The penny press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1859-1860, 1860-02-04
Ralph waldo EmeIson's Lecture on
f4Ht "Success.D

Ralph Waldo Emerson leotured, last evening,
at the First Congregational Church, on "Suc-
cess" to q large and intellectual auditory.
The Amercaa people were given to boast
ing, and naturally enough, because they had
obtained and continued to obtain all kinds of
practical success. They had built railways
and steam. engines and telegrsphs, and in
vented countless sorts Of machinery by which
to abridgs exertion and diminish labor. All
these were the evidences of success, but not
Of the best or highest. Napoleon, Byron,
Goethe and all commanders, poets and artists
had done what they only could do, and the
secret by which they had succeeded had died
with them. So the means Of success were
open to all, and they who had gone before
might teach those that followed.
The lirst requisite Of success was self trust
that power we obtained from confidence in our
individual efforts, independent Of all others
aid or counsel. Few men had faith In, or
obeyed, their own thought; but they who did,
gained the truest success. The best Influences
came from within: Nature revealed herself
through the soul, and what she decided was
ever good and beautiful. A.
The second requisite Of success was sensibil-
ity, which more than talent accomplished OBJ
jeots In life, since by it We gained sympathy
with our fellows, and comprehended the wants
Of our own being. Ssnsibility placed us in
large and accurate relations with the world.
Through it we are taught the ways Of truth
and the forms of earnestness and merit, and
were enabled to grspple with the spiritual
realities Of existence and trace the chain of
cause and effect. ..sa rtt.' r~f
Affrmativeness, too, was needful for success.
Negatives did not advance, but held back
and retarded all operation Of the brain and
cunning of the hand. Afirmatives gave US
content, calmneSs, cheerfulness, and by them
we were taught to reveal the fair and good
alone. The most Affirmative of Alternatives
was love, which conquered where it went.
Men should not live for or demonstrate the
dark and painful. We all had enouyho of those,
and should keep them out of sight as much
as we could. What was pleasing alone was
welcome, and effort should be directed to the
diffusion of satisfaction and happiness. There
was no place here for cynics and misanthropes
We needed to look on the bright side Of things
that we might have bright side to our own
life, without which life was failure. Health,
serenity, faith, were the guardians Of ouI
being, and when we lost these, we were in all
manner ofdsnger, and liable to be wounded at
every turn. Fl N
Sincerity and virtue were large elements In
all true success, and until we had them, we
might prate Of tunneling mountains and
draining lakes and erecting churches to little
purpose. There was o vulgar success inner.
tied perhaps from our Teutonic forefathers
which was popular and praised; while the true
success, because it brought in no per centage
was regarded ss chimeraical. Such ohimsras
were the result of spiritual laws, the rulers Of
the universe, the solemn inter
between the soul and its author, the shapere
of our. destiny, and tho features that rem.
dered life worthy and the world beautiful.
The lecture, though fine, Of course, ani
interesting, was less absorbing than most w
have heard from Mr.. Emerson, and, even fol
him, so unusually rambling and episodioal
that one often lost sight of the theme alto
gether,