Emerson and Eros: The Making of a Cultural Hero

3.“God’s Child”: Emerson in His Journals

CHAPTER 3 “GOD’S CHILD” Emerson In His Journals 1820–1836 “All great thoughts come from the heart.” —R. W. Emerson, The Fugitive Slave Law An overview of Emerson’s development from the young, ambitious , Harvard undergraduate in the 1820s, to the mature, sensitive, and seer-like artist of the Essays, Second Series (1844), reveals a profound change. Nowhere is this change more visible than in Emerson’s attitude towards the value and function of the affective dynamic of the psyche. While the young Emerson boldly asserts in 1820 that one should “Trust not the Passions; they are blind guides,” the mature Emerson of 1838 insists that it is necessary to “Trust your emotion” in order to find meaning and direction in life.1 The process that led Emerson to this position, and through which he came to understand and trust his own emotional promptings, feelings, and intuitions , is complex and intriguing. This transformation, as reflected in the thirty-six hundred pages of journal entries inscribed during this period, closely resembles, from the psychomythic view, the “romantic movement” described in chapter 2. Although only a basic outline of this process as it evolved in Emerson’s life can be presented in the following pages, an examination of his journals, letters, sermons, and other evidence from the period clearly reveals the existence of a dynamic, affective side of Emerson heretofore little noted by critics and biographers. What follows is a description of Emerson’s dramatic personal transformation. Before we begin our journey, it is necessary to say something about the journals that serve as the basis for this part of our study. The sixteenvolume “Harvard Edition” (1960–1982) differs greatly from the previous 75 “standard edition” of the journals. This earlier work, completed in 1914 and edited largely by Emerson’s son, Edward Waldo, reflects the standards of the “genteel tradition” of American letters that was then very much in vogue. Thus, it was deliberately and selectively expurgated of personal comments and reflections not in keeping with the established image of Emerson as an exemplary, nineteenth-century gentleman. While these journals did, no doubt, enhance the general understanding of Emerson , they did not allow the reader to make the acquaintance of the complex , passionate, and at times conflicted private man who exists behind the public voice. The Harvard edition, however, in the words of chief editor William Gilman, presents Emerson’s journals, “pretty much in the form in which he wrote them,” thus allowing us a unique opportunity to glimpse Emerson’s inner mind and to witness his dynamic psychological, spiritual, and intellectual development as it actually occurred.2 1820–1832 The Emerson that appears throughout the earliest journals is predominately and typically a confident, ambitious, and intelligent young Harvard man, looking out into a world in which he hopes someday to prosper. Except for occasional moments of youthful self-doubt, the young Ralph Waldo Emerson might best be described as a man of conventional faith; faith in his rationalistic Unitarian religion, faith in the manifest destiny of his homeland, and faith in himself. Life’s experiences would eventually shatter this innocent optimism, but early on, Emerson was a man in seeming rapport with himself and his world, a dutiful son following in the footsteps of the “fathers,” both literal and symbolic. Emerson began keeping a regular journal on January 25, 1820, in the middle of his junior year at Harvard when he was barely seventeen years old. Although the avowed purpose of this journal, in Emerson’s words, was to fulfill “all the various purposes and utility real or imaginary which are usually comprehended under the comprehensive title Common Place Book,” among which would be “a record of new thoughts (when they occur),” he quite often made personal comments which he assumed, at least initially, would always be private.3 He notes at the outset, “With a serious expectation of burning this book I am committing to it more of what I may by and by think childish sentiment than I should care to venture upon vagabond sheets which Somebody else may light upon. (Mr. Somebody, will it please your impertinence to be conscience-struck!).”4 Except for a few such personal comments, however, the dominant tone of these early journals is best described as self-consciously scholarly. They suggest a deliberate attempt to be serious and profound, which undoubtedly reflects the author’s youthful ambition. Primarily, however, Emerson displays a considerable amount of confidence, if not facility, in confronting...