The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-06-13
Thonghts of Emerson.

We are to know that we are never
without q pilot. When we know not
how to steer, and dare not hoist a sail,
We can Drift. The current knows the
wsy, though we do not. When the stars
and sun appear; when we have COW rs
ed with nsvigatOTs who know the coast,
we may begin to put out an oar or trim a
sail. The snip of heaven guides itself,
and will not accept wooden rudder.
The credencs o. men it is that
mOlds them, and creates at will one or
another surface. The mind as it opens
trans feTs very fast its choice from the
circumstances to the cause from cour-
tesy to love, from invention TO science,
from London or Washington law, or
public opinion, to the self revealing idea;
from ali that talent executes to the sem
timent that fills the heart and dictates
the future of nations.
The man of this age must be matricu-
lated in the univeI sity OF sciences and
tendencies flowing from all past periods.
He must net be one 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 scepticisms and
Unbelieis, and made the destroyer of all
card houses and paper walls, and the
sitter of all opinions, by being pnt c
to face from hls infancy with reality.
A man who has accustomed himself to
look at all his circumstances as very
mutable, 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 IN our lOsse s,
tended steadily to uplift us to a 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 l will
stand upright, the creation can not bend
me. But If violate myself, ii / commit
a crime, the lightning lOiteTs by the
speed of retributicn, and every act is not
hereafter but instantaneOuslv rewarded
according to its quality. Virtue is the
adopting OF this dictate of the univer
sal mind by the individual will.
Character is the habit OF
this obedience, and religion is the ac1
companying emotion, tue emotion OF
reverence which the presence of the
uuivers mind ever excites in the in
dividual.
The mystic or theist is never scared
by any startling materialism. He knows
the laws of gravitAtion and of repulsion
are deaf to French takers, be they never
so witty. II Theology shows that Opin-
ions are fast changing, it is not so with
the CONVICTIONS of men with regard To
conduct. These remain. The most
daring heroism, the most accomplished
culture or capt holiness, never exhausted
the claim OF these lowly duties, never
penetrated 10 their origin, or was able to
| look behind their source. We can not
! disenchant, we can not impoverish our
! selves, by obedience; but by humility
we rise, by OBJ dience 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
/ lis very shallow 70 say that cotton OF
| iron, or silver or gold, are kings of the
world; there are rulers that will at any
moment make these forgotten. Feal
/ will; love will character will. Men
| live by credence. Governments stand
| by 1t. by the faith that people share
| whether it comes from the religion il
which they were bred or from an Original
conscience in themselves. which the
popular religion echoes. If government
could only stand by force, if tha 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, anc
Paris, and not a police, or guards.