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February 22, 2012
Emerson's City of Man: Growth. It doesn't require pain.
To us, in our lapsed estate, resting, not advancing, resisting, not cooperating with the divine expansion, this growth comes by shocks. We cannot part with our friends. We cannot let our angels go. We do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in.
We are idolaters of the Old. We do not believe in the riches of the soul, in its proper eternity and omnipresence. We do not believe there is any force in to-day to rival or recreate that beautiful yesterday. We linger in the ruins of the old tent.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): Essays, First Series, "Compensation" (1841)
Emerson in 1857
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at February 22, 2012 11:59 PM