CHAPTER – III EMERSON’S SPIRITUALISMshodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/32000/14/9... ·...

CHAPTER – III

EMERSON’S SPIRITUALISM

In the previous chapter of the thesis, the various influences and experiences

that shaped the life and works of Ralph Waldo Emerson were discussed. It is found

that his aunt Mary Moody was instrumental in the development of Emerson’s life as

she influenced him a lot. She sharpened his wits and polished his perceptions. It is

also found that Transcendentalism was the chief feature of his literary career. He

was influenced by transcendentalist thoughts and views like it influenced others. In

this chapter, an attempt will be made to define and understand the concept of

spiritualism, in general and what it holds for Emerson in particular. The views, ideas

and concepts that define the scope of Emerson’s spiritualism and its relevance and

presence in his essays will be discussed in the chapter.

There were many important changes and movements in America during the

time of Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was an age of the growth of new ideas and skeptic

visions. The changes electrified the artistic and intellectual mindset of New England.

The phenomenon called the American Renaissance during nineteenth century

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changed the attitude of the people. They formed new ideas that defied the doctrines

of the established institutions. Many tried to force their ideas and attitudes on life,

religion, politics, economy and nature. In a sense, it was an age of skepticism and

man lost his hold on his spiritual sensibility. Religion found it hard to create any

sense of spirituality. In such times, Emerson gave his fellow-men a new sense of

spiritualism. Emerson’s spiritualistic concept is purely based on the doctrine of the

soul. Generally, spiritualism is regarded as the belief in the possibility of receiving

messages from the spirits of the dead or the practices based on this belief. It is a

belief that spirits of the dead can be communicated and contacted through

mediums.1 But the “Spiritualism” which is to be discussed in this thesis is concerned

with the idea of the ‘spirit’ or the ‘soul’. The human soul and Emerson’s concept on

this and its connection with God are the main topic to be discussed here. His other

basic which are found in his works especially in his essays will also feature in this

thesis. The present study tries to investigate Emerson’s idea of God based on his

transcendental beliefs.

The great Indian philosopher Sir Aurobindo maintains that Spiritualism is not

to be construed as something anti-physical. In this connection, he writes:

Spiritual energy is not on this earth a thing apart but

reposes and draws upon physical energies.2

Speaking of God, Emerson said that we have faculties to perceive his laws. He also

writes that the motive force of life and of every particular life is moral. Such

writings of Emerson show a queer blend of mysticism and Puritanism. The idea of

the world being an emanation from God comes from Plotinus and Indian mystics.

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From this he was led to accept pantheism, as he said, ‘I believe in the

Omnipresence; that is, that the all is in each particle; and entire nature reappears in

every leaf and moss.’3

The word ‘pantheism’ is a philosophical term and it regards god as wholly

immanent in the world, and tends to identify Him with it. According to pantheism,

all is God and God is all (pan – all; Theos - God); God and the world are identical It

identifies God with the world process.

It denies Transcendence of God, and makes them

entirely immanent in the Spatio temporal world. It

identifies God with everything and everything with

God. Pantheism is called abstract monism in

philosophy.4

But even if Emerson accepted pantheism, he does not at all affirm his whole faith

and belief on it. His faith lies in his transcendental thought that God is to be found in

one’s own heart. Emerson’s transcendental method was intuitive. According to him,

Transcendentalism means a little beyond. It is a little progress at a time. It involves

the hope of making the world better by following the discipline of nature.

Emerson’s spiritual ideas are embedded in his transcendentalist thoughts and

ideas. Many of his spiritual ideas became the doctrines of transcendentalism. His

spiritualistic ideas became a movement. Along with many social reformers and

authors such as Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker and the naturalist, Henry David

Thoreau, they took the movement forward by joining him in his venture. The

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movement called the Transcendentalist movement emerged with Emerson at the

forefront. Emerson was called ‘the sage of Concord’ in his days and is also the

father of American Transcendentalism. He was at the center of what is called the

New England Renaissance which led to the growth of literature in New England. He

was self-inspired and he became a source of inspiration to many others. His book,

Nature, eventually became the bible of Transcendentalism. Joel Myerson writes:

Transcendentalism came about during a major shift in

thought and sensibility in American life...There was a

sense of “newness” in the air, and the

Transcendentalists were often called the “New

School.”5

Many of his transcendental ideas became a source for his essays. His essays

reflect his spirituality. So, it will be proper to make a study of spiritualism in

Emerson’s essays from a transcendental perspective.

Transcendentalism is a movement that emerged in New England during 1815 and

attained a full-fledged state in 1836. Frederic I. Carpenter in his book, Emerson’s

handbook writes:

Transcendentalism in New England took many different

forms. First, it paid lip-service to the formal philosophy

of Emmanuel Kant, but greatly modified it. Second, it

develop the puritian religion of its own New England

past in new ways. Third it applied this philosophic

idealism and this religious enthusiasm to the practical

reform of American sound institutions. And, finally, it

stimulated a renaissance in American Literature – a

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renaissance whose first exponent was Ralph Waldo

Emerson.6

It is hard to give a proper definition of the term. A transcendentalist believes

in a world that is beyond this world and in the world that is above the senses. It

transcends time and space and it cannot be comprehended easily. Transcendentalists

state that the divine cannot be known and comprehended by reason or enquiry or

rational analysis. They lay emphasis on the intuition and the individual soul in

understanding the divine. Man can know the divine and ultimately become one with

it through the agency of nature. For them, nature speaks to the soul and not to the

reasoning faculty. Therefore, transcendentalists rely on intuition, natural instincts,

feelings and impulses rather than on authority outside themselves or on tradition or

rituals. It believes in the goodness of the individual, the self sufficiency of the

human mind and the creative power of man. The transcendentalists did not begin as

an organized group; each of them read and wrote alone. Several members have

different opinions. The only idea common to them is their rejection of the Unitarian

ideas and concepts.

