Ještě důležitější je rozsáhlý Whelanův úvod, ve kterém představí Emersona, jeho život i názory. Dozvíme se tak hned na začátku, co mínil transcendentalismem:

The wise person, then, is one who looks through the phenomena of the material world and sees behind them the divine spirit, the supreme intelligence and its laws – the Idea, that shapes and guides. It is in that sense that Emerson called himself an Idealist. And because he believed that the Idea transcends its material manifestations, ge also referred to himself as a Transcendentalist. (Str. 20, úvod)

V čem spočívala podstata jeho filozofie (v přímém přístupu k univerzální duši):

The essence of Emerson's philosophy could be summed up thus: every person is capable of direct access to the Universal Soul and thus to universal truth. Far and away the most important task in life – indeed, perhaps the whole point of life – is for each of us to strive to develop that access so that the insights it provides will govern all our thoughts and actions. In a nutshell: love the Universal Soul and be spontaneous. (Str. 34, úvod)

Nebo jak vnímal Boha (jako neosobní sílu, byl spíše panteista):

Emerson believed that a power, which can only be called divine, permeates every atom of the universe and that the unchanging nature of that power determines every detail of human life, of history, and of the natural world. That is so because the universe and everything in it form a single, unified, organic system that is the self-expression of the Universal Soul, God, the ONE. (Emerson used the term „God“ to mean not a personlike deity but rather an abstract power.) (Str. 19, úvod)

V průběhu čtení esejů to pak můžeme snadno rozpoznávat.

Kniha zahrnuje jejich výběr z obou vydaných sérií, pořadí ale nerespektuje původní vydání, některé jsou vynechané (Love, Art, The Poet, Nominalist and Realist, Manners a New England reformers), protože jejich styl i obsah nedosahovaly úrovně ostatních, navíc je přidaný text The Transcendentalist. I tak toho bylo ke čtení víc než dost, od duchovních zákonů, přes zmíněnou self-reliance, prudence až po třeba text o dárcích.

This is right and pleasing, for it restores society in so far to its primary basis, when a man's biography is conveyed in his gift, and every man's wealth is an index of his merit. But it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy me something, which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith's. (Str. 169)

Vypsal jsem si ještě pár citátů, třeba že společnost každým pokrokem něco ztrácí a tak se nijak nezlepšuje:

Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergose continual changes; it is barbarious, it is civilized, it is christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something is taken. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts. (Str. 86)

Že příroda přibližuje k univerzu:

The tempered light of the woods is like a perpetual morning, and is stimulating and heroic. (… ) The incommunicable trees begin to persuade us to live with them, and quit our life of solemn trifles. Here no history, or church, or state, is interpolated on the divine sky and the immortal year. (Str. 173)

A tak dále… Některé postřehy jsou výborné, ale jako celek jsou Eseje spíše záležitost studijní.

Odkazy: