The 19th-century philosophical and literary movement of Transcendentalism emphasized three things: a Romantic notion, tinged with Asian beliefs, of the interrelated relationship between nature, divinity, and humankind; a faith in intuition, by way of passive perception; and, lastly, an interest in “the quintessential American concept” of individuality (Introduction xxv). Ralph Waldo Emerson, as a foremost figure, if not the founder, of American Transcendentalism, is a champion of these three tenets, of course. More uncertain is the extent to which Henry David Thoreau adopted the views of Emerson, who was “the most important influence and friendship in [Thoreau’s] life” (Henry David Thoreau 826). A comparative reading of the pivotal works of these two authors – Nature and “Self-Reliance” by Emerson; Walden and “Resistance to Civil Government” by Thoreau – indicates a few differences between the two. Most notably, Thoreau demonstrates a far greater preoccupation with contemporary societal issues and the immediate world about him. However, in the larger scope of each author’s ideas, these differences are minor; Thoreau’s conception of Transcendentalism is effectively equivalent to Emerson’s philosophy.
To begin with, Thoreau shares many of Emerson’s views of nature. For instance, as John Ronan and Sherman Paul before him have noted, in Walden, Thoreau demonstrates the four uses of nature – “commodity,” “language,” “beauty,” and “discipline” – which Emerson outlines in Nature (Ronan 155). Paul summarizes it thus (as quoted by Ronan):
Like Emerson in Nature [Thoreau] began with the prudential, rising through the progressive uses of nature to spirit. Indeed, most of Emerson’s treatise was embodied in Walden: “Commodity” in “Economy”; “Nature” and “Beauty” in “Sounds” and “Solitude”; “Language” in “Brute Neighbours”; “Discipline” in “Reading.” “The Beanfield,” and “Higher Laws”... (155)
Of the four, “Discipline” is the most significant to both Emerson and Thoreau. Emerson states that “the happiest man is he who learns from nature” (514). Similarly, Thoreau states that his purpose in spending time in the woods around Walden Pond is to “learn what [nature] had to teach” (892).
To Thoreau, nature’s lessons regard “the essential facts of life” (892). To Emerson, the greatest lesson to procure from nature is that “of worship” (514). Herein, a divergence between the two transcendentalists becomes apparent. Although both Emerson and Thoreau agree in the importance of nature as a discipline, Emerson’s primary concern is the discovery of “a religion by revelation” (492). He turns to nature for such revelation of spiritual knowledge because, as he states, “in the woods, we return to...faith” (494). On the other hand, Thoreau shows a greater interest in contemporary “life” (892). In the chapter “Economy,” his nature imagery consistently relates to or is representative of society. For example, Thoreau uses a metaphor describing philanthropic men as plants used in tea-making to express his disagreement with charity:
Those plants of whose greenness withered we make herb tea for the sick serve but a humble use, and are most employed by quacks. I want the flower and fruit of a man; that some fragrance be wafted over from him to me, and some ripeness flavor our intercourse. (884)
In “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” as another case in point, Thoreau envisions all humanity as ants that “live meanly” (892). Thus, while Emerson is interested in nature for its perceived ability to connect him to God, for Thoreau, nature’s essential lessons are about life, people, and the issues faced by Western society.
This is not to say, however, that Thoreau does not share in Emerson’s view of nature as divine. Walden is ripe with allusions to a higher power. Thoreau’s description of his cabin in the woods, for example, connotes divinity in its references to godly figures and heavenly music:
This was an airy and unplastered cabin, fit to entertain a travelling god, and where a goddess might trail her garments. The winds which passed over my dwelling were such as sweep over the ridges of mountains, bearing the broken strains, or celestial parts only, of terrestrial music. (889)
He goes on to state “Olympus is but the outside of the Earth everywhere” (889) relating the divine in the subject of Mount Olympus, with “the outside...everywhere” (889) – that is, nature. Elsewhere, Thoreau writes, “In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But...God himself culminates in the present moment,” suggesting his belief in what Emerson calls the “perpetual presence of the sublime” (895). Thus, although Thoreau most clearly depicts nature as a metaphor for life conveying messages regarding specific issues of his time, he also recognizes and refers to the inherent divinity in his surroundings. Therefore in their views of nature, Emerson and Thoreau are not especially divergent. Although Emerson is more frequently explicit in stating his spiritual beliefs, both he and Thoreau express an opinion of nature as an extension of a higher power, capable of departing to its observant student a greater understanding of himself and the world about him.
