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06-worship-第3部分

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chariot of the sun。  What a day dawns; when we have taken to heart

the doctrine of faith! to prefer; as a better investment; being to

doing; being to seeming; logic to rhythm and to display; the year to

the day; the life to the year; character to performance;  and have

come to know; that justice will be done us; and; if our genius is

slow; the term will be long。



        'Tis certain that worship stands in some commanding relation to

the health of man; and to his highest powers; so as to be; in some

manner; the source of intellect。  All the great ages have been ages

of belief。  I mean; when there was any extraordinary power of

performance; when great national movements began; when arts appeared;

when heroes existed; when poems were made; the human soul was in

earnest; and had fixed its thoughts on spiritual verities; with as

strict a grasp as that of the hands on the sword; or the pencil; or

the trowel。  It is true that genius takes its rise out of the

mountains of rectitude; that all beauty and power which men covet;

are somehow born out of that Alpine district; that any extraordinary

degree of beauty in man or woman involves a moral charm。  Thus; I

think; we very slowly admit in another man a higher degree of moral

sentiment than our own;  a finer conscience; more impressionable;

or; which marks minuter degrees; an ear to hear acuter notes of right

and wrong; than we can。  I think we listen suspiciously and very

slowly to any evidence to that point。  But; once satisfied of such

superiority; we set no limit to our expectation of his genius。  For

such persons are nearer to the secret of God than others; are bathed

by sweeter waters; they hear notices; they see visions; where others

are vacant。  We believe that holiness confers a certain insight;

because not by our private; but by our public force; can we share and

know the nature of things。



        There is an intimate interdependence of intellect and morals。

Given the equality of two intellects;  which will form the most

reliable judgments; the good; or the bad hearted?  〃The heart has its

arguments; with which the understanding is not acquainted。〃 For the

heart is at once aware of the state of health or disease; which is

the controlling state; that is; of sanity or of insanity; prior; of

course; to all question of the ingenuity of arguments; the amount of

facts; or the elegance of rhetoric。  So intimate is this alliance of

mind and heart; that talent uniformly sinks with character。  The bias

of errors of principle carries away men into perilous courses; as

soon as their will does not control their passion or talent。  Hence

the extraordinary blunders; and final wrong head; into which men

spoiled by ambition usually fall。  Hence the remedy for all blunders;

