Speaking from within

Essays — First Series primary

Emerson says people discern character in society through an inevitable judicial investigation, but the true judgment comes from letting others judge themselves and from a teacher who speaks from within.

know each other very well,—which of us has been just to himself and whether that which we teach or behold is only an aspiration or is our honest effort also. We are all discerners of spirits. That diagnosis lies aloft in our life or unconscious power. The intercourse of society, its trade, its religion, its friendships, its quarrels, is one wide, judicial investigation of character. In full court, or in small commit…