We have already seen how Cooper in his early days deferred to English taste
(p. 127), and how Andrew Jackson in his rough way proved something of a
corrective (p. 148).
Emerson proceeded to deal such subserviency a staggering blow. He denounced
this "timid, imitative, tame spirit," emphasized the new importance given
to the single person, and asked, "Is it not the chief disgrace in the world
not to be a unit;--not to be reckoned one character;--not to yield that
peculiar fruit which each man was created to bear; but to be reckoned in
the gross, in the hundred, or the thousand, of the party, the section, to
which we belong, and our opinion predicted geographically, as the North, or
the South?" Then followed his famous declaration to Americans, "We will
walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our
own minds."
No American author has done more to exalt the individual, to inspire him to
act according to his own intuitions and to mold the world by his own will.
Young Americans especially listened to his call, "O friend, never strike
sail to a fear! Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas."
ESSAYS.--The bulk of Emerson's work consists of essays, made up in large
part from lectures.
Pages:
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241