Observations placeholder
Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Character - On generosity
Identifier
000591
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Ralph Waldo Emerson – Character
We have no pleasure in thinking of a benevolence that is only measured by its works. Love is inexhaustible and if its estate is wasted, its granary emptied, still cheers and enriches; and the man, though he sleep, seems to purify the air, and his house to adorn the landscape and strengthen the laws. People always recognise the difference. We know who is benevolent, by quite other means than the amount of subscription to soup societies....
…............... the rule of a good man is benefaction. The true charity of Goethe for example is to be inferred from the account he gave Dr Eckermann of the way in which he spent his fortune.
'Each bon mot of mine has cost a purse of gold. Half a million of my own money, the fortune I inherited, my salary and the large income derived from my writings for 50 years back have been expended to instruct me in what I now know'
The source of the experience
Emerson, Ralph WaldoConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
CharitySymbols
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Suppressions
Beauty, art and musicBeing left handed
Communing with nature
Contemplation and detachment
Squash the big I am