James Pierrepont Greaves (cont.)

From: The Dial, Vol. III, No. III (Jan. 1843)
Author:
Published: E. P. Peabody 1843 Boston

JAMES PIERREPONT GREAVES.

(Continued from the last Dial, page 255.)

  VIGOR, rather than elegance, must necessarily be a principal characteristic in the intelligent manifestations from a truly deepened soul. By such a being all antique lore and modern science are contemplated, from a position the very opposite of that whence they are viewed by the literary student. The course of the latter is to be introduced to the recorded wisdom, or rather to the record of the sayings of the wise, and step by step he comes into these as acquirements or possessions, which, like money for the commercial man, are made the end of his pursuits. The former, the true student, on the contrary, expands from within, reaches from a central point into all circumferential points; fills out old expressions with new life; and animates scientific axioms from a depth and purpose, of which even their enunciators were mostly unconscious. Accordingly we find that whether in conversation, in correspondence, or in books, the untiring spirit in Mr. Greaves constantly descended in livingness, in warmth, in energy, into every various form or terminology presented to it. Whatever may have been the terms offered, the interpreting power laid hold of them and turned them inwards, giving to every expression a newer and larger value. As far as any theory or plan may be attributed to him, as a preconception in his own mind, it appears to have been constantly to throw the speaker, or writer, or reader from the exterior to an interior or antecedent position, from doing and knowing, to BEING. Whenever the sentence or sentiment had a relation to either of the former, he would invert or introvert it lo the latter, as one instance may elucidate. For instance, in his copy of the Nicomachian Ethics, the following passage occurs, thus amended.

“Science is the knowledge of things necessary.”
Pre-science is the presence of things essential.

  As this mode originated in the psychic depths, so the result of such treatment upon the speaker’s or reader’s mind was almost sure to be the opening of a new and deeper vein of thought, not unfrequently preparatory to the germination of new being. Terminologies were rent asunder, and by this flexible and fluent pouring in of an essential, vital meaning to any phraseology, he al once was preserved from sinking into the narrowness and miserable fixedness of a verbal philosophy, and opened to every author a higher value than he originally designed for his own words.

  It was with the intention of a public benefit by this process, that in the year 1827 the Contrasting Magazine was published for a short period. The following extracts will in some degree exemplify the corrections which he would have suggested to the respective authors, though it may be remarked that in subsequent years he would have given a still deeper rendering to many passages.

LOCKE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING.

INTRODUCTION, SECTION I.

  The last resort a man has recourse to, in the conduct of himself, is his understanding. For though we distinguish the faculties of the mind, and give the supreme command to the will, as to an agent, yet the truth is, the man, which is the agent, determines himself, to this or that voluntary action, upon some precedent knowledge, or appearance of knowledge, in the understanding.

  No man ever sets himself about anything but upon some view or other which serves him for a reason for what he does. And whatsoever faculties he employs, the understanding, with such light as it has, well or ill informed, constantly leads; and by that light, true or false, all his operative powers are directed.

  The will itself, how absolute and uncontrollable soever it may be thought, never fails in its obedience to the dictates of the understanding. Temples have their sacred images, and we see what influence they have always had over a great part of mankind. But, in truth, the ideas and images in men’s minds are the visible powers that constantly govern them, and to these they all universally pay a ready submission. It is therefore of the highest concernment, that great care should be taken of the understanding, to conduct it right in the search of knowledge and in the judgments it makes.

  The last resort a man ought to have recourse to, in the conduct of himself, is his understanding. For though we distinguish the faculties of the mind, and attribute the clearest conception to the understanding, as to the distinctive faculty; yet, the true course of nature is the man, which is the agent, ought to determine himself to this or that voluntary action, upon some primitive motive in the feelings, which can never be an apparent one. No man ever should set himself about anything upon some view or other, and thus make the effect of what he does, serve him for a reason for what he does; and whatsoever faculties then he employs, the feelings, with that love which must be developed in them, ought constantly to lead; and, by the light in the understanding, the operative powers ought only to be ruled. The will itself, how loving and disinterested soever it may be thought, must always fail, if obedient to the dictates of the understanding. Schools have their sacred rules, and we see what influence they have always had over a great part of mankind. But, in truth, the faith and love in men’s minds are the invisible powers that constantly ought to govern them, and, to these alone, truly developed minds pay a ready submission. It is therefore of the highest concernment, that great care should be taken of the feelings, to conduct them right in the development of their faith, and in the love from which they act.

