The American Scholar by Ralph Waldo Emerson In the essay the American Scholar, Emerson portrays the scholar as a person who learns from three main things. These things by which a scholar is educated are by nature, by books (the past) and by action.Emerson uses nature as a comparison to the human mind where he states, “There is never a beginning, there is never an end to the inexplicable continuity of this web of God, but always circular power returning into itself.”(296) The human mind is an object that is boundless and can be full of so much beauty and intellect such as nature can be. Emerson continues to explain how classification begins among the young minds. “To the young mind, every thing is individual, stands by itself. Emerson presents this idea as a negative effect on the scholar because they seem to continue to break things down trying to find simple answers to complex questions. Man is then convinced “that he and it (nature) proceed from one root; one is leaf and one is flower.”(296) This thinking of man is the opposite from the truth of the relationship between nature and himself. “He shall see that nature is the opposite of the soul…. Its laws are the laws of his own mind.”(296)According to Emerson, the next influence on the scholar is the mind of the past, where he uses books to convey his ideas. “Books are the best things, well used; abused, among the worst.”(297) Books were originally intended for good. “The scholar of the first age, received into him the world around; brooded thereon; gave it the new arrangement of his own mind, and uttered it again.”(297) According to Emerson, books can have a negative effect on the way the scholar should think. “Instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm.”(297) Emerson feels that the scholar should learn things for themselves and not easily accept the views and opinions presented by a w...