The Transcendentalists were essentially syncretic,

borrowing from various philosophies, literatures, and

religions whatever they felt was appropriate to their

developing beliefs, and forging these borrowings into a

new system.7

They were distinct and independent individuals who accepted some basic

premises about man’s place in the universe. To them, the Over Soul was a kind of

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cosmic unity between man, God and nature. Transcendentalism made its

manifestation in philosophy, in religion, in society and in literature of New England.

In philosophy, Emerson defines it as idealism in 1842. So, Emerson’s

Transcendentalism is derived from oriental mysticism, from Neoplatonic idealism,

and from a diluted form of Kant’s philosophy as interpreted by Coleridge, Carlyle,

and other amateur philosophers.”8Transcendentalism in America was primarily

religious rather than philosophical and its inspiration is the religious sentiment of

Emerson. In social front, the transcendentalists edited the magazine ‘The Dial’ and

try to bring industrial and social reforms. In literature:

American Transcendentalsim reproduced the literary

characteristics of Romanticism, praising intuition

rather than logic, poetry rather than prose, and nature

rather than the society of man. Moreover it shared the

romantic revolt from the past and the romantic

idealization of the common man.9

The movement was a result of the feeling of dissatisfaction with the prevailing

theological and philosophical ideas. The Great Awakening in 1740 rejected

Calvinist doctrine of innate depravity and depicted God in more compassionate

terms. Kathryn Van Spanckeren states:

The Transcendentalist movement was a reaction against

18-century rationalism and a manifestation of the

general humanitarian trend of 19-century thought...The

doctrine of self-reliance and individualism developed

through the belief in the identification of the individual

soul with God.10

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By the early decades of the nineteenth century, the liberals who were against

Calvinism started to establish a stronghold at Boston. A controversy resulted

between the liberals and the orthodox. Henry Ware became Hollis professor of

Divinity at Harvard. The controversy resulted in a split of the original

congregational churches in which the liberals known as Unitarians emerged as a

new denomination. William Ellery Channing, a leading spokesman for the new

generation of liberals, declared the separate existence of the Unitarian movement in

1819. It centred on human capacity for the development of reason and spirituality.

By the 1820s, Unitarianism had a strong foundation in Boston and eastern

Massachusetts and the American Unitarian Association was formed in 1825.

It was Unitarianism that paved the way for the transcendentalists in America.

Unitarianism insists that man is essentially good and that man must trust his own

perceptions of religious truth. This concept paved the way and formed the

foundation of Transcendentalism. Unitarians based their values on morality rather

on spiritualism and believe in the goodness of man. Unitarianism is Christianity

devoid of spirituality. They do not believe in Trinity; the Father, the Son and the

Holy Spirit. Peter Ackroyd states:

Unitarianism is, in fact, from the perspective of

orthodoxy, an heretical faith principally because it does

not accept the Christian doctrine of the

Incarnation...about the progress and perfectibility of

humankind, is thereby given a quasi-spiritual sanction.11

William Ellery Channing also believes in this view that human beings have the

capacity to make judgements for them. Joel Myerson in his book, A Historical guide

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to Ralph Waldo Emerson also writes: ‘In “Unitarian Christianity” Channing

defended the human capacity to make reasoned judgments about theology, and to act

as independent moral agents in meeting life’s experiences, thus rejecting the darker

implications of the calvinist doctrine of innate depravity.’12 By 1388, Unitarianism

was challenged by another group of people called the transcendentalists. Emerson,

one of the important reasons of the transcendentalist, began to develop ‘a religion

based on the soul’s powers of intuition in an address at Harvard Divinity School.’13

So, transcendentalism left behind all the forms and traditions of Unitarian church. It

places its reliance on the ‘intuition’ or ‘conscience.’

Transcendentalists challenged the theological concepts of different religions.

Emerson defined Transcendentalism as ‘what is popularly called Transcendentalism

among us, is Idealism; Idealism as it appears in 1842.’14 He gave this definition in

his lecture the “The Transcendentalist.” According to him, there is no

“Transcendentalist party” and no “pure transcendentalist.” In fact it is a wrongly

applied name or description. ‘The Transcendentalists were also moulded by a exotic

amalgam of foreign influences, both ancient and modern.’15 This lecture is important

for showing how Emerson accepted the term which had been applied to his thought

without his choosing it.

