To act, in short, is to live. Living ‘is a total act. Thinking is a partial act.’ And one does not live alone. Living is a communal act, whether or not its communality is acknowledged. And so Emerson writes: I grasp the hands of those next me, and take my place in the ring to suffer and to work, taught by an instinct, that so shall the dumb abyss be vocal with speech. Emerson’s spiritual heroism can sometimes be questionable or tiresome, but he can also write splendidly accurate, exacting sentences, and that is one of them. We see how it legislates against what we now call ‘groupiness.’
...more
