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."