"Emerson, Ralph W. - The Young American" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emerson Ralph Waldo)

the world over, only not his cap and his plume. It is only their
dislike of the pretender, which makes men sometimes unjust to the
accomplished man. If society were transparent, the noble would
everywhere be gladly received and accredited, and would not be asked
for his day's work, but would be felt as benefit, inasmuch as he was
noble. That were his duty and stint, -- to keep himself pure and
purifying, the leaven of his nation. I think I see place and duties
for a nobleman in every society; but it is not to drink wine and ride
in a fine coach, but to guide and adorn life for the multitude by
forethought, by elegant studies, by perseverance, self-devotion, and
the remembrance of the humble old friend, by making his life secretly
beautiful.

I call upon you, young men, to obey your heart, and be the
nobility of this land. In every age of the world, there has been a
leading nation, one of a more generous sentiment, whose eminent
citizens were willing to stand for the interests of general justice
and humanity, at the risk of being called, by the men of the moment,
chimerical and fantastic. Which should be that nation but these
States? Which should lead that movement, if not New England? Who
should lead the leaders, but the Young American? The people, and the
world, is now suffering from the want of religion and honor in its
public mind. In America, out of doors all seems a market; in doors,
an air-tight stove of conventionalism. Every body who comes into our
houses savors of these habits; the men, of the market; the women, of
the custom. I find no expression in our state papers or legislative
debate, in our lyceums or churches, specially in our newspapers, of a
high national feeling, no lofty counsels that rightfully stir the
blood. I speak of those organs which can be presumed to speak a
popular sense. They recommend conventional virtues, whatever will
earn and preserve property; always the capitalist; the college, the
church, the hospital, the theatre, the hotel, the road, the ship, of
the capitalist, -- whatever goes to secure, adorn, enlarge these, is
good; what jeopardizes any of these, is damnable. The `opposition'
papers, so called, are on the same side. They attack the great
capitalist, but with the aim to make a capitalist of the poor man.
The opposition is against those who have money, from those who wish
to have money. But who announces to us in journal, or in pulpit, or
in the street, the secret of heroism,

"Man alone
Can perform the impossible?"

I shall not need to go into an enumeration of our national
defects and vices which require this Order of Censors in the state.
I might not set down our most proclaimed offences as the worst. It
is not often the worst trait that occasions the loudest outcry. Men
complain of their suffering, and not of the crime. I fear little
from the bad effect of Repudiation; I do not fear that it will
spread. Stealing is a suicidal business; you cannot repudiate but