Authors, American -- 19th century -- Biography; Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882
Who can give better counsels on "Culture" than Emerson? But we must
borrow only a few sentences from his essay on that subject. All kinds of
secrets come out as we read these Essays of Emerson's. We know something
of his friends and disciples who gathered round him and sat at his feet.
It is not hard to believe that he was drawing one of those composite
portraits Mr. Galton has given us specimens of when he wrote as
follows:--
"The pest of society is egotism. This goitre of egotism
is so frequent among notable persons that we must infer some strong
necessity in nature which it subserves; such as we see in the sexual
attraction. The preservation of the species was a point of such
necessity that Nature has secured it at all hazards by immensely
overloading the passion, at the risk of perpetual crime and
disorder. So egotism has its root in the cardinal necessity by which
each individual persists to be what he is.
"The antidotes against this organic egotism are, the range and
variety of attraction, as gained by acquaintance with the world,
with men of merit, with classes of society, with travel, with
eminent persons, and with the high resources of philosophy, art, and
religion: books, travel, society, solitude."
"We can ill spare the commanding social benefits of cities; they
must be used; yet cautiously and haughtily,--and will yield their
best values to him who can best do without them. Keep the town for
occasions, but the habits should be formed to retirement. Solitude,
the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius the stern friend, the
cold, obscure shelter, where moult the wings which will bear it
farther than suns and stars."
We must remember, too, that "the calamities are our friends. Try the
rough water as well as the smooth. Rough water can teach lessons worth
knowing. Don't be so tender at making an enemy now and then. He who aims
high, must dread an easy home and popular manners."
Emerson cannot have had many enemies, if any, in his calm and noble
career. He can have cherished no enmity, on personal grounds at least.
But he refused his hand to one who had spoken ill of a friend whom he
respected. It was "the hand of Douglas" again,--the same feeling that
Charles Emerson expressed in the youthful essay mentioned in the
introduction to this volume.
Here are a few good sayings about "Behavior."
"There is always a best way of doing everything, if it be to boil an
egg. Manners are the happy ways of doing things; each once a stroke
of genius or of love,--now repeated and hardened into usage."
Thus it is that Mr. Emerson speaks of "Manners" in his Essay under the
above title.
"The basis of good manners is self-reliance.--Manners require time,
as nothing is more vulgar than haste.--
"Men take each other's measure, when they meet for the first
time,--and every time they meet.--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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