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See also:RALPH See also:WALDO See also:EMERSON (1803-1882)
, See also:American poet and essayist, was See also:born in See also:Boston, See also:Massachusetts, on the 25th of May 1803
.
Seven of his ancestors were ministers of New See also:England churches
.
Among them were some of those men of See also:mark who made the backbone of the American See also:character: the sturdy Puritan, See also:Peter Bulkeley, sometime See also:rector of Odell in See also:Bedfordshire, and afterward pastor of the See also: In 1817 he entered Harvard See also:College, and graduated in 1821 . In scholarship he ranked about the See also:middle of his class . In literature and See also:oratory he was more distinguished, receiving a Boylston See also:prize for declamation, and two See also:Bowdoin prizes for See also:dissertations, the first See also:essay being on " The Character of See also:Socrates " and the second on " The See also:Present See also:State of Ethical See also:Philosophy "—both rather dull, formal, didactic productions . He was fond of See also:reading and of See also:writing See also:verse, and was chosen as the poet for class-See also:day . His cheerful serenity of manner, his tranquil mirthfulness, and the steady See also:charm of his See also:personality made him a favourite with his See also:fellows, in spite of a certain reserve . His See also:literary See also:taste was conventional, including the See also:standard See also:British writers, with a preference for See also:Shakespeare among the poets, See also:Berkeley among the philosophers, and See also:Montaigne (in See also:Cotton's See also:translation) among the essayists . His particular admiration among the college professors was the stately rhetorician, See also:Edward See also:Everett; and this predilection had much to do with his See also:early ambition to be a See also:professor of See also:rhetoric and elocution . Immediately after See also:graduation he became an assistant in his See also:brother William's school for young ladies in Boston, and continued teaching, with much inward reluctance and discomfort, for three years . The routine was distasteful; he despised the superficial details which claimed so much of his See also:time . The bonds of conventionalism were silently dissolving in the rising glow of his poetic nature . See also:Independence, sincerity, reality, See also:grew more and more necessary to him . His aunt urged him to seek retirement, self, reliance, friendship with nature; to be no longer " the nursling of surrounding circumstances," but to prepare a See also:celestial See also:abode for the muse .
The See also:passion for spiritual leadership stirred within him
.
The See also:ministry seemed to offer the fairest See also: There was a homely eleva-tion in his discourses, a natural freshness in his piety, a quiet See also:enthusiasm in his manner, that charmed thoughtful hearers . Early in 1832 he lost his wife, a sorrow that deeply depressed him in health and See also:spirits . Following his passion for independence and sincerity, he arrived at the conviction that the See also:Lord's Supper was not intended by See also:Christ to be a permanent See also:sacrament . To him, at least, it had become an outgrown form . He was willing to continue the service only if the use of the elements should be dropped and the rite made simply an See also:act of spiritual remembrance . Setting forth these views, candidly and calmly, in a See also:sermon, he found his See also:congregation, not unnaturally, reluctant to agree with him, and therefore retired, not without some disappointment, from the See also:pastoral See also:office . He never again took See also:charge of a See also:parish; but he continued to preach, as opportunity offered, until 1847 . In fact, he was always a preacher, though of a singular See also:order . His supreme task was to befriend and See also:guide the inner life of See also:man . The strongest influences in his development kbout this time were the liberating philosophy of See also:Coleridge, the mystical visions of See also:Swedenborg, the intimate See also:poetry of See also:Wordsworth, and the stimulating essays of See also:Carlyle . On See also:Christmas Day 1832 he took passage in a sailing See also:vessel for the Mediterranean . He travelled through See also:Italy, visited See also:Paris, spent two months in See also:Scotland and' England, and saw the four men whom he most desired to see—See also:Landor, Coleridge, Carlyle and Wordsworth . " The comfort of See also:meeting such men of See also:genius as these," he wrote, " is that they talk sincerely." But he adds that he found all four of them, in different