Observations placeholder
Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Self Reliance - Society never advances
Identifier
004099
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Ralph Waldo Emerson – Self Reliance
Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes... but this change is not anchoration. For every thing that is given, something is taken away. The civilised man has built a coach, but he has lost the use of his feet. He is supported on crutches, but loses so much support of muscle. He has got a fine Geneva watch, but he has lost the skill to tell the hour by the sun.... The solstice he does not observe; the equinox he knows a little … his note books impair his memory, his libraries overload his wit. There is no more deviation in the moral standard than in the standard height or bulk. No greater men are now than ever were.
The source of the experience
Emerson, Ralph WaldoConcepts, symbols and science items
Symbols
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Suppressions
Beauty, art and musicBeing left handed
Communing with nature
Contemplation and detachment