The whole world is an omen and a sign. Why look so wistfully in a corner? Man is the Image of God. Why run after a ghost or a dream? The voice of divination resounds everywhere and runs to waste unheard, unregarded, as the mountains echo with the bleatings of cattle. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: From the course of lectures on “Human Life,” read in Boston, 1839-40. Published in the _North American Review_, 1877.] [Footnote 2: Goethe, _Wahrheit und Dichtung_, Book xx.] [Footnote 3: Heraclitus.] ARISTOCRACY. BUT if thou do thy best, Without remission, without rest, And invite the sunbeam, And abhor to feign or seem Even to those who thee should love And thy behavior approve; If thou go in thine own likeness,-- Be it health or be it sickness,-- If thou go as thy father’s son, If thou wear no mask or lie, Dealing purely and nakedly,--.... ARISTOCRACY.[4] THERE is an attractive topic, which never goes out of vogue and is impertinent in no community,--the permanent traits of the Aristocracy. It is an interest of the human race, and, as I look at it, inevitable, sacred and to be found in every country and in every company of men. My concern with it is that concern which all well-disposed persons will feel, that there should be model men,--true instead of spurious pictures of excellence, and, if possible, living standards. I observe that the word _gentleman_ is gladly heard in all companies; that the cogent motive with the best young men who are revolving plans and forming resolutions for the future, is the spirit of honor, the wish to be gentlemen. They do not yet covet political power, nor any exuberance of wealth, wealth that costs too much; nor do they wish to be saints; for fear of partialism; but the middle term, the reconciling element, the success of the manly character, they find in the idea of gentleman. It is not to be a man of rank, but a man of honor, accomplished in all arts and generosities, which seems to them the right mark and the true chief of our modern society. A reference to society is part of the idea of culture; science of a gentleman; art of a gentleman; poetry in a gentleman: intellectually held, that is, for their own sake, for what they are; for their universal beauty and worth;--not for economy, which degrades them, but not over-intellectually, that is, not to ecstasy, entrancing the man, but redounding to his beauty and glory.