美国文学简史(第四版)

　　《美国文学简史（第四版）》：　　Here is a good illustration of the Oversoul at work. It is "the currents of the Universal Being," of which the individual soul transcends the limits of individuality to become a part. Emerson sees spirit pervading everywhere, not only in the soul of man, but behind nature, throughout nature. Emerson's doctrine of the Oversoul is graphically illustrated in such famous statements： "Each mind lives in the Grand mind," "There is one mind common to all individual men," and "Man is conscious of a universal soul within or behind his individual life." In his opinion, man is made in the image of God and is just a little less than Him. This is as much as to say that man is divine. The divinity of man became a favorite subject in his lectures and essays.　　This naturally led to his emphasis on self-reliance. This was a subject he never stopped talking about all his life. Emerson states that each man should feel the world as his, and the world exists for him alone. Man should determine his own existence. Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he makes the world by making himself. "Know then that the world exists for you..." he says. "Build therefore your own world." "Trust thy self！" and "Make thyself！" Trust your own discretion and the world is yours. Emerson is noted for his notion of "the infinitude of man." He sees man as he could be or could become; he was optimistic about human perfectibility. The regeneration of the individual leads to the regeneration of society. Hence his famous remark, "I ask for the individuals, not the nation." The possible negative effect of Emerson's self-reliance on his time might have been that it provided a good explanation for the conduct and activities of an expanding capitalist society. His essays such as "Power," "Wealth," and "Napoleon" (in his The Representative Men） reveal his ambivalence toward aggressiveness and self-seeking.　　Thirdly, Emerson is noted for his symbolic mode of perception. To his Transcendentalist eyes, the physical world, or nature, was vital and symbolic of God. "Nature is the vehicle of thought," and "particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts." "Nature is the symbol of spirit." That is probably why he called his first philosophical work Nature. The sensual man, Emerson feels, conforms thoughts to things, and man's power to connect his thought with its proper symbol depends upon the simplicity and purity of his character： "The lover of nature is he... who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood." To him nature is a wholesome moral influence on man and his character. A natural implication of Emerson's view on nature is that the world around is symbolic. A flowing river indicates the ceaseless motion of the universe. The seasons correspond to the life span of man. The ant, the little drudge, with a small body and a mighty heart, is the sublime image of man himself.　　This mode of perception had a significant effect on Emerson's aesthetics, the basis of which is contained in this Nature, "The Poet," "The American Scholar," and some other essays. Emerson's poet is no ordinary person. He is a complete man, an eternal man, one whose birth is the principal event in history. He should be able to see into the deeps of infinite time, comprehend the path of things and the divine unity of the Universe by intuition, and communicate the feelings of contact with nature to his fellowmen. True poetry and true art should be ennobling. It should serve as a moral purification and a passage toward organic unity and higher reality. It is evident that the Romantic organic principle was the governing factor in Emerson's aesthetics.　　……