Resumo de Essay Iv Spiritual Laws*part 1*

The river-bank, the weed at the water-side, the old house, the foolishperson, ? however neglected in the passing, ? have a grace in the past. Eventhe corpse that has lain in the chambers has added a solemn ornament to thehouse. All loss, all pain, is particular; the universe remains to the heartunhurt. For it is only the finite that has wrought and suffered; the infinitelies stretched in smiling repose. The lesson is forcibly taught by these observations, that our life mightbe much easier and simpler than we make it; that the world might be a happierplace than it is; that there is no need of struggles, convulsions, anddespairs, of the wringing of the hands and the gnashing of the teeth; that wemiscreate our own evils. We are full of mechanical actions. Our Sunday-schools, and churches, andpauper-societies are yokes to the neck. Our society is encumbered by ponderousmachinery, which resembles the endless aqueducts which the Romans built overhill and dale, and which are superseded by the discovery of the law that waterrises to the level of its source. When the fruit is ripe, it falls. When thefruit is despatched, the leaf falls. The circuit of the waters is mere falling.The walking of man and all animals is a falling forward. There is a soul at the centre of nature, and over the will of everyman, so that none of us can wrong the universe. Place yourself in the middle ofthe stream of power and wisdom which animates all whom it floats, and you arewithout effort impelled to truth, to right, and a perfect contentment. Then youare the world, the measure of right, of truth, of beauty. If we will not bemar-plots with our miserable interferences, the work, the society, letters, arts,science, religion of men would go on far better than now, and the heavenpredicted from the beginning of the world, and still predicted from the bottomof the heart, would organize itself, as do now the rose, and the air, and thesun. I say, do not choose; but that is a figure of speech by which Iwould distinguish what is commonly called choice among men, and which isa partial act, the choice of the hands, of the eyes, of the appetites, and nota whole act of the man. But that which I call right or goodness is the choiceof my constitution; and that which I call heaven, and inwardly aspire after, isthe state or circumstance desirable to my constitution; and the action which Iin all my years tend to do, is the work for my faculties. The talent is thecall. The height of the pinnacle is determined by the breadth of the base. Thepretence that he has another call, a summons by name and personal election andoutward "signs that mark him extraordinary, and not in the roll of commonmen," is fanaticism, and betrays obtuseness to perceive that there is onemind in all the individuals, and no respect of persons therein. By doing his work, he makes the need felt which he can supply, andcreates the taste by which he is enjoyed. It is the vice of our public speakingthat it has not abandonment. Then is he a part of the machine he moves; the manis lost. Foolish, whenever you take the meanness and formality of that thingyou do, instead of converting it into the obedient spiracle of your characterand aims. The parts of hospitality, the connection of families, theimpressiveness of death, and a thousand other things, royalty makes its ownestimate of, and a royal mind will. A man's genius, the quality that differenceshim from every other, the susceptibility to one class of influences, theselection of what is fit for him, the rejection of what is unfit, determinesfor him the character of the universe. Over all things that are agreeable to his nature and genius, the man hasthe highest right. To the thoughts of that state of mind he has a right. Allthe secrets of that state of mind he can compel. Yet a man may come to find thatthe strongest of defences and of ties, ? that he has been understood; and hewho has received an opinion may come to find it the most inconvenient of bonds.We are lways reasoning from the seen to the unseen. People are not thebetter for the sun and moon, the horizon and the trees; as it is not observedthat the keepers of Roman galleries, or the valets of painters, have anyelevation of thought, or that librarians are wiser men than others. The visionsof the night bear some proportion to the visions of the day. Hideous dreams areexaggerations of the sins of the day. The good, compared to the evil which hesees, is as his own good to his own evil. And why not? He cleaves to oneperson, and avoids another, according to their likeness or unlikeness tohimself, truly seeking himself in his associates, and moreover in his trade,and habits, and gestures, and meats, and drinks; and comes at last to befaithfully represented by every view you take of his circumstances. Thescholar forgets himself, and apes the customs and costumes of the man of theworld, to deserve the smile of beauty, and follows some giddy girl, not yettaught by religious passion to know the noble woman with all that is serene,oracular, and beautiful in her soul. Take the place and attitude which belongto you, and all men acquiesce. The man may teach by doing, and not otherwise

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