Why Did Cvecoeur Understand The Role Of The Natural World In Human Society

He believes it must have been great to be the first ones to come the this new land (american) clean slate “we are the most perfect society now existing in the world” p 41

how did crevecoeur understand the role of the natural world in human society? Location of where people lived determined their different lifestyles as well as personality shore:boisterous, travel, commerce, trafficking, fish people living inland: civilized because they indulge in some (“mild”) government, knowledge and religion; comfotable; farming-purifying; come from different places; farming: believes it makes you pure, follows laws, moral, frontier (woods): loners, dont like neighbors, hunting, lawless, lose interest in religion, brutal,
Married in 1827 Wife died in 1831 (only 20 when she died) Ordained in 1829 Resigned in 1832 The death of his wife and his resignation are connected Had a lot of doubt about his faith and the church Resigning was a path towards intellectual freedom Traveled through Europe and the united states meeting with other Unitarians In 1838 he was invited to give commencement address at Harvard divinity school American transcendentalism (parts of commencement address) Intuition (self) trumps doctrine (religion) Biblical miracles are not real (does not believe in resurrection of Jesus) Jesus is not divine (does not believe Jesus is son of God) He felt that Christianity made Jesus into a Pagan god (no different than greeks and romans looked at their gods) Inherent goodness (people and nature are good) Sees religion and politics as corrupting forces Corrupting the purity of the self (believes ourselves to be separate from nature and God) Knowledge (2 ways to know something): From the inside From the outside
Essay: Over soul Nature of the human soul Vast Beautiful All-encompassing