For practical success, there must not be too much design. A man will not be observed in doing that which he can do best. There is a certain magic about his properest action, which stupefies your powers of observation, so that though it is done before you, you wist not of it. EXPERIENCE JANUARY TWENTY-FIRST You would compliment a coxcomb doing a good act, but you would not praise an angel. The silence that accepts merit as the most natural thing in the world is the highest applause. Such souls, when they appear, are the Imperial Guard of Virtue, the perpetual reserve, the dictators of fortune. One needs not praise their courage,—they are the heart and soul of nature. AN ADDRESS JANUARY TWENTY-SECOND The fate of the poor shepherd, who, blinded and lost in the snow-storm, perishes in a drift within a few feet of his cottage door, is an emblem of the state of man. On the brink of the waters of life and truth, we are miserably dying. THE POET JANUARY TWENTY-THIRD While one thing thou lackest, The only credentials, Opens castle and parlor, Address, man, Address. JANUARY TWENTY-FOURTH TACT Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm. JANUARY TWENTY-FIFTH MAN THE REFORMER All that is clearly due to-day is not to lie. In other places, other men have encountered sharp trials, and have behaved themselves well. The martyrs were sawn asunder, or hung alive on meat-hooks. Cannot we screw our courage to patience and truth, and without complaint, or even with good-humor, await our turn of action in the Infinite Counsels? JANUARY TWENTY-SIXTH THE TRANSCENDENTALIST Heaven is large, and affords space for all modes of love and fortitude. Why should we be busy-bodies and superserviceable? Action and inaction are alike to the true. One piece of the tree is cut for a weathercock and one for the sleeper of a bridge; the virtue of the wood is apparent in both. All things are known to the soul. It is not to be surprised by any communication. Nothing can be greater than it. Let those fear and fawn who will. The soul is in her native realm, and it is wider than space, older than time, wide as hope, rich as love. Pusillanimity and fear she refuses with a beautiful scorn: they are not for her who putteth on her coronation robes, and goes out through universal love to universal power. THE METHOD OF NATURE JANUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH Every natural action is graceful. Every heroic act is also decent, and causes the place and the bystanders to shine. We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it. Every rational creature has all Nature for his dowry and estate. It is his, if he will. JANUARY TWENTY-NINTH Nor scour the seas, nor sift mankind, Behold, he watches at the door, JANUARY THIRTIETH BEAUTY SAADI The true thrift is always to spend on the higher plane; to invest and invest, with keener avarice, that he may spend in spiritual creation, and not in augmenting animal existence. WEALTH JANUARY THIRTY-FIRST The wise man is the State. He needs no army, fort, or navy,―he loves men too well; no bribe, or feast, or palace, to draw friends to him; no vantage ground, no favorable circumstance. He needs no library, for he has not done thinking; no church, for he is a prophet; no statute book, for he is the law-giver; no money, for he is value; no road, for he is at home where he is; no experience, for the life of the creator shoots through him and looks from his eyes. POLITICS |