"Whence does all power come? We are embosomed in the spiritual world. Yet none ever saw angel or spirit. Whence does our knowledge of it come? Only from men; the only Revealer of the divine mind is through the thoughts of a man.
"The statistics show you the whole world under the dominion of fate or circumstance or brute laws of chemistry. Life instantly contravenes or supervenes the low chemistry by higher. Thought resists and commands Nature by higher truth, and gives Nature a master. …
"Life is a medley, but the centre is great and eternal, and we must be real. We must know that it is as we are, and therefore the absurd accuses us. We must go for character, personal relations, poverty and honor.
"And wisdom is justified of her children. Valor pays rents as well as land. A little measure is always a great error. The noble course begets love and confidence, and has a late and sure reward. It suggests counsels proportionate to the end, broad measures, humane conduct."
Page 277, note 2. The lady was Miss Elizabeth Hoar, who should have been, but for his untimely death, the wife of Charles Emerson. To Mr. Emerson she was a sister indeed, and her frequent presence illuminated the house for all of his family. The story of George Nidiver was told by her brother Edward, who had lived for several years in California. Mr. Emerson was so pleased with it that he obtained leave to print it with the essay in 1870. Before his death he learned that some one in California, reading the essay, found the poem, and knowing George Nidiver, took it to the old hunter, who was astonished and pleased to find that his act of generous impulse, when a youth, was known and celebrated on the other side of the continent a quarter of a century after its occurrence.
