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Ralph Waldo Emerson Transcendentalism (1830-1840) "The New England Renaissance" There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion . Ralph Waldo Emerson How Transcendentalism Started • Transcendentalism was an intellectual movement founded by Emerson that affected most of the writers of his day. • It was influenced heavily by German philosopher Immanuel Kant's philosophy that defined spiritual enlightenment as the understanding a person gains intuitively. • During the 1830's and 1840's, Ralph Waldo Emerson and a small group of like-minded intellectual friends gathered regularly in his study to discuss philosophy, religion, and literature. The group, known as the Transcendental Club, developed a philosophical system that stressed intuition, individuality, and self-reliance. • In 1836, Emerson published "Nature," a lengthy essay that became the Club's unofficial statement of belief. The Club also published a quarterly journal, The Dial , in search of a wider audience for their ideas. What Transcendentalists Believed • The Transcendentalists believed that the human senses could know only physical reality. • To the Transcendentalists, the fundamental truths of existence lay outside the reach of the sense and could be grasped only through intuition. • As a result, the Transcendentalists focused their attention on the human spirit and it’s relationship to nature. • Through the careful observation of nature, they believed that the human spirit is reflected in the natural world. • This led them to the conclusion that formed the heart of their beliefs: All forms of being - God, nature, and humanity - are spiritually united through a shared universal soul, or Over-Soul . 1 from Nature Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. In good health, the air is a cordial of incredible virtue. Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear. In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintances, — master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature. The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them. The waving of the boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right. Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both. It is necessary to use these pleasures with great temperance. For, nature is not always tricked in holiday attire, but the same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread with melancholy today. Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then, there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth in the population. 2 Emerson’s “Nature” Answer the questions as thoroughly as possible to study from later. 1. What major metaphor does Emerson use to describe journeying into nature? What do you think he means by this? 2. What happens to Emerson when he stands with his head “uplifted into infinite space?” What does this mean? 3. What is the “greatest delight which the fields and woods minister?” 4. Where does the power to “produce these delights” come from? What does he mean by this? What does Emerson say about the spirit of nature? 5. What does Emerson mean when he describes himself as a “transparent eyeball?” 3 from Self-Reliance Ralph Waldo Emerson There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope. Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and 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. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark. Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. 4 Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” After reading Self-Reliance by Emerson, answer the following questions in complete sentences. 1. According to the first paragraph, what conviction does every person eventually adopt? What does this mean in your own words? 2. According to Emerson, how do we only “half express” ourselves? 3. What metaphor does Emerson use to describe a heartbeat? What does this mean? 4. Emerson thinks that, to be a man (or woman) in society, is to be a what? What does Emerson think about consistency? 5. How does Emerson support his claim that “to be great is to be misunderstood”? 5 Walden Guide During his stay at Walden, Thoreau expressed his life philosophy. As you read, note his main ideas and the evidence he uses to support them. Then evaluate his ideas and evidence by comparing them with your own life experiences. Thoreau’s Idea Thoreau’s Example My Experience My Thinking Other Notes 6 Build Your Own Social Experiment Thoreau went to the woods for many reasons, but most of all, he went to the woods to find a “higher truth” by honing his intuition and connecting to the Over-Soul.
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