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Outlines of English and American Literature
Social and Intellectual Changes
by Long, William J.
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The mental ferment of the period
was almost as intense as its political agitation. Thus, the
antislavery movement, which aimed to rescue the negro from his
servitude, was accompanied by a widespread communistic attempt to
save the white man from the manifold evils of our competitive
system of industry. Brook Farm [Footnote: This was a Massachusetts
society, founded in 1841 by George Ripley. It included Hawthorne,
Dana and Curtis in its large membership, and it had the support of
Emerson, Greeley, Channing, Margaret Fuller and a host of other
prominent men and women] was the most famous of these communities;
but there were more than thirty others scattered over the country,
all holding property in common, working on a basis of mutual
helpfulness, aiming at a nobler life and a better system of labor
than that which now separates the capitalist and the workingman.
Widening Horizons
This brave attempt at human brotherhood, of which Brook Farm was
the visible symbol, showed itself in many other ways: in the
projection of a hundred social reforms; in the establishment of
lyceums throughout the country, where every man with a message
might find a hearing. In education our whole school system was
changed by applying the methods of Pestalozzi, a Swiss reformer;
for the world had suddenly become small, thanks to steam and
electricity, and what was spoken in a corner the newspapers
immediately proclaimed from the housetops. In religious circles the
Unitarian movement, under Channing's leadership, gained rapidly in
members and in influence; in literature the American horizon was
broadened by numerous translations from the classic books of
foreign countries; in the realm of philosophy the western mind was
stimulated by the teaching of the idealistic system known as
Transcendentalism.
Transcendentalism
Emerson was the greatest exponent of this new philosophy, which
made its appearance here in 1836. It exalted the value of the
individual man above society or institutions; and in dealing with
the individual it emphasized his freedom rather than his subjection
to authority, his soul rather than his body, his inner wealth of
character rather than his outward possessions. It taught that
nature was an open book of the Lord in which he who runs may read a
divine message; and in contrast with eighteenth-century philosophy
(which had described man as a creature of the senses, born with a
blank mind, and learning only by experience), it emphasized the
divinity of man's nature, his inborn ideas of right and wrong, his
instinct of God, his passion for immortality,--in a word, his
higher knowledge which transcends the knowledge gained from the
senses, and which is summarized in the word "Transcendentalism."
We have described this in the conventional way as a new philosophy,
though in truth it is almost as old as humanity. Most of the great
thinkers of the world, in all ages and in all countries, have been
transcendentalists; but in the original way in which the doctrine
was presented by Emerson it seemed like a new revelation, as all
fine old things do when they are called to our attention, and it
exercised a profound influence on our American life and literature.
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