the first domestication of the modern system1 with its infinity of details1 into style4 ,we have been civilizing very fast1 building ,london and ,paris1 and now planting ,new ,england and ,india1 ,new ,holland and ,oregon1--and it has not appeared in literature2 there has been no analogous expansion and recomposition in books4 ,carlyle's style is the first emergence of all this wealth and labor with which the world has gone with child so long4 ,london and ,europe1 tunnelled1 graded1 corn-lawed1 with trade-nobility1 and ,east and ,west ,indies for dependencies2 and ,america1 with the ,rocky ,hills in the horizon1 have never before been conquered in literature4 ,this is the first invasion and conquest4 ,how like an air-balloon or bird of ,jove does he seem to float over the continent1 and stooping here and there pounce on a fact as a symbol which was never a symbol before4 ,this is the first experiment1 and something of rudeness and haste must be pardoned to so great an achievement4 ,it will be done again and again1 sharper1 simpler2 but fortunate is he who did it first1 though never so giant-like and fabulous4 ,this grandiose character pervades his wit and his imagination4 ,we have never had anything in literature so like earthquakes as the laughter of ,carlyle4 ,he 8shakes with his mountain mirth40 ,it is like the laughter of the ,genii in the horizon4 ,these jokes shake down ,parliament-house and ,windsor ,castle1 ,temple and ,tower1 and the future shall echo the dangerous peals4 ,the other particular of magnificence is in his rhymes4 ,carlyle is a poet who is altogether too burly in his frame and habit to submit to the limits of metre4 ,yet he is full of rhythm1 not only in the perpetual melody of his periods1 but in the burdens1 refrains1 and grand returns of his sense and music4 ,whatever thought or motto has once appeared to him fraught with meaning1 becomes an omen to him henceforward1 and is sure to return with deeper tones and weightier import1 now as threat1 now as confirmation1 in gigantic reverberation1 as if the hills1 the horizon1 and the next ages returned the sound4 ,,vii4 ,a ,,letter4#aa ,as we are very liable1 in common with the letter-writing world1 to fall behindhand in our correspondence2 and a little more liable because in consequence of our editorial function we receive more epistles than our individual share1 we have thought that we might clear our account by writing a quarterly catholic letter to all and several who have honored us1 in verse or prose1 with their confidence1 and expressed a curiosity to know our opinion4 ,we shall be compelled to dispose very rapidly of quite miscellaneous topics4 ,and first1 in regard to the writer who has given us his speculations on ,rail-roads and ,air-roads1 our correspondent shall have his own way4 ,to the railway1 we must say1--like the courageous lord mayor at his first hunting1 when told the hare was coming1--8,let it come1 in ,heaven's name1 ,i am not afraid on't40 ,very unlooked-for political and social effects of the iron road are fast appearing4 ,it will require an expansion of the police of the old world4 ,when a railroad train shoots through ,europe every day from ,brussels to ,vienna1 from ,vienna to ,constantinople1 it cannot stop every twenty or thirty miles at a ,german custom-house1 for examination of property and passports4 ,but when our correspondent proceeds to flying-machines1 we have no longer the smallest taper-light of credible information and experience left1 and must speak on a priori grounds4 ,shortly then1 we think the population is not yet quite fit for them1 and therefore there will be none4 ,our friend suggests so many inconveniences from piracy out of the high air to orchards and lone houses1 and also to other high fliers2 and the total inadequacy of the present system of defence1 that we have not the heart to break the sleep of the good public by the repetition of these details4 ,when children come into the library1 we put the inkstand and the watch on the high shelf until they be a little older2 and ,nature has set the sun and moon in plain sight and use1 but laid them on the high shelf where her roystering boys may not in some mad ,saturday afternoon pull them down or burn their fingers4 ,the sea and the iron road are safer toys for such ungrown people2 we are not yet ripe to be birds4 ,in the next place1 to fifteen letters on ,communities1 and the ,prospects of ,culture1 and the destinies of the cultivated class1--what answer8 ,excellent reasons have been shown us why the writers1 obviously persons of sincerity and elegance1 should be dissatisfied with the life they lead1 and with their company4 ,they have exhausted all its benefit1 and will not bear it much longer4 ,excellent reasons they have shown why something better should be tried4 ,they want a friend to whom they can speak and from