SERMON BY T. WAITE, D. C. L.

  From the Sacred Scriptures alone have the knowledge of God and the practice of true religion, in all ages, been derived; for where divine revelation has not been known, the worship of the true God, and an uniform observation of the duties of morality, have never existed.

  From the development of the divine germ in man alone have the knowledge of God and the practice of true religion, in all ages, been indrawn; for where the divine germ in man has not been developed, though the Sacred Scriptures have been known, the true worship of God, and an uniform observation of the duties of godliness, have never existed.

SWEDENBORG’S HEAVENLY MYSTERIES.

GENESIS, CHAPTER XII, NOS. 1383 ET SEQ.

  Amongst other wonderful things experienced in another life, are to be reckoned perceptions, of which there are two kinds. One that is angelic, consisting in the perception of what is true and good, and of what is from the Lord, and what from self; and also in the perception of the ground and quality of thoughts, words, and actions. The other kind is what is common to all, but is enjoyed by the angels in the highest perfection, and by spirits, according to the quality of each; consisting in this, that they discern the nature and temper of another, the instant he appears in view.

*    *    *    *

  There are spirits who belong to the province of the skin, especially that part of it which is rough and scaly, who are disposed to reason on all subjects, having no perception or what is good and true. Nay, the more they reason, the less perception they have, inasmuch as they suppose wisdom to consist in reasoning, and in appearing to be wise.

*    *    *    *

  I have sometimes discoursed concerning perception with those in another life, who, during their abode in the world, supposed themselves able to penetrate into all things, and to understand that the angels perceive, that they think and speak, will and act from the Lord, but still they were not able to conceive what perception is; supposing, that if all things thus entered by influx, they would be deprived thereby of all life, because thus they would think nothing from themselves, or their own propriety, in which they conceived all life to consist.

  Amongst other spiritual but little observed things experienced in man’s interior life, are to be reckoned intuitions, of which there are two kinds. One that is divine, consisting in the intuition of the source of all truth and goodness, and the distinction between the divine principle and the principle of selfishness, and thereby in the intuition of the ground and quality of thoughts, words, and actions. The other kind is the human intuition, which never arrives at full clearness, except by the presence of the divine nature, and is proportionate in every individual to the degree of his interior development; consisting in this, that we discern our own nature and character the instant we turn our view inwards.

*    *    *    *

  There are men who attach themselves to exterior things, especially to all such as are visible and palpable, who are disposed to reason on all subjects, having no intuition or what is good and true. Nay, the more they reason, the less intuition they have, inasmuch as arguing often suppresses wisdom, putting on its appearance only.

*    *    *    *

  I have sometimes discoursed concerning intuition with men confined to exterior life, who, in consequence of the experience they have acquired, suppose themselves able to penetrate into all things, and to understand that man may be taught, by the spirit of God, so as to think and speak, will and act, from the Lord; but still they were not able to conceive what intuition is,—supposing that if all ideas thus were to be derived from divine power within them, they would be deprived thereby of all life, because thus they would think nothing from themselves, or their own essence, in which they conceived all life to consist.

  These contrasts were not limited to authors with whose doctrines he might wholly or in part disagree, but were bestowed upon such as he justly admired. For instance, William Law, whose writings every profound, as well as merely talented reader will acknowledge as first of their class, did not fail to excite his pen to this coordinate commentary, and the greater depth of the writer was not the hindrance to his fluency, but the more certain invitation. Two writers only appear to have remained uncontrasted in his library, namely, Plato and Behmen; but these he read when it was his custom to make marginal notes: thus in Behmen’s “True Regeneration,” chap. 3, sec. 12.

  “Thus the creature stirreth up with its desire, good and evil, life and death. The human angelical desire standeth in the centre of the eternal nature, which is without beginning, and wherein it kindleth itself, whether in good or in evil, it accomplisheth its work in that.”

  NOTE.—An increase of happiness comes to man, when his state of regeneration is such, that he can decompose the air in which he lives, and hold in solution and precipitation just that which is suitable to his active and passive existence. J. P. G.

