The essence of Emerson's teaching concerning man's nature is compressed
into the famous verse:--
"So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man,
When Duty whispers low, Thou must,
The youth replies, I can."
The cynic or the fall-of-man theologian replies--Grandeur indeed, say
rather squalor and shame. To this ancient pessimism Emerson makes answer
with a hard question--"We grant that human life is mean, but how did we
find out that it was mean?" To this question no straight answer has been
found, the common answer running in a circle. It is hard indeed to
conceive of a measure which will measure depths but not heights; and
besides, every measure implies a standard.
* * * * *
I have endeavored to set before you some of the practical results of
Emerson's visions and intuitions, because, though quite unfit to expound
his philosophical views, I am capable of appreciating some of the many
instances in which his words have come true in the practical experience
of my own generation. My own work has been a contribution to the
prosaic, concrete work of building, brick by brick, the new walls of old
American institutions of education. As a young man I found the writings
of Emerson unattractive, and not seldom unintelligible. I was concerned
with physical science, and with routine teaching and discipline; and
Emerson's thinking seemed to me speculative and visionary. In regard to
religious belief, I was brought up in the old-fashioned Unitarian
conservatism of Boston, which was rudely shocked by Emerson's excursions
beyond its well-fenced precincts.
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