The American Scholar is a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson in Cambridge Massachusetts for the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
This is because of the ground breaking success of his work entitled Nature. In the speech, he reiterated the fact that an American scholar is different from any other scholars, that is, the English. He is not just a mere thinker that parrots somebody else’s opinion, he is a Man Thinking. He has an obligation not only for himself to understand the world more clearly but also to contribute to the body of knowledge America has thus far.
It is obligation to broaden the understanding and perspectives of the people with fresh eyes and not just conform what the whole world has thought and opined about. According to the speech, there are three ways of pursuing this kind of scholarship. First would be then influence of nature in the mind of a scholar. He reiterated the maxim that knowing oneself is equated to knowing nature. For ignorance with nature by a person means that there is so much about himself and the workings of his mind that he does not comprehend yet. Nature is the very beauty of his own mind.
As a matter of fact, its laws are the laws of his mind. Nature to a scholar is a never-ending and a boundless spectacle. Nature resembles his own spirit and his own mind that the only way to understand the workings of the mind are to understand nature as earlier stated. The second important thing to influence the mind of the scholar after nature is the mind of the Past whether it be literature, art, or in any other form.
However, Emerson asserts that books are the best type of the influence of the past. According to him, nothing is more perfect than a book that preserves the knowledge and ideals of the past.They are also the best repository of the influences of the past. However, while Emerson believes books are the best things, he also warned the listeners that this is only the case when they are well used and not abused. These books are nothing but to inspire us and not to straitjacket our thoughts and opinions of the world. A Man Thinking as he encourages an American scholar should be is not a meek young man who grows in the library that just believes and accepts the world views of Cicero, Locke and Bacon.
There is a right way of reading that is, reading in such a way that a man should not be subordinated by his materials.It is a kind of reading that would not aim to drill our knowledge but that helps and encourage us to create in our own innovative ways. It is only in this way that we are to become a Man Thinking. Third is the importance of a scholar to reach out to the real world and not to become a recluse.
He should be fit for work and labor like that of a penknife or an axe. In other words, action for a scholar is essential. Action is what makes a scholar develop a heroic mind. The transition through which a thought become the truth is action.
The final value of action like that of the book is that action is a kind of resource – a resource to live.After the three educational pursuits that a scholar must meet, the most important things are hid duties. It is his duty to “cheer, to raise, and to guise men by showing them facts amidst appearances. ” More than being the world’s eye, he is the world’s heart. He has the duty to receive knowledge and impart knowledge to others.
He must always be brave and free to stand on his own feet. He should be free from all the muses of Europe and let the spirit of an American freeman and the mind of the country prevail. This is for the goal that America can walk on their own feet, work with their own hands, and speak with their own minds.