  From his own manuscript records it is not easy to select passages, which should raise in the reader’s mind those glowing sensations and kindling sensibilities, those super-rational convictions of a supreme inliving love-power, which his own peculiar emphasis and the flash from his singularly bright eye were almost sure to effect. Every hearer felt that those penetrating orbs were not employed to scan body, but were as well inlets as outlets to soul. Each became more or Jess conscious that he was seen. His presence was not an ordinary event. Neither his word nor his mere company could pass for nothing. His entrance into a party, how numerous soever, was acknowledged in an actual sympathy, if not in words. There needed not the science of phrenology to impress the beholder with the fact, that the exalted head, the towering, expansive brow denoted a being of unusual character. Nor could so benign a mouth, so well rounded a chin, and a nose of fair dimensions, slightly Roman or aquiline, require a Lavater to assure us that a heart was there, not cast in the every-day mould for every-day traffic. He was indeed formed for the manifestation of love in the deepest sense, and had there not been born in him a profound consciousness of universal duty, which transcended all thought of individual affection, his friendships alone would have rendered him an associate of the most attractive kind.

  We require of such a being that he should be robed. He carries us inward to that ideal which we see represented outwardly in the Grecian statue. The plain blue coat and vulgar neckerchief do not satisfy our notion of external propriety. And when in Mr. Greaves these mental indications exist in companionship with a robust frame, of goodly height, the impression produced on the auditory when he rose, at the close of the conversations held at his house, to sum up the sentiments expressed during the evening, and to bind them in one offering to the Spirit, which is by true seeking to be found in every bosom, could only be enhanced by those delicious tones, trembling occasionally on the verge of treble, and those deep aspirations which all must feel were true indications of the soul’s more real ardency.

  Amongst the publications issued by him, and which were either wholly written by him, or consisting of his closer manuscripts a little amplified or diluted by some literary coadjutor, were two small volumes; one entitled, “Three hundred Maxims for the consideration of Parents,” and the other, “Physical and Metaphysical Hints for Every Body.” The former has found a rather extensive circulation, as it was written in a mode appealing to, and calculated to reach the mother’s heart. It afterwards arrived at a second edition, besides the approval of an American reprint, under the title, “Thoughts on Spiritual Culture,” with some additional matter. A larger volume was also presented to the world in the year 1827, consisting of Pestalozzi’s Letters to himself, agreeably translated from the German by Dr. Worms, but not with that strict fidelity which they deserved. It is a feeling with some literary men, that it is their duty rather to write down lo the supposed position of the public, than to adhere as strictly as possible to the high truths given them to utter. The latter only is the faithful and dutiful course; for the greatest breach in faith is manifested in the supposition, that what is spoken from the depths of the sincere mind will not be heard in a corresponding manner.

  The great design in these efforts was to reawaken in the public mind the fact, that man must not only believe, not only be convinced, but feel with the same certitude with which he feels his own existence; that there is one universal love-truth, which is the same to all individuals, at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances. That man must feel that this love-truth is not a dead word, nor a thought to be defined, or described, or expressed in dead words, but that it is the ONE living SPIRIT manifesting itself in all things; in the works of nature, in the clear thoughts, in the noble sensations of the human soul. That man must feel this living Love-Spirit has an abode within, and that if he be but humble enough to lay before it his own errors and his own miseries, it will dash to the ground, in him and through him, all the errors and miseries of the world around, and open to his view the prospect of that perfect order and harmony, wherein the complaining voice of rebellion and selfishness is no more heard. To an aim so lofty, so generous as this, neither a ready nor a general echo could be expected. It is sufficient, however, to know, that seeds were thus scattered, which afterwards sprung up in divers places; or, to use a more appropriate figure, an atmosphere was thus produced, favorable to the awakening in man of that Divine Spirit which so long bad slept.

