The American Transcendentalists

Home , Andrews Norton, Boston Hymn, Divinity School Address, Elizabeth Peabody, Uriel (poem), William Henry Channing

THE AMERICAN TRANSCENDENTALISTS

ESSENTIAL WRITINGS

Edited and with an Introduction by Lawrence Buell

THE MODERN LIBRARY

NEW YORK CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION xi

A NOTE ON THE TEXTS xxix

I. ANTICIPATIONS

1.. MARY MOODY EMERSON, Letters to a Future Transcendentalist (1817-51) 3 2. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, Reason Versus Understanding (1825,1829) 9 3. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING, Humanity's Likeness to God (1828) 11 4. THOMAS CARLYLE, The Age of Machinery (1829) 16 5. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, A Young Minister Refuses to Perform a Crucial Duty (1832) 20 6. FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE, The Significance of Kantian Philosophy (1834) 23 7. GEORGE RIPLEY, Victor Cousin and the Future of American Philosophy (1838) 25

II. MANIFESTOS AND DEFINITIONS

1. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Nature(\836) 31 vi • Contents Contents • vii

2. AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT, from The Doctrine and Discipline of Human 2. Ralph Waldo Emerson Declines George Ripley's Invitation to Join Culture(1836) 68 Brook Farm (1840) 201 3. ORESTES BROWNSON, The Reconciliation of God, Humanity, State, 3. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, "Self-Reliance" (1841) 208 and Church (1836) 76 4. ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY, from "Plan of the West Roxbury 4. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, "The American Scholar" (1837) 82 Community" (1842) 232 5. CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH, from "Transcendentalism" (1839) 100 5. GEORGE RIPLEY et al, Brook Farm's (First Published) Constitution (1844) 235 6. GEORGE RIPLEY, Letter of Intent to Resign (1840) 103 6. THEODORE PARKER, from "A Sermon of Merchants" (1846) 244 7. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, "The Transcendentalist" (1841) 107 7. MARGARET FULLER, On the Italian Revolution (1847-50) 251 8. CHARLES DICKENS, On Boston Transcendentalism (1842) 123 8. HENRY DAVID THOREAU, "Resistance to Civil Government" (1849) 257 9. HENRY DAVID THOREAU, A Transcendentalist's Profession of Faith (1853) 125 B. EDUCATION

1. ELIZABETH PEABODY and AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT, A Controversial III. SPIRITUAL FERMENT AND RELIGIOUS REFORM Experiment in Progressive Education: Part One (1835-36) 281

1. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Divinity School Address (1838) 129 2. AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT and ELIZABETH PEABODY, A Controversial Experiment in Progressive Education: Part Two (1836-37) 290 2. ANDREWS NORTON, from "The New School in Literature and Religion" (1838) 146 C. FEMINISM

3. HENRY WARE JR., God's Personhood Vindicated (1838) 150 1. ELIZABETH PEABODY (?), A Margaret Fuller Conversation on 4. ANDREWS NORTON, from A Discourse on the Latest Form of Infidelity Gender (1840) 297 (1839) 152 2. MARGARET FULLER, from "The Great Lawsuit" (1843) 301 5. GEORGE RIPLEY, from "TheLatestForm of'Infidelity" Examined'(1839) 155 D. NATURE AND THE HEALTH OF BODY AND SPIRIT 6. MARGARET FULLER, Recollection of Mystical Experiences (1840) 158 7. THEODORE PARKER, from A Discourse of the Transient and Permanent 1. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Why Concord? ("Musketaquid") in Christianity (1841) 162 (1843-44,1847) 323 8. LIDIAN EMERSON, "Transcendental Bible" (1841?) 175 2. CHARLES LANE, from "Life in the Woods" (1844) 327 9. HENRY DAVID THOREAU, Christianity and Hinduism Compared 3. HENRY DAVID THOREAU, from "Walking" (1850-62) 329 (1849) 178 4. HENRY DAVID THOREAU, TWO Proposals for Land Preservation 10. THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON, from "The Sympathy of (1858,1859) 336 182 5. THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON, from "Saints, and Their Religions" (1871) Bodies" (1858) , 338