whom they may hear now and then a reasonable word4 ,they are willing to work1 so it be with friends4 ,they do not entertain anything absurd or even difficult4 ,they do not wish to force society into hated reforms1 nor to break with society4 ,they do not wish a township1 or any large expenditure1 or incorporated association1 but simply a concentration of chosen people4 ,by the slightest possible concert1 persevered in through four or five years1 they think that a neighborhood might be formed of friends who would provoke each other to the best activity4 ,they believe that this society would fill up the terrific chasm of ennui1 and would give their genius that inspiration which it seems to wait in vain4 ,but1 8the selfishness60 ,one of the writers relentingly says1 8,what shall my uncles and aunts do without me80 and desires distinctly to be understood not to propose the ,indian mode of giving decrepit relatives as much of the mud of holy ,ganges as they can swallow1 and more1 but to begin the enterprise of concentration by concentrating all uncles and aunts in one delightful village by themselves6--so heedless is our correspondent of putting all the dough into one pan1 and all the leaven into another4 ,another objection seems to have occurred to a subtle but ardent advocate4 ,is it1 he writes1 a too great wilfulness and intermeddling with life1--with life1 which is better accepted than calculated8 ,perhaps so2 but let us not be too curiously good4 ,the ,buddhist is a practical ,necessitarian2 the ,yankee is not4 ,we do a great many selfish things every day2 among them all let us do one thing of enlightened selfishness4 ,it were fit to forbid concert and calculation in this particular1 if that were our system1 if we were up to the mark of self-denial and faith in our general activity4 ,but to be prudent in all the particulars of life1 and in this one thing alone religiously forbearing2 prudent to secure to ourselves an injurious society1 temptations to folly and despair1 degrading examples1 and enemies2 and only abstinent when it is proposed to provide ourselves with guides1 examples1 lovers6 ,we shall hardly trust ourselves to reply to arguments by which we would too gladly be persuaded4 ,the more discontent1 the better we like it4 ,it is not for nothing1 we assure ourselves1 that our people are busied with these projects of a better social state1 and that sincere persons of all parties are demanding somewhat vital and poetic of our stagnant society4 ,how fantastic and unpresentable soever the theory has hitherto seemed1 how swiftly shrinking from the examination of practical men1 let us not lose the warning of that most significant dream4 ,how joyfully we have felt the admonition of larger natures which despised our aims and pursuits1 conscious that a voice out of heaven spoke to us in that scorn4 ,but it would be unjust not to remind our younger friends that whilst this aspiration has always made its mark in the lives of men of thought1 in vigorous individuals it does not remain a detached object1 but is satisfied along with the satisfaction of other aims4 ,to live solitary and unexpressed1 is painful1--painful in proportion to one's consciousness of ripeness and equality to the offices of friendship4 ,but herein we are never quite forsaken by the ,divine ,providence4 ,the loneliest man1 after twenty years1 discovers that he stood in a circle of friends1 who will then show like a close fraternity held by some masonic tie4 ,but we are impatient of the tedious introductions of ,destiny1 and a little faithless1 and would venture something to accelerate them4 ,one thing is plain1 that discontent and the luxury of tears will bring nothing to pass4 ,regrets and ,bohemian castles and sthetic villages are not a very self-helping class of productions1 but are the voices of debility4 ,especially to one importunate correspondent we must say that there is no chance for the sthetic village4 ,every one of the villagers has committed his several blunder2 his genius was good1 his stars consenting1 but he was a marplot4 ,and though the recuperative force in every man may be relied on infinitely1 it must be relied on before it will exert itself4 ,as long as he sleeps in the shade of the present error1 the after-nature does not betray its resources4 ,whilst he dwells in the old sin1 he will pay the old fine4 ,more letters we have on the subject of the position of young men1 which accord well enough with what we see and hear4 ,there is an ,american disease1 a paralysis of the active faculties1 which falls on young men of this country as soon as they have finished their college education1 which strips them of all manly aims and bereaves them of animal spirits2 so that the noblest youths are in a few years converted into pale ,caryatides to uphold the temple of conventions4 ,they are in the state of