Emerson and his contemporaries

Although Emerson's writings may have been considered rebellious, or even revolutionary, in contrast to the conventions of his time, his ideals seem to have had a firm religious base (i.e religion as spirituality, not organized religion). Secondly, even though he was critical of the ills of society as a whole, he appeared to retain a considerable degree of faith that human beings--as individuals--still possessed within themselves the power of inborn intelligence, intuition, and even divinity (at least, that's what I'm getting from this excerpt and our other readings). For these two reasons, I would think that, although his ideas against conformity, convention, consistency, etc. may have been criticized by some, they still contained a universal spiritual appeal which would have won him many followers (and did!). I'm sure many--if not all--of us have experienced in nature the kinds of feelings Emerson describes in the above passage: oneness with nature and the "Universal Being," the sense of our own insignificance and of our "place" in the flow of time, and ultimately, peace. Pretty universal stuff.

I don't think his theories of social life necessarily advocated doing away with all social contact (again, based only on what we've read so far), but he recognized that to conform to all social and religious convention without question, and to become too remote from nature--of which we are undeniably a part--was to destroy all that was good, and possible, in the individual. I agree! (Is that 'cause I grew up in the 60's?) :)