Transcendentalism

Something that many people reach to achieve in their lives is transcendentalism; extraordinary in beliefs, observations, and thoughts. Transcendentalism is injected into peoples everyday lives in many different ways. Transcendentalism began over a hundred years ago: “The emergence of the Transcendentalists as an identifiable movement took place during the late 1820s and 1830s, but the roots of their religious philosophy extended much farther back into American religious history” (Finseth 1). Despite the fact that it came about further back transcendentalism didn’t apply to the lives of people till much later. Many ideas of transcendentalism came from various places and people, such as Walter Savage Landor, William Wordsworth, and Thomas Carlyle. After transcendentalism occurred, it spread into people’s lives and used as a motivation to achieve something greater.
Obtained from his studying Ralph Waldo Emerson came to know transcendentalism. Emerson aided in the transcendental movement; he published numerous essays and did more than 1,500 public lectures across America. If Emerson did not move away from his social and religious beliefs to the idea of transcendentalism and spread it to others then it probably wouldn’t have had an impact on so many other lives. Emerson went to Europe and while there, he met writers such as Walter Savage Landor, William Wordsworth, and Thomas Carlyle. By Carlyle showing Emerson German philosophy and how he felt towards life it influence Emerson (Emerson, Ralph Waldo 166). Because of his trip to Europe, Emerson had the opportunity to meet others who helped influence him and set his path towards the idea of transcendentalism. Once he got to America, from his trip in Europe, he wrote the essay Nature which started his transcendental essays. From the essay Nature comes many transcendental ideas: “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for any generations the remembrance of... [continues]

Read full essay