TRANSCENDENTALISM DEAD POETS SOCIETY

TRANSCENDENTALISM “It is a pragmatic, a state of mind, and a form of spirituality” (Reuben) 1)“An individual is the sprditual center of the universe” 2)“The structure of the universe literally duplicates the structure of the individual self” “Know thyself” 3)“Nature is a living mystery, full of signs.” 4)“Individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization” 1)“a desire to embrace the whole world, become one with the world” 2)“a desire to withdraw, remain unique and separate” (“Early Nineteenth Century—American Transcendentalism: A Brief Introduction” Paul Reuben)

DEVELOPMENT OF A.T. AT Puritanism Unitarianism Romanticism Quaker

TIME LINE DateEvent 1836Nature by Emerson 1838Divinity School Address by Emerson 1840Dial magazine 1845Thoreau goes to Walden Pond 1850Passage of the Fugitive Slave Act 1855Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman 1859Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

Transcend or rise above the animal drives and move to a spiritual reality. Human soul is part of the Oversoul or universal spirit Oversoul can be found in nature and the individual. Jesus “was divine as everyone is divine” Miracles of the Bible are devalued today; all of the world is a miracle “The one thing in the world of value is the active soul” Emerson In death, the soul passes to the oversoul. “Empasis on the present. “Give me one world at a time” Thoreau Light is more powerful than darkness Fights against predestination—focus on self-reliance. Focus on relativism; truth changes. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” Emerson Faith in intuition; truth does not come from revelation. BASIC TENETS OF A.T. (REUBEN)

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day To-morrow will be dying. The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun The higher he 's a-getting, The sooner will his race be run, And nearer he 's to setting. That age is best which is the first When youth and blood are warmer; But being spent, the worse, and worst Times still succeed the former. Then be not coy, but use your time. And while ye may, go marry: For having lost but once your prime, You may for ever tarry. TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME

WHERE I LIVED, AND WHAT I LIVED FOR I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."

ULYSSES Come, my friends. 'T is not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die.

THE CONGO