The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-04-20
GEMS FROM EMERsoN's ESSAYS.

FoRMs Why, being as we are surrounded
by this all creating nature, soft and fluid as a
cloud or the air, should we be such hard pedants,
and magnify few forms ? Why should we
make account of time, or OF magnitude or OF
form2 The soul knows them not genius, obey
ing its laws, knows how to play with them as a
young child plays with greybeards and in church
es. Genius studies the casual thought, and far
back in the womb OF things, sees the rays part
ing from one orb, that diverge ere they fall by
infinite diameters Genius watches the monad
through all his masks as he performs the me-
tempsychosis of nature. Genius detects through
the fly, through the caterpillar, through the grub
through the egg, the constant type of the indi-
vidual through countless individuals the fixed
species; through many species the genus; through
all genera the stcadfast typc through all the
kingdoms Of organized life the eternal unity.
Nature is a mutabe cloud, which is always and
never the same. She casts the same thought in
to troops of forms, as poet makes twenty fables
with one moral. Beautifully shines spirit thro
the bruteness and toughness of matter Alone
omnipotenti it converts all things to its own end
The adamant streams into softest and precise
form before il, but whilst look at it, its outline
and texture are changed altogether Nothing
is so fleeing as FORM Yet never does it quite
deny itself. In man we still trace the rudiments
or hints of all that we esteem badges Of servitude
in the lower races, yet in him they enhance his
nobleness and grace; 10, in Kschylus trans
formed to COW, offends the imagination, but
how changed whenas Isis in Egypt, she meets
Jove, a beautiful woman, with nothing Of the
metamorphoss left but the lunar horns as the
splendid ornaments of her brow.
ARcHETYpEs.-The trivial experience of every
day is always verifying some old prediction to us,
and converting into things for us also the words
and signs which we had heard and seen without
heed. Let me add few examples, such as fall
within the scope of every mans observation, OF
trivial facts which go to illustrate great and con-
spicuous facts.
A lady, with whom I was riding in the forest,
said to me, that the woods always seemed to her
TO 1cdif, as if the genii who inhabit them sus
pended their deeds until the wayfarer has passed
onward This is precisely the thought which
poetry has celebrated in the dance of the fairies
which breaks off on the approach of human feet.
The man who has seen the rising moon break
out Of the clouds at midnight has been present
like an archange at the creation of light and OF
the world. remember that being abroad one
summer day, my companion pointed out TO me
broad cloud, which might extend quarter ola
mile parallel TO the horizon, quite accurately IN
the form of a cherub as painted over churches
round block in the centre which il was easy to
animate with eyes and mouth, supported on either
side by wide stretched symmetrical wings.
What appears once IN the atmosphere may APP
pear often, and it was undoubtedly the archie
type of that familiar ornament. have seen in
the sky chain of summer lightning which at
once revealed to me that the Greeks drew from
nature when they painted the thunderbot in the
hand Of Jove. / have seen snow-drlt along
the sides Of the stone wall which obviously gave
the idea of the common architectural scroll to a
but tower.
GREATNESS rSIMPLrcITy.-The costly charm
of the ancient tragedy and indeed ofall the old
literature is, that the.persons speak simply
speak as persons who have great good sense with
out knowing it, before yet the reflective habit
has become the predominant habit Of the mind.
Our admiration Of the antique is not admiration
of the old, but Of the natural. The Greeks are
not reflective but perfect in their senses, perfect
in their health, with the finest physical organi-
cation in the world. Adults acted with the simpli-
city and grace of boys. They madcvases, TRACE
dies, and statues such as healthy senses should
that is, in good taste. Such things have con-
tinued to be made in all ages, and are now,
wherever healthy physique exists, but, as a
class, from their superior organization, they
have surpassed all. They combine the energy
| Of manhood with the engaging Inconsistencies