Produced by Miranda van de Heijning Juliet Sutherland Charles Franksand the Online Distributed Proofreading TeamREPRESENTATIVE MENSEVEN LECTURESBYRALPH WALDO EMERSON  I Uses of Great Men II Plato or the Philosopher    Plato New ReadingsIII Swedenborg or the Mystic IV Montaigne or the Skeptic  V Shakspeare or the Poet VI Napoleon or the Man of the WorldVII Goethe or the WriterI USES OF GREAT MENIt is natural to believe in great men If the companions of ourchildhood should turn out to be heroes and their condition regal itwould not surprise us All mythology opens with demigods and thecircumstance is high and poetic that is their genius is paramountIn the legends of the Gautama the first men ate the earth and foundit deliciously sweetNature seems to exist for the excellent The world is upheld by theveracity of good men they make the earth wholesome They who livedwith them found life glad and nutritious Life is sweet and tolerableonly in our belief in such society and actually or ideally we manageto live with superiors We call our children and our lands by theirnames Their names are wrought into the verbs of language their worksand effigies are in our houses and every circumstance of the dayrecalls an anecdote of themThe search after the great is the dream of youth and the most seriousoccupation of manhood We travel into foreign parts to find hisworksif possible to get a glimpse of him But we are put off withfortune instead You say the English are practical the Germans arehospitable in Valencia the climate is delicious and in the hillsof Sacramento there is gold for the gathering Yes but I do not travelto find comfortable rich and hospitable people or clear sky oringots that cost too much But if there were any magnet that wouldpoint to the countries and houses where are the persons who areintrinsically rich and powerful I would sell all and buy it and putmyself on the road todayThe race goes with us on their credit The knowledge that in the cityis a man who invented the railroad raises the credit of all thecitizens But enormous populations if they be beggars are disgustinglike moving cheese like hills of ants or of fleasthe more theworseOur religion is the love and cherishing of these patrons The gods offable are the shining moments of great men We run all our vesselsinto one mould Our colossal theologies of Judaism Christism BuddhismMahometism are the necessary and structural action of the human mindThe student of history is like a man going into a warehouse to buycloths or carpets He fancies he has a new article If he go to thefactory he shall find that his new stuff still repeats the scrollsand rosettes which are found on the interior walls of the pyramids ofThebes Our theism is the purification of the human mind Man canpaint or make or think nothing but man He believes that the greatmaterial elements had their origin from his thought And our philosophyfinds one essence collected or distributedIf now we proceed to inquire into the kinds of service we derive fromothers let us be warned of the danger of modern studies and beginlow enough We must not contend against love or deny the substantialexistence of other people I know not what would happen to us We havesocial strengths Our affection toward others creates a sort of vantageor purchase which nothing will supply I can do that by another whichI cannot do alone I can say to you what I cannot first say to myselfOther men are lenses through which we read our own minds Each manseeks those of different quality from his own and such as are goodof their kind that is he seeks other men and the otherest Thestronger the nature the more it is reactive Let us have the qualitypure A little genius let us leave alone A main difference betwixtmen is whether they attend their own affair or not Man is that nobleendogenous plant which grows like the palm from within outward Hisown affair though impossible to others he can open with celerity andin sport It is easy to sugar to be sweet and to nitre to be saltWe take a great deal of pains to waylay and entrap that which of itselfwill fall into our hands I count him a great man who inhabits a highersphere of thought into which other men rise with labor and difficultyhe has but to open his eyes to see things in a true light and in largerelations whilst they must make painful corrections and keep avigilant eye on many sources of error His service to us is of likesort It costs a beautiful person no exertion to paint her image onour eyes yet how splendid is that benefit It costs no more for awise soul to convey his quality to other men And every one can do hisbest thing easiest_Peu de moyens beaucoup deffet_ He is great whois what he is from nature and who never reminds us of othersBut he must be related to us and our life receive from him some promiseof explanation I cannot tell what I would know but I have observedthere are persons who in their character and actions answer questionswhich I have not skill to put One man answers some questions whichnone of his contemporaries put and is isolated The past and passingreligions and philosophies answer some other question Certain menaffect us as rich possibilities but helpless to themselves and totheir timesthe sport perhaps of some instinct that rules in theairthey do not speak to our want But the great are near we knowthem at sight They satisfy expectation and fall into place What isgood is effective generative makes for itself room food and alliesA sound apple produces seeda hybrid does not Is a man in his placehe is constructive fertile magnetic inundating armies with hispurpose which is thus executed The river makes its own shores andeach legitimate idea makes its own channels and welcomeharvest forfood institutions for expression