Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson . JOURNAL [Age 54 ilton were to lecture and at the same hour inwhich George Melvin, or Joe Polis, the Ban-gor Indian, would tell us what they knew ofowls or of muskrats. Sir William would be T was a Pythagorean rule. Dont sail on theground. When a man defines his position, it must behis organic position, — that which he must oc-cupy ; then it is Interesting, as every piece ofnatural history is: but not his expedient orselected position. For fraud and cunning areessentially uninteresting. If a true metaphysician should come, he wouldaccompany each man
Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson . JOURNAL [Age 54 ilton were to lecture and at the same hour inwhich George Melvin, or Joe Polis, the Ban-gor Indian, would tell us what they knew ofowls or of muskrats. Sir William would be T was a Pythagorean rule. Dont sail on theground. When a man defines his position, it must behis organic position, — that which he must oc-cupy ; then it is Interesting, as every piece ofnatural history is: but not his expedient orselected position. For fraud and cunning areessentially uninteresting. If a true metaphysician should come, he wouldaccompany each man through his own (thestudents) mind, and would point at this treas-ure-crypt, and at that, indicating immense wealthlying here and there, which the student wouldjoyfully perceive, and pass on from hall to hall,from recess to recess, ever to more interior andcausal forces, being minded to come over againon the same tracks by himself at future leisureand explore more nearly the treasures now onlyI A Concord pot-hunter and A VIRGIL LESSON (Mr. Emerson, his younger daughter and son) i8s7] METAPHYSICS. MEMORY lay verified. But such as we now call metaphysi-cians, the Lockes, and Reeds, and Stewarts,etc., are no more than the valets de place andcustodi who lead travellers through the curiosi-ties of Rome or Verona, and say over by rotethe legends that have been repeated from fatherto son, moho antico, signore ; un tempo cera battaglia etc., etc. Why does the name of a chapter on Mem-ory, shoot a little chill to the mind of eachauditor ? There are few facts known on the sub-ject of Memory. In the minds of most men itis nothing but a calender on such a day. . You may perish out of your senses, but notout of your memory and imagination, said Al-cott. But he says nothing satisfactory abouteither of these two immense Powers. All thatis good is his ranking them so high. I tell him,that no people have imagination. T is the rarestgift. Imagination is the nomination of the causalfa
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