Imatges de pàgina
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and contented in himself. His mind is undisturbed in adversity, he is happy and contented in prosperity, and he is a stranger to anxiety, fear, and anger. . . . The wisdom of that man is established, who in all things is without affection; and having received good or evil, neither rejoiceth at the one, nor is cast down by the other." Is not this unimpassioned attitude the attitude of Emerson toward life? He is not greatly disturbed by the presence of sin in the world, nor does he give to the highest incarnation of virtue more reverence than to one of the many manifestations of deity. It is said that one of the greatest obstacles to Christian missionary effort in India is that the worshiper of Vishnu will accept Christ but as one of the numerous incarnations of his own god.

We may trace, not too curiously, the resemblance between Emerson's ideal of conduct and that of the Hindu in other directions. The habitual serenity of Emerson led him to speak and write of what was agreeable. While it cannot be said that he failed on occasion to fit strong words to bad things, it was his habit to select and to express the pleasant. So is the Brahmin exhorted to do.

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"(What is) well, let

1 Bhagavat Gîta, trans. by Charles Wilkins: Bombay, 1887. Lecture ii, 55-57. See also iii, 19.

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him call well, or let him say Well' only; 2 let him not engage in a useless enmity or dispute with anybody." It would seem possible to sketch the personal character of Emerson in phrases drawn from the Hindu scriptures. Here is a general description, fitting the traits of Emerson in almost every phrase: "The man who is born with Divine destiny is endowed with the following qualities: exemption from fear, a purity of heart, a constant attention to the discipline of his understanding; charity, self-restraint, religion, study, penance, rectitude, freedom from doing wrong, veracity, freedom from anger; resignation, temperance, freedom from slander; universal compassion, exemption from the desire for slaughter; mildness, modesty, discretion, dignity, patience, fortitude, chastity, unrevengefulness, and a freedom from vain-glory." 3 In short, the aim for a right personal adjustment leads to similar results in both cases, because the point of view is so nearly identical.

I "Let him say, 'Well and good"": The Dial, III, 336.

2" Even if things go wrong": Bühler, et al. Laws of Manu, iv, 139. The preceding quotation in The Dial (III, 336) is of similar import: "Let him say what is true, but let him say what is pleasing; let him speak no disagreeable truth, nor let him speak agreeable falsehood: this is a primeval rule." See also Laws of Manu, ii, 161.

3 Bhagavat Gîta, C. Wilkins, xvi, 1, 2, 3.

And so the parallelism might be pressed even to phrases, words, and accidental resemblances of all sorts. But the recurrence of Emerson to the Hindu scriptures is sufficiently attested by his verbal quotations from them in his Works, and by his frequent mention of them in letters and conversation. While it is probable that an inquiry of this sort tends to over-emphasize purely fortuitous parallels, there can be no reasonable doubt that between the mind of this author and the bibles of the East, there existed a fundamental affinity, rendering the assimilation of material remarkably easy.

It remains to point out some of the differences between the religion of India, in its broad outlines, and the intellectual creed of this sturdy-minded child of the nineteenth century. He was not a servile absorbent of what he read, even here, but like the humble-bee of his poem, sipped the sweet and the nourishing and let the refuse go. All the licentiousness of the Hindu scriptures is lost on Emerson. All the details of ceremonial' find no echoing response. The Laws of Manu are almost entirely devoted to a recital of particular duties

As (Laws of Manu, v, 33, 35) relating to the eating of meat and the slaying of deer; (viii) dealing with a variety of cases before the King or a learned Brahmin.

under particular circumstances. The quotations which The Dial makes from these laws are so largely concerned with the expression of general or suggestive truths that the great proportionate amount of detail in the code as a whole is obscured. In its prescribed punishments for specific offenses, the code resembles the lex talionis of the Hebrews. Throughout these Laws, and elsewhere in the Hindu scriptures, appears the assumption of the inferiority of woman, and her proper confinement to a domestic sphere. It is needless to point out that Emerson's view of woman's place and power is exalted. The Hitopades is really a collection of fables, with morals of a prudential character. A few of these, such as the tortoise who opened his mouth to speak while being carried across the country by two geese; the ass in a tiger's skin; the Brahmin who in a day-dream hurled his stick at the dish which was the foundation of his fortunes, are familiar in Æsop or the Arabian Nights. The most of them, and their lesson, Emerson passes over in silence. The doctrine of transmigration of souls, assumed throughout the Bhagavat Gîta, met its modern counterpart and supplement in the doctrine of evolution. A freedom from earthly birth is the ideal state of Brahmin and

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Buddhist. But Emerson is always singing the praises of to-day. In short, as he wrote, "Nothing is easier than to separate what must have been the primeval inspiration from the endless ceremonial nonsense which caricatures and contradicts it through every chapter";' and it is precisely this separation which our author has accomplished, with an instinct of marvelous accuracy for the permanent amid the transient.

1IV, 315.

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