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Quotations and Fragments from Emerson's Essay "Aristocracy"
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| "The foundations of these families lie deep in Norwegian exploits by sea." - Emerson |
You may ask, "Is THIS the true Emerson?" He was variegated. Here his entertaining statements are usually quoted verbatim. - Tormod Kinnes
Contents
Supporting "well medleys" are presupposed
throughout:Aristocracy
Selection and arrangement by Tormod Kinnes.
The horizons of the English
aristocracy had tact added, and probably by necessity and in support of the aristocracy
as well
OF WHAT use are the lords? Of what use is a
baby? [With Emerson]Power of any kind readily appears in the manners; and beneficent power.
The English barons, in every period, have been brave and great.
'Tis a romance adorning English life with a larger horizon.
The national tastes of the English do not lead them to the life of the courtier, but to secure the comfort and independence of their homes.
Under the present reign, the perfect decorum of the Court is thought to have put a check on the gross vices of the aristocracy.
Every man who becomes rich buys land, and does what he can to fortify the nobility, into which he hopes to rise.
The estates, names, and manners of the nobles flatter the fancy of the people, and conciliate the necessary support.
The foundations of these families lie deep in Norwegian exploits by sea.
Loyalty is in the English a
sub-religion. ¤
The aspiring ones all over
England learnt to prepare for a life in the countryside
THE UPPER classes have only birth, say
the people here, and not thoughts. Yes, but
they have manners.They have the sense of superiority, the absence of all the ambitious effort which disgusts in the aspiring . . .
I suppose, too, that a feeling of self-respect is driving cultivated men out of this society.
Fuller records "the observation of foreigners, that Englishmen, by making their children gentlemen, before they are men, cause they are so seldom wise men."
Villas, walled parks, all over England, rival the splendor of royal seats.
The English go to their estates for
grandeur. The French live at court, and exile
themselves to their estates for economy. As they do not mean to live with their tenants,
they do not conciliate them, but wring from them the last sous. ¤
The English noble and squire were preparing for the career of the country-gentleman.
Prostitutes taken from the theatres, were made duchesses, their bastards dukes and
earls.
The Norwegian pirate-nobles
respected their own castles -
THE ENGLISH nobles are high-spirited,
active, educated men . . . who have run
through every country, and kept in every country the best company.The hopes of the commoners take the same direction with the interest of the patricians.
I look with respect at houses six, seven, eight hundred, or, like Warwick Castle, nine hundred years old.
The Norwegian pirate got what he could, and held it for his eldest son. The Norman
noble, who was the Norwegian pirate baptized, did likewise.
When a man once knows that he has done
justice to himself, let him dismiss all
terrors of aristocracy. ¤
All over England, scattered at short intervals among ship-yards, mills, mines, and forges, are the paradises of the nobles.
I wonder that sensible men have not been already impatient of them. They belong, with wigs, powder, and scarlet coats, to an earlier age.
In general, all that is required of them is to sit securely, to preside at public meetings, to countenance charities, and to give the example of that decorum so dear to the British heart.
English history, wisely read, is the vindication of the brain of that people.
They have that simplicity, and that air of repose, which are the finest ornament of greatness.
In the roll of nobles, are found poets, philosophers, . . . men of solid virtues and of lofty sentiments; often they have been the friends and patrons of genius and learning, and especially of the fine arts.
They have borne their full share of duty and danger in this service.
Almost every great house has its sumptuous picture-gallery.
A multitude of town palaces contain inestimable galleries of art. In the country, the size of private estates is more impressive.
The breeding of the nobleman really made him brave, handsome, accomplished, and great-hearted.
Whatever tends to form manners, or to finish men, has a great value.
I was surprised to observe the very
small attendance usually in the House of Lords.
Out of 5 peers, on ordinary days, only twenty or thirty. Where are they? I asked. "At home
on their estates, devoured by ennui, or in the Alps, or up the Rhine, in the Harz Mountains,
or in Egypt, or in India, on the Ghauts." But, with such interests at stake, how can these
men afford to neglect them? (7)
Even peers, who are men of worth and public spirit, are over-taken and embarrassed by their vast expense.
The fiction with which the noble and the bystander equally please themselves is, that the former is of unbroken descent from the Norman, and so has never worked for eight hundred years.
War is a foul game, and yet war is not the worst part of aristocratic history.
The names are excellent, -- an atmosphere of legendary melody spread over the land .
. . this undershirt sits close to the body.
These lords are the treasurers and
librarians of mankind, engaged by their pride and
wealth to this function. (8)
The pretence is that the noble is of unbroken descent from the Norman, and has never worked for eight hundred years.
A creative economy is the fuel of magnificence.
Summary
- The horizons of the English aristocracy had tact added by necessity, a kind of galvanized smugness in support of the aristocracy.
- The aspiring ones all over England learnt to prepare for an aristocracy-similar life in the countryside.
- While the English admire the castles of the "old robbers" that became barons and the like, the mobile Norwegian pirate-nobles respected their own castles and raided the castles of others. There is a difference to note here.
Galvanize the kind of smugness that helps your own home life, Dee-Dee.
At home
The British writer Samuel Rogers had a bare, polished head and a somewhat cadaverous
appearance. He and Lord Dudley once spent an hour or two exploring the catacombs in Paris.
As they were leaving, the keeper caught sight of Rogers and rushed toward him with a look of
horror, shouting, "No, no, you have no right to come out. Go back inside. Go back."
Lord Dudley fled from the scene laughing, leaving Rogers to get out of
the awkward situation as best he could. He said to Rogers later, "My dear Rogers, you
looked so much at home I did not like to interfere."- To a bird, a home can be a nest on a branch. To cave-men, that is not full well. Buildings and houses dear to British clergy and nobility may be said to come in between.
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Adjoined
Em: Atkinson, Brooks, ed: Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Modern Library. New York, 1950.Rwe: Porte, Joel and Saundra Morris, eds: The Cambridge Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Cambridge UP. Cambridge, 1999.
Talw: Rusk, Ralph: The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Columbia University. New York, 1949.
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