MM MM MM MM MM MM NOVEMBER NOVEMBER FIRST D O what you know, and perception is converted into character, as islands and continents were built by invisible infusories, or as these forest leaves absorb light, electricity, and volatile gases, and the gnarled oak to live a thousand years is the arrest and fixation of the most volatile and ethereal currents. NOVEMBER SECOND Silent rushes the swift Lord THE METHOD OF NATURE Through ruined systems still restored, NOVEMBER THIRD THRENODY The moment we indulge our affections, the earth is metamorphosed: there is no winter and no night: all tragedies, all ennuis vanish,— all duties even; nothing fills the proceeding eternity but the forms all radiant of beloved persons. Let the soul be assured that somewhere in the universe it should rejoin its friend, and it would be content and cheerful alone for a thousand years. [ 101 ] FRIENDSHIP The heroic soul does not sell its justice and its nobleness. It does not ask to dine nicely and to sleep warm. The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough. Poverty is its ornament. Plenty does not need it, and can very well abide its loss. NOVEMBER FIFTH The inevitable morning Finds them who in cellars be, NOVEMBER SIXTH HEROISM THE WORLD-SOUL We cannot part with our friends. We cannot let our angels go. We do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in. We are idolators of the old. We do not believe in the riches of the soul, in its proper eternity and omnipresence. NOVEMBER SEVENTH COMPENSATION The last lesson of life, the choral song which rises from all elements and all angels, is a voluntary obedience, a necessitated freedom. Man is made of the same atoms as the world is, he shares the same impressions, predispositions, and destiny. When his mind is illuminated, when his heart is kind, he throws himself joyfully into the sublime order, and does, with knowledge, what the stones do by structure. NOVEMBER EIGHTH For gods delight in gods, And thrust the weak aside; To him who scorns their charities, THE WORLD-SOUL NOVEMBER NINTH The private poor man hath cities, ships, canals, bridges, built for him. He goes to the post-office, and the human race run on his errands; to the bookshop, and the human race read and write of all that happens for him; to the court-house, and nations repair his wrongs. He sets his house upon the road, and the human race go forth every morning and shovel out the snow, and cut a path for him. COMMODITY NOVEMBER TENTH The Greek battle-pieces are calm; the heroes, in whatever violent actions engaged, retain a serene aspect; as we say of Niagara, that it falls without speed. A cheerful, intelligent face is the end of culture, and success enough. For it indicates the purpose of Nature and wisdom attained. CULTURE NOVEMBER ELEVENTH We cannot describe the natural history of the soul, but we know that it is diyine. THE METHOD OF NATURE Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong what is against it. A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he. SELF-RELIANCE NOVEMBER THIRTEENTH One thing is forever good, And to all the heavenly brood. Who bides at home, nor looks abroad, FATE NOVEMBER FOURTEENTH The time is coming when all men will see that the gift of God to the soul is not a vaunting, overpowering, excluding sanctity, but a sweet, natural goodness, a goodness like thine and mine, and that so invites thine and mine to be and to grow. AN ADDRESS NOVEMBER FIFTEENTH A man cannot utter two or three sentences, without disclosing to intelligent ears precisely where he stands in life and thought, namely, whether in the kingdom of the senses and the understanding, or in that of ideas and imagination, in the realm of intuitions and duty. People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. NOVEMBER SIXTEENTH Who liveth by the ragged pine, Who liveth in the palace hall, NOVEMBER SEVENTEENTH WORSHIP WOOD NOTES There are more belongings to every creature than his air and his food. His instincts must be met, and he has predisposing power that bends and fits what is near him to his use. He is not possible until the invisible things are right for him, as well as the visible. FATE NOVEMBER EIGHTEENTH God screens us evermore from premature ideas. Our eyes are holden that we cannot see things that stare us in the face, until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened, then we behold them, and the time when we saw them not is like a dream. SPIRITUAL LAWS NOVEMBER NINETEENTH It is as easy to be great as to be small. The reason why we do not at once believe in admirable souls is because they are not in our experience. PLATO; OR, THE PHILOSOPHER |