CONCORD, April 3, 1850.
MR. BLAKE,--I thank you for your letter, and I will endeavor to record
some of the thoughts which it suggests, whether pertinent or not. You
speak of poverty and dependence. Who are poor and dependent? Who are
rich and independent? When was it that men agreed to respect the
appearance and not the reality? Why should the appearance _appear_?
Are we well acquainted, then, with the reality? There is none who does
not lie hourly in the respect he pays to false appearance. How sweet
it would be to treat men and things, for an hour, for just what they
are! We wonder that the sinner does not confess his sin. When we are
weary with travel, we lay down our load and rest by the wayside. So,
when we are weary with the burden of life, why do we not lay down this
load of falsehoods which we have volunteered to sustain, and be
refreshed as never mortal was? Let the beautiful laws prevail. Let us
not weary ourselves by resisting them. When we would rest our bodies
we cease to support them; we recline on the lap of earth. So, when we
would rest our spirits, we must recline on the Great Spirit. Let
things alone; let them weigh what they will; let them soar or fall. To
succeed in letting only one thing alone in a winter morning, if it be
only one poor frozen-thawed apple that hangs on a tree, what a
glorious achievement! Methinks it lightens through the dusky universe.
What an infinite wealth we have discovered! God reigns, _i. e._, when
we take a liberal view,--when a liberal view is presented us.
Let God alone if need be. Methinks, if I loved him more, I should keep
him--I should keep myself rather--at a more respectful distance. It is
not when I am going to meet him, but when I am just turning away and
leaving him alone, that I discover that God is. I say, God. I am not
sure that that is the name. You will know whom I mean.
If for a moment we make way with our petty selves, wish no ill to
anything, apprehend no ill, cease to be but as the crystal which
reflects a ray,--what shall we not reflect! What a universe will
appear crystallized and radiant around us!
I should say, let the Muse lead the Muse,--let the understanding lead
the understanding, though in any case it is the farthest forward which
leads them both. If the Muse accompany, she is no muse, but an
amusement. The Muse should lead like a star which is very far off; but
that does not imply that we are to follow foolishly, falling into
sloughs and over precipices, for it is not foolishness, but
understanding, which is to follow, which the Muse is appointed to
lead, as a fit guide of a fit follower?
Will you live? or will you be embalmed? Will you live, though it be
astride of a sunbeam; or will you repose safely in the catacombs for a
thousand years? In the former case, the worst accident that can
happen is that you may break your neck. Will you break your heart,
your soul, to save your neck? Necks and pipe-stems are fated to be
broken. Men make a great ado about the folly of demanding too much of
life (or of eternity?), and of endeavoring to live according to that
demand. It is much ado about nothing. No harm ever came from that
quarter. I am not afraid that I shall exaggerate the value and
significance of life, but that I shall not be up to the occasion which
it is. I shall be sorry to remember that I was there, but noticed
nothing remarkable,--not so much as a prince in disguise; lived in the
golden age a hired man; visited Olympus even, but fell asleep after
dinner, and did not hear the conversation of the gods. I lived in
Judæa eighteen hundred years ago, but I never knew that there was such
a one as Christ among my contemporaries! If there is anything more
glorious than a congress of men a-framing or amending of a
constitution going on, which I suspect there is, I desire to see the
morning papers. I am greedy of the faintest rumor, though it were got
by listening at the keyhole. I will dissipate myself in that
direction.
I am glad to know that you find what I have said on Friendship worthy
of attention. I wish that I could have the benefit of your criticism;
it would be a rare help to me. Will you not communicate it?