In his lecture, “The Transcendentalist”, delivered at Boston in 1842,

Emerson gave stress on his spiritual doctrine. He says:

The Transcendentalists adopts the whole connection of

the spiritual doctrine. He believes in miracle, in the

perpetual openness of the human mind to new influx of

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light and power; he believes in inspiration, and in

ecstasy...And so he resists all attempts to palm other

rules and measures on the spirit than his own.16

The belief in the presence and power of the soul is the core of Ralph Waldo

Emerson’s religious thought and the vital principle of his entire intellectual

achievement. He writes:

We distinguish the announcements of the soul, its

manifestations of its own nature, by the term

‘Revelations’. These are always attended by the

emotion of the sublime. For this communication is an

influx of the Divine mind into our mind. It is an ebb of

the individual rivulet before the flowing surges of the

sea of life. 17

Emerson affirms that all is finally resolvable into a single, unifying divine principle.

Emerson referred to this ultimate reality as ‘that unity that over soul, within which

every man’s particular being is contained and made one with all other.’18

Emerson’s concept of the soul developed in the 1820s and 1830s as he fused

the Unitarian theory of self-culture with the spiritual and idealistic doctrines from

several neo-platonic, oriental and European Romantic sources. His interest was also

kindled in the new scientific discoveries of his day. His doctrine of the soul

blossomed in a passionate and visionary expression of the premises of

transcendentalism in key works of the late 1830s and early 1840s. Emerson

gradually:

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Modifies his religious stance during 1840s and 1850s to

accommodate the waning of his experience of ecstatic

vision and to reflect his growing sense of the

importance of moral action as the fundamental end of

religious experience.19

He thus developed a more pragmatic and ethically centered theory of the religious

life in which work and worship, morals and vision, became increasingly

synonymous concepts. His religious sensibility lies deep in the soil of puritan New

England.

Emerson’s view on God and soul find adequate expression in his works. He

found a close relationship between God, Man, nature and individual freedom.

According to him, God was not wholly visible in the structures erected by man. His

presence was most felt in the world of his own creation – in nature. In the essays

also, the main idea of Emerson remains the same. His main emphasis on the concept

of over soul or intuition is present throughout. According to him, we can feel God if

we can differentiate between ‘reason’ and ‘understanding’. If a man looks at the

world with his understanding only, he will tend to believe in the absolute existence

of nature where objects in the physical universe are seen as ultimate. If however,

man looks at the world with his reason, he will see nature permeated with the higher

knowledge of the source and cause of nature. So man must live in a world of

eternity, of the love of Beauty and Goodness.

The Christian tradition in which Emerson was reared held that the world

was inert matter, bereft of spirit. God was distinctly separate from the world, a

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transcendent God who ruled creation from his abode in Heaven. Rejecting this view,

Emerson adopted the principle of divine immanence. He held that pure divinity lies

in the spirit. He writes:

The knowledge that this spirit, which is essentially one,

is in one’s own and in all other bodies, is the wisdom of

one who knows the unity of things. As one diffusive air,

passing through the perforatine of a flute, is

distinguished as the notes of a scale, so the nature of the

Great Spirit is single, though its forms be manifold.20

Emerson does not believe in the traditional customs and beliefs of the church.

According to him, God lies within each and every individual. He believes in the idea

of the God within. He wished for salvation, but not one within a church which still

held the doctrines of the sovereignty of God, original sin, predestination, election

and revelation through the Bible.

Emerson held that God is moral law and that the world is emanated from

God. Self-reliance is a supreme value and the religion of the spirit alone is true. This

is his idea of spiritualism. Emerson’s idea of spiritualism lies in his belief that man

has divinity within him. According to him, the religion of the spirit alone is true.

‘Emerson’s God is an immanent God, an indwelling property of human personhood

and physical nature, not located in some other worldly realm’.21 According to him

God builds his temple in the heart on the ruins of

churches and religious22

Emerson argued that ‘the moral sentiment’ which is found in all human

beings, is ‘the essence of all religions’.23 Religion according to him is to be found

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intuitively based on this moral sentiment. It cannot be taken from tradition, the

church or any other external authority. By religion, Emerson ‘means concrete,

personal, religious feelings or experiences’.24 So, intuition is, for Emerson like

religion, a matter of actual, present personal experience. He feels that the intuition

power of man is the most important factor to be with God. Emerson wrote in one of

his journals, ‘The highest revelation is that God is in every man.’25 He wrote this

after he resigned from the second church of Boston. This transcendental doctrine of

the God within super ceded all the other doctrines prevalent during that time.

To Emerson, God is to be found intuitively. The proof of the biblical

miracles was therefore irrelevant to real religious belief. ‘The exaggerated reverence

for the person of Jesus Christ falsified religion’, 26 Emerson argued. According to

Emerson, Jesus should not be regarded as a supernatural being. He should be

regarded as the prophet who realized the divinity within every individual. Emerson

thus radically democratized Jesus’ claim of divinity. He said in this jubilee of

sublime emotion:

I am divine, through me, God acts; through me, speaks.

Would you see God, see me; or see thee, when thou

also thinkest as I now think.27

Emerson considered universal love and divinity of soul as important requisites of

religion. So, to him, each person using the method of transcendental introspection is

a ‘representative man’. He is the spiritual representative of mankind, and he is the

self-chosen one. He follows the universal voice within his own heart, and the voice

is that of God. The divinity of man was the central metaphor of Emerson and the

transcendentalists. In his essay, “The over soul”, Emerson affirms,

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Ineffable is the union man and God in every act of the

soul. The simplest men who in his integrity worship

God become God. 28

Emerson placed human soul above everything else. The betterment of the soul was

the aim of Emerson as he strongly believed in the presence of a soul and inner light

in human beings. Again, if a man can feel his intuition, he will then become a self-

reliant man. Self-reliance is also one very important factor of being a transcendental

man.

