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"Ne te quaesiveris extra." [“Seek not outside yourself,” that is, “Look within to find yourself, not in the opinions of others”.]
Man is his own star [his own source of light and truth];
and the soul [consciousness, awareness] that can Render [make, cause to become] an honest and a perfect [evolved to full development] man Commands all light, all influence, all fate [i.e., can accomplish anything];
Nothing to him [this enlightened, self-aware one] falls early or too late [he successfully plays the hand dealt to him].
To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.
... the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what [other] men [thought] but what they thought.
A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament [ie, more luminescent than the stars in the heavens] of bards and sages [those lauded as wise].
Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his [a form of self-loathing]. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty [truth is often dismissed until proclaimed by another.]
Great works of art have no more affecting [capable of producing strong feelings] lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous [first] impression with good-humored inflexibility then most [of our other thoughts] when the whole cry of voices [in the world of “experts” and authority, and one’s small ego] is on the other side [appealing to us to conform, to obey Dear Leader, to defer to externals].
Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.
There is a time in every man's education [growing level of maturity] when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion;
that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of [this goodness’] nourishing corn [enabling his development] can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground [his own deepest person] which is given to him to till [truth will not be apprehended, made one's own, until the heart is both prepared to receive and willing to speak out for it].
The power which resides in him is new in nature [humanity's infinite potential, akin to godhood, this elevated consciousness, represents a leap forward in the evolution of the natural world], and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.
This sculpture in the memory [this potential] is not without preestablished harmony. The eye [the viewpoint of a particular person] was placed where one ray [of mental light] should fall [i.e., only he or she will see it], that it [a particular viewpoint and insight] might testify of that particular ray.
We but half express ourselves [when we deny this higher part of ourselves], and are ashamed of that divine idea [that particular viewpoint as gift from God] which each of us represents. It [one’s honest and particular viewpoint] may be safely trusted as proportionate [i.e., equal to one’s considerable God-given ability, and therefore we can expect our natures to give rise to divine wisdom] and of good issues [in that such discernment originates from the soul, a consciousness-link with the divine goodness], so it be faithfully imparted [to others], but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards [suggesting a duty, to the greater good, to share a particular viewpoint on the truth; also, the reluctant may not be given a full measure of insight if it is disrespected].
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
Great men [and great women] have always done so [trusted themselves], and confided themselves childlike [obediently deferring, taking orders, like a child, but only from one’s deepest person]...
And we are now men [not life’s victims, not helpless in the storm of this world], and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny [that we, each of us, men and women, made in the divine image, are all destined to attain to greatness]; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.
[Notice the contrast: we become “men,” conquerors of the Darkness, fundamentally, by “confiding childlike” with our own souls, that link to the divine, the inner light. Emerson here captures the sense of Jesus’ metaphoric teaching, that the efforts of the sons and daughters of God shall “prevail against the gates of hell.” An invasion into the dark realms, and its strongholds of ignorance, fear, and negativity, is in view here. I have learned in my studies of the afterlife that society, over there, as with those enlightened here, is engaged in a vast and massive enterprise of rescuing those currently blinded to the divine light within. All those, here and there, with even a modicum of spiritual awareness take to themselves duties of service to which each is particularly fitted; all, each in his or her own way, advancing upon “the Chaos and the Dark.” This altruism is the essence of greatness, a grand definition held by Emerson and by all those engaged in service-activity on all levels of existence. But it all begins by trusting the self, that hidden true self within.]
What pretty oracles [wise, prophetic, enigmatic messages] nature yields us on this text,
[Nature offers to us “pretty oracles” concerning great men having learned to trust themselves. What are these “pretty oracles”?]
in the face and behaviour of children, babes, and even brutes!
[The “face” and “behavior” of the very young, babes and animals, are the “pretty oracles” which present to us a message of humble and uncomplicated innocence; these find it easy to trust and to listen.]
Infancy conforms to nobody [look at the toddler, joyously ambling, pleasing no one but herself]...
So God has armed youth and puberty and manhood no less with its own piquancy [that which stimulates, excites] and charm, and made it enviable and gracious and its claims not to be put by, if it will stand by itself.
The nonchalance [indifference] of [young] boys [and girls] ... [are usually unafraid to speak their mind] would disdain as much as a lord [an authority figure] to do or say aught [ie, say anything, will not offer the smallest gesture, word or deed] to conciliate one, is the healthy attitude of human nature.
A boy is in the parlour [children playing in the next room, vociferously frank with each other], what the pit is in the playhouse [seating at a play below the level of the stage; ie, the cheap seats, the occupants of which deemed to be representing a lower class, ones who did not hesitate to inform the actors of their disapproval];
independent, irresponsible, looking out from his corner on such people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences them on their merits, in the swift, summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly, eloquent, troublesome [quick and frank judgments on all, kind and unkind remarks]. He cumbers himself never about consequences, about interests: he gives an independent, genuine verdict. You must court him: he does not court you.
