TRANSCENDENTALISM—THE DIAL. The first number of a quarterly periodical has recently appeared, called “The Dial.” It is a “magazine for literature, philosophy, and religion,” and the avowed editors are the Rev. Mr. Emerson and Miss Margaret S. Fuller. Its design is to inculcate, explain, or make known the doctrines of what is here commonly called transcendentalism; but it is denied that this is a correct designation. Our present design is to show, as far as possible from this work, what the fundamental doctrines of Mr. Emerson and his friends are. It will not, perhaps, be easy or possible to comprehend them clearly; but if we give them in their own language, the fault will not be ours.
There is an article of twelve pages, headed “The divine presence in nature and in the soul.” This treats of inspiration—not a special and limited inspiration, but a general one, more or less perfect according to circumstances. There is a direct action of God, but upon matter and soul. This action upon matter is seen in the laws, so called, which govern matter, such as gravitation, the chemical affinities, the vegetation of plants, &c. Here is the direct agency of God, yet according to fixed and determinate laws, God is essentially and vitally present in each atom of space. The obedience, which all the inanimate objects in nature pay to these laws, is perfect. There is never any violation of it, not even the smallest. The same may be said of the animal world, with the single exception of man. The mode in which God operates here is called instinct, a law as sure and uniform in the common animals, as that of gravitation and affinity in lifeless matter. Thus, all parts of nature are in perfect harmony with God’s will: nothing ever rebels or revolts from his authority. The divine energy acts without resistance in nature, and its operation is therefore perfect;—but in man’s will it encounters a resisting medium, and therefore does not display itself so clear and perfect.
God is always present in the soul of man, as well as in matter; and his presence in the soul is what we call INSPIRATION. It is a breathing in of God. His action on the outer world is an influence; on self-conscious souls it is an inspiration. By this he imparts truth directly and immediately, without the intervention of second causes. It is intuition.
All men stand on the same level, in regard to the kind, mode and test of inspiration; but there is a great difference in respect to degree. This depends on the QUANTITY of being, so to say, and the amount of fidelity in each recipient of inspiration. All men by nature are not capable of the same degree of inspiration: and by character and culture they may be capable of receiving more or less. A man of deep and noble intellect and heart can receive more than one of smaller gifts, other things being the same; but it depends in some measure on a man’s self, whether or not, and to what extent, he may be inspired. The disciples of Christ were evidently men of small powers at first, but through their faithful obedience became Jameses and Johns at the end. It was so with Bunyan and George Fox, not to mention others. Thus, the degree of inspiration depends, first, on the original excellence or perfection of the soul, and, second, on its cultivation, or its obedience to the laws of God.
There have been eminently inspired men in all ages and in all countries. Among the Jews were Moses, Samuel, Amos, &c., and among the Greeks were Orpheus, Minos, &c. There were Confucius, and Socrates, and Zoroaster. The Christian church believes in the inspiration of Moses, David, and the prophets, and of Paul and his fellow-apostles. These sublime persons were doubtless inspired. “But (says the writer of this article) were these few men the ONLY recipients of God’s spirit? Has the soul of all souls seen fit to shed his light only on some score of men? Has he, who fills all time and space, and possesses eternity and immensity, spoken only in the earlier ages of the world—to but a single race—and merely in the Hebrew tongue? This is consistent neither with logic nor history. In all ages, from the dawn of time to this moment; in all families of man, the spirit of God, his energy and substance have flowed into the soul, as the rain falls in all lands, The sun, from his golden urn, pours down the day for all; and so, for all, the great fountain of life and truth sends forth the streams of his inspiration. Since every atom of matter is penetrated and saturated with God, it cannot be that a few Hebrew sages, prophets, or apostles, though never so noble, have alone received visitations from the soul of all souls, and wholly absorbed the energy and substance of God, so that all others must wander forlorn, or catch some faint echo of inspiration reflected in a Hebrew word.”
The reader, by this time, will desire to know, what rank and character these religionists give to Jesus Christ. This writer says, that “Jesus of Nazareth possessed a sublime degree of inspiration never before nor since imparted to mortal man.” Thus, Christ is considered a mortal man. Again he says, “Now Jesus Christ was beyond all doubt the noblest soul ever born into the world of time. He realized the idea of human holiness. He did likewise, the most perfectly of all men, obey the conditions and highest degree and greatest measure of inspiration ever possessed by man. Hence he is called an incarnation of God. If his obedience was perfect, then his reason—certain and infallible as the promptings of instinct or the law of gravitation—was the power of God acting through him without let or hindrance. His revelation, therefore, was the highest and deepest ever made to man. He will continue to hold his present place in the scale of the human race, until God shall create a soul yet larger and nobler than Jesus, which shall observe the “law of the spirit of life” with the same faithfulness. Then, but not till then, can a more perfect religion be proclaimed to men. Whether this will ever be done,—whether there are future Christs in the infinite distance, but nobler than he, now on the way to the earth,—is known only to him who possesses the riddle of destiny; and humble disciples of the truth can answer neither aye nor no. Yet may this be said—his revelation is perfect so far as it goes, and this can be said of no other sage or seer.” * * * “His will was perfectly and at all times in harmony with God’s will. His inspiration, therefore, was perfect. All the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him; and relatively to us he was God, so far as his power extended; that is, he was all of divine holiness which can be revealed in the human form. Here then is the difference between the inspiration of Jesus, and that of Moses, Zoroaster, Socrates, or other sages; not a difference in kind, in mode, or in the test by which it appears itself to mankind; but a difference in degree; a difference, which resulted from his superior natural endowments, and his more perfect conformity to God’s will.”
From another article in the Dial, upon “Channing’s translation of Jouffroy,” something more may be learned. There are some remarks upon Mysticism, which seem to identify it with this transcendentalism, this hypothesis of inspiration. The writer remarks—“We should say that Mysticism originated in a great predominance of the Reason, the faculty of insight, over the Understanding, the faculty of explaining, unfolding and illustrating things. This constitution of mind is also usually accompanied with a large development of the imagination. The mystic jumps up so high, as though to God face to face, that his feet cannot touch the ground. By so doing, he sees truths, or what he calls truths, which his feeble understanding cannot systematize and adequately state. He can only suggest his impressions. His imagination immediately presents some image, or series of images, by which his thought can be suggested, and writes a metaphor, a parable, or an allegory, which, taken literally, that is, interpreted by the understanding, would give nonsense, or at least bad sense. One must put himself in the subjective condition of the speaker or writer, before he can understand him. It would be unjust to these men, and untrue to history, not to acknowledge that the men, who have been in advance of their age in spiritual matters, have always been considered by their cotemporaries more or less inclined to mysticism. They are the prophets of the age. They are made to utter what THEY cannot thoroughly understand, and logically state to themselves. All is darkness and mystery before us, and therefore the foremost must be mystical.” Here seems to be the essence of transcendentalism, a predominance of imagination, a kind of dreaming or hallucination, at war with the understanding; and this imagination is considered more sure and certain than the cool, substantial deductions of ratiocination. It is absolute inspiration—the positive action of the God of truth upon the soul of man. We must confess that we have no confidence in this system. We do not believe that these mysterious impressions have any necessary connexion with truth. As far as we have had any such experience, we consider them fallacious, unsafe, and deceptive. Where they once terminate in truth, they ten times lead to error. Some few mystics have, by chance, revealed important truths, and are remembered: hundreds of others have proved false, and are forgotten.
There is an interesting article, of twenty-four pages, upon “Brownson’s Writings,” which we have not now room to notice. It is principally devoted to Mr. Brownson’s “Charles Elwood, or the Infidel Converted;” a philosophical work in the form of a narrative or novel. In this work are other developments of the transcendental doctrines. We may possibly refer to it, in again speaking of this periodical. ***
“Transcendentalism.” Boston Courier, 10 Aug. 1840.
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NOTE FROM THE WALDENS WOODS PROJECT: While the author of this article is unclear, the editor of Boston Courier was Joseph T. Buckingham (1779-1861), a New England journalist and politician in the National Republican and Whig parties.
This article was reprinted in Newport Mercury (Newport, RI) on 15 Aug. 1840.
