To us, in our lapsed estate, resting, not advancing, resisting, not cooperating 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 idolaters 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 today to rival or recreate that beautiful yesterday.
We linger in the ruins of the old tent.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): Essays, First Series, “Compensation” (1841)
Emerson, 1857