Some Thoughts on Emerson and the Modern University

The academic methods used today to teach the love of letters were denounced as ineffectual and incomplete by Ralph Waldo Emerson more than 170 years ago. The modern emphasis on literature is out dated. Writers in academia are forbidden their pens and are left to learn the craft by reading the words of others. “Genius is always sufficiently the enemy of genius by over-influence. The literature of every nation bears me witness. The English dramatic poets have Shakespearized now for two hundred years…. Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments. Books are for the scholar’s idle time” (American 36).

In 1837, Emerson was given the honor of speaking to the Phi Beta Kappa society at HarvardUniversity. He chose for his topic the American scholar. Using the wisdom and oratory skills that earned him the moniker The Sage of Concord, Emerson defined for his audience three foundations which he deemed to be primary influences upon those seeking higher education. These were nature, prior knowledge, and action.

The introduction serves as a greeting to his listeners. It is an appropriately long-winded discourse on the divisions that exist between life-long students and various other strata of society. While giving guidance to the bright young minds in his audience, Emerson endeavors to warn them against the dangers that writers complacently fall prey to. In the opening moments of his speech he warns, “The scholar is the delegated intellect [in society]. In the right state he is Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or still worse, the parrot of other men’s thoughts”(American 32).

On the first of his influences, Emerson states, “The first in time and the first in importance upon the mind is that of nature.… The scholar is he of all men whom this spectacle most engages. He must settle its value in his mind”(American 33). Emerson perceives a correlation between the lessons presented by nature and the depth of understanding within a student’s own mind. To him, nature’s incomprehensible complexities are an enticing mirror into the capabilities of the human brain.

The second influence Emerson expounds upon is “the mind of the Past”(American 34). He denotes literature, institutions, and art as parts of this pre-existing collection of thought.

Declaring books to be the most valuable, he abandons all other media in pursuit of the truth to be found in letters.

The theory of books is noble. The scholar from the first age received into him the world around; brooded thereon; gave it the new arrangement of his own mind, and uttered it again. It came into him life; it went out from him truth. It came to him short-lived actions; it went out from him immortal thoughts… Precisely in proportion to the depth of mind from which it issued, so high does it soar, so long does it sing (American 34).

Here Emerson tries through the illustration of learned history to recommend to his listeners the importance of studying what has already been studied. He does not, however, consider past knowledge to be the culmination of scholarly ambition. “Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. The books of an older period will not fit this” (American 34).

In his third premise, Emerson condemns the notion that scholars are an isolated and enfeebled class unfit for the demands and toils of life. He insists that though physical action may be a secondary concern for the scholar, it is nonetheless vital. He describes the differences between childhood actions and the adult ability to act and observe, deeming a child’s observations important, but not fully formed. Emerson submits that action is a greater resource than books. “He who puts forth his total strength in fit actions has the richest return of wisdom…. Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made” (American 39). Today’s academics have perfected this concept. This truth is now twisted into an art form. Emerson reinforces his point by remarking how it is possible to discern in the speech of men “…whose words are loaded with life, and whose not” (American 38).

Near the end of his address, Emerson speaks of the duties of the scholar as Man Thinking. He instructs that the scholar is to observe laboriously. He must act as a guide to mankind, cheering and raising humanity by showing the truth behind the perception. He admits that often the scholar must endure social isolation and poverty, but quickly points toward the rewards of using the highest function of human nature: thought. Emerson preached that self-reliance is an absolute necessity for a man of letters. “These being his functions, it becomes him to feel all confidence in himself, and to defer never to the popular cry” (American 41). More directly, Emerson declares, “In self-trust all virtues are comprehended. Free should the scholar be – Free even to the definition of freedom, ‘without any hindrance that does not arise out of his own constitution’” (American 42). This statement could easily be applied to the present generation of American scholars. Here is another example of Emerson’s voice sounding like a critic of modern education.

Higher education is still a widely respected and valuable institution, though a degree no longer means the promise of a career. The more exacting sciences, history, and literature must include mind-numbing amounts of reading. Those fields of study constructed over time, discovery by discovery, can only be taught from the beginning. It is in the creative fields where universities fail. When the focus is on incoming tuition and not on merit or talent, the scholar becomes discouraged.

Colleges…. have their indispensable office – to teach elements. But they can only highly serve us when they aim not to drill, but to create; when they gather from far every ray of various genius to their hospitable halls, and by the concentrated fires, set the hearts of their youth on flame. Thought and knowledge are natures in which apparatus and pretension avail nothing. Gowns and pecuniary foundations, though of towns of gold, can never countervail the least sentence or syllable of wit. Forget this, and our American colleges will recede in their public importance, whilst they grow richer every year. (American 37)

A further critique can be found in another of Emerson’s essays, which was accessible to students of his day. It bears repeating for students of today. He said,

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better or worse as his portion…. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried” (Self-Reliance 90).

Emerson did much more than deliver an eloquent speech: He set an example of how a man should think; he showed students a path to success; he spoke to make them wary of the trappings and trivialities of higher education of his day. His words serve to bolster individuality and self-worth. His closing is replete with promises for his audience’s tomorrow. As was his tendency, he looked ahead and saw what could be. This was one of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s methods of creation. He was no mere guest speaker. He was not a buttoned-down academic advisor. He was never a lofty administrator. He was instead a scholar, a teacher, and a Man Thinking. His words were for more than his own time in history, and they ring with truth still.

Emerson, Ralph W. Phi Beta Kappa address. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1837.

Emerson, Ralph W. Self-Reliance. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Journals. Ed. Lewis Mumford. The Programmed Classics. 1968.

Copyright 2007 held by Christopher Floyd