Mysticism is the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one.
Interpretation
Mysticism can lead to misunderstanding, mistaking personal symbols for universal truths.
In this quote, Emerson suggests that mysticism, which often relies on individual experiences and interpretations, can result in confusion when personal symbols are misidentified as universally applicable. This reflects a deeper philosophical discourse on perception, meaning, and the nature of reality, emphasizing the importance of recognizing the difference between subjective experiences and objective truths.
In practice
In a philosophy class, when discussing perception, I quoted Emerson to illustrate the difference between personal and universal interpretations.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to unknown gods.
A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?
I confess that I am not charmed with the ideal of life held out by those who think that the normal state of human beings is that of struggling to get on; that the trampling, crushing, elbowing, and treading on each other's heels, which form the existing type of social life, are the most desirable lot of human beings
When men are oppressed, it's a tragedy. When women are oppressed, it's tradition.
The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing. The hearing of the understanding is another. But the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty to the ear, or to the mind.
I am able to follow my own death step by step. Now I move softly towards the end.
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