A Note on the New England Transcendentalists
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Click here for Full Issue of Fidelio Volume 15, Number 1-2, Spring-Summer 2006 EDGAR ALLAN POE and the Spirit of the American Republic Appendix: A Note on the New England Transcendentalists he peculiar phenomenon of New such British periodicals as the Edinburgh ministers. He had grown up in the TEngland Transcendentalism, which Review. These were then read in America Boston that had been taken over by the reached its highpoint between 1836 and as a “new” way of thinking. In his writ- Perkins, Cabot, Lowell, and other 1844, was deployed by the predecessors of ings, Carlyle would call for a return to “Brahmin” families which, in league today’s Synarchism to destroy the cultur- the “order” of feudalism, where man was with the dope-running British East India al tradition of the American Revolution. satisfied with his lot in life. Company, were committed to the The Transcendentalists, so-named Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus, written in destruction of the United States as a sov- because they believed in “transcending” the early 1830’s, which recounts the inco- ereign republic. sense perception through a form of mys- herent, “Kant for Dummies” mystical After his young wife of only 17 tical intuition (which they misnamed babble of one Dr. Teufelsdrockh (appro- months, Ellen Tucker, died of tubercu- “Reason”), were created in the 1830’s as a priately named “Dr. Devil’s-Dung”), set losis, Emerson, who had dabbled in “New Age” counterculture movement the agenda for the Transcendentalist “Neo-Platonic” mysticism, renounced by British East India Company networks movement. It was so unreadable that what he characterized as “effete, super- in the United States, specifically in Carlyle couldn’t find a publisher in Eng- annuated Christianity,” in favor of what response to the revival of American land, until after New England’s Ralph he called “Socratic paganism.” Follow- nationalism and the American System Waldo Emerson published it at his own ing a virtual emotional breakdown, during the Presidency of John Quincy expense in America. In this crazy book, Emerson resigned as pastor of his church Adams (1824-1828). Edgar Allan Poe Carlyle defines mystical nature worship and sailed to Europe, where the high recognized the Transcendentalist move- as worshipping the “symbols of God,” point of his trip was a memorable meet- ment as a bitter political and artistic ene- and he asserts that the renunciation of ing with Carlyle at the latter’s home in my, attacking and lampooning it both one’s self, of the freedom to change his- Scotland. Emerson had been given a let- directly and indirectly in stories and lit- tory, and of the idea of the “pursuit of ter of introduction to Carlyle by John erary essays. Happiness,” is necessary for human Stuart Mill, whose father was then head One of the seminal influences on the beings to be able to endure their miser- of intelligence for the British East India Transcendentalists was the fascist British able existence. Carlyle has Dr. Devil’s- Company. writer Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), Dung exclaim in rapture as he renounces After his meeting with Carlyle, which demonstrates how Transcen- his self, “there is in man a higher than Emerson pledged to serve as his “lieu- dentalism was created by the British Love of Happiness: he can do without tenant.” He published Carlyle’s Sartor elites, since Carlyle, with his incoherent Happiness, and instead thereof find Resartus in America, and throughout his ranting against “modern society,” was Blessedness! . This is the everlasting life, maintained a correspondence with wholly owned by the British East India yea, wherein all contradiction is solved: Carlyle, and made sure that his works Company and its networks. His literary wherein whoso walks and works, it is circulated in America. career was created and steered by key well with him.” In other words, accept Having forged this pact with Carlyle, British intelligence operative Francis Jef- your slavery! Emerson suddenly emerged as the leader frey, the editor of the Edinburgh Review, of the New England Transcendentalists, and by the British East India Company’s New England’s Emerson moving to Concord, Massachusetts with a own John Stuart Mill. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) aped new wife. In Concord, he became part of To oppose the “materialism” of the all of Carlyle’s fascistic arguments, when an elite group known as the Social Circle, American System, Carlyle translated the he reworked these ideas for an American which was led by the Democratic boss of writings of the German Romantics (as audience into what he called “Self- Concord, Francis Gougas, whose uncle, well as those of Schiller, but from a Reliance.” Emerson was a failed Unitari- J.J. Gourgas, was the head of the North- Romantic standpoint) in the pages of an minister from a long line of Unitarian ern jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite of 90 © 2006 Schiller Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. Freemasonry headquartered in London. “The Young