interpreter Cousin seemed to many young men in this country. Take
thankfully and heartily all they can give. Exhaust them, wrestle with
them, let them not go until their blessing be won, and after a short
season the dismay will be overpast, the excess of influence withdrawn,
and they will be no longer an alarming meteor, but one more bright star
shining serenely in your heaven and blending its light with all your
day.
But whilst he gives himself up unreservedly to that which draws him,
because that is his own, he is to refuse himself to that which draws
him not, whatsoever fame and authority may attend it, because it is not
his own. Entire self-reliance belongs to the intellect. One soul is a
counterpoise of all souls, as a capillary column of water is a balance
for the sea. It must treat things and books and sovereign genius as
itself also a sovereign. If Æschylus be that man he is taken for, he
has not yet done his office when he has educated the learned of Europe
for a thousand years. He is now to approve himself a master of delight
to me also. If he cannot do that, all his fame shall avail him nothing
with me. I were a fool not to sacrifice a thousand Æschyluses to my
intellectual integrity. Especially take the same ground in regard to
abstract truth, the science of the mind. The Bacon, the Spinoza, the
Hume, Schelling, Kant, or whosoever propounds to you a philosophy of
the mind, is only a more or less awkward translator of things in your
consciousness which you have also your way of seeing, perhaps of
denominating. Say then, instead of too timidly poring into his obscure
sense, that he has not succeeded in rendering back to you your
consciousness. He has not succeeded; now let another try. If Plato
cannot, perhaps Spinoza will. If Spinoza cannot, then perhaps Kant.
Anyhow, when at last it is done, you will find it is no recondite, but
a simple, natural, common state which the writer restores to you.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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