What isTranscendentalism?

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American Transcendentalism was a philosophical, political and literary movement that flourished between about 1836 and 1860. It began as a reform movement in the Unitarian Church which sought to extend the application of William Ellery Channing's thinking about the God within and the significance of intuitive thinking.
Transcendentalism was based on a monism holding the unity of the world and God, and the immanence of the world. "Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach. Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land." (Doc 1) "I think I could turn and live with animals, they're so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousand...

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