The Republican journal., 1871-01-05
EMERSON on IMMORTALITY.


the other night in Boston, to his views on
"Immortalty" He said that in the first
records of every nation in any degree,
thoughtful or cultivated, some belief in
the life beyond life would be suggest
ed The whole life Of man in the first ages
'seems to be ponderously determined on
death" The polty of the Egyptians made
every man an undertaken and the priesthood
a senate of sections, the chief end of man be-
ing to be buried well. The Greek had quite
another philosophy He loved life and de-
lighted in beauty. He adored death; lie
looked at death only as the distributor of i'm
perishable glory. Nothing can excel the
beauty of his sarcophagus. Christianity
brought new wisdom. He thus describes
the existing feeling with regard to death
"Men 90 up and down; sciences popular
ize; the irresistible democracy OF chemistry,
Of vegetation, recompenses with new life
every decomposing particle-the race never
dying, the individual never spared. Hay
ing pressed on the minds of the age the fu-
tility of the old arts of embalming, we give
our earth to earth. Sixty years ago we
beyond that all the terrors that theology
ed to increase the gloom. A great change
has occurred Death is seen as Il natural
event, and is met with lirmness, A great
man of our time caused to be written on his
tomb, ''Think on Living" The permanent
l.oalthy state of the mind and body is the love
of life. What is so good let us endure
He wholly disapproves Of the prevailing
materalistic views, and thus tersely sums
them up. ''The sceptic atfirms that the uni
verse is a nest Of boxes, with nothing in the
last box. Bonaparte said of the heart-why
that's one OF the viscera. It's hunger, it's
the pit of the stomach that moves the
world.'
A few simple elements Of ''natural faith''
strikes us is our delight in permanence. We
what is mean. A man of thought is willing
to die, is willing to live; but man of affairs
is afraid to die, is pestered with terrors.
The perception of Immortality comes by the
activity Of the intellect, never to the lazy or
rusty mind. The real good of books is per-
haps the feeling of Immortality which they
awaken.
lie thus pursues the train of thought:
"A great integrity makes Us immortal.
An admiration, q deep love, a strong will
arms us beyond fear. 1t makes the day
memorable; we say we live five years in
that hour. 1t is not my duty to prove to my
self the secret of the soul That secret is hid
very cunningly. Perhaps the archangels
cannot find out the secret of their existence,
rs the eye cannot see itself But it is the
first duty, ending or endless, to live while |
live.'' He thus argues from the universal in
stinct of Immortality implanted in us, and
says: eff nature plant in an animal a desire,
it is proof that in the constitution of that ami
nal is the means of its gratitication Is
there not longing in the soul for the spirit
llal existence to the boundless extent which
thought requires? And what does that point
to? Where is its qualification? Where
but in the new and endless life ?" In the
succeeding paragraphs he ventilates his pc
culiar theological notions:
'sBut the question arises whether all men
are alike immortal. lie who would live
hereafter must live now. This sublime hope
Of man refuses to deal with men in masses
and races. 1t sterny sewers the individual
soul from the whole world and deals with
him alone. How i'll agrees this inestimable
mortality with the frivolous population
win you build magniliccntly for mlce !?
Why these people cannot dispose OF q day.
An hour hangs heavy on their hands, and
will you offer them rolling ages without an
duration suggests one of those musty house
every wreck of pottery aud wooden ware,
and preserve every frppery Of their child
hood. Not thus does God preserve the old
souls. What does he preserve them tor?
You shall not get out of nature till you have
paid your debts, and other worlds and all
worlds will resemble this in the eternal pre-
paratons and toll for everything worth pos
sessing. 1t is not length Of life, but depth of
ltc it is not duration, but the taking of the
soul out Of time, rs all moral sense, rs all
high action does; and when we are living in
sentiment, we ask no questions about time.
"And this is the way we rise in being.
Within every mans thought is Il higher
ght-within the character he exhibits to-
day nobler development. The youth puts
off the weakness of the child, SO tho man puts
off the ignorance and tumultuous passions of
the youth. Then he puts off the egotism of
manhood and becomes at least public and
universal soul. He is rising to ideas. He is
rising also to reality-the outward circum-
stances dying out, he entering deeper into the
highest being, into truth and knowledge.
The last garment Of egotism falls off, and he
is the divinity, shares the will and the i'm
mensity of the first cause. The ancients said
it was vial Of water broken in the sea. !
confess that everything with relation to per-
sonality fails Nature never spares the in
dividual. We have our indemnity only in
complete success, and the soul stipulates for
no private good. That which is private / see
not to be good.