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Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

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Page 1: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Page 2: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” (1837)I.

• The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of nature . Every day, the sun; and, after sunset, Night and her stars. Ever the winds blow; ever the grass grows. Every day, men and women, conversing, beholding and beholden. The scholar must needs stand wistful and admiring before scholar must needs stand wistful and admiring before this great spectacle. He must settle its value in his mind. What is nature to him? There is never a beginning, there is never an end, to the inexplicable continuity of this web of God , but always circular power returning into itself. Therein it resembles his own spirit, whose beginning, whose ending, he never can find,—so entire, so boundless.

Page 3: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

• As the world was plastic and fluid in the hands of God, so it is ever to so much of his attributes as we bring to it… but in proportion as a man has any thing in proportion as a man has any thing in him divine, the firmament flows before him and takes his signet and form.

Page 4: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

II.• Books are the best of things, well used; abused, am ong the worst .

… They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book, than to be warped [pervertito] by its attraction clean out of my own orbit [sottratto alla mia orbita], and made a satellite instead of a system. The one thing in the world, of value, is the active sou l. This every man is entitled to; this every man contains within him, although, in almost all men, obstructed, and as yet unborn. The soul active sees absolute truth; and utters truth, or creates. In this action, it is genius; not the truth; and utters truth, or creates. In this action, it is genius; not the privilege of here and there a favorite, but the sound estate [il solido patrimonio] of every man. In its essence, it is progressive.

• The book, the college, the school of art, the institution of any kind, stop with some past utterance of genius. … But genius looks forward: the eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead [nuca]: man hopes: genius creates. Whatever talents may be, if the man create not, the pure efflux of the Deity is not his ; — cinders [cenere] and smoke there may be, but not yet flame. There are creative manners, there are creative actions, and creative words ; manners, actions, words, that is, indicative of no custom or authority, but springing spontaneous from the mind's own sense of good and f air .

Page 5: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

III.

• The world, — this shadow of the soul, or other me, lies wide around. Its attractions are the keys which unlock my thoughts and make me acquainted with myself. I run eagerly into this resounding tumult. I grasp the hands of those next me, and take my place in the ring to suffer and to work, taught by an instinct, that so shall the dumb and to work, taught by an instinct, that so shall the dumb abyss be vocal with speech. I pierce its order; I dissipate its fear; I dispose of it within the circuit of my expanding life. So much only of life as I know by experience, so much of the wilderness have I vanquished and planted, or so far have I extended my being, my dominion .

Page 6: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

• [The duties of the scholar] may all be comprised in self-trust.

• …It becomes him to feel all confidence in himself, and to defer never to the popular cry. He and he only knows the world.

• The main enterprise of the world for splendor, for extent, • The main enterprise of the world for splendor, for extent, is the upbuilding of a man. Here are the materials strown along [sparsi sul] the ground. The private life of one man shall be a more illustrious monarchy, — more formidable to its enemy, more sweet and serene in its influence to its friend, than any kingdom in history.

Page 7: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

• I ask not for the great, the remote, the romantic; what is doing in Italy or Arabia; what is Greek art, or Provencal minstrelsy; I embrace the common, I explore and sit at the feet of the familiar, the low. Give me insight into to-day, and you may have the antique and future worlds. What would we really know the meaning of? The meal in the firkin [barilotto]; the milk in the pan; the ballad in the street; the news of the boat; the glance of the eye; the form and the gait [portamento] of the body;--show me the ultimate reason of these matters

• Mr. President and Gentlemen, this confidence in the unsearched might of man belongs, by all motives, by all prophecy, by all preparation, to the American Scholar. We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe.

• …• We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will

speak our own minds. The study of letters shall be no longer a name for pity, for doubt, and for sensual indulgence. … A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.

