Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays--First and Second Series
Reading notes--Adam Kissel
Extraordinary hopes for man are grounded not on experience
or history, 171, but on some higher unknown thing, 172;
call it Unity, the Over-Soul, 172
the Over-Soul described. The whole, eternal One, soul;
inarticulable; inspires;
transcendent simplicity and energy of the Highest Law, 172-73
Soul described: beyond mind, intellect, will; the
background of our being, 173-74
within, or, behind; a light; we are nothing, the light is
all, 174
it makes for genius, virtue, love: if we obey, 174
it is as God, the cause: ineffable, 174
freed from natural law (esp. time, space), 175-76
progresses after its own law, by levels, and in us, 176-77
unity of (moral and intellectual) virtues; the world is an
unfolding of God the Cause, 177
Spirit’s form: in the world, in people, found in
society; we share a common nature, 178
we share truth, loving it for its own sake: the mind is one,
178
form is a condescension of spirit into the world, 179
The soul knows what is true; it perceives and reveals truth,
180
Itself is man and truth; it enlightens the man: Revelation. Emotion, sublime, 181
We gain insight through obedience to it, having joyfully perceived it
[truth/soul/over-soul], 181
We remember such joyful moments, 181
Absolute law; soul answering by the thing itself; revelation answers not the understanding but speaks to another soul, 182
Immortality of soul is essentially associated with truth,
justice, love (i.e., these are the soul’s attributes), 182-83
Things above words, 182-83
We can only live in the infinite present, 183
We can discern character; it outs -- not to our understanding/will, but to our soul, 183-84
Index of true progress is a man’s tone, evidence of
having found his home in God, 184.
tone of seeking rather than having, 185
speaking from within, as personal experience (vs. without as
though a spectator), 185
As for moral, so for intellectual virtue: omniscience makes human genius, 185
On the great vs. the lesser poets, 186
be plain and true, 187; sincere, 188
Worship God in order to in some sense become God, acc. to Emerson; a union with something always new, an infinite enlargement of the heart, 188-89
The highest is within man; the sources of nature are in man’s own mind, where there is sentiment of true duty, 190
No concern for the unsaved other as such, 190 -- rather aim for self-(soul-)-expression. Don’t look to authority but to oneself, 190.