So having placed the “self” at the centre of the transcendental view of man,

self-reliance becomes synonymous with God–reliance. Thus, the self-reliant or

transcendental man does not indulge in any sort of antinomianism which is

characteristic of the material or animal man. He relies upon the highest intuitions

from the inner voice. This leads to a unique relationship between man and nature. A

further attribute of being self-reliant is that it helps in bringing together the mystic

and the practical in man. In being self-reliant man imitates nature:

Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdom which

cannot help itself. …the vital resources of every animal

and vegetable are demonstrations of the self-sufficing

and therefore self-relying soul.29

In discussing nature as discipline, he makes it clear that nature ultimately

serves as the moral manifestation of God. In understanding nature we also recognize

the unity of being that underlies all moral perception. For Emerson, studying nature

is a way to examine the expressions and workings of the divine. He argued that if

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God, man and nature emanate from the same source, then the natural world and its

inhabitants are microcosms of the macrocosmic divinity. In his book, Nature,

Emerson reveals his belief in the unity of God, man and nature. He places man at the

center of nature. Nature is helpful in the realization of his higher ends and in the

fulfillment of his destiny. At the physical level, it caters to the bodily needs and the

needs of the senses. He considers body as a part of nature and therefore, like it, an

inferior incarnation of God in the unconscious. To him, man is God’s superior

incarnation in the conscious. Nature is the shadow that we, ourselves have cast. It is

even the creation of our mind. When one perceives the underlying principle of

nature, we come to know of our essential self. Through the perception of the exterior

beauty of nature, man became conscious of the spiritual beauty of the Universe. This

does not happen automatically. It occurs only when our senses are properly

sharpened and harmonized with our inner self that we begin to see more than mere

outward beauty. This is the moment when we become aware of the essential being.

Through nature’s beauty, we begin to see ourselves. This is the way in which nature

is made to conspire with spirit to emancipate us. The ground of our being is in this

beauty, the underlying principle and once we apprehend this truth we begin really to

exist. Nature is a kind of discipline which appeals to the Understanding and

Reasoning faculties of an individual. Emerson states:

In the woods, we return to reason and faith...Standing

on the bare ground,—my head bathed by the blithe air,

and uplifted into infinite space,—all mean egotism

vanishes. 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.30

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Nature has always been the source for the revelation of divinity for many

human races. Indian religion, for example has great reverence for nature. The

sanctity of nature can be found in many other religions too. Emerson too had this

notion of sanctity in nature and he expressed it in his essays. Kathryn Van

Spanckeren writes:

Still, it is possible to make a few generalizations. Indian

stories, for example, glow with reverence for nature as a

spiritual as well as physical mother. Nature is alive and

endowed with spiritual forces; main characters may be

animals or plants, often totems associated with a tribe,

group, or individual. The closest to Indian sense of

holiness in later American Literature is Ralph Waldo

Emerson’s transcendental “Over-Soul” which pervades

all life.31

Emerson held Indian philosophy in a higher position when it comes to spiritualism.

Vedanta was one of the many thoughts that reached New England in the early

decades of 19th century. It contributed in the formation of his spiritual thinking. He

studied the Laws of Manu, Vishnupurana, the Gita and the KathaUpanishads.

Emerson believed in the transmigration of the soul, the doctrine of fate, Maya and

Karma, and it shows his indebtedness to the oriental philosophy in the development

of his spiritual ideas. Emerson states:

In the history of intellect no more important fact than

the Hindoo [Hindu] theology, teaching that the

beatitude or supreme good is to be attained through

science: namely, by the perception of the real and the

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unreal, setting aside matter, and qualities, and

affections or emotions and persons and actions, as

Maias [Mayas] or illusions, and thus arriving at the

contemplation of the one eternal Life and Cause, and a

perpetual approach and assimilation to Him, thus

escaping new births and transmigration.32

It is a means of knowing the divine, an inspiration in our soul.Emerson

defines spirit as an apparition to God. Through the spirit, the eternal soul

communicates with the individual. Spiritualism to him is consciousness of God, not

the concept of God given by religions, but based upon the intuition, the individual

spirit. Since, the spirit is a manifestation of God; it illuminates and transcends all

facts of life. In Emerson’s words:

Of that ineffable essence which we call Spirit, he that

thinks most, will sayleast. We can foresee God in the

coarse, and, as it were, distant phenomena of matter... It

is the organ through which the universal spirit speaks to

the individual, and strives to lead back the individual to

it.33

It is to say that the spirit is the medium through which one can understand the

divine. He sees nature charged with spirituality. There is a divinity in this world. So,

he places his importance on the role of the individual and intuition in the process of

understanding the divine.

For Emerson, the voice of God is present in every man and not in just some

elected one. He made people realized that salvation was available potentially to

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every man and not just the chosen few. So, salvation was open to any man who

recognized the power of the world soul imminent and implicit in his own soul.

