Transcendentalism was prominent in the cultural life of the U.S., especially in New England from 1836 to until just before the Civil War. But, what is Transcendentalism? What do people really think about this movement? Do they think this is a way of life and living? Or do they think it is just something that will go away unnoticed? Well, we are about to find out the truth about the movement known as Transcendentalism.
             Transcendentalism is, "a term which seems the instinctive effort of the shrewd public to balance the airiness of a philosophy by the solidity of its name was a word that came to be applied, in the late thirties in New England to the group of thinkers of whom Emerson was the inspiration if not the chief" (Firkins 63). "In religion, Transcendentalism teaches that the religious spirit is a necessary aspect of human nature or of the human condition. And that the religious spirit does not reside in external forms, words, ceremonies, or institutions" (Richardson Jr. 250).
             "In literature Transcendentalism holds that it is a built-in necessity of human nature to express itself, that self-expression, like self-development, is one of the purposes of life itself. The social imperative of Transcendentalism is twofold. It insists, first, that the well-being of the individual of all the individuals is the basic purpose and ultimate justification for all social organizations and second that autonomous individuals cannot exist apart from others" (Richardson Jr. 250).
             So Transcendentalism basically is "a disclosure of possibilities; it showed vistas within man" (Firkins 67). Meaning that the most fundamental truth about life and death can be reached only by going beyond the world of senses. Nature is Transcendental because it "exists primarily, necessarily, and advances, yet takes no thought for the morrow" (Whicher 197).
             Now everyone thinks ...