IV. SECULAR REFORM E. ANTISLAVERY

A. REFORM AS INDIVIDUAL TRANSFORMATION 1. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, The Significance of British West Indian VERSUS REFORM AS SYSTEMIC SOCIAL CHANGE Emancipation (1844) 347 2. MARGARET FULLER, On The Narrative of Frederick Douglass {1845) 354 1. ORESTES BROWNSON, from "The Laboring Classes" (1840) 193 viii • Contents Contents • ix

3. THEODORE PARKER, from "The Function of Conscience" (1850) Uriel 453 and "The Fugitive Slave Law" (1851) 357 The Rhodora: On Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower? 455 Hamatreya 455 4. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, from "The Fugitive Slave Law" (1854) 362 The Snow-Storm 457 5. HENRY DAVID THOREAU, from "A Plea for Captain John Brown" Ode, Inscribed to W.H. Channing 458 (1859) 370 Bacchus 461 Hymn: Sungatthe Completion of the Concord Monument, April 19,1836 463 V. LITERATURE AND THE ARTS Brahma 464 Boston Hymn Read in Music Hall, January 1,1863 464 A. CRITICAL STATEMENTS Days 467 1. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, "The Editors to the Reader" (1840) 383 4. MARGARET FULLER 468 2. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Verses of the Portfolio (1840) 388 Meditations. Sunday, May 12,1833. 469 3. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, from "The Poet" (1844) 392 My Seal-Ring. 411 4. MARGARET FULLER, from "American Literature" (1846) 405 [Each Orpheus] 412 To a Friend 412 5. JOHN SULLIVAN DWIGHT, Music Philosophically Considered (1849) 410 6. WALT WHITMAN, from Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855) 416 5. FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE 413 Questionings 413 B. "IMPROVISED" PROSE 6. ELLEN STURGIS HOOPER 416 1. AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT, selected "Orphic Sayings" (1840) 421 [I stood upon the sullen shore] 411 2. ELIZABETH PEABODY (?), Report of Margaret Fuller Conversation [Oh melancholy liberty] 411 on "Life" (1841) 424 [One look the mother cast upon her child] 417 3. HENRY DAVID THOREAU, from "Sayings of Confucius" (1843) 427 [I see them...] 418 [Better a sin which purposed wrong to none] 418 4. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, A Walk to Walden (1843) 429 [To Emerson] 419 5. HENRY DAVID THOREAU, First Days at Walden (1845) 433 [Lo! cast upon the shoal of time] 419 C. POETRY 1. HENRY DAVID THOREAU 481 1. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING II 441 [Great God, I ask thee...] 482 Boat Song 442 Haze 482 Hymn of the Earth 443 [My love must be as free] 483 from "Wachusett" , 444 The Inward Morning. 484 Sic Vita 485 2. CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH 445 ai Enosis 446 Smoke 486 Correspondences 447 8. JONES VERY 481 The Pines and the Sea 448 The New Birth 488 3. RALPH WALDO EMERSON 449 The Presence 489 Each and All 450 Nature 489 The Problem 451 The Barberry Bush 490 x • Contents

The Garden 490 Thy Brother's Blood 491 Yourself 491 Thy Better Self 492

9. WALT WHITMAN 493 To You 494

D. NARRATIVE

1. MARGARET FULLER, "Leila" (1841) 499 2. HENRY DAVID THOREAU, from "Ktaadn" (1848) 505 3. LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, A Transcendental Childhood (1888) 513

VI. REMEMBRANCES

1. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, Glimpses of Transcendental Concord (1846) ' 523 2. WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING, Recollections of a Transcendentalist Insider (1852) 526 3. CHARLOTTE FORTEN, Emerson Observed (1855-63) 529 4. THEODORE PARKER, A Dying Transcendentalist Looks Back (1859) 532 5. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, from "Historic Notes of Life and Letters in Massachusetts" (1867) 538 6. OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM, from Transcendentalism in New England(l876) 542 7. CAROLINE WELLS HEALEY DALL, Transcendentalism as Feminist Heresy (1895) 546

8. HENRY JAMES, A Concord Pilgrimage (1907) 554

FOR FURTHER READING 563

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 571