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Image without Illusion: Emerson's View of the Scholar Author(s): Lloyd P. Williams Source: Peabody Journal of Education, Vol.

39, No. 6 (May, 1962), pp. 334-340 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1490087 Accessed: 24/11/2010 06:57
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Image

Without View of

Illusion-Emerson' the Scholar

LLOYD P. WILLIAMS The University of Oklahoma I

When subjectedto fair appraisal,there can be no doubt that Ralph WaldoEmerson'srich contribution Americanintellectualhistoryhas to done much to help us achieve maturity. Among the many subjectsto whichhe broughta clear and undeceivedmind was that of the scholar -his characteristics and his functions. Depicting the attributesand duties of the scholar with incisive simplicity, Emersonputs many of us who teach to shame for our failure to recognizeand to challenge
the banalism and the trivialism of the age.

With a forthrightnessthat distresses the fainthearted, Emerson of enumeratesthe characteristics the genuine scholar. And they are several. In the first instancethe scholar must be willing to work. He
who does not serve an apprenticeship, wherein he learns the secrets of labor, can never become a master. All intellectual endeavor is demanding and the youthful, aspiring scholar is well advised to understand that the maintenance of a family involves a drain upon strength so great as to disqualify one for serious intellectual accomplishment (MR, I, 230). Scholarship must, therefore, come before family; sweat must come before comfort and the luxuries of life; toil is the key to success and he who would achieve it must "not refuse to bear the yoke
in his youth . . ." (LE, I, 175). The scholar must understand that

"labor, iron labor, is for him" (G, VIII, 295). Of equal importance, the scholar must be heroic. He must understand that heroism can take many forms, and although it is difficult to achieve, it is no less available to the scholar in the quiet of a study than to the sailor on the high seas. There is heroism in the life of the scholar when he singles out his task, sticks to it, and thinks his own high thoughts (G, VIII, 288). "Heroism," first published with the
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Essays in 1841, restatesthe self-reliancethesis in a differentframework but frequentlyin more poetic language. Towardthe end of the essay, Emersonpointsthe way once again for those, includingscholars, who would find peace yet who would be heroic. PostulatedEmerson, "I see not any road of perfect peace which a man can walk, but after the counsel of his own bosom. Let him quit too much association,let him go homemuch,and establishhimself in thosecourseshe approves" (I, 247). Further,the scholar must be indifferentto the lure of popularity, to the seductiveappeal of material possessions. He must give up for good and all the idea that whatthe mass of men think should influence him. The mass of men are incapable of guessing what a great man is up to. Naively to yield to public pressure,uncriticallyto take their values, is the sure road to mediocrity (A, X, 62-3). At the full tide of fame Emerson delivered an address, "The Scholar" (not to be confused with his famouns Phi Beta Kappa oration, "The American Scholar,"deliverednine years before), at the Universityof Virginia. Herein he warnedus of what the scholar must bear. The training of the scholar should emphasizepatience-necessarily so-for financial neglect, psychologicalisolation, exhaustion,frustration,and overt insult frequentlyawait the man who devotes his life disinterestedlyto truth and to letters. The scholar must, therefore, learn to "ride at anchorand vanquishevery enemy whomhis small arms cannotreach, by the grand resistanceof submission,of ceasing to do" (X, 271-2). In youthful America, to find shades of thoughtanticipatingGandhi's the doctrine of non-resistance, suspension of activity, as well as an of Veblen's more acidulously enunciatedtheory of the anticipation withdrawalof support,"is refreshing. "conscientious In addition,the scholarmust cherish solitude. He must not forever be hankeringafter the crowd, fearful of being alone; ratherhe must love long momentsof quiet isolation wherein his embryonicthoughts have time to flower and to crystallize. That the scholar must work alone is powerfully stated in one of Emerson's finest essays. The
scholar, he observed, ". . . must be a solitary, laborious, modest, and

charitable soul. He must embrace solitude as a bride. He must have his glees and his glooms alone. His own estimate must be measure 335

