We must understand its meaning if we would perceive the
quality of much of the most noble and beautiful writing produced
in New England during the Golden Age.
What then is the significance of the word Transcendental?
Disregarding for the moment the technical development of this
term as used by German and English philosophers, it meant for
Emerson and his friends simply this: whatever transcends or goes
beyond the experience of the senses. It stressed intuition rather
than sensation, direct perception of ultimate truth rather than
the processes of logic. It believed in man's ability to apprehend
the absolute ideas of Truth, Rectitude, Goodness. It resembled
the Inner Light of the Quaker, though the Quaker traced this to a
supernatural illumination of the Holy Spirit, while the
Transcendentalist believed that a vision of the eternal realities
was a natural endowment of the human mind. It had only to be
trusted. Stated in this form, it is evident that we have here a
very ancient doctrine, well known in the literature of India and
of Greece.
Pages:
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142