Emerson’s life, journals, and letters considerably7 modify the impression which his published essays and lectures are calculated to leave—namely, that he was a mere8 stringer-together of lively thoughts, images, and poetical9 epigrams. He seems to have made the best of his own humanity, and to have always done the right according to his judgment10, though the doing of it sometimes involved serious pecuniary11 inconvenience, and, as in the case of his opposition12 to the fugitive13 slave law, violent popular disapprobation. He was kindly14 and moral in his family and social relationships, and was conscientious15 even to a fault in avoiding those venial16 sins of language to which the most of us are perhaps too indifferent. His American admirers sometimes spoke17 of him as an “angel.” At any rate, he was a sort of sylph. He noted18 of his compatriots generally that “they have no passions, only appetites.” He seems to have had neither passion nor appetite; and there was an utter absence of “nonsense” about him which made it almost impossible to be intimate with him. Margaret Fuller, his closest friend, and even his wife, whom he loved in his own serene19 way, seem to have chafed20 under the impossibility of getting within the adamantine sphere of self-consciousness{128} which surrounded him. He not only could not forget himself, but he could not forget his grammar; and when he talked he seemed rather to be “composing” his thoughts than thinking them. His friend and admirer, Mr. Henry James the elder, complains that for this reason his conversation was without charm. “For nothing ever came but epigrams, sometimes clever, sometimes not.” His manners and discourse21 were, however, invariably kind and amiable22. He never seems to have uttered a personal sarcasm23, and only once in his life to have been seriously angry. This was on occasion of the famous fugitive slave law, which he indignantly declared would be disobeyed, if need be, by himself and every honest man.
Dr. W. H. Furness writes of Emerson: “We were babies and schoolfellows together. I don’t think he ever engaged in boys’ plays.... I can as little remember when he was not literary in his pursuits as when I first made his acquaintance.” Indeed, “orating” was in Emerson’s blood. Nearly all his known ancestors and relatives seem to have been “ministers” of some denomination24 or other. His school-days—though he never became a scholar in any department of learning—began before he was three years old. His father complains of the baby of two years and odd months—“Ralph does not read very well yet”; and during{129} all the rest of his youth Dr. Furness says that he grew up under “the pressure of I know not how many literary atmospheres.” Add to this the fact that his father and mother and his aunt—who was the chief guide of his nonage—were persons who seemed to think that love could only be manifested by severe duty, and rarely showed him any signs of the weaknesses of “affection,” and we have as bad a bringing-up for a moral, philosophical25, and religious teacher as could well have been devised. “The natural first, and afterwards the spiritual.” Where innocent joy and personal affection have not been main factors of early experience the whole life wants the key to Christianity; and a rejection26 of all faith—except that in “genius,” “over-soul,” “a somewhat which makes for righteousness,” or some other such impotent abstraction—is, in our day, almost inevitable27 in a mind of constitutional sincerity28 like Emerson’s, especially when such sincerity is unaccompanied, as it was in him, by a warm and passionate29 nature and its intellectual correlative, a vigorous conscience. Emerson, though a good man—that is, one who lived up to his lights—had little or no conscience. He admired good, but did not love it; he denounced evil, but did not hate it, and did not even maintain that it was hateful, but only greatly inexpedient.{130}
Though Emerson could not see that a religion of which there is nothing left but an “over-soul” is much the same thing as a man of whom there is nothing left but his hat, the religious bodies to which he was for many years more or less attached were less devoid30 of humour, and the joke of a faith without a dogma became, in time, too much for their seriousness. Consequently they agreed amicably31 to part, and Emerson pursued his course; that which had hitherto been called “preaching” becoming thenceforward lecturing and “orating.”
