Admitting that the Over-Soul cannot be known through language, Emerson defines the Over-Soul by clarifying what it is not, a stylistic device that he uses throughout the essay. According to him, "All goes to show that the soul in man is not an organ . . . is not a function . . . is not a faculty . . . is not the intellect or the will . . ." Although the soul is none of these, it uses them for its purposes. For example, the soul is not an organ, but it animates all organs; although not a faculty, it uses all of them; it is not the intellect or the will, but the master of them. The soul is the force that uses all of these items for right action, but this force is not the items themselves: "Language cannot paint it with his colors."
Emerson explains how the soul "abolishes" time and place, two worries of society that limit the fullness of our existence. We depend too much on our physical senses rather than on our spiritual resources. This dependency has so overpowered our minds that our intuition, the faculty responsible for our spirituality, is rendered useless. Emerson offers limited hope for this all-too-human flaw when he acknowledges that there are still some thoughts that transcend time, including the love of beauty. Although each generation might define beauty differently, nevertheless each one of us seeks what we perceive as beautiful. And it is the action of seeking, not the objects of beauty themselves, that is eternal.
