Emerson on Collective Intelligence
And so in groups where debate is earnest, and
especially on high questions, the company become aware that the
thought rises to an equal level in all bosoms, that all have a
spiritual property in what was said, as well as the sayer. They all
become wiser than they were. It arches over them like a temple, this
unity of thought, in which every heart beats with nobler sense of
power and duty, and thinks and acts with unusual solemnity. All are
conscious of attaining to a higher self-possession. It shines for
all. There is a certain wisdom of humanity which is common to the
greatest men with the lowest, and which our ordinary education often
labors to silence and obstruct. The mind is one, and the best minds,
who love truth for its own sake, think much less of property in
truth.