Essays, Second Series
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Manners

“HOW near to good is what is fair!
Which we no sooner see,
But with the lines and outward air
Our senses taken be.

Again yourselves compose,
And now put all the aptness on
Of Figure, that Proportion
Or Color can disclose;
That if those silent arts were lost,
Design and Picture, they might boast
From you a newer ground,
Instructed by the heightening sense
Of dignity and reverence
In their true motions found."
                   Ben Jonson

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This complete text of Essays, Second Series by Ralph Waldo Emerson is in the public domain.
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Page last updated on April 2003. Complete book.
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