Was bedeutet “Great men have confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being…” ?

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Critical_Thinker

30 Nov 2021

Vereinfachtes Chinesisch (China)

I find the above sentence tricky, and I appreciate your detailed explanation. Thank you.

bewbaloo

30 Nov 2021

Englisch (US)

@Critical_Thinker great men have acted like children. instead of trusting their own instincts, they have put their trust in “smart” people of the modern age. they know (subconsciously) that this is wrong, but they ignore this feeling.

i hope that makes sense 😬

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Critical_Thinker

1 Dez 2021

Vereinfachtes Chinesisch (China)

Thank you so much. If possible, could you please tell me the literal meaning of “confided themselves childlike to the genius” , and “working through their hands, predominating in all their being”?

bewbaloo

1 Dez 2021

Englisch (US)

@Critical_Thinker you're welcome 🙂 i'll try to elaborate.

"confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age..." -- perhaps a better way to understand this sentence would be with this punctuation: "confided themselves -- childlike -- to the genius of their age..." this is saying: "because they were older, they believed they were smarter/better. this is a mistake that a child makes."

originally i thought "age" was referring to "an era" (时代 in chinese, i believe), but its meaning is literally "age" in this case (年龄).

"working through their hands,” -- this means: "in every action they did." this is a bit hard to explain, but when something "works through one's hands," it means it uses someone's actions to be expressed. it usually has an abstract meaning. consider this example: "the father taught his son how to be a doctor. after the father died, he worked through his son's hands."

"predominating in all their being…" -- this means: "in every aspect of their life." perhaps a simpler example: "the girl was very beautiful, kind, and generous. her beauty was predominating in all her being."

so to string together my individual explanations a bit: "great men believe that because they become older, they are smarter/better. because of this, they (wrongly) believe that they are doing the right thing. this is a mistake that a child makes."

maybe a simpler way of saying all of this is: "trust in your true self, not in your ego."

(btw, i think this is an emerson quote. emerson’s poetry and prose is quite old and can be extremely difficult to understand. most native english speakers have never read emerson and would really struggle to understand what he's saying. the fact that you are reading something this hard is impressive 🙂)

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Critical_Thinker

1 Dez 2021

Vereinfachtes Chinesisch (China)

As a psychology major, i find this excerpt of Emerson’s writing inspiring. It resonates with some of my beliefs. I am doing my best to make sense of his prose, and your assistance helps a great deal. If there is any thing I can do to help with your Chinese learning, feel free to let me know.