Ralph Waldo Nature/ The American Scholar
To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
Into his darker musings, with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness, ere he is aware.
The American Scholar
From The American Scholar we have the following quote:
In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he [the scholar] tends to become
a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking.”
Emerson encourages instead urges the scholar to be “Man Thinking.”
1. In your own words, what does it mean to be “Man Thinking”?
2. Emerson then begins to discuss influences upon the scholar. What are the two influences to these influences? Think this concept through and be specific.
3. What does Emerson say about books and learning from books?
4. The third topic Emerson discusses in this essay is action. What does Emerson say about action in the first two paragraphs of section III?
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