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".