"Emerson, Ralph W. - Lecture on the Times" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emerson Ralph Waldo)

which lifted men to the sight of these better ends, was the true and
best distinction of this time, the disposition to trust a principle
more than a material force. I think _that_ the soul of reform; the
conviction, that not sensualism, not slavery, not war, not
imprisonment, not even government, are needed, -- but in lieu of them
all, reliance on the sentiment of man, which will work best the more
it is trusted; not reliance on numbers, but, contrariwise, distrust
of numbers, and the feeling that then are we strongest, when most
private and alone. The young men, who have been vexing society for
these last years with regenerative methods, seem to have made this
mistake; they all exaggerated some special means, and all failed to
see that the Reform of Reforms must be accomplished without means.

The Reforms have their high origin in an ideal justice, but
they do not retain the purity of an idea. They are quickly organized
in some low, inadequate form, and present no more poetic image to the
mind, than the evil tradition which they reprobated. They mix the
fire of the moral sentiment with personal and party heats, with
measureless exaggerations, and the blindness that prefers some
darling measure to justice and truth. Those, who are urging with
most ardor what are called the greatest benefits of mankind, are
narrow, self-pleasing, conceited men, and affect us as the insane do.
They bite us, and we run mad also. I think the work of the reformer
as innocent as other work that is done around him; but when I have
seen it near, I do not like it better. It is done in the same way,
it is done profanely, not piously; by management, by tactics, and
clamor. It is a buzz in the ear. I cannot feel any pleasure in
sacrifices which display to me such partiality of character. We do
not want actions, but men; not a chemical drop of water, but rain;
the spirit that sheds and showers actions, countless, endless
actions. You have on some occasion played a bold part. You have set
your heart and face against society, when you thought it wrong, and
returned it frown for frown. Excellent: now can you afford to forget
it, reckoning all your action no more than the passing of your hand
through the air, or a little breath of your mouth? The world leaves
no track in space, and the greatest action of man no mark in the vast
idea. To the youth diffident of his ability, and full of compunction
at his unprofitable existence, the temptation is always great to lend
himself to public movements, and as one of a party accomplish what he
cannot hope to effect alone. But he must resist the degradation of a
man to a measure. I must act with truth, though I should never come
to act, as you call it, with effect. I must consent to inaction. A
patience which is grand; a brave and cold neglect of the offices
which prudence exacts, so it be done in a deep, upper piety; a
consent to solitude and inaction, which proceeds out of an
unwillingness to violate character, is the century which makes the
gem. Whilst therefore I desire to express the respect and joy I feel
before this sublime connection of reforms, now in their infancy
around us, I urge the more earnestly the paramount duties of
self-reliance. I cannot find language of sufficient energy to convey