But the man is, as it were, [afraid of opinions of others] clapped into jail by his consciousness [well aware of how his words can easily bring condemnation]. As soon as he has once acted or spoken with éclat [striking effect, confidence, independence], he is a committed person, watched by the sympathy or the hatred of hundreds [labeled now as on one side or the other], whose affections must now enter into his account. There is no Lethe for this [i.e., no "forgetting" or going back, he will be remembered, marked for what he says].
Ah, that he could pass again into his neutrality! [Others will never again see him in the former light, before opinions were given.]
Who can thus avoid all pledges [he must stand for something, must offer “pledges” of support to one side or another], and having observed [life as it truly is], observe again from the same unaffected, unbiased, unbribable, unaffrighted innocence [like the frank boy in the parlour], must always be formidable.
[This man or woman is “formidable” because he or she always speaks the truth as it is, cannot be bought or sold, cannot be frightened away or intimidated, cannot be talked out of his or her position if he or she knows it to be true.]
He [this unbribable, formidable one] would utter [substantive] opinions on all passing affairs, which being seen to be not private [not mere petty, empty opinion of a small mind], but [offered with wisdom, a certain natural authority, as representing universal law,] necessary [and inevitable], would sink like darts into the ear of men [resonating as once-avoided truth], and put them in fear [as these honest and wise words, eschewing conformity, become a threat to society’s narrow and entrenched world views].
[For most of us] These are the [frank] voices which we hear [only] in solitude [of one’s inner person], but they [these inner voices] grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the [spiritual maturity, the individuation, the] manhood [and sacred womanhood] of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. [Society is arrayed against honest individuality and lauds conformity, rewarding the "right answer", walking in lockstep. Within the society of the ego, true friendship is unknown, but only self-protecting alliances and conspiracies, all directed toward securing material substance.]
The virtue in most request [by the world] is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but [rituals, titles,] names [which label, strictly limit, and define, but only to marginalize] and customs [which mindlessly underpin sterile institution].
Whoso would be a [mature, spiritual] man must be a nonconformist.
He who would gather immortal palms...
[I think “immortal palms” is a metaphor indicating “eternal glory and honor.” Think of Jesus entering Jerusalem with the adoring crowds, viewing him as King of Israel, lining the road with palm branches. I think Emerson is saying, “Do you want to attain enduring greatness as a fully developed person? You will not achieve it but by following the dictates of your sacred inner person, by trusting yourself."]
must not be hindered by the [institutionalized concepts of morality, by the hollow word, the mere] name of goodness
[Emerson warned us about “names and customs.” The ego loves to talk the talk, in its masquerade of a good person – but the word goodness is not goodness itself.]
but must explore [for him or herself] if [in truth] it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
Absolve [set free, release] you to yourself, and [in due time, and at last] you shall have the suffrage [support, approval] of the world.
[Set yourself free from self-imposed limitations. Do not think that you are not as able as any other person. Do not see yourself as less. Do not offer obsequious homage to any Dear Leader. You have something unique and precious to offer the universe, and, if withheld, we shall all be the poorer. Insist on your own mental freedom, and, in due time, the world itself will come round to blessing the day when you declared independence. And that “world” might also include you, that part of you now held in bondage of fear-based self-judgment.]
No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names [just empty words] very readily transferable to that or this; the only [thing that is] right is what is after my constitution [that which feels right, resonates with, to the true inner person], the only wrong what is against it.
[Why should this be in question and heresy? Are we not made in the divine image? And why should not that image grow up to discern between good and evil?]
A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition, as if every thing were titular [existing in title only, without real authority] and ephemeral [temporary] but he.
I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions.
[Names and badges… a tyranny of externals. Just because someone wears a uniform, a pin-striped suit with red power tie, or a black robe, speaks in god-talk, carries a black book, makes esoteric hand signs, doesn’t mean that s/he, in fact, has any authority or knows what they're talking about.]
Every decent and well-spoken individual [the articulate images of authority; e.g., the nice young man at church] affects and sways me more than is right. I ought to go [and stand straight] upright [as opposed to being swayed, bent] and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways.
Your goodness must have some edge to it, — else it is none. [The rough and graceless words, like those of an OT prophet, warn people of their own duplicitous ways. Emerson here defines goodness as that which helps people break out of the bondage of self-deception. These words can be hard for people to accept, as many do not want to change; hence, the truth will sometimes have an “edge” to it.]
I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls me.
[Who is to define right and wrong? Only the sanctified inner person. There are times, as Jesus said, to avoid toxic family members – the rightness of which act will be defined by the “genius” within. Family members can be the first to hate and harm if you speak the truth.]
What I [myself] must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. [In other words, you have the right to change your mind. When you see more, actions might need to be modified.] ... To be great is to be misunderstood.
Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No man yet knows what it is [what heights he or she might achieve], nor can, till that person has exhibited it. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every great man is unique. The Scipionism of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow. Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.
Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say 'I think,' 'I am,' but quotes some saint or sage...
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