Gnothi Seauton : Know thyself. by Emerson.

[Guest guest]

This Greek phrase is supposed to have descended from heaven and is

inscribed in the forecourt of the temple of apollo at delphi.

Emerson has penned what i thought is a beautiful poem on this phrase -

many of you may already have read it but for the benefit of those like

me who are reading it for the first time i thought i would reproduce

it here.

 

Hari OM

Shyam

 

 

Gnothi Seauton

 

I

 

If thou canst bear

Strong meat of simple truth

If thou durst my words compare

With what thou thinkest in my soul's free youth,

Then take this fact unto thy soul,-----

God dwells in thee.

It is no metaphor nor parable,

It is unknown to thousands, and to thee;

Yet there is God.

 

II

 

He is in thy world,

But thy world knows him not.

He is the mighty Heart

From which life's varied pulses part.

Clouded and shrouded there doth sit

The Infinite

Embosomed in a man;

And thou art stranger to thy guest

And know'st not what thou doth invest.

The clouds that veil his life within

Are thy thick woven webs of sin,

Which his glory struggling through

Darkens to thine evil hue.

 

III

 

Then bear thyself, O man!

Up to the scale and compass of thy guest;

Soul of thy soul.

Be great as doth beseem

The ambassador who bears

The royal presence where he goes.

 

IV

 

Give up to thy soul-----

Let it have its way-----

It is, I tell thee, God himself,

The selfsame One that rules the Whole,

Tho' he speaks thro' thee with a stifled voice,

And looks through thee, shorn of his beams.

But if thou listen to his voice,

If thou obey the royal thought,

It will grow clearer to thine ear,

More glorious to thine eye.

The clouds will burst that veil him now

And thou shalt see the Lord.

 

V

 

Therefore be great,

Not proud,-----too great to be proud.

Let not thine eyes rove,

Peep not in corners; let thine eyes

Look straight before thee, as befits

The simplicity of Power.

And in thy closet carry state;

Filled with light, walk therein;

And, as a king

Would do no treason to his own empire,

So do not thou to thine.

 

VI

 

This is the reason why thou dost recognize

Things now first revealed,

Because in thee resides

The Spirit that lives in all;

And thou canst learn the laws of nature

Because its author is latent in thy breast.

 

VII

 

Therefore, O happy youth,

Happy if thou dost know and love this truth,

Thou art unto thyself a law,

And since the soul of things is in thee,

Thou needest nothing out of thee.

The law, the gospel, and the Providence,

Heaven, Hell, the Judgement, and the stores

Immeasurable of Truth and Good,

All these thou must find

Within thy single mind,

Or never find.

 

VIII

 

Thou art the law;

The gospel has no revelation

Of peace and hope until there is response

From the deep chambers of thy mind thereto,-----

The rest is straw.

It can reveal no truth unknown before.

The Providence

Thou art thyself that doth dispense

Wealth to thy work, want to thy sloth,

Glory to goodness, to neglect, the moth.

Thou sow'st the wind, the whirlwind reapest,

Thou payest the wages

Of thy own work, through all ages.

The almighty energy within

Crowneth virtue, curseth sin.

Virtue sees by its own light;

Stumbleth sin in self-made night.

 

IX

 

Who approves thee doing right?

God in thee.

Who condemns thee doing wrong?

God in thee.

Who punishes thine evil deed?

God in thee.

What is thine evil meed?

Thy worse mind, with error blind

And more prone to evil

That is, the greater hiding of the God within:

The loss of peace

The terrible displeasure of this inmate

And next the consequence

More faintly as more distant wro't

Upon our outward fortunes

Which decay with vice

With Virtue rise.

 

X

 

The selfsame God

By the same law

Makes the souls of angels glad

And the souls of devils sad

See

There is nothing else but God

Where e'er I look

All things hasten back to him

Light is but his shadow dim.

 

XI

 

Shall I ask wealth or power of God, who gave

An image of himself to be my soul?

As well might swilling ocean ask a wave,

Or the starred firmament a dying coal,-----

For that which is in me lives in the whole.