12STICAL ELEMENTS II EIIERSOIPS THOUGHT

APPROVED*

C&-. llajor Professor

Minor Professor

Dir5J€jb6g7 of the )epartraent of English

Dean of the Graduate School

MXSflCAL EmiEIfS Hi B1ERS0M*S THOUGHT

DIESIS

Presented to the Graduate Council of the

Nortli Tessas State University in Partial

FalfiUmeat of the Requirements

For the Degree of

MUSTER OF ARTS

By

Lillian II. ConliLin, B. A.

Denton, Texas

January,- 1966

TABLE OP CONTENTS

Page

Chapter

I. INTRODUCTION . 1

II. PREREQUISITES 1?

III. MYSTICAL ELEIffiMTS II EJCKRSOMfS THOUGHT 31

IV. ACHIEVEMENTS 71

V. CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . 8*+

BIBLIOGRAPHY , 88

ill

ciapi-ER i

llfHOKJCflOM

For nany years critics and biographers have asecl the

terras "nystic,n "roystical," and "xaystician" with reference

to Enerson or his writings. Dillaway has written that "he

[Emerson] was a cystic . • , Rusk states that Emerson

"endowed tho Greek philosopher [Plato] with a degree of ioys~

ticisa uuch like his own,"^ and liaulsby writes that "in some

degree . . . ESaerson was a mystic."3 G. w» Firkins refers

to hiri as a "scholar-aystic, and Christy states eiaphat-

ically that "Emersonian thought was a natter of elnost pure

mysticism" Goddard writes that "in Emerson this [mystical]

elenent was considerable, but • • , more in a tendency to

%ewton Dillaway, P£oj&et MeJElGS (Boston, 1936), p. 32^.

^Kalph L. Rusk, & M,fel StX ] U & Msxsm, {Mm York? 19^95 9 p# 375j hereafter abbreviated as. IAf© of ISM* " '

^David Lee l-iaulaby, lis S m i g d M M m 3& I4tesltei (Tufts College, 1911), pp. 7*-7'>*

^0. VI. Firkins, Sa2^ ¥&L4ft 1&SC3S& (Cambridge, 1915), P. 119.

^Arthur Christy, Th& ficisai imsXsm (Hew York, 1932), p . 266.

«L

excess of contemplation than to rapture ."6 Patrick Qulnti

denies «&at Ester son "«as in any sense a mystic #7 Though

raany authors refer to I person1 s mysticism, the only work

which has bean flew ted entirely to the subject Is & dis-

sertation by Ityvon F« Wicke entitled "Enerson's 2$ysticlsa.n®

Treataciit of the subject reaains vague and unsettled, how-

over, Tor no generally acceptable definition of terms lias

"been agreed on»

•Uystielsa,* Spurgeon writer., "is a tern so irrespon-

sibly applied in English that it hc.s "become the first duty

of those who "use it- to explain what they neaii by it. "9 Is

a preliminary step it is necessary to define oysticisn in

the light at recent prubXiea^loiis—that is, those which have

appeared since the late nineteenth centaury- Modern author-

ities have arrived at a generally usable definition of

raysticisa by eliminating the moaning of trio word in its

occasional use oad retaining the ncaning in its popular lase.

Harold Clarice Goddard, Studies jji Hey £ngl^d JJrsp-(Kew Yorl:, i960} , p« 132,

^Patrick F. Qulaa, "Eaersoa and l rsticiSEa," Ancrlean 2X1 (June, 19 ?C), 397-5+l -

<> uliyron F. Wlcke, "l&nerson's IJysticisn," unpublished doctoral dissertation* Department of English Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, l$ta»

^Caroline F» li. Spur goon, g&sSXs&m SieiMIl (London, 1927)» p. 1»

The dictionary definition of "nystic" is.

• • . one who maintains the "validity and the supreme importance of roystleal theology* Hence, in extended application: One who, whether Christian or non-Christian, seeks by contempla-tion and self-surrender to obtain union with or absorption into the Deity, or who believes in the possibility of tho spiritual apprehension of truths that are Inaccessible to the understanding.*®

The second step in defining the terras will be the limit-

ing of elements to those which are the essence of mysticism

or to the common characteristics.

Evelyn Underbill1 a detailed coverage of tho subject in

her recent study, Itysticisra. is most valuable in defining the

common characteristics. William Janes's excellent book en-

titled £&£ Jtea&fiUflS s& iifillgJLffiia Pgpsrirgnce Will be used as

a basic text along with W, T. Stace's two booksj Mysticism

JM&SUMptoX anfi m d M m u M m j m * l?or a compar-

ative analysis of the nature of mysticism, Rudolf Otto's

%.sUclsa M&St rnd Uss.% is the chief source.

As the critics and biographers suggest, it seems obvious

that there is some connection between mysticism and Emerson's

writings. A closc and objective investigation, therefore,

would be of value and of interest to Etaersoaiaa scholars.

It is the main purpose of this thesis to ascertain just to

what extent linerson1s writings do contain mystical elements.

i0The Philological Society, Tho Oxford English VI (London? 1933), 81?.

If.

m@ primary sources used are the Joyr.nala st

Wa dp. Lraerson, edited by Kdward Waldo Emerson and Waldo

Emerson Forbes;, and 3&A S M X S M Works feXltt.

Because much of Biierson's thought is revealed through letters

written to his friends, Sil& betters q£ R§2jiil iBSESfifi!?

edited by Ralph L* Rusk, is of value to this study. Iffiffig

Bfleraon Speaks, edited by Arthur Cusiman McGiffert, Jr., a

collection of sermons Fliers on delivered -while a Unitarian

minister j indicates the trends of Ms early thinking. Three

other collections of lectures and writings aro used;

ZifiSyzyjhjiS. J2JL BsCtell MsJsfiLs. ifiSKlSSBj odited oy teph©n »

Whicher and Robert 1>« filler 5 ^ttaLS? pub-

lished by tli© Lamb Publishing Company.} and Uj ojJLgfiiM

liSSSilSSSi edited by Clarence Gohdes. One of the earliest

and best references is A M®ajU fi£ MJLph M§Ma

edited by Jsuaes Elliot Cabot, literary executor and family

friend,,

flie biographical information is, for the most part, from

Ralph X* • huak10 ihc jjjui-jS*. Qji HsSeDti liSAiiQ. Sl3 £@3l «nd iros

0. v/. Firicins' Eaipli iMMa oscaoa*

There hay© been rustics in all ages and in all countries,

sono within on© of the numerous vorld religions, and some not

connectod vith any formal religion as such. Some of the

greatest thinkers and writers of all times have been nystics

or exhibit aystical elenents in their works: Plato?

Ileraclitiis, Plotinus, 1'ckhart, Spinoza, Goethe, Hegel, Slake,

Shelley, Keats,3*1 IJoehrae, St* Augustine, Sankara, Buddha,

and many others. All mystics agree that mysticism is con-

cerned with one essential experience; the union of nan with

the One, the Absolute, or the Infinite. Through the mystical

experience the mystic achieves nany things. He cones into

contact with a reality not accessible in any other way.

Tlirough the contact, he attains a heightened sense of aware-

ness, a satisfying comprehension of nan1s place in the scheme

of things, and an unusual insight into the laws of the

Infinites to him, the lavs are beautiful, eternal and in-

mutable. He perceives the relationships among nen, between

man and the Infinite, and between man and nature, Man's

greatest joy is experienced at the point of achievement,

which is a state of ecstasy. Those states of ecstasy are

sustained for very short periods, probably from a few minutes

to a half hour, never more than an hour or two. After a

mystical experience, the person involved is never able fully

to describe itf it is an experience that is beyond words and

defies any logical description he can give* Nonetheless, the

mystic is convinced of the profound truths he has experiencedj

truths that influence the reminder of his life. However

doubtful ills associates may be concerning the validity of his

aystical experience, the mystic's new knowledge is satisfying

• •Spurgeon, pp. 2, 17, 3l*-«

and fulfilling to himself. He Is sublimely happy; he is

never dissatisfied with lifo.^

Because mystics have "been highly individualistic, the

interpretations of their mystical perceptions often vary#

Stace -writes that each toys tic seems to put "upon M s ex-

periences tiie intellectual interpretations which, lie has

derived from the peculiarities of his own culture."3-3 The

psychological nake-up or the emotional temper of the mystic

affects the interpretation of the mystical experience; how-

ever, there is one point on which they all seen to agree;

that unity underlies diversity. Spurccon, on this point,

statess

Tiie true mystic then, in the full sense of the term, is one who knows there is unity under diversity at the centre of all existence, and he knows it by the most perfect of all tests for the person concerned, because he has felt it,-""

It is generally believed by mystics themselves and by

those who study mysticism that the mystical ability "is

latent in all men but is in most men submerged below the

surface of consciousness. Rufus Jones states that:

• * • the number of persons who are subject to the mystical experiences • • • is much larger than we usually suppose. We know only the mystics who

P. 2.

13walter T. Stace, l&a&Lfilsa ££& FtdXQaQVlXf, (Nov.- York, I960), pp. 3^-35.

^Spurgeon, p. 11.

• Stace, i&BliffiUB £Jailfl§£Pte:> p. 3^3.

were dowered i/ith a literary gift and, who could tell in impressive language what bad come to them, tat of the rmltltude of those who have felt and seen and who yet were unable to tell in words abou.t their experience, of these we are ignorant.

Progress toward the mystical experience depends upon the

extent to which the mystical ability is present in the

individual and the extent to which it is developed.

William James believes "that personal religious ex-

perience has its root and centre in mystical states of

consciousness • • and Stace echoes this by saying

that "mysticism is ultimately the source and essence of all 1

religions . < • • Mysticism is found in Persia in connec-

tion with Sufism; "in China, in connection with Taoism" 20

in India, in connection with Buddhism; and in the West, in

connection with Christianity and Judaism.

The Eastern and Western mystics have been different

with rospect to activity* the Eastern mystic is static,

while tho Western aystic is dynamic. The Eastern mystic l6Rufus M. Jones, MfeU Sp.gafea & Ms. SMSM*

edited by Harry Eaerson Fosdick (Hew York, 1951) > P» 133•

^Milliaa Jaiaes. The Varieties, of Religious Experience (New York, 1929), p. 379.

l8stace, iteyLsiffl ao& p* 3^3.

3*%alter T. Stace, l-frsticiain and Bu^an Reason (Tucson, 1955), p. 9.

20S. II, Dasgupta, Hindu ICYStielsa (New York, 1959), P* 85*

^Stace, l-jysticisd llMRPth Bsaapn? p. 9.

seeks union with Brafaaa or seeks Mirvana| "he leaves all

activity and reposes in oneness.1,22 His life is character-

ized more by contemplation and corunanication than by vital

action. However, the Western oystic's lifo is characterised

botii by contemplation and comunication, and by vital action.

The Western oystics have been great reforncrs, philosophers,

and literary figures. Underbill writes that "in the aystics

of the West, the highest forms of . • • Union impel the self

to some sort of active, rather than of passive lifo « . . . rt23

Inge quo tea Ecichart as saying that " there is . . . no con-

tradiction between the active and the contemplative life5 the

former belongs to the faculties of tho soul, the latter to ok

its essence.* The Eastern mystics perform active duties by

teaching those about them; therefore, both Eastern and West-

ern mystic3 are dynamic in their own characteristic ways.

However different the emotional temperament of the

individual mystic, the culture in which he lives, the age

in which, he is born, and the extent to which his iaystical

ability is developed, there are certain coomon character-

istics which recur in accounts of mystical experiences.

Unusual characteristics may appear occasionally because of

22Itudolf Otto, M l (Now York, 1957), p. 207.

23Eyelyn Underhill, Mysticism (London, 1962), p. 172.

2\illiam Ralph Inge, SffilStoa Ifr.aUclSffl (Cleveland, 196^), pp. 160-161*

individual differences, but the comon characteri s ti c s al-

ways appear consistently*

For ensample, tiie individual mystic has an unusual yearn-

ing for a greater reality than the* senses present to hiin. 5

He longs for a deeper arid greater acaning in life than is

revealed through his physical contact with it. Things, to hi%

roust be ciore significant than surface consciousness is able

to discern. He has an inner apprehension of something greater

than himself. Because of this apprehension his entire being

is drawn toward the greater reality for which he seeks.

Another characteristic which the individual possesses

is an Inherent inpulse toward moral perfection.He obeys

the ooral laws not only because he feels they are right, but

because he !:loves" thenj they attract hia like a aagnet.

With the apprehension of a greater reality and en impulse

for ooral perfection, ho is well prepared for the mystical

quest of union with the Lb solute.

This search, generally lifelong, is seen by nost

authorities on mystlclm as clividod into stops or stages*

Evelyn Underbill discusses five basic stages which adequately

cover the pleasure and pain states of the raystic. They are:

awakening, purgation, Illumination, the dark night of the soul,

2^Underbill, pp. .

26IM4.? p. 90.

10

and •union. Though such divisions of stages are made Tor

purposes or analysis, actually they are not divided but

overlap wiili signs of one stage occurring in both that pre-

ceding it and the one following it.

After tiie initial atfaheiiliig experience, the aye tic

accomplishes the progression from one stage to the other

only with great efforts The pain states, purgation and the

dark night of the soul, sro those difficult periods during

milcJa he purges himself of materialistic desires, sensuous

appetites., and the constant reference in his thoughts to I,

no? and alao. Kuftis Jones, Quaker Interpreter of i3ysticisn?

states: "The inport&nt mystics are tsea and wncn who have

•washed their souls clean of the hedonistic taint»n27 The nail

wliicli separates Mia from a I*igher consciousness of greater

reality thaa he is able to achieve in his generally material-

istic condition is selfishness and egocontrisn. It is the

i2s£ruisc for moral perfection laiicii cocico into action, direct-

ing his progress and guiding Jain eventually out of the stages

jf pain into the pleasure states of iUuaiaation and unionf

The mystical espericnce Is primarily a process of "be™

coiaing aware of the greater reality. The usual method

by i-Jhich the rustic progresses is haotei as contemplation..

