Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXIII.—April, 1852.—Vol. IV.: NoneVarious
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXIII.—April, 1852.—Vol. IV.: None
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
To one who deeply reflects on the fact to which we have been calling
attention, the first feeling, and a just feeling too, might be one of
pride. The dignity of our nature would seem enhanced by such a
constitution. Each man's "mind is his kingdom," in which he may be as
autocratic as he wills. It makes even the lowest in the scale of
humanity such an absolute sovereign within his own spiritual boundaries,
so perfectly secure, if he please, against all foreign intervention. It
sets in so striking a light what in its physical and etymological,
rather than its moral sense, may be styled the _holiness_--_the
wholeness_, _hale-ness_, or _separate integrity_ of each man's essential
being. It is in this point of view, too, that to every hale mind the
pretensions of clairvoyance must appear so inexpressibly revolting. We
allude to its assumption of having the power of committing what, for the
want of a better name, we can only characterize as spiritual
burglary--in other words, of breaking into our spiritual house, and
taking its seat in the very shrine of the interior consciousness. What
can be more degrading to our human nature than to admit that any other
human power, or human will, can at any time, and from any motive, even
for purposes of the most frivolous amusement, actually enter this inner
sanctuary, turning the immortal spirit into a paltry show-house, and
rudely invading, or pretending to invade, the soul's essential glory,
its sacred and unapproachable individuality?
There is, however, another aspect of the thought in which it may give
rise to a very different, if not an opposite emotion. There may be, too,
at times, a feeling of the deepest melancholy called out by that other
consideration of our spiritual solitude, of our being so utterly alone
upon the earth--a feeling which has never been set forth with so much
power and, at the same time, truthful simplicity, as in the touching
language of inspiration--"_The heart knoweth its own bitterness, and a
stranger meddleth not with its joy._" And then, again, although we would
in general shrink from it as a painful ordeal, there are periods when we
long for a more searching communion with other spirits than can ever be
expected from the most intimate methods of mediate intercourse. There
are periods when we are irresistibly drawn out to say--O that some other
soul were acquainted with us as we think we are acquainted with
ourselves, not only with our fancied virtues and our mere real sins, as
they appear imperfectly manifested by misinterpreted signals from
within, but with our very soul itself. Yes, there is sadness in the
thought that we are so unknown, even to those who would be thought to
know us best--unknown alike in that which makes us better as in that
which makes us worse than we seem;--for we are all better, and we are
all worse than we appear to our fellow-men.
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