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"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."

So how does nature

play a role?

Emerson and Thoreau believed that nature's undeniable beauty and spirituality should be appreciated more and that by doing so one can become more self reliant, which was the ultimate goal of their transcendentalist philosophies.

Trancendentalism was evolved out of idealist philosopies, so it only makes sense that it plays a role in their perspective of nature too.

Emerson choses to approach the subject through analogies and the usage of poetry as an example.

He exudes poets as being capible of producing the most ideal forms inspired by nature, yet ironically enough, this is done by manipulation of natures true qualities (symbolically magnifying or shrinking their values).

He then goes on to one again relate the subject withing nature to religion, stating: "Idealism sees the world in God. It beholds the whole circle of persons and things, of actions and events, of country and religion, not as painfully accumulated, atom after atom, act after act, in an aged creeping Past, but as one vast picture, which God paints on the instant eternity, for the contemplation of the soul."

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, 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 practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."

THE END

The aspect of self-reliance in transcendentalist thought was very important to both

Emerson and Thoreau, who both identified nature as a setting for intellectual thought.

They believed that it's undeniable beauty and spirituality should be appreciated

more and that by doing so one can become more self reliant, which was the ultimate goal

of their philosophies. Therefore, nature played a huge role in transcendentalist

ideas, especially those of Emerson and Thoreau, two great minds of the movement.

Transcendentalism

and Nature

Transcendentalism:

A Rough Definition

Dictionary Definition

"any philosophy based upon the doctrine that the principles of reality are to be discovered by the study of the processes of thought, or a philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical."

dictionary.com

History

  • Developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the Eastern region of the United States.
  • Made to protest the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian church taught at Harvard Divinity School.
  • Rooted in the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant and of German idealism.

Wikipedia: Transcendentalism

Transcendentalist

Beliefs

  • Believed in the inherent goodness of both man and nature.
  • Society and its institutions ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual.
  • Man is at his best when truly "self-reliant" and independent.
  • The power of the individual and divine messages.

Wikipedia: Transcendentalism

So...

The transcendentalist movement was based off of the ideal that in order to obtain knowledge or find answers, one must not rely on research or ideas produced by others, but rather experience it themselves as an individual.

The Transcendentalists

Ralph Waldo Emerson

&

Henry David Thoreau

Born in Boston, Massachusetts on May 25, 1803.

1803

Served as Class Poet at Harvard College where he graduated.

1821

Died at the age of 44. Emerson wrote his eulogy.

Married his first wife, Ellen Louisa Tucker and moved back to Boston from Florida.

1829

1862

He embarked on his 2 year experiment in simple living in a self-built house on land owned by Emerson in a forest.

Emerson

Toured Europe and later wrote of his travels in English Traits.

1833

Thoreau

1845

Moved into the Emerson house where he seved as the chidren's tutor, editorial assistant, and repair man/gardener.

1833

Returned to America and made the first of what would become some 1,500 lectures discussing The Uses of Natural History in Boston.

1841

His first essay was published in The Dial.

1836

1840

  • Published "Nature"
  • The Transcendental Club held its first official meeting.

Met Emerson, who encouraged him to contribute to a periodical called The Dial.

1837

  • Emerson befriended Henry David Thoreau.
  • Gave his speech entitled "The American Scholar"

Studied at Harvard University.

1833-1837

1882

Born in Concord, Massachusetts.

Emerson died from pneumonia after over a decade of decreasing health.

1817

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."

"Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."

Most notable works:

  • Nature: Addresses and Lectures
  • Essays: First and Second Series

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."

  • Representative Men
  • English Traits
  • The Conduct of Life
  • The Poet
  • Circles

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, 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."

Most notable works:

  • A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
  • Civil Disobedience
  • Slavery in Massachusetts

"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."

  • A Plea for Captain John Brown
  • The Maine Woods
  • Cape Cod
  • Walden
  • Walking

Emerson's "Nature"

Emerson's essay, "Nature" collectively summarizes his transcendentalist ideas about the subject.

Categorized into 8 different chapters.

