N NOTES

Mark context clues or indicate another strategy you used that helped you determine meaning.sanctity (SANGK tuh tee) n.MEANING:

PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING

Name: Date:

from NatureRalph Waldo Emerson

BACKGROUNDDuring the 1830s and 1840s, Emerson and a small group of like-minded friends gathered regularly in his study to discuss philosophy, religion, and literature. The Transcendental Club developed a philosophical system that stressed intuition, individuality, and self-reliance. In 1836, Emerson published “Nature,” the Transcendental Club’s unofficial statement of belief.

1 ature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. In good health, the air is a cordial1

of incredible virtue.Crossing a bare common,2 in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear. In the woods, too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life is always a child. In the woods is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In

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1. cordial (KAWR juhl) n. a strong, sweet liquor.2. common n. piece of open public land.

NOTESthe woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life—no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground—my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space—all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I seeall; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintances, master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate3 than in the streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature.

2 The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them. The waving of the boughs in the storm is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right.

3 Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both. It is necessary to use these pleasures with great temperance. For nature is not always tricked4 in holiday attire, but the same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of the nymphs is overspread with melancholy today. Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth in the population. ❧3. connate (KON ayt) adj. existing within someone since birth; inborn.4. tricked v. dressed.

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Write a critical summary of this excerpt from Nature :

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from NatureRalph Waldo Emerson

PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING

Ralph Waldo Emerson published the essay “Nature” in 1836. It states the beliefs of the Transcendental Club, a group made up of Emerson and his friends. The group developed a philosophy, or set of beliefs, that stresses individuality, self-reliance, and intuition, or understanding something from feeling rather than through reason.

This excerpt begins with Emerson describing a sense of “exhilaration,” or a feeling of great excitement, that he experiences when he is in the natural world. It can be felt regardless of the time of day or weather.

Crossing a bare common,1 in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration.

Emerson says that there is “perpetual youth” in the woods, meaning that a person can see and experience the natural world with the sense of wonder associated with childhood. And, when a person is in nature, “mean egotism,” or being obsessed with oneself, disappears. Forgetting the self and allowing oneself to experience one’s surroundings leads a person to experience something greater. For Emerson, God, the “Universal Being,” flows through him in such circumstances:

I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God.

Next, Emerson says that the “greatest delight” of being in contact with nature is a feeling of spiritual connection between a person and the natural world. The power to go beyond the self is found in the harmony, or understanding, of a person and nature. Emerson concludes by explaining how nature can reflect the moods of a person. For example, nature can seem melancholy when the person viewing nature is sad.

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth in the population.

1. common (KAHM uhn) n. piece of open public land.

This version of the selection alternates original text with summarized passages. Dotted lines appear next to the summarized passages.

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PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING

fromSelf-RelianceRalph Waldo Emerson

NOTES

BACKGROUNDIndividuality, independence, and an appreciation for the wonders of nature are just a few of the principles that Ralph Waldo Emerson helped to instill in our nation’s identity. His essay “Self-Reliance” grew out of a series of lectures that he conducted in the 1830s.

1 here is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide;

that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, onecharacter, one fact makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but

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what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.

NOTES

Mark context clues or indicate another strategy you used that helped you determine meaning.transcendent (tran SEHN duhnt) adj.MEANING:

redeemers (rih DEE muhrz) n.MEANING:

2 Trust 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 absolutely trustworthy wasstirring at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors. Obeying the Almighty effort and advancing on chaos and the Dark. . . .

3 Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company1 in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

4 Whoso2 would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name ofgoodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. . . .

5 A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistencya great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today. “Ah,so you shall be sure to be misunderstood?”—is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton,3 and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is tobe misunderstood.. ❧1. joint-stock company similar to a publicly owned corporation, in which risk

is spread among numerous investors.2. Whoso pr. archaic term for “whoever.”3. Pythagoras … Newton individuals who made major contributions to

scientific, philosophical, or religious thinking.

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Write an objective summary for this excerpt from Self-Reliance :

from Self-RelianceRalph Waldo Emerson

PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING

Ralph Waldo Emerson begins this excerpt of his essay “Self-Reliance” by stating that at a certain point in a person’s life, he or she must not envy others or want what they have. A person must not imitate others or try to be like them. People must accept themselves and work to improve themselves.

Trust 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.

Emerson explains that the virtue, or morally good behavior, demanded by society is conformity, or following the rules or laws. In contrast, Emerson recommends self- reliance and nonconformity. Instead of just believing what everyone else believes and acting the way everyone else acts, people should think and act independently.

The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

Emerson next says that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” This means that only small-minded people worry about maintaining the same set of beliefs without challenging themselves. And challenging oneself, Emerson suggests, is an important part of developing.

With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.

According to Emerson, people should speak their minds today and do so again tomorrow. These actions might lead to people contradicting themselves, or saying the opposite of what they once said, but that is a part of challenging one’s beliefs and becoming an individual. Emerson also says that it’s not so bad to be misunderstood, naming great figures from history who were misunderstood in their time.

Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton,1 and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. …

1. Pythagoras … Newton individuals who made major contributions to scientific, philosophical, or religious thinking.

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This version of the selection alternates original text with summarized passages. Dotted lines appear next to the summarized passages.

TASKWrite a CCCC/CCCCCC and argue whether or not Emerson is correct in his thoughts:

Claim:

Cite:

Clarify:

Connect

from Nature • from Self-RelianceRalph Waldo Emerson

DIRECTIONS: Compose Respond to these questions. Use textual evidence to support your responses.

1. (a) Compare and Contrast What is the opposite of the “mean egotism” that Emerson refers to in the first paragraph of his essay “Nature”? (b) Interpret What does Emerson mean when he writes that he becomes a “transparent eyeball”?

2. Interpret In what way is Nature’s power to delight not absolute, according to Emerson?

3. (a) Interpret According to “Self-Reliance,” what role does the “divine” have in determining each person’s circumstances? (b) Generalize What do you think Emerson would say was each person’s reason for living? Explain.

4. (a) Make a Judgment How important is Emerson’s use of the adjective “foolish” in his discussion of consistency in “Self-Reliance”? (b) Speculate Do you think there are any circumstances in which Emerson would advocate the benefits of consistency? Explain.