The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-06-04
EMERsONIAN HONESTY.

What an arraignment of humanity was
that when that great American philosopher.
Emerson, said of man: He is ashamed be-
fore the blowing rose" He no longer says
L am but quotes some sage" He is no
longer upright" These roses he says,
ARE for themselves, not for other ones, nor
for better Ones" What wholesome respect
man must needs pay these self-asserting
roses, for they exist and grow and thrive to-
day just as they did under Emerson's win
dow. For him who has not enjoyed and
profited by the essays of this philosopher
let US clear the above psychological equation
OF the radical sign. This process leaves us
in possession Of the trite statement: Man
is dishonest" Lest this assertion be too
broad and too easily misconstrued. let us
again eliminate the ideas-some of them
at the cost of augmenting its verbal length:
Man is dishonest 10 himself"
If the Essays Of Emerson" be a criterion
or the man Emerson he most certainly was
the embodiment of eminent and scrupulous
honesty. If no true disciple of Christ will be
student of Emerson can be dishonest 10
himself and to his own immediate interests.
One Emerson We have had in this Republic:
there are possibilities. aye. necessities, for
seventy millions such men. Else, will the
world one day depend upon Epictetus.
Socrates, Plato, Locke and our own philoso-
pHeT lOT IOOu 10 sustain the souls OF men /.
Or. as We near the millennium, will the
necessity for such matter decrease and ulti-
mately disappear? OF these two evil condi-
tons we certainly must choose the former,
obviously the better. though, while making
this choice, let US offer up silent prayer
that neither may exist Let none think that
men should expound their petty views or
theories upon the thoroughfares, or that
every publication be compelled TO give space
to each ana every article that smatters Of
theory or private views of philosophy. True
ii is that by dissemination and assimilation
civilization and education are positive facts;
the above statement Diss emination is good
incubation or assimilation is better all
three are too much imposed upon. A pupil
would never learn the positions of the sew
eral political divisions of the earth without
being told, but he ascertain the num-
Der of inches IN meter by applying yard
stick.
What changed world would this be If
there were no such weak expression as II
think and IL there could be no possible
If man were forced 10 know and TO say II
know and instead OF Bacon said" were
compelled to say Il am This idea is DIM
ter impossibility. But were it practicable
and a fundamental principle Of the soul,
then were Emerson's words superfiuous and
as absurd as this present theory. 1t is a
possibility. and eminently practicable too.
that the present conditions approach more
nearly and better conform to this principle
JUsk SCI AcL 1910 tSoA Go ddfct4ts
and that at least some of the inner processes
OF the souls development be entirely iso-
lated from similar processes In other souls
both Of the present and Of the past That
is honesty when we ..let the dead past bury
its dead with all working processes Of
those dead theories, when we live for our
selves, in ourselves and with our own for
mulae. That is honest when We let Socrates
prepare the ground, when we let Bacon SOW
the seed leaving for ourselves the super
vision of the growth and development, the
Graduating OF obtectiona bic matter and the
grating Then were harvests plentiful and
OF good quality: then would Emerxon's thirst
for truth and honesty be Quenched.
Seymour Ind r SCHNfITT