Despite the density of the texts, I found myself engrossed in the artful, meaningfully layered sentences of Emerson’s “Nature” and “The American Scholar.” Perhaps his language — undoubtedly intended to exemplify the pure, naturally allegorical poetry of which Emerson speaks — was enough to draw me in. I suppose my admiration and hungry acceptance of Emerson’s every word serves as evidence of his claim to channeling a “divine Spirit” through natural language. In fact, I doubt it was any mistake to preface the denser, more abstract philosophical theories with a sort of subtle instruction as how to read it — artfully grooming his reader to approach what superficially presents as any other intellectual philosophical text with fresh eyes and the power of their own creativity; the image of some Spirit lurking beneath the words also lurking in the readers’ own minds. 

In addressing the significance of books, Emerson suggests that we accord them so much authority and wisdom because we, ourselves, delight in reading our own thoughts in a voice recorded hundreds of years earlier. I admit I myself fell prey to such a phenomenon in reading this very text. However, certainly I emerged with a few qualms: Beyond the obvious social conditions of his time period, I find peculiar Emerson’s interspersed racist references to Indigenous peoples; for, these “savages” of which he speaks sort of seem to embody that lifestyle, that perspective to which he aspires! Unfortunately for the writer, such contradictions might limit Emerson’s authority in representing the independent “Man Thinking.” Here, within Emerson’s own pages, lies evidence of society’s corruption of man’s vocabulary and, therefore, thought and action against which he so fervently cautions. 

I also have trouble reconciling the entirety of “Nature” and the first ten pages of “The American Scholar” with Emerson’s engagement in American politics and apparent promotion of the patriotic “individualism” which, if you ask me, has nothing to do with the sort of individualism of which Emerson speaks. He lost me on the last page.