To achieve the greater reality which he has already ap-

prehended ? lie rmst develop a heightened consciousness which

^7jones. p. 1^5.

11

transcends the surface consciousness of the so-callod

"normal" man# Contemplation way be regarded as the yearn-

ing of the soul for what it feels is a greater reality.2®

It consists in a stilling of that part of the n&nd "which,

attends to material things, a calling in of all diverse

interests, a giving of oneself entirely to this one activity,

without consciousness of self or reflective thought. 29

Contemplation is progressive as the mystic purifies him-

self and more easily focuses his attention on reality. The

mystic1s uncommon yearning for absolute truth serves him

in striving toward a higher consciousness through con-

templation *

The quest of the uystic Is not all difficulty, pain, arid

struggle} there are rewards along tiie way. These rewards are

in the form of moments when he achieves the higher con-

sciousness and catches a glimpse, however brief it nay be,

of Reality, or of the Absolute. These moments occur inter-

mittently throughout the mystic1s progression and constitute

the pleasure states of his life. At the moment9 or at the

point of achievement, it is a temporary state of invol-

untary ecstasy. Although the e^erience is brief, tiie power

of it cannot be overestimated, VJillian James quotes B. M»

Bucke's description of his own ecstatical state. He says

2%ndorhill, p. 306 . 29rbld., p. 302,

that after Imvinc spent on evening with friends (discussing

pliilo sophy and poetry, as lie was returning homo,

"All at once, without warning of any I-dLnd, 1 found myself wrapped in a flane-colored cloud. For an iastsat 1 thought of fire, aa inaoase conflagration somewhere close by la that great city5 the next, 1 Izunr that the firo was within myself * Directly afterward there car.10 upon mo a sense of exultation, of imenso Joyousaess accompanied or immediately followed "by an intellectual illumination impossible to describe, Among other things, I did not merely cone to believe, but I saw that the universe is not composed of dead matter, but is * • . a living Presence| I becene conscious in myself of eternal life. It was not a conviction that I would have eternal life, but a consciousness that X possessed eternal life then , . * that the cosnie order is such that • • • all tiungs work together for the good of each and all • • • ."30

The descriptions of ecstasy are never exactly the seme,

but intellectual inclination of unity and order in matter

and in nind is always precept.

The offsets of the experience of ecstasy on the rays tic

are astouMiau, St&ce writes# To hin,s 'die experience has

objective reality-

• • • the mystic feels an intense and burning conviction that his experience is not a mere dream— a something which is shut \vp entirely inside his own consciousness. He feels that it transcends his own petty personality, that it is vastly greater than himself, that it in soijc sense passes out beyond his individuality into the infinite.31

3°R„ k. Bucke,, CQsaaic, ffofisclou.sness (Philadelphia, 1901), pp. 7-89 cited in Varies, p. 399.

^Stace, sad BiU&soplyc, p. lk$.

13

Staoe further explains: £ftg..t ttet &<§3JEh££&afi-

Is St Pj3.r.,t pf the .^eyxence A.ti ,§.&)»<£

why ms. ozaftfi Is steteteix s s c M a Q1 lis toJis, fesxaod

nil maaiMU-M oS. mwMZ, MM safe &£ it."32

As a result of the mystic13 contact with Reality, he

attains a heightened sense of awareness, an assurance of the

existence of the greater Reality for which he yearns, a

greater understanding of oa^s place in the scheme of things,

an optimism beyond that of other men, a joy which is inex-

pressible, and a definite conviction that what is perceived

is divine.

But ecstasy is not the end of the aystical quest* At

this stage one could easily be led into what Underhlll refers

to as "spiritual gluttony" except for the final state of pain

known as the dark night of the soul. In this stage, all

selfishness, which has gone unnoticed in the corners of the

soul, is finally and permanently removed, and the jays tic

emerges at last out of the dark night into union, the final

stage of the lifelong quest. In union, or the unitive life,

the interests of the mystic are completely absorbed in the

interests of the Infinite, or the Absolute. The mystic has

a conscious sharing of the strength and authority of the

Infinite, and he becomes "a centre of energy, an actual

P. 33underhill, pp. 39b-397.

lb

parent of spiritual vitality in other Few men

have reached the unitive life, "but these few have produced

works which speak of their inner assurance of a greater

Reality and of their love for the world and the creatures

who inhabit it.

P. bl6.

CHAPTER 11

Emersonian thought has so penetrated the minds of

Americans that it seems to "belong wholly to them. It did

not, however9 spring entirely front nineteen th-century New

England soil but has its roots in world literature *

Emerson's religious faith and optimistic outlook belonged

to puritan lew England and pioneer America, but his optimism

was derived partially froia the ancient Bast, and his faith

from the religions of all the world.^ The mystical writ-

ings of the ancient East were important sources for Emerson's

thought. That Emerson had an inexhaustible interest in then

from the late 1830's onward is well known,2 but that he read

oriental translations throughout his youth has only recently

coae to light.3 He is known to have read extensively fron

the supremo devotional scripture of India, the 5

another Hindu scripture, the YXMwaid&WSM-.5 the earliest

known Indian scripture, the Vjjdag; and a later part of the

• Frederic Ives Carpenters Encrson tfeMkQSfe (Hew lork, 1953) , P. 209-

%roderie Ives Carpenter, ISaejyapft and Asia (Cambridge, 1930), pp. 12-lV.

3Carpcnter, JSmRSQA ffeM.fePSJS# P- 23-0.

15

16

Vedic literature, tho Upanlshads, ilany lengthy quotations

from oriental "boots arc found in Emerson's early unpublished

journals» Tho literature of the near East had its influence,

too, The mystical Persian poetry of Hafis and Saadi Is quoted

intermittently in the published Journals, and Emerson's mm,

poetry was enriched by thorn, Other Asian literature also

drew Emerson's attention? the Koran, an Arabic scripture,

and tho ancient Chinese wisdom of Confucius were focal points

in liis studies.

Besides the mystical literature of the ancient East,

Snerson »s, of course, influenced by the literature of

ancient Greece and Rone.'7 During his early years in the

Boston Latin School, and later at Harvard College, Emerson

studied Greek literature, 3oniotines in the original, and at

the age of sixteen, Enerson recorded several lines from Plato 8

in the Journals, At twenty-one, he wrote a "Letter to

Plato" in the J<?um&S comparing modern moral and religious

problems to those of Plato*a day,^ His deep regard for the

mystical elements in Platonic philosophy stayed with hln

^Carpenter, BrA f.SOfl sM .k§i&t pp . 106-120.

'Carpenter> Emerson HandbookT p. 211.

P. 212 p. 213.

®Ralph Waldo Emerson, iffljsaeAs of fialfija MlMs 1&&ESP&, Vol. I, edited by lidvard Waldo Eraerson and Waldo Liierson Forbes in 10 vols. (Boston, 1909~ll+), 6.

9lbid.. pp. 380-388.

1?

throughout his lifetime. The Nco-Platoni st s captivated

his interests, especially tho writings of Plotinns, Procluo,

Porphyry, and laablichus.1^

Aoong the early Protestant aystics who caught the

attention of F-nerson were Japob Boehne and Heister Eckhart#"^

He also road the more recent mystical v/ritings of the Gcrnan

poet and draiaatist, Johann von Goethe; the Swedish scientist,

philosopher, and theologian, Ikaanuel Swedenborg; and the

English religious leader and founder of the Society of Friends,

George- Fox.

Being reared in a minister' s home and family of clerical

tradition, Ecierson w s naturally influenced by the Christian

Bible. lie himself was a Unitarian minister of the Second

Church in Boston from ilarch, 1829, to September, .1832, His

published Works refer to the Bible rarely, not that he ccased

to value its teachings, but because he could bettor conrriu-

nicato his ideas, better comand the attention of M s readers,

without the use of traditional biblical terms. The Bibles

especially the mystical portions, remain^ however, one of the

aajor influences on the thought and expression in the pub-

lished writings of Emerson*

Emerson, then, was well acquainted with the ancient

Eastern and Western mystical writings, the works of medieval

1 n •^Carpenter, l&eMGtt gamHaaofci p. 215.

"ittU., p. 115.

Protestant mystics, as well as the more modern mystics of

Burope»

In her study of mysticism Evelyn Underiiill states that

on© does not become a mystic -without the possession of cer-

tain vital characteristics. One of these characteristics is

an unusual yearning for absolute truth, or for a greater

reality.**" At some time in their lives, all men have felt

a yearning in themselves for a greater reality, something

more than their physical senses can represent to thera.1^ :-ian

lives locked *up in a physical body depending entirely upon

the mechanical equipment of M s senses, sight, hearing, taste,

smell, and touch, to tell him what the real world is like.

If his organs of sense were maladjusted., if they were arranged

in a different way, or if he possessed only a part of then,

his inner reception of the outer world would he vastly

different from what he normally receives. It is the partic-

ular arrangement of man's senses, the limited function of

then, and man's interpretation of the messages he receives

from them which represent the outer world to man. Sometimes

man has a feeling that there must he a deeper meaning to life

than is portrayed in his seemingly inadequate picture of its

he has a vague sense that he is missing something* that he

never truly lives. For the majority of men, the desire may

be a fleeting one, occurring only occasionally.

"^^Underhill, p. 2*t. ^Ibid., pp.

19

Although tlie yearning for reality is present la all sen,

in the mystic it is present to an unusual degree it toe-

comes a ruling passion. He longs for, not partial truth,

but absolute truth.-*-5 He cannot accept reports of truth;

lie nust know it within himself.

The man who has an intense yearning for reality and an

impulse for moral perfection is well prepared for engaging

in the mystical life. His life is primarily a process of

becoming aware of the greater reality. Such unusual char-

acteristics are necessary to him in the remaining of his

consciousness, an essential part of the mystical process.

Progress in the development of the higher consciousness is

noted by stages in the mystical life. The initial stage is

that of awakening, followed by purgation, illumination, de-

spair or the dark night of the soul5 and final union with the

Absolute.

The first stage of the mystical life, the awakening

of the self to the reality of the Infinite, may come sud-

denly or gradually, but it comes with astonishing clarity.

The individual is no longer aware of the physical world only,

but through the awakening he perceives the reality also of

the spiritual world. He is now more intensely aware of both

spiritual and physical reality. In the Christian religion

such a stage laay be compared to conversion. This conversion

, pp. 3--J+.. X%33M., PP. 33, V5-H6,

20

Is not a surface experience in tl.ie conventional sense5 it

is an experience within the individual which changes his

entire out look on life. Underbill says that " the awakening

of the self is to a new and aore active plane of being , new

and more personal relations with Reality5 hence to a aev and

more real work which it riuct do.w^

Ouch an awakening apparently occurred at an early age

in Enerson's life. At eighteen^ in his Journal for January

129 18229 he reveals an awareness of spiritual reality# Reli-

gion, he feels2 is "essential to the Universe* You seal; in

vain to contemplate the order of tilings apart from its exist-

ence. Ion can no more banish this than you can separate from

yourself the notions of Space and Duration.Uhether or

not the awakening cones gradually or suddenly is not evident,

hats at this point, it in clear that the awakening has occur-

red. xhcre is a marked certainty of belief in the existence

of sono thing greater than the physical world, as coiinonly

regarded by the surface senses.

After the awakening of the self to Divine Reality, the

self becomes aware of divine perfection and beauty; it

realises its own imperfection and corruption, end the tremen-

dous separation between it and the Divine. It then attempts

to eliminate all that stands in the way of its progress

IS, P« 197«

^Eaorson, Journalst I, 9&<

21

toward union with God, This must be acconplished through

discipline which constitutes the second stage, the state of

pain and effort Icnown as purgation.3-8

The first step in purgation of the self is detachment.

The self strives to beconc detached from finite things in

order to attain the infinite. It practices poverty, chas-

tity, and obedience: poverty, by a disregard for material

and immaterial wealth; chastity, by cleansing the soul of

personal desire; and obedienco, by the denial of selfhood

or by self-abandonment. The sua of these three practices

helps to mnke the subject think of himself as a part of the

order of things, important only as a part of the whole.

The second step in purgation is discipline, the re-

aaidtng of the permanent elements of the character. The

old self with its desires and attachments must bo aban-

doned 5 from the death of the old coaes the birth of the new.

The dying of the old self is often a bitter battle within

the soul5 during the struggle it is not uncoa^on for one

to reach a state of higher consciousness, only to be plunged

again into despair

Knowing that there is no clear demarcation between the

stages of the mystical life, it is not usually possible for

one to say that a specific stage occurs precisely at a given

tine. It seens indicative of some such stage, however,

^%nderhill? p. 169. PP® 205-216. 20im.d»? pp. 216-227.

22

that la the Journal of that year, 182 J? ? Emerson5 at twenty-

two, considers rotiring into solitude and giving hinself to

prayerj reading, anfl "barren neditation,"2*- and that he

eoumendn the pursuit of virtue and knowledge over the

satisfaction of appetites for worldly things.22

During Enorson's service at the Second Church, he be-

came aware of what, to ida. were new truths -which conflicted

with the Unitarian principles. His seruon on "Trifles" stay

have been an outward expression of his own situations

If you busy the natural eye too exclusively on lairmte objects, it gradually loses its powers of distant vision: end nore surely will the eye of the ialnd grow dull and incapable of great contemplation which is daily disregarded to little studies. If you arc careful about many snail things, you cannot fix your thoughts upon the one thing needful.*^

Emerson apparently found himself distracted at this

tine by the duties necessary to his position. Some of his

unrest was suggested to his congregation in a sermon of

October 18, 18291 "Let us not offend the nan within the

breast. Lot it be remembered that in all our talk, truth

is the end and aim,"2*1" That ho may have been offending the

man within himself was apparently a source of concern to hira.

