entire paragraph were a portion of a sermon preached, probably in the following winter, in East Lexington. Mrs. Emerson cared so much for this passage that she gave it to her children to read while they were very young. Page 297, note 1. No ray is dimmed, no atom worn, And the fresh rose on yonder thorn Gives back the bending heavens in dew. Song of Nature," Poems. CIRCLES No part of this essay appears to have been taken from earlier papers, and no lecture of that name is recorded. On the 12th of September, 1840, in a letter to Miss Elizabeth Hoar, Mr. Emerson wrote: "My chapter on Circles' begins to prosper, and when it is October I shall write like a Latin Father." His friend, William Ellery Channing, thus spoke of the range of Emerson's mind: I The circles of thy thought shine vast as stars, No glass shall round them, No plummet sound them, They hem the observer like bright steel wrought bars, And limpid as the sun, Or as bright waters run From the cold fountain of the Alpine springs, Or diamonds richly set in the king's rings. Dr. Richard Garnett writes: "The object of this fine essay Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by Richard Garnett, LL. D., London, Walter Scott, 1888. quaintly entitled Circles' is to reconcile this rigidity of unalterable law with the fact of human progress. Compensation illustrates one property of a circle, which always returns to the point where it began, but it is no less true that around every circle another can be drawn. Hence there is no security but in infinite progress. .. Emerson followed his own counsel; he always keeps a reserve of power. His theory of • Circles' reappears without the least verbal indebtedness to himself in the splendid essay on Love." " The poem "Uriel" should be read in connection with this essay. Page 301, note I. Line in Nature is not found, Unit and Universe are round. 66 Uriel," Poems. Page 301, note 2. Another morn has risen on mid-noon. Milton, Paradise Lost, V., 310. The last clause in the sentence suggests one by Mr. Emerson's neighbor poet, William Ellery Channing, in "The Poet's Hope," If my bark sinks, 't is to another sea. Page 302, note 1. The old doctrine of Heracleitus again, brought to the modern use of progress by evolution. The prophecies of 1841 made in the later portion of this paragraph have been strangely fulfilled in sixty years. Page 303, note I. Giddy with motion, Nature reels, Change acts, reacts; back, forward hurled, Page 304, note 1. "The Poet," Poems, Appendix. "Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence." Nature, chapter iv. The ripples in rhymes the oar forsake. "Woodnotes," II., Poems. Page 304, note 2. It was a curious superstition in the Middle Ages that evil spirits could not get out of a circle drawn around them. Some American Indians leave a slight break in the colored circles that decorate their baskets for the Devil to get out. Page 307, note I. Unless above himself he can Erect himself, how poor a thing is man. Samuel Daniels To the Countess of Cumberland." (Quoted in Civilization," Society and Solitude.) Page 307, note 2. The ideas expressed in this paragraph also be found in the Poems. may Page 308, note 1. It was Mr. Emerson's own habit in his lectures, after presenting strongly one side of his theme, suddenly to show the other aspect of it, almost ignored before. This might be done in another lecture of the course, but often in the same one. In vain produced, all rays return. 66 • Uriel," Poems. Page 311, note 1. In The Poet," I. (Appendix), and in "Woodnotes," II., in the passage beginning, "Hearken once more," he tells of the instability of apparent permanencies. Page 312, note I. The necessary alternation from books to nature, from society to solitude, was always urged by Mr. Emerson, the latter in each case ranking the former. See the passage in The American Scholar " beginning " Undoubtedly there is a right way of reading, so it be sternly subordinated." See thou bring not to field or stone Leave authors' eyes, and fetch your own, To brave the landscape's looks. "Waldeinsamkeit," Poems. Page 313, note 1. The need of direct relation of the soul with God is dwelt upon at length in the latter part of the "Address to the Senior Class of the Divinity School” in Nature, Addresses, and Lectures: "Let me admonish you, first of all, to go alone . . . and dare to love God without mediator or veil," etc. Page 314, note I. The welcome idea of the symbolism of Nature he received first from Plato, and it was this which gave him pleasure in Swedenborg's teachings. "The noblest ministry of Nature is to stand as an apparition of God." Nature, chapter vii. Page 314, note 2. pensation Compare the second motto of "Com " in this volume. Pyrrho of Elis (360-270 B. c.) Page 317, note I. From Young's Night Thoughts. Page 317, note 2. taught that truth was unattainable, and that men should be indifferent to all external circumstances. Page 318, note I. This consoling idea of Good out of Evil is taught in the motto for " Spiritual Laws" in this volume and in Uriel" in the Poems. The balance-beam of Fate was bent, Page 318, note 2. Dr. Holmes, referring to this paragraph, says: "But Emerson states his own position so frankly in his essay entitled Circles,' that the reader cannot take issue with him as against utterances which he will not defend.' Page 319, note I. His poem "Terminus" shows how Emerson met advancing old age. INTELLECT This lecture was not given in any of the Boston courses. Passages of no great length were taken from the lectures on "Literature" in the course on "The Philosophy of History" (1836-37), and from "The Doctrine of the Soul" and Genius" in that on " Human Life" (1838-39). |