The Ralph Waldo Emerson Journals Digital Archive Volume 2 [ From the 1904-14 Edition, Edward Emerson, General Editor] presented by The Ralph Waldo Emerson Institute and RWE.org Board of Directors James Manley, Chairman and Webmaster Alexander Forbes Emerson, Vice-Chairman Richard G. Geldard, PhD, Secretary, Archive Editor Susan Imholz, PhD, Treasurer Barbara Soloway David Beardsley All Rights Reserved In Cooperation with Lightning Source, Inc. © Copyright Ralph Waldo Emerson Institute, 2006 The Digital Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson An Introduction Welcome to the Digital Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, an archive provided by The Ralph Waldo Emerson Institute for the use and convenience of interested students of the life and works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The source of these digital Journals is the ten-volume Edward Emerson edition, originally published in Boston by Houghton Mifflin from 1904 through 1914, and comprising over 5,000 pages of material. We learn in the Introduction to Volume 1 that Emerson’s son Edward was asked in 1902 by Houghton Mifflin for permission to publish the Complete Journals. The Emerson family, now represented by The Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association, gave permission, and Edward, with support and assistance from his nephew Waldo Emerson Forbes, undertook the task of selecting material from the 230 manuscripts that make up the collection. We in turn thank the Memorial Association for their support in making these digitized journals available to interested scholars and serious readers of the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The subsequent ten-volume edition of the Journals as originally published by Houghton Mifflin represents Edward Emerson’s personal editing of the entire corpus of hand-written journals now housed at the Houghton Rare Book Library of Harvard University. Edward’s cautionary editing left some material unpublished, as befitted a son, a citizen of Concord, and the taste of Nineteenth Century New England. In other words, some material deemed too personal or offensive to some was edited out. Subsequently, starting in 1960, the Belknap Press of Harvard University began its own authoritative edition of the Journals, which was completed with Volume XVI in 1982, in time for the Centennial of Emerson’s death. This edition (hereafter cited as the JMN) includes all of Emerson’s journal entries, plus detailed notes and commentary. It should be noted, therefore, that users of this Digital Journal Archive should always consult the JMN to authenticate material gleaned from the digital files before publishing journal material. It is unfortunate that Harvard University Press has consistently refused to relinquish the Digital Rights to the Journals, nor does it have any intention of digitizing the JMN in the near future. However, most libraries in America have the JMN on their shelves and many of the volumes are still for sale from the Press, although they are very expensive. The main advantages of the Digital Journal Archive over the printed volumes are the search and/or find features available in Acrobat Reader. Users can search for names, dates, places, and, most important, words and ideas in a relative instant. Emerson used his journals as his “savings bank,” as he called them, to record and then use thoughts and facts for later use in essays, lectures and sermons. Therefore, we often find the seed of an entire essay in the journals, but we also find more private candid remarks and personal observations which did not find their way into the Complete Works. In all, the Journals are a fascinating and valuable record of a lifetime of inspiration and insight. Users will note that the formatting of the Journals mirrors the printed texts as closely as possible, maintaining pagination as well as Emerson’s original spelling and abbreviations. We have chosen not to use the traditional (sic) designation whenever a variant spelling occurs, thinking that such editing is intrusive. In the case of foreign words and passages, we have not provided translation, except where Edward Emerson does. Users who wish to have such translations should consult the JMN. Richard G Geldard, PhD, General Editor January, 2006 ([email protected]) The Emerson Journals Digital Archive, Volume 2 CONTENTS TEACHER AND DIVINITY STUDENT JOURNAL