Emerson

Emerson is a representative figure who established the spirit of American culture. Former U.S. President Lincoln called him the "Confucius of America" and the "Father of American Civilization." In 1836, he published his debut novel "On Nature". His literary contributions are mainly in prose and poetry. He died on April 27, 1882 in Boston.

In September 1835, Emerson and other like-minded intellectuals founded the "Transcendental Club". It was not until July 1840 that Emerson published his first short essay,"Nature", written in September 1836, under a pseudonym. When the work became the basic principle of transcendence, many people immediately believed it was Italian.

In 1837, Emerson published a famous speech entitled "The American Scholar", declaring that American literature had become independent from English literature, warning American scholars not to allow pedantic habits to spread, not to blindly follow tradition, and not to carry out pure imitation. In addition, this speech also attacked the materialism of American society and emphasized the value of human beings. It was hailed as the "Declaration of Independence" in the field of American thought and culture. A year later, Emerson criticized the lifeless situation of the Unitarian Church of Christianity in his "Seminary Dedication", and tried his best to promote the supremacy of human beings and advocate the understanding of truth by intuition. " Believe in your own thoughts, and believe that what is right for you in your heart is right for everyone... 'According to literary critic Lawrence Bull in "Emerson's Biography", Emerson and his teachings are the most important secular religion in America.

In 1838 he was invited back to Harvard Divinity School to deliver a commencement speech. His comments immediately shocked Protestant society because he demonstrated that when Jesus was a person, he was not God (a statement that people would rather not have heard at the time). As a result, he was accused of being an atheist and poisoning the minds of young people, and he did not respond or defend himself in the face of these criticisms. For the next 40 years, he was no longer invited to speak at Harvard University, but by the mid-1880s, his norms of position became the doctrine of a doctrine.