In a sermon of April 1830, he admits to his audience« "I

^Emerson, II, ?C. 22lj#.M p. 52.

2%ialpli Waldo Emerson. Yssmg. i m m Q U Spffeb, edited by Arthur Cushaan licGlffert, Jr. (Boston, 193^T? P*

p. 65-

2j

"believe none vho hears me can bo more sensible of their own

faults than I an,"^

He apparently began to feci that his own. presence in

the ministry was due to the expectations and precedent of

M s family find was not a result of his own convictions. On

December 3, 1830, he confided, his uncertainty to his con-

gregation: "I an afraid of the groat evil done to so sacred

a property as a nan's own soul by an initation arising out

of an unthinking admiration of others."2** Emerson's White

I-ountain retreat vas foreshadowed in the same sermon when

he said:

Let this strange and awful being that \ic possess have that reverence that is due from us. Let us leave this immoderate regard for moats and drinks ? to dress and pleasure and to unfounded praise, and let us go alone and converse with ourselves, and the word of God in us."'

Emerson appears to have recognized that he was unable

to live according to his conscience and remain within the

principles of the Unitarian Church. Because of this, lie

went to the tthite Mountains in order to be alone and make

up his mind what to do. It was a hard decision for him to

make, and most of his relatives were against it, but, at

last, in September of 1832, he resigned the pastorate. The

specific reason he gave for his resignation was only a part

of the many reasons which he felt made it impossible for

p« 7i- p- 106,

Z 7 m & < , P. 111.

h

ilia to continue as minister. The objection ho chose to

express was his being required to officiate at the Lord's

Supper which ho no longer believed to be a necessary church

sacranent established for all tine•

A notable period of despair appeared directly before

and after Emerson's decision to resign, Afterward, in

January of 1033, on M s way to Italy, he records in the

jQJU'flC-i; "We feci some titles as if the sweet arid awful mel-

odies we have once hoard would never return * . « and

fear we shall not again aspire to the glory of a nonil

life * • . }:i;ercoi)' s trip abroad, he thought, might

help him to forget M o past tmc<safort&bl© situation at home*

In Halt a he fools that !Vkcrever we co5 whatever vc do ? self

is the sol© subject we study and learn.n29 He further states

that "hyself is such sore than I know, and yet 1 know nothing

else."3^ Study of self would "be "sneaicingly mean" if used

in a low sense, bivts he write®, "as self aeans Devil ? so it

ueans God *"33-

It is likely that Emerson had in raind the sonsual or

surface self as the Diabolical, and the spiritual or deeper

self as the Divine« He was studying then both at this time,

and he m y well hav.s been in the process of remaking the

self; the discarding of the old and developing of the new»

2®Emerson, H I S 20. ^ipi^' > p. 28.

« pp. 28-29.

While returning hose from England, he entered on October

6, 18339 a prayer in his fewml*

May X resist the evil that Is without toy the good that is within . • . . May I rejoice in the Divine Povor and be humble. Oh that I might show forth thy gift to me by purity, by loves by unshrinking industry and unsinking hope, and by unconquerable courage. May 1 be more thine, and so more truly myself awry day 1 live

Emerson's prayer appears to express a narked yearning for

the Absolute, a possible direction of purpose, and a hope

of drawing nearer to Reality.

The third stage of the mystical life is that of

illumination. When the self reaches this stage, the major

struggle ceases. Fron the despair of purgation the subject

emerges with the ability to see 'beyond the material world.

This is not union with the Absolute, but an apprehension of

the One. The self still realises itself to be a separate

entity, but it Is filled vith a joyous seeing or under-

standing of Reality. There is also an added Intensity of

perception in regard to the natural world* The self is

able to discern the significance of the beauty and purity

in natural objects. Underbill, in describing the stage of

illumination, writes:

His heightened apprehension of reality lights up rather than obliterates the rest of M s life;; and may even Increase his power of dealing ad- „ equately ..ith the accidents of normal existence.-3-'

3 2 m i u > pp. 219-220. 33underhill, p. 2k€,

26

In illumination, the ecstatic experience often occurs, and

the self perceives Reality#

After Emerson's return from Europe in 1S33* he appears

to ha.ve had a sense of direction concerning his future life.

He no longer lacked freedom for thinking, speaking, paid act-

ing according to M s principles. Exercising his own

courageous instincts by speaking truth as he saw it, he

strengthened those impulses for future use, and the new stage

of illumination may well be indicated by ideas which he ex-

pressed. Soon after his return froa Europe in 1833? he spoke

again to his old audience of the Second Church. Some of the

answers lie may have received from his search for absolute

truth appear in what is seemingly the results of an ecstatic

experiencei

"But now . « • man begins to hear a voice that fills the heavens and the earth, saying that God is within hira; that there is the celestial host. I find this anazing revelation of lay immediate relation to God a solution to all the doubts that oppressed ne.' T-

The availability of a new energy is affirmed by Emerson at

the same timi

"I recognize the distinction of the outer and inner self; the double consciousness that, within this erring, passionate, aortal self, sits a supreme, calm, immortal mind, whose powers I do not Imov, but it is stronger than ijf it is wiser than 1| it never approved me in any wrong; 1

^Jaries Elliot Cabot, A Upjolx ft£ I§M& feXJfi&f Vol, I of 2 vols. (Boston, 18(38}, 213.

2?

seek council of It in my doubts; I repair to It in ay dangers; I pray to it in ay undertakings."3?

That ecstasy is a solution to the soul's questions, an

enlightening experience, and a. temporary perception of Reality,

is affirmed by Underbill• On November 2, 1833, Person, en-

ters in tiie Journal a passage which reveals his belief in his

added insight: 11 To an instructed eye the universe is trans-

parent. The light of higher laws than its own shines through

it."36

Apprehension of the Absolute is often connected with a

musical element which the mystics express in several ways;

sometimes as a melody, soaetii.es as rhythm, and at other tines

as music or song. The mystical music or melody which accom-

panies ecstasy has very little resemblance to earthly music,

hence comes the mystic's problem, of describing it. The

closer the self cones to Reality, the more likely the musical

element is to appear and the more profound is its effect on

the mystic. Karly in April the next year, Emerson's Journal

indicates, his life's purpose was coming, at last, from the

outer periphery, into focus, and he again heard the melody;

* # . 1 woke to a strain of highest melody. I saw that it was not for me to complain of obscurity, of being mlsimderstood; it was not for r.ie, even in the filthy rags of my unrighteousness, to despond • of what 1 night do and learn#37

36Enerson, HI, 228.

37ifeia., P. 2?k.

B

Unorson sou the light of higher lavs and evidently intended,

to follow it without worrying about the fact that his own

ideas conflicted with those of others or that lie might

likely go unnoticed, Thus freed from M s inner conflict,

he apparently iiade use of the nev knowledge end strength

miich he had discovered.

Ikierson did occasional preaching and lecturing: after

hie return fron Europe, but by 2lay 31? 183**? noved with

his mother to Concord, Boon afterward the period of lit-

erary production began and did not eoase for many years.

She fourtli stage of the nystical life, icnovn as de-

spair or the dark night of the soul, is a final and more

intense purgative stage appearing directly before the uni -

tive life. It is the final battle between the surface senses

and the- higher consciousness • The self feels cut off so

completely from Reality that only the memory of the pleasure

states, -when Reality had appeared near, keeps it fron phys-

ical destruction. At th • end of the dark night, the self

is, at last? purified and ready for union with th© Absolute,

Howhere in Emerson's writings does it appear that he reached

such a depth of despair so great as to be indicative of this

O lb '•? p* r*> ndt V w W »

!The fifth arid last stage of the loystic1 s life is that

of union. Union is not nerely perceived as in iHunination

but enjoyed as one with the Absolute. The mystic's interests

29

are completely at sorted in those of the Infinite^ lie has a

conscious sharing of its strength and authority resulting

in a freedom and serenity vhleh soens astounding to other

men. The nystic is usually urged to some heroic effort or

creativ e work Mid becomes "an actual parent of spiritual

vitality in other men,"3$ underbill states that union "ends

with the coming forth of divine humanity, never again to leave

us i living in us, and vith us, a pilgrla, a worker, a guest

at our table5 a sharer at all hazards in life."39 jfc -does

not appear that Bnerson's interests wore ever completely

dissolved in those of the Infinite, He continued to main-

tain iris fatally, his home, and his private affairs throughout

liis lifetine.

The laystic's yearning for Reality is used to remake the

consciousness in order that he nay becone aware of the

greater Reality. The stages arc marks of the progress of

the consciousness toward higher levels.1*® The neans by

which the mystic remakes the consciousness is lino v. n as con-

templation# By a strict discipline of sensual appetites,

a removal of all distracting images from the jtaiM, and a con-

centrating of attention on the Absolute? the unification of

consciousness is achieved and mm is thus prepared for

perception of the Reality lie seeks

38underhill, p. 16, 39Xbid.. p. b'jo.

^ a i s U , p. 298. M I M A . • p. 32B.

A X t h o u o f tr.c contemplative j,;c-cuod

appear several t i u e s l a tho j ^ y ^ J L s s e m e n s , a su&-

s a t i o n oi* Baox'soii5 s noans oi* scoiimc t r u t a j.c Ucsu esvpAuliiCd

i n "Literary Bth icr" -

• * * iS i t 110 t j tha t} s)/ ti-ixS CliisCxpo-iilid, CiiG usurpation of the senses l a ovorcoao, ana tlxo Xcwer f a c u l t i e s of m a euro subdued to d o c i l i t y ; through, as an unobstructed channel the

soul now e a s i l y and gladly f3cw5'r*fo

The results of suck a d i s c i p l i n e i n the myst ica l l i f e can

be described i n s imi la r terras. I t is believed by Mystics

that through neglec t of "Hie subconscious the conscious riind

holds on unnaturally p r i o r p lace ; that through detactoenfc

f r o n personal d e s i r e s cad concent ra t ion 011 Reality the

subconscious and conscious mental a c t i v i t i e s become united.

Suck an i n t e g r a t i o n of the sur face se l f and the deeper s e l f

i s p r e r e q u i s i t e f o r union "with the Absolute.

lfSRalph Waldo Person, " L i t e r a r y l.ti'lcs," l lUamt AMeaaaaa sad &g&£u£oa> Vol, X of a a fisselsuifi Vteffis o£ &0j& KftlOft £sigxmx ( he r oaf t o r a o b r o m a t e a a s tos lu vols. (Boston, 1903-21) , 181.

CHAPTER III

MISTICAL ELEMENTS II EKEHSOI*S THOUGHT

The procedure of the mystic is a clearing of the mind

of all distractions, a concentration of attention, and a

discipline or control of the bodily appetites. This method

of seeking Reality is known as contemplation. In the con-

templative state, thought, emotions, and will "become a unity;

feeling and perception fuse, and there occurs a joyous sense

of communing with Reality or the Absolute, Consciousness of

self and the senses disappears; there remains only a con-

sciousness of being in immediate relation with the Absolute,

1

"of participating in Divinity," The experience itself is

usually transitory, but it is no less real to the mystic.

This brief, ineffable moment of the contemplative state is

known as ecstasy.

Although there are several places in Emerson's early

Journals which suggest the ecstatic experience, the most

complete account first appears in an entry made on March

19» 183?) when Emerson was thirty-one years old.^ In its

final poetic expression it is found in "Mature," an account

which resembles that experience of ecstasy described by

^"Underbill, p, 330, %2raerson, Journals,, III, b l-M- 2,

31

32

t! R, M. Bucke. Emerson writes that-*

In tiie woods we return to reason and faith . . . . Standing on the bare ground,—say head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space,— all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball 5 I an no tilings I see all 5 the currents of the Universal Being circulate through rae; I an part and parcel of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental *.<•»« I an the lover of uncontsined and imortal beauty. *"

A return to faith is 'understandable? but Emerson's use

of the word "reason" has not the meaning of its usual sense.

In a letter to M s brother, Edward, dated May 31, he

explains his own meaning of trie words "Reason is the high-

est faculty of the soul—what we mean often by the soul

itself5 it never reasons, never proves, it simply perceives;

it is vision.His definition appears to denote that latent

faculty or ability which the nysties believe to be. in all men.

In June, I835, Emerson further explains M s definition of

reason: "It is in all men, even the worst • • • • In bad

nen it is doraont, in the good efficient; but it is perfect fi

and identical in all . . . «{,u But perhaps his fullest

elucidation of the word is in "Ifcture"» "iian is conscious

of a universal soul within or behind M s individual life

. . . » This universal soul he calls Reasons it is not

^See Introduction, p. 12, footnote So. 30-

S-iaerson, "Nature," Viorks. I, 10.

- Emerson, Letters. I, 5+12-1+13.

6Cabot, I, 2*f6~2V/«

33

nine, or thine, or his, but we are its? we are its prop-

erty and men*Reason, as Emerson defines it, appears

to refer to that intuitive faculty latent in all man, -which,

if pureed a M purified, may be cone efficient enough for

perception,

Effective coianuni cation of the experience of ecstasy

depends upon the particular gift of the individuals the

poets the artistj and the musician are able to translate

spiritual truth into earthly beauty, 'but others have not

been as successful. Though ail mystics agree that the

ecstatic experience is ineffable, nonetheless most of them

spend their lives trying to coninunicute it to others.

