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Man the Reformer

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Man the Reformer

Table of Contents

Man the Reformer. .............................................................................................................................................1

Ralph Waldo Emerson. ............................................................................................................................1

Man the Reformer

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A Lecture read before the Mechanics' Apprentices' Library Association, Boston, January 25, 1841

Mr. President, and Gentlemen,

I wish to offer to your consideration some thoughts on the particular and general relations of man as a

reformer. I shall assume that the aim of each young man in this association is the very highest that belongs to

a rational mind. Let it be granted, that our life, as we lead it, is common and mean; that some of those offices

and functions for which we were mainly created are grown so rare in society, that the memory of them is only

kept alive in old books and in dim traditions; that prophets and poets, that beautiful and perfect men, we are

not now, no, nor have even seen such; that some sources of human instruction are almost unnamed and

unknown among us; that the community in which we live will hardly bear to be told that every man should be

open to ecstasy or a divine illumination, and his daily walk elevated by intercourse with the spiritual world.

Grant all this, as we must, yet I suppose none of my auditors will deny that we ought to seek to establish

ourselves in such disciplines and courses as will deserve that guidance and clearer communication with the

spiritual nature. And further, I will not dissemble my hope, that each person whom I address has felt his own

call to cast aside all evil customs, timidities, and limitations, and to be in his place a free and helpful man, a

reformer, a benefactor, not content to slip along through the world like a footman or a spy, escaping by his

nimbleness and apologies as many knocks as he can, but a brave and upright man, who must find or cut a

straight road to everything excellent in the earth, and not only go honorably himself, but make it easier for all

who follow him, to go in honor and with benefit.

In the history of the world the doctrine of Reform had never such scope as at the present hour. Lutherans,

Hernhutters, Jesuits, Monks, Quakers, Knox, Wesley, Swedenborg, Bentham, in their accusations of society,

all respected something, church or state, literature or history, domestic usages, the market town, the dinner

table, coined money. But now all these and all things else hear the trumpet, and must rush to judgment,

Christianity, the laws, commerce, schools, the farm, the laboratory; and not a kingdom, town, statute, rite,

calling, man, or woman, but is threatened by the new spirit.

What if some of the objections whereby our institutions are assailed are extreme and speculative, and the

reformers tend to idealism; that only shows the extravagance of the abuses which have driven the mind into

the opposite extreme. It is when your facts and persons grow unreal and fantastic by too much falsehood, that

the scholar flies for refuge to the world of ideas, and aims to recruit and replenish nature from that source. Let

ideas establish their legitimate sway again in society, let life be fair and poetic, and the scholars will gladly be

lovers, citizens, and philanthropists.

It will afford no security from the new ideas, that the old nations, the laws of centuries, the property and

institutions of a hundred cities, are built on other foundations. The demon of reform has a secret door into the

heart of every lawmaker, of every inhabitant of every city. The fact, that a new thought and hope have

dawned in your breast, should apprize you that in the same hour a new light broke in upon a thousand private

hearts. That secret which you would fain keep, as soon as you go abroad, lo! there is one standing on the

doorstep, to tell you the same. There is not the most bronzed and sharpened money−catcher, who does not, to

Man the Reformer

your consternation, almost, quail and shake the moment he hears a question prompted by the new ideas. We

thought he had some semblance of ground to stand upon, that such as he at least would die hard; but he

trembles and flees. Then the scholar says, `Cities and coaches shall never impose on me again; for, behold

every solitary dream of mine is rushing to fulfilment. That fancy I had, and hesitated to utter because you

would laugh, the broker, the attorney, the market−man are saying the same thing. Had I waited a day longer

to speak, I had been too late. Behold, State Street thinks, and Wall Street doubts, and begins to prophesy!'

It cannot be wondered at, that this general inquest into abuses should arise in the bosom of society, when one

considers the practical impediments that stand in the way of virtuous young men. The young man, on

entering life, finds the way to lucrative employments blocked with abuses. The ways of trade are grown

selfish to the borders of theft, and supple to the borders (if not beyond the borders) of fraud. The

employments of commerce are not intrinsically unfit for a man, or less genial to his faculties, but these are

now in their general course so vitiated by derelictions and abuses at which all connive, that it requires more

vigor and resources than can be expected of every young man, to right himself in them; he is lost in them; he

cannot move hand or foot in them. Has he genius and virtue? the less does he find them fit for him to grow in,

and if he would thrive in them, he must sacrifice all the brilliant dreams of boyhood and youth as dreams; he

must forget the prayers of his childhood; and must take on him the harness of routine and obsequiousness. If

not so minded, nothing is left him but to begin the world anew, as he does who puts the spade into the ground

for food. We are all implicated, of course, in this charge; it is only necessary to ask a few questions as to the

progress of the articles of commerce from the fields where they grew, to our houses, to become aware that we

eat and drink and wear perjury and fraud in a hundred commodities. How many articles of daily consumption

are furnished us from the West Indies; yet it is said, that, in the Spanish islands, the venality of the officers of

the government has passed into usage, and that no article passes into our ships which has not been

fraudulently cheapened. In the Spanish islands, every agent or factor of the Americans, unless he be a consul,

has taken oath that he is a Catholic, or has caused a priest to make that declaration for him. The abolitionist

has shown us our dreadful debt to the southern negro. In the island of Cuba, in addition to the ordinary

abominations of slavery, it appears, only men are bought for the plantations, and one dies in ten every year, of

these miserable bachelors, to yield us sugar. I leave for those who have the knowledge the part of sifting the

oaths of our custom−houses; I will not inquire into the oppression of the sailors; I will not pry into the usages

of our retail trade. I content myself with the fact, that the general system of our trade, (apart from the blacker

traits, which, I hope, are exceptions denounced and unshared by all reputable men,) is a system of selfishness;

is not dictated by the high sentiments of human nature; is not measured by the exact law of reciprocity; much

less by the sentiments of love and heroism, but is a system of distrust, of concealment, of superior keenness,

not of giving but of taking advantage. It is not that which a man delights to unlock to a noble friend; which he

meditates on with joy and self−approval in his hour of love and aspiration; but rather what he then puts out of

sight, only showing the brilliant result, and atoning for the manner of acquiring, by the manner of expending

it. I do not charge the merchant or the manufacturer. The sins of our trade belong to no class, to no individual.

