The American Scholar by Ralph Waldo Emerson
In the essay the American Scholar, Emerson portrays the scholar as a person who learns from three main things. These things by which a scholar is educated are by nature, by books (the past) and by action.
Emerson uses nature as a comparison to the human mind where he states, “There is never a beginning, there is never an end to the inexplicable continuity of this web of God, but always circular power returning into itself.”(296) The human mind is an object that is boundless and can be full of so much beauty and intellect such as nature can be. Emerson continues to explain how classification begins among the young minds. “To the young mind, every thing is individual, stands by itself. Emerson presents this idea as a negative effect on the scholar because
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”(297) Emerson feels that the scholar should learn things for themselves and not easily accept the views and opinions presented by a writer in their books. Man is then convinced “that he and it (nature) proceed from one root; one is leaf and one is flower. ”(298) But, Emerson does not encourage people to be genius because the “Genius is always the sufficiently enemy of the genius by over-influence. “Instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm. “The true scholar grudges every opportunity of action past by, as a loss of power. “The final value of action…is, that it is a resource. “Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential. ”(298) Emerson thus believes that all men have the capacity of being a genius. ”(298) Emerson believes that “books are for the scholar’s idle times”(298) and the only subjects that he should learn from reading are history and exact science. ”(301) Through action man has transformed himself into Man Thinking. ”(299) Emerson wants the scholar to learn but question everything. “The mind now thinks; now acts; and each fit reproduces the other…he has always the resource to live. ”(297) Books were originally intended for good.
Approximate Word count =
548
Approximate Pages =
2 (250 words per page double spaced)
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