Emerson's Self-Reliance And Henry David Thoreau's Emerson

The Embodiment of Principle and Integrity

Trust oneself, one 's intuition, and one 's nature. According to Emerson 's Self-Reliance, these qualities are essential to contentment and harmony with one 's self. Self-reliance is an appeal to the individual to obey his instincts and to challenge tradition and conventional wisdom. According to Emerson, those who are truly self-reliant have the ability to mark their place in history as great and genuinely creative men. Self-Reliance also plays a major role in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Four years before Thoreau embarked on his Walden project, his teacher and role model Emerson wrote Self-Reliance. It can be seen as a statement of the philosophical ideals that Thoreau’s experiment is meant to be

In both pieces the author urges one to follow their gut, and their instincts. As well as not to follow society, or it will corrupt them. Emerson urges the reader to live by his instinct and listen to his intuition, "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string" (Emerson 226). Don’t fear your original thoughts, trust them and live accordingly. Great men and artists appeal to one because of their creative nature. Thoreau’s Walden tells the reader “Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations”(Thoreau 243). When one’s lost, they are separated from society. It 's just them and no one can affect the way they feel or how they act when they 're alone, they can hear their own voice in their head much clearer, and the only person with them is them. One gets to know oneself better, it 's not really about being alone when they’re lost, one has to rely on

In Self-Reliance Emerson says to "Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life 's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it. Where is the master who could have taught Shakspeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every great man is a unique. The Scipionism of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow. Shakspeare will never be made by the study of Shakspeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much”("Emersonian Perfectionism: A Passage From 'Self-Reliance '" NPR). By this he means: do not imitate, or take the work of another to help oneself, “every great man is unique” ("Emersonian Perfectionism: A Passage From 'Self-Reliance '" NPR). To imitate is to see something and decide one would rather replicate what one sees rather than valuing one 's own self. If one put 100% effort of his own uniqueness into a project, he or she will have 100% of the prosperity and feelings of success returned back. However, if one adopts, or takes the talent or inspiration of another, one will only posses or fell less than what he truly is if he had done it on his own. “To