The problem of corrauni cation w s one of which Emerson

vac veil aware. On November 19, 1833, he writes in the

"Uise moments are- years, and light the countenance

ever . . • . They refuse to be recorded."^ And in a

Journal entry made in June, 1835, Emerson recognizes that

"the aim of the author is not to tell truth—that he cannot

do, out to suggest it[f] • . • he uses many words, hoping that

one, if not the other, will bring you as near to the fact as

he is«,19 Even as late as October, l$+8, Emerson seemed still

to be dissatisfied with his failure to express fully his

^Emerson, "Mature ?" works. 1, ?.7<

"Emerson, Journals, 1X1, 231,

9Ibid.T pp. 91-^2.

3^

meaning. iiany of his best essays had already "been pub-

lished, 'out lie asks himself in the Journal; "Do you think

ecstasy is ever coraiaunicable"10

According to most authorities, the mystical procedure

is one of becoming aware of the greater Heolity by achieving

an integration or unification of the surface self arid the

deeper self, or of the conscious and subconscious activities

of the tiind* A coarjon belief is that nan's two selves have

not always been disunited and that men's souls are imortal,

that they "no nore cane into existence when we were born

than they will cease to exist when our bodies disintegrate»

For this reason it has often been thought that in youth the

consciousness is nore unified than in later life when the sur-

face senses becone greatly occupied with physical tilings of

the world*

It would appear that Etierson is aware also of the need

for adjustment of the senses, or the unification of the

deeper self and the surface self, before the contemplative

moment can occur, when, lomediately preceding the "eyeball"

passage, ho states that few adults ever really see nature,

but "the lover of nature is he whose inward and outward

senses are still truly adjusted to each other5 who has re-

tained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood

10lbiti.> VII, 522. ^Spurgeon, p. 12Er.ierson, "Nature," viorkSj I, 9»

35

It is5 of course9 not a perceivlnc by the physical eye that

Enter son refers to when lie says that few adults "can. sec

nature," The true act of seeing is a much deeper perception

which lie can only suggest by saying, "I see all." When this

adjustment is made and man can see nature, lie finds that,

Eueraoa writes, "the -whole of nature is a metaphor of the

human mind* The laws of moral nature answer to those of 'mat-

ter as face to face in a glass.nl3 All men can know tills

relation between nind and natter.^

Readers of Ktaer son's writings arc faniliar with his

"belief that nature is synbolic, a coonon characteristic of

raysticism. Spurgeon writes that "the essencc of rays ti dsn

is to believe that everything we see and loaov is symbolic

of something greater . . .,nl^ that one truth is only the

thread which unravels greater truths.16 The mystics see

nature as the revelation of the Absolute, An ecstatic ex-

perience described to Staee by au acquaintance, whose naue

lie did not disclose, reveals somewhat the mystic1 a insight#

2he subject was looking out a window into a littered back

yard of a tenement when.

"Suddenly every object in ay field of vision took on a curious and intense kind of existence of its own: that is, everything appeared to have an 'inside®—to exist as 1 existed, having in-wardness, a kind of individual life, and every object, seen under this aspect, appeared exceedingly

PP* 32-33. ^*IMd» ? p. 3 -« 1%purn©on, p. 12. 16Ibld.. p. 9.

36

beautiful. There -./as a cat o'tit there, with Its head lifted, effortlessly watching a wasp that aoved without moving just above its heacL Every-thing was urgent with life » , . which was the same in the cat« the wasp, the broken bottles? and merely manifested itself differently in these individuals (which did not therefore cease to be individuals however). All things seemed to glow with a light that caiao from within thm."*/

liner son believes that " the world proceeds fron the

same spirit as the body of man• llan is? he states, the

superior creation,, but naturo differs from man in that it jfc /

Is not "subjected to the huoan \;ill. Its serene order is

inviolable by us,"3-9 Mature represents the divine order»

the mind of the Absolute 5 nature also represents the isind

of nan« Ilaturc is the "organ through which the universal

spirit speaks to the individual. and strives to lead back

the individual to it."20

Emerson uses nature in a broader sense than is common

in its general usage. It is everything which is "not-;:e";

the universe.Between nature and man there is a very

close relation, according to Liner son, and, immediately

following the "eyeball" passage in what is evidently an

17Stace, l&S&S&m ££& &4toLQPhX, pp. ?1~?2,

^Enerson, "Mature," Wppks. I? 6*k,

^Ibld^, p, 65. 2QIbid.. p. 62.

^Carpenter, Ifeexsog JfejodfeppJIg, p. 18^.

3?

extended description,he sees, lie says, the "occult relation

"between nan and the vefyetable*n<~e-

I ism's mind, Emerson eixpiaias, seehs oat- in nature the

Identity said relationships of pleats, aniaals, suad r>henomena

which lead it to detect unity in nature. Unity arid order

suggest tlie aspect of intelligence manifested in nature.

From detection of intelligence, aan is led to wander about

causes*^3 Vron cause the nind of nan is led to the Absolute,

or, as the aysties refer to it, the "Cause of causes*" Emerson

affiriis that man may trust in the permanence of such natural

lavs.2lf

'fhe physical world and the relation of its parti; are

the &eys to the spiritual -world, liaerson finds ethical laws

in the assioss of physics: "1 tiie whole is greater than its

part^ reaction is equal to action5 the smallest weight nay

be znude to lift tne greatest, the difference of weight being

compensated by t i u e « f h e axions are not only applicable

for technical use, but are equally valuable when applied as

ethical laws in human life.

In Emerson1s view, as has been shown, the physical laws

in nature correspond exactly to the noral laws within the

mind of aan, When aan can see nature truly, he recognises

within it the beautifully necessary end eternal laws of the

92 hucrson, "Maturef

u ,.orks? I, 10•

, p * *7* ^ J P • J p * 33*

no

Absolute, of which he also, as a part of nature, is a man-

ifestation* Such an educative process—fctis recognition of

the iawtable lavs of nature reflecting his own moral in-

stincts—bo cosies a discipline for hiia, Knowledge of those

absolute laws is accessible to all, but not all avail tuera-

selves of it. MYct all men are capable of being raised by

piety or by passion, into their region,"^ Enerson writes,

a statement which sugcests the av/alsening md remaking of the

life and consciousness of the nystic.

Uhon ctan sees nothing in nature, it is because lie is

"disunited "with himself ."^7 Enerson ©plains that if nan

is to see nature truly he must satisfy "the demands of the

spirit,"^ The demands are perception and lovef but neither

is perfect without the other.^ If man is "disunited \*fithin

himself," his surface self and inner self are not integrated

or 'unified» Emerson's coraiaent that the spirit derianes both

perception and love is sucnestivv of the fusion of the two

which occurs in the mysticfs contemplative state. An ex-

perience such as that described by Stace reveals men's

relation to all things, lie sees the same light as that in

his own being manifested in other objects and animals. When

the "relation between the mind and natter"' becomes apparent

to man.} Emerson -writes, he "doubts if at all other tines he

2&-nvffi. n,. zn 27j 33M4., P. 5?. p. A . 28T,,,.,

QC

is not blind and dear « • * [5] for the universe becomes

transparent , caul the light o.v higher laws than its own

shines through it,toC)

Just as m x i can use tao p h y s i c a l laws of nature f o r

his ova benefit when he Isaovs then caicl puts hiasolf i n t o a

position to «sg their force and power, so can ho also acquire

the f o r c e of the moral laws of the Absolute when ho loaows

their t ru th ana aligns hiasoif with then to use t h e i r power.

Itierson explains -

Once Inha le the upper air, be ine s p i t t e d to behold tiie abso lu te natures o f j u s t i c e and truth, arid ¥e learn that oaa has access to the entire iiind of the Creator, is himself the creator in the finite.31

She power of i4rai Is i l l i m i t a b l e when he icnows abso lu te

truth; honcu, Emerson a s k s , "'.ho can sot bounds to the

possibilities of man-

Mhat nature iaeant to l&ierson, ev ident ly* was nore than

appears to the eye at f i r s t g l a n c e , but the a y s t l c s have boon

perceiving sixxllar assuijUis i n nature throughout the ages*

ivaerson's poetic power helped hia a r t i c o l a t c In M s writings

uh&t other men have apprehended oat have not often been able

to cosinunie&te.; the whole of nature is u oacroeosa of the

mind of man; the mind of nan is the nicrocosni of the whole

of nature5 both are uaulfestations of the Absolute , of the

3°Xi2M., P* 3^- P*

to

Universal "lad# As physical laws arc ."mom, "the world

becomes at last only c realised will,—the double of ITIPX.U!?33

"Trust thynelf" aay be little more than a trite phrase

without the reading of the nor.t pabular essay Iiaersoa ever

•wrotej "Self-Reliance." The appeal is to those who would

achieve true na$urltyy young or e l d * x t is len man. tries

to pattern hinsolf after others$ when he listens to the

advice of raea instead of the direction from his liner guide

that lie "scatters his force/' for, "whoso would bo a asm,

raust be a NONCONFORMIST*"^ Institutions and the COIM-

nications of other ricm do not have absolute truth; these

sources are secondary and have piclced up impurities. It is

only by feeing -A chaoiic-l through which the Divine flows that

r:ian can truly be himself5 the unique agent of the whole,

performing his own vital function# y&ierson says; "We lie

in the lap of iroease intelligence9 •which im&es us receivers

of its truth and organs of its activity. When we discern

justices i/hen we discern truth, we do nothing of ourselves,

but allow a passage to its b e a n s . " 3 6

Hnerson does not believe that nan should accept t i l l s

knowledge > or direction, frou other nenj lilce iiy sties in

s p. to.

~ Carpenter, m££JS2S SsMfeSPiS? P*

35>i3nereon, 51 Self-Reliance,n Essays; First Staying. Vol. II of WOXIHS) 5O.

, p. 64„

kl

every age, he feels it is necessary for the Individual to

receive primary truths, because, as he declares, "The re-

lations of the soul to the divine spirit, are so pure that

it is profane to seek to interpose helps."37 it is in-

teresting to note, incidentally5 that St. Teresa, the great

Spanish mystic of the sixteenth century, also said that ;nan

is incapable of understanding the " 'utter tr ansf ormation of

the soul in God, *" but, she adds, " *1 know it Jax experi-

ence. '"38 To know truth "by experience," the mystic feels,

is to perceive it directly in an Immediate relation of the

soul with the Infinite * it is not to believe someone . else's

account of M s relation. The climactic experience of the

soul is brought about by contemplation* When Erierson writes

that men "can and must detach themselves . . .,"39 he may

veil be referring to the detachment of the self through

poverty which occurs in the purgative stage of the mystical

life. The poverty of the nystic consists of detaching him-

self from all "immaterial as veil as material wealth, a

complete detachment from all finite things."1^ Something

of the same nature appears to be what Enerson has in nind

37iiiisi., p. 65. 38Saint Teresa, StiS, a£ ££. SftKfisa uX. ifiaua, oh. a ,

sect. 2M-„ cited in Underhill, p. 371, 39 Enerson, "Self-Reliance," l.'orks? II, 76.

hf\ Underhill, p. 205.

*+2

when he writes that "reliance oa Property, Including the

reliance on governments which protect it, is the want of

self-reliance,and, he adds, "a cultivated man becomes

ashamed of his property • . • .1,1+2 Even the prayer of the

mystic oust reflect no personal or earthly attachments.*^

Bcierson is likely of the sane opinion when he states that

"prayer as a means to effect a private end is meanness and

theft.,,liif It is because of the soul's need for freedom

that it must be detached from finite things. Underbill ex-

plains : "Divide the world, into 'nine' and 'not nine,' and

unreal standards are set up, claims and cravings begin to

fret the mind. we are slaves of our own property. We

drag with us not a treasure, but a chain. nl+5

Through poverty of the senses the self will of the

mystic is obliterated. He desires nothing and has nothing.

According to the mystics, such a state gives one a sense of

freedom unknown jy other nen. Through poverty and through

obedience to the naral lavs, the self vill of the mystic is

replaced by the will of the Infinite. The obedience of the

mystic is not just a strict surface conformance; it is so

great a love for the moral laws that he desires nothing else

^Knercon, nSelf-Reliance," Vfcrfcg, II, 87.

pp. B7-88* ^^Dnderhill, p. 306.

^llnerson, "Self-Reliance," II, 77»

^Underbill, pp. 206-207.

i 6

but their fulfillment in his ovn life end, naturally, thoir

fulfillment in the entire uaivorso. 1'he "fretting®1 of the

raind which Is still driven by self-will appears to be a

weakness which Eaersoxi recognizee. '"'Discontent * • he

writest "is infimity of •yil),.»"1*6 K e criticizes the usual

prayer as a petition for Individual benefits such "prayore

arc a disease of the mil . „ . ,ul*7 The transforation of

the vill is an inner process, anC from it, the mystic gains

freedom, \dimi he is no longer tied by physical things he has

rnxi strength. feerson shows avarcnees of the added mercy

through transformation when he says;

II© vho knovs that power is inborn, that he in •weak because he has looked for good out of hia and elsewhere, and, so perceiving, throws hiasolf unhesitatingly on his thought, instantly rights himself9 stands in the erect position, coniaejids his limbs, works miracles; just as a nan who stands on his feet is stronger than a nan who stands on his head,1^

The aystics declare that the will of the Absolute is

man's rightful v4.ll, that it is a will more fitting and

natural to man than M s own self-vill. Such perception

seoias to be what Emerson aeans by writing that "if wo live

truxy, we shall see t r u l y . U n t i l aan realises that tl'ie

Eternal will is his on ? he does not nor can he know his

^Emerson* "Self-helisnce," oj&S, II, 78.

h?XMd., p. 79' P. 89.

