Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1896-09-17
EmersOn's
Religious Philosophy.
PAPER BY ANNA J. NORRIS.

Emerson's religious philosophy covers
wide range of topics inasmuch as he makes
religious everything in the universe, or what
is the same thing, attaches to everything a
moral estimate. Hence with my limited
space, shall not attempt too much but con.
fine myself to three points upon which, to
the mind accustomed to the traditional view,
he is especially vague, points that consti.
tute the bulk of our present. essay and reap
pear in all his writings, viz: God, the Soul
and immortality.
To the correct understanding of these how.
ever, we need a slight acquaintance with the
doctrine of Evolution and the doctrine Of In
carnation-the two fundamental ideas at the
core of Emersons philosophy.
What is Evolution? Briefly this that this
universe, the world as we see it today, as all
other worlds, has developed gradually from
primordial atoms along the line of patient.
orderly, wise bencficent Law; that these
primordal atoms contained within themselves
all the promise, potency, powers and posi-
bilities of mind and matter that lead up to
God and man; that thru the power of COM
bination distribution and Neutrality-suspicious.
into molecules. and molecules into cells, and
cells into organism, these original atoms have
produced man and that this development is
still moving on
ITO that far off divine event
To which the whole creation moves
the perfection of man.
Now what matter Is in Its ultimate essence
no man can tell, but reduced to It's final
analysis, it is transformed into intangible
force or power This force that ever elndes
the Investigations of the scientist, Herbert
Spencer calls the Persistent Energy, The
Unknowable, the Transcendent Reality.
Matthew Arnold calls II "the power, not our
selves at,makes for Righteousness. ITO Emer
son 1t stands as the God force working with.
in and without-the force we behold in air,
earth and water in plant, in animal and in
man.
Twenty years before Darwin's "Orign Of
Species" was published, Emerson announced
the theory of evolution in his little book
called Mature" on whose title page was in
scrihed the following motto:
"a subtle chain of countless rings
The next unto the farthest brings.
The eve reads Omens where it goes,
And speaks all languages the rose.
And striving to be man, the worm
Mounts through all the spires of form. "
Again in his lode to Bacchus," he asks for
spiritual "wine which music is" that drink
ing it, he
"Shall hear far Chaos talk with ME,
Kings unborn shall walk with me;
And the poor grass shall plot and plan
What it will do when it is man."
Here Is his conclusion to Wood Notes" ::
Ever fresh the broad creation,
A divine improvisation,
From the heart of God proceeds,
A single will, million deeds.
Once slept the world an egg of stone,
And pulse, and sound, and light was none;
And God said 'Throb! and there was
motion,
And the vast mass became vast ocean.
Onward and on, the eternal Pan,
Who layeth the worlds incessant plan,
Halteth never in one shape,
But forever doth escape,
Like waye or flame, into new forms
OF gem, and air, of plants, and worms
He is free and libertine,
Pouring of his power the wine
To every age, to every race.
Unto each, and unto ALL
He is the axis of the star,
He is the sparkle of the spar,
He is the heart of every creature,
He is the meaning Of each feature.
And his mind is the sky,
Than all 1t holds more deep, more high"