the young ,persians1 when 8that mighty ,yezdam prophet0 addressed them and said1 8,behold the signs of evil days are come2 there is now no longer any right course of action1 nor any self-devotion left among the ,iranis40 ,as soon as they have arrived at this term1 there are no employments to satisfy them1 they are educated above the work of their times and country1 and disdain it4 ,many of the more acute minds pass into a lofty criticism of these things1 which only embitters their sensibility to the evil and widens the feeling of hostility between them and the citizens at large4 ,from this cause1 companies of the best-educated young men in the ,atlantic states every week take their departure for ,europe2 for no business that they have in that country1 but simply because they shall so be hid from the reproachful eyes of their countrymen and agreeably entertained for one or two years1 with some lurking hope1 no doubt1 that something may turn up to give them a decided direction4 ,it is easy to see that this is only a postponement of their proper work1 with the additional disadvantage of a two years' vacation4 ,add that this class is rapidly increasing by the infatuation of the active class1 who1 whilst they regard these young ,athenians with suspicion and dislike1 educate their own children in the same courses1 and use all possible endeavors to secure to them the same result4 ,certainly we are not insensible to this calamity1 as described by the observers or witnessed by ourselves4 ,it is not quite new and peculiar2 though we should not know where to find in literature any record of so much unbalanced intellectuality1 such undeniable apprehension without talent1 so much power without equal applicability1 as our young men pretend to4 ,yet in ,theodore ,mundt's account of ,frederic ,hlderlin's 8,hyperion10 we were not a little struck with the following ,jeremiad of the despair of ,germany1 whose tone is still so familiar that we were somewhat mortified to find that it was written in #agii4 8,then came ,i to the ,germans4 ,i cannot conceive of a people more disjoined than the ,germans4 ,mechanics you shall see1 but no man4 ,is it not like some battle-field1 where hands and arms and all members lie scattered about1 whilst the life-blood runs away into the sand8 ,let every man mind his own1 you say1 and ,i say the same4 ,only let him mind it with all his heart1 and not with this cold study1 literally1 hypocritically1 to appear that which he passes for1--but in good earnest1 and in all love1 let him be that which he is2 then there is a soul in his deed4 ,and is he driven into a circumstance where the spirit must not live8 ,let him thrust it from him with scorn1 and learn to dig and plough4 ,there is nothing holy which is not desecrated1 which is not degraded to a mean end among this people4 ,it is heart-rending to see your poet1 your artist1 and all who still revere genius1 who love and foster the ,beautiful4 ,the ,good6 ,they live in the world as strangers in their own house2 they are like the patient ,ulysses whilst he sat in the guise of a beggar at his own door1 whilst shameless rioters shouted in the hall and asked1 ,who brought the ragamuffin here8 ,full of love1 talent and hope1 spring up the darlings of the muse among the ,germans2 some seven years later1 and they flit about like ghosts1 cold and silent2 they are like a soil which an enemy has sown with poison1 that it will not bear a blade of grass4 ,on earth all is imperfect6 is the old proverb of the ,german4 ,aye1 but if one should say to these ,god-forsaken1 that with them all is imperfect only because they leave nothing pure which they do not pollute1 nothing holy which they do not defile with their fumbling hands2 that with them nothing prospers because the godlike nature which is the root of all prosperity they do not revere2 that with them1 truly1 life is shallow and anxious and full of discord1 because they despise genius1 which brings power and nobleness into manly action1 cheerfulness into endurance1 and love and brotherhood into towns and houses4 ,where a people honors genius in its artists1 there breathes like an atmosphere a universal soul1 to which the shy sensibility opens1 which melts self-conceit1--all hearts become pious and great1 and it adds fire to heroes4 ,the home of all men is with such a people1 and there will the stranger gladly abide4 ,but where the divine nature and the artist is crushed1 the sweetness of life is gone1 and every other planet is better than the earth4 ,men deteriorate1 folly increases1 and a gross mind with it2 drunkenness comes with a disaster2 with the wantonness of the tongue and with the anxiety for a livelihood the blessing of every year becomes a curse1 and all the gods depart40 ,the steep antagonism between the money-getting and the academic class must be freely admitted1 and perhaps