Transcendentalism and Ralph Waldo Emerson

Transcendentalism and Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is Transcendentalism? • Transcendentalism was a literary movement that flourished during the middle 19th Century (1836 – 1860). • It was the summit of American Romanticism

How was Transcendentalism formed? • A group of New Englanders, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller, about 30 people, mostly teachers and clergymen, formed a Transcendentalist Club and met regularly to discuss matters of interest and published a journal, The Dial（《日晷》）to express their opinions. • The word Transcendentalism, meaning that knowledge can be obtained through mental process apart from experiences, Emerson said, Transcendentalism means idealism.

Resources of Transcendentalism • The term was derived from the Latin verb transcendere: to rise above , to pass beyond the limits. • Appeared in 1830, marked the maturity of American romanticism. • Rise of Transcendentalism: the product of combination of foreign influence (German romanticism(intuition), neo-Platonism(spirit), Oriental mysticism, Confucius and Mencius) and American native Puritan tradition.

Core Beliefs of Transcendentalism (※※) • 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 God is omnipresent (无处不在的）and omnipotent （无所不能的）, from which all things 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.

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 symbolic 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 • Transcendentalist: bring Transcendentalism to New England • Believe in individualism, independence of mind, self-reliance • poet, philosopher, public lecturer, and essayist 1803-1882

Emerson’s Early Life • Born on Election Day in 1803 in Boston, MA. • Born on the same street as the birth home of Benjamin Franklin. • Father was a famous minister who encouraged young Ralph to pursue philosophy at a young age.

Early Trials • Father passes away at age 8 and Emerson is left to support his four other brothers. • Ralph was asked to share a coat with his brother Edward to save finances. • Despite the hardships, all the Emerson boys, except one, graduated from Harvard University.

Teacher and Priest • After graduation, Emerson became a school teacher in suburban Boston. • 1823 graduated from seminary school （神学院）and became a priest to follow in the footsteps of his father.

Introduction to Transcendental Thought • In 1831 makes his first trip to England where he meets poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth who introduce him to Romantic notions of nature and philosophy.

Transcendentalist Philosopher Returns to Concord, MA in 1835 and writes his first important work Nature which describes how humans find God within nature: “In the woods is perpetual youth… In the woods we return to reason and faith.”

Famous Lecturer • Emerson went on to become a famous lecturer sharing his transcendental philosophy throughout the country. Among his quotable phrases: • “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” • “To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Late Life and Death • Upset in the 1860s by the coming of the Civil War, lived a quiet life with his family. • His house burnt to the ground in 1872. • Died on April 27th, 1882.

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 bitter 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 Major Work • Nature: the Bible of Transcendentalism • The American Scholar, regarded as “Declaration of Intellectual Independence” • Self reliance, the importance of cultivating oneself

The Maxims of Emerson • Trust thyself, every heart vibrates to that iron string. • Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your mind. • Insist on yourself…never imitate . • Envy is ignorance, and imitation is suicide. • The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. • Even the corpse has its beauty

Appreciating Nature • How was Transcendentalism embodied in Emerson’s Nature? • What is Emerson’s idea about the relationship between man and nature? • According to Emerson, what is the distinction between adult and children?

Nature • Introduction • 1. Nature • 2. Commodity • 3. Beauty • 4. Language • 5. Discipline • 6. Idealism • 7. Spirit • 8. Prospects

The Main Idea of chapter 1 • 1.1 To have a direct relation with nature, with God's divine creation, simply go out and look at the stars. • 1.2 The mind must be open to the appearances of nature in order to achieve true wisdom. • 1.3 The mind that is truly open to nature's own truth is poetic. There is a difference between the poet and the engineer. The purpose or end of nature for the engineer 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 engineer sees the part; the poet sees the whole.

1.4 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. • 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: "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." • 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.

1.5 • There is a relation of correspondence or analogy between human being and all natural beings: for instance, there is a spiritual (occult) relation between people and plants. Nature and spirit mirror one another. This is an old Neoplatonic idea, which also flourished in the Rennaisance (Paracelsus), and which around Emerson's time was talked about by Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg founded a new semi-Christian religious sect. It was sort of "New Age".

1.6 • What is essential is to be in harmony with nature. But to be in harmony with nature is to be in harmony with God's design; it is to be morally virtuous. 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.

Sentences Explain • 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。

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。

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。

Classical Sentences from Nature • To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. • All natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance. • 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. • Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.

Transcendentalism and Ralph Waldo Emerson