enough, his own praise reward enough for him. And why must the studentbe solitary and silent? That he may become acquaintedwith his thought. If he pines in a lonely place, hankeringfor the crowd, for display, he is not in the lonely place; his heart is in the market; he does not see; he does not hear; he does not think. But go cherish your soul; expel companions;set your habits to a life of solitude; then will the faculties rise fair and full within. . ." (LE, 168). The historicalrecord is abundanttestimonythat great men-Plato, Archimedes, Newton, and Milton to cite a few-live apart from the crowd but on occasion come into it with a message that enriches the vapid fatuity of the existenceof the masses and encouragesthe disconsolate. Not only must the scholarhave solitude, but also the wise teacherwill see to it that his pupils learn to be alone and develop habits of living and thinkingconduciveto the solitary, reflectivelife. Writingwith an unnaturalsarcasm,but with typical frankness,Emersonsuggests that if the universityserves no otheruseful functionat least it providesthe studentwith a room and a fire separate from the incessant and disruptivechaos of collegiate life (C, VI, 150). Finally, the scholar must be both brave and free. Paradoxically, Emerson saw freedom as both a condition and a consequenceof scholarship. One year to the day after his Phi Beta Kappaaddress,he expressedthis latter sentimentin his Journals. Recorded the thirtyEmerson,"I am convincedthat if a man will be a true five-year-old scholarhe shall have perfectfreedom"(5, 31). The former sentiment is expressed when he says, "it is the primary duty of the man of letters to secure his independence"(ML, 240). The man who would be a scholarmust be not only free but also brave. He must be brave, for fear is but the productof ignorance. No limitationshould be admitted by the scholarupon his thoughtand speech save that which he imposes upon himself. If a limitationis not the natural productof a scholar's constitution,then it should be resisted. The scholar's class is not a protectedone, and the scholarhimself must not think that by or avoidingissues and controversy by placing his head in the sand he can survive. Behaviorso conceivedcan lead to nothingbut an illusory, temporarypeace (AS, 104). And the courage to live comes from being a spiritual person. The scholar who has only literary weapons
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at his disposal is vulnerable. "Memory, practicaltalent,good manners, are all good things." But they must be accounted temper,lion-courage superficialif the scholar is not spiritual (J, 7, 76-7). II Speaking at DartmouthCollege in 1838, Emerson identified the fortunateman, the man honored by the Muses, as the scholar. For Emerson,the scholarwas the favoriteof both heavenand earth,happy above all men, and the most excellent representativeof his country (LE, 151). How can we furtherdelineate the scholar? He is a man engaged in thinking;he is not one who reflectsthe thoughtof others, but one who does his own basic thinking (AS, I, 85-6). Necessarily reflectionis a more basic obligationthan action, but no true scholar can isolate himself from the communityor from his fellow men. For as Emersondrives home the point, the scholarmust be a man of action even though action is subordinateto thought (95). What function is this honoredman, the scholar, to perform? Addressingthe Phi Beta Kappasociety of Harvardin 1837, he contended the scholar must cheer his fellow man, he must raise his moral tone, he must be a guide to mankindby showingwhat is fact in the sea of appearance.The same year he noted in his Journal (4, 281) essentially the same ideas. WroteEmersonof the scholar'sfunction: "He has an officeto perform in Society. What is it? To arouse the intellect; to keep it erect and sound; to keep admirationin the heartsof people; to keep the eye open upon its spiritual aims. How shall he render this service? By being a soul amongthose thingswith whichhe deals." By such action education fulfills one of its principal aims-making the individualprevail overthe vicissitudesof circumstance 5, 441). (J, Jesus, affirms Emerson, may be taken as an excellent and true teacher, for he does what every real teacher must necessarily dohe leads us to ourselves, he helps us see the divinity of the self. Further,the true teacherresists the temptation,open to men who may strategicallyinfluencethe lives of others,to place himself betweenthe studentand the student'sself-awareness(C, X, 99). The true teacher will not be one to deny God, but ratherwill be one whose speech and behavior attests the fact that God exists as a manifest power in the
