Ralph Waldo Emerson

RALPH WALDO EMERSON - BIOGRAPHY
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) American essayist, philosopher and poet who influenced the likes of Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr proclaimed Emerson's first major work, Nature, as America's "Intellectual Declaration of Independence" and it is very true thatthe uniqueness and vitality of Emerson's thought motivated much of the development of American intellectual life which places emphasis on optimism and individuality. Emerson had no designs to be a philosopher but through his works he drew together Eastern thought championing unity and the divine nature of the spiritual inner self with the continental metaphysics of material existenceincluding Hegel, Saint Augustine, Sir Francis Bacon and Coleridge among others. He felt that there was a presence of dialectic in the world between good and evil and that it is each person's individual goal to break free from this to heighten their inner self. This view of Emerson's was the budding of the American Transcendentalist movement. view of Emerson's was the budding of the American Transcendentalistmovement.
Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1803. His father was a Unitarian minister who died when young Emerson was only eight. Emerson began keeping journals at a young age, these journals would in turn provide him with a wealth of material for his later works. He entered Harvard College after studying classics at Boston Latin School, and graduated in 1821 continuing to the DivinitySchool there in 1825. At the time, American academics were undergoing controversy as translations of Hindu and Buddhist poetry were making the rounds as well as works from German critics. This controversy can be seen to be of much influence on Emerson as his thought developed through his later works. In 1829 he married Ellen Louisa Tucker and was ordained minister in the Second Church in Boston.Emerson continued to question Christian faith and in 1832 he resigned his post. The death of Ellen Louisa a few years after their marriage also influenced his religious beliefs and most likely influenced this decision as well. He moved to Concord, Massachusetts and spent years travelling and studying. It was in Paris at a botanical exhibition that Emerson found a calling as a naturalist and when hereturned to the United States he took part in lecturing as a part of the lyceum movement. He also married his second wife, Lydia Jackson in 1835 with whom he would have four children. Christian faith and in 1832 he resigned his post. The death of Ellen Louisa a few years after their marriage also influenced his religious beliefs and most likely influenced this decision as well. He moved toConcord, Massachusetts and spent years travelling and studying. It was in Paris at a botanical exhibition that Emerson found a calling as a naturalist and when he returned to the United States he took part in lecturing as a part of the lyceum movement. He also married his second wife, Lydia Jackson in 1835 with whom he would have four children.
The following year Emerson published Nature (1836) whichspeaks of nature as inspiration and source of humanity's fulfillment. He writes in the introduction:
Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy. Every man's condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to thoseinquiries he would put. He acts it as life, before he apprehends it as truth. In like manner, nature is already, in its forms and tendencies, describing its own design. Let us interrogate the great apparition, that shines so peacefully around us. Let us inquire, to what end is nature?
All science has one aim, namely, to find a theory of nature. We have theories of races and of functions, but...