Emerson not only transferred the locus of power in religion from outside man i.e.

the church and tradition to within him i.e. the God within. ‘I count it, said Emerson,

the great object of my life to explore natures of God.’ 34 Thus he completes the

progression from Calvinism, through Unitarianism, to Transcendentalism.

Emerson’s treatment of the salvation of man is not expressed in the usual language

like Sin, depravity, saving grace but in philosophical language. He used the term of

‘Reason’ and ‘understanding’ to explain his point. According to him, reason

introduces us to light, that light which is associated with Plotinus’s emanations from

the one. On the other hand, understanding introduces us to the darkness of the

material world.

For Emerson, the regime of spirit is a very important factor in his concept of

spiritualism. He believed ‘Completely, implicitly and viscerally in the reality and

primacy of the spirit.’ 35 According to Emerson the regime of sprit is the only

ground on which connection, affiliation, and meaning be operated reasonably,

Emerson emphasized in his essays the importance of human spirit or human soul.

According to Emerson, the modern feeling of un-connectedness or alienation has its

source in a personal disloyalty to the regime of spirit. Through the help of this

‘spirit’ men can feel the divine in him. In his book nature, he wrote:

Spirit is the creator, Spirit halt life in itself. And men in

all ages and countries, embodies it in his language, as

the Father. 36

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For Emerson, the world originates from this spirit. The world is the subordinate

creation of this spirit and this spirit is above everything. This ‘Spirit’ which is also

called as the ‘Soul’ by Emerson gives the body vitality, sensitivity and the power of

being rational. He asserted the doctrine of the soul and this doctrine is, for him, the

source of religious sentiment. He contrasted the failures of historical Christianity

against this doctrine of the soul. According to this doctrine, God incarnates himself

in every man. The soul knows no person, only souls, and the over soul speak to soul,

not persons. All men have soul but the possibility of perceiving the soul, come to

man only as an ‘intuition’. No instruction can be obtained from others to realize the

laws of the soul, we can get only provocation from others, and we must feel the

indwelling Divine spirit intuitively. According to Emerson, we must use our own

conviction or intuition, and can become a self-reliant person. So, we must follow our

own self and trust our own self. In The Divinity School address, he said:

Obey thyself, that which shows God in me, fortifies me.

That which shows God out of me makes me a wart and

a wen.37

This assertion of Emerson on the self eventually leads to his famous doctrine of self-

reliance.

For Emerson, Prayer should be used as a contemplation of the facts of life

rather than a means to get some private ends. If man can feel God within them, he

will not pray or beg to God. He will see prayer in all actions. So, we must not

indulge in false prayers. In the essay, “Self-Reliance” he wrote:

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Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the

highest point of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding and

jubilant soul. It is the spirit of God pronouncing his works

good. But prayer as a means to effect a private end, is

meaner and theft. It supposes dualism and not unity in nature

and consciousness. 38

As soon as the man is at one with God, he will not beg. He will then see

prayer in all action. The prayer of the farmer kneeling in his field to weed it, the

prayer of the rower kneeling with the stroke of his oar, are true prayers heard

throughout nature, though for cheaper ends.

Emerson’s spiritualism is based on his keen observation of nature and man.

His way of understanding the divine and becoming one with him lies in his

spiritualism. Freedom of the individual is important according to him. It is the most

precious inheritance. Man has various faculties and must be given free scope to

develop to the fullest extent. The soul must have a free play. Emerson says that

when the soul breathes through his intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through

his will, it is virtue; when it flows through his affection, it is love. Genius, virtue and

love are manifestation of God. So, when the intellect connects with the soul, when

the soul connects with his will and when the soul flows through his affection, we

receive the divine and can understand him. For Emerson, life is an extension of his

aesthetic experience.

To Emerson, beauty and truth is one and the same thing. He says that beauty

is the over-soul within which every man’s particular being is contained. Once we

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realize it, we not only see the surface, we see that the soul is immanent. Through the

triangular relationship of man and nature and of man and God, the position of man is

explained and ascertained. The foundation of man is not in matter, but in spirit.

Because of the soul’s participation in the divine substance, there is no limit to the

possibilities in man’s life. Emerson calls it as the infinitude of the private man and

preached it his whole life. He wrote:

In all my lectures I have taught one doctrine namely,

the infinitude of the private man. 39

Man’s essential self is capable of transcending the finitude of existence and of

becoming one with the infinite. Ineffable bliss is the union of man and God. One

great miracle is the daily rebirth of God in the individual soul. The purpose of man’s

life is therefore is to recognize his own essential self and the cosmic unity. It is the

constitution of man to speak and strive in order to realize this unity in life.

Freedom of the individual is important to Emerson in order to develop a

spiritual sense. It is man’s most precious inheritance. Man has various faculties; they

must be given free scope to develop to the fullest extent. The soul must have a free

play in the realization of the divine. In his lecture the American Scholar Emerson

asserts this freedom.This freedom which he also calls self-trust. He writes:

In self-trust all the virtues are comprehended. Free

should the scholar be free and brave. Free even to the

definition of freedom, without any hindrance that does

not arise out of his constitution. Brave; for fear is a

thing which a scholar by his very function puts behind

him. 40

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The integrity of the individual’s personality must not be affected by systems,

institutions or society. Nothing is more marked than the power by which individuals

are safeguarded from other individuals.