P. 68*

M,

true nature. According to Underbill, part of the realisa-

tion cones through concentrating on Beality. Bneraon is

very likely suggesting this jaethod when he writes that nan

"must go a l o n e , a n d adds tii&t such "isolation mat not be

mechanical, but spiritual, that is, mast bo elevation."53-

E&ersoa cautions against the danger of mil's concerning him-

self tilth trifles which arc always dmar.cling his attention;-

"At tines the whole world seeas to he in conspiracy to im-

portune you with enphatic trifles • • • • hut lceep thy

state? coao not into their confusion#"52 jfysulc concentra-

tion through elimination of all other concern appears,

obviously9 to be implied*

When through the whole act of contemplation the mystic

has transformed his will into the Eternal will and has unified

his senses for illumination, ecstasy occurs, Shterson may be

referring to the intellectual perceptions of unity in ntind

and matter, always present in the contemplative Element, when

he states that "the soul raised over passion beholds identity

and eternal causation, perceives the self-existence of Truth

and Ilight, and calms itself with Icnowing thai all -tilings go

well."hncrson brings out the same illuminations which the

mystics have always achieved through the ecstatic experiences

P. 71. p. 72.

, p. 69.

that "all tilings irell." Sic mystic sees -chat a rose and

a blade of grass exist in ike present In perfect beauty and

fulfillment5 M s insight reveals that lie mist clo the sane,

Eiierson believes, also, that n;n "cannot be happy and strong

until he too lives with nature in, the pi'osont, above tino."^1"

It in through the ecstatic experience that the aystic learns

that the present is part of eternity, and, as such9 requires

M s utmost participation and Divine direction. Because of

this revelation, the all~inportant present is designated as

the goy. Eiaerson seems aware of the rustics' Eternal

lion whan he affirms that "yhenover a sind is simple and re-

ceives a divine visdon . « • it lives now, and absorbs past

and future into the present hour."25" The reason for self-

reliance is therefore obvious; it is reliance upon God

uithin. The .qnji*j,erd jaajLff is tae channel through wiiich God

acts and speaks. Thus, vith tlie reason, assuranco, and

authority of the aysties of every age, nay Baerson declares

* * . the only right is what is after ay own con-stitution; the only wrong what is against lt.?o

Like the nan of action, the scholar also must "be a

self-reliant man. Referring to an old fable which, he srys,

is "ever new and sublime . . .,"57 Baerson relates that frfon

P. 67. % M 4 . * P» 66. Sfclfrld*? p. 50.

^Etierson, "The Meriean Scholar," Vorks. I, 82.

} 'r6

was divided Into noa in ordex* to "be aoro helpiCul to

just as the IxcaMi \ms divided into fingersj the better to

answer its ©nd.M^ "lie One I son !•-, oi&y partially present in

each jaanf and it takes "the whole society to find the whole

iaan."?9 Each nan, in order :tto possess himself, mist sone-

tiiies re tuna. from M s own l&bor to cwbrcco nil the other

laborers Baerson thus inplioa that the scholar smart ro-

ssKaaber his identity x-rith all other &on, that all ore united

in the One 1'nxi,

"ho most important influence upon the mind of the scholar 61

is nature, for it provides tho raw material on which his

mind nay work* Like that of the nystie, tho raind of the

scholar nust possess a strong unifying instinct. "To the

young irindj11 Bncrson says, "every thing is individual . « .

out as it grows older "it finds ho-;* to join two things m d

see in then one nature: then throe5 then three thousand • «

• ."63 The unifying; instinct of the scholar continues to

join thingsj "discovering roots running under ground - /hereby

contrary and remote things cohere and flovei* out from one

stoK."^ He finds that classification has boon going on

since the beginning of tirio, tnd Knerson asks, "what is

classification out the perceiving that these objects are not 58-r v -t ,1 5 9 r 1,4,! 60-r 5 p. 63»

p. 8*k 621M4*» p. C5. 63J

6Vr-K^: A

chaotic, and are not forei{>:? but liave a law which I s nlso

the Imr of the hrumn ralnd". The scholar then sees, soiae-

\Jhc-.1i r:g the si?.b;]cct scu in. the costs t i c Bomcnt described 1 )jr

Ot&ce, that "he end i t [nature] proceed tvon one root . « • »,,66

The roo t , 'i-kmvuon w i t e s , in "the soul of his soul."**? r j i o v

inr that the lairs or.' nature are the sane as those of ids own

riind2 the scholar measures h is attainment by natures* "So

Eii.icii or nature as he i s Ignorant o f , so nnch of hie ovn uincl C O

does lie not yet possess.

Although nature i s the primary source of aisdon, boohs

uro the scholar.«s instruments for Ms *'1610 t i r i e s*"^ Boohs,

hnerson bel ieves, aant he- used in such a way that the scholar

m l n t a i n s the in t eg r i ty of hie oau nind i.hile recognising tlie

t ru ths of other riinds, ln& when JS&erson v r i t e s thai; the best

books "inpress ms v i th the conviction that one; nature -wrote

an0. the aaae r e a d s h e apparently recognizes, as the

rays t i c s do, that a l l ninds are wilted In, the Universal hind*

The a j s t i c ' s knowledge of the connection i s perceived through

ecstasy, and Eraeruoa seouirj&ly believes that the- scholar and

the best authors receive; insight in a cooparabl# manner, The

scholar, he says, t r i l l know , ! that as the see r ' s hour of v i -

sion i s short and rare . * • [ ,] so i s i t s record • *

Pp. 85-86. 6Gihija. > p. 86. 6?TH:

p. &7- ^%bid«, p, 91. 7 1IIOii . , p . 93.

which strongly suggests the brevity of the contemplative

moment. The perceptive scholar recognises the absolute

truth when it appears in M s reading because it is the

truth of M s own mind, and he will, Emerson explains,"read

• # . only that least part)—only the authentic utterances

of the oracle}—all the rest he rejects • • • ."72 A

strict belief in everything found in even the best of books

is a grave error according to Emerson; "I had better never

see a book than to be varped by its attraction clean out of

my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a systea."73

The scholar *s primary sources of wisdom through nature and

action, Emerson warns, must not be replaced by a secondary

source such as books: "When he can read God directly, the

hour is too precious to be wasted in other men's transcripts

of their readings

More valuable than books to the scholar is action; it

is a resource he cannot do without"Action is with the

scholar subordinate," Emerson -writes, "but it is essential."7&

His definition of action is, however, somewhat broader than

the usual one: "The preamble of thought, the transition

through which it passes from the unconscious to the conscious,

is action,"77 ho affirms, and without this action "thought

7 2IMA. 7'52MM't PP. 89-90. p, 91.

p. 98. p. 9^. pp.9^95.

*f9

can never ripen into truth. Every kind of action in which

ho can participate is useful to the scholar* "It is pearls

and rubies to his discourse."79 Action furnishes Jaiia with

language? and "it is the rav material out of which the in-

tellect moulds her splendid products."^

"The mind," ifeierson says, "nov; thinks, now acts, a M

each fit reproduces tho other."^l Thinking is a partial act*,

if the scholar lacks ability to impart Ills truths, lie can

still live their*; the combination of both constitutes a total Qn

act. liner son believes that the one thine of value in the

vorld is "the active soul"; "Shis every man is entitled to;

tiiis every man contains witiiin hin, altitough in almost all

men obstructed and as yet unborn. The soul active sees ab-

solute truth and utters truth, or c r e a t e s . T h e active

soul is that which is in the process of beconing aware of

the greater Reality, /.ll sen, the nysties believe, have

•within them the seed of the Divine, the latent ability to

achieve union with the Absolute. V/hon liuerson writes tliat

the active soul is "obstructed ;aid as yet unborn," he im-

plies, seemingly, that it trust be awakened. The obstruction

aay be caused by the surface senses which have be cone all

important and thereby prevent the deeper self or the seed

from emerging into consciousness. The active soul,

7^Ibirl.. n. 79rh1d_ n- Q«?. SOt> » P* (A. ''I&ui., p« 95. , pp. 95-96.

&lr^,n . c>9. ^2Ibld» 83iMil., P* 90.

50

awakened, sees absolute truth through a deeper perception?

lie utters and enacts truth, because he nust, although he

feels It to be ineffable.

If the active soul is he who yearns always for Reality,

it is logical that Emerson would describe the duty of the

scholar as showing men "facts amidst appearances.

Emerson affirms that "the world is M s who can see through

its pretension."§5 Jut, he warns t tho task of the scholar

is not an easy one. His method requires that he be "one who

raises himself from private considerations and breathes and

lives on public and illustrious thoughtsWhether or not

Bmerson intended it to be so, the scholar's nethod resembles

that of the rays tics. In order to detach himself from per-

sonal desires, the nystic accepts poverty, and when Luerson

declares that the scholar "must accept-—how often!—poverty

and solitude,1'^7 it is suggestive of the purgative stage.

That Knerson ejects the scholar to progress into the stage

of illumination is implied by this statement;. "Whatsoever

oracleo the human heart, in all emergencies, in all solem

hours, has ottered as its commentary on the world of O0

actionss—these he shall receive end impart."

Like the self-reliant nan, the scholar must trust hia-

sclf completely, lie nust, Knerson explains, "defer never

P. 100. P. lO f. P. 101,

87.rw, eeTV.„ 1 A O

to the popular cry»H<^ TIe says tiiet ,:in yourself is

the law of o.ll nature . . * [53 in yourself slumbers the

whole of Reason5 It is for yon to know all5 it is for you

to dare all."9° After putting the responsibility directly

upon the scholar for realising his own potential. Enerson

declare® that he can learn as awoh at home as he can by

traveling to other lands. "The ne- r explains the far-."91

he affirms5 and "one design "unites and animates the farthest

pinnacle and the lowest trench.'^2 Emerson's discounting

the value of travel and the vr lue of learning from secondary

sources appears to be an effort to unite past and future into

the Eternal How of the rayntics. The results are well ex-

pressed by Eraerson; "Give ne insight into to-day> and yon

m y have the antique and future worlds."93

If the scholar fulfills the requirements which Timer son

has set forth, he "becones not a mere thinker? but ij&jj Tliinlc-*

ifig.* He attains absolute truth through his own experience,

not by listening to the ideas of the multitude hut to his

own heart# Ho then finds, feerson affirms, "that in going

down into the secrets of M s own raind he has descended into

the secrets of all minds."9 - Whether one refers to con-

templation as a going inward or a going outward, it is the

same mystical p r o c e s s ,9? £$& Enerson' s egression appears

P. 9 1 ^ 4 ^ p. 112.

9 2 ® M . p. 111. , P. 103. 9%inderhill? pp. 97, 99-

52

to b© tii© inward mystics 1 procedure. If the scholar is true

to M s own mind, M s truth is recognized "by that part of the

Universal nind present in all other men* Emerson explains;

"It is one soul which animates all iaen."96

If the scholar as a representative of the Universal

Soul is MsUl Thinking, then the poet is I3&R j>ayin£« He is

the men who can both recoive and conjnunicate truth. "For

all iaen live by truth and stand in need of expression,"^

Liner son explains, 'but few men can impart their truth to

others, A "man is only half himself, the other half is his

expression,"^ laerson affiras, and the poet "stands among

partial nen for the complete una . . . ."99 merson views

poetry as something not created by nan1 s sldLll, for, he feels.

• • . poetry was all written before time was, and whenever w© are so finely organized that we can penetrate into that region where the air is music, we hear those printJL warblings and attempt to write them down, but we lose ever and anon a word or a verse and substitute something of our own, and thus niswrlte the poea.**-00

The mystics have frequently noted the musical aspect

of ecstasy St. Francis of i ssisi, Italian nystic of

the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, heard

96Enerson, "The American Scholar," Work?. I, 108*

9?13iaersons "The Poet," = Second Series, 111, 4.±*v f MMAdSfAf

? p* 8.

^underhill, p. 76.

? 3

during the ecstatic aoaent a " 'heavenly melooy 9 intolerably

sweet.'"102 When the poet "penetrates into the- region whore

the air is u u s i c h e comes into contact; \rxzii ab.'-.olute Liuth,

and having an ear delicate enough to cai;ch the raelooy $ «e cy-

pres yes it in the earthly beauty oi poetry* i'ne tnoiigiit and

the form are heard by the poet5 the form and rhythm arc part

oi' the truth. As Saerson explains- "» # » it is not saetres,

but a aetrc-at'Iiins argur.ieat that lualiet; a poem • • «

i'lie poet learns, at» do all intellcctuc 1 ifiei.'j Ux&fc there

xs a greater energy availtble to hiru Etiersoa declares "what

beyond the energy of his possessed anu conscious he

is capable of a new energy • • • This now power wny

obtained, Baerson explains, "by ab&ndonnertt to the nature of

tilings » « » [|] by iioloc&ing, at all risScs, his human door0,

and suffering the ethereal tides to roj.1 and circulate through.

Ilia • * , .,sl0^ Emerson appears to be referring to the aban-

donment oi the I A Y S lie , V J I I O , si tor "Qic awaKenin^,, leaveb «A11

personal desires. The honan doors which need unloehin^ are

probably indicative of the nysvical unification of senses

v-hich is necessary before the ecstatic moment <iay occur in

coat eoplation» liner son writes also that "t ie sueliiae vxsxon

cornea to the pure and simple soul in a clean and chaste

10ZUiislM P- 77.

•k^Dnersoa, "The Poet," .._O.ai>j5> -L- ? ' *

1>c^lp2A't P . 26, 10h)il£l'

5^

body,ul°6 a statement which suggests tho mystical process of

purgation and perception which, occurs in the ©tag© of illu-

mination.

Underhill states that many artists and poets come to

the threshold of Reality, or experience ecstasy, but they

cannot remain in the unitlve life as the mystics often do.

"But the artist cannot act thus. On hiia lias been laid the

duty of expressing sonething of that which he perceives. He

is bound to tell his l o v e . He cannot rest until he does.

