EMERSON, RALPH WALDO, an American essayist, poet, and philosopher, born in Boston, May 25, 1803. Seven generations of his ancestors had been clergymen; he inherited a tradition of scholarship and heroic living, and was himself trained to continue the tradition. He knew few pleasures in boyhood; he was quiet and studious, though not bril liant; he worked his way through Har vard. In 1829 he was ordained minister of the Second Church of Boston, mar ried, and settled down, apparently, to the life of his ancestors. After three years, however, he resigned, being unable to follow the forms and ceremonies of the church. He spent a time in Europe, where he was more interested in person alities than in the sort of thing usually looked for by tourists. He met Carlyle, then unknown, who exerted a profound influence upon him. He brought out Carlyle's books in America, where they had a greater sale than in England, and a lifelong correspondence was carried on by the two friends.
In 1835 he returned to Concord, to the Old Manse, where he studied and wrote. For the anniversary of Lexington, April 19, 1836, he composed the hymn which has become famous. He did a little lec turing, was interested in gardening, bought several tracts of land, studied Nature rather than books. At length he published (1836) his first important book, a slender volume entitled "Nature," which, with his oration on the American Scholar (1837) and an address delivered at Dartmouth in 1838, forms an intro duction to his philosophy. In the first of these he urged the divinity of the soul and its capacity to attain all knowl edge; the conception of Nature as a gi gantic shadow of God, able to unlock powers of the soul either as energy or as knowledge; and the idea that God, by these means, teaches the soul directly. Thus each man may build his own world, casting aside external authority and all tradition. In the Harvard address on the American Scholar he puts Nature a3 first of the influences on the scholar's development; the second influence is the mina of the past, able to inspire and to call forth latent powers, though not to dominate the active soul; the third is action, since the idea that scholarship means seclusion from the world is wrong. The scholar must guide men by showing them realities underneath appearances; he must be free and brave; so shall he help to make a nation of men. The Dart mouth College address supplements these ideas, especially the belief that the chief duty of the educated man is to project his own soul into the universe—the past, the realm of external nature, the realm of active life—and so realize his own divine personality.
With the publication of the first series cf "Essays," 1841, Emerson's leading ideas were almost completely stated. "Self-Reliance" is a development of what had already had briefer statement, espe cially in the Harvard address. The theme is the direct relation between man and divinity, cutting away dependence upon party, creed, travel, books, worldly ideas of success. In "The Oversoul" we have an amplification of a paragraph in "Self-Reliance," of which the kernel is to the effect that "we lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us organs of its activity and receivers of its truth." The doctrine is Platonic, and is developed on Platonic lines. We live only partially; at times of inspira tion the soul of the whole comes to life in us, the wise silence, the universal beauty. This universal beauty belongs to the ages; spirit may incarnate itself at any time. Other essays, such as "Circles," "Spiritual Laws," and the like, contain a similar message, always phrased so suggestively as to seem to be said for the first time. Essays on politi cal relations, such as "History," "Poli tics," "Experience," teach that all the past, as well as all that Nature gives, meet in the Now of the Soul. Personal ity is thus the concentration of experi ence in moments of illumination. Be cause of his emphasis on personality he seems to neglect the state, of the con ception of organized society. He is not sympathetic toward reform; a law is but a memorandum; not riches or terri tories, but men form the highest end of government; there is danger in "under taking for another;" only man and the world spirit remain, and their union is the sole value in life.
These ideas, and others related to them, were developed in a series of es says unique for their inspiring idealism. The second series of essays appeared in 1844, followed in 1847 by a volume of poems. His poetry, like his prose, is distinguished for its compactness, its oracular quality, and for its beauty. Many of the poems are miniatures of the essays, and may be attached to them. His chief source of inspiration is Nature, though he also wrote a series of patriotic and anniversary poems that have become justly famous. A volume entitled "Na ture, Addresses, and Lectures" appeared in 1849, and another collection of lec tures, "Representative Men," in 1850. He published "English Traits" in 1856; "The Conduct of Life" in 1860. Other collected works, such as "The Natural History of Intellect," the "Journals," and the correspondence with Carlyle, appeared after his death, which took place on April 27, 1882.