degrees, deficient in insight into religious truth . His visit to Carlyle, in the lonely See also:farm-See also:house at Craigenputtock, was the memorable beginning of a lifelong friendship . Emerson published Carlyle's first books in See also:America . Carlyle introduced Emerson's Essays into England . The two men were See also:bound together by a mutual respect deeper than a sympathy of tastes, and a community of spirit stronger than a similarity of opinions . Emerson was a sweet-tempered Carlyle, living in the See also:sunshine . Carlyle was a militant Emerson, moving amid thunderclouds . The things that each most admired in the other were self-reliance, directness, moral courage . A passage in Emerson's See also:Diary, written on his homeward voyage, strikes the keynote of his remaining life . "A man contains all that is needful to his See also:government within himself . . . . All real See also:good or evil that can befall him must be from himself . . . . There is a See also:correspondence between the human soul and everything that exists in the See also:world; more properly, everything that is known to man . Instead of studying things without, the principles of them all may be penetrated into within him . . . . The purpose of life seems to be to acquaint man with himself . . . . The highest See also:revelation is that See also:God is in every man." Here is the essence of that intuitional philosophy, commonly called Transcendentalism . Emerson disclaimed See also:allegiance to that philosophy . He called it " the saturnalia, or excess of faith." His See also:practical See also:common sense recoiled from the amazing conclusions which were See also:drawn from it by many of its more eccentric See also:advocates . His independence revolted against being bound to any See also:scheme or See also:system of See also:doctrine, however nebulous . He said: " I wish to say what I feel and think to-day, with the proviso that to-morrow perhaps I shall contradict it all." But this very wish commits him to the doctrine of the inner See also:light . All through his life he navigated the Transcendental See also:sea, piloted by a clear moral sense, warned off the rocks by the saving See also:grace of See also:humour, and kept from capsizing by a good See also:ballast of New England prudence . After his return from England in 1833 he went to live with his See also:mother at the old See also:manse in Concord, Mass., and began his career as a lecturer in Boston . His first discourses were delivered before the Society of Natural See also:History and the See also:Mechanics' See also:Institute . They were chiefly on scientific subjects, approached in a poetic spirit . In the autumn of 1835 he married Miss See also:Lydia See also:Jackson of See also:Plymouth, having previously See also:purchased a spacious old house and See also:garden at Concord . There he spent the See also:remainder of his life, a devoted See also:husband, a See also:wise and See also:tender father, a careful house-holder, a virtuous villager, a friendly See also:neighbour, and, spite of all his disclaimers, the central and luminous figure among the Transcendentalists . The doctrine which in others seemed to produce all sorts of extravagances—communistic experiments at See also:Brook Farm and Fruitlands, weird schemes of See also:political reform, long See also:hair on men and See also:short hair on See also:women—in his sane, well-balanced nature served only to lend an ideal charm to the See also:familiar outline of a See also:plain, orderly New England life . Some mild departures from established routine he tranquilly tested and as tranquilly abandoned . He tried See also:vegetarianism for a while, but gave it up when he found that it did him no particular good . An See also:attempt to illustrate See also:household equality by having the servants sit at table with the See also:rest of the family was frustrated by the dislike of his two sensible domestics for such an inconvenient arrangement . His theory that See also:manual labour should form See also:part of the scholar's life was checked by the See also:personal See also:discovery that hard labour in the See also:fields meant poor work in the study . " The writer shall not dig," was his practical conclusion . Intellectual independence was what he chiefly desired; and this, he found, could'be attained in a manner of living not outwardly different from that of the See also:average college professor or See also:country minister .
And yet it was to this See also:property-holding, See also:debt-paying, See also:law-abiding, well-dressed, courteous-mannered See also:citizen of Concord that the ardent and enthusiastic turned as the See also:prophet of the 'new See also:idealism
.
