Mysticism is the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one.
Interpretation
Mysticism can lead to misunderstanding, mistaking personal symbols for universal truths.
In this quote, Emerson suggests that mysticism, which often relies on individual experiences and interpretations, can result in confusion when personal symbols are misidentified as universally applicable. This reflects a deeper philosophical discourse on perception, meaning, and the nature of reality, emphasizing the importance of recognizing the difference between subjective experiences and objective truths.
In practice
In a philosophy class, when discussing perception, I quoted Emerson to illustrate the difference between personal and universal interpretations.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
The resting place of the mind is the heart. The only thing the mind hears all day is clanging bells and noise and argument, and all it wants is quietude. The only place the mind will ever find peace is inside the silence of the heart. That's where you need to go.
Existence is a series of footnotes to a vast, obscure, unfinished masterpiece.
Auguries of innocence "The emmet's inch and eagle's mile Make lame philosophy to smile. He who doubts from what he sees Will ne'er believe, do what you please.
I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then.
New York is the only real city-city.
You've got to learn to accept the law of life, and face the fact that we disintegrate slowly.
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