Transcendentalism & Ralph Waldo Emerson

Transcendentalism( )※※ Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature Emerson’s Influence on

American Literature

Transcendentalism

The term was derived from the Latin verb transcendere: to rise above , to pass beyond the limits.

Resource: the product of combination of foreign influence (German idealistic philosophy, neo-Platonism, Oriental mysticism, Confucius and Mencius) and American native Puritan tradition.

As a philosophical and literary movement, Transcendentalism flourished in New England from 1830s to the Civil War. It was the summit of American Romanticism. It marked the maturity of American romanticism and the first renaissance in the American literary history.

The representatives are Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau.

First, the Transcendentalist placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe.

The Oversoul was an all-prevailing power for goodness omnipresent( 无处不在的 ) and omnipotent( 全能的，无所不能的 ) , from which all thi

ngs came and of which all were a part. It existed in nature and man alike. The individual soul of man could go beyond the physical limits of the body, emerge himself with nature, and share the omniscience ( 全知 ) of the Oversoul.

Major Features

Secondly, Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual was the most important element of society. The possibilities for man to develop and improve himself are infinite. Thirdly, the Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbol of the spirit. To them, nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence, on the human mind. The physical world was a symbol of the spiritual and all things in nature tended to be symbolic.

超验主义

超验主义的主要思想观点有三。 首先，超验主义者强调精神，或超灵，认为这是宇宙至为重要

的存在因素。超灵是一种无所不容、无所不在、扬善抑恶的力量，是万物之本、万物之所属，它存在于人和自然界内。

其二，超验主义者强调个人的重要性。他们认为个人是社会的最重要的组成部分，社会的革新只能通过个人的修养和完善才能实现。因此人的首要责任就是自我完善，而不是刻意追求金玉富贵。理想的人是依靠自己的人。

其三，超验主义者以全新的目光看待自然，认为自然界是超灵或上帝的象征。在他们看来，自然界不只是物质而已。它有生命，上帝的精神充溢其中，它是超灵的外衣。因此，它对人的思想具有一种健康的滋补作用。超验主义主张回归自然，接受它的影响，以在精神上成为完人。这种观点的自然内涵是，自然界万物具象征意义，外部世界是精神世界的体现。

Ralph Waldo Emerson

poet, philosopher, public lecturer, and essayist, founder of Transcendentalism

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 --April 27, 1882)

“Standing on the bare ground,—my head bathed in 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.” (Emerson, Nature, 1836)

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Transcendentalist: bring Transcendentalism to New England

Believe in individualism, independence of mind, self-reliance

The British critic Matthew Arnold said the most important writings in English in the 19th century had been Wordsworth's poems and Emerson's essays.

Life

1) born in a clergyman’s family in New England

2) graduated from Harvard 3) founded a Transcendental

ists’ Club and published a journal called The Dial 日晷

4) traveled and gave lectures; quite influential

5)He died on April 27, 1882. Emerson is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts.

1) Nature—the Bible of New England Transcendentalism.

—a book which declared the birth of Transcendentalism,

2) The American Scholar—America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence)

3)Self-reliance—the importance of cultivating oneself

Major works

Emerson’s philosophy 1.He firmly believes in the transcendence of the Over

soul. And his emphasis on the spirit runs through virtually all his writings.

2. Emerson’s Idealism. He sees the world as phenomenal, and emphasizes the need for idealism ， for idealism sees the world in God.

3. Emerson’s View on Spirit. He sees spirit pervading everywhere, not only in the soul of man, but behind nature, throughout nature.

4. Emerson’s View on Man. In his opinion, man is made in the image of God and is just a little less than Him. In this way, man is divine.

5. Emerson’s View on Individuality and Self-Reliance. The individual is the most important of all. Emerson advocates “the infinitude of man.” For him, if man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. So men should and could be self-reliant.

6. Each man should feel the world as his, and the world exists for him alone. He should determine his own existence. Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world and that he makes the world by making himself. In a world, Emerson was in the main optimistic about human perfectibility.

6 ． Emerson’s Nature. To Emerson, nature was emblematic of God. It mediates between man and God, and its voice leads to higher truth. To him nature is wholesome moral influence on man and his character. A natural implication of Emerson’s view on nature is that the world around is symbolic.

自然是无所不在的一个标记 / 显示。自然在人和上帝之间作一个调解。自然对人的性格的形成有道德的教育意义。自然万物都有一定的意义。树也好，花也好，它都是有生命的。自然也是超灵的外衣，整个自然世界都是具有象征意义的。

Aesthetics and its significance 1) Aesthetics Emerson believes that good poetry and true a

rt should teach, serve as a moral purification. Emerson emphasizes ideas, symbols and ima

ginative words. Emerson advocates that American writers sho

uld write about America here and now. America itself is a long poem that is worthy of celebrating.

Emerson possesses a cheerful optimism. He believes that there is force that can make the bad good and the good better. Good is a good doctor, and Bad is a better doctor. Angels must always be stronger than demons.

2) Significance Emerson’s importance in the intellectual history of Am

erica lies in the fact that he embodied a new nation’s desire and struggle to assert its own identity in its formative period.

His aesthetics brought about a revolution in American literature. It marked the birth of true American poetry.

He called for an independent culture, which represented the desire of the whole nation to develop a culture of its own.

Selected Sentences by Emerson

To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me.

----From Nature 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… Trust thyself, every heart vibrates to the iron string.

----From Self-reliance

The Maxims of Emerson

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide ... "

"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self.