is the more violent1 that whilst our work is imposed by the soil and the sea1 our culture is the tradition of ,europe4 ,but we cannot share the desperation of our contemporaries2 least of all should we think a preternatural enlargement of the intellect a calamity4 ,a new perception1 the smallest new activity given to the perceptive power1 is a victory won to the living universe from ,chaos and old ,night1 and cheaply bought by any amounts of hard fare and false social position4 ,the balance of mind and body will redress itself fast enough4 ,superficialness is the real distemper4 ,in all the cases we have ever seen where people were supposed to suffer from too much wit1 or1 as men said1 from a blade too sharp for the scabbard1 it turned out that they had not wit enough4 ,it may easily happen that we are grown very idle1 and must go to work1 and that the times must be worse before they are better4 ,it is very certain that speculation is no succedaneum for life4 ,what we would know1 we must do4 ,as if any taste or imagination could take the place of fidelity6 ,the old ,duty is the old ,god4 ,and we may come to this by the rudest teaching4 ,a friend of ours went five years ago to ,illinois to buy a farm for his son4 ,though there were crowds of emigrants in the roads1 the country was open on both sides1 and long intervals between hamlets and houses4 ,now after five years he had just been to visit the young farmer and see how he prospered1 and reports that a miracle had been wrought4 ,from ,massachusetts to ,illinois the land is fenced in and builded over1 almost like ,new ,england itself1 and the proofs of thrifty cultivation abound2--a result not so much owing to the natural increase of population1 as to the hard times1 which1 driving men out of cities and trade1 forced them to take off their coats and go to work on the land2 which has rewarded them not only with wheat but with habits of labor4 ,perhaps the adversities of our commerce have not yet been pushed to the wholesomest degree of severity4 ,apathies and total want of work1 and reflection on the imaginative character of ,american life1 etc41 etc41 are like seasickness1 and never will obtain any sympathy if there is a wood-pile in the yard1 or an unweeded patch in the garden2 not to mention the graver absurdity of a youth of noble aims who can find no field for his energies1 whilst the colossal wrongs of the ,indian1 of the ,negro1 of the emigrant1 remain unmitigated1 and the religious1 civil and judicial forms of the country are confessedly effete and offensive4 ,we must refer our clients back to themselves1 believing that every man knows in his heart the cure for the disease he so ostentatiously bewails4 ,as far as our correspondents have entangled their private griefs with the cause of ,american ,literature1 we counsel them to disengage themselves as fast as possible4 ,in ,cambridge orations and elsewhere there is much inquiry for that great absentee ,american ,literature4 ,what can have become of it8 ,the least said is best4 ,a literature is no man's private concern1 but a secular and generic result1 and is the affair of a power which works by a prodigality of life and force very dismaying to behold1--every trait of beauty purchased by hecatombs of private tragedy4 ,the pruning in the wild gardens of nature is never forborne4 ,many of the best must die of consumption1 many of despair1 and many be stupid and insane1 before the one great and fortunate life which they each predicted can shoot up into a thrifty and beneficent existence4 ,,viii4 ,,the ,,tragic4#ab ,he has seen but half the universe who never has been shown the house of ,pain4 ,as the salt sea covers more than two thirds of the surface of the globe1 so sorrow encroaches in man on felicity4 ,the conversation of men is a mixture of regrets and apprehensions4 ,i do not know but the prevalent hue of things to the eye of leisure is melancholy4 ,in the dark hours1 our existence seems to be a defensive war1 a struggle against the encroaching ,all1 which threatens surely to engulf us soon1 and is impatient of our short reprieve4 ,how slender the possession that yet remains to us2 how faint the animation6 how the spirit seems already to contract its domain1 retiring within narrower walls by the loss of memory1 leaving its planted fields to erasure and annihilation4 ,already our own thoughts and words have an alien sound4 ,there is a simultaneous diminution of memory and hope4 ,projects that once we laughed and leapt to execute1 find us now sleepy and preparing to lie down in the snow4 ,and in the serene hours we have no courage to spare4 ,we cannot afford to let go any advantages4 ,the riches of body or of mind which we do not need to-day1 are the reserved fund against the calamity that may arrive to-morrow4 ,it is usually agreed that some nations have a more sombre