Emerson gives three properties of natural beauty. Nature first of all restores

and gives simple pleasure to a man. We must submit ourselves to nature’s beauty

and must allow it to react to us spontaneously. Nature also works together with the

spiritual element in men to enhance the nobility of virtuous and heroic human

actions stimulate the human intellect. Lastly the beauty of nature can help in

understanding the divine order of the universe. Emerson wrote in the chapter III

“Beauty” of Nature.

The beauty of nature reforms itself in the mind, and not

for barren contemplation, but for new creation. 41

Like all the prophets, Emerson was also concerned about the relation of spirit and

human behaviour, about the relation of right seeing and right living. He sees the

people worshiping false gods and labouring under a compensatory punishment for

their general disloyalty to the regime of spirit. In his works, Emerson also

emphasized the primacy of the ‘Here’ and ‘Now’. His fundamental quarrel is with

the authority of institutions and dogmas over their insistence on the past rather than

on the individual’s own intuitions. Men must live in the present and must not be

influenced by past facts and happenings. In his essay, History included in the first

series of Essays, he wrote:

We are always coming up with the emphatic facts of

history in our private experience, and verifying them

here.42

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In almost all his essays Emerson basic concepts are about The centrality of man and

nature, his emphasis on individual’s own ‘intuition’ or ‘spirit’ and his insistence on

the present. If the regime of ‘Spirit’ is the basic concept of Emerson’s spiritualism,

then nature to him is the symbol of realm of spirit. So, man must remain in close

affinity with nature to feel the God within us. In almost all his essays, Emerson’s

theme remains the same. His concept of spiritualism based on his transcendental

beliefs can be seen in almost all his works. His poems also deals with his concept of

spiritualism based on his Transcendental beliefs. His transcendental beliefs and his

spiritualistic ideas can be seen in his collections of essays about six great people

called Representative Man, The Conduct of Life, a collection of essays published in

1841 also deals with the same concepts which he discussed in his earlier works. In

Representative Man, there is the same openness and flexibility which we saw in his

earlier challenges to institutions and conventional traditions. The writings of

Emerson in 1850s were mainly concerned on the philosophy of fluxions and

nobility. We can see the defiant and self-reliant man of his earlier works absent in

his later writings. Instead we can see a calmer but equally assured voice chanting the

same ultimate optimism and faith of the early works.

In his later writings, Emerson began to shift his concern from describing the

individual, the self-reliant Transcendental hero capable of forging his own world to

defining the inevitable, shaping influence on human life by forces over which Man

has little or no hope. Donald Yanella writes about this change in Emerson:

The self-reliant person confronting the purveyors of

absolutes has receded; even the poet, the arch-

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individualist, that ultimate seer, seems to have dissolved

as Emerson wraps himself in mantle of skepticism.43

Emerson’s concepts of achieving success in his later writings are dramatically

different from the sort of ‘intuitive soaring’ or ‘transcendence’ that he emphasized

in the early period. In these works, we can clearly see that his celebration of the

‘Now’ has receded. His faith in the individual’s reasonable prospects and self-

reliance gave way to an abiding sense of humanity’s limitations. But in spite of all

this, he remained a member of the party of Hope with his essential Optimism and

faith in Mankind and its future. His concept of Spiritualism based on his

transcendental beliefs remains the same in all his works. His concept of God based

on the concept of the ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ is present in all his works. Mathew Arnold’s

assessment holds true for readers of Emerson. He wrote:

He is (and remains) the friend and aider of those who

would live in the Spirit.44

His concept of spiritualism based on the concept of soul and spirit can be seen in

almost all his essays of the first series. His basic concepts of self-reliance, his views

on evil and virtue, and the importance he gave to the individual or self are all present

in every essay. The four essays “Love’’, “Friendship’’, “Prudence’’, and “Heroism’’

of the first series are deeper probes into individualism which is probably the most

important upshot of Emerson’s Transcendental vision. His emphasis on the primacy

of the self can be seen in the essay “Heroism’’:

Self-trust is the essence of heroism. It is the state of the

soul at war, and its ultimate objects are the last defiance

93

of falsehood and wrong, and the power to bear all that

can be inflicted by evil agents. 45

In his other essays “compensation’’ and “spiritual laws”, his concept of

Transcendentalism is present imminently. In the essay “spiritual Laws” he wrote

that the universe is moral. And in so far as Man is able to brush aside the crazy quilt

of any culture’s versions of absolute realities, he shall be in touch with nature and

the spiritual reality which suffers it. He wrote in the essay:

O my brothers, God exists. There is a soul at the centre

of nature, and over the will of every man, so that none

of us can wrong the universe. It has so infuse its strong

enchantment into nature, which we prosper. When we

accept its advice, and when we struggle to wound its

creatures, our hands are glued to our sides, or they beat

our own breasts. 46

The essay, “Circles”, is one of Emerson’s most beautiful and elegant prose works of

the first series. It is an eloquent presentation of transcendental thought. It discusses

the flux, evolution, relativism and renewal. Emerson also asserts the centrality of the

self which he discusses in the earlier essays and addresses. Emerson’s insistence on

the present and future can be seen in this essay also. In the concluding part of the

essay, Emerson’s transcendental beliefs can be seen vividly. According to him there

is no absolute, nothing is secure but life, transition and energizing Spirit. The final

two essays in the First series “Intellect” and “Art” is about the ultimate sources of

mans insight and expressions. These essays also insist on the vitality of the present

and future. It also emphasized on the necessity for self-reliance. Emerson in the

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essay “Intellect” pleads for spontaneity which he also discusses in the other essays

like “self-reliance”. Emerson condemned any form of imitations and plea for

creativity in the essay of “Art”.