  The incidents pertaining to n life so devoted cannot vary materially from each other. Where there is not a vulgar ambition for power or fame, a love of wealth or desire for martyrdom, even the ordinary intuitions of the love-spirit, how faint soever they are, by human clamor, allowed to be, will preserve an individual of great endowments from those actions, which hitherto have claimed the larger share of the historical reader’s attention. The peace of heart and soul, which surpasseth all understanding, is not of a kind to thrust individuals into those predicaments, in which an eminence of doubtful renown is achieved at the cost of permanent virtue. This peacefulness was at all events too conscious and too copious in Mr. Greaves, to permit him to wander for one moment from the peaceful and peacemaking path. Few outward varieties therefore shall we be able to remark in his career. In all countries, at all times, amongst all people, there is almost the same difficulty in obtaining from the greater number admission for expression of the highest truth, when it is urged to conforming action, as there is a ready recipiency by the few. Accordingly it was generally Mr. Greaves’s fate to be vehemently opposed, or most cordially beloved. So decided o. mind could not possibly stand in neutral relationship to any. The power and practice of penetrating, through all films of words and sophistications of logic, to the very centre of thought and will, cannot, under any circumstances, fail of such results.

  When at the universities of Basie and Tubingen, in the course of his German tour, in or about the year 1922, he undertook to give to such students as might feel disposed to accept them, lessons in the English language, his almost entire ignorance of the German tongue did not frustrate, nor for one moment obstruct this design. At the former place he is, from his own verbal report, understood to have collected around him about fifty young men, amongst whom was the since celebrated Strauss, and other eminent minds, who have never forgotten the animating questions to which he called upon them to reply. For his method did not consist in the tiresome and almost vain effort to load upon the memory the equivalent word in another language, for the things or facts already known in our own, but first to awaken or develop the idea in the mind, and then let the idea take up or expand itself into the suitable expression. His interrogations, therefore, were not calculated to draw forth answers from his pupils which they could’ adopt, on mechanical principles, from their printed grammars and wordbooks. Nor were they limited to the physical substances present before their outward eyes, which he used as introductions and illustrations to those psychical facts it was his aim to open to their own interior consciousness. The facts of and in their own life, the very law in their being, it was his aim to render evident to them, and language as the highest, or one of the highest, expressional modes, was merely the avenue to this greater end.

  The vivacity, the interest, the love for the teacher and the pursuit, manifested in this class, as contrasted with the heavy and method-bound systems of formal teaching, could not fail to draw the attention of the authorities; and inquiries were privately made by the timorous government, and we believe were, in the first instance, or as far as the scholastic professors were concerned, satisfactorily answered. Although the practitioners in any art are not usually those who introduce new improvements into it, yet at least they are not unfrequently passive or friendly to progressive movements when adventured by others. But a fixed order, in which the highest good is conceived to be the rigid maintenance of everything as it exists, is not able to tolerate inquiry, much less innovation. In this instance it was felt, that the newly animated seed was too certain to expand; throughout Germany there were then too many soul-stirring elements in the moral atmosphere to permit another and a better to be added; and the man of peace and love was advised to withdraw to some more accepting sphere.

  While the external events in such a career are scanty, the internal experience is as eminently abundant. There are individuals who can travel round the world, encountering many things and really seeing nothing, and some who, remaining geographically unmoved, become acquainted with all things. There is a France, a Germany, a Rome, an India in the soul, which must be intravelled and introspected. At this period there was not perhaps a mental position in which one could be placed for this mental voyage better than Pestalozzi’s establishment. Not because there were to be found there pupils or observers from every country in Europe, but because the congregation of free minds in a pure and noble purpose generates a state of things outward and inward, a physical order and a moral atmosphere which no where and no how can be constituted by a solitary one, though the most potent measure of love be his.

  The intercourse between Pestalozzi and Greaves, we have before remarked, was not by means of that ofttimes equivocal instrument the tongue. The latter was wont to describe it by the term magnetic, as being above all ordinary influences by sympathy or talent. Indeed, Pestalozzi’s whole life and conduct, at this period, was of this high character. He would salute Mr. Greaves each morning, as is somewhat customary in the country, by a kiss, and he not only felt but declared that of all the persons, either native or foreign, who came to witness his proceedings, none understood them so well, none appreciated him so truly as Greaves. It may not be too much to say that the latter was the more profound.

