The Philosopher of the Internal Gyroscope
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Two of my favorite college professors were well-traveled in Europe, yet their subsequent wisdom was quite different.
The first one found himself so enriched by his scholarly journeys that any school break would find him in West Germany, Spain, France, Norway, Sweden, or anywhere west of the Iron Curtain.
The second one stated in conversation, “All travel in Europe does is make me glad to be an American.”
While most of our subject’s contemporaries would have sympathized with my first professor, Ralph Waldo Emerson would have implicitly understood the sentiment of the second.
There may have been the Declaration of Independence, and even the Constitution by the late 18th century, but it still took another half century for our country, then just 24 states, to develop its own voice in philosophy, literature, music, and the arts. Yes, and religion. When that development was begun in earnest, our nation took on its particular, and very new, identity in history.
Much of this was facilitated by a collection of writers, thinkers, naturalists, and general oddbods who lived in and around Concord, Massachusetts. While they would credit their choice to live 20 miles from Boston to the quiet, rural charm of small town life, along with its proximity to what was then the largest city in the United States, there was a particular magnet that drew them together.
Concord was the home to the most original thinker of his times, one who was capable of sharing his perspective in essays and dynamic speeches that captivated the youth of his age, especially those of the first American-born generation.
Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-1882], pastor, preacher, naturalist, public speaker, essayist, and philosopher, was the spindle of what would become known as American Transcendentalism.
It was not an easy path for him, though. Emerson had a well-known and respected pastor father who had determined young Ralph’s profession by the time he was eight-years-old, he had been processed by the rote system of Boston Latin and Harvard College, and constrained within the expectations of the Unitarian Church in which he was subsequently ordained.
This was not an experience that should produce a free-thinker, yet….
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
By profession, I have observed many times people in profound grief over the death of a loved one. The death can be the result of something sudden, such as an accident, an unknown medical condition, or a circumstance of depression; or it can be the result of something expected and inevitable, as with elderly couples.
Regardless, everyone reacts in a different way. I have seen anger, catatonia, resignation, the questioning of heavenly authority, indulgence, over-indulgence, and just plain defeat. Grief will subside, but that, too, takes its own course.
Emerson’s life was orderly and ordinary, serving as the assistant pastor of the Second Church of Boston, until his wife died of tuberculosis in 1831, the second year of their marriage. Suddenly, the old structures in which he had lived and worked no longer answered. His education provided no relief, and the Unitarian Church’s theology that her death was “meant to be”, as pre-ordained by God, seemed to him something with which only an imbecile would agree.
In mourning, Emerson visited his wife’s grave in the Roxbury portion of Boston every day for over a year, once even opening her tomb to gaze upon her once again. His work began to bore him, as did life in Boston, as did his social class, as did the intellectuals who seemed to make so much sense to him at one time.
Now all was dull, flat, non-sensical, and absent of faith. He even began to question the polity of the Unitarian Church, sometimes quite openly, as he realized that it was just an uninspired and uninspiring salve to the gentry class.
"I have sometimes thought that, in order to be a good minister, it was necessary to leave the ministry. The profession is antiquated. In our altered age, we worship in the dead forms of our forefathers".
So, he surrendered the ministry, the black frock coat, the constrained thinking to which he had to conform, and began to seek a new, much more free manner of encountering God, works, faith, life, love, and eternity. First, he did what young men of his class did. He went to Europe.
Emerson made the usual rounds for an educated man of the 19th century. He went to Rome, Malta, Florence, Venice, Switzerland, London, and other parts of England. He met John Stuart Mill, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Thomas Carlyle.
In Paris, he found inspiration in the Jardin des Plantes, where he noted how the gardens were organized in a logical, naturally philosophical system. It was here that he first gathered the notion of “the interconnectedness of all things” that would inform his philosophy and be the theme he would work for the remainder of his life.
Emerson returned to the United States in 1833 and married anew, moved to Concord, and began a career as a public lecturer, a pursuit at which he excelled, eventually giving over 1500 lectures during his life. These were accompanied by bestselling books that elaborated on the topics of his speeches.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc09d56b4-1313-4ad5-a880-83107e119ead_1024x768.jpeg)
Despite his travels in Europe, Emerson did not seek to re-cycle old philosophies and belief systems. He was a 19th century American, after all, and that meant youth, vigor, physicality, ingenuity, and originality in all things.
As it developed, Emerson’s world view would include the following:
He believed in the inherent goodness of people. Thus, people should be encouraged to trust their own instincts and insights rather than conform to societal norms or authority. To do so emphasizes the importance of self-reliance and individualism.
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
He preferred intuition and the direct experience of spiritual truth rather than reliance on institutional dogma. Emerson also promoted the existence of a divine "Over-Soul" that interconnected all living things.
"We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE."
He viewed nature as a manifestation of the divine and as a source of spiritual renewal and inspiration. He often sought solitude in nature to contemplate interconnectedness.
"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."
Emerson criticized the materialism, conformity, and strict religious doctrines of his time. He advocated for a more intuitive, spiritual approach to a life that focused on personal growth and a connection with the natural world.
"God enters by a private door into every individual."
Much of this seems to us standard features of American culture. Yet, in the 1830’s, it was so radical that, before his philosophy had a name, it was referred to simply as “The Newness”. Emerson had created a philosophical framework that would enable the maintenance of what has been called an internal spiritual gyroscope.
As should come as no surprise, The Newness was of particular interest to the young. So, at the beginning of the 1837-38 term at Harvard College, Emerson would be invited to address the Phi Beta Kappa Society from the pulpit of First Church in Cambridge.
The speech was entitled “The American Scholar”, and it changed our world.
Of that speech, and its result, we will speak more next week.
“Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation….”
Great read! I'd live in that house for sure. :}
Thank you for teaching me about Ralph.