The ideas that Emerson explores in the second series of Essays are

amplifications of the themes that he had sounded in Nature his earlier prose works

and his poetry. Most of the essays of this series are rich in rhetorical power. They

are tightly constructed and vigorous in their insight and assertions. In this series, the

bold and vigorous assertions of his transcendental faith are washed over by the

waves of experience. In the essay ‘Experience’ we can see a muted and almost

world-weary Emerson instead of the celebrating optimist of the earlier work. But the

emphasis on the Self which Emerson maintained in the first series can be seen in this

essay also. Men’s relationship to other and to his society is the major concern of the

four essays “Manners”, “Gifts”, “Politics” and “New England Reformers”. “Nature”

a short essay in this collection ponders on the central transcendental themes of

man’s relation with nature. The individual freedom is always paramount for

Emerson in all his essays. In the essay ‘New England Reformers’ he offers an

almost lyrical celebration of individual. According to him, Man is the more worthy

and the only object of regeneration. Emerson also condemns the calvinistic notions

of man’s depravity. His faith in the individual, the centre of his transcendental

optimism is seen when he wrote:

And as a man is equal to the church, and equal to the

state, so he is equal to every other man.47

95

So, Emerson’s Transcendental beliefs is the very basis of his spiritualism. His

concept of spiritualism based on the ‘Spirit’ and ‘Soul’ is present in almost all his

essays and works. His concept of divinity which lies within every individual is

present in all his essays and works. The relationship between Man, God and Nature

is present throughout his essays. According to Emerson, nature ultimately serves as

the moral manifestation of God. Emerson’s assertion of the individual’s freedom

and centrality of Man is seen in his works.

Some of the characteristics of Emerson’s spiritualism are brought out in his

essay, “Self-Reliance.” It is an important essay of Emerson published in 1841. It

represents one of the spiritual sides of Emerson. Emerson belief in self-reliance

follows as a logical result of his doctrine of the over-soul. According to this

doctrine, every man has something to do with the divine present in nature and is

capable of establishing a direct relationship with the universal spirit. In this way,

every man is capable of perceiving the highest truth. Every man therefore ought to

rely upon his spiritual perceptions, he ought to be self-reliant. Emerson is an

individualist. But, he was not different to society or to reality. A good society is

composed of good individuals. So, the primary obligation of the individual is to

perfect his own life. Emerson believed that social salvation could be achieved only

through the salvation of the individuals who compose society.

Self-Reliance is a manifestation of both his transcendentalism and

individualism. It also expresses his views on history, on prayer, on travel, on

property, on conformity and consistency. Transcendentalism implies faith in the

over-soul. The over-soul is the ultimate reality from which all life is derived and by

96

which the universe is unified. It is because divinity exists in all form of life. Each

living creatures and each object of nature is a microcosm embracing all the laws and

meaning of existence. The individual soul of each man is therefore in essence

identical with the soul of the universe. In this way, Emerson’s essay on self-reliance

gains importance as the expression of his transcendental belief.

Emerson believes that the soul gives positive commands. The over-soul

being ethical, these commands are ethical. Thus, self-reliance for Emerson means

the religion of the spirit, the religion in which one is guided by the over-soul. A

transcendental universal self is present in every individual. In this light, self-reliance

can be treated as individualism. Emerson’s individualism is not dogmatism. It means

that each individual should be true to his individual self.

Emerson was an American sage, a seer, a prophet who believed absolutely

what he said. He dealt almost entirely in metaphysical questions, the relation of the

visible world to the soul of the individual, the reality of the spiritual element in

nature, the sacred character of moral obligation, and the power of ideas. His

philosophy cannot be combined into a system. He held that happiness in labour,

righteousness, and veracity essential for his spirituality. The cheerfulness he

preached was always qualified by an awareness of the real world’s inquiry.

Neo-Platonism, German Idealism, English Romanticism served as symbols

and evidences rather than sources for his thinking. The core of his thinking came

from the life around him which he breathed as naturally as he breathed the New

97

England air of Concord. His principal ideas were set by the tone and atmosphere of

the time and place where he lived. Robert C. Gordon states:

While in Nature he had advanced the more modest

conclusion that human spiritual development

contributed directly to social improvement, during the

1840s he went much further, asserting that individual

spiritual progress was vital to evolutionary progress.

Emerson made this metaphysical leap through his

brilliant fusion of neo-Platonism, science, Hegel, and

India’s philosophy of samsara.48

In the essay “Self-reliance,” Emerson states that envy which is a result of

ignorance and imitation is suicidal. Thus, it can be seen observed that the spirituality

in Emerson’s essays are based on individualism and free will of the spirit and

intuition. Emerson emphasizes the importance of individualism unbound by

different traditional religions as a base for understanding his spirituality. He states

that the divine can be known through the keen observation of nature and that the

spirit should not be bound by rituals in order to receive the divine grace. One must

not live in the past, but must live in the present. Only then can a person lead a real

life.

