Introduction:
This essay The American Scholar was originally the Phi Beta Kappa Society address which Emerson gave in August 1837 before the president and gentlemen. It had a great influence on the audience who went out from it as if a prophet had been proclaiming to them “Thus saith the Lord!” The address was published as a pamphlet in 1837: republished in 1838; and published again in 1844 as Man Thinking. The essay is indeed a summary of a thinking man. It is a challenge to the conservatives.
The Two Parts of Lecture:
The lecture falls into two parts. The first part contains an account of the influences operating upon the American Scholar to educate him. This part is further divided into three parts, one part dealing with the influences of Nature, the second, with that of books and the third with that of action. The second part contains Emerson’s view of the duties of the American Scholar. The lecture ends with an analysis of the state of affairs prevailing at the time in America and Emerson’s view of the future possibilities. It ends with a prophetic utterance.
Man’s Being One and His Being Divided by Society:
Man is indivisible. He is one and all. Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all. Man is priest, and scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier. But modern society has chained him terribly and has divided him. It has changed man into a thing or into many things. The worker does not receive proper respect. In such a society, the tradesman is always running after his dollars. The priest becomes a form. The sailor is tied with a rope of a ship. In this distribution of functions, the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the light state, he is Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, he is a mere thinker.
The American Scholar’s Receiving Influences:
The true American Scholar receives his main influences from: (1) Nature, (2) the mind of the past, and (3) the world. The first influence engages the scholar always fresh and vital. The second makes him acquainted with the best of the classics. But it does not shut the scope for writing new books, because books are the best things provided, they are well-used. The actions and events of our childhood and youth, are now matters of calmest observation. Of course, he who has put forth his total strength in fit actions, has the richest return of wisdom. Even if for a vocabulary, the scholar would be covetous of action. “Life is our dictionary”. Years are well spent in the freer, fresher countryside; it teaches man the best kind of grammar. On the contrary, “Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and workyard made.
Final Value of Action:
But the final value of action, like that of books, and better than books, is, that it is a resource. The mind now thinks, now acts; and each fit reproduces the other. Character is higher than intellect. Thinking is the function. Living is the functionary. A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think. Living is total act, while thinking partial. Man must learn the dignity and necessity of labour, only then would he be a whole man, ‘a man thinking’. He must be free from dependence on the books of other countries, as well as from the slavery to all books, to the mind of the past. He must be culturally independent.
Duties of the Scholar:
(a) Acquisition of Self-Trust:
Self-trust and self-realization must be acquired by the scholar. It is his most important duty. It is the scholar’s duty not to submit to popular opinion even if respectable leaders of society support it. At the back of the single self- reliant man is the ‘one soul’ which animates all men. Emerson’s doctrine of American cultural independence appealed greatly to his listeners. He succeeded in driving home the point that self-trust for the individual was most important, no matter what his nationality may be. Working with self-confidence he must cheer, raise and guide men by showing them the truth which is often hidden under appearances often false and deceptive.
(b) Freedom from All False Notions:
The scholar knows the world and its real nature. All his virtues are centred in self-trust. He must be free and brave. Fear always springs from ignorance. The scholar should face the danger in life without any fear. He should not tolerate any hindrances except those which arise from within himself. He must also free himself from all false notions of display, and the greed for fame and cheap popularity. He may have initially to live a life of poverty and solitude but he must not be discouraged. He must boldly face the difficulties that come in his way.
(c) Bringing Reason to Judge the Actions:
The scholar is world’s eye. He is the world’s heart. He is to resist the vulgar prosperity that retrogrades over to barbarism, by preserving and communicating heroic sentiments, noble biographies, melodious verse and the conclusions of history. It is the scholar’s duty to bring Reason to judge the actions of men and thus guide them and inspire them to do what is right and proper. If he is free and brave, success would be his in the long run.
Emerson’s Prose Style:
As regards the prose-style of his address, it, too, has Emerson’s usual defect i.e., the lack of logical connection between one sentence and another in the various paragraphs. Sentence follows sentence in quick succession, but sometimes the next sentence is not connected directly and logically with the preceding sentence. This creates some difficulty for the average reader who often feels puzzled because of this lack of logical causation.
Remarkability due to Epigrammatic Quality:
However, Emerson’s prose-style is remarkable for its epigrammatic quality. His sentences are pithy and compact, and remind us of the prose of Bacon. His style is characterized by concentration and condensation, and his sentences can be elaborated at length, some of the sentences read like proverbs. Here are few examples:
1. “A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think.”
2. “Fear always springs from ignorance.”
3. “The great man makes the great thing.”
4. “The world is nothing, man is all.”
Highly Figurative Style:
Emerson’s style is highly figurative. When inspired, similes and metaphors come out of his pen, as sparks from a chimney fire. His use of vivid, pictorial images is also to be noted. For example, we get, “It is one central fire, which, flaming now out of the lips of Etna, lightens the capes of Sicily, and now out of the throat of vesuvius, illuminates the towers and vineyards of Naples. It is one light which beams out of a thousand stars. It is one soul which animates all men.”
Emerson’s Using References and Allusions:
Emerson also makes use of references and allusions to earlier writers, mostly European. But such allusions do not create much difficulty for most readers are already familiar with them. Pope, Johnson, Carlyle, Bacon etc., are well known writers. It is only rarely that he alludes to such known figures as Emanuel Swedenborg or Pestalozzi.