Similarly, according to i-toerson, the poet says," 'It is in

jae-f and shall out»'"1°® The artist, Underhill writes, "Is

the mediator between his brethren and the divine, for art is

the link between appearances and reality. Somewhat the

same idea is affirmed by Enerson: ". • • we love the poet

• • • who • » • has yielded us a new thought. He unlocks

our chains and adnits us to a new scene #"1H> Emerson be-

lieves that the poet connunicates truth which momentarily

releases roan's mind from physical obscurities, allowing him

a glimpse of something Real. The poet, -person asserts,

holds man "steady to a truth until he has Bade it his

1 0 6IM£., p. 28. 107Underhill, p. 7?.

108Bmerson5 "The Poet," Wajfca, III, ho.

10%nderhill, p ,75*

^Enerson, "The Poet," v&afca, III, 33.

P. 11..

55

Emerson declares that " the Universe is the extde-

nization of the soul,"112 and that the poet oust study it

as such., Hature Is symbolic of the Universal irdnd, and, if

rightly seen, reveals absolute laws of matter and nind.

n, . . Nature is," states Emerson, "a symbol, in the whole,

and in every partj"11^ and, he adds, "there is no fact in

nature which does not carry the whole sense of nature • .

. When the poet applies thought to nature or events,

when they are used as symbols, all common distinctions be-

tween high and low, or honest and base, disappear. "Thought

makes everything fit for use,"^? Emerson writes. He believes

that the poet, apparently through the ecstatic experience,

finds all things contained in the Absolute and that within

any of them may be found truth, beauty, and goodness.

Emerson's theory of history seems also to havo sprung

from mystical apprehension. According to liucrson' s view,

nature reveals a few basic levs repeated Infinitely. The

laws proceed from the Universe! Iliad, and iiis.t.Q£y is the

record of Hind as manifested in the evolution of civilised

man* llan is the conscious, thin!:inc part of creation, and

through his actions the Universal Iliad is manifested.

Linorson believes that "there is one mind common to all in-

dividual men. Every nan is an inlet to the same and to all

"^iJiLd., p. 1*k > p. 13•

^^XbM. 3 p. 17- 1 1

56

of the same."116 Therefore, each nan "Is a party to all

that is or can be done * . • »"H7

Hind, or thought, is always prior to fact. Bach fact

In history exists first in the mind of man as law5 "each

law in turn is made "by circumstances predominant, and the

limits of nature give power to "but one at a tine. " H 8

Eiaerson explains that "a nan is the whole encyclopaedia of

facts, "* 9 just as "the creation of a thousand forests is in

one acorn • • . ."*20 Thus the history of one nan as seen

by liner son is the microcosm, and the history of all men is

the macrocosm,

Emerson'0 belief in the ultimate value of immediate

apprehension of truth made him "very suspicious of the de-

ceptions of the element of time«"121 ]ie thought history

"less important than 'psychology'• • « •"^22 History, he

believed, might "be explained from individual experience.

There is a relation between the hours of our life and the

centuries of tine. "**-23 Since ontogeny repeats phylogeny,

the whole of history can be brought into the experience

-^-^Enerson, "History," W&rj£g, II > 3.

U9XKI!I. 1 2 0XM&., PP.3-1*.

^^Eaerson, "Experience," Viorks. Ill, 8 5 .

122 Carpenter, KBfifcSfiB EauQ£ka£>j&, pp. 119-120.

123iomerson, "History," Works. II,

57

of the individual raan. *4, Euerson "brings out as a basic

factor the importance of individual progression, a point

also stressed by mystic a. "The world e:cists for the ed-

ucation of each man,"-*-2!? lie says# IJbn's education is

evidently seen cs a deeper experience than it is conaonly

regarded to be* Ha simplifies the concept of education to

mean the basic experiences of each individual; "Every mind

must know the whole lesson for Itself,—oust go over the

•whole ground. What it does not soe, what it does not live,

it will not know."126

The history of man consists of an infinite variety of

facta, but all stem from a tm fundamental causes^7 which

originate within the mind of man. Because of the unity of

all nindc -within the Universal Mind, man is able to relate

the acts of other sen to himself. So interpret history as

Emerson sees it nay require a mystical perception of unity

in order to bring the various facts together. "The progress

of the intellect is to a clearer vision of causes, which

neglects surface differences, "3-28 iiaerson affiras, Lb a

reason for the neglect he explains that "the eye is fastened

on the life, tmcS. slights the circumstance."3-29 Men cannot

acquire easily the ability to pierce the fact to its

12^carpenter, J^grgsa I&Mb&Pii, p. 120.

•^2%:aerson, "History," Works« II, 8. 126JMa., p. 10. 127Ikld., p. lb,

P. 12.

58

origination, tot 15 as they come to revere their intuitions arid

aspire to live holily, their own piety explains every

fact . • ,,"^30 Er.icrGon believes. Cabot, Emerson's per-

sonal friend, says that "reverence for intuitions meant

to Emerson resistance to the sleep that is apt to cone over

our spiritual faculties « • • ,"3-31 o resistance which "con-

sists in obedience, unobstructed reception,"3-32 '/hen the

mystic receives insight through intuition he is united with

the Infinite and has access to the knowledge and power of

the Absolute, liner son is seemingly aware of the results

when he asserts: "lie that is once adroit ted to the right of

reason is made a freeman to the whole estate."133 The no-

ment of ecstasy is soooinely man's admission to the "right

of reason." Fron the added insight of the contemplative

moment, nan13 understanding of other minds and ills knowledge

of his relation to then is greatly increased, according to

the mystics. I'nerson also affirms that: "Who hath access

to this universal iaind is a pcrty to all that is or can. be

done . • . ."13^

Apparently through mystical perception, nan finds that

"there is properly no history* only biography,"^35 and that

x3°56M»s p. 26. 131cabot, I, 252, 1 3 2 M 4 m P. 2?3.

133Lnerson, "History," Works, II, 3-

13l>lbid. p. 10.

lie '

59

can live all Ills tor 7 in his own p e r s o n . \;hen aeon

perceives M s •unity with other men he is able to reed

history as Emerson suggests: ". . • all public facts are

to be individualized, all private facts are to be generol-

iaed."^37

Man' 3 life, Emerson writes, is ,:an endless flight of

winged facts and events,*338 all of then creating problems

which he must solve, and, he says: "Those nen who cannot

answer by a superior wisdom these facts or questions of time,

serve then."3-39 Emerson thinks, obviously, that it is

through higher knowledge that aari can solve his numerous

problems, through perception that he can understand the

history of man# Emerson*s description of the means and re-

sults of man's understanding resembles those of the mystics:

"But if the man is true to his better instincts • » • as one

that conies of a higher race; remains fast by the soul and

sees the principle, then the facts fall aptly and grapple

[sic] into their places . • » . I«.II . * *

It is the application of history to the present and to

the individual that makes it useful, according to liner son.

His tendency to epitomize all history into the experience

of the individual raan results in a concentration on the

present which strongly suggests the Eternal Now of the

X 3 6IM4. ? P. 8. 1 3 72M£., P. 21. 1 3 81W4.j P. 32.

W . I M A m PP. 32-33. l k 0 ' m a ^ P. 33-

60

nystics. 2he part hisuory should play in the life; of

nan is expressed by Emerson's declaration that "history

is an impertinence and an injury if it be any thing more

than a cheerful apologue or parable of mj being and be-

coming * "3. *1

Tad mystics hav- stressed the importance not only of

the present as a type of the eternal but also the progress

of tiio individual toward "union with the Absolute# Fro/a

ecstasy the mystic knows lieeuity, but what Keality aay be

is not easily told by the mystic nor grasped by his audi-

ence, According to Underbill, the nystic returns froa this

brief iioiaent declaring that by his participation in Divinity,

he learned ""the meaning of existence • . . .'"1**2 jn the

third century Plotinus said that "'if a man could preserve

the nenory of what he was when he mingled with the Divine 9

he would have within himself an image of God • . . .' "1^3

If Emerson through contemplation ever experienced

mystical insight into the nature of C-od, that concept is

best expressed in " ihe Over-Soul.." In this essay, liner son

owes cmch to Eastern thought and the idea of the world soul,

tot he owes even more to Plotinus and his theory of

372.

^ % i E i e r s o n ? " S e l f - R e l i a n c e , " - . .orkSj I I , 66*

l I f 2 U n d e r h i l l s p. 371.

llf3piotinus, X M fioasafls* VI, 9, cited in Underbill, p.

61

lltk emanation. Baerson used both as vehicles to carry his

own concept of the Absolute•

Mystics have always been reluctant to assign definite

qualities to what they feel to be ineffable# Consequently,

they have been impelled to use all-inclusive, negative, or

neutral terms to express the idea of Reality or God.

Enerson's choice of Over-Soul resembles the solution of the

mystics to a problem in semantics.

The mystics have declared throughout the ages that

"all is God." A concept of the Absolute for the jay3tics

always Includes two aspects: unity and diversity• The

aspect of unity is derived froa & feeling of the mystic's

connection with the Deity; from an apprehension of love,

pemanence and dependability, the unchanging qualities which

he feels belong to the Infinite. Emerson imputes a definite

connection between man and the Absolute when he writes that

the source of his own body and of nature is "the soul of his

soul«"lli"^ The everlasting quality is obviously what Biaerson

neons when he refers to the Deity as "the eternal One.

Probably because the word ,:love!' is overused by most

Christian denominations, Eraerson avoids it; nonetheless, he

refers subtly to the same quality in the Absolute. The

^Carpenter, K&ejLSfija gsasUg&te, p. 212.

-^Kaerson, "The American ScholarWpffis, I, 86*

-^^Enerson, "The Over-Soul," Works. Xis 269.

62

Over-Soul isf he writes, "that great nature in which we

rest as -the earth lies in th© soft arms of the atmos-

phere . , « it is apparent, too, that Ewer son,

perceived the same unity which the mystic always sees when

he describes the Absolute as "that Unity, that Over-Soul,

within which every man's particular "being is contained, m d

nade ono with all other • • • •

She second aspect in the rustic's concept of the

Infinite is diversity, which might be thought of as the

countless outward manifestations which are ultimately joined

by old contained within the unity, From the Eystic18 appre-

hension of power and energy, of progress and growth, he

derives the concept of on active, changing Reality. Through

an experience such as that related "by Stace the mystic sees

that the saae light is in ell created matter. Kmerson finds

nature an unconscious manifestation of the Absolute 5 he finds

nan the conscious manifestation.3-1^ Mature exactly represents

the moral laws of man's mind and exhibits a perfect obedi-

ence, out nan can choose to obey or disobey these l a w s . 1

Hie light in man appears, according to Emerson, to be the

moral sentiment which glows ever brighter as it is obeyed,

lighting his own life and giving light to those about him.

^Ibld.. p. 268„ llf8Iblc

"^^hnerson, "Nature," ko£i^, 1, 6^65 , p. <>?.

63

'i!he mystical proccss is the achieving of this iXlunl nation*

She mystics feci that nan's purpose is to pursue the li^ht,

that in doing so lie fulfills his own part as a mmbav of

the evcr-clianginc, progressing aianifestations of the One .

"hat nmerson recognises the active guidance of the

Divine in the life of a&& is evident in M s statement that

the soul is "the poreoiver and rovealer of truth."^5^ She

rustic's preparation for reception to a detachment from

finite things j Ester con advocates the same approach when he

states that truth "comes to whomsoever will put off what is

foreign sn£L proud. * • * »"1?2 After detachmentj tliL, no;:t

step in nystieal coatenplation is an ©xccssivo yearning for

Reality and a deliberate concentration on the Absolute#

Emerson apparently refers to this process "wkea he sayss

". * *1 desire and look up and put ray self in an attitude of

reception # • • ."3-53 A unified state of consciousness

accomplished through renoval of sensual distractions from

the mind is attained when in contemplation the emotions?

will, and perception fuse- Enerson seeias to Gsqplaia a like

fusion: "In these corii;mnications the power to see is not

separated fron the will to do,- hut the insight proceeds

fron obedience, and the obedience proceeds from a Joyful

^ Emerson, "The Over-Soul," viorks, I I , 279*

P. 289. 1 5 3 I M . , P. 268.

(."Af-

perception«"1$^' .. t aie point oi fusion ecs cntsy occurs >, n-Jid

the 3oy which inevitably attends the contemplative r,ioraent

is apparently what iiiorson is describing whon he says that

wevery distinct apprehension of this central coswnaacat

agitates sea with awe end delight« & thrill passes through

all m-jii at the reception oi" mm truth . . * »Hl55 Accom-

panying the joy of ecstasy is the feeling the aystic has

that his apprehension is divine# Such a feeling is recog-

nized by Kiaerson in his statenent that revelations "arc

always attended by the emotion of the sualirae#"^?^ The union

of man with the Infinite, which ocears in ccstasy, is obvi-

ously the experience Itierson has ill mind when ho declares

that "the simplest person who in his integrity worships God,

becomes God * • • *n3-57 F.eljhartj Plotims, St. Catherine of

Genoaj and n&ny other mystics have said essentially the sane

iiilaothat man and the Absolute are one. The mystics find

that froa aa&n's participation in Divinity he receives truth,

laaows iloality, und . aerson affirms that 15 the nature of these

revelations is the aa&ej they are perceptions of the absolute

law,"i^S adds, "fhey arc solutions to the seal's own

questions*"i29

It is the hunger of the heart and Intellect for ultimate

truth which causes a person to seelc through the stages leading

p. 201. '

1 ? 6 M .

iff7lb.ld*? p. 292. P. >82.

65

to the mystical csqperience the answers to ills questions.