  Pestalozzi’s absence of mind, (for so, in default of better and affirmative terms, the super-sensuous life must be spoken of,) has frequently been reported. Mr. Greaves was scarcely more attentive to outward things; but as it fell to him to be the exponent, as far as words can accomplish it, of Pestalozzi’s principles, to all the Englishmen who came to the establishment, he had frequently to explain, as best he could, the reason why the leader was so very negligent in dress and the usual external proprieties. So difficult was it, however, to withdraw his attention from deeper things, that Mr. Greaves was obliged to take away his old garments in the night, replacing them by the new that he would not submit to be measured for, and, when he discovered his strange metamorphosis, he allowed Mr. Greaves to complete it by cutting his hair. The friendship cementing these two men was not such as the world commonly witnesses, and was equally grateful and encouraging for both.

  While the spirit which united these men prevailed at Yverdun, the place was truly a university, for the universe spirit ruled them, and that only can constitute a university. This spirit continually and fervently actuating the leader, others, approximating to that state, were, by a law in their nature, attracted around him, and thus a comparatively large circle was collected, to be in which can alone induce any idea of such life. Mr. Greaves was too intent in the work of creating this new world, to engage in the business of making a written record of it; and, therefore, we shall in vain expect from his pen any notes concerning its progress. This, however, is scarcely to be considered a loss, as even by the acutest observer they could scarcely be rendered into language intelligible to the inexperienced reader.

  Several attempts have since been made to constitute a collective association, not on the principle of common interests, but on that of unity or oneness in spirit, and just as far as the latter prevailed, and there was an acknowledgment of the highest, in all actions and details, a remarkable spiritual success has attended them, though small may be the gratulation in the pecuniary aspect. One of the latest acts of Mr. Greaves’s life was the aiding in the foundation of such a point at Ham, a few miles from London. If, in some respects, it aimed at less than Pestalozzi accomplished or had in view, in other respects, it aimed at more. It was smaller in extent, but it was larger in intent. It was inferior in numbers, but it was superior in practice. It comprehended more points of being, for it was desired to include all being. This establishment, therefore, if an eyewitness and a heart-witness may affirm, offered another opportunity for an experience of that estate of life which ever distinguished Pestalozzi’s circle. To very many it has confessedly been the means of opening the mind to an interior life, not previously imagined, nay stoutly denied. To both children and adults it was the bright green spot in the wilderness of the world: and parents who searched Europe for a successor to Pestalozzi, disappointed everywhere else, fixed on it as the nearest approximation to their idea. Its disciplines in respect to diet appeared to the thoughtless as unnecessarily rigid: its mental lessons, on the other hand, seemed to the learned, far too desultory; but where a due regard was held for the moral purpose, which underlay this order or this freedom, the means were acknowledged to be harmoniously subservient. Its observers have been many; its inmates not a few, for either longer or shorter periods; and, perhaps, it may fairly be stated, that none quitted it without such beneficial results and memorable sensations, as will remain permanent. For so humble an effort, perhaps, there never was an instance of such deep human results.

  This educative endeavor was partly modified by some improvements, in America, in the treatment of children, successful in those particulars to which they were applied. Miss Martineau, on her return from the United States, introduced the printed works to Mr. Greaves’s notice, namely, “Conversations with Children on the Gospel,” by A. B. Alcott, and the “Record of a School,” by the same. Hence the establishment at Ham was designated “Alcott-House School.” It was Mr. Greaves’s intention also, at a recent period, to have undertaken the voyage to Boston; but events did not, for want of more frequent written communication, arrive at that point.

  For the purpose of preserving a unity of idea, we have joined two operations which were severed by many years and many miles. On the subject of the “Education Idea,” we could, and in justice perhaps, ought to enlarge, in order to render justice to the memory of one so active in all its modes, and in constantly endeavoring to connect and reconnect them with the living principle. For, that “Idea” is still but lowly appreciated, and coldly felt, even in that tender seat to which it was so eloquently addressed, the maternal bosom. The high duty of recalling parents to the fact, that something more than the culture of the understanding is needful to the happiness of their offspring and of themselves, still presses on the benevolent mind. Neither can a schooling of the heart ever be bought of the best vicarious teacher, whom the parent may hire. Nothing short of a total submission on the part of the parents themselves, in all their thoughts, designs, and actions, to that power under whose dominion their wish is, that the child should be brought, can secure a good education. Putting forth so large a demand as this, there can be little surprise that no very extensive popularity in practice has resulted, though an unresisting approbation in sentiment has been awarded.

