402 Emerson, Ralph Waldo
truth and honesty can ordinary thoughts become the
ideals of society.
Later in the essay, Emerson creates another
metaphor, this time joining the individual and soci-
ety in a way that makes them forever intertwined.
Using a transcendental image, he says: “All men have
my blood, and I have all men’s.” Each individual,
whether a genius or a sot, combines into the greater
whole of society, which is then mixed, as if chemi-
cally, and separated out into individuals who think
honestly.
Emerson asserts that every society is dependent
on geniuses like Galileo and his “opera-glass” or
Columbus and his “undecked boat.” The inventions
of humankind serve to increase the discoveries that
men make and therefore their ideas. It is the strong
individual who must navigate the push and pull of
resistance and acceptance in order to make society
great.
Emerson ends his essay with his most power-
ful plea to the reader. After making a case for the
importance of pure, honest and individual thought,
he says, “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of
principles.” With “peace” he infuses a degree of self-
respect and self-satisfaction that can only come from
self-reliance. In the end, the title of the essay says
it all. Each person is responsible for his or her own
thoughts and thinking. Only through the notion
of being a self-reliant individual can all people join
together in a self-reliant society.
Patricia Brugman
nature in “Self-Reliance”
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s reflections in his essay
“Self-Reliance” extend beyond men and women’s
obvious relationship with the natural world. Emer-
son considers what is natural in the world as well as
what is inspirational within the human soul. While
he does not define nature in this essay, he does indi-
cate that he means all interpretations of nature, even
those associated with God. From his transcendental
perspective, there are no limiting parameters. The
human connection to nature is open to the sensibil-
ity of every reader and every generation of readers.
To all, he offers an ever-optimistic reflection on the
human experience.
Emerson begins his essay with quotations from
classic and contemporary literature that show the
ways in which man has always looked to the natural
world for a source of truth about life: “Man is his
own star; and the soul that can / Render an honest
and a perfect man / Commands all light, all influ-
ence, all fate.” Here, the connection between the
star-filled heavens and the honest man becomes the
thesis for what Emerson means in his essay. The
perfect star is a model for what the honest man can
be. To this end, he does not see man as separate from
nature, but part of it. He says, “The power which
resides in [men and women] is new in nature and
none but he knows what that is which he can do nor
does he know until he has tried.” The human expe-
rience is connected to the natural experience and is
full of hope. The notion that one never knows one’s
ability until one has tried is a message that both
flows from nature and leads to a source of endless
potential. Referring back to the notion of a “perfect
star,” the sky is the limit.
The title of the essay, “Self-Reliance,” directs
the reader to the purpose of the human connection
to nature. To be self-reliant is to be strong from
within, to have found the secret to one’s own soul.
To this end, Emerson says that men and women
must be individuals that retreat into the solitude of
nature: “[T]he great man is he who in the midst of
the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the inde-
pendence of solitude.” The result of solitude is a
connection beyond understanding: “To be great is to
be misunderstood.” The person who truly learns the
lessons of nature often thinks a truth that is incom-
prehensible to the common person.
Nature, in the sense of man’s nature, cannot be
changed. If men and women are true learners and
true to what they learn, they become honest and
true to the world. Emerson says, “I suppose no man
can violate his nature.... My book should smell of
pines and resound with the hum of insects.” Here,
he connects the sensual reality of smell and sound
to the truth on the very page he is writing. He not
only propounds a great theory, he proves it in the
very writing he produces.
The pursuit of this honest and natural work
requires an acceptance of the world’s mysteries. By
comparing the human experience to the natural