The outbreak of the war changed Emerson,
who had disdained political parties, mistrusted philanthropic efforts, and
once called himself "a seeing eye, not a helping hand." He labeled
the war "a new glass to see all our old things through." It was
"instructor," "searcher" "magnetizer" and
"reconciler." Emerson the individualist and idealist may have
bristled at the churning power of the machinery of war, but Emerson the
patriot and realist welcomed the struggle for the birth of a new social
order. "The War," Emerson realized, "is serving many good
purposes .... War shatters everything flimsy and shifty, sets aside all false
issues, and breaks through all that is not real as itself."
