The Tao of Emerson (9 page)

The ancients who showed their skill in practicing the Tao
   did so not to enlighten the people
,
But rather to make them simple and ignorant
.

The difficulty in governing the people arises
   from their having much knowledge
.
Who tries to govern the state by his wisdom
   is a scourge to it;
While he who does not try to do so is a blessing
.

He who knows these two things finds in them
   also his model and rule
.
Ability to know this model and rule constitutes what we call
   the mysterious excellence of a governor
.
Deep and far-reaching is such mysterious excellence
,
Showing indeed its possessor as opposite to others
,
But leading them to a great conformity to him
.

As fast as the public mind is opened
   to more intelligence,
The code is seen to be brute and stammering.

The wise know that the State must follow and not lead
   the character and progress of the citizen.
The strongest usurper is quickly got rid of,
And that form of government which prevails
Is the expression of what cultivation exists
   in the population which permits it.

The history of the State sketches in coarse outline
   the progress of thought.
And follows at a distance the delicacy
   of culture and aspiration.

That whereby the rivers and seas are able to receive
   the homage and tribute of all the valley streams
,
   is their skill in being lower than they
—
It is thus that they are the kings of them all
.
So it is that the sage, wishing to be above men
,
   puts himself by his words below them
,
And wishing to be before them, places his person behind them
.

A sensible man avoids introducing the names
   of his creditable companions,
And is content putting his fact or theme
   simply on its ground.
You shall not tell me that your commercial house,
   your partners or yourself are of importance;
You shall not tell me that you have learned
   to know men;
You shall make me feel that
   your saying so unsays it.

All the world says that, while my Tao is great
,
It yet appears to be inferior to other systems of teaching
.
Now it is just its greatness that makes it seem to he inferior
.
If it were like any other system
,
   for long would its smallness have been known!

With gentleness I can he bold;
With economy I can he liberal;
Shrinking from taking precedence of others
,
   
I can become a vessel of the highest honor
.
Nowadays they give up gentleness
   and are all for being bold;
Economy, and are all for being liberal;
The hindmost place, and seek only to be foremost;
   of all which the end is death
.

Gentleness is sure to be victorious even in battle
,
   and firmly to maintain its ground
.
Heaven will save its possessor
,
   by his very gentleness protecting him
.

Self-trust is the first secret of success.
I fear the popular notion of success
   stands in direct opposition on all points
   to the real and wholesome success.
One adores public opinion, the other private opinion,
   one fame, the other desert;
   one feats, the other humility;
   one lucre, the other love.

What is especially true of love,
   is that it is a state of extreme impressionability;
The lover has more senses and finer senses than others,
His eye and ear are telegraphs;
He reads omens on the flower, and cloud,
   and face, and gesture,
And reads them right.

He who in Tao’s wars has skill
   
Assumes no martial fort;
He who fights with most good will
   
To rage makes no resort
.
He who vanquishes yet still
   
Keeps from his foes apart;
He whose behests men most fulfill
   
Yet humbly plies his art
.

Thus we say, “He ne’er contends
,
   
And therein is his might.”
Thus we say, “Men’s wills he bends
,
   
That they with him unite.”
Thus we say, “Like Heaven’s his ends
,
   
No sage of old more bright.”

It is a vulgar error to suppose that
   a man must be ready to fight.
The utmost that can be demanded of the man
   is that he is incapable of a lie.
You may spit upon him; nothing could
   induce him to spit upon you—
No praises, no possessions, no compulsion
   of public opinion.
You may kick him; he will think it
   the kick of a brute,
   and will not kick you in return,
But neither your knife, nor pistol
   will ever make the slightest impression.

A master of the art of war has said
,
“I do not dare to be the host (to commence the war);
I prefer to be the guest (to act on the defensive)
.
I do not dare to advance an inch;
I prefer to retire a foot.”
This is called marshaling the ranks when there are no ranks;
Baring the arms to fight when there are no arms to bare;
Grasping the weapon when there is no weapon to grasp;
Advancing against the enemy when there is no enemy
.

There is no calamity greater than lightly engaging in war
.
To do that is near losing the gentleness which is so precious
.
Thus it is that when opposing weapons are actually crossed
,
      he who deplores the situation conquers
.

He who loves the bristle of bayonets
   only sees in their glitter
   what beforehand he feels in his heart.

The least change in the man will change
   his circumstances;
The least enlargement of his ideas,
The least mitigation of his feelings
   in respect to other men.
If, for example, he could be inspired
   with a tender kindness to the souls of men,
And should come to feel that every man was another self,
   with whom he might come to join—
Every degree of the ascendancy of this feeling
   would cause the most striking of changes of external things.

My words are very easy to know and easy to practice;
But there is no one in the world
   who is able to know and able to practice them
.

