Reading & the Good Life
Join the conversation! Every Friday at Noon EST (Join here), Perennial Meditations readers are welcome to gather for Reading & the Good Life; a space for connection, contemplation, and conversations on the art of living! This week continues our exploration of the writings of Transcendentalists. We’re reading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and exploring a few passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson (The Portable Emerson). Read last week’s selected passages, How to Think Like a Transcendentalist.
Check out our bookshelf below for previous and future reading!
What is Transcendentalism?
Transcendentalism is an American literary, philosophical, religious, and political movement of the early nineteenth century centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson. Another important transcendentalist was Henry David Thoreau. Stimulated by English and German Romanticism, the transcendentalists understood that a new era was at hand. They criticized their contemporary society for its unthinking conformity and urged that each person find, in Emerson’s words, “an original relation to the universe.” Emerson and Thoreau sought this relation in solitude amidst nature and in their writing.
Who is Henry David Thoreau?
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was an American philosopher, poet, environmental scientist, and political activist whose major work, Walden, draws upon these various identities in meditating upon the concrete problems of living in the world as a human being. He sought to revive a conception of philosophy as a way of life, not only a mode of reflective thought and discourse. An eclectic variety of sources informed Thoreau’s work. He was well-versed in classical Greek and Roman philosophy (and poetry), from pre-Socratics to Hellenistic schools. He was also an avid student of the ancient scriptures and wisdom literature of various Asian traditions.
The Wisdom of Walden
What does it mean to live wisely? How can we begin to integrate the wisdom of Walden into our daily lives? This is what Reading & the Good Life is all about; in addition to being an opportunity to connect — it is about living the good life. “Why should we turn to books for guidance on the good life?” one might ask.
Thoreau might respond,
The greater part of what my neighbors call good, I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.
If we’re not turning to books for guidance on the good life, then where are we turning? Our neighbors, culture, desires, etc. Thoreau asked, “The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?”
Selected Passages
In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high. […]
— Henry David Thoreau, Walden
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