Page 8: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

Brookfarm: comunità di ispirazione transcendentalista, fondata a West Roxbury, Mass., negli anni 40 dell’800

Page 9: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

Fruitlands: comunità di ispirazione trascendentalista, fondata a Harvard, Massachusetts, negli anni 40

dell’800

Page 10: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Page 11: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

Resistance to Civil Government, or, Civil Disobedience (1849)

Walden, or, Life in the Woods (1854)

Page 12: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

The site of Thoreau’s cabin, 1908

Page 13: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

The pond today

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“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.

Page 15: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”

I went to the woods because I wished to live delibe rately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unles s it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all t he marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to pu t to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, a nd, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine m eanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to g ive a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."

Page 16: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”

• Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion. Our life is like a German Confederacy, made up of petty states, with its boundary forever fluctuating, so that even a German cannot tell you how it is bounded at any moment. The nation itself, with all its so-called internal improvements, which, by the way are all external and superficial, is just such an unwieldy [inefficiente] and overgrown establishment, cluttered with furniture [inefficiente] and overgrown establishment, cluttered with furniture and tripped up by its own traps, ruined by luxury and heedless expense, by want of calculation and a worthy aim, as the million households in the land; and the only cure for it, as for them, is in a rigid economy, a stern and more than Spartan simplicity of life and elevation of purpose. It lives too fast.

Page 17: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”

• We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them. They are sound sleepers , I assure you. And every few years a new lot is laid down and run over; so that, if some have new lot is laid down and run over; so that, if some have the pleasure of riding on a rail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon. And when they run over a man that is walking in his sleep, a supernumerary sleeper in the wrong position, and wake him up, they suddenly stop the cars, and make a hue and cry about it, as if this were an exception. I am glad to know that it takes a gang of men for every five miles to keep the sleepers down and level in their beds as it is, for this is a sign that they may sometime get up again.

Page 18: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”

For my part, I could easily do without thepost-office. I think that there are very fewimportant communications made throughit. …And I am sure that I never read anyit. …And I am sure that I never read anymemorable news in a newspaper. … To aphilosopher all news, as it is called, isgossip, and they who edit and read it are oldwomen over their tea. Yet not a few are greedyafter this gossip.

Page 19: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”

• God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all the ages. And we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us. …

• Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and

• Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, through Church and State, through poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality, and say, This is, and no mistake…

Page 20: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

“Economy”• Boards........................................................... $ 8.03+, mostly shanty boards.• Refuse shingles for roof sides ...................... 4.00• Laths............................................................. 1.25• Two second-hand windows with glass.......... 2.43• One thousand old brick................................. 4.00• Two casks of lime.......................................... 2.40 That was high.• Hair............................................................... 0.31 More than I needed.• Hair............................................................... 0.31 More than I needed.• Mantle-tree iron............................................ 0.15• Nails............................................................. 3.90• Hinges and screws....................................... 0.14 • Latch............................................................ 0.10• Chalk............................................................ 0.01• Transportation....................... 1.40 I carried a good part ———- on my back. • In all........................................................... $28.12+

Page 21: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

“Higher Laws”

As I came home through the woods with my string of fish, trailing my pole, it being now quite dark, I caught a glimpse of a woodchuck stealing across my path, and felt a strange thrill of savage delight, and was strongly tempted to seize and devour him raw; not that I was hungry then, except for that wildness which he represented. Once or twice, however, while I lived at the pond, I found myself ranging the woods, like a half-starved hound, with a strange ranging the woods, like a half-starved hound, with a strange abandonment, seeking some kind of venison which I might devour, and no morsel could have been too savage for me. The wildest scenes had become unaccountably familiar. I found in myself, and still find, an instinct toward a higher, or, as it is named, spiritual life, as do most men, and another toward a primitive rank and savage one, and I reverence them both.

Page 22: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882) - Unibg e Thoreau.pdf · Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) R. W. Emerson, “The American Scholar” ... was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave

• We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual, and perhaps cannot be wholly expelled; like the worms which, even in life and like the worms which, even in life and health, occupy our bodies. Possibly we may withdraw from it, but never change its nature. I fear that it may enjoy a certain health of its own; that we may be well, yet not pure.