I first read Emerson’s essay of Compensation as a teenager. In those days I wanted to be a millionaire (it was the 1970s and being a millionaire in dollar terms was to be very rich). I bought some books by Napoleon Hill and read them. And Napoleon Hill introduced me to Emerson.
Specifically Ralph Waldo Emerson. I had read Mahatma Gandhi’s biography by Louis Fischer and in that book Gandhi is quoted as saying that Emerson’s writings contain the essence of Hindu philosophy.
I was browsing my library of books today and picked up a copy of Emerson’s writings. The following passage from his essay on Compensation grabbed my attention as it reminded me of my situation in the year 2015. At that time I had no money, no family (i.e no wife and kids), no reputation and no prospects to earn. I was no longer young. Some powerful people whom I had offended some years ago wanted their pound of flesh and made sure that they got it. They may have preferred to spare me but I had done what I had done in public and it was necessary for them to respond to my provocations in order to preserve their authority. All this resulted in a disaster for me – or as Emerson would call it a calamity. Quoting from the essay:
Such, also, is the natural history of calamity. The changes, which break up at short intervals the prosperity of men, are advertisements of a nature whose law is growth. Evermore it is the order of nature to grow; and every soul is, by this intrinsic necessity, quitting its whole system of things, its friends and home and laws and faith, as the shell-fish crawls out of its beautiful but stony case, because it no longer admits of its growth, and slowly forms a new house. In proportion to the vigor of the individual, these revolutions are frequent, until in some happier mind they are incessant, and all worldly relations hang very loosely about him, becoming, as it were, a transparent fluid membrane, through which the living form is always seen, and not, as in most men, an indurated heterogeneous fabric of many dates and of no settled character, in which the man is imprisoned. Then there can be enlargement, and the man of to-day scarcely recognizes the man of yesterday. And such should be the outward biography of man in time, a putting off of dead circumstances day by day, as he renews his raiment day by day. But to us, in our lapsed estate, resting, not advancing, resisting, not co-operating with the divine expansion, this growth comes by shocks.
We cannot part with our friends. We cannot let our angels go. We do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in. We are idolators of the old. We do not believe in the riches of the soul, in its proper eternity and omnipresence. We do not believe there is any force in to-day to rival or re-create that beautiful yesterday. We linger in the ruins of the old tent where once we had bread and shelter and organs, nor believe that the spirit can feed, cover, and nerve us again. We cannot again find aught so dear, so sweet, so graceful. But we sit and weep in vain. The voice of the Almighty saith, “Up and onward forevermore!” We cannot stay amid the ruins. Neither will we rely on the New; and so we walk ever with reverted eyes, like those monsters who look backwards.
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/73035/pg73035-images.html
Basically Emerson is saying that calamities bring with them what is required for our own growth. Since we are in the habit of being attached to our friends, riches family and so on we do not cooperate with our divine expansion and so this growth comes by shocks.
And I can testify that the crisis I found myself in in 2015 was necessary for my growth. Without going into details the growth I experienced was:
- I learned prudence, humility and empathy
- I pieced together what had happened in my life till date. This was necessary for my sanity and emotional balance. As a result my relationships are now smoother.
- My blog help me to build my reputation and I may have done some good to society by reaching out to some powerful people with my advice. This would not have been possible had it not been for my sanity and mental balance.
Emerson was of great solace to Napoleon Hill and this essay on Compensation has done the same for me. Read this essay. Link is above. You may find the language abstract and old fashioned but persist with him and read the essays repeatedly. Your values will change and you will find yourself with sounder foundations as far as health, wealth and relationships are concerned. You will find yourself playing the game of life with a long term perspective. You will be in a better position to recover from tragedies and disaster. I am speaking from experience as far as recovering from disasters is concerned.
The Essays are also available as an Audible audiobook.
Putting the essay on Compensation to one side however I would not have survived my calamities or even heard of Emerson had I not had the unstinting support of my parents for all these years.
A man cannot philosophise on an empty stomach. Make sure you have money in the bank or someone to support you as I did my parents.
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