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universe. He will show us that God is a reality, not a past dream; he will show us that God speaks now, that he is not one who has spoken never to speak again (DSA, I, 142). A caution is in order. The mature Emerson never considered God in theistic terms. Numerous references can be cited to demonstrate this point. Perhaps the most incisive is from his Journals, written after the death of his first wife, Ellen Louisa Tucker, and during a time when he was reflecting particularly upon the meaning of tragedy in human existence. Observed Emerson, ". .. I cannot find, when I explore my own consciousness, any truth in saying that God is a person, but the reverse. I feel that there is some profanity in saying, He is personal. To represent him as an individual is to shut him out of my consciousness" (4, 405). True teachers are our intimate guides, who also serve to measure our progress. As each of us passes from one lower level of development to the next higher level, his teachers come more clearly into perspective, we are then ready to shed them for newer and richer minds. Such are the uses of poets, priests, and philosophers; such the "Uses of Great Men" generally (IV, 37). Self-reliance characterizes not only the great man but also the great teacher. Emerson's recurring thesis that the great do not imitate necessarily applies to the teacher. The great teacher will not be led astray by imitation but will keep to the facts. He carries his students from particulars to universals, from the immediate to the long range. He introduces them to facts but always with the intention of minimizing himself so that the fact may reveal richer and broader experience. No truly great teacher ever lets himself personally become a burden to the students he instructs (TML, XII, 182). The real teacher is one of high caliber and superior mentality, who makes himself as the Greeks understood, expendable. He is one who can communicate himself not by words but by being and by doing. (SL, 144). So oriented, the teacher will bring humility to his task and will then not overrate what he can do. He will not assume that he alone is capable of transmitting knowledge. He will realize that his principal function is that of provoking his students to reflective self-dependence. Emerson develops this idea in one of his most incisive yet typically Emersonian observations, "Meantime, whilst the doors of the temple stand open, night and day, before every man, and
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the oracles of this truth cease never; it is guardedby one stern condition; this, namely; it is an intuition. It cannotbe receivedat second hand. Truly speaking, it is not instructionbut provocation,that I can receive from anothersoul" (DSA, I, 126). Here is the very heart of Emerson's educational thought. The teacher must provoke the student into intellectual independence,he must provoke the student so that reliance upon intuition becomes habitual and confidencein it is unshaken. Instructionmay, therefore, be nothing more than a matterof mechanics-tuition; real educationis foundedupon intuition. The functionof educationand scholarshipin general is simply the function of the particular scholar writ large. Amongst the myriad possibilities,the true teachermakesmen see their real worthand makes them scorn themselvesfor immoralaction (Su, VII, 291). For much too long utilitarianismhas dominatededucation.Educationexists not of only to makepractitioners the arts and the sciencesbut also to make men. Writingin clear terms, but in a spirit alien to the modern good pragmatictemper, Emerson eloquently states the purpose of formal learning in his delightfully heretical essay, "Education":"The great with the object of life. object of Educationshould be commensurate It should be a moral one; to teach self-trust:to inspire the youthful man with an interest in himself; with a curiosity touching his own nature; to acquainthim with the resourcesof his mind, and to teach him that there is all his strength,and to inflamewith a piety towards the Grand Mind in which he lives. Thus would education conspire with the Devine Providence"(X, 134). Broadly conceived,the office of educationis the cultivationof the individual will (Co, VII, 259). Emersonvividly understood Greekidea that culture educateslong the before contemporary anthropologists sought to pre-emptthe "culture concept." He realized that individuals rightly employing their influence will enhance sensibilities to the point that moral sentiment will inspire not only our principlesbut the law itself (P, III, 195-6). So educated, the individuals of one class will cease to envy the presumedbenefits of those in anotherclass (C, VI, 139), and each will see that educationhas the relentlesspurposeof habituatingall to live with higher thoughts. Thus each will think of himself as a benefactor to the humanrace not a mere underling (FRA, XI, 389). That
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the traditionalelementsshouldbe taughtand mastered,Emersonnever doubted,but he saw that higher educationparticularlyshould not be restrictedto the elements alone. More important,higher education should set the minds and hearts of youth on fire; it should emphasize thought and knowledge, not technique, gadgetry, or the mastery of apparatus(AS, I, 94.5). This is strong medicine for a generationof educatorsnurturedon a less than rigorousdiet. But Emersonis a wholesomeinfluence,for in his criticismhe showsus that illusions are a rebuketo integrity,and therebyreturnsthe aspiring scholarto his true mission: the relentless pursuit and the courageousdisseminationof truth.

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