Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays--First and Second Series
Reading notes--Adam Kissel
NOMINALIST AND REALIST
pp. 383-399 (Riverside edn. = R, 223-248)
A MAN not equal to IDEAL MAN; we all fall short, 383
Man can stand for the thought, for truth, but cannot be so, 383
Problem of the arc and the whole curve, 383 [cf. “Compensation,”
63-64]
No one is symmetrical, having total symphony of talents, 384
We wrongly identify each person with the soul itself when we
admire someone, 384
Fine men may yet lack either love or self-reliance, 385
Such experience teaches reserve through our love of reality, 385
Look not towards individuals but universals, eternals, 385-86
like the magnetism which arranges tribes and races in
one polarity, 385
on the perceived genius of a nation vs. the lesser
individuals within it, 386
national genius inferred in part from
nation’s language, i.e., moral sentiments expressed through language, 387
it seems like one man set up society,
having realized his thought, 387-88 [point is that the thought was first]
likewise, it seems that one man is
behind all the books; all good books seem contemporary, modern, 388
Em. reads for
personal benefit: not to understand the author but to see a portion of nature
and fate, 388-89
The preference of genius to parts/particulars is the
secret of elevation of art found in superior minds, 389
details are means to
the whole, 389
the anomalous also is useful as a means to the whole,
389-90
We are very near the
best; we should hope for the advent of the best, 390
Divine man does not respect persons; hard for him to keep
individuals in sight, as such, 390
yet nature always breaks through with new particulars to
incorporate, 390
nature is plural, 391 [and many times elsewhere]
nature makes us live in particulars, 391
even so, every man is a channel
through which heaven floweth, 394
The overall sanity of
society balances the idiosyncrasies of each, 391 (just as in the party system,
393 and above)
Irrelevant particulars are not seen by any individual; once a particular is needed, he sees it, 395-96
Life is the reaction of end with means, gamester and game [subject and object], 396
On nature’s contradictions and paradoxes, 397
e.g., every man is both partialist/realist and
universalist/nominalist, 397
we are in both moodes, 397-98,
always oscillating
CONCLUSION: Emerson wishes the philosophers could understand him, 399.
On to “New England Reformers”