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ry beginning in his youth. Emerson maintained that reform would be achieved through moral agreement rather than by militant action. He stated more clearly his support for the abolitionist movement. He stated, "We are indebted mainly to this movement, and to the continuers of it, for the popular discussion of every point of practical ethics”.(Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844: Speech in Concord)
2.2 Literary and Transcendentalism
Emerson and other like-minded intellectuals founded the Transcendental club, which served as a center for the movement. Emerson anonymously published his first essay, Nature, in September in 1836. A year later, on August 31, 1837, Emerson delivered his now-famous “The American Scholar” address. In the speech, Emerson declared literary independence in the United States and urged Americans to create a writing style all their own and free from Europe.
The term “transcendentalism” is derived from the Latin verb "transcendere", meaning to rise above, or to pass beyond the limits. Transcendentalism has been defined as the recognition in man of the capacity of acquiring knowledge transcending the reach of the five senses, or of knowing truth intuitively, or of reaching the divine without the need of an intercessor. As the leader of this movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson interpreted transcendentalism as “whatever belongs to the class of intuitive thought,” and as “idealism as it appears in 1842.” He believed that the transcendental law was the “moral law” through which man discovered the nature of God as a living spirit. The major concepts that accompanied transcendentalism can be summarized in the following six points.
First, it stressed the power of intuition, believing that people could learn things both from the outside world by means of the five senses and from the inner world by intuition.
Second, as romantic idealism, it placed spirit first and matter second. It believed that both spirit and matter were real but that the reality of spirit was greater than that of matter.
Third, it took nature as symbolic of spirit of God. All things in nature were symbols of the spiritual, of God’s presence. Nature was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. Everything in the universe was viewed as an expression of the divine spirit. Behind physical objects was a universal soul. Nature was God’s enlightenment towards human beings. Therefore, it could exercise a healthy and restorative influence on human mind.
Fourth, it emphasized the significance of the individual and believed that the individual was the most important element in society and that the ideal kind of individual was self-reliant and unselfish. It held that there was a greatness in all human beings that needed only to be set free. People should depend on themselves for spiritual perfection.
Fifth, Emerson envisioned religion as an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal “Oversoul”. The “Oversoul” as called by Emerson was an all-pervading unitary spiritual power of goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent, from which all things came and of which everyone was a part. It existed in nature and in humanity alike and constituted the chief element of the universe.
Last, it held that commerce was degrading and that a life spent in business was a wasted life. Humanity could be much better off if people paid less attention to the material world in which they liv