The rhetoric of this essay shows signs of his years in the pulpit; it's like he's demanding you to listen and to go out and act. . Emerson will come to see this, as well as the many limitations on our power that are imposed by circumstances and environment, which he calls Fate. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Emerson had his own personal reasons for writing this. ! Its major power today is probably directed toward the younger reader, struggling with the very powerful forces toward conformity that seem endemic in American high schools. We can't even be sure if anyone or anything else exists, because all we can know is what's in our little individual heads.
Remember that we are reading this 150 years later or so. When Zayd divorced his wife, We gave her to you in marriage, so that there should be no restriction on believers marrying the spouses of their adopted sons when they have divorced them. Emerson doesn't just keep preaching the same doctrine though, you may be relieved to hear, or at least not with the same simplistic fervour. Presumably, trusting oneself means much more than that; it means trusting that somehow or other we have an innate wisdom which is a projection of the god within, and that every person has that wisdom, although few have much access to it. His emphasis is not on these particular verses, or even the definition of originality in poetry, but a discussion on originality and recognizing your own ability to be original and not imitative. In a sense, we may be imprisoned within our own perceptions and experiences, and can never really know what might be true. I find that rather profound, as I look at my own life, and the decisions that I made that didn't make a lot of sense, perhaps, to others and seemed inconsistent, but that were in fact quite consistent with who I was and what I wanted to be, although I hadn't a clue what that might be I never dreamed I'd end up teaching, etc.
Except, as it turned out, there were ways to realize his dream, as long as he didn't lose his faith in himself. So the important thing is not whether Emerson is right or wrong here. I know, I'm reading this from my own perspective, but as Emerson would say, isn't that the only way you can read? But he wants you to imagine what that might be. The commandment of God must be fulfilled. It all sounds so simple: just make up your mind to trust your deepest instincts and go for it! And after all, he was no kid; he was 35 years old and counting. You could interpret this in several ways. Self-reliance can look like a pretty puny doctrine in light of a tragedy like that, but it did sustain him although perhaps in a modified form.
For example, many students trying to see their way ahead in life have found great comfort in this metaphor: The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. Actually, I think you can try to place yourself in another context, but that must be a work of imagination to some degree I can try, anyhow; I'll just substitute woman for man and you can do whatever you like! See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. There would be no job for him at Harvard! This will happen repeatedly through the essay. Besides, just think of all the money you can save on those self-help books and therapy groups by going right to the source! It is hard for us to see the original force of this in 1838, when people felt far less secure about themselves, as individuals and as Americans whatever that was. I know it isn't that simple--and in fact, so did Emerson, and seeing the problems inherent in such a personally energizing idea kept him busy writing for some time.
For one thing, he gives a lot of credit to innate goodness, and almost totally ignores the very crucial environmental shaping factors. Those few we often call poets and prophets but never politicians! He had left the ministry a few years earlier and had lost his young wife to tuberculosis after 18 months of marriage. All we can really know is within us, but we must assume that other people have the same potential as we do--and assume that they do, in fact, exist although you really can't prove it! Let not your desires cause you to commit injustice. If you deviate from the truth in your testimony, or decline to give your testimony at all, know that God is Well Aware of what you do. He was involved in a very deep career crisis which many of us can relate to.
If you'll be patient with Emerson and his vocabulary and greater reading knowledge , he is likely to speak very personally to you, if not on this reading then maybe on another. But the message seems to be one that we all need, especially today when the ever-present media assaults us with ideas and images of how we should live and what we should believe. But he may well be exhorting himself just as much as, if not more than, his readers. That's one reason it's written as it is. Buried in there are sentences which strike right to the heart of readers, and suggest all kinds of possibilities for them. However, it also works in a class like this, where I am, in a sense, forcing you to express your ideas and not giving you such an easy way out as taking notes on what wisdom I might have to impart. Try your best to fill those blanks in ways that make sense to you and your experience, and if you can't, ignore them and keep going.
He's both--and we are to draw from the essay what means the most to us. Perhaps himself as well as his reader. There simply was no way to earn a living doing what his heart told him that he must do--to write and to speak. I don't believe that self-trust is a male-marked trait, although I suspect that he does believe it though, bless his heart, he doesn't really know it! However, this is not necessarily self-centered, because the truth which lies within is universal, shared and recognized by all if they only knew it and generated by Self God, Over-soul, whatever. What he wanted to do--to establish himself a place as a writer and thinker--was extraordinarily difficult to do outside of an institution like the church or the university so what else has changed! However, that's not the whole story, and Emerson knew it, especially after life dealt him a few more tough blows--like his beloved 5 year old son dying of scarlet fever. Now, there's no particular empirical evidence for this; Emerson is making a great intuitive leap of faith, and you either believe because you've experienced it to some degree or you don't.
Whom is he trying to convince? The coherence will be an inner one, perhaps not even visible to you, but over time, it will probably make sense, just as you have to zigzag when sailing to reach a point most directly. He didn't really have a career at that point; he just had the ideas he believed passionately and thought needed to be heard. Practically it may be another matter, but Emerson is a bit of an idealist and not terribly practical we can't all be everything! After all, he can't say what would be original for you, could he? If you look carefully, you can see some awareness of this conflict in the essay, but it doesn't really blossom forth for a while. For example, at the beginning of the essay he speaks of verses he has read which are original, but he does not tell you what those verses are. He gets a lot more interesting when he confronts these conflicting forces.
His basic philosophical faith one shared by many Americans is that the ultimate source of truth is within ourselves. Actually, it's rather amazing what people can accomplish if they do just that. He was deeply insecure in many ways aren't we all? God must be given preference over them. Theoretically, then, to believe in our selves and our deep capacity to understand and recognize truths is to believe in every self, though we have no access to any other self besides us. It doesn't matter if there are gaps in what you understand; he'll catch up with you somewhere or other in the essay.
One characteristic of Emerson's essays is the gaps he leaves the reader to fill or to flounder in ; it is probably their greatest strength because you may personalize what you read and greatest weakness it can be confusing. You were afraid of people, whereas it would have been more proper to fear God. . . .