The See also:influence of other Transcendental teachers, Dr Hedge, Dr See also:Ripley, Bronson See also:Alcott, See also:Orestes See also:Brownson, See also:Theodore See also:Parker, See also:Margaret See also:Fuller, See also: Go alone . Refuse the good See also:models, even those which are sacred in the See also:imagination of men . See also:Cast conformity behind you, and acquaint men at first See also:hand with Deity." In this address Emerson laid his hand on the sensitive point of See also:Unitarianism, which rejected the divinity of Jesus, but held fast to his supreme authority . A See also:blaze of controversy sprang up at once . Conservatives attacked him; Radicals defended him . Emerson made no reply . But amid this somewhat fierce See also:illumination he went forward steadily as a public lecturer . It was not his negations that made him popular; it was the eloquence with which ..he presented the See also:positive See also:side of his doctrine . Whatever the titles of his discourses, "Literary See also:Ethics," " Man the Reformer," The Present See also:Age," " The Method of Nature," " Representative Men," " The Conduct of Life," their theme was always the same, namely, " the infinitude of the private man." Those who thought him astray on the'subject of religion listened to him with delight when he poetized the commonplaces of See also:art, politics, literature or the household . His utterance was Delphic, inspirational . There was magic in his elocution . The simplicity and symmetry of his sentences, the modulations of his thrilling voice, the radianceof his See also:fine See also:face, even his slight hesitations and pauses over his See also:manuscript, See also:lent a See also:strange charm to his speech . For more than a See also:generation he went about the country lecturing in cities, towns and villages, before learned See also:societies, rustic lyceums and colleges; and there was no man on the platform in America who excelled him in distinction, in authority, or in stimulating eloquence . In 1847 Emerson visited Great-See also:Britain for the second time, was welcomed by Carlyle, lectured to appreciative audiences in See also:Manchester, See also:Liverpool, See also:Edinburgh and See also:London, made many new See also:friends among the best English See also:people, paid a brief visit to Paris, and returned See also:home in See also:July 1848 . " I leave England," he wrote, " with increased respect for the Englishman . His stuff or substance seems to be the best in the world . I forgive him all his See also:pride . My respect is the more generous that I have no sympathy with him, only an admiration." The impressions of this journey were embodied in a See also:book called English Trails, published in 1856 . It might be called " English Traits and American Confessions," for nowhere does Emerson's American-ism come out more strongly . But the America that he loved and admired was the ideal, the potential America . For the actual conditions of social and political life in his own time he had a fine scorn . He was an intellectual Brahmin . His principles were democratic, his tastes aristocratic . He did not like crowds, streets, hotels—" the people who fill them oppress me with their excessive civility." Humanity was his See also:hero .
He loved man, but he was not fond of men
.
He had See also:grave doubts about universal See also:suffrage
.
He took a sincere See also:interest in social and political reform, but towards specific "reforms" his attitude was somewhat remote and visionary
.
On the subject of See also:temperance he held aloof from the intemperate methods of the violent prohibitionists
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He was a believer in woman's rights, but he was lukewarm towards conventions in favour of woman suffrage
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Even in regard to See also:slavery he had serious hesitations about the ways of the abolitionists, and for a long time refused to be identified with them
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But as the irrepressible conflict See also:drew to a See also:head Emerson's hesitation vanished
.
He said in 1856, " I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom." With the outbreak of the See also:Civil See also:War he became an ardent and powerful See also:advocate of the cause of the See also:Union
.
See also:
When an See also:idea appeared, he followed it, " as a boy might See also:hunt a butterfly"; when it was captured he pinned it in his " Thought-book." The writings of other men he used more for stimulus than for guidance
.
He said that books were for the scholar's idle times
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" I value them," he said, " to make my See also:top spin." His favourite reading was poetry and mystical philosophy: Shakespeare, See also:Dante, See also:George See also:Herbert, See also:Goethe, Berkeley, Coleridge, Swedenborg, See also:Jakob See also:Boehme, See also:Plato, the new Platonists, and the religious books of the See also:East (in translation)
.
Next to these he valued books of See also:biography and See also:anecdote: See also:Plutarch, See also:Grimm, St See also:Simon, Varnhagen von Ense
.
He had some See also:odd dislikes, and could find nothing in See also:Aristophanes, Cervantes, See also:Shelley, See also:Scott, Miss See also:Austen, See also:Dickens
.
Novels he seldom read
.
