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 beautiful square bag of duckshot held together by canvas.' Proverbs, says Emerson, are statements of an absolute truth, and thus the sanctuary of the intuitions. They are, indeed, absolute statements of truth; and for that reason, as Sancho Panza might have pointed out, you can always quote a proverb on each side of every alternative. Solomon tells us to answer and also not to answer a fool according to his folly. 'More haste, worse speed' is true; but it is equally true that 'the early bird catches the worm.' Emerson is a master of the gnomic utterances which are to the cultivated what proverbs are to the vulgar. He is well aware that they are not always reconcilable; but it is not his function to reconcile them. He cares nothing for consistency. He wishes to say what he feels to-day with 'the proviso that to-morrow, perhaps, I shall contradict it all.' 'A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. &hellip; With consistency a great soul has nothing whatever to do. &hellip; Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said to-day.' The peculiarity seems to have annoyed his friends with a turn for logic. Argument was for him an absurdity. He