One plucks, one distributes, one eats. Every body partakes, every body confesses, with cap and knee

volunteers his confession, yet none feels himself accountable. He did not create the abuse; he cannot alter it.

What is he? an obscure private person who must get his bread. That is the vice, that no one feels himself

called to act for man, but only as a fraction of man. It happens therefore that all such ingenuous souls as feel

within themselves the irrepressible strivings of a noble aim, who by the law of their nature must act simply,

find these ways of trade unfit for them, and they come forth from it. Such cases are becoming more numerous

every year.

But by coming out of trade you have not cleared yourself. The trail of the serpent reaches into all the lucrative

professions and practices of man. Each has its own wrongs. Each finds a tender and very intelligent

conscience a disqualification for success. Each requires of the practitioner a certain shutting of the eyes, a

certain dapperness and compliance, an acceptance of customs, a sequestration from the sentiments of

generosity and love, a compromise of private opinion and lofty integrity. Nay, the evil custom reaches into

the whole institution of property, until our laws which establish and protect it, seem not to be the issue of love

Man the Reformer

and reason, but of selfishness. Suppose a man is so unhappy as to be born a saint, with keen perceptions, but

with the conscience and love of an angel, and he is to get his living in the world; he finds himself excluded

from all lucrative works; he has no farm, and he cannot get one; for, to earn money enough to buy one,

requires a sort of concentration toward money, which is the selling himself for a number of years, and to him

the present hour is as sacred and inviolable as any future hour. Of course, whilst another man has no land, my

title to mine, your title to yours, is at once vitiated. Inextricable seem to be the twinings and tendrils of this

evil, and we all involve ourselves in it the deeper by forming connections, by wives and children, by benefits

and debts.

Considerations of this kind have turned the attention of many philanthropic and intelligent persons to the

claims of manual labor, as a part of the education of every young man. If the accumulated wealth of the past

generations is thus tainted, no matter how much of it is offered to us, we must begin to consider if it were

not the nobler part to renounce it, and to put ourselves into primary relations with the soil and nature, and

abstaining from whatever is dishonest and unclean, to take each of us bravely his part, with his own hands, in

the manual labor of the world.

But it is said, `What! will you give up the immense advantages reaped from the division of labor, and set

every man to make his own shoes, bureau, knife, wagon, sails, and needle? This would be to put men back

into barbarism by their own act.' I see no instant prospect of a virtuous revolution; yet I confess, I should not

be pained at a change which threatened a loss of some of the luxuries or conveniences of society, if it

proceeded from a preference of the agricultural life out of the belief, that our primary duties as men could be

better discharged in that calling. Who could regret to see a high conscience and a purer taste exercising a

sensible effect on young men in their choice of occupation, and thinning the ranks of competition in the

labors of commerce, of law, and of state? It is easy to see that the inconvenience would last but a short time.

This would be great action, which always opens the eyes of men. When many persons shall have done this,

when the majority shall admit the necessity of reform in all these institutions, their abuses will be redressed,

and the way will be open again to the advantages which arise from the division of labor, and a man may

select the fittest employment for his peculiar talent again, without compromise.

But quite apart from the emphasis which the times give to the doctrine, that the manual labor of society ought

to be shared among all the members, there are reasons proper to every individual, why he should not be

deprived of it. The use of manual labor is one which never grows obsolete, and which is inapplicable to no

person. A man should have a farm or a mechanical craft for his culture. We must have a basis for our higher

accomplishments, our delicate entertainments of poetry and philosophy, in the work of our hands. We must

have an antagonism in the tough world for all the variety of our spiritual faculties, or they will not be born.

Manual labor is the study of the external world. The advantage of riches remains with him who procured

them, not with the heir. When I go into my garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and

health, that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I

should have done with my own hands. But not only health, but education is in the work. Is it possible that I

who get indefinite quantities of sugar, hominy, cotton, buckets, crockery ware, and letter paper, by simply

signing my name once in three months to a cheque in favor of John Smith and Co. traders, get the fair share

of exercise to my faculties by that act, which nature intended for me in making all these far−fetched matters

important to my comfort? It is Smith himself, and his carriers, and dealers, and manufacturers, it is the sailor,

the hidedrogher, the butcher, the negro, the hunter, and the planter, who have intercepted the sugar of the

sugar, and the cotton of the cotton. They have got the education, I only the commodity. This were all very

well if I were necessarily absent, being detained by work of my own, like theirs, work of the same faculties;

then should I be sure of my hands and feet, but now I feel some shame before my wood−chopper, my

ploughman, and my cook, for they have some sort of self−sufficiency, they can contrive without my aid to

bring the day and year round, but I depend on them, and have not earned by use a right to my arms and feet.

Man the Reformer

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