temperament1 and one would say that history gave no record of any society in which despondency came so readily to heart as we see it and feel it in ours4 ,melancholy cleaves to the ,english mind in both hemispheres as closely as to the strings of an olian harp4 ,men and women at thirty years1 and even earlier1 have lost all spring and vivacity1 and if they fail in their first enterprises they throw up the game4 ,but whether we and those who are next to us are more or less vulnerable1 no theory of life can have any right which leaves out of account the values of vice1 pain1 disease1 poverty1 insecurity1 disunion1 fear and death4 ,what are the conspicuous tragic elements in human nature8 ,the bitterest tragic element in life to be derived from an intellectual source is the belief in a brute ,fate or ,destiny2 the belief that the order of nature and events is controlled by a law not adapted to man1 nor man to that1 but which holds on its way to the end1 serving him if his wishes chance to lie in the same course1 crushing him if his wishes lie contrary to it1 and heedless whether it serves or crushes him4 ,this is the terrible meaning that lies at the foundation of the old ,greek tragedy1 and makes the dipus and ,antigone and ,orestes objects of such hopeless commiseration4 ,they must perish1 and there is no over-god to stop or to mollify this hideous enginery that grinds or thunders1 and snatches them up into its terrific system4 ,the same idea makes the paralyzing terror with which the ,east ,indian mythology haunts the imagination4 ,the same thought is the predestination of the ,turk4 ,and universally1 in uneducated and unreflecting persons on whom too the religious sentiment exerts little force1 we discover traits of the same superstition3 8,if you balk water you will be drowned the next time20 8if you count ten stars you will fall down dead20 8if you spill the salt20 8if your fork sticks upright in the floor20 8if you say the ,lord's prayer backwards10--and so on1 a several penalty1 nowise grounded in the nature of the thing1 but on an arbitrary will4 ,but this terror of contravening an unascertained and unascertainable will1 cannot coexist with reflection3 it disappears with civilization1 and can no more be reproduced than the fear of ghosts after childhood4 ,it is discriminated from the doctrine of ,philosophical ,necessity herein3 that the last is an ,optimism1 and therefore the suffering individual finds his good consulted in the good of all1 of which he is a part4 ,but in destiny1 it is not the good of the whole or the best will that is enacted1 but only one particular will4 ,destiny properly is not a will at all1 but an immense whim2 and this the only ground of terror and despair in the rational mind1 and of tragedy in literature4 ,hence the antique tragedy1 which was founded on this faith1 can never be reproduced4 ,after reason and faith have introduced a better public and private tradition1 the tragic element is somewhat circumscribed4 ,there must always remain1 however1 the hindrance of our private satisfaction by the laws of the world4 ,the law which establishes nature and the human race1 continually thwarts the will of ignorant individuals1 and this in the particulars of disease1 want1 insecurity and disunion4 ,but the essence of tragedy does not seem to me to lie in any list of particular evils4 ,after we have enumerated famine1 fever1 inaptitude1 mutilation1 rack1 madness and loss of friends1 we have not yet included the proper tragic element1 which is ,terror1 and which does not respect definite evils but indefinite2 an ominous spirit which haunts the afternoon and the night1 idleness and solitude4 ,a low1 haggard sprite sits by our side1 8casting the fashion of uncertain evils0--a sinister presentiment1 a power of the imagination to dislocate things orderly and cheerful and show them in startling array4 ,hark6 what sounds on the night wind1 the cry of ,murder in that friendly house2 see these marks of stamping feet1 of hidden riot4 ,the whisper overheard1 the detected glance1 the glare of malignity1 ungrounded fears1 suspicions1 half-knowledge and mistakes1 darken the brow and chill the heart of men4 ,and accordingly it is natures not clear1 not of quick and steady perceptions1 but imperfect characters from which somewhat is hidden that all others see1 who suffer most from these causes4 ,in those persons who move the profoundest pity1 tragedy seems to consist in temperament1 not in events4 ,there are people who have an appetite for grief1 pleasure is not strong enough and they crave pain1 mithridatic stomachs which must be fed on poisoned bread1 natures so doomed that no prosperity can soothe their ragged and dishevelled desolation4 ,they mis-hear and mis-behold1 they suspect and dread4 ,they handle every nettle and ivy in the hedge1 and tread on every snake in the meadow4 