The revelation of truth Is not given to the rays tic by a

stated "definition" during ecstasy, but by a knowing from

having experienced the immediate apprehension of the thing

itself. Logic has nothing to do with it. Heception of

primary truths is affirmed also by Emersons "The soul

answers never by words, but by the thins itself that is

inquired a f t e r T h e subject IfflGMS beyond any doubt the

validity of what he perceives, out the expression is diffi-

cult. A lack of sufficient words for egression of the

contemplative moment is obviously what Bmerson feels when

he writes. "Ineffable is the union of man and God in every

act of the soul."161

The combination of all the diversified aspects of the

absolute culminates in what the mystics embrace as the idea

of progression* imystics feel tloat the progression includes

not only the soul of man but also the entire universe. This

idea comes more from immediate apprehension than from any

theory which has been worked out. That the universe is a

"living Presence" was perceived by II. II, Bucke in an ecstatic

moment, and in a description of a state of ecstasy wiiich

Stace relates? the light of life is seen as vital in the

broken bottle as in the cat and the wasp. Eserson also

160iMfl. , p. 292.

66

expresses the same idea ;>

Sic soul looketh steadily forwards , creating a yorld before her, leavinc worlds behind M r . She- has no dat«% nor rites, nor persons, nor specialties nor uen. The soul knows only the soul; the web of events is the flowing robe in which she is clothed,162

"The soul's advances," • person says, are made by "ascension

of state, such as can be represented fey ne tamo rpho sis,—

frora the egg to the worn, from the worra to the fly. "3-63

laaerson seens to liavo accepted an early concept of evolution

before the fijeigifl QJL j^a SftOSUa appeared in print. There is

a higher end in nature than "in the production of new indi-

viduals • » .," he states in his essay on the poet, and this

end is ascension, ,;or the pes sago of the soul into higher

f o m s , " ^

R* M. Buck© believed that the mystical ability, or as

he expressed it, the "cosiaic consciousness," was not to be

looked upon as supernatural, or as any tiling nore than natural

development, and he maintained that such consciousness was

emerging in the process of evolution, according to the normal

principles oi evolution, ana that it was destined at sone

later date "to become the psychological condition of a

majority of the human race#"2.65 Mystics see the soul of nan,

the world , and all created natter as progressive• The world

1 6 2IM&., p. 27k. l63lbid.

16lf2inerson, "The Poet," l-iosfea, III, 2k. l 6 5 s t a c e , M z s i i c i j j a a M m t a s a a f a x , p . 26 .

67

is not dead natter; it is in every particle alive and

ascending.

Buck© perceived in his ecstatic experience that "all

tilings work together for tho good of each and all •" Because

of the reception of such knowledge, the cystic ? \;ith perfect

assurances intrusts all particular riddles to the progression

of the soul. A nan. receives from the soul's coramunication,

according to oner son "an infallible trust. It© lias not the

conviction, but tho sight, that the best is the truo • • . •

II© is sure that his welfare is deer to tie heart of being • "166

Then he may easily dismiss all personal uncertainties and

fears and trust completely in time to the solving of partic-

ular probiens."^7

Through the diversified aspect of the Infinite and the

progression of both man and nature s man, tho mystics affirm,

derives some Idea as to the meaning of his own life. If

Emerson ever attained insight into the meaning of existence,

as the mystics have done , a concise attempt to explain the

personal meaning of such perception occurs in the conclusion

of ""ho Over-Soul";

» • * 1 am born into the great, the universal laind. 1, the imperfect, adore ay own Perfect. 1 an somehow receptive of the great soul, and thereby I do overlook the sun and stars and feel them to be the fair accidents and effects which

166Eraerson, "The Over -Soul," .orks, II, 293. 167

I M .

f* Ft oo

change and pass. -lore cud sore the surges of everlasting nature enter into ne, and 1 "become public end human In my regards and actions. So come X to live in thoughts and act vith energies vhich are inrnortal.!^

iimer son's thoughts, "which spring fron the Universal Mind,

arc not subject to tine: and space, out transcend his o\m

mortality. Being a part of the or 10 mind, lie shares also

its energies and its authority. Euerson s&ya that iio sees

"that the "world is the perennial lalracla wldcii the soul

vorkoth . • «[|] that all history is sacred5 that tho

universe is represented in tm otom, in a Meat of time»"2*^

In the ecstatic esqperieneo- tho unified self pierces

the barriers of tho sensual world and goes beyond, or tran-

seentis#" ® Underbill explains it by saying that "in this

025>erienco the departmental activities of thought and feeling,

the consciousness of I-hood, of spsxc and. time • , • are sus-

pended,"^"^ Knerson1 s o\ra place in tiit: -world appears to

have been suspended in the eyeball passage vhen ho writes,

"I an nothing." Vhen he is "uplifted into infinite space

iiu obviously goes beyond the sensual world. Corson's de-

scription of the transcendence which occurs during an

"announcement of tho soul11 is expressed in "The Over-Soul":

"Before the revelations of the soul, Tine, Space, and Mature

shrink: away. "3*72

i 6 8 i M . s p. 296e 16%l2M.* P. 297-

i^%nderhili? p. 366. ^ "Xald.« p. 367,

^7%jaer son, "The Over-Soul," kpxfc&j II, 273.

69

rtystics agree in their affirmation, that they participate

ia eternity and, like R, l!» By eke, feel immortal. It is not

an immortality as it is usually interpreted, that is, a per-

sonal survival after death; it is the aoraentary insight into

eternity when the self participates in Divinity. Eraerson

seems to be explaining such a noaent when he writes that

"with each divine impulse the nind rends the thin rinds of

the visible and finite, and coraes out into eternity, and in-

spires and expires its air."3-73

The Eternal Now of which the mystics speak is the ur-

gent present with which the soul is concerned. It is not

given to man to know what happened before he becone a living

soul 5 it is not given to aan to know what iiappens after

deaths he knows through the ecstatic experience that he is

part of the Eternal Being, that his business is with this

bit of life granted his in the world, and that his purpose is

the manifestation of the Absolute in his own being. From

this knowledge, he feels innortal .

Such a sense of imnortality appears also to have- been

one which Eraerson had felt. In a isama! entry of October

3 0 , 18*kL, he writes I

If you are sure of your truth, if you are sure of yourselfs you ascend now into eternity, you have already arrived at that, and that takes, pi with yem which other men promise themselves *1'"

, p. 2 7 5 .

i^merson, JsauaaaAs, VI, 117-118.

70

And Husk has noted a comment by Emerson resembling his

Journal meditations in which Liner son uses "the true or

right state of the soul" interchangeably with the "kingdom

of heaven# "3-75

ilia nystic is innovable in his affirmation that the ex-

perience has objective reality. Staee assorts- "Objectivity

is not for him an opinion but an experienced certainty,

One of the coismon characteristics of mysticism is the din-

regard foy the usually accepted laws of logic.^77 ij; only a

few of the nysties had insisted upon the objectivity of the

ecstatic moment, their statements night be overlooked, but,.

Stace notes, "it attaches to a certain kind of experience

MIOSIS tea .tfag it is an experience which

is not inclosed in the nystic?s own mind but something

which occurs outside his being, beyond his pliysical or mental

control at that inoncnt«

The objective reality of such a noment so ens to be what

Liierson was attempting to express when he wrote:

Every mm, discriminates between the voluntary acts of his mind and his involuntary perceptions, and knows that to M s involuntary perceptions a'perfect faith is due. He may err in the expression of them, but he knows that these things are so, like day and night, not to be disputed • » , . For my perception of it is as audi a fact as the sun.179

^Busk.J M f e jq£ ILJSL, p. Ill,

176Stacc, itoiiijisa ?jbU&fi£Bb£« p. 68.

177iteia. p. 153-

l^Emergon, "Self-Reliance," works? II,

CiiAPrn; IV

ACmiiVEU-SEHIS

That the thought of Bnerson tended always toward 'the

conccpt of unity Is evident in ills writings. The whole

universe, as lie sees it, is epitoaizod in one nan, for all

the physical laws and all spiritual laws are present in each

individual. With a mint! ever cognisant of unities and har-

monies 5 Bfcicrson writes in the of December 21,

"Blessed is the day when youth discovers that Within and

Above arc synonyms«n^- -Jccause man represents! the Absolute

in little and is a part of the eternal, time and space are

united in M s experience„ Lan is* as it were5 the rxLcro-

cosn; the Abso3.ute, the macrocosm.

Because of Enerson's concept of the relationship be-

tween aan and the Absolute? he "concentrated on the present

as a type of the eternal*"2 Knerson is known to have in-

structed M s children to '"finish every day and be don© with

it. ni3 They should forget the errors of yesterday and live

each day to the best of their abilities, always concentrating

1 Uierson, Journals, 111, 399.

2 F i r iOns , p . 370. 3 C a bo t , I I , kQ$.

71

72

on tiie present. " Because truth is ever being disclosed,

Lraerson themght that nan should speak and live by the truth

each day as he sees it, oven if it should contradict his truth

of yesterday. Past ideas of truth shoi.ld not obstruct nan1 s

vision of the ever-revealing laws of the Absolute, In

Person's estination it is "fitter to account every mo-

raont » . . c.s a new Creation, and all as a revelation

proceeding each moment fron the Divinity • • . ."!> The

uniting of time and space in the here and now, the unfold-

ing of new truth, and nan's dependence upon tho immediacy

of the inner guide for direction appear to be central in

most of Emerson's thought. The overall effect is a con-

centration on the present. Lmerson feels that it is "the

quality of the moment . • . [,] the depth at which we live

and not at all the surface extension that imports."^

Luerson's efforts to remove tine and space fron reli-

gion are evident in several of his writings. In a letter

to Mary Moody Emerson written on September 23, 1826, he

says that "it is wrong to regard ourselves so nuch in a

light as we do, putting Time between God &

us . • . • "? The scholar, the poet, end the self-reliant

hjlM* burner son, L&j&mg, X, l?h.

w , ^ % £ s o n » "y°Tk c n a Days?" Ss.ciet2 a M SiUMp., VII, Msr&s.? 183.

^Lraerson, I5 1?*k

73

nan. have access to the Universal Mind, not to a party but

to all of it. The need for instruction froo oinds of the

past is secondary5 the primary need is to "read God directly"

from nature and experience, l.inerson believes. To recoive

truths which the soul reveals, aaa must prepare himself

•through thoughts and actions5 it is the present, the Eternal

HOY; which is seen as important to lain#

Enerson views historical accounts of religious denom-

inations or sects as interesting in thonsolves, but never

should such creeds become a barrier between nan and the

Deity. He "believes that too much emphasis has boon put upon

historical religion and not enough upon the living, vital

words which speak to the soul of nc-n. These words, he

writes, "can only be Interpreted "by the same spirit that

uttered then."^ llan, by studying the histories of his own

religious sect, puts his mind too Liuch in the past*, thereby

arriving at a concept of the Deity as something outside his

own experience, vaguely fauiliar but with no direct connec-

tion to the present. The Deity, says Emerson, is not dead

and inaccessible but exists today and is as accessible and

closely related to man and life as his own being» He de-

clares that "God exists • . .,"9 and that "God connunicates

3 Emerson, Journals. Ill, 225*

^U.ierson, "Spiritual Lavs," Works? IX, 139.

with tiie thoughts of a en • * . Overemphasis on past

revelations he a put tine and space between man and the

Absolute, But5 h&erson explains, religion is a living

experience, natural, vital, and beneficent to the soul of

man. Item can coianrone with, the Deity, he affirms5 yet "the

coiirjunity in which we live- will hardly hear to be told that

every man should be open to ecstasy or a divine illumination,

and his daily walk elevated by Intercourse with the spiritual

world.

From Emerson' s view of the imaediacy of the Absolute,

hi a ideas on the acquiring of knowledge naturally follow.

rfhe reading of books is less important than immediate appre-

hension of Imowledge• /.ll knowledge is, in a sense, varia-

tions or related applications of the physical laws of the

universe or of the spiritual laws* ifcn, whether he realizes

it or not, is on 'the road to absolute truth when he 1 earns

anything, l iaerson explains how the knowledge of natural

laws leads asa, ultimately, if he prepares himself to see It,

into knowledge of the spiritual laws.*^ What a man may

learn from reading the accounts of other sen's knowledge is

only those truths which he hfaselaT can recognize as such.

They oust apply end relate to his o\/n life, his own being.

10iiierson, Jcm£nal£, II, 22*+.

^•Kticraon, "Man the Reformer," Works, I, 22?.

"Nature," pp.

75

Man appears to con.tc.ln within Mmse-lf a pattern fox* wiiich lie

selects bits of truth to fit, tiie end of which is a meexdng-

ful design, just as one might select bits of glass or stone

to fit the plans for a. colorful mosaic* It is because of

ncai1 s inner patters ths.t he tenous the) pieces wnich lit# lie

recognizes them in M s reading; he s^es them in nature5 he

receives tiieM through the soul's coniium. cation, Liner son

explains, and he discovers them in M s actions* xlirough

carefu.1 selection sian recognises hie truth, and by the use

of it he builds toward the completion of the plan, however

many pieces he perceives and puts to use will determine the

extent to which the design is resli&ea* Si® education of

aMi is a. progression| iust as is man's knowledge ox Got*.

Possibilities for either are unlimited, i;gaia, Person shows

that what has happened before > ad what may happen cu terwaPd

ar© not n^n's concern5 xt j.,S the prusen^ wxiicii nxusi* cocisi nd

M s attention.

Hot only in learning end religion but also in liie itself

man cmst accentuate the present, }>aerso& believes that what

happened yesterday is p; st, what happens tomorrow aepenus

upon today | therefore, the present is all important:. If attire

and m'.n '..re iairc'Culous nanifest& tions ol the ii 0solute, end

each day is another opportunity to complete as much of the

inner design as man nay sake possible to himself. The moral

76

sentiaent. "that nystorious foantaiii?,f~3 directs the building

processj and Enerson addss "Here or nowhere resides un-

bounded energy, unbounded pox/or»

ilaiiy of Person's Ideas correlate with aysticisri.