the cure of blindness; the cure of crime; is love。  〃As much love; so

much mind;〃 said the Latin proverb。  The superiority that has no

superior; the redeemer and instructor of souls; as it is their primal

essence; is love。



        The moral must be the measure of health。  If your eye is on the

eternal; your intellect will grow; and your opinions and actions will

have a beauty which no learning or combined advantages of other men

can rival。  The moment of your loss of faith; and acceptance of the

lucrative standard; will be marked in the pause; or solstice of

genius; the sequent retrogression; and the inevitable loss of

attraction to other minds。  The vulgar are sensible of the change in

you; and of your descent; though they clap you on the back; and

congratulate you on your increased common sense。



        Our recent culture has been in natural science。  We have

learned the manners of the sun and of the moon; of the rivers and the

rains; of the mineral and elemental kingdoms; of plants and animals。

Man has learned to weigh the sun; and its weight neither loses nor

gains。  The path of a star; the moment of an eclipse; can be

determined to the fraction of a second。  Well; to him the book of

history; the book of love; the lures of passion; and the commandments

of duty are opened: and the next lesson taught; is; the continuation

of the inflexible law of matter into the subtile kingdom of will; and

of thought; that; if; in sidereal ages; gravity and projection keep

their craft; and the ball never loses its way in its wild path

through space;  a secreter gravitation; a secreter projection; rule

not less tyrannically in human history; and keep the balance of power

from age to age unbroken。  For; though the new element of freedom and

an individual has been admitted; yet the primordial atoms are

prefigured and predetermined to moral issues; are in search of

justice; and ultimate right is done。  Religion or worship is the

attitude of those who see this unity; intimacy; and sincerity; who

see that; against all appearances; the nature of things works for

truth and right forever。



        'Tis a short sight to limit our faith in laws to those of

gravity; of chemistry; of botany; and so forth。  Those laws do not

stop where our eyes lose them; but push the same geometry and

chemistry up into the invisible plane of social and rational life; so

that; look where we will; in a boy's game; or in the strifes of

races; a perfect reaction; a perpetual judgment keeps watch and ward。

And this appears in a class of facts which concerns all men; within

and above their creeds。



        Shallow men believe in luck; believe in circumstances: It was

somebody's name; or he happened to be there at the time; or; it was

so then; and another day it would have been otherwise。  Strong men

believe in cause and effect。  The man was born to do it; and his

father was born to be the father of him and of this deed; and; by

looking narrowly; you shall see there was no luck in the matter; but

it was all a problem in arithmetic; or an experiment in chemistry。

The curve of the flight of the moth is preordained; and all things go

by number; rule; and weight。



        Skepticism is unbelief in cause and effect。  A man does not

see; that; as he eats; so he thinks: as he deals; so he is; and so he

appears; he does not see; that his son is the son of his thoughts and

of his actions; that fortunes are not exceptions but fruits; that

relation and connection are not somewhere and sometimes; but

everywhere and always; no miscellany; no exemption; no anomaly; 

but method; and an even web; and what comes out; that was put in。  As

we are; so we do; and as we do; so is it done to us; we are the

builders of our fortunes; cant and lying and the attempt to secure a

good which does not belong to us; are; once for all; balked and vain。

But; in the human mind; this tie of fate is made alive。  The law is

the basis of the human mind。  In us; it is inspiration; out there in

Nature; we see its fatal strength。  We call it the moral sentiment。



        We owe to the Hindoo Scriptures a definition of Law; which

compares well with any in our Western books。  〃Law it is; which is

without name; or color; or hands; or feet; which is smallest of the

least; and largest of the large; all; and knowing all things; which

hears without ears; sees without eyes; moves without feet; and seizes

without hands。〃



        If any reader tax me with using vague and traditional phrases;

let me suggest to him; by a few examples; what kind of a trust this

is; and how real。  Let me show him that the dice are loaded; that the

colors are fast; because they are the native colors of the fleece;

that the globe is a battery; because every atom is a magnet; and that

the police and sincerity of the Universe are secured by God's

delegating his divinity to every particle; that there is no room for

hypocrisy; no margin for choice。



        The countryman leaving his native village; for the first time;

and going abroad; finds all his habits broken up。  In a new nation

and language; his sect; as Quaker; or Lutheran; is lost。  What! it is

not then necessary to the order and existence of society?  He misses

this; and the commanding eye of his neighborhood; which held him to

decorum。  This is the peril of New York; of New Orleans; of London;

of Paris; to young men。  But after a little experience; he makes the

discovery that there are no large cities;  none large enough to

hide in; that the censors of action are as numerous and as near in

Paris; as in Littleton or Portland; that the gossip is as prompt and

vengeful。  There is no concealment; and; for each offence; a several

vengeance; that; reaction; or _nothing for nothing_; or; _things are

as broad as they are long_; is not a rule for Littleton or Portland;

but for the Universe。



        We cannot spare the coarsest muniment of virtue。  We are

disgusted by gossip; yet it is of importance to keep the angels in

their proprieties。  The smallest fly will draw blood; and gossip is a

weapon impossible to exclude from the privatest; highest; selectest。

Nature created a police of many ranks。  God has delegated himself to

a million deputies。  From these low external penalties; the scale

ascends。  Next come the resentments; the fears; which injustice calls

out; then; the false relations in which the offender is put to other

men; and the reaction of his fault on himself; in the solitude and

devastation of his mind。



        You cannot hide any secret。  If the artist succor his flagging

spirits by opium or wine; his work will characterize itself as the

effect of opium or wine。  If you make a picture or a statue; it sets

the beholder in that state of mind you had; when you made it。  If you

spend for show; on building; or gardening; or on pictures; or on

equipages; it will so appear。  We are all physiognomists and

penetrators of character; and things themselves are detective。  If

you follow the suburban fashion in building a sumptuous…looking house

for a little money; it will appear to all eyes as a cheap dear house。

There is no
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