Emerson

[Guest guest]

from _Compensation_

 

The world globes itself in a drop of dew. The microscope cannot

find the animalcule which is less perfect for being little. Eyes,

ears, taste, smell, motion, resistance, appetite, and organs of

reproduction that take hold on eternity, — all find room to consist

in the small creature. So do we put our life into every act. The true

doctrine of omnipresence is, that God reappears with all his

parts in every moss and cobweb. The value of the universe

contrives to throw itself into every point. If the good is there, so is

the evil; if the affinity, so the repulsion; if the force, so the

limitation.

 

Thus is the universe alive. All things are moral. That soul, which

within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its

inspiration; out there in history we can see its fatal strength. " It is

in the world, and the world was made by it. " Justice is not

postponed. A perfect equity adjusts its balance in all parts of life.

{Oi chusoi Dios aei enpiptousi}, — The dice of God are always

loaded. The world looks like a multiplication-table, or a

mathematical equation, which, turn it how you will, balances

itself. Take what figure you will, its exact value, nor more nor

less, still returns to you. Every secret is told, every crime is

punished, every virtue rewarded, every wrong redressed, in

silence and certainty. What we call retribution is the universal

necessity by which the whole appears wherever a part appears.

If you see smoke, there must be fire. If you see a hand or a limb,

you know that the trunk to which it belongs is there behind.

 

Every act rewards itself, or, in other words, integrates itself, in a

twofold manner; first, in the thing, or in real nature; and secondly,

in the circumstance, or in apparent nature. Men call the

circumstance the retribution. The causal retribution is in the

thing, and is seen by the soul. The retribution in the

circumstance is seen by the understanding; it is inseparable

from the thing, but is often spread over a long time, and so does

not become distinct until after many years. The specific stripes

may follow late after the offence, but they follow because they

accompany it. Crime and punishment grow out of one stem.

Punishment is a fruit that unsuspected ripens within the flower of

the pleasure which concealed it. Cause and effect, means and

ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already

blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in

the seed.

 

Whilst thus the world will be whole, and refuses to be disparted,

we seek to act partially, to sunder, to appropriate; for example, —

to gratify the senses, we sever the pleasure of the senses from

the needs of the character. The ingenuity of man has always

been dedicated to the solution of one problem, — how to detach

the sensual sweet, the sensual strong, the sensual bright, & c.,

from the moral sweet, the moral deep, the moral fair; that is,

again, to contrive to cut clean off this upper surface so thin as to

leave it bottomless; to get a _one end_, without an _other end_.

The soul says, Eat; the body would feast. The soul says, The

man and woman shall be one flesh and one soul; the body

would join the flesh only. The soul says, Have dominion over all

things to the ends of virtue; the body would have the power over

things to its own ends.

 

The soul strives amain to live and work through all things. It

would be the only fact. All things shall be added unto it power,

pleasure, knowledge, beauty. The particular man aims to be

somebody; to set up for himself; to truck and higgle for a private

good; and, in particulars, to ride, that he may ride; to dress, that

he may be dressed; to eat, that he may eat; and to govern, that

he may be seen. Men seek to be great; they would have offices,

wealth, power, and fame. They think that to be great is to

possess one side of nature, — the sweet, without the other side,

— the bitter.

 

This dividing and detaching is steadily counteracted. Up to this

day, it must be owned, no projector has had the smallest

success. The parted water reunites behind our hand. Pleasure

is taken out of pleasant things, profit out of profitable things,

power out of strong things, as soon as we seek to separate

them from the whole. We can no more halve things and get the

sensual good, by itself, than we can get an inside that shall have

no outside, or a light without a shadow. " Drive out nature with a

fork, she comes running back. "

 

*******************************

Celestial Love

 

Higher far,

Upward, into the pure realm,

Over sun or star,

Over the flickering Dæmon film,

Thou must mount for love,—

Into vision which all form

In one only form dissolves;

In a region where the wheel,

On which all beings ride,

Visibly revolves;

Where the starred eternal worm

Girds the world with bound and term;

Where unlike things are like,

When good and ill,

And joy and moan,

Melt into one.

There Past, Present, Future, shoot

Triple blossoms from one root

Substances at base divided

In their summits are united,

There the holy Essence rolls,

One through separated souls,

And the sunny Æon sleeps

Folding nature in its deeps,

And every fair and every good

Known in part or known impure

To men below,

In their archetypes endure.

 

The race of gods,

Or those we erring own,

Are shadows flitting up and down

In the still abodes.

The circles of that sea are laws,

Which publish and which hide the Cause.

Pray for a beam

Out of that sphere

Thee to guide and to redeem.

O what a load

Of care and toil

By lying Use bestowed,

From his shoulders falls, who sees

The true astronomy,

The period of peace!

Counsel which the ages kept,

Shall the well-born soul accept.

As the overhanging trees

Fill the lake with images,

As garment draws the garment's hem

Men their fortunes bring with them;

By right or wrong,

Lands and goods go to the strong;

Property will brutely draw

Still to the proprietor,

Silver to silver creep and wind,

And kind to kind,

Nor less the eternal poles

Of tendency distribute souls.

There need no vows to bind

Whom not each other seek but find.

They give and take no pledge or oath,

Nature is the bond of both.

No prayer persuades, no flattery fawns,

Their noble meanings are their pawns.

Plain and cold is their address,

Power have they for tenderness,

And so thoroughly is known

Each others' purpose by his own,

They can parley without meeting,

Need is none of forms of greeting,

They can well communicate

In their innermost estate;

When each the other shall avoid,

Shall each by each be most enjoyed.

Not with scarfs or perfumed gloves

Do these celebrate their loves,

Not by jewels, feasts, and savors,

Not by ribbons or by favors,

But by the sun-spark on the sea,

And the cloud-shadow on the lea,

The soothing lapse of morn to mirk,

And the cheerful round of work.

Their cords of love so public are,

They intertwine the farthest star.

The throbbing sea, the quaking earth,

Yield sympathy and signs of mirth;

Is none so high, so mean is none,

But feels and seals this union.

Even the tell Furies are appeased,

The good applaud, the lost are eased.

 

Love's hearts are faithful, but not fond,

Bound for the just, but not beyond;

Not glad, as the low-loving herd,

Of self in others still preferred,

But they have heartily designed

The benefit of broad mankind.

And they serve men austerely,

After their own genius, clearly,

Without a false humility;

For this is love's nobility,

Not to scatter bread and gold,

Goods and raiment bought and sold,

But to hold fast his simple sense,

And speak the speech of innocence,

And with hand, and body, and blood,

To make his bosom-counsel good:

For he that feeds men, serveth few,

He serves all, who dares be true.

 

- Ralph

 

 

 

 

Waldo

 

 

Emerson