That the religious life of the mystic is a process of be-

coalng awrc of the greater Heality seens to "be expressed

in Emerson*s theories of learning end religion. The pos-

sibility of 'anion i/ith God, vhich is the essence of

raysticisra, Is one in vhich Emerson believes. He himself

bocoaec part and parcel of God, and vhat is true for Mia is

true for all nen,^ ho affirns. II© recognizes in all non,

as do the mystics, that latent ability to find union mth

Reality, for the nystics have always attested, and Emerson

adds his affirmation, that through the contemplative mo-

ment spiritual truths are apprehended.

To discern the unities or harmonies of things, one nust

first recognize the differences„ A heightened sense of aware-

ness of tilings is an ability which the ays tic inevitably

develops, lie becomes nore keenly awaro of all things thereby

noting diversities which dissolve into -unities® Underbill

states that nystics see a sacrauental moaning in every iiian-

if©station of life5 they see "a loveliness, a yonder , a

"Lecture on the 'fines," p. 272.

•^Emerson, "Self-ileliance," Uorks, 11, b$.

77

heightened significance, which is hidden from other raen."^

0, I;. Firkins writes that Emerson* s tracing of the 'unities

and harmonies "became the keenest of intellectual pleasures:

it combined the solemnity of worship with the zest of

sport."1? An interesting description of Emerson's alertness

is recalled by John Burroughs, who saw him at West Point

after President Lincoln had appointed Enersori a nenber of

the Board of Visitors. Burroughs explainss

"My attention was attracted to this eager, alert, inquisitive farmer, as I took him to be. Evidently, I thought, this is a new thing to hia; he feels the honor that has been conferred upon him, and he means to do liis duty and let no fact or word or tiling es-cape hira. When the rest of the Board looked dull or fatigued or perfunctory, he was all eagerness and attention,"I"

Because of the mystic's assurance of his truth he will

express it without concern even though it may be controver-

sial or contradictory# Firkins noted that Emerson was

"disinclined to logic • • . After the "Divinity School

Address" of lC/38, and the severe criticism it evoked, Henry

Viare, Okies son's former colleague at Second Church, wrote

Emerson a siting for a logical argument defending the points

he had made, Emerson's answer was: . # I do not know

what arguments mean in reference to any expression of a

thought.'"^0

• Underiiill, p. 36, -^Firkins, p. 3^2.

l8Cabot, II, 613. 19Flrkins, p. 299-

20J])M.? pp. 299-300.

78

Because the mystics ignore the usual procedures of

logic, they have been accused of talcing the point of view

of the Deity* vihen something is revealed to then through

union with the Absolute, they state it i/ith authority.

The same viewpoint is used by liner son in nuch of M s writ-o*s

ings. Some of his expressions may be humorous and

colloquially epigrammatic, but when he sets forth a truth

he does so with forthrightness} for exanple; "Good is

positive. Evil is merely privative, not absolute; it is

like cold, which is the privation of heat."^ However con-

troversial his statement may be, he says it positively and

simply.

That Emerson was not overly concerned with evil has

led to some criticism of his ideas• Apparently, due to nan's

inability to find cause or meaning in the evil which he sees,

it seems to him that Emerson has not faced the reality of

roan's problems. But the avoidance of evil in thought end

action v/as part of Emerson's religion. He did not wholly

ignore evil, for he saw its place in the schene of things;

but he dwelt on what was more important in the life of man.

He saw this as being the possibility of man's virtue, evil

being only the lack of it. The relativity of good and evil

is a coninon belief of the raystic, for ho sees the part which

PI

^Carpenter, Eiiexspfi Handbook, p. 122.

2^Enerson, "An Address," Wojikj;, 1, 12*+.

79

evil plays in the world* Through contemplative tnaigiit the

nystic Is absolutely certain that all things ultimately

work for the benefit of the universe. With this assurance

he does not spend as ouch time in resisting evil as he does

in promoting good.

Hov/ever, Lnerson cannot be accused of ignoring the evils

of hia day. He was alvays interested in national affairs and

took an active part in them. Two specific instances are the

removal of the Cherolcee Indians from Georgia and the Civil

War. Eraerson wrote a letter to President ilartin Van Duren

on April 23j I83&, voicing protest for the outrageous treat-

ment of the Indiana and asking that he stop their removal

from their homeland*^ Emerson was vitally interested in

the anti-slavery conflict.*** He never ceased to urge freedom

for the slaves until their final release* He spoke against

slavery many titles end was not sorry to see the beginning of 2l)

the Civil -ar. Liner son had always stressed the importance

of individual freedom.; and it was unthinkable to hiia that

any asn should toe deprived of his frecdorj«.

IHien a mystic fights evil, he fights it with confidence

and fortitude. To the depths of his being, he knows that

good will prevail and that M s help is merely an aid to the

eternal law; in fact, he is assured that all truth and right 23Cabot, II, 697-702. 2 \ b M . , p. 57*k

^%Ald., pp. 600-601.

8n V

lend their power to the struggle# Partly for this reason

mystics are noted for their serenity and optimism* The

self-possession and dignity of Emerson after the "Divinity

School Address" and its ensiling consequences Lidian Enerson

describes in a letter she wrote to her sister;

"Jut you want to Jmov how nucii of a cloud these mists of prejudice have formed over his light— hy none at all* I do not know that lie has felt a moment's uneasiness » # . •M26

The obloquy from many sources with which Emerson had to

contend he either ignored or, if it were necessary, he an-

swered with an inner dignity befitting the truth which he

purposed to represent* Theodore Parker, one of the Tran-

scendentalists, describes Eaerson's characteristics:

Boldly he faces every fact, never retreating be-hind an institution or a great nan. In God his trust is complete? with the severest scrutiny he joins the highest reverence.

Hence cooes his ealianess and serenity . . • • A nore tranquil spirit cannot he found in lit-erature# Nothing seems to fret or 3er hio, and ell the tossings of the literary \forld never Jostle him into anger or impatience.27

From Encrson'c perfect faith in the validity of his

o m thoughts cane M s courage? in expressing then. Through

the sane faith he remained serene when M s ideas aroused all

manner of controversy* Trusting always in M s own "best in-

stincts, he read for what he called "lustres," for those

26Rusk, M£§, „o£ M M , P. 270. 2^Theodore Parker, IJas Aaerjcan Scholar (Eoston, 1907)?

pp. 9l*-95»

81

passages which harmonised with bis own inner feelings,

l^erson m y well U:.vo been, describing himself when he wrote

"The mericaxi Scholar," in wMek ho was perhaps trying in

soac way to explain tin..1 purpose ?nd value of M s own actions#

If Emerson were a mystic? as many critics and biog-

mphors have felt, from the mystical elements which are

present in X&erson's writings and from the accounts of M s

personal ciurracteristics, it can be surmised that he periu-ps

reached the stage of illumination rnd that his method was

generally that of contemplation* He may even have attained

ecstasy a few times in M s life bat never, apparently, the

find union with 'the Absolute which the true mystics have

achieved* For in the unitive life, the Western mystic leaves

all personal concerns raid, works exclusively for the good of

hwmcmity.

Of course, laerson also worked for the benefit of human-

ity in many ways, but lie maintained M s home and family 5

working in the mornings, going for walks in the afternoons,

and enjoying M s family £>nd friends in the evenings*2® His

mysticism was, apparently, like- that of the poet who through

the contemplative moment achieves temporary 'anion with the Ab-

solute end because of M s literary ability is able to

communicate part of what he apprehends. -merson thought

Mmself a poet, as he expresses in a letter to Lidian

28Cabot, I, 2d?-

Mil

i:ane<Iiatsiy before their marriagei

I an to c, -oootj of 3 low class without doubt yet a poet a poet la the sense of a per-celvcr & dear lover of the harmonies that are in the soul & in matter . • .

Although Emerson's inystlcisn has been an issue on

which his biographers and critics vrry, it has been rec-

ognised toy most of them. George Santayana says that

Emerson "belonged by nature to that mystical company of

devout souls that recognize no particular home ana are

dispersed throughout history . • . ."30 He considers

Emerson a "Puritan mystic with a poetic fancy . • • »"31

llaulsby thinks that "in some degree . . . Lnerson was a

mystic. But his mysticism was compatible with life on a

high plane of conduct . . . ."32 Goddard does not doubt

"the existence of genuine mysticisn in Lraerson's nature "33

and states that liaerson had the unique ability or "power to

be at once * standing on the earth1 and *rapt above the

psle,1 "3^

Three authors unreservedly consider Emerson a mystic.

"Emerson," says tticke, "is fundamentally a mystic, and only

^Emerson, Lg.ticr.Sj I, ^35*

3°George Santayana, "Eaorson," Eagrspiis 4 Cpll^tjion Critical Assays, edited by a niton K. Konvitz caid Stephen Whicher (liaglevood Cliffs, 1962}, p. 38.

31lblcl.« ? p. 37. 32jlaulsby, pp. 7U-.7?.

33ooddard, p* 126. p. 176.

83

in terms of oysticisu does his basic thought become Intel-

ligible. "35 Dili&vay writes that "Emerson was assuredly a

mystic. One can pick up almost any essay lie ever wrote and

300 Ills oysticisu. It is a healthy and universal nysti-

cism."^ Christy affirms that "Emersonian thought was a

natter of almost pure aysticiszu."37

That Esacrson used his mysticism for practical onds

appears to be recognized by several critics. The most gen-

erally acceptable evaluation is probably that laade by Bliss

Perry, who says that Emerson belonged to the "healthy-tiinded"

aystlcs as tJillian Jaiaes has labeled and defined tiiea.3

liuerson was obviously influenced by both Eastern and -est-

ern mystics, but in the final analysis l&ierson appears,

because of his active participation and interest in life, to

belong to that group of mystics from the -est who have

actively used their mysticism for the benefit of mankind.

35 icke, p. 291. 36Dillaway> p. 106,

^^Christy, p. 266.

3%liss Perry, iiSfijfiLQa (Princeton, 1931), p. 6o.

CIIAPl'EB ¥

CONCLUSION

After the X&kO*s uhQn. the Transcendontali s t s caused

such a stir In Heu England, their popularity increased for

many years* Brier son's popularity has declined, hovever, in

the past few decades, /iltriough his rjysticism is mentioned

by numerous authors, many students are inclined to ignore

it or consider it merely another word to add to those vhich

they use to describe i.nerson. /; thorough study of the

nystical elements in M s thought, however, clearly shows that

they are essential to an under standing of M s nost important

ideas. The apparent gap between today's scholars and -nerson-

iari thought raight be bridged through a comprehension of the

rustical elements which help to illunin&te Emerson's still

vifcal idee, s.

Through a study of the nystical elements present in M s

writings5 I'iner son's expositions of men's three most important

relationships can best bo understood* The relationships are

those between man and nature, between nan arid his inner self,

and between nan end the Deity. T m significance of nature to

man becomes apparent when its synbolic and xaoral meanings are

penetrated# When man can "see nature truly," he observes

85

that tho sane moral laws existing in his own mind are

exhibited in nature. By man's deeper insight into his

relationship with nature, he learns to love and accept her

lavs# Through tho combination of love and obedience, he

achieves harmony with nature and learns to use the energy

which comes frost his alignment with natural laws. But with-

out a mystical background for the understanding of "Nature,"

many students feel it to bo more of a poetic tranquilizer

than an enlightening essay.

The second vital relationship is that between man and

his inner self5 vith inner harmony, he is a useful and happy

member of society; without it, he is neither useful nor

happy. The achieving of a self-reliance, such as Person

advocates, is an inner process similar to mystical progres-

sion. As man obeys his inner guide, it® direction becomes

ever stronger until ultimately his surface self and his

deeper self become united. Man must place his reliance

upon his own moral instincts, not on the accepted morality

of others or on what books or institutions say of morality*

He can accept only primary truths. Through man's own ex-

perience and through his own thought, he can recognize

absolute truth. Through inner harmony man becomes self-

reliant j he becomes a joyful, beneficial part of his own

society.

86

Emerson's concept of the relationship between man and

the Deity is more easily understood if viewed in the light

of the mystical elements. Shis relationship is a living,

thriving, working part of man's existence; without knowledge

of Reality, man is deprived of his greatest source of truth

and energy; with knowledge of it, he obtains essential power

and guidance. Knowledge of the Absolute is gained by means

of a progression similar to that of the mystics. Han must

detach himself from finite things, obey his own conscience,

and concentrate his attention upon the Infinite. By such a

method he achieves union with the Deity5 he perceives

absolute truth.

The Eternal Now of the mystics is paralleled by

Kraerson when he discounts the past and disregards the future

in favor of an intense concentration on the present* To the

interpretation of history, religion, learning, end to life

Itself, tie makes a vital contribution by stressing the value

of the individual and the value of his freedom. Freedom

from institutions and conventions of the past and freedom

from worries projected into the future are prerequisites for

a vital and rewarding life, The ring of individual freedom

has always been and will over be a joyful sound to the ears

of nan. Although the frontier of America is no more and man

is seemingly inclosed on all sides by restrictions, there

is a new liberty available to all. It is through the mind

of man that new frontiers are opened, that liberation is

87

obtained# ±iy penetrating the laws of nature nan has

ventured into outer space. If he penetrates the spiritual

laws which are equal to and more powerful than the physical

laws| who can predict the potential of men? If Emerson is

right in his assertion that the understanding of physical

laws leads eventually into the understanding of spiritual

laws, it say be that man has a future revelation in store

which far surpasses all others, i'he method for unlocking

new truth is carefully explained by Emerson and needs only

to be used by man. unerson's own life is an ezcaaple of

the accomplishnents possible when one man obeys the light

which is his and in so doing lights the paths of those around

him, end of the world.

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Unpublished I l r : tor ials

i f icke. Myron F„ , "pe rson ' s r y f l t l c i sa . " ittpabllshed doctoral dissertat ions Department of ^nglfsli} Western Hescrtr© Univers i ty . Cleveland, Ohio19^1»

II *