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Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture and philosophy that emerged in New England in the early to middle 19th century. Transcendentalism began as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard and the doctrine of the Unitarian church taught at Harvard Divinity School. Among Transcendentalists’ core beliefs was an ideal spiritual state that transcends the physical and empirical and is only realized through the individual's intuition, rather than through the doctrine of established religions. It is a Kantian term, meaning that knowledge can be obtained through mental process apart from experiences.

III. Eco-Criticism and Individualism Reflected in Nature 生态批评和个人主义在自然中的反应
Eco-criticism is a form of literary criticism based on an ecological perspective. Eco-criticism investigates the relation between humans and the natural world in literature. It is the way in which environmental issues, cultural issues concerning the environmental issues, and the attitude towards nature are presented and analyzed. One of the main goals in eco-criticism is to study how individuals in society behave and react in relation to nature and ecological aspects. This form of criticism has gain a lot of attention during recent years (approximately since 2000) due to higher social emphasis on environmental destruction and increased technology. It is hence a fresh way of analyzing and interpreting literary texts, which brings new dimensions to the field of literary criticism. The way in which environmental issues relate to culture, and the way in which attitudes towards nature are presented and analyzed is the heart of eco criticism.
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses independence and self-reliance. Individualists promote the exercise of one’s goals and desires, while opposing most external interference upon one’s choices, whether by society, or any other group or intuition. Individualism is opposed to collectivism which stressed that communal, community, group, societal and familial or national goals should take priority over individual goals.
3.1 The Harmonious Relationship between Human and Nature
In Nature, “The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me and I to them. The waving of the boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It takes me by surprises, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher though or a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right. Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both. It is necessary to use these pleasures with great temperance. For, nature is not always tricked in holiday attire, but the same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as or the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread with melancholy today. Nature always wears the colors of spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth in the population.” (Ralph