Introduction:
Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the central figures of Transcendentalism, presents his ideas about the making of a true scholar in his famous essay The American Scholar. In this work, Emerson redefines the concept of scholarship by emphasizing independence, self-reliance, and a deep connection with nature and life.
According to Emerson, a man is shaped into a true scholar through three primary influences or factors. The first is Nature, which acts as a teacher and source of inspiration, enabling the scholar to understand universal truths. The second is Books, which serve as valuable resources of past wisdom, but must not dominate the scholar’s thinking; instead, they should be used critically. The third is Action, which emphasizes that real learning comes from practical experience and active engagement with life. These elements together contribute to the intellectual and moral growth of an individual.
Emerson also outlines the duties of a scholar, presenting him as “Man Thinking” rather than a mere passive learner. The scholar’s foremost duty is to think independently and avoid blind imitation. He must communicate truth fearlessly, guide society, and inspire others through his ideas. Additionally, the scholar has a moral responsibility to challenge conformity and uphold intellectual freedom.
Thus, Emerson’s vision transforms the scholar into an active, creative, and socially responsible individual, shaped by nature, knowledge, and experience, and committed to the pursuit and expression of truth.
The Essay-Its Two Parts:
The lecture which is entitled The American Scholar, was delivered on the 31st August, 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Literary Society of Harvard University near Cambridge in the U.S.A. This 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 regarding the great future that awaits American nation: “A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.”
Urging Earnestly for Literary Freedom:
Emerson begins his essay by pointing out that, “Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close.” The period of literature independence for America has begun and the American scholar must make the best use of his opportunities. He should transform himself from a narrow specialist—a mere student of books—into a man of broad culture, participating in the world of ideas and action. He must come to the idea of ‘Man Thinking’. He must no longer feed himself with the harvest of other lands but must read and sing of the events of his own country.
Distribution of Functions, Division of ‘Man’ into ‘Men’:
The essay begins with an address to the President and Gentleman and says: “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 changed him terribly and has divided him. It has changed man into a thing or into many things. The worker does not receive proper respect for good cheer in it. In such a society, the tradesman is always running after his dollars. The priest becomes a form. The sailor is a rope of a ship.
The Three Forces Shaping a Man into Scholar:
The three forces that shape a man into scholar are—Nature, books, and his own actions. Their combined influence will transform him from a narrow book worm into a man of broad culture and make him ‘man thinking. Once this narrow specialist has turned into ‘Man Thinking’ he would find that his duties are all summed up in ‘self-trust’. Trusting himself this ‘Man Thinking’, who has allied himself with humanity at large, would find that his own age and his own country fit to work in and he himself is fit to do the work. He will realise that as an American he is especially fortunate. The spirit of the age becomes every day more democratic and more individualist, thus increasing the importance of the single man. Let the American scholar be no longer timid and imitative and let him, not be too deferential to European writers and men of letters. Instead let him be self-reliant and rely on the annals of his own country.
1. The Influence of Nature:
Man and Nature have a correspondence. There is an affinity between them. Man seeks to systematize and unify, and so he explores the laws governing facts. Here the scholar is a scientist who observes and classifies and who speculates on the relations between things. The perception of relation is an imaginative and intuitive act. Thus, the “schoolboy, under the bending dome of day” has an intuitive apprehension that the laws of nature are also those of his soul. Nature and his soul appear as the manifestations of the same universal soul. They arise from the same root and are related like leaf and flower, like the seal and its impression. If he learns of the one, he will know the other. Thus, arises command ‘know thyself’ which is identical with ‘Study Nature’.
2. The Influence of Books:
The scholar is influenced by the mind of the past in so far as it is embodied in the great classics. He is not to be crushed by this tradition. Books can only inspire him and renew his own creativity. The scholar must ‘read God directly’, live life and feel life. Reading must be followed by periods of solitude, inquest and self-recovery. This is necessary because genius is always sufficiently the enemy of genius by over influence. Books have an important service during the intervals of darkness when we have to repair to the lamps which were kindled in the past. Just as the unproductive fig tree may be inspired by the example of the productive one, so can a person by the example of the great man. The scholar must have creative reading.
The scholar should study books, but he should also liberate his mind from slavery to the authority of books. The true scholar, if he is to grow into a hero, i.e., ‘Man Thinking’, must not be subdued by books which are merely instruments of his transformation. Young men need not allow themselves to be influenced too much even by such great writers as Cicero, Locks and Bacon. Books of the past might have been of grease use in their own age, but now they must be used with great caution. In his opinion every age writes its own books, or at the most it writes for the next age, so they must think on what they read and make use of what is universal and permanent. They must learn to critically shift and analyse what they read.
3. Influence of the Life of Action:
Action is essential for the scholar, though the action is to be subordinate to speculation. Without action, the scholar is not yet man. Without action, thought can never ripen into truth. Only action can complete thought. Reading should be creative. It must make him see into the heart of things and understand the truth. He advises the scholar that a great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think. He can still fall back on this elemental force of living. This is a total act. Thinking is a partial act. He must learn the dignity and necessity of labour, only then he would be 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:
1. Acquiring Self-Trust and Self-Realization:
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. The scholar must free himself from such deception.
2. Freedom from Greed of Fame and Cheap Popularity:
The scholar does the slow, unhonoured and unpaid task of observation. He must observe and study men and their psychology and must not mind if fame does not come to him at once. He must be prepared to accept not only poverty and scorn of the people, but also solitude. His chief consolation should be the fact that he exercises the highest functions of human nature. He must boldly face the difficulties that come in his way, and thus overcome them. He must free himself from all weakness and fear.
3. Reasonable Analysis and Judgement:
The scholar is a man who raises himself above private consideration, and lives on public and illustrious thoughts. He is the world’s eye, and also the world’s heart. In other words, he sees and feels for others. He must preserve and communicate heroic sentiments, noble biographies, melodious versé and the conclusions of history. Whatever new judgements are pronounced by Reason on the passing men and events of the present, he will hear them and propagate them so that they are also cared for by others.
Related Questions with the same Topic:
1. What are the various factors which shape a man into a scholar? What according to Emerson are the duties and functions of a scholar?
Or
2. What role does self-reliance play in making the scholar a hero? What are the various ways in which a scholar can be self-reliant?
Or
3. “Emerson’s true hero is the scholar and the true vocation is that of the scholar.”
Elucidate.