Representative Men | Page 8

of heroes. Every genius is defended from
approach by quantities of availableness. They are very attractive, and seem at a distance
our own: but we are hindered on all sides from approach. The more we are drawn, the
more we are repelled. There is something not solid in the good that is done for us. The
best discovery the discoverer makes for himself. It has something unreal for his
companion, until he too has substantiated it. It seems as if the Deity dressed each soul
which he sends into nature in certain virtues and powers not communicable to other men,
and, sending it to perform one more turn through the circle of beings, wrote "Not
transferable," and "Good for this trip only," on these garments of the soul. There is
somewhat deceptive about the intercourse of minds. The boundaries are invisible, but
they are never crossed. There is such good will to impart, and such good will to receive,
that each threatens to become the other; but the law of individuality collects its secret
strength: you are you, and I am I, and so we remain.
For Nature wishes every thing to remain itself; and, whilst every individual strives to
grow and exclude, and to exclude and grow, to the extremities of the universe, and to
impose the law of its being on every other creature, Nature steadily aims to protect each
against every other. Each is self-defended. Nothing is more marked than the power by
which individuals are guarded from individuals, in a world where every benefactor
becomes so easily a malefactor, only by continuation of his activity into places where it is
not due; where children seem so much at the mercy of their foolish parents, and where
almost all men are too social and interfering. We rightly speak of the guardian angels of
children. How superior in their security from infusions of evil persons, from vulgarity
and second thought! They shed their own abundant beauty on the objects they behold.
Therefore, they are not at the mercy of such poor educators as we adults. If we huff and
chide them, they soon come not to mind it, and get a self-reliance; and if we indulge them
to folly, they learn the limitation elsewhere.
We need not fear excessive influence. A more generous trust is permitted. Serve the great.
Stick at no humiliation. Grudge no office thou canst render. Be the limb of their body, the
breath of their mouth. Compromise thy egotism. Who cares for that, so thou gain aught
wider and nobler? Never mind the taunt of Boswellism: the devotion may easily be
greater than the wretched pride which is guarding its own skirts. Be another: not thyself,
but a Platonist; not a soul, but a Christian; not a naturalist, but a Cartesian; not a poet, but
a Shakspearian. In vain, the wheels of tendency will not stop, nor will all the forces of
inertia, fear, or love itself, hold thee there. On, and forever onward! The microscope
observes a monad or wheel-insect among the infusories circulating in water. Presently, a
dot appears on the animal, which enlarges to a slit, and it becomes two perfect animals.
The ever-proceeding detachment appears not less in all thought, and in society. Children
think they cannot live without their parents. But, long before they are aware of it, the
black dot has appeared, and the detachment taken place. Any accident will now reveal to
them their independence.
But great men:--the word is injurious. Is there caste? is there fate? What becomes of the
promise to virtue? The thoughtful youth laments the superfoetation of nature. "Generous
and handsome," he says, "is your hero; but look at yonder poor Paddy, whose country is
his wheelbarrow; look at his whole nation of Paddies." Why are the masses, from the
dawn of history down, food for knives and powder? The idea dignifies a few leaders, who

have sentiment, opinion, love, self-devotion; and they make war and death sacred;--but
what for the wretches whom they hire and kill? The cheapness of man is every day's
tragedy. It is as real a loss that others should be low, as that we should be low; for we
must have society.
Is it a reply to these suggestions, to say, society is a Pestalozzian school; all are teachers
and pupils in turn. We are equally served by receiving and by imparting. Men who know
the same things, are not long the best company for each other. But bring to each an
intelligent person of another experience, and it is as if you let off water from a lake, by
cutting a lower basin. It seems a mechanical advantage, and great benefit it is to each
speaker, as he can now paint out his thought to himself. We pass