XV 1824 Letter to Aunt Mary: Byron's death. Books of the Centuries, A Man. Each and All. Tiberius. Questionings: Truth elusive, honest doubts; good seen everywhere. Books and Men. Writing for Americans, a proposed Spectator. Civilization. Society or Solitude. Fragment for Sermon, God within. Imagination. Providence. Faith a telescope. Aunt Mary's reproving letter: "Holy Ghost" degenerate Cambridge; Channing and Ware; diluted Calvinism; Christ against German madness an appeal. A portion of the nephew's answer: The God of Nature against the God of Calvin. Verses, Forefather? Day. Books ..............................................................................................................3 JOURNAL XVI 1825 Reflections on closing his School; cultivate sympathy. Verses on leaving the old life for the new. Prosperity and Arms. Editorial confidences: Ancestry; brothers; Conventional life ; selfishness. Everett's Plymouth Oration; Mediaeval despair and modern hope; Fortune or Providence ? Strength of weakness. Practical poetry. " Keeping." Solitude; dissuasions from the ministry; vi CONTENTS a free mind. Henry Clay. Leaves Roxbury for Cambridge Divinity School; reflections. Poetical quotations. The Ministry of the Day; the sages of old. Solitude or Society again; Action. Poem, Riches ( The Caterpillar). Letter to Aunt Mary: Anthropomorphism; the Divinity of common sense always recognized; Nature's influence. Modern progress. The Educated Mind. Books. Ill health; leaves Cambridge.......................................................................................................................36 JOURNAL XVII 1826 Teaching again in Roxbury and Cambridge. Joy in writing again. Faces the uncertain future. Content with Nineteenth Century. Compensation; people who sell themselves; Sin is ignorance. Another letter to Aunt Mary: Hume, his influence; each must have his own religion; Value of Christianity, even though transient. Greatness. The Sabbath. Slave trade. Verses, Fate. Rulers. Fitness. The Wind a poet. Another letter to Aunt Mary: German criticism of Christian evidences; loss of the tradition would be tragic; not to be passively abandoned. Reason in religion. Reflections and hopes. Byron. Age of Chivalry; Charles's remark. The world our teacher; History, its help for ideals. Another letter: education after death. Public prayer. Growth of one's knowledge. Forethought and afterthought. Friendship. Style. Hints of history. Seed-thought. Verses, Living-prayer. Immortality. Letter to Aunt Mary: Value of eyes; Everett's Phi Beta Kappa oration; genius, the Spirit of the Age? Shakspeare; The Mundane Soul; Man clings to identity; the Hereafter CONTENTS vii unworthily pictured; hard to conceive without Matter; surely welcome. Another letter: Poetry; Poet needs material form, Life as well as Imagination; Shakspeare and Wordsworth contrasted; criticism of latter; what is poetry ? Happiness defined. Letter to Aunt Mary: the moments of our lives. Funeral rites of Adams and Jefferson. Letter to Edward: the Soul's affinities. Quiddle. Reflections, bowing to necessity. Sampson Reed's book. Increasing ill health and depression; hope of Edward's return from Europe; take courage, and die like a gentleman. Christianity and morals; Reanson of Evil. Religious dogmas pass; what then? Poisons. Letter to Aunt Mary: Hume again, and Gibbon. Shakspeare; Burke; Everett; Emerson's own cold temperament. Another letter: Sampson Reed's Growth of the Mind; Swedenborgians; day of sentiment. Approbated to preach. Combats of Conscience. Belief in the Resurrection. Study of History. Butler on translations. Verses: Life or Death; Song. Emerson sails southward for his health. Versatility. The voyage. Charleston; tides of thought. Moral sense native; discoveries and science in morals. Advancing religion. Hypocrisy; sin carries its reward. Theologic war. Manners; Southern courtesy. Reading................................70 THE YOUNG MINISTER JOURNAL XVIII 1827 The new year; reflections, principle. Note-books. Love of eloquence. The fortunate generation. Freemasonry viii CONTENTS of the dull. The Flag. Iron. Verses, St. Augustine, and notes on that city. Determination of Right. Prince Napoleon. Achille Murat. Dark hours; rights of conscience; doubts; sovereignty of ethics. Tallahassee, visit to the Murats. Letters to Charles and William. Minorcans and Indians. Gibbet-irons. Peculiarities of the