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No; before Agamemnon men were brave, before Aristides they were just, before Jesus they were in their innermost selves divine, and this in essence is the doctrine of the "Over-soul," associated, as far as this expression goes, with the name of the latest of the prophets of ethics, Emerson. We are all incarnations, flesh-takings, of the infinite.
Man the Reformer, 142, 143. Method of Nature, The, 136-141. Michael Angelo, 73, 75. Milton, 73, 75. Montaigne, or the Skeptic, 202-204. Napoleon, or the Man of the World, 206-209. Natural History of the Intellect, 249, 268, 347. New England Reformers, 188-191, 385. Nominalism and Realism, 188. Old Age, 261, 262. Over-Soul, The, 166, 172-175, 398, 411. Parker, Theodore, 228, 306.
You could not make another "Walden" out of Thoreau's Journals, nor build up another chapter on "Self-Reliance," or on "Character," or on the "Over-Soul," from Emerson's, though there are fragments here and there in both that are on a level with their best work.
But he had a power of fascinating the opposite sex, and Angela had fallen a willing victim to his candid smile, clear eyes, charming voice, and courteous ways, and with that strange inconsistency so common to gifted women, she was so full of "soul" and "over-soul" herself, that she could not imagine "soul" lacking in others; and never dreamed of making herself sure that it elevated the character or temperament of the man she loved.
Did you carry a clear idea of the Buddhistic over-soul through all the things that came after it in the day?" She rose as she spoke, with the desire to hasten away. She had little mind to know more than she must of the causes of Edith's unhappiness.
See his essays on "Life and Letters in New England," "New England Reformers," "Politics," and the successive entries in his "Journal" relating to Daniel Webster. But the great essays, no doubt, are those like "Self-Reliance," "Compensation," "The Over-Soul," "Fate," "Power," "Culture," "Worship," and "Illusions." These will puzzle no one who has read carefully that first book on "Nature."
Again, in 'Self-Reliance, he says, Trust thyself; insist on yourself; obey thy heart, and thou shalt reproduce the foreworld again. All this was very comforting to me, Cornelia; self-reliance was the great secret of success and happiness; but I chanced to read the 'Over-soul' soon after, and lo! these words: 'I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call mine. This was directly antagonistic to the entire spirit of 'self-reliance'; but I read on, and soon found the last sentence utterly nullified by one which declared positively 'that the Highest dwells with man; the sources of nature are in his own mind. Sometimes we are informed that our souls are self-existing and all-powerful; an incarnation of the divine and universal, and, before we fairly digest this tremendous statement, he coolly asserts that there is, above all, an 'over- soul, whose inevitable decrees upset our plans, and 'overpower private will. Cognizant of these palpable contradictions, Emerson boldly avows and defends them, by declaring that 'A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
In his "Nature" the theme is unfolded, there is growth and evolution; and his first and second series of Essays likewise show it. The essays on "Character," on "Self-Reliance," on the "Over-Soul," meet the requirements of sound prose.
There can be no doubt that he would have confessed as much with reference to "The Over-Soul" as he has confessed with regard to "Circles," the Essay which follows "The Over-Soul." "I am not careful to justify myself.... But lest I should mislead any when I have my own head and obey my whims, let me remind the reader that I am only an experimenter.
Yet I desire, even by profane words, if I may not use sacred, to indicate the heaven of this deity, and to report what hints I have collected of the transcendent simplicity and energy of the Highest Law." "The Over-Soul" might almost be called the Over-flow of a spiritual imagination. We cannot help thinking of the "pious, virtuous, God-intoxicated" Spinoza.
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