He was a follower of none, an See also:original borrower from all
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His illustrations were drawn from near and far
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The See also:zodiac of Denderah; the Savoyards who carved their See also:pine-forests into toys; the naked Derar, horsed on an idea, charging a See also:troop of See also:Roman See also:cavalry; the long, austere See also:Pythagorean lustrum of silence; See also:Napoleon on the See also:deck of the " See also:Bellerophon," observing the See also:drill of the English soldiers; the See also:Egyptian doctrine that every man has two pairs of eyes; See also:Empedocles and his See also:shoe; the See also:horizontal stratification of the
See also:earth; a soft See also:mushroom pushing its way through the hard ground,—all these allusions and a thousand more are found in the same volume
.
On his pages, See also:close beside the See also:Parthenon, the See also:Sphinx, St See also:Paul's, See also:Etna and See also:Vesuvius, you will find the See also: From the pages of his teeming See also:note-books he took the material for his lectures, arranging and rearranging it under such titles as Nature, School, Home, Genius, Beauty and See also:Manners, Self-See also:Possession, See also:Duty, The Superlative, Truth, The Anglo-Saxon, The Young American . When the lectures had served their purpose he rearranged the material in essays and published them . Thus appeared in See also:succession the following volumes: Essays (First See also:Series) (1841); Essays (Second Series) (1844); Representative Men (185o); English Traits (1856); The Conduct of Life (186o); Society and Solitude (187o); Letters and Social Aims (1876) . Besides these, many other lectures were printed in See also:separate form and in various combinations . Emerson's style is brilliant, epigrammatic, See also:gem-like; clear in sentences, obscure in paragraphs . He was a sporadic observer . He saw by flashes . He said, " I do not know what arguments mean in reference to any expression of a thought." The coherence of his writing lies in his personality . His work is fused by a steady glow of optimism . Yet he states this optimism moderately . " The genius which preserves and guides the human See also:race indicates itself by a small excess of good, a small See also:balance in See also:brute facts always favourable to the side of See also:reason." His verse, though in form inferior to his prose, was perhaps a truer expression of his genius . He said, "I am born a poet"; and again, writing to Carlyle, he called himself "See also:half a See also:bard." He had "the See also:vision," but not "the See also:faculty divine" which translates the vision into See also:music . In his two volumes of verse (Poems, 1846; May Day and other Pieces, 1867) there are many passages of beautiful insight and profound feeling, some lines of surprising splendour, and a few poems, like " The Rhodora," " The Snowstormu ,o, See also:Ode to Beauty," " See also:Terminus," " The Concord Ode," and the marvellous " See also:Threnody " on the death of his first-born boy, of beauty unmarred and penetrating truth . But the See also:total value of his poetical work is discounted by the imperfection of metrical form, the presence of incongruous images, the pre-dominance of the intellectual over the emotional See also:element, and the lack of flow . It is the material of poetry not thoroughly worked out . But .the genius from which it came—the See also:swift faculty of See also:perception, the lofty imagination, the idealizing spirit enamoured of reality—was the secret source of all Emerson's greatness as a See also:speaker and as a writer . Whatever See also:verdict time may pass upon the bulk of his poetry, Emerson himself must be recognized as an original and true poet of a high order . His latter years were passed in peaceful See also:honour at Concord . In 1866 Harvard College conferred upon him the degree of LL.D., and in 1867 he was elected an overseer . In 187o he delivered a course of lectures before the university on " The Natural History of the See also:Intellect." In 1872 his house was burned down, and was rebuilt by popular subscription . In the same year he went on his third See also:foreign journey, going as far as See also:Egypt . About this time began a failure in his powers, especially in his memory . But his character remained serene and unshaken in dignity . Steadily, tranquilly, cheerfully, he finished the voyage of life .
" I See also:trim myself to the See also:storm of time,
I man the See also:rudder, See also:reef the See also:sail,
Obey the voice at See also:eve obeyed at See also:prime:
' Lowly faithful, banish fear,
Right onward drive unharmed;
The See also:port, well See also:worth the cruise, is near,
And every See also:wave is charmed.' "
Emerson died on the 27th of See also:April 1882, and his See also:body was laid to rest in the peaceful See also:cemetery of Sleepy Hollow, in a See also: There is a Bibliography of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by G . W . Cooke (Boston, 1908) . |
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