In addition to their respective understandings of nature, Emerson and Thoreau also do not differ in the manner in which they propose to observe and intuit nature; both advocate a method of receptiveness. Passivity, a vital aspect of this method, is exemplified in this well-known passage from Emerson’s Nature:
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 eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. (494)
The phrase “all mean egotism vanishes” epitomizes the notion of absolute passivity – being, without any assertion of one’s being. The transparency (rather than opacity or translucency) of the infamous transcendental eye-ball also alludes to the concept of passive existence; the eye-ball is all but nonexistent. At the same time, the passivity described by Emerson is one which allows exceptional observation: Emerson “[sees] all” (494). As Kristen Bennett details in “Translating Transcendentalism: a Transcontinental Revelation of Emersonian Enthusiasm,” the transcendental emphasis on a perceptive passivity was inspired by the Kantian notion of a priori knowledge, or intuition, filtered through European Romanticism, particularly through the figures of Samuel Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Thomas Carlyle (33). Bennett writes,
Carlyle will maintain that the subconscious generates Creation, and is, via inward reflection, revealed to the conscious self through subliminal inspiration. Ergo, when one consciously strives to achieve revelation, it will only be a manufactured version, (33) thus explaining the emphasis placed by transcendentalists on absolute passivity in anticipation of intuition.
Thoreau partakes in transcendental passivity during his stay at Walden Pond. Through the first two chapters, he advocates a non-assertive existence in the repetition of “simplicity, simplicity, simplicity” (892) and praise of his own minimalistic lifestyle for “the leisure...thus secured” (876). Author David Robinson labels Thoreau’s stance as one of “dynamic passivity” (21), a term which neatly sums up the transcendentalist approach to intuiting nature. Thoreau’s desire to “‘receive [his] life as passively as the willow leaf that flutters over the brook’” (Robinson 21) is another aspect of Transcendentalism which he shares with Emerson.
As with the appreciation of nature as a bearer of truth as well as the passive approach to nature, Thoreau does not radically differ from Emerson on the third fundamental tenet of transcendentalism: self-reliance and assertion of one’s individuality, following intuition. In Walden, he aspires to “live deliberately” (892), and thereby set himself apart from “the mass of men [who] lead lives of quiet desperation” (847). In “Resistance to Civil Government,” while allowing that the installation of democracy is “a progress toward a true respect for the individual” (844), he maintains that” a government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice” (830) as “there is but little virtue in the action of masses of men” (832). Thus, Thoreau is a champion of individual thinking and non-conformity, putting him in alignment with Emerson, who declares, “Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist” (534). Thoreau also shares Emerson’s belief in non-consistency, as evidenced by his agreement, in Walden, with the Confucian line “Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again” (891). If there is any difference in the issue of self-reliance and independence between the two men, it is akin to the difference between them in regards to their connection to nature (discussed above); Emerson deals abstractly with the ideals of non-conformity and non-consistency whereas Thoreau is deeply concerned with actual contemporary experiences such as the cause of abolition in America, the Mexican War, and the poll tax. That said, however, the ideas which underlie Thoreau’s actions in these matters – among them a belief in non-conformity and confidence in one’s intuitions – are aligned with Emerson’s thoughts.
Thoreau’s conception of Transcendentalism is, thus, considerably similar to Emerson’s philosophy in regards to those ideas and beliefs which are most commonly associated with the movement. Emerson and Thoreau both share a view of nature as divinely inspired with knowledge of the world; they each believe in the need to intuitively grasp the lessons of nature, through a method of “dynamic passivity” (Robinson 21); finally, they believe in following these intuitions with conviction and self-assurance. The only divergence between the two authors as evidenced by the literature is that Emerson is theoretical, while Thoreau, concerned with the application of his ideas, is experiential and empirical. That being said, Thoreau does not significantly re-envision Emerson’s fundamental ideas regarding nature, intuition, and self-reliance. His philosophy is, therefore, Transcendentalist in the Emersonian mould.
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