The First Principle/ the Mystical Principle: the Over-Soul

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comparative essay, it would be more appropriate to juxtapose Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” with one of Emerson’s essay, such as “Politics,” since both are political tracts that express similar ideas. However, a comparison of two relatively similar articles would amount to a negligible academic contribution.

Instead of tracing influence or establishing Emerson as the forefather of the movement, this thesis aims to determine