English III – March 26, 2018 DO NOW: Turn in your Emerson work – GREEN TRAY Take out paper Set up notes Cornell style Objective: I will determine Emerson’s purpose and analyze text for theme. AGENDA: Notes on Emerson’s essays Respond to Self-Reliance

Directions: For each of Emerson’s essays, I will give you one (or more) significant quotes and a summary. Write down EVERYTHING In addition, determine (and write down) which of the four core Transcendental beliefs each essay best fits with: Self knowledge Oversoul Nature as Teacher Intuition over intellect.

Nature: “Our age is Retrospective” Humans look backward – they do not participate directly in life, but accept what was learned in the past. We need to create our own religion, philosophy, poetry, etc. “I am part or particle of God” We should retreat to nature – it will solve all our ills. We are part of the particle of God – in other words, all aspects of Nature are connected, and we are one of those aspects.

Friendship “Every man alone is sincere.” “But to most of us society shows not it’s face and eye, but side and back” Searching for a sincere person. We are “clothed in false garments” in other words, hypocrites. We hide our true natures. A true friend, and the best type of person, is one who is able to be honest and who is without pretense.

Experience “Intellectual tasting of life will not supersede muscular activity” “To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom” “If a man should consider the nicety of the passage of a piece of bread down his throat, he would starve.” Intellectual life looks splendid, but will pale over time Carpe diem (a.k.a. YOLO) Live life to the fullest – make the most of your time, do not be idle but always active. Wish not for a long life, but for a deep one. It’s the grand moments that are significant.

Fate “For though Fate is immense, so is power…” “Intellect annuls fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free.” Human freedom / free will coexists with fate. Human will prevails. It is in how we react to circumstances that matters. So long as man thinks, he is free.

The Journals “It is the largest part of a man that is not inventoried.” “Far the best part, I repeat, of every mind is not that which he knows, but that which hovers in gleams, suggestions, tantalizing, unpossessed, before him.” We are made of two distinct parts: That which can be categorized (religion, profession, social, etc.) and that which can not (this is the spiritual). “This is that which the preacher and the poet and the musician speak to.” This is the best part of us. We are filled with untapped potential!

Self-Reliance (part 1) “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself, for better, for worse, as his portion…” “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” Do you. Human beings will thrive only if they nourish the potential within themselves. A.K.A. self trust.

Self-Reliance (part 2) “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members” “The virtue in most request is conformity.” Society encourages people to trade freedom and individuality for safety and comfort of traditional beliefs AKA conformity. Men are the prisoners of tradition, clinging to it out of fear, though it has no value other than consistency and safety. We are made up of two distinct parts – the intellectual (taught) part and the instinctive, spontaneous part – it is this that we should trust.

“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness but must explore if it be goodness…a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency, a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with shadows on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today. – ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ – Is it so bad to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

*5 points extra credit for those who volunteer to share. Respond to this quote in a minimum one-page essay. How does it make you feel? Which part stands out most to you? Why? Do you agree or disagree with it? Does it speak to that part of you which is not intellectual, but instinctive and spiritual (as he mentions in “The Journals”)? Do you feel that you can apply this to your life / to today’s world in any way? Type (preferred) or write neatly. You MAY use the first person. Due Tomorrow. *5 points extra credit for those who volunteer to share.