American”—appropriately majority of its citizens to be united. But In 1836, Emerson wrote a manifesto titled, since “Young America” was a the wise and just man will always feel for the Transcendentalists, a small book Lord Palmerston operation to Balkanize that he stands on his own feet; that he entitled Nature. In its first chapter, and destroy the United States, simulta- imparts strength to the state, not receives Emerson, in an oft-quoted, ridiculous neous with his numerous “Young security from it; and that if all went phrase, described what he meant by “an Europe” operations targetting the Conti- down, he and such as he would quite occult relation between man and the nent—Emerson openly says that the easily combine in a new and better con- vegetable,” which defined his conception only important concern of each person stitution.” of man’s relationship to God: “Standing should be himself, and not the state, on the bare ground,— my head bathed which is irrelevant. The state should not Poe’s ‘Ligeia’ in the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite try to alleviate poverty, or attempt to Poe’s direct attacks on the New England space,— all mean egotism vanishes. I promote the General Welfare, but Transcendentalists and their British become a transparent eye-ball; I am instead accept the dicta of British sponsors are well known, as in his popu- nothing; I see all the currents of the Uni- Empire, Haileybury School free-traders lar ”How To Write a Blackwood Arti- verse being circulated through me; I am Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, and cle,” “Never Bet the Devil Your Head,” part or particle of God.” their ilk: or “Mellonta Tauta.” In a section on “Idealism,” Emerson “That serene Power interposes the It is not commonly recognized, asserted that man must remain a slave to check upon the caprices and officious- however, that Poe’s 1838 short story his senses, as he worships nature. Man can ness of our wills. Its charity is not our “Ligeia,” is a description of Emerson’s never discover a universal principle charity. One of its agents is our will, but moral degeneration after allying with through his reason. Thus, Emerson that which expresses itself in our will, is the British elites following the death of writes: “In my utter impotence to test the stronger than our will. We are very for- his first wife. In that story, Poe authenticity of the report of my senses, to ward to to help it, but it will not be describes a Transcendentalist who is know whether the impressions they make accelerated. It resists our meddling, educated in “forbidden” mysteries, i.e., on me correspond with outlying objects, eleemosynary contrivances. We devise magic, by his beautiful wife Ligeia, what difference does it make, whether sumptuary and relief laws, but the prin- who dies of consumption. This Orion is up there in heaven, or some god ciple of population is always reducing describes Emerson, with a certain poet- paints the image in the firmament of the wages to the lowest pittance on which ic, ironic twist: Emerson’s first wife soul? . Whether nature enjoy a sub- human life can be sustained.” Ellen did indeed die young, of tubercu- stantial existence without, or is only the Who needs government, Emerson losis, and her features fit the descrip- apocalypse of the mind, it is alike useful cries, when “local control” can replace tion given of Ligeia, as an engraving and alike venerable to me. .” Federal oversight? Thus, he calls for shows. But, Ellen Tucker was no Tran- For Emerson, man has no control privatization of government functions, scendentalist, however, and the charac- over his own thoughts, and the sover- since it is more efficient. In other words, terization of her vast learning in Tran- eign, creative individual does not exist. Emerson is a neo-con! He foresees “the scendentalism and the Classical lan- As he writes in his essay “The Over- gradual contempt into which official guages—greater than that of any other Soul”: “We live in succession, in division, government falls, and the increasing dis- woman known to the narrator—ironi- in parts, in particles. Meantime, within position of private adventurers to cally better fits the doyenne of New man is the soul of the whole; the wise assume its fallen functions. Thus, the England Transcendentalism, Margaret silence; the universal beauty, to which costly Post Office is likely to go into dis- Fuller (who was hardly beautiful, how- every part and particle is related; the use before the private transportation ever!). eternal One.” Elsewhere, Emerson denies shop . .” As the U.S. government is Poe uses the story as a vehicle to dis- the concept of man’s immortality: “For destroyed by free trade, Emerson calls cuss the fact that the Transcendentalist the soul is true to itself, and the man in for the young men of New England, Emerson is incapable of discovering the whom it is shed abroad cannot wander properly educated in Transcendental- soul behind the eyes of the beautiful from the present, which is infinite, to a ism, to lead the United States into a new Ligeia (eyes are the “window of the future which would be finite.” He con- age of the “Spirit.” soul”).