FREE ESSAY ON AMERICAN SCHOLAR BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON

AMERICAN SCHOLAR BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON

The American Scholar by Ralph Waldo Emerson
In the essay the American Scholar, Emerson portrays the scholar as a person who learns
from three main things. These things by which a scholar is educated are by nature, by
books (the past) and by action.
Emerson uses nature as a comparison to the human mind where he states, "There is never a
beginning, there is never an end to the inexplicable continuity of this web of God, but
always circular power returning into itself."(296) The human mind is an object that is
boundless and can be full of so much beauty and intellect such as nature can be. Emerson
continues to explain how classification begins among the young minds. "To the young mind,
every thing is individual, stands by itself. Emerson presents this idea as a negative
effect on the scholar because they seem to continue to break things down trying to find
simple answers to complex questions. Man is then convinced "that he and it (nature)
proceed from one root; one is leaf and one is flower."(296) This thinking of man is the
opposite from the truth of the relationship between nature and himself. "He shall see
that nature is the opposite of the soul…. Its laws are the laws of his own
mind."(296)
According to Emerson, the next influence on the scholar is the mind of the past, where he
uses books to convey his ideas. "Books are the best things, well used; abused, among the
worst."(297) Books were originally intended for good. "The scholar of the first age,
received into him the world around; brooded thereon; gave it the new arrangement of his
own mind, and uttered it again."(297) According to Emerson, books can have a negative
effect on the way the scholar should think. "Instead of Man Thinking, we have the
bookworm."(297) Emerson feels that the scholar should learn things for themselves and not
easily accept the views and opinions presented by a writer in their books. He further on
continues to state how books "They look backward and not forward. But genius always looks
forward. The eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hind head."(298) Emerson
thus believes that all men have the capacity of being a genius. "Man hopes. Genius
creates."(298) But, Emerson does not encourage people to be genius because the "Genius is
always the sufficiently enemy of the genius by over-influence."(298) Emerson believes
that "books are for the scholar's idle times"(298) and the only subjects that he should
learn from reading are history and exact science.
The action of the scholar is important to Emerson. "Action is with the scholar
subordinate, but it is essential. Without it, he is not yet man… inaction is
cowardice, but there can be no scholar without the heroic mind."(299) Emerson wants the
scholar to learn but question everything. "The true scholar grudges every opportunity of
action past by, as a loss of power."(300) Emerson also places a value on action. "The
final value of action…is, that it is a resource."(301) Through action man has
transformed himself into Man Thinking. "The mind now thinks; now acts; and each fit
reproduces the other…he has always the resource to live."(301)