Transcendentalism Assignment 3: Scenario 2

I would have gone back to school to become a teacher, if that was what I really wanted to do it and its possible and it was within practical limits. I don't think its entirely fair that his wife has to pay for his college though, maybe he could have used funds that would have been used on lawschool, or if not go out and get a job, as he probably has some degree of experience. I think that the transcendentalist would think similiarly on this, as they believed that humaninty was good and should follow what they felt was right within themselves, Emerson writing:

"With Consistency a great soul simply has nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with the shadow on the wall. Out upon your gaurded lips! Sew them up with a packthread, do. Else, if you would bve a man, speak what you think today in words as hard as cannon balls, and tommorow speak what tommorow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today."

Transcendentalism Assignment 2: Transcendentalism in Excerpts

In "Nature", transcendentalism was expressed in the idea of a sort of collective consciousness within nature, similar to the concept of the over soul. The idea that the many small life forms and objects within nature come together as a landscape and transcend their mere individual physical forms.

"When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind. We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects. It is this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the woodcutter from the tree of the poet. The charming landscape which I saw this morning is indubitably made up of some twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape. There is a property in the horizon which no man has but whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet."

"Self Reliance" discusses the need of humanity to find and follow their own path within themselves, mentioning a "divine idea" within us. This assumes that all people not only have this idea within them, but also that the idea is inherently good, which to some extent reflects the transcendentalists idea that there was no original sin and than human nature is good. However it does not assume that we would necessarily follow this idea of our own inclination, perhaps differing from the notion of our "inherent goodness".

"Trusty thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine Providence has found for you; the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the Eternal was stirring at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being."

"Resistance to Civil Government" is an essay Thoreau wrote after being jailed for refusal to pay a poll tax, on principal. Thoreau essentailly states that he refuses based on the idea of a higher set of laws which come before the governments regulations, which he considers petty and ultimately unnecesary, saying that "the government is best which governs not at all". This displays transcendentalism because the assumption that government is unneeded is based on the idea that the people are capable of governing themselves, again assuming that humans nature is ultimately good; though he also states that he does not believe that men are prepared for it.

"I heartily accept the motto- "the governemtn is best which governs least, and I should like to see it acted up more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, I believe it finall amounts to this which also I believe- "that government is best which governs not at all;" and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have."

Transcendentalism Assignment 1: Response

Emerson expresses nature as a multifaceted being, a thing of subtle intelligences, coalescing and moving like a constant multitude of invisible tides working around us. This recalls several similarities from passages from Henry Thoreau's "Walden". In this way nature is viewed not as a sterile and dead background but as a living thing which we may impact or may impact us, saying that "in the woods, we return to reason and faith". We are reminded that we are part of the expansive collective being of nature, and much of our concern is more imposed by the zephyrous currents of society than our actual physical or mental need.

The excerpt from "Self Reliance" discusses individuality. Emerson believes that everyone reaches a point at which they must set themselves apart and express themselves as a being, in whatever form that may take. Each individual must forge their own place, Emerson writes "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string". It is suggested as if we all have a deeply ingrained sense within ourselves of what course we should take, almost in the sense of a second gravity. We must rely on ourselves, not in a self righteous or selfish sense, but because it is our natural progression. This is dissipated and confused to some extent by society and its various institutions. Here themes cross with Thoreau's "Resistance to Civil Government", as he protest that government is in the way of the people, limiting progress by steeping them in regulation and consistency. Thoreau states that "the governement is best which governs least" and that this eventually leads to the idea that "the government is best which governs not at all".

Romanticism Assignment 5: Romanticist Art

The painting shows a scene in the wilderness with the sun breaking through the clouds over a lake. This landscape is Romanticist because it is glorifying nature and depicting it in an idealistic sort of way. Though it is not a work of writing it arouses the same sort of thoughts and feeling that associated with Romanticist writers, particulary of escaping into nature.

This image is an example of romanticism in art because it communicates the vast mystery of nature. The fog dissipating in the morning light displays a sense of wonder at the new.