Crucible Modern Thought L3B

Lesson 3bdo with the amalgamation. These several books were so closelyidentified in their general philosophies and tendencies, thattheir readers began to form a loosely connected cult. Channingand Ripley, both prominent in Unitarianism and the newthought of the day, finally got together and formed a society formutual endeavor and philosophical inquiry. Emerson, MargaretFuller, Channing, Ripley, Brownson and Hedge, all prominent inthe general movement, met and discussed the formation of asociety. The term Transcendentalism was then first appliedto the movement. Emerson says of this: Nobody knowswho first applied the name. The society was first called TheSymposium and afterward The Transcendental Club. Amongthe general subjects forming part of the earlier discussionswere those of Pantheism and Mysticism, respectively. Theinterest in the movement grew rapidly, and many of thebrightest minds in New England were attracted to it. Whilethe subjects discussed, taught and considered were various, itis safe to say that as a whole they were most unorthodox andcontrary to the general public belief and opinion. Many of theideas and opinions so advanced are quite familiar to the peopleof the present day, and are taught in many pulpits, but at thetime of the Transcendental Movement they were regarded asheretical and atheistic, and aroused the fiercest denunciationand antagonism from the orthodox pulpit and press.The formation of the Brook Farm Community at WestRoxbury, Mass., by George Ripley, in 1841, is a part of thehistory of Transcendentalism, for the reason that some of theleading lights in the latter movement became members of thenew community. Men like Ripley, Hawthorne, Alcott, Curtis,Channing and Dana, and women like Margaret Fuller, addeda brilliancy to the Brook Farm Community, which has givenit a prominent place in the history of the general movement.The aim of the community, as stated by one of their number,was more effectually to promote the great purposes of humanculture, to establish the external relations of life on the basis ofThe Transcendental Movement.31wisdom and purity. The community flourished for a numberof years, but like all such attempts, finally failed, the membersdispersing, but carrying the spirit of the community with themin many directions.In 1840, the publication of The Dial began. This was theorgan of New England Transcendentalism, and naturally servedto bring the movement into still more general notice andpopularity. Margaret Fuller was the first editor, and Emerson,Channing, Alcott, Theodore Parker, Ripley, and Thoreau wereamong the contributors to the first number. Emerson wrote theopening article, entitled: The Editors to the Reader. During thefirst two years of the existence of The Dial Margaret Fuller wasassisted in her editorial work by Ripley and Emerson. After thattime Emerson became the sole editor. Much that was crudeand fanciful appeared in the pages of this publication, butalso much that will hold a permanent place in the history ofAmerican literature. It marked an era in the history of Americanmagazines, and gave an impetus, the effects of which are stillnoticeable. Ater four years of struggle it was finally discontinued.The life of the Transcendental Movement may be said to beembraced by the years 1830 and 1850, although the beginningswere still further back in the century, and the influence of themovement still lives as the heart and spirit of many modernschools of thought and activity which are slow to acknowledgetheir indebtedness to it. Its real source was the great awakeningof nearly a century before its time, in which the hold of Calvinismwas rudely shaken and weakened, and which brought to theNew England mind a new interest in Arminianism and Arianism,and which served to prepare the cradle for Unitarianism, whichwas afterward born. Transcendentalism was the natural spiritualchild of the great spiritual unrest which had preceded it byabout a century, and which wrought a great change in religiousand philosophical thought and ideals in New England, whichsection at that time undoubtedly was the intellectual centerof this country. It was the offspring of liberal Christian thought,The Crucible of Modern Thought32combined with Neo-Platonism, Oriental Religions, and OccultPhilosophy. it was perhaps nearer akin to what philosophy callsMysticism than to any other one form of thought.The spirit of Transcendentalism was most elusive, as all writershave remarked. The current impression at the present timemay be stated in a quotation from Professors McGilvery andTrent, in their article on the subject in the New InternationalEncyclopedia, as follows:It is difficult to disengage the elements, to delimit it in point of time,to say what it really accomplished, to determine what it became.The era of the Transcendentalists was in many respects an AmericanRenaissance, the effects of which were not confined to this country,but were spread chiefly through the writings of Emerson, Thoreau andChanning, to England, and to some extent to the Continent of Europe.That their ideas were vague and often transcended reason, not to saycommon sense, that their literary work was largely amateurish, thattheir extravagances gave much occasion to legitimate ridicule, thattheir so-called movement was the forerunner of religious and socialmanias of all sorts, can scarcely be gainsaid; but it is equally idle to denythe loftiness of their aims and the importance of their work.Be ones opinion of Transcendentalism what it may, nocareful student of the Transcendental Movement can doubtthe fact that in it may be found the underlying and immediatecauses of the modern effects, manifested as the New Thoughtmovement, on the one hand, and the tendency toward MonisticIdealism, or pantheism, evidenced in the philosophical thoughtof to-day, on the other hand. While it is true that the real causesof these later movements must be sought for still further backin the history of human thought, it cannot be doubted thatthe older impulses reached the present movements throughthe direct channel of the Transcendentalism of New England.An examination of the teachings and writings of that school,when compared with those of the later schools, shows a directThe Transcendental Movement.33chain or sequence and of cause and effect. Those who arelooking for the causes of the modern schools of thought willfail to find them unless they take into active consideration theTranscendental Movement of New England, of 18301850. Andnot only is this true, but it will be found that many other andapparently unrelated schools of thought arose about the sametime, not entirely in sympathy with the general movement, butapparently arising from the influence thereof. Some of theseside schools have their modern successors, tracing descentin a direct line. So that the influence of Transcendentalism inNew England may be considered the one vital factor which hasbrought about that state of affairs which has resulted in the oldconceptions sounding as odd to most of us as if it were someoutlandish savage religion, as Professor James has said; and inmaking possible the statement of the same careful authoritythat the only opinion quite worthy of arresting our attentionwill fall within the general scope of what may roughly be calledthe pantheistic field of vision, the vision of God as the indwellingdivine, rather than the external creator, and of human life as partand parcel of that great reality. Transcendentalism is the directand immediate cause of this state of affairs. And Ralph WaldoEmerson is recognized as the fullest and clearest expression ofTranscendentalism. As the orthodox speaker previously quotedsaid: Emerson is the fellow who is at the bottom of all thistrouble. Then let us see what Emerson really taught, and whathe stood for. This will help to show us the connection between18301850 and 1909.The Crucible of Modern Thought34