Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendentalism Essay -- Biography Biographi

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson believed in the potentiality within every individual to achieve a heightened state of existence and awareness through a close observation of the world and an introverted look at him self. Infused in his work are the influences of transcendentalism and his manners as a Unitarian pastor. crowd together D. Hart, when discussing the spirit of transcendentalism, states, Man whitethorn fulfill his divine potentialities either through a rapt unavowed state, in which the divine is infused into the compassionate, or through coming into contact with the truth, beauty, and probity embodied in nature and originating in the Over-Soul. Thus occurs the doctrine of residuum between the tangible world and the human mind, and the identity of moral and corporal laws (Hart 674). This concept is the embodiment of Emersons sermons and essays, and any one of his works fulfills or inspires a divine potential. Self Reliance, published in 1841, is one of Emersons most prestigious essays, and its title addresses a central concept of American Transcendentalism. The essay promotes self trust and independence of the individual, and this idea is expressed in the final lines, zipper can append you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of the principal (Lauter 1638). The principal he refers to is a moral truth that can only be developed in ones own mind. As man lives in search of this truth, he achieves human divinity. There is a time in every mans education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance that imitation is suicide that he mustiness take... ... and divine because nothing is at last sacred but the ace of your own mind (Lauter 1624). Works Cited Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Young Emerson Speaks. New York Kennikat Press Inc., 1938. Hart, James D., The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 6th ed. New York OxfordUniversity Pres s, 1995. Howe, Daniel Walker. The Unitarian Conscience. Massachusetts Harvard University Press, 1970. Lauter, Paul, ed. The heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd ed. Boston Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Self Reliance.Lauter 1622 Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Nature.Lauter 1582 Whitman, Walt. Song of Myself.Lauter 2743 Wilbur, Earl Morse. A chronicle of Unitarianism In Transylvania, England, and America. Boston Beacon Press, 1945.