Representative Men | Page 2

or deny the substantial existence of other people. I know not what would
happen to us. We have social strengths. Our affection toward others creates a sort of
vantage or purchase which nothing will supply. I can do that by another which I cannot
do alone. I can say to you what I cannot first say to myself. Other men are lenses through
which we read our own minds. Each man seeks those of different quality from his own,
and such as are good of their kind; that is, he seeks other men, and the otherest. The
stronger the nature, the more it is reactive. Let us have the quality pure. A little genius let
us leave alone. A main difference betwixt men is, whether they attend their own affair or
not. Man is that noble endogenous plant which grows, like the palm, from within,
outward. His own affair, though impossible to others, he can open with celerity and in
sport. It is easy to sugar to be sweet, and to nitre to be salt. We take a great deal of pains
to waylay and entrap that which of itself will fall into our hands. I count him a great man
who inhabits a higher sphere of thought, into which other men rise with labor and
difficulty; he has but to open his eyes to see things in a true light, and in large relations;
whilst they must make painful corrections, and keep a vigilant eye on many sources of
error. His service to us is of like sort. It costs a beautiful person no exertion to paint her
image on our eyes; yet how splendid is that benefit! It costs no more for a wise soul to
convey his quality to other men. And every one can do his best thing easiest--"_Peu de
moyens, beaucoup d'effet._" He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never
reminds us of others.
But he must be related to us, and our life receive from him some promise of explanation.
I cannot tell what I would know; but I have observed there are persons, who, in their
character and actions, answer questions which I have not skill to put. One man answers
some questions which none of his contemporaries put, and is isolated. The past and
passing religions and philosophies answer some other question. Certain men affect us as
rich possibilities, but helpless to themselves and to their times,--the sport, perhaps, of
some instinct that rules in the air;--they do not speak to our want. But the great are near:
we know them at sight. They satisfy expectation, and fall into place. What is good is
effective, generative; makes for itself room, food, and allies. A sound apple produces
seed,--a hybrid does not. Is a man in his place, he is constructive, fertile, magnetic,
inundating armies with his purpose, which is thus executed. The river makes its own
shores, and each legitimate idea makes its own channels and welcome,--harvest for food,
institutions for expression, weapons to fight with, and disciples to explain it. The true
artist has the planet for his pedestal; the adventurer, after years of strife, has nothing
broader than his own shoes.
Our common discourse respects two kinds of use of service from superior men. Direct
giving is agreeable to the early belief of men; direct giving of material or metaphysical
aid, as of health, eternal youth, fine senses, arts of healing, magical power, and prophecy.
The boy believes there is a teacher who can sell him wisdom. Churches believe in
imputed merit. But, in strictness, we are not much cognizant of direct serving. Man is
endogenous, and education is his unfolding. The aid we have from others is mechanical,
compared with the discoveries of nature in us. What is thus learned is delightful in the
doing, and the effect remains. Right ethics are central, and go from the soul outward. Gift
is contrary to the law of the universe. Serving others is serving us. I must absolve me to
myself. "Mind thy affair," says the spirit:--"coxcomb, would you meddle with the skies,

or with other people?" Indirect service is left. Men have a pictorial or representative
quality, and serve us in the intellect. Behmen and Swedenborg saw that things were
representative. Men are also representative; first, of things, and secondly, of ideas.
As plants convert the minerals into food for animals, so each man converts some raw
material in nature to human use. The inventors of fire, electricity, magnetism, iron; lead,
glass, linen, silk, cotton; the makers of tools; the inventor of decimal notation; the
geometer; the engineer; musician,--severally make an easy way for all, through unknown
and impossible confusions. Each man is, by secret liking, connected with some district of
nature, whose agent and interpreter