Present Age. Ingratitude. Necessity. Virtue and genius. The coming duties. The way of the great. Living in the future. St. Augustine's priest; Indians again. Letters to Edward and Charles, on Moments, and the value of letters. Letter to Aunt Mary: Meannness and grandeur; patriotism; prayer. Church at St. Augustine. The Bible educates. The slave-auction and the Bible meeting. Methodist preaching. Pantheism and Atheism. Verses in exile. Letter to Aunt Mary: improving health; the House of Pain, its benefit. Resignation not easy. Verses, Farewell to St. Augustine. Letter to William. Friendship with Achille Murat. At Charleston; good gifts of travel. Account of Murat and his letter to Emerson. Miss Emerson's letter to Mrs. Ripley: evolution and religion; unbelief; biblical criticism. Joy in thought; philosophic scriptures. Charleston. Verses on spontaneous utterance. " Listen." Autobiographic verses. Alexandria; returning courage. Compensation. Letter to Edward: Dr. Channing and inferior clergy. Letter to Aunt Mary: Alexandria; Bride of Lammermoor; aspirations for art, letters and science an argument for Immortality. President John Quincy Adams. The Lions of Philadelphia and New York. Emerson's preachings on way home. Some gain in health. Verse: At the Old Manse; The Storm; CONTENTS ix and added verse to the poem Fame. Letter to Aunt Mary: Dissolving of creeds after death; Immortality; Fear of Death. Constancy. The Magnet. A good hope. Another letter: Let the Preacher give from his own store. Use the minutes. Evidences. Solitude. President Adams. Genius and Domesticity. Alpine flowers. The Universal Mind. Sonnet in Sickness. Ellen Tucker. Places and days. Song. Letter to Aunt Mary: Religious feeling keeps alive through the ages among the enthusiastic and the grave; Reason in religion; and Imagination; God within. Reading..........144 JOURNAL XIX 1828 Preaching and practice. Use of time. Public Opinion. All knowledge valuable. Visit to the Prison. Selections from Wordsworth. Notes on Poetry: Criticism of Wordsworth; Shakspeare; Ben Jonson; Montgomery and Wordsworth. Milton. Burnap on Dr. Watts, and Dr. Doddridge. Deity. Mr. Otis and Judge Spencer. Office of Religion: Action as well as contemplation, yet action is not all; God the Pilot. Inspirantion. Friends. Silence. " Writing down." Saunterings — autobiographical. Education; good signs in children. Edward Bliss Emerson's Sketch for a Sermon. Conscience connects God to Man. Stored knowledge. Duelling. Self-reliance. Power of Mind. Situation. Man is his own Star. Reading. Justice. Beauty's immunity. The splendour of English Poetry. Forgiveness. Engagement to Ellen Tucker.....................................................................................................227 x CONTENTS MINISTER OF THE SECOND CHURCH OF BOSTON JOURNAL XX 1829 Lines to Ellen. Letter to Aunt Mary: the good days come to the family; trust against misgiving. The Call to the Second Church of Boston; reflections. The Fashionist in novels. Verses on the independent life. More lines to Ellen. Marriage. The New Jerusalem Church. Books. The Social Principle. Reading Nature; idolatries or God. Prayer. Serenity. Human Metamorphosis. Every man free. Second letter to Aunt Mary: Human progress; the cheering miracle of life; the idea of God. Perseverance, Habit, Force. Third letter to Aunt Mary: the ailing knee; Coleridge; a conventional or living Christmas Sermon ? Coleridge again. Uses of biography. Reading JOURNAL XXI 1830 Aunt Mary on intellectual debt to others. Story from Plutarch. Spirit of the Age. Your thought God's gift. Solon and Lycurgus. Metaphysics; critics. Aristotle; epitomized thought. Saying of Fenelon. Human desires. Natural goodness. Ministers' Conduct, self-denial, do not worry about example. Chemistry, Providence, Marriage of facts, Ideas of God. Religion sublimed. Miracles. Creeds grow from the structure of the creature; petty providences. Donne's counsel as to our CONTENTS xi responsibilities. Original poems. Preaching. Prayer. Webster's reply to Hayne. The Deacon. "One having Authority." The Year. Solitude; Wisdom and Virtue bound together; Character. Humility and Pride. Self-reliance; we shape ourselves and have compensations. Who is religious ? Asking reasons. Attitude of Wonder. Buckminster; all subjects good; Pertinence. Happiness or Serenity ? Happiness unearned. Town and Field. Men weighed against Nature. Dugald