Leaving his intellectual throne as the spokesman of a
practical liberty, Emerson's wisdom was justified by the fact that he was
always at first on the unpopular, and ultimately on the winning, side.
Casting his rote for the diffusion of popular literature, a wide
suffrage, a mild penal code, he yet endorsed the saying of an old
American author, "A monarchy is a merchantman which sails well but will
sometimes strike on a rock and go to the bottom; whilst a republic is
a raft that will never sink, but then your feet are always in water."
[Footnote: Carlyle, on the other hand, holds "that," as has been said, "we
are entitled to deal with criminals as relics of barbarism in the midst of
civilisation." His protest, though exuberated, against leniency in dealing
with atrocities, emphatically requisite in an age apt to ignore the rigour
of justice, has been so far salutary, and may be more so.]
Maintaining that the State exists for its members, he holds that the
enervating influences of authority are least powerful in popular
governments, and that the tyranny of a public opinion not enforced by law
need only be endured by voluntary slaves. Emerson confides in great men,
"to educate whom the State exists"; but he regards them as inspired
mouthpieces rather than controlling forces: their prime mission is to
"fortify our hopes," their indirect services are their best.
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