"The reward of a thing well
done is to have done it."
"From within or from behind,
a LIGHT
shines through us upon things,
and
makes us aware that
we are nothing,
but
the LIGHT
is all."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The above is what PVAF and
its mandate is all about.....
Emerson was a profound American Transcendentalist essayist and
poet from the 19th century whose words
still speak deeply into our struggles to live with personal integrity.
Emerson called upon his listeners
to intuitively and passionately see the unity
in all of life to have a first-hand relationship with reality.
What did Emerson really mean and how can we integrate his work
in our own QUEST FOR MEANING? To find
out please click on the web site of next red hilite
EMERSON RALPH WALDO - A VISIONARY LIFE
From
Emerson Ralph Waldo website and
Encarta MSN website is the following
knowledge about
Ralph Waldo Emerson
American Author, Poet & Philosopher
1803 - 1882
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts. He is
widely regarded as one of America's most influential authors, philosophers and
thinkers. At one time a Unitarian minister, Emerson left his pastorate because
of doctrinal disputes with his superiors. Soon after, on a trip to Europe, he
met a number of intellectuals, including Thomas Carlyle and William Wordsworth.
The ideas of these men, along with those of Plato and some of the Hindu,
Buddhist, and Persian thinkers, strongly influenced his development of the
philosophy of "Transcendentalism". In 1836 Emerson expressed Transcendentalism's
main principle of the "mystical unity of nature" in his essay, "Nature".
Emerson urged independent thinking and stressed that not all life's answers are
found in books. In his "The American Scholar" address to the Phi Beta Kappa
Society at Cambridge in 1837 Emerson states that: "Books are the best of things,
well used; abused, among the worst." He believed that a scholar learns best by
engaging life. Emerson's essays on "The Conduct of Life" outline what one might
do to engage life "skillfully."
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
(1803-1882), American essayist and poet, a leader of the philosophical movement
of
transcendentalism. Influenced by such schools of thought as English
romanticism,
Neoplatonism, and Hindu philosophy (see
Hinduism), Emerson is noted for his skill in presenting his ideas eloquently
and in poetic language.
Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts .
Seven of his ancestors were ministers, and his father, William Emerson, was
minister of the First Church (Unitarian) of Boston. Emerson graduated from
Harvard University at the age of 18 and for the next three years taught school
in Boston. In 1825 he entered Harvard Divinity School, and the next year he was
sanctioned to preach by the Middlesex Association of Ministers. Despite ill
health, Emerson delivered occasional sermons in churches in the Boston area. In
1829 he became minister of the Second Church (Unitarian) of Boston. That same
year he married Ellen Tucker, who died 17 months later. In 1832 Emerson resigned
from his pastoral appointment because of personal doubts about administering the
sacrament of the
Lord's Supper. On Christmas Day, 1832, he left the United States for a tour
of Europe. He stayed for some time in England, where he made the acquaintance of
such British literary notables as
Walter Savage Landor,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
Thomas Carlyle, and
William Wordsworth. His meeting with Carlyle marked the beginning of a
lifelong friendship.
After nearly a year in Europe Emerson returned to
the United States. In 1834 he moved to Concord, Massachusetts, and became active
as a lecturer in Boston. His addresses—including “The Philosophy of History,”
“Human Culture,” “Human Life,” and “The Present Age”—were based on material in
his Journals (published posthumously, 1909-1914), a collection of
observations and notes that he had begun while a student at Harvard. His most
detailed statement of belief was reserved for his first published book,
Nature (1836), which appeared anonymously but was soon correctly attributed
to him. The volume received little notice, but it has come to be regarded as
Emerson’s most original and significant work, offering the essence of his
philosophy of transcendentalism. This idealist doctrine opposed the popular
materialist and Calvinist (see
Calvinism) views of life and at the same time voiced a plea for freedom of
the individual from artificial restraints.
Emerson applied these ideas to cultural and
intellectual problems in his 1837 lecture “The American Scholar,” which he
delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard. In it he called for
American intellectual independence. A second address, commonly referred to as
the “Address at Divinity College,” delivered in 1838 to the graduating class of
Cambridge Divinity College, aroused considerable controversy because it attacked
formal religion and argued for self-reliance and intuitive spiritual experience.
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The first volume of
Emerson’s Essays (1841) includes some of his most popular works. It
contains “History,” “Self-Reliance,” “Compensation,” “Spiritual Laws,”
“Love,” “Friendship,” “Prudence,” “Heroism,” “The Over-Soul,” “Circles,”
“Intellect,” and “Art.” The second series of Essays (1844) includes
“The Poet,” “Manners,” and “Character.” In it Emerson tempered the optimism
of the first volume of essays, placing less emphasis on the self and
acknowledging the limitations of real life. In the interval between the
publication of these two volumes, Emerson wrote for The Dial, the
journal of New England transcendentalism, which was founded in 1840 with
American critic
Margaret Fuller as editor. Emerson succeeded her as editor in 1842 and
remained in that capacity until the journal ceased publication in 1844. In
1846 his first volume of Poems was published (dated, however, 1847).
Emerson again went abroad from 1847 to 1848 and
lectured in England, where he was welcomed by Carlyle. Several of Emerson’s
lectures were later collected in the volume Representative Men
(1850), which contains essays on such figures as Greek philosopher
Plato, Swedish philosopher
Emanuel Swedenborg, and French writer
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne. While visiting abroad, Emerson also gathered
impressions that were later published in English Traits (1856), a
study of English society. His Journals give evidence of his growing
interest in national issues, and on his return to America he became active
in the
abolitionist cause, delivering many antislavery speeches. The Conduct
of Life (1860) was the first of his books to enjoy immediate popularity.
Included in this volume of essays are “Power,” “Wealth,” “Fate,” and
“Culture.” This was followed by a collection of poems entitled May Day
and Other Pieces (1867), which had previously been published in The
Dial and The Atlantic Monthly. After this time Emerson did little
writing and his mental powers declined, although his reputation as a writer
spread. His later works include Society and Solitude (1870), which
contained material he had been using on lecture tours; Parnassus
(1874), a collection of poems; Letters and Social Aims (1876); and
Natural History of Intellect (1893).
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