FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79  
80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   >>   >|  
tions sweet Felt in the blood and felt along the heart." It is needless to quote the whole passage. The poetry of Wordsworth may have suggested the prose of Emerson, but the prose loses nothing by the comparison. In _Discipline_, which is his next subject, he treats of the influence of Nature in educating the intellect, the moral sense, and the will. Man is enlarged and the universe lessened and brought within his grasp, because "Time and space relations vanish as laws are known."--"The moral law lies at the centre of Nature and radiates to the circumference."--"All things with which we deal preach to us. What is a farm but a mute gospel?"--"From the child's successive possession of his several senses up to the hour when he sayeth, 'Thy will be done!' he is learning the secret that he can reduce under his will, not only particular events, but great classes, nay, the whole series of events, and so conform all facts to his character." The unity in variety which meets us everywhere is again referred to. He alludes to the ministry of our friendships to our education. When a friend has done for our education in the way of filling our minds with sweet and solid wisdom "it is a sign to us that his office is closing, and he is commonly withdrawn from our sight in a short time." This thought was probably suggested by the death of his brother Charles, which occurred a few months before "Nature" was published. He had already spoken in the first chapter of this little book as if from some recent experience of his own, doubtless the same bereavement. "To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth in the population." This was the first effect of the loss; but after a time he recognizes a superintending power which orders events for us in wisdom which we could not see at first. The chapter on _Idealism_ must be read by all who believe themselves capable of abstract thought, if they would not fall under the judgment of Turgot, which Emerson quotes: "He that has never doubted the existence of matter may be assured he has no aptitude for metaphysical inquiries." The most essential statement is this:-- "It is a sufficient account of that Appearance we call the World, that God will teach a human m
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79  
80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Nature

 
events
 

friend

 
education
 

chapter

 

wisdom

 
Emerson
 

thought

 

suggested

 

calamity


laboring

 
contempt
 

landscape

 

sadness

 

months

 

published

 

occurred

 
brother
 

Charles

 

spoken


experience

 

doubtless

 

recent

 

bereavement

 

assured

 
matter
 
aptitude
 

metaphysical

 
existence
 

doubted


judgment
 

Turgot

 

quotes

 

inquiries

 
Appearance
 

essential

 

statement

 

sufficient

 
account
 

effect


population

 
recognizes
 

superintending

 

capable

 

abstract

 
Idealism
 

orders

 
circumference
 

radiates

 

things