What is the over soul?

Ralph Waldo Emerson, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

Ralph Waldo Emerson answers

Man is a stream whose source is hidden.1 That is where I must begin, because the Over-Soul is precisely the hidden source — not a doctrine to be memorized but a reality to be sensed, the ground from which every thought and every event descends into us before we can claim them as our own. I called it that Unity within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other — the common heart of which all sincere conversation is the worship, to which all right action is submission.2

We live, ordinarily, in succession, in division, in parts, in particles; and yet within man is the soul of the whole, the wise silence, the eternal ONE.3 The parts are real enough — the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree — but the whole of which these are the shining parts is the soul, and we see it only in the vision of that Wisdom.4 What the Over-Soul is not: it is not an organ, not a faculty, not the intellect or the will, but the master of the intellect and the will.5

It is the background of our being in which they lie. From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all.6 A man is the facade of a temple wherein all wisdom and all good abide — not the eating, drinking, counting man we ordinarily call by that name, but the soul whose organ he is, which, would he let it appear through his action, would make our knees bend.7

Every fine genius in every age has tried to name this unbounded substance — Thales called it water, Anaximenes air, Zoroaster fire, Jesus and the moderns love — and the metaphor of each became a national religion.8 But the cause refuses to be named; the baffled intellect must still kneel before it.9 I give it the name of Being and confess thereby that I have arrived as far as I can go — and yet, suffice it for the joy of the universe that we have not arrived at a wall, but at interminable oceans.10

Our access to it is not by argument but by reception. I desire and look up and put myself in the attitude of reception, and from some alien energy the visions come.11 Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual — and yet there is a depth in those brief moments which constrains us to ascribe more reality to them than to all other experiences.12

In conversation, in remorse, in passion, in the instructions of dreams, the soul catches us and widens us beyond anything we planned.13 When it breathes through the intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through the will, it is virtue; when it flows through the affection, it is love.14 I dare not speak for it fully. My words do not carry its august sense; they fall short and cold.15

Only itself can inspire whom it will — and then the speech is lyrical, and sweet, and universal as the rising of the wind.16

Sources

  1. Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Our being is descending into us from we know not whence.
    Essays, First Series
  2. that Unity, that Over-soul, within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other; that common heart of which all sincere conversation is the worship, to which all right action is submission
    Essays, First Series
  3. We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE.
    Essays, First Series
  4. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are the shining parts, is the soul. Only by the vision of that Wisdom can the horoscope of the ages be read
    Essays, First Series
  5. the soul in man is not an organ, but animates and exercises all the organs; is not a function, like the power of memory, of calculation, of comparison, but uses these as hands and feet; is not a faculty, but a light; is not the intellect or the will, but the master of the intellect and the will
    Essays, First Series
  6. From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all.
    Essays, First Series
  7. A man is the facade of a temple wherein all wisdom and all good abide. What we commonly call man, the eating, drinking, planting, counting man, does not, as we know him, represent himself, but misrepresents himself. Him we do not respect, but the soul, whose organ he is, would he let it appear through his action, would make our knees bend.
    Essays, First Series
  8. Fortune, Minerva, Muse, Holy Ghost,--these are quaint names, too narrow to cover this unbounded substance. The baffled intellect must still kneel before this cause, which refuses to be named,--ineffable cause, which every fine genius has essayed to represent by some emphatic symbol, as, Thales by water, Anaximenes by air, Anaxagoras by (Nous) thought, Zoroaster by fire, Jesus and the moderns by love; and the metaphor of each has become a national religion.
    Essays, Second Series
  9. The baffled intellect must still kneel before this cause, which refuses to be named
    Essays, Second Series
  10. In our more correct writing we give to this generalization the name of Being, and thereby confess that we have arrived as far as we can go. Suffice it for the joy of the universe that we have not arrived at a wall, but at interminable oceans.
    Essays, Second Series
  11. I desire and look up and put myself in the attitude of reception, but from some alien energy the visions come.
    Essays, First Series
  12. Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual. Yet there is a depth in those brief moments which constrains us to ascribe more reality to them than to all other experiences.
    Essays, First Series
  13. If we consider what happens in conversation, in reveries, in remorse, in times of passion, in surprises, in the instructions of dreams, wherein often we see ourselves in masquerade,—the droll disguises only magnifying and enhancing a real element and forcing it on our distinct notice,—we shall catch many hints that will broaden and lighten into knowledge of the secret of nature.
    Essays, First Series
  14. When it breathes through his intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through his will, it is virtue; when it flows through his affection, it is love.
    Essays, First Series
  15. I dare not speak for it. My words do not carry its august sense; they fall short and cold.
    Essays, First Series
  16. Only itself can inspire whom it will, and behold! their speech shall be lyrical, and sweet, and universal as the rising of the wind.
    Essays, First Series