8,come bad chance1 ,and we add to it our strength1 ,and we teach it art and length1 ,itself o'er us to advance40 ,frankly1 then1 it is necessary to say that all sorrow dwells in a low region4 ,it is superficial2 for the most part fantastic1 or in the appearance and not in things4 ,tragedy is in the eye of the observer1 and not in the heart of the sufferer4 ,it looks like an insupportable load under which earth moans aloud4 ,but analyze it2 it is not ,i1 it is not you1 it is always another person who is tormented4 ,if a man says1 ,lo6 ,i suffer--it is apparent that he suffers not1 for grief is dumb4 ,it is so distributed as not to destroy4 ,that which would rend you falls on tougher textures4 ,that which seems intolerable reproach or bereavement1 does not take from the accused or bereaved man or woman appetite or sleep4 ,some men are above grief1 and some below it4 ,few are capable of love4 ,in phlegmatic natures calamity is unaffecting1 in shallow natures it is rhetorical4 ,tragedy must be somewhat which ,i can respect4 ,a querulous habit is not tragedy4 ,a panic such as frequently in ancient or savage nations put a troop or an army to flight without an enemy2 a fear of ghosts2 a terror of freezing to death that seizes a man in a winter midnight on the moors2 a fright at uncertain sounds heard by a family at night in the cellar or on the stairs1--are terrors that make the knees knock and the teeth clatter1 but are no tragedy1 any more than seasickness1 which may also destroy life4 ,it is full of illusion4 ,as it comes1 it has its support4 ,the most exposed classes1 soldiers1 sailors1 paupers1 are nowise destitute of animal spirits4 ,the spirit is true to itself1 and finds its own support in any condition1 learns to live in what is called calamity as easily as in what is called felicity2 as the frailest glass-bell will support a weight of a thousand pounds of water at the bottom of a river or sea1 if filled with the same4 ,a man should not commit his tranquillity to things1 but should keep as much as possible the reins in his own hands1 rarely giving way to extreme emotion of joy or grief4 ,it is observed that the earliest works of the art of sculpture are countenances of sublime tranquillity4 ,the ,egyptian sphinxes1 which sit to-day as they sat when the ,greek came and saw them and departed1 and when the ,roman came and saw them and departed1 and as they will still sit when the ,turk1 the ,frenchman and the ,englishman1 who visit them now1 shall have passed by1--8with their stony eyes fixed on the ,east and on the ,nile10 have countenances expressive of complacency and repose1 an expression of health1 deserving their longevity1 and verifying the primeval sentence of history on the permanency of that people1 8,their strength is to sit still40 ,to this architectural stability of the human form1 the ,greek genius added an ideal beauty1 without disturbing the seals of serenity2 permitting no violence of mirth1 or wrath1 or suffering4 ,this was true to human nature4 ,for1 in life1 actions are few1 opinions even few1 prayers few2 loves1 hatreds1 or any emissions of the soul4 ,all that life demands of us through the greater part of the day1 is an equilibrium1 a readiness1 open eyes and ears1 and free hands4 ,society asks this1 and truth1 and love1 and the genius of our life4 ,there is a fire in some men which demands an outlet in some rude action2 they betray their impatience of quiet by an irregular ,catalinarian gait2 by irregular1 faltering1 disturbed speech1 too emphatic for the occasion4 ,they treat trifles with a tragic air4 ,this is not beautiful4 ,could they not lay a rod or two of stone wall1 and work off this superabundant irritability8 ,when two strangers meet in the highway1 what each demands of the other is that the aspect should show a firm mind1 ready for any event of good or ill1 prepared alike to give death or to give life1 as the emergency of the next moment may require4 ,we must walk as guests in nature2 not impassioned1 but cool and disengaged4 ,a man should try ,time1 and his face should wear the expression of a just judge1 who has nowise made up his opinion1 who fears nothing1 and even hopes nothing1 but who puts nature and fortune on their merits3 he will hear the case out1 and then decide4 ,for all melancholy1 as all passion1 belongs to the exterior life4 ,whilst a man is not grounded in the divine life by his proper roots1 he clings by some tendrils of affection to society--mayhap to what is best and greatest in it1 and in calm times it will not appear that he is adrift and not moored2 but let any shock take place in society1 any revolution of custom1 of law1 of opinion1 and at once his type of permanence is shaken4 ,the disorder of his neighbors appears to him universal disorder2 chaos is come again4 ,but in truth he was already a driving wreck1 before the