Chapter I NATURE

Chapter II COMMODITY

Chapter III BEAUTYChapter IV LANGUAGE

Chapter V DISCIPLINEChapter VI IDEALISMChapter VII SPIRITChapter VIII PROSPECTS

Beauty

Spirit

Idealism

"A nobler want of man is served by nature, namely, the love of Beauty."

Nature, Chapter III

"The aspect of nature is devout. Like the figure of Jesus, she stands with bended head, and hands folded upon the breast. The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship."

"First, the simple perception of natural forms is a delight."

Emerson first embellishes on simply the perception of the tangible things in nature (forms).

He speaks of the "the dewy morning, the rainbow, mountains, orchards in blossom, stars, moonlight, [and] shadows in still water" to provide examples.

As it's been clearly displayed, spiritual and religious applications toward nature were very prominant in Transcendentalist thought.

In this aspect of appreciation he is merely urging man kind to go out and really look at the nature around them to appreciate it for what it is.

Throughout the entirety of "Nature," it is Emmersons aim to draw attention to his belief that man does not appreciate nature's beauty as they should.

Emerson implies that nature has much to tell us about our creator and our own spirituality.

These chapter titles give the reader a good idea of things Emerson related to nature.

"Three problems are put by nature to the mind; What is matter? Whence is it? and Whereto?"

"The presence of a higher, namely, of the spiritual element is essential to its perfection."

The next level of appreciation, Emerson claims, is through acknowledgement of a higher being; allowing a spiritual connection.

"The visible heavens and earth sympathize with Jesus."

Emerson ponders these questions which identify the mysteries behind nature, yet its spiritual properties remain undeniable.

This idea will be conceptualized more so under analysis of Chapter VII.

He thus chooses to "distribute the aspects of Beauty in a threefold manner."

i.e. "Beauty," "Spirit", and "Idealism," in which we will look at in more depth.

"There is still another aspect under which the beauty of the world may be viewed, namely, as it becomes an object of the intellect."

The last aspect is an intellectual one. Emerson states that by looking upon the beauty of Earth, man will be compelled to understand and create beauty of their own.

"The beauty of nature reforms itself in the mind, and not for barren contemplation, but for new creation."

His belief is that creating art is an automatic response to an appreciation of nature's beauty. "The world thus exists to the soul to satisfy the desire of beauty."

Now moving on to Thoreau:

Many of Thoreau's ideas stemmed off of ideas and encouragements from Emerson.

In his later years, he became more directly involved by studying botany and natural history. He became a land surveyor and kept journals of his observations .

How

Emerson's

Connecting back to the elements of the "Rough Definition" of Trancendentalism:

Views of

Nature

  • "a philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual"
  • Emerson said that one way of appreciating the beauty of nature was intellecual, and another being spiritual. Nature was seen as containing strong, yet mysterious spiritual connections.

Relate

Back to

  • Nature was not only inherently spiritual, but undeniably beautiful as well; inspiring creation and various forms of art.
  • "Believed in the inherent goodness of both man and nature."

Common

Transcen-

dentalist

  • "Rooted in the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant and of German idealism."
  • The idealist roots of transcendentalism still remain prominant. A form of the "ideal" can be seen in the pure beauty of nature, especially when put into an art form such as poetry.

Emerson's view of nature provided an ideal environment with undeniable beauty and setting of spirituality, allowing it to hold a vital role in Transcendentalist point of view.

thought.

To him, nature expressed "radical correspondence of visible things and human thoughts,"

"Walden"

Thoreau's book, detailing his experiences while at Walden Pond.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

The idea behind his experience in Walden Pond, was to immerse himself in nature in hopes of gaining more insight about life.

As identified earlier, transcendentalist thought revolved around the concept of self-reliance; finding answers by yourself and within yourself.

Thoreau utilized nature to apply this concept.

By immersing himself in nature he belived that it could accomplish a better understanding of society, as well as spiritual discovery.

Connecting Emerson and Thoreau's

Ideas

Emerson and Thoreau were both prominant figures in the Transcendentalist movement, as well as each other's ideas and discoveries.

Emerson and Thoreau both acknowledged the importance, beauty, and inherent goodness of nature.

They shared very similar views on nature which contributed to their transcendentalist theories.

Nature provided a pure, spiritual, and beautiful setting for one to "find" themself. Making it a vital element of transcendentalist thought.

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