One of the main themes in his essay, “The Over-Soul,” is the nature of the

over-soul and also contains a number of ideas that defines his spirituality. The chief

of such ideas are the nature of genius, the nature of revelation, insight and self-

reliance. The over-soul constitutes the essence of all. The soul in communion with

the Over-Soul perceives and reveals truth. This is a religious experience and it

expresses itself in ecstasy. When we speak of a mystic’s trance or the rapture of a

98

mystic, we refer to the mingling of the individual soul with the universal soul or the

Over-Soul. This mingling represents the highest progress that the soul can make.

The soul is the perceiver and revealer of truth.

Thus, Emerson’s spiritualism is based on the keen observation of nature and

all concepts of his spirituality are projection of his attitude towards nature. In the

words of Robert C Gordon, Emerson’s transcendentalism was concerned with the

freedom from the rigidity of religion. The freedom from the doctrines and dogmas

of religion form the basis of his concept of spiritualism. Emerson’s spiritualism

based on his transcendental beliefs in the words of Gordon:

His new faith freed him from the ascription of divinity to

Christ alone, and insisted upon the immanence of

divinity in every one. That God was within rendered

unnecessary any mediator between humanity and God.

The human problem was simply to make actual what

existed universally as perfect potential—identity with

Absolute Spirit.49

Much of Emerson’s spiritual concepts are embedded in his work Nature and his

essays in particular. His essays are platforms from where he launched his

spiritualism.

In the next chapter, the concepts of spiritualism that are present in the essays

of Emerson will be brought out and discussed in detail. So, Nature and five

important essays that are part of his first series of essays namely “History”, “Self-

Reliance”, “Compensation”, “Spiritual Laws” and “The Over-Soul” will be

discussed and analysed in detail from a spiritual perspective.

99

NOTES

1 Spiritualism, 27/09/2009. <http://skeptiwiki.org/indiaphp.html>.

2 Sri Aurobinda, On Nationalism, First Series (From the section: politics and

spirituality). Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1965) 29.

3 Joel Porte, ed., Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Lectures (New York: Viking

Press, 1983) 47.

4 J.N. Sinha, Introduction to Philosophy (Kolkata: New Central book Agency,

2006) 251.

5 Joel Myerson, ed., Transcendentalism: A Reader (Oxford: Oxford University

Press,2000) XXVII.

6 Joel Myerson, ed., Transcendentalism: A Reader (Oxford: Oxford University

Press,2000). XXV.

7 Frederick Ives Carpenter, Emerson Handbook (New York: Hendricks House

1953) 125.


1953) 125.


1953) 135. 10 Kathryn van Spankeren: An Outline American Literature (US: United States

Department of State, 1994) 26.

11 Peter Ackroyd,T.S. Eliot (London: Cardinal, 1948) 17.

12 Joel Myerson, ed., A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson (New York:

Oxford University Press) 154.

13 Joel Porte and Saundra Morris, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Ralph Waldo

Emerson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1999) 17.

14 Joel Porte and Saundra Morris, eds, Emerson’s Prose and Poetry (New York:

W.W. Norton and Company, 2001) 93.

100


Emerson Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1999) 19.


W.W. Norton and Company, 2001) 95-96.

17 Alfred R. Ferguson, ed, et al. The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson,

5Vols to date (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971-) 2,166.



19 Joel Myerson ed, A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson (New York:

Oxford University Press,2000) 151-152,

20 Edward Waldo Emerson, The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

12Vols (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1903 – 04) 4, 50.

21 Lawerence Buell, Emerson (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard

University Press, 2003)162.

22 Alfred R. Ferguson, ed, et al. The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson,

5Vols to date (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971-) 4, 204.





25 William H. Gilman, ed, et al. The Journal and Miscellaneous Notebook of

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 16 Vols (Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1960 - 82) 4,

84. 26 Joel Myerson, ed, A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson (New York:

Oxford University) 161. 27 Joel Porte and Saundra Morris, eds, Emerson’s Prose and Poetry (New York:

W.W. Norton and Company 2001) 96.

101

28 Joel Porte and Saundra Morris, eds,Emerson’s Prose and Poetry (New York:


29 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays and Lectures (New York: The Library of

America, 1983) 10.


America, 1983) 10.

31 Kathryn van Spanckeren, An Outline American Literature (US: United States

Department of State, 1994) 3.

32 Robert C. Gordon, Emerson and the Light of India: An Intellectual History

(New Delhi: National Book Trust, 1993) XXI.


America, 1983) 40.

34 Lewis Leary, Ralph Waldo Emerson: An Interpretive Essay (Boston: Twayne

Publishers, 1980) 95.

35 Joel Myerson, ed., A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson. (New York:

Oxford University) 157.











102





43 Donald Yanella, Ralph Waldo Emerson (Boston Twayne Publishers, 1982) 103.

44 Milton R. Konvitz, ed., The Recognition of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Ann Aebor:

The University of Michigan Press, 1972) 72.


America, 1983) 375.



47 Edward Waldo Emerson, The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

12Vols (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1903 – 04) 3, 280.


(New Delhi: National Book Trust, 1993)143.


(New Delhi: National Book Trust, 1993) 81.

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