There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

Nature Nature is a short book by Ralph Waldo

Emerson published anonymously in 1836. It is in this essay where the foundation of transcendentalism is put forth, a belief system that espouses a non-traditional vision of nature.

This essay is considered the “gospel” （福音） of American Transcendentalism. The major thesis of the essay, in Emerson's words, is that we should now "enjoy an original relation to the universe," and not become dependent on past experiences of others and on holy books, creeds and dogma.

Emerson is one of the first writers (with others, notably Walt Whitman) to develop a literary style and vision that is uniquely American, rather than following in the footsteps of Longfellow and others who were strongly influenced by their British cultural heritage. Nature is the first significant work to establish this new way of looking at America and its raw, natural environment.

Contents

◆Introduction ◆Nature ◆Commodity ◆Beauty ◆Language ◆Discipline ◆Idealism ◆Spirit ◆Prospects

Detailed analysis of Nature

Study Tasks

Try to find out Emerson’s arguments in each paragraph.

What are Emerson’s ideas of nature? (in each para, there are some points)

Nature

1) To have a direct relation with nature, with God's divine creation, simply go out and look at the stars.

2) The mind must be open to the appearances of nature in order to achieve true wisdom.

3) The mind that is truly open to nature's own truth is poetic. There is a difference between the poet and the farmer or a wood-cutter. The purpose or end of nature for the farmer or practical business person is that nature is a source of raw materials for human use; the purpose or end of nature for the poet is that nature is a beautiful order. The farmer sees the part; the poet sees the whole.

Para 1 & 2

Enjoy solitude, which is badly needed in our busy life.

Nature can separate ourselves with the vulgar things. Nature can purify people’s soul and shape people’s character.

If you open your mind, you’ll find that all natural objects are kind.

Nature is never mean. Each natural object displays its wisdom at his best hour.

Sentences appreciation

One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime.

可以这样说，我们假想，大气之所以透明，就是为了让人们看到天国的灿烂光芒。

But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.

然而，每一晚，这些美的使者都会降临，以它们无可置疑的微笑，照亮宇宙。

Sentences appreciation

The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence .

星辰唤醒心中的景仰，即使它们常在，也遥远而不可触摸；而当思想敞开心门，自然景物总会留下熟稔而亲切的印迹。

The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.

自然的热爱者，内向和外向的感觉尚能和谐的相应，他尚能在成年时保有婴儿的心灵。

Sentences appreciation

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.

我变成一个透明的眼球，我化为乌有，我却遍览一切；宇宙精神的湍流环绕激荡着我。我成为上帝的一部分，我是他的微粒。

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit

自然总是折射着观者的精神状态。

4) Because most of us look at nature only with our own desires in mind, we do not really see nature. We need to look at nature as if we were little children, without adult cares and needs. Adults are morally corrupt; children are innocent and able to have a direct relation with God's design. But an adult can be childlike if he or she is virtuous: "The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other."

Nature arouses all the emotions in us, because there is something emotional in nature. The infinity of nature absorbs the finiteness of the human self. The finite self ascends to the divine perspective of God, it rises to the God's-Eye view of the world: “

In the wilderness there is something that is as beautiful as humanity. Emerson's idea of the self in wilderness as an all-seeing spectator is very different than Thoreau's idea. For Thoreau, the self in wilderness is active.

5) There is a relation of correspondence or analogy between human being and all natural beings: for instance, there is a spiritual relation between people and plants. Nature and spirit mirror one another.

6) What is essential is to be in harmony with nature. Our relation with nature is emotional and spiritual: "Nature always wears the colors of the spirit." We project our emotions into nature, and nature reflects them back to us. Nature is a mirror of the moral state of the soul.

Emerson’s Stylistic Features

Epigrammatic （名言警句的） in expression of ideas

Rich in comparison, especially metaphor Sometimes incoherent, not well organized.

爱默生集散文作家、思想家、诗人于一身，他的诗歌、散文独具特色，注重思想内容而没有过份注重词藻的华丽，行文犹如格言，哲理深入浅出，说服力强，且有典型的“爱默生风格”。有人这样评价他的文字“爱默生似乎只写警句”，他的文字所透出的气质难以形容：既充满专制式的不容置疑，又具有开放式的民主精神；既有贵族式的傲慢，更具有平民式的直接；既清晰易懂，又常常夹杂着某种神秘主义......

Emerson and Bacon

Similarities: full of epigrams; rich in comparison and metaphor

Differences: different treatment of subject matter; Emerson’s essay is less logic and polished, Bacon’s essay is refined

Critical response

Emerson was the dominant spirit of the age, the proponent( 支持者，拥护者） of “the American newness” .

— Irving Howe “the voice oracular （预言） who challenged the bitt

er knowledge of his monstrous dead, unprofitable world.”

— Mathew Arnold Emerson was the initial force on which Thoreau built,

to which Whitman gave extension, and to which Hawthorne and Melville were indebted…

—F. O. Matthiessen

Emerson’s Influence on American Literature and Culture

His call for an independent culture played a very important part in the intellectual history of the nation. His “The American Scholar” has been regarded as “America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence.”

He called on American writers to write about America in a way peculiarly American. Emerson’s importance in the intellectual history of America lies in the fact that he embodied a new nation’s desire and struggle to assert its own identity in its formative period.

Topics for Discussion

1. Had Thoreau ever bought a farm? Why did he enjoy the act of buying?

2. Where indeed did Thoreau live, both at a physical level and at a spiritual level?

Compare Emerson and Thoreau