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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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