The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-06-20
Thoughts of Emerson.

The credence OF men it ia thai
mOlds them, and creates at will one OF
another surface. The mind rs it opens
transfers very fast its choices from the
circumstances to the cause from cour-
tc-y to love, from invention TO science,
from London or Washington law, or
public opinion, to the self revealing idea;
from all that talent executes to the SEN
timent that fills the heart and dictates
the future OF nations.
The man of this age must be matricu-
lated in the university OF sciences and
tendencies flowing from all past periods.
He must not be n who can be surprised
and shipwrecked by every bold and
subtle word which malignant and
acute men may utter in his hearing, but
should be taught all sceplicisms and
unheliets, and made the destroyer of all
card houses and paper walls, and the
sitter of all opinions, by being pnt face
to face from hi. infancy with reality,
A man who has accustomed himself to
look at all his circumstances as very
mutab!e, TO carry his possessions, his
relations to persons, and even his Opin.
ions, in his hand, and in all these to
to pierce to the principle and moral law,
and everywhere to find that, has put
himself out Of the reach of all scepticism;
aud it seems as if whatever is most
affecting and sublime in our intercourse,
in our happiness, and il our losses,
tended steadily to uplift us to Il life so
extraordinary, and one might say, super
human.
How came this creation 80 magically
woven that nothing can do me mischief
but myself-that an invisible fence sur
rounds my being which screens me from
harm that ! will to resist? If | will
stand upright, the creation can not bend
me. But i'll violate myself, if commit
Il crime, the lightning loiters by the
speed of retributiCn, and every act is not
hereafter but instantaneously rewarded
according to its quality. Virtue is the
adoptins OF this dictate ofthe univer..
sal mind by the individual will.
Character is the habit OF
this obedience, and religion is the ac-
c%ompanying emotion, the emotion of
reverence which the presence of the
universal mind ever excites in the in
dividual.
The mystic or theist is never scared
by any startling materialism. He knows
the laws of gr~avitation and of repulsion
are deaf to French takers, be they never
so witty. If theology shows that opin-
ions are fast changing, it ia not 30 with
the convictions of men with regard to
conduct. These remain. The most
daring heroism, the most accomplished
culture or iapt holiness, never exhausted
the claim OF these lowly duties, never
penetrated to their origin, or was able to
look behind their source. We can not
disenchant, we can not i%mpoverish our
selves, by obedience but by humility
we rise, by obedience we command, by
poverty we are rich, by dying we live.
Man does not live by bread alone, but
by faith, by admiration, by. sympathy.
'Tis very shallow to say that cotton or
iron, or silver or gold, are kings of the
world there are rulers that will at any
moment make these forgotten. Fear
will; love will character will. Men
live by credence. Governments stand
by it, by the faith that people share,
whether it comes from the religion In
which they were bred,o from an original
conscience in themselves, which the
popular religion echoes. If government
could only stand by force, if the instinct
OF the people was to resist the govern
ment, it is plain that the government
must be two to one, in order to be secure,
and then it would not be safe from des-
perate individuals. But no; the old
commandment, Thou shalt not kill"
holds down New York, and London, and
Paris, and not a polics, or horse. guards '