Ralph Waldo Emerson's oration, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard in 1837, discusses the distinct role of American intellectuals as they relate to both nature and the influence of books. Emerson emphasizes the necessity for American scholars to cultivate their own identity, thereby breaking free from European intellectual traditions. He outlines the duties of an American scholar, highlighting the importance of self-trust, self-sacrifice, and the pursuit of public thought.

1. The American Scholar
RalphWaldoEmerson
ENG 416: American Literature
Department of English
Hamdard University Bangladesh
Delivered by:
Gobindo Deb
Lecturer, Department of English
Hamdard University Bangladesh
Gazaria, Munshiganj-1510
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2. The American Scholar
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Oration which took 1 hour and 15 minutes to delivered by the writer himself to the
Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College at the First Parish in Cambridge in
Cambridge, Massachusetts on August 31, 1837
 Subject of the lecture: The role of the American intellectual, as distinct from the
European intellectual
 Purpose:
Intellectualism in America needs to break from its dependence on European thought
and shape itself within the distinctive character of America.
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3. What’s the text about?
The text answers the following questions:
• What an American Scholar should be?
• How is an American scholar influenced?
• What should be his/her duties?
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4. Text
Paragraphs:
1-7 = Introduction and function
8-9 = Influence of Nature
10-20 = Influence of Books 1st Part
21- 30 = Influence of Action
31-45 = Duties of American Scholar 2nd Part
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5. Introduction of the Oration (paragraph 1-7)
(Man and society)
Oneness of man (Human nature)
• Man is divided into men
• Unity in diversity (One man)
“One Man- present to all particular men only partially, or through one faculty; and that you must take the whole
society to find the whole man. Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all. Man is priest, and
scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier. – (Whole man)
oneness of society and relation with nature
• Theme of unity (united we stand divided we fall)
• Beware of the wrong one
• Relation with Nature
“"But unfortunately, this original unit, this fountain of power [which is society], has been so distributed to
multitudes, has been so minutely subdivided and peddled out, that it is spilled into drops, and cannot be
gathered. The state of society is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut
about so many walking monsters, — a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a man.“ (Unity in
diversity and Relation with Nature)
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6. Influence of Nature (8-9)
• As a teacher
• How similar minds and Nature (Notion of circular power, order)
• Everything is connected. (Abstract ideal)
“Every day, the sun; and, after sunset, night and her stars. Ever the winds blow; ever the grass grows.
Every day, men and women, conversing, beholding and beholden. The scholar is he of all men whom
this spectacle most engages. He must settle its value in his mind.”- (As a teacher)
“What is nature to him? 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. Therein it resembles his
own spirit, whose beginning, whose ending, he never can find, — so entire, so boundless.” (Notion of
circular)
(Young mind)- “To the young mind, every thing is individual, stands by itself. By and by, it finds
how to join two things, and see in them one nature; then three, then three thousand; and so,
tyrannized over by its own unifying instinct, it goes on tying things together, diminishing anomalies,
discovering roots running under ground, whereby contrary and remote things cohere, and flower out
from one stem.” (concept of order)
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7. Influence of Nature (8-9)
• Soul is the Reflection of Nature/ Relationship between soul and Nature
“He shall see, that nature is the opposite of the soul, answering to it part for part.
One is seal, and one is print. Its beauty is the beauty of his own mind. Its laws are
the laws of his own mind. Nature then becomes to him the measure of his
attainments. So much of nature as he is ignorant of, so much of his own mind does
he not yet possess. And, in fine, the ancient precept, "Know thyself," and the
modern precept, "Study nature," become at last one maxim.”- (Soul is the reflection
of Nature)
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8. Influence of the past/books (10-20)
“Books are the best type of the influence of the past, and perhaps we shall get at the truth, — learn the amount of
this influence more conveniently, — by considering their value alone.” – (Not copying)
• Not book worm
• Discourage from exploring new ideas
• Considering books as resource/ ( Though: Mere facts into vital true)
• Man thinking again/ explore, not copying
“ Man hopes, genius creates. To create, -to create is the proof of divine presence.” – (exploring)
“so neither can any artist entirely exclude the conventional, the local, the perishable from his book, or write a
book of pure thought, that shall be as efficient, in all respects, to a remote posterity, as to cotemporaries, or
rather to the second age. 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.” (Appeal of books)
• Appeal of books (never underestimate written words)
• Field vs Library- creative imagination
• Aim not to drill but create
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9. Influence of Action
“The so-called `practical men' sneer at speculative men, as if, because
they speculate or see, they could do nothing.”
• Intuition and implementation
• Transcendental concept
• Present vs Past actions
• I think therefore I am Vs I create therefor I am .
• Field vs library (praising of labor)
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10. Duties of American Scholar
• Obligation in general
"He is the world's eye. He is the world's heart."
• self-trust
• Self-sacrifice
"who raises himself from private considerations, and breathes and lives on public
illustrious thoughts“ –( self sacrifice)
• obligated to communicating the noblest thoughts and feelings to the public.
“who raises himself from private considerations, and breathes and lives on public
illustrious thoughts"
• Brave
• Independent
• Corageous
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