Ralph Waldo Emerson 拉尔夫 · 华尔多 · 爱默生 （ 1803—1882 ）

1. Ralph Waldo Emerson拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生（1803—1882）

2. Brief Introduction • An American lecturer essayist, philosopher and poet • The most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism(超验主义) • Lincoln called him "the American Confucius", "the father of the American civilization".

3. life story • major works • Emerson and Transcendentalism • Emerson’s influence

4. Life Story Family Education Career

5. 1811—His father died from stomach cancer/ 8 years old 1831→1836—His first wife and two of his brothers died from tuberculosis(肺结核) 1835—He married a second wife 1842—His first son died from scarlet fever(猩红热) Family

6. 9/his formal schooling began /Boston Latin School • 14/Harvard College /freshman messenger for the president • not stand out /graduated in the exact middle of his class /59 people • Harvard Divinity School(哈佛神学院). Education

7. Career • In1821/young women school/Harvard University theological seminary/in 1829/minisiter /image headlines • After his wife’s death/toured Europe/met William Wordsworth/Coleridge/Thomas Carlyle /accepted their transcendentalist idea/influence his writing • first essay/Nature/ the day before the publication /met with Henry Hedge/George Putnam /George Ripley /plan periodic gatherings of other like-minded intellectuals/the beginning of the Transcendental Club(超验主义俱乐部)/more and more lectures/successful

8. Major works Nature《论自然》 Self-Reliance 《论自立》 The American Scholar《论美国学者》 The Divinity School Address《神学院演说》 Over-Soul 《论超灵》

9. Nature(1836) one of Emerson’s best-known and most influential essays /a lyrical expression/harmony / between himself and nature/ main idea /nature inspires spiritual understanding in human being/the Bible of Transcendentalism.

10. Nature To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things. 走入孤独，远离书斋，如同远离社会一样重要。纵然无人在我身旁，当我读书或写作时，并非独处一隅。如果一个人渴望独处，就请他注目于星辰吧。那从天界下行的光芒，使人们得以出离可触摸的现世。

11. Self-Reliance (1841) express his idea of transcendentalism/the primacy of the individual. Transcendental faith: the dignity and the ultimate sanctity of each human being. “Believe in Yourself” is the core point of “Self-Reliance.”

12. “Self-Reliance” “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.” (P167 P1 L1-L6) 每个人在受教育过程中，总有一天会认识到：妒忌是无知，模仿是自杀。不论好歹，每个人都必须接受属于他的那一份，广阔的世界里虽然充满了珍馐美味，但是只有从给予他去耕耘的那一片土地里，通过辛勤劳动收获的谷物才富有营养。

13. Transcendentalism is a way of knowing the belief that man intuitively transcends the limit of the senses and of logic and receives directly higher truths and greater knowledge denied to other methods of knowing.

14. Features of New England Transcendentalism placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over-soul, as the most important thing in the universe. (the Over-soul was omnipresent and omnipotent) stressed the importance of the individual offered a fresh perception of nature as symbol of the Spirit of God.

15. Emerson’s influence He embodied a new nation’s desire and struggle to assert its own identity in its formative period. His aesthetics brought about a revolution in American literature. It marked the birth of true American poetry. He called for an independent culture, which represented the desire of the whole nation to develop a culture of its own.

16. Emerson’s influence He was considered one of the two or three best writers in America, and certainly the most influential among his contemporaries. Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson, Hawthorne, Melville, and Wallace Stevens and many others were indebted to him in varying degrees.

17. 在读书上爱默生说：“我必须提供的三条实用准则是：第一，决不阅读任何写出来不到一年的书；第二，不是名著不读；第三，只读你喜欢的书。” 在读书上爱默生说：“我必须提供的三条实用准则是：第一，决不阅读任何写出来不到一年的书；第二，不是名著不读；第三，只读你喜欢的书。” • In reading Emerson said: "I must provide three practical criterion is: • the first, never read any less than a year to write the book; • second, not classics don't read; • third, read only any book you like。

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