Almost 180 years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an essay called Circles. It’s one of the most interesting pieces of writing I’ve read about perspective, new ideas, finding truth and creative potential.
Here are just a few of the most memorable ideas and quotes I’ve taken from it which are as relevant today as they were when he first wrote them.
The Circle is a Symbol Found in the Physical World and the World of Ideas.
The first section of the essay draws an outline of the concept of the circle as both a symbol in nature (our eyes and our planet), but also as a concept of truth and new ideas.
“The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end.”
Ultimately everything we see and know grows out from an infinite number of ever-expanding concentric circles.
“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.”
New Ideas, Like Circles, Have No Limits.
When a breakthrough idea is discovered, Emerson says a new circle is drawn outside of the old one, overtaking it. But that new circle only stands up under truth, which can, and will be passed as well at any moment.
“Every ultimate fact is only the first of a new series. Every general law only a particular fact of some more general law presently to disclose itself. There is no outside, no inclosing wall, no circumference to us. The man finishes his story, — how good! how final! how it puts a new face on all things! He fills the sky. Lo! on the other side rises also a man, and draws a circle around the circle we had just pronounced the outline of the sphere.”
New Ideas Will Be Resisted.
He discusses the nature of changing old ideas, and how the values and institutions we see today are the result of circles which have grown to make up the world we currently inhabit.
“The things which are dear to men at this hour are so on account of the ideas which have emerged on their mental horizon, and which cause the present order of things as a tree bears its apples.”
He describes how these circles are constantly in a state of being challenged, and that our opinions can and should be open to change as a result of our understanding and pursuit of the truth as it is.
“Valor consists in the power of self-recovery, so that a man cannot have his flank turned, cannot be out-generalled, but put him where you will, he stands. This can only be by his preferring truth to his past apprehension of truth; and his alert acceptance of it, from whatever quarter; the intrepid conviction that his laws, his relations to society, his Christianity, his world, may at any time be superseded and decease.”
We Gravitate Toward Our Purpose Naturally
Emerson talks about our experiences and perceptions being the result of our natural attraction toward our own inner good or purpose. This is a natural law, like the behaviour of atoms and molecules.
“Has the naturalist or chemist learned his craft, who has explored the gravity of atoms and the elective affinities, who has not yet discerned the deeper law whereof this is only a partial or approximate statement, namely, that like draws to like; and that the goods which belong to you gravitate to you, and need not be pursued with pains and cost?”
New Circles Develop From A State of Flow.
Emerson talks about the natural genius inside all people. That each of us is capable of expanding circles and creating new ideas by letting go and connecting with something deeper.
“The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory, and to do something without knowing how or why; in short, to draw a new circle. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. The way of life is wonderful: it is by abandonment. The great moments of history are the facilities of performance through the strength of ideas, as the works of genius and religion. “A man,” said Oliver Cromwell, “never rises so high as when he knows not whither he is going.” Dreams and drunkenness, the use of opium and alcohol are the semblance and counterfeit of this oracular genius, and hence their dangerous attraction for men. For the like reason, they ask the aid of wild passions, as in gaming and war, to ape in some manner these flames and generosities of the heart.”
He speaks about this state of being that is in touch with a deeper unconscious level.
We might recognise this state in the voice of Stevie Nicks, the brushstrokes of Picasso, or the words of Oprah. It can be found all around us and develop in any aspect of our lives.
It’s a state of not thinking about the past or future, but about being in contact with the truth of the moment, the circle as it is.
Read the original essay here