Stewart. Judge Howe. Resolves. Self-reliance. Simple Truth, Enterprising virtue. Poem, The Nightingale. Census of Slaves. Temperamental virtue; Free trade; Merit of talking shop." Fear of Death; Ancestral Christian death beds. Thought, not experiment, finds God. Enthusiasts; Swedenborgians, Quakers, Methodists. Be yourself. Perseverance; temperance, wise severance of the flesh from the Spirit. Patriotism. The Law, why reverenced. Means and Ends. Brave economy. Plotinus. As to history of Jesus, trust your Soul; God in the Soul. Ourselves in others. The low self. The truth is everyone's concern. The internalevidence important ; Miracles. Christianity weighed by truth. Bacon. Newton. Holy Days. The great facts. Sir Thomas Browne. Reading. De Gerando on Ancient Philosophies. Bacon's Prima Philosophia. Ancient Cosmogonies. Theogonies. Idealism, Peter Hunt. The Ionian School; Thales, Anaximander, Anaxagoras, Diogenes of Apollonia, Archelaus. The Italian School ; Pythagoras, Archytas, Eudoxus. The Eleatic School; Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno, Heraclitus, Hippocrates. Hymn; There is in all the sons of men. Extracts xii CONTENTS from Samuel Daniel, Donne, and Herbert, St. Paul, Novalis, Goethe, Lessing, Landor, and Lee's Life of Cuvier JOURNAL XXII 1831 Neighbour's claim is through God. Greatness, Nobility. Ethics bind Christian and Theist. Essential doctrines. Death of Ellen Tucker Emerson. Plotinus on God; Necessary Truths. God in all. The True Holy Ghost. Wisdom and Goodness one; hence Religion must not fear Science. Genius is Reception ; Examples, Jesus, Socrates, Milton, and others. Live as if forever, but man of God must be human. Verses on Country Life. Sad meditation. Conscience. Calm. Fast-Day Sermon, honour to the Forefathers. The Bride of Lammermoor; heroic characters. Novels; love of the Ideal Doctrine of Trust; gratitude. Heaven guards man's freedom. Man's inertia. Plotinus. Quotation from Schiller's Wallenstein, Coleridge's Translation. Admiration a fine trait. Be true to yourself. The Sunday School meetning; true attitude of a teacher. The blind and the illuminated mind; worth in the worthless. Lines on Death. Verses to Ellen. Visit to Vermont. Be God's child, not a sectarian. The Unteachable Wisdom. Thomas a Kempis, Fénelon, and Scougal. Freedom of the Wise. Verses, The days pass over me. Extracts from Giordano Bruno, Stewart, Wordsworth. Compensation. Nourish high sentiments. High aims assure of immortality. God makes us answer our prayers. CONTENTS xiii Obedience conquers. Shame of ignorance. Verses, on Death; President Monroe. Morals and Intellect. Point of View. Law. The blessed Nineteenth Century. The right word; test of good writing; poems; Shakspeare; Wordsworth ; the old English writers. He invents who proves ; the discerning eye. The Solitude of the Soul among friends. God in us. Education. Love and Death. Phi Beta Kappa. Longing for friendship. Thoughts that set one aglow ; friends capable of such ; Ellen. Thin disnguises. Right use of riches. The real power ; Napoleon, Cromwell, Andrew Jackson. Misrepresenting God. Trust reason ; The Oversoul; God's door. Right and wrong way to make Christ loved. Quotations from Bacon. Threads tie the Universe. Campbell. Justified books. Reputation. Adams's Eulogy on Monroe. Temperance. Silence; Speech; Poverty. Education. Coming Death. Who Knoweth ? Origin of Sunday Schools. Everyman's gauge. Miracles. Comnpensation. Elevated and clear writing. Pestalozzi on effect of surroundings. The moral law infinite. Verses, The Mines of Truth. Non-resistance; Judge each by his law. Creeds or Commandments ; Calvinism ; Heaven here. Quotations; Schelling, Landor, Cicero, Shakespeare's Sonnets. Formal and polemic Worship ; Calvinism and Unitarianism ; the Soul's worship. Derry Academy ; limitations; trust your instincts. Abide your time. Your Future here. Exchanges of pulpit. Robert Burns, 'Wordsworth, praise and criticism. Madam Emerson's remark. Mayhew School-Committee. Prayer should be entrance into God's mind. Origin xiv CONTENTS of poem Compensation. Elevation in sorrow; Ellen's words. Subjects for Sermons; the unseen good in man ; real wisdom and ignorance ; love of nature ; coincidence of first and third thoughts ; uneven character ; first and second thoughts. Charles Emerson's departure. Conferring favours. Parochial memoranda. God's orderly universe. Preach and practice. Visits to