Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays--First and Second Series
Reading notes--Adam Kissel
pp. 61-84 (in Riverside = R, 91-127)
The point: “It seemed to me also that in it [a
discourse on Compensation] might be shown men a ray of divinity, the present
action of the soul of this world, clean from all vestige of tradition; and so
the heart of man might be bathed by an inundation of eternal love, conversing
with that which he knows was always and always must be, because it really is
now.” (62; R 93)
In this and the next chapter, point is
“to record some facts that indicate the path of the law of Compensation; happy
beyond my expectation, if I shall truly draw the smallest arc of this circle.”
(63-64, R 96; cf. 383)
So many things illustrate the doctrine of Compensation; life is ahead of theology on this point; it is a divine doctrine more easily observed than described, 61-62
On the hereafter as a realm of justice--this he
presents slightly disingenuously as a false idea, 62-63
True justice and success based not on the market, but the soul and the will in
re good and bad, 63
Polarity: action/reaction, thesis/antithesis, on the
world-scale and for individuals [macro disclosed in micro], 64
[Riverside notes that this concept
reconciles the One and the Plural/Dual, R 398]
see polarity/compensation in man, automatic leveling, 65
even genius has its drawbacks, and obviously also the
tyrant’s power, 66
one’s character will out, regardless of polity, 66
all things are of one stuff; all subject to same powers and forms
of nature; all are types of all, in some way of Being, of God, 67
the universe is a living universe, 67
Retribution: the
part calls forth the whole, 68 [cf. 64]
internally, this happens immediately; the external evidence takes
longer to be disclosed and to be understood, 68
Cannot split off the soul’s goods from those of the body, 69
Wisdom is to accept life’s conditions, 70
the wise man knows the lesson of compensation/justice and
extends the lesson everywhere, 75
Culture notes the law of compensation, and our literatures
even check the powers of the gods, 70-72
our proverbs are the home of our intuitions of reason/truth (e.g.
regarding compensation), 72
Cannot do adikia without suffering it [cf. Plat.
Gorgias], 73
social implications, 74
fear [cf. conscience], 74
on gift and on frugality, 75
On labor: compensation holds. The price of labor, i.e., good sense applied to needs, is knowledge
and virtue, 76
Knowledge, via mental exertion;
Virtue, in obedience to pure motives, 76
nature is in cahoots with virtue, and exposes vice, 77
this is source of optimism [esp. in action]; there is a
use in misery, a strength arising from weakness, 78-79
one may be optimistic even in the course of
being persecuted, 79-80
Suffering has its own value; can be
remedial, redemptive even, 84
Circumstances ultimately are indifferent, but there is a deeper
fact that should guide action, namely, compensation’s own nature, 80
that is, the soul is, it is a life; the deeper fact
is Being, the whole, a vast affirmative, self-balanced, which makes nature,
truth, virtue
meanwhile, vice is really a lessening of Being
[cf. Augustine]; harm is a nonbeing, 81
vice does not necessarily incur a clear
circumstantial penalty; likewise virtue may bring no circumstantial benefit, 81
Virtue carries no
compensatory loss of Being--it adds Being. Herein a source for optimism:
a soul without limits;
soul’s living is a progress.
There is no tax on the deeper good of Virtue, 82.
virtue
partakes of absolute existence, of God--here is beyond better and worse, more
and less (vs. external nature, where compensation holds)
We should be expanding
the horizons of our being: enlargement,
irrespective of the path the world takes, 83
Seeking enlargement is
inhibited by idolizing and resting in the past, 84
By understanding goodness it becomes our own, even if or even although it existed first elsewhere, 82-83