wind arose which only revealed to him his vagabond state4 ,if a man is centred1 men and events appear to him a fair image or reflection of that which he knoweth beforehand in himself4 ,if any perversity or profligacy break out in society1 he will join with others to avert the mischief1 but it will not arouse resentment or fear1 because he discerns its impassable limits4 ,he sees already in the ebullition of sin the simultaneous redress4 ,particular reliefs also1 fit themselves to human calamities2 for the world will be in equilibrium1 and hates all manner of exaggeration4 ,time1 the consoler1 ,time1 the rich carrier of all changes1 dries the freshest tears by obtruding new figures1 new costumes1 new roads1 on our eye1 new voices on our ear4 ,as the west wind lifts up again the heads of the wheat which were bent down and lodged in the storm1 and combs out the matted and dishevelled grass as it lay in night-locks on the ground1 so we let in time as a drying wind into the seed-field of thoughts which are dark and wet and low bent4 ,time restores to them temper and elasticity4 ,how fast we forget the blow that threatened to cripple us4 ,nature will not sit still2 the faculties will do somewhat2 new hopes spring1 new affections twine and the broken is whole again4 ,time consoles1 but ,temperament resists the impression of pain4 ,nature proportions her defence to the assault4 ,our human being is wonderfully plastic2 if it cannot win this satisfaction here1 it makes itself amends by running out there and winning that4 ,it is like a stream of water1 which is dammed up on one bank1 overruns the other1 and flows equally at its own convenience over sand1 or mud1 or marble4 ,most suffering is only apparent4 ,we fancy it is torture2 the patient has his own compensations4 ,a tender ,american girl doubts of ,divine ,providence whilst she reads the horrors of 8the middle passage20 and they are bad enough at the mildest2 but to such as she these crucifixions do not come3 they come to the obtuse and barbarous1 to whom they are not horrid1 but only a little worse than the old sufferings4 ,they exchange a cannibal war for the stench of the hold4 ,they have gratifications which would be none to the civilized girl4 ,the market-man never damned the lady because she had not paid her bill1 but the stout ,irishwoman has to take that once a month4 ,she however never feels weakness in her back because of the slave-trade4 ,this self-adapting strength is especially seen in disease4 8,it is my duty10 said ,sir ,charles ,bell1 8to visit certain wards of the hospital where there is no patient admitted but with that complaint which most fills the imagination with the idea of insupportable pain and certain death4 ,yet these wards are not the least remarkable for the composure and cheerfulness of their inmates4 ,the individual who suffers has a mysterious counterbalance to that condition1 which1 to us who look upon her1 appears to be attended with no alleviating circumstance40 ,analogous supplies are made to those individuals whose character leads them to vast exertions of body and mind4 ,napoleon said to one of his friends at ,st4 ,helena1 8,nature seems to have calculated that ,i should have great reverses to endure1 for she has given me a temperament like a block of marble4 ,thunder cannot move it2 the shaft merely glides along4 ,the great events of my life have slipped over me without making any demand on my moral or physical nature40 ,the intellect is a consoler1 which delights in detaching or putting an interval between a man and his fortune1 and so converts the sufferer into a spectator and his pain into poetry4 ,it yields the joys of conversation1 of letters and of science4 ,hence also the torments of life become tuneful tragedy1 solemn and soft with music1 and garnished with rich dark pictures4 ,but higher still than the activities of art1 the intellect in its purity and the moral sense in its purity are not distinguished from each other1 and both ravish us into a region whereinto these passionate clouds of sorrow cannot rise4 ,,footnotes3 #e ,the ,dial1 vol4 i4 p4 #acg4 #f ,the ,dial1 vol4 ii4 p4 #bfb4 #g ,the ,dial1 vol4 iii4 p4 #gg4 #h ,the ,dial1 vol4 iii4 p4 #abc4 #i ,the ,dial1 vol4 iii4 p4 #eaa4 #aj ,the ,dial1 vol4 iv4 p4 #if4 #aa ,the ,dial1 vol4 iv4 p4 #bfb4 #ab ,from the course on 8,human ,life10 read in ,boston1 #ahci-dj4 ,published in ,the ,dial1 vol4 iv4 p4 #eae4 ,,transcriber',s ,,note ,obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources4 ,some hyphens in words have been silently removed1 some added1 when a predominant preference was found in the original book4 ,except for those changes noted below1 all misspellings in the text1 and inconsistent or archaic usage1 have been retained4 ,pg4 #ajj3 #8' replaced by #8'4 ,pg4 #baa3 #8ageeably entertained' replaced by #8agreeably entertained'4