Emerson and "The Soul"

Let's face it; Emerson is one of those writers who confuse the heck out of you, but then make you feel enlightened and fulfilled when you are finally able to comprehend what is actually being conveyed in their texts. Most of us have a love-hate relationship with texts such as these for this very reason. It's truly a labor of love.

In reading Emerson, if you understand nothing else, I would dare say the most important theme a reader should grasp is the power and salience of the soul that Emerson presents in nearly every one of his works. This is the point within the pieces we have read thus far that stood out to me almost immediately and consecutively as I read. It makes sense, too. The soul is a key part of the vision of Transcendentalists like Emerson, Bronson Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau, after all (as mentioned in the biographical Introduction of Emerson in The Norton Anthology of American Literature).

 For example, in his prized "Nature", Emerson suggests the notion that all men (people) have individual souls, but also possess a portion of the greater overarching soul of human kind. This is especially apparent in Chapter IV: Language, as Emerson preaches, "Man is conscious of a universal soul within or behind his individual life, wherein, as in a firmament, the natures of Justice, Truth, Love, and Freedom, arise and shine. This universal soul, he calls Reason: it is not mine or thine but his, but we are its; we are its property and men" (Emerson 223). In these lines, Emerson suggests the power and supremacy of this soul over us, and how we all share it. This idea of soul relates closely to spirit as well, a topic that is ubiquitous throughout "Nature" and makes up Chapter VII: Spirit. Emerson even claims that "The foundations of man are not in matter, but in spirit" (241).

In "The Divinity School Address," the importance and prominence of the soul is even more apparent as Emerson makes his critique of the Christian church and its neglect of the soul in its preaching and worship of Jesus. Emerson speaks of how all things are rooted in spirit, and that the world is a product of one will and one mind- aligning closely with this idea of there being "one soul" among humankind. Furthermore, Emerson discusses the power of virtue, a sentiment that is "divine and deifying. It is the beatitude of man...through it, the soul first knows itself" (259). He also stresses that the lacking emphasis on the soul of man and God is the central issue he takes with the Christian church, as he states, "But with whatever exception, it is still true that tradition characterizes the preaching of this country; that it comes out of the memory, and not of the soul; that it aims at what is usual, and not at what is necessary and eternal..." (265).

This theme within Emerson's pieces drew me in, especially in how it runs as a reoccurring theme and pivotal part of his philosophical and spiritual approach.