Excerpts from “Essays, First Series” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (vegetarian), Part 1 of 2

In today’s program, we will explore the topic of human spirituality and how the soul can experience limitless growth through Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, First Series, subtitled “Circles.”

“The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he looks, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own. The life of man is a self-evolving circle, which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards to new and larger circles, and that without end. The extent to which this generation of circles, wheel without wheel, will go, depends on the force or truth of the individual soul.”

“There are no fixtures to men if we appeal to consciousness. Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood; and if there is any truth in him, if he rests at last on the divine soul, I see not how it can be otherwise. The last chamber, the last closet, he must feel was never opened; there is always a residuum unknown, unanalyzable. That is, every man believes that he has a greater possibility.”