Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American essayist and poet, was a leader of the philosophical movement of transcendentalism (Encarta). He was born in May 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts and brought up in a family atmosphere supportive of hard work, moral discipline, and wholesome self-sacrifice. Seven of his ancestors were ministers, and his father, William Emerson, was minister of the First Church (Unitarian) of Boston (Encarta).
Ralph Waldo Emerson Transcendentalism, in philosophy and nature, is the belief in a higher reality than found in sense experience or in a higher knowledge than achieved by human reason (Encarta). Transcendentalism upholds the goodness of humanity, the glories of nature, and the importance of free individual expression. In addition, it is maintained that an awareness of reality, or a sense of truth, is reached through reasoning by intuition rather than the scientific rationalism (as the highest source of knowledge).
It also holds that material objects do not have any real existence of their own. Rather, these objects are diffused aspects of God, the Over-Soul. As said in Encarta encyclopedia, Transcendentalism also involved a rejection of the strict Puritan religious attitudes that were the heritage of New England. Thus, it opposed the strict ritualism and rigid theology of all established religious institutions.
Emerson’s first book “Nature” was published in 1836 that offered the essence of his philosophy of transcendentalism. In this he considered the over arching need to discover and develop a relationship with nature and God and expressed the belief that “everything in our world -- even a drop of dew -- is a microcosm of the universe” (poets.org, para.2). According to him nature is so peaceful that it takes away egoism and repair all problems and if a man would search deeply enough within himself he would find something as powerful and beautiful as.......
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