sick and dying; fear of death. Sentences and quotations. Extempore Speaking. Letter to Aunt Mary: Montaigne; wild vigour versus talking from memory. The closing year. Faith. Robert Haskins's proverb. Reading................................................353 JOURNAL XXIII 1832 The unsaid part of the discourse. Death. George Bradnford. The proposed book. Acquaintances. Mental crystallization. Mendelssohn's Phædo. Reading. Dreams. Ministerial Bonds. Native vigour in Speech. True Philosophy. Dangerous Power. Brave independence ; cowardly courtesies. Dreams and Beasts. Travel overestimated. The house-hero. Utilitarianism. Reality of Duty. Talk with Sampson Reed and Thomas Worcester on Spirits. Charming on War. To each his gift. Letter to Elizabeth Tucker advising reading, — Monitors: Thomas a Kempis, Scougal, Taylor, Fénelon, Browne, Young, Ware ; History: Muller, Robertson, Flume, Scott's Napoleon, Belknap's New Hamsphire, Morton's New England, Milman ; Natural History: Brougham, Herschel, Nuttill, etc.; Novels: Scott, Edgeworth, etc. ; CONTENTS xv Poetry: Milton, Bryant, Cowper, Thomson, Wordsworth. Poverty and Riches. A wise man's matter. Best opinions prevail at last ; Newton ; Leonardo da Vinci. Each finds his own in books. Nothing is new. Galileo. Unanswered questions. Sin. Temperance. The Unsatisfied. Mackintosh; creeds as scaffoldings, Moore on Campbell. Suum cuique. Abernethy on flies. Sermon subjects, Animals, Idleness. The force within. Nature teaches physician. Persian Scriptures. Pestalozzi. Stand to your thought; humility, human relations. Expression. Sermons. Porto Rico. A thought under another name. Symbols. Be master. Hobby-riding. Wonder. Woman. Blessed poverty. Spanish proverbs. Truth coming. Shakspeare's creations. Know to like. New lights. Envy unreasonable. Constancy. Concealment, The Present. The Point of view. Jortin. Missionaries. The Miracle of the Universe. Science ethical ; Design ; Astronomy, effect on religion. Crisis in Emerson's life ; to the mountains for help ; Meditations ; the stirring of thought; inspiration of Nature. Sunday at the inn. The question of the Lord's Supper. George Fox. God the Soul. Truth immortal. Repairs, bodily and spiritual. Real Antiquity. Design for a modern Plutarch. Ideal men. Speak your own word. Cholera times ; value of death and of life. Be genuine. Subject for a Sermon, watch for fine sentiment everywhere. Inner meaning of texts ; objective theology a discipline ; the soul reserves her word. Hypocrisy. Resignation of pastorate. Christianity educates and frees. Differing gifts. " Think of Living," the present duty, the unknown future. Your powers your horoscope. Seek xvi CONTENTS truth, do generously, have faith, the great have had it. Let God speak through us. First reading of Carlyle. Sovereignty of ethics ; Truth precedes Christianity. The terrible freedom. "Teach by degrees." Use God's riches. Resolves. Verses, Self-Reliance. Quotations from Landor. Problems of a minister. The Light within, let it direct your way ; it leads to common goal. Imitators. Thought and speech. Nothing within. Truth many-sided. The noble heart ; Carlyle. Mary Moody Emerson. Resignation of Pastorate accepted. Schiller. Pope's couplet. Public concern, or private ? Wasted life. Little thoughts. War. Aphorisms. Sartor Resartus. Margaret Tucker's death. A winter's day. Wordsnworth. Compulsory mathematics. Winter's day again. Letter to George A. Sampson on influence of solitude. Notice of Miss Tucker. Reading ..........................................................444 JOURNAL TEACHER AND DIVINITY STUDENT JOURNAL XV 1824 Letter to Aunt Mary: Byron's death. Books of the Centuries, A Man. Each and All. Tiberius. Questionings: Truth elusive, honest doubts; good seen everywhere. Books and Men. Writing for Americans, a proposed Spectator. Civilization. Society or Solitude. Fragment for Sermon, God within. Imagination. Providence. Faith a telescope. Aunt Mary's reproving letter: "Holy Ghost" degenerate Cambridge; Channing and Ware; diluted Calvinism; Christ against " German madness " ; an appeal. A portion of the nephew's answer: The God of Nature against the God of Calvin. Verses, Forefather? Day. Books ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~` JOURNAL XV (The last half of 1824, from " XV," XVI," and XVIII," 2d) [Fox the next few years, Mr. Emerson kept several journals or note-books, the distinction between which Is not strictly followed, with entries of dates covering several years. Therefore it seems better to avoid confusion by grouping the selections by years, rather than by separate note-books. It will be specified from what manuscript book the selections for each year were taken. It must be understood, then, that, In this part of the work, the heading for each year given by the editors, Journal —, does not signify a separate manuscript, but a combination; and yet, unfortunately, three of the journals that are here drawn upon have the Roman numerals xv, xvi, and XVIII, 2d, given by Mr. Emerson.] 