Natural history of intellect, and other papersEmerson, Ralph Waldo
Philosophy
Natural history of intellect, and other papers
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
American essays -- 19th century; Boston (Mass.); Intellect; Memory; Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564; Milton, John, 1608-1674
Let these few scattered leaves, which a chance (as men say, but which
to us shall be holy) brought under our eye nearly at the same moment,
stand as an example of innumerable similar expressions which no
mortal witness has reported, and be a sign of the times. Might they
be suggestion to many a heart of yet higher secret experiences which
are ineffable! But we must not tie up the rosary on which we have
strung these few white beads, without adding a pearl of great price
from that book of prayer, the “Confessions of Saint Augustine.”
“And being admonished to reflect upon myself, I entered into the
very inward parts of my soul, by thy conduct; and I was able to do
it, because now thou wert become my helper. I entered and discerned
with the eye of my soul (such as it was), even beyond my soul and
mind itself, the Light unchangeable. Not this vulgar light which
all flesh may look upon, nor as it were a greater of the same kind,
as though the brightness of this should be manifold greater and
with its greatness take up all space. Not such was this light, but
other, yea, far other from all these. Neither was it so above my
understanding as oil swims above water, or as the heaven is above
the earth. But it is above me, because it made me; and I am under
it, because I was made by it. He that knows truth or verity, knows
what that light is, and he that knows it, knows eternity, and it
is known by charity. O eternal Verity! and true Charity! and dear
Eternity! thou art my God, to thee do I sigh day and night. Thee
when I first knew, thou liftedst me up that I might see, there
was what I might see, and that I was not yet such as to see. And
thou didst beat back my weak sight upon myself, shooting out beams
upon me after a vehement manner; and I even trembled between love
and horror, and I found myself to be far off, and even in the very
region of dissimilitude from thee.”
IV.
AGRICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS.[8]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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