A not less excellent observation in Emerson’s Spiritual Laws addresses those things that speak to our comprehension, emotion and instinct; circumstances and specifics that lie beyond juxtaposition; that oppose condescension.
“It is enough that these particulars speak to me. A few anecdotes, a few traits of character, manners, face, a few incidents, have an emphasis in your memory out of all proportion to their apparent significance if you measure them by the ordinary standards. They relate to your gift. Let them have their weight, and do not reject them and cast about for illustration and facts more usual in literature. Respect them, for they have their origins in deepest Nature. What your heart thinks great is great. The soul’s emphasis is always right.”
What I conceive superlative, impressive and persuasive is because it emanates from Nature and solely because I presume it thus. I spurn not. I seek not greater. Preeminence is elusive by the agency of its non-existence; and the intuition is always precise. My right is to these things and it is a futile endeavour to attempt to hold these from me, as secrets.
“A mutual understanding is ever the firmest chain….If you pour water into a vessel twisted into coils and angles, it is vain to say, I will pour it only into this or that; — it will find its level in all.”
Knowledge and genius are irrepressible and always find a way. I am of analogous mind to the genius; ergo, my brilliancy will also find a way. Luminaries of the eras cannot obscure their sagacity in time and distance; as the passage of time and perception of a new age will acquire and unearth them.
“God screens us evermore from premature ideas. Our eyes are holden that we cannot see things that stare us in the face, until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened; then we behold them,…”
The exception? I have not participated in commensurate anticipation of the learning. The Librarian and the Curator — keepers of literature and art — possess no enlightenment superior to my own; rather, I have yet to beheld these treasures. When I engage in discourse on Physics with Gethyn; I prepare myself for the learning and surrender myself to be shepherded by his knowledge.
To wit: the light of stars has reached me!
For information: that does NOT happen when he explains DIY to me.
A Classicist Writes... 