There can be no greater misfortune for a sincere and truthful32 mind like Emerson’s than to have to get a living by “orating.” This was his predicament, however; and there can be no doubt that his mind and his writings were the worse for this necessity. His philosophy afforded him only a very narrow range of subject. In all his essays and lectures he is but ringing the changes upon three or four ideas—which are really commonplace, though his sprightly33 wit and imagination give them freshness; and it is impossible to read any single essay, much less several in succession, without feeling that the licence of tautology34 is used to its extremest limits. In a few essays—for example, “The Poet,” “Character,” and “Love”—the writer’s heart is so much in the matter that these endless variations of one idea have the effect of{131} music which delights us to the end with the reiteration35 of an exceedingly simple theme; but in many other pieces it is impossible not to detect that weariness of the task of having to coin dollars out of transcendental sentiments to which Emerson’s letters and journals often bear witness. But, whether delighted with or weary of his labour, there is no progress in his thought, which resembles the spinning of a cockchafer on a pin rather than the flight of a bird on its way from one continent to another.
Emerson’s was a sweet and uniformly sunny spirit; but the sunshine was that of the long Polar day, which enlightens but does not fructify36. It never even melted the icy barrier which separated his soul from others; and men and women were nothing to him, because he never got near enough to understand them. Hence his journals and letters about his visits to Europe, and especially to England, are curiously37 superficial in observation. He made many acute and witty38 remarks, such as, “Every Englishman is a House of Commons, and expects that you will not end your speech without proposing a measure;” but, on the whole, he quite misunderstood the better class of our countrymen, of whom, in his second visit to England, he had the opportunity of seeing a good deal. Although there was much constitutional{132} reserve, there was no real reticence39 in him. His ethereal, unimpassioned ideas had, indeed, nothing in them that, for him, commanded reticence; and he concluded that the best sort of Englishmen were without any motives40 that “transcend” sense, because he did not feel, as all such Englishmen do, that though that which transcends41 sense may be infinitely42 dearer than all else, and even because it is so dear, it is better not to talk of things which can scarcely be spoken of without inadequacy43 and even an approach to nonsense. Many an Englishman would turn aside with a jest from any attempt to lead him into “transcendental” talk, not because he was less, but because he was more “serious” than his interlocutor; and also because the very recognition of certain kinds of knowledge involves the recognition of obligations, to confess directly or indirectly44 the fulfilment or neglect of which implies either self-praise or self-blame, which, in ordinary circumstances, are alike indecent. In fact, Emerson was totally deficient45 in the religious sense, which is very strong in the hearts of a vast number of Englishmen who own to no fixed46 creed47, but who would be revolted by the profound and unconscious irreverence48 with which Emerson was in the habit of speaking and writing of the most sacred things and names. The name of “Jesus” frequently occurs in such sentences as this: “Nor{133} Jesus, nor Pericles, nor C?sar, nor Angelo, nor Washington,” etc.
If we put aside Emerson’s unconscious malpractices in this sort, the attitude of his mind with regard to the serious beliefs of the world were too childish for resentment49 or exposure. It is as if one should be angry with a young lady who should simper, “Oh, my religion is the religion of the Sermon on the Mount!” in answer to an attempt to talk with her about Bossuet or Hooker.
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1
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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well-being
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| n.安康，安乐，幸福 | |
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enjoined
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| v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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definitively
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| adv.决定性地，最后地 | |
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aspiring
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| adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求 | |
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7
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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pecuniary
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| adj.金钱的；金钱上的 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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venial
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| adj.可宽恕的；轻微的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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chafed
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| v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的过去式 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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denomination
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| n.命名，取名，(度量衡、货币等的)单位 | |
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philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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amicably
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| adv.友善地 | |
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truthful
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| adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的 | |
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sprightly
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| adj.愉快的，活泼的 | |
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tautology
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| n.无谓的重复；恒真命题 | |
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reiteration
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| n. 重覆, 反覆, 重说 | |
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fructify
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| v.结果实；使土地肥沃 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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reticence
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| n.沉默，含蓄 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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41
transcends
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| 超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的第三人称单数 )； 优于或胜过… | |
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42
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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43
inadequacy
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| n.无法胜任，信心不足 | |
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indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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45
deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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46
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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47
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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48
irreverence
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| n.不尊敬 | |
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49
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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