Thank you for visiting SNEWPapers!
Sign up free
Literary
December 26, 1916
Albuquerque Morning Journal
Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico
What is this article about?
In a January 4, 1826, journal entry from Roxbury, Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects on closing his school and beginning a new year of studies. He contemplates the passage of time, withdraws from societal distractions of youth, and resolves against despair, vowing to nurture his potential for moral and intellectual greatness through enthusiasm and self-improvement.
Clipping
OCR Quality
80%
Good
Full Text
EMERSON'S DETERMINATION OF LIFE
Roxbury, January 4, 1826,
I have closed my school. I have begun a new year. I have begun my studies and this day a moment of indolence engendered in me phantasms and feelings that struggled to find out in rhyme. I thought of the passage of my years of their clean and ceaseless tenure, and of the crisis which is but a little way before, when a month will determine the dark or bright dye they must assume forever.
I turn now to my lamp and my books. I have nothing to do with society. Its unpleasing boyhood past, my youth wanes into the age of man, and what are the unexpressed glee, the cheating games, the golden hair and shining eyes of youth unto the
I withdraw myself from their spell. A solemn voice commands me to retire. And it in those scenes my blood and my have been called, if my tongue has stammered where fashion and gaiety were voluble, and I have had no grace and the festivities of grandeur. I shall not hastily conclude my soul ignobly born and its horoscope fully cast. I will not yet believe that because it has lain so tranquil great argument could not make it stir. I will not yet believe because I can not write dignity as many can, to folly that I am not born to fill the eye of great expectation, to speak when the people listen nor to cast my mite into the great treasury of morals and intellect. I will not quite despair, nor quench my flambeau in the dust of Easy live and quiet die.
These men to whom the muse has vouchsafed her inspirations fail, when they fail by their own fault. They have an instrument in their hands that discourses music in which the multitude can not choose but be moved. Yet the player has sometimes so many freaks or such indolence, as to waste his life. If you have found any defect in your sympathies that puts a bar between you and others, go and study to find those views and feelings in which you come nearest to other men. Go and school your pride and thaw your icy benevolence, and nurse somewhere in your soul a spark of pure and heroic enthusiasm
Roxbury, January 4, 1826,
I have closed my school. I have begun a new year. I have begun my studies and this day a moment of indolence engendered in me phantasms and feelings that struggled to find out in rhyme. I thought of the passage of my years of their clean and ceaseless tenure, and of the crisis which is but a little way before, when a month will determine the dark or bright dye they must assume forever.
I turn now to my lamp and my books. I have nothing to do with society. Its unpleasing boyhood past, my youth wanes into the age of man, and what are the unexpressed glee, the cheating games, the golden hair and shining eyes of youth unto the
I withdraw myself from their spell. A solemn voice commands me to retire. And it in those scenes my blood and my have been called, if my tongue has stammered where fashion and gaiety were voluble, and I have had no grace and the festivities of grandeur. I shall not hastily conclude my soul ignobly born and its horoscope fully cast. I will not yet believe that because it has lain so tranquil great argument could not make it stir. I will not yet believe because I can not write dignity as many can, to folly that I am not born to fill the eye of great expectation, to speak when the people listen nor to cast my mite into the great treasury of morals and intellect. I will not quite despair, nor quench my flambeau in the dust of Easy live and quiet die.
These men to whom the muse has vouchsafed her inspirations fail, when they fail by their own fault. They have an instrument in their hands that discourses music in which the multitude can not choose but be moved. Yet the player has sometimes so many freaks or such indolence, as to waste his life. If you have found any defect in your sympathies that puts a bar between you and others, go and study to find those views and feelings in which you come nearest to other men. Go and school your pride and thaw your icy benevolence, and nurse somewhere in your soul a spark of pure and heroic enthusiasm
What sub-type of article is it?
Essay
Soliloquy
What themes does it cover?
Moral Virtue
What keywords are associated?
Self Determination
Youth To Manhood
Moral Enthusiasm
Personal Growth
Intellectual Pursuit
What entities or persons were involved?
Emerson
Literary Details
Title
Emerson's Determination Of Life
Author
Emerson
Subject
Roxbury, January 4, 1826
Form / Style
Reflective Prose Journal Entry
Key Lines
I Will Not Quite Despair, Nor Quench My Flambeau In The Dust Of Easy Live And Quiet Die.
Go And School Your Pride And Thaw Your Icy Benevolence, And Nurse Somewhere In Your Soul A Spark Of Pure And Heroic Enthusiasm