Ralph Waldo Emerson - 1803-1882

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882

He is the most influential American writer of the nineteenth century. His writings on nonconformity, self-reliance, and anti-institutionalism, and also his call for an American bard whose poetry “speaks somewhat wildly” in addressing the nation’s “ample geography,” were inspiring for many other writers like Thoreau and Whitman. Though Melville rejected Emerson’s optimism, his conception of nature as a sign of spirit permeates Melville’s Moby-Dick with a dynamic representation of the whale and the natural world.

Emerson was born in Boston on May 25, 1803. His father died when he was eight, so he was raised by his mother and his aunt Mary, who became his principal educator and inspiration. He attended the Boston Public Latin School and then Harvard College. After graduation, he served in several Boston-area schools. Then, turning to the study of theology, he began preaching and was ordained junior pastor of Boston’s Second Church. He was later made pastor, but he gradually developed greater faith in individual moral sentiment and intuition than in revealed religion.

In 1831, he faced a personal crisis when his wife Ellen died of tuberculosis at the age of nineteen, and he also faced a spiritual crisis which brought him to resign his pastorate. He traveled to Europe where he learned more about art and natural science and where he met literary personalities like Coleridge and Wordsworth. He also began a lifelong alliance with Thomas Carlyle.

In 1835, he moved to Concord with his second wife, and there he completed his first book, Nature, which was published anonymously and at Emerson’s own expense in 1836. This book was not a Christian book but one influenced by a range of idealistic philosophies, ancient and modern. In it, we find a way of thinking going back to Plato, refashioned by a number of European romantics, which will later become known as Transcendentalism. Nature became the unofficial manifesto for a number of his like-minded friends. The group, termed the “Transcendentalist Club,” was composed of ministers who rejected the view of the philosopher John Locke that the mind was merely a passive receptor of sense impressions and endorsed Coleridge’s and other romantics’ alternative conception of the mind as actively intuitive and creative.

The 1840s: A Productive Period

The 1840s were productive years for Emerson. In 1841, he published the book Essays. He continued his lectures across the country, which helped develop his reputation, and in 1844 he brought out a second series of essays, including his influential “The Poet,” which grappled with aesthetic issues of form and meter. Antislavery engaged Emerson’s attention, and in 1844 he delivered his views in a passionate antislavery address at the Concord Court House. In the same spirit, he argued in favor of women’s rights. Finally, he died on April 27, 1882.

Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is a belief system that appreciates, in a non-traditional manner, the nature. It suggests that we can only understand reality through studying nature.

Nature (Essay, 1837)

Nature is an essay in which we can find the foundation of Transcendentalism. In this book, Emerson divides nature into four usages: commodity, beauty, language, and discipline. These distinctions define how humans use nature for their basic needs: their desire for delight, their communication with one another, and their understanding of the world. Nature is divided into an introduction and eight chapters.

Introduction

In this section, we can find the declaration of Emerson’s intents. He laments the tendency to accept the knowledge and traditions of the past instead of experiencing God and nature directly, in the present. He asserts that all our questions about the order of the universe and about the relationship between God, man, and nature may be answered by our own experience of life and by the world around us. Each individual is a manifestation of creation and, as such, holds the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. Nature, too, is both an expression of the divine and a means of understanding it. Emerson identifies Nature and Soul as the components of the universe. Finally, he explains that he will use the word ‘nature’ in both its common and its philosophical meanings in the essay.

Chapter I: Nature

At the beginning of this chapter, Emerson says that if a man would be alone, he needs to look at the stars, because looking at them he becomes aware of the distance between him and the material world. The stars were made to allow men to perceive the “perpetual presence of the sublime”; indeed, the fact that they are visible every night demonstrates that God is ever-present.

Later, Emerson discusses the poetical approach to nature. Unlike children, only a few adult persons can see nature, because they have a very superficial seeing. “Most persons do not see the sun. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.” Those who balance their inner and outer senses are the lover of nature. All aspects of nature correspond to some state of mind. Nature offers perpetual youth and joy, and the visionary man may lose himself in it and may become a transparent eyeball. In nature, which is part of God, man finds qualities parallel to his own, and this creates a special relationship between man and nature. Emerson also talks about his neighbors who are owners of a field, but they do not own the nature; they can only have pleasure in its observation. Yet the power to produce this delight doesn’t reside in nature but in man, or in a harmony of both.