Emerson writes powerfully of revelatory insight into the permanent absolute that always lies beyond the temporal here and now:
Do but observe the mode of our illumination. When I converse with a profound mind, or if at any time being alone I have good thoughts, I do not at once arrive at satisfactions, as when, being thirsty, I drink water, or go to the fire, being cold: no! but I am at first apprised of my vicinity to a new and excellent region of life. By persisting to read or to think, this region gives further sign of itself, as it were in flashes of light, in sudden discoveries of its profound beauty and repose, as if the clouds that covered it parted at intervals, and showed the approaching traveller the inland mountains. . . . But every insight from this realm of thought is felt as initial, and promises a sequel. I do not make it; I arrive there, and behold what was there already. . . . I clap my hands in infantine joy and amazement, before the first opening to me of this august magnificence, old with the love and homage of innumerable ages, young with the life of life, the sunbright Mecca of the desert. And what a future it opens!
Intuition thus works upon us both immediately and cumulatively, providing deeper and deeper insight into the divine and absolute. It will allow us to form a "new picture of life and duty." This new vision will reconcile skepticism and faith, will permit us to incorporate the particulate and polarized aspects of experience into a unified vision and, ultimately, to translate that vision meaningfully into life. But we must be patient. Moreover, even while we live life, we must maintain the independent self-reliance of thought that leads us to understand that our characters, relations, and actions derive their true meaning from a higher source.