4 JOURNAL AGE 21 R. W. E. TO MISS EMERSON (From " XVIII ") July 26, 1824. . . . I suppose It jarred no chord In the Vale* hen Byron died, a man of dreadful history, who left no brighter genius behind him than is gone, and no such blasphemer of heaven or pander to sensuality. But the light of sublimer existence was on his cheek, even In his sarcastic beastliness and coarse sneers, nor seemed less than archangel ruined, and the excess of glory obscured. It Is one of the hardest errors to get rid of, —the admiration of Intellectual excellence though depraved, and one cause is, there seems to be no reason why a spirit should he finely touched for such poor issues. One is glad of eternity, when we find so much to learn. But it Is melancholy to have your well dry up, your fountain stopped from whence you were wont to look for an unfailing supply. Men marvel at Scott's never-ending traditions, but they set no bounds to their expectation from Byron's creative genius. Wit, argument, history, * "The Vale" (Waterford, Maine) was the name of the Haskins farm, in which Miss Emerson had some rights, and which was long her place of residence. 1824 BOOKS 5 rhapsody, the extremes of good and ill,— everything was to be expected from his extraordinary invention. He might have added one more wonder to his life— Its own redemption. And now he is dead, and Is seeing the secrets his paramount genius dared to brave. It is terrible in example to presume as he has done, It is a risque not many are willing to run, but it Is less mean and no worse thus to face the things unseen, and shake hands with Lucifer, than to commit the deed, and love the lust, and shake at the contumely of being over-good, and refuse to speak out all the time out of fear of being struck dead. [BOOKS OF THE CENTURIES] (From " XVI ") October, 1824. By books," says the gentle Shepherd, " I crack wIth kings." 'T is a godlike Invention which thus annihilates to all purposes of mental Improvement both space and time, and suffers the solitary scholar by these silent Interpreters to converse with minds who Illuminated the beginnIngs of the world. My memory goes back to a past Immortality, and I almost realize the perfection of a spiritual intercourse which gains 6 JOURNAL AGE 21 all the good, and lacks all the Inconvenience and dIsgust of close society of Imperfect beings. We are then likest to the image of God, for in this grateful rapidity of thought a thousand years become one day. Providence has equitably distributed the highest order of minds along successive periods of time, and not clustered them all into one fortunate age. Hereby their potent influence enlightens the dark and cheers the gloom of barbarism. But an evil consequence ensues, that they are deprived of that splendid enjoyment which their equal society would afford them. But, as they everywhere rise above the sinking mass in which they stand, the eye of the distant historian associates them together, as in a distant prospect the vast Intervening lowlands vanish and the mountains tower above them, seeming to come together in solemn and sublime society. [A MAN] I am partial to one sort of portrait. . . . I like the image my fancy presents me of a wise man, well bred to a vast variety of sound learning, carrying through sun and rain, through his rambles and business, and animal refections and filthy occupations, through visits of ceremony 1824 EACH AND ALL 7 and all the attitudes into which the versatile scene of life may throw him,— his soul, that rich world of thought; that subtle and elegant arrangement of conceptions, ripe for communication so soon as another spirit is presented. I like an unity of purpose in a man like the oft repeated warning of Cato, "It Is also my opinion that Carthage should be destroyed." Scipio also. Mr. Wilberforce never speaks