  To return to that point of time when the recent return of Mr. Greaves from Germany, and the freshness of these thoughts made him the living centre of every moral circle, we may remark that he was ever ready to lend his best aid to every worthy proposition. At all times, abiding with the true mover, we find our friend always devoting his attention, and bending his best energies to whatever was, at the moment, most forward and progressive. This conduct necessarily brought him in contact with all the liveliest, as well as most honest and zealous minds, for the new and heterodox idea always comes from, and always attracts the original, genetic, unvitiated soul. To trace his occupations by his note-books, would afford an interesting psychological pursuit, and would furnish aphorisms on every popular moral subject for several years, commencing with phrenology, which excited much attention in the year 1826, and concluding with Magnetism or Socialism, which occupied the public mind in the year 184l.

METAPHYSICS.

  “Man is the connecting medium between God and Nature, and as such, not a single fact must be separated from his being, nor must his being be either in thought, word, or deed, for a moment separated from unity.

  “A synthetical mind can relate every fact, at a glance, to itself, and itself as a whole to unity, and this is effected by a culture in spirit.

  “Synthetical culture is more than moral and intellectual culture; it is a wholing culture, and holds the inmost and outermost relations in entireness.

  “Spirit alone can whole. Intellect in its best efforts can only divide, and division is death.

  “Kant shows by what means a knowledge of the absolute is not, NOT to be obtained; and this is precious to man.

  “When we begin to analyze or destroy, we lose that very power that made and held together the whole, outward, inward, inmost.”

MYSTICISM.

  “There is but one mystical fact for the spiritual and scientific man to realize, and this is, his conceptive union with spirit; a fact more certain than his union with matter.”

ART.

  “A man cannot from a representative get at the idea, which the artist had when he represented the same; but we must, as he did, conceive the idea from art or spirit, and then correct or make a representation of it.

  “We must be known of art; this is the grand point in the representation of its conceptions.”

BEHAVIOR.

  “Let a cheerful freedom, a generous friendship, always appear in our countenance, and mark our steps in the spirit.

  “Let spirit alone make our whole carriage civil and affable.

  “Let spirit alone make our address to each other open and free.

  “Let spirit alone make our friendships dear, and our communions sweet.

  “If we hold communion with the spirit, we may do to each other as we have been done unto.

  “What is the good of a formal acquaintance with each other, if we have not found an intimate intercourse with the spirit?

  “Reservedness of manner comes not from the spirit, but from the spirit of this world.

  “Why offer the mind a welcome and deny the spirit a welcome? Why invite the mind and neglect to invite the spirit; nay, why reject the spirit, when we are offering an apparent welcome to both mind and body?

  “Our sympathy with our brethren is not worth much, if it be not divine sympathy.

  “Let us attend far more to what we are doing with the spirit within, than what we are doing with all the world besides without.

  “We ought to approve ourselves to the spirit, before we try to approve ourselves to men: they are blind, but the spirit sees us in our blindness.

  “If we are not in a right state with the spirit, we must be in a wrong state with men and with things.

  “We ought to avoid giving offence to the spirit in any brother. We are to welcome the apir.it u well u the spiritual and the natural. If no cover be provided for the spirit, the spirit leaves us to our uninspired spiritual enjoyments.

  “If we cannot have much fellowship with any particular man, we may have a fellowship with the spirit in that man.”

OCCUPATION.

  “Whenever we are outwardly excited, we should cease to act; but whenever we have a message from the spirit within, we should execute it with calmness.

  “A fine day may excite one to act, but it is much better that we act from the calm spirit in any day, be the outward what it may.”

GENERATION.

  “Diseases proceed altogether from generation, let the conditions be what they may.

  “Man’s first duty is to have the curse removed from his existence, and to generate offspring without the curse; and this he can only do by a marriage in, from, and for God.

  “It is obvious, that man’s uncursed existence, and his properly exercising it, would entirely alter the state of society in every nation in the world.

  “Why do not parents try to transmit the good nature to their Children?

  “Why educate for goodness, and propagate badness? Why propagate badness, and by education try to reform it? Why not renounce badness, and propagate goodness; or why try to put goodness on badness?”

RESPONSIBILITY.

  “Man cannot too much cast responsibility on the spirit that rules him. Let not a wish nor an inclination be twined to self, and then the spirit will do more than man can suppose.

  “The spirit’s government is absolute because it is the alone responsible; and man will find himself free, the moment he is determined to give up his own freedom, that which he by tranagression has procured for himself.”

GOVERNMENT.

  “The soul needs not obey anything but goodness; all other obedience it has a right to refuse, as nothing below goodness can in every respect satisfy it.

  “The soul in alliance with goodness is able to suffer martyrdom with satisfaction, and this is the test that goodness is sufficient for it in every respect.

  “If no man can make a law to govern himself, how can he, AS a part of the national council, make laws for the nation?”

EDUCATION.

  “Human education ought to take the side of the spirit instead of the side of nature.

  “Education fails in its duty, when it brings the free-will spirit to uniformity in matter, instead of unity in the love spirit: when it gives an external straightness, instead of internal rectitude.

  “Very vague ideas prevail of a truly spiritual culture, that is, a culture of spirit with spirit prior to a cultivation of mind with mind.

  “The teacher must quicken spirit with spirit, and not try to quicken spirit with knowledge, or with exterior and inferior circumstances.

  “A child’s faith has much to encounter, having spirit for its standard, and meeting with its senses nothing but matter.

  “Let a child meet spirit in every human being, that it may be quickly turned from matter to spirit, and then from spirit (individual) to spirit (universal.)”

MUTUAL AND SELF-INSTRUCTION.

  “I ask * * * to write a sketch of what goes on within him in any twelve hours of the day, and then see if it be better to preserve or to burn it.

  “If he burns it, he will be convinced by this typic illustration, that some internal burning is necessary.

  “Any person may test himself in this manner, and then doctrines or arguments are unnecessary.”

SPIRIT.

  “Man’s return is from science to conscience, and from conscience to spirit.

  “Learning will not supply the place of spirit, but spirit will supply the place of learning. Spirit is the wisdom in words, and the life in practice.

  “When we are with the spirit, acting with the spirit, we cannot do anything wrong, but when we are acting for the spirit, we may fail, as we may have mistaken our directions or our duty, and the more likely as the spirit acknowledges no works but those which it is present at the doing of.

  “Man makes a sad mistake when he relates himself to consequences, and forgets his more precious and antecedent relation with spirit. The longer he does this, he so confounds himself in his own deeds, that he forgets he, himself, is a deed, or a work of a higher, not yet in a finished state, and which he interrupts greatly by his darkening and deteriorating measures.”

PHRENOLOGY.

  “Phrenology explains to us, that besides our animal organization, we have a spiritual organization, which spiritual organization needs a spirit-culture, and without which spirit-culture, man remains but a rational animal.”

REFORM.

  “What a nation should and ought to possess, it must not have until it has progressed to the ground for the same, or until it be acting from the permanent ground.

  “The permanent change will render the outward change necessary; but the want of a change will not bring about the permanent change.

  “What man has gained for himself within, from the spirit, the spirit will give him an authority to ask for without, and assist him to obtain it.

  “Man’s fitness is himself, not his wishes or desires. As the foot is, so should the shoe be, and not otherwise.”

ASSOCIATION.

  “We must agree together in some third if we are to act together; it is not two but three that are to make the two, and that which unites them.

  “The thing to be done will not unite the doers.”

MEMORY.

  “Man is not memory: the spirit in man is memory, and is purpose. Memory is performed in spirit; and man is not spirit, but spiritual. If the spiritual be not with spirit, where is memory? If the spiritual be only with matter, memory as little in man as in the trees.

  “If memory were not spirit, how could it act in its oneness as it does? If it were spiritual, it would like spirituality be participable; but as spirit it is absolute unity.

  “Without the spirit there would be no oneness, and memory in man is this oneness, this spirit, this antecedent that is absolutely indivisible.

  “Memory is that which carries on all the uniting processes in man. Whatsoever the faculties hold to it, it holds together; and what does not obtain hold of it, is seen by the faculty’s failing. Man in some of his faculties may have worked in spirit and with spirit, and in other faculties not; and this will account for the readiness and backwardness of man’s particular relation with memory.”

L.



All Sub-Works of The Dial, Vol. III, No. III (Jan. 1843):
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