There is an originating and all-comprehending
   principle in my words
,
And an authoritative law for the things
   which I enforce
.
It is because they do not know these
,
   that men do not know me
.

They who know me are few
,
And I am on that account to be prized
.
It is thus that the sage wears a poor garment
   of haircloth
,
While he carries his signet of jade in his bosom
.

My willful actions and acquisitions
   are but roving;
The idlest reverie, the faintest native emotion
   commands my curiosity.
My perception is as much a fact as the sun.

Whenever a mind is simple
   and receives a divine wisdom,
Old things pass away—
Means, teachers, texts, temples fall.

A man cannot be happy and strong
   until he, too, lives
   with nature, in the present, above time.

To know and yet think we do not know
   is the highest attainment;
Not to know and yet think we do know
   is a disease
.

It is simply by being pained at the thought
   of having this disease
   that we are preserved from it
.
The sage has not the disease
.
He knows the pain that would be
   inseparable from it;
And therefore he does not have it
.

If any of us knew what we were doing,
   or where we are going,
Then when we think we best know!
We glide through nature and should not know
   our place again.

All things swim and glitter;
Our life is not so much threatened as
   our perception.

But in the solitude to which every man
   is always returning,
He has a sanity and revelations,
   which in his passage into new worlds
   he will carry with him.

When the people do not fear what
   they ought to fear
,
That which is their greatest dread
   will come to them
.

Let them not thoughtlessly indulge themselves
   in their ordinary life;
Let them not act as if weary of what
   life depends on
.

It is by avoiding such indulgence that
   such weariness does not arise
.

Therefore the sage knows these things
,
   but does not parade his knowledge;
Loves, but does not appear to set a value
   on himself
.
And thus he puts the latter alternative away
   and makes a choice of the former
.

The use of the world is that man may
   learn its laws.
When a man stupid becomes a man inspired,
When one and the same man
Passes out of the torpid into the perceiving state,
Leaves the din of trifles, the stupor of the senses,
   to enter into the quasi-omniscience of higher thought—
Up and down, all around go,
All limits disappear,
No horizon shuts down.
He sees things in their causes,
   all facts in their connection.

He whose boldness appears in his daring
   to do wrong, in defiance of the laws
,
   is put to death;
He whose boldness in his not daring to do so
,
   lives on
.
Of these two cases the one appears to be
   advantageous, and the other to be injurious
.

But
   
When Heaven’s anger smites a man
,
   
Who the cause shall truly scan?
On this account the sage feels a difficulty
   as to what to do in the former case
.

It is the way of Heaven not to strive
,
   and yet it skillfully overcomes;
Not to speak, and yet it is skillful
   in obtaining a reply;
Not to call, and yet men come to it of themselves
.
Its demonstrations are quiet
,
And yet its flans are skillful and effective
.
The meshes of the net of Heaven are large;
Far apart, but letting nothing escape
.

Crime and punishment grow out of one stem.
Punishment is a fruit that unsuspected ripens
   within the flower of the pleasure which concealed it.
Every act rewards itself, integrates itself
   in a two-fold manner;
First in the thing, or in real nature,
And secondly in the circumstance,
   or apparent nature.
The causal retribution is in the thing,
   and is seen by the soul.
The retribution of the circumstance
   is seen by the understanding.

What we call retribution is the universal necessity
   by which the whole appears whenever a part appears.

The people do not fear death;
To what purpose is it to try to frighten them with death?
If the people were always in awe of death
,
And I could always seize those who do wrong
,
   and put them to death
,
Who would dare to do wrong?

There is always One who presides over
   the infliction of death
.
He who would inflict death in the room of him
   who so presides over it
May be described as hewing wood
   instead of a great carpenter
.
Seldom is it that he who undertakes the hewing
,
   instead of the great carpenter
,
Does not cut his own hands!

Why are the masses, from the dawn of
   history down,
Food for knives and powder?
The idea dignified a few leaders,
   who made 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 a doctrine alike of the oldest,
   and of the newest philosophy,
That man is one, and that you cannot
   injure any member
Without a sympathetic injury
   to all the members.

The people suffer from famine because
   of the multitude of taxes consumed by their superiors
.

It is through this that they suffer famine
.
The people are difficult to govern because
   
of the excessive agency of their superiors
.

It is through this that they are difficult to govern
.
The people make light of dying because
   
of the greatness of their labors
   
in seeking for the means of living.
It is this which makes them think light of dying. Thus it is that to leave the subject of living
   
altogether out of view
Is better than to set a high value on it
.

The whole institution of property on its present tenures
   is injurious, and its influence on persons
   deteriorating and degrading;
Truly, the only interest for the consideration of the state
   is persons;
Property will always follow persons.
The highest end of government is the culture of men.
If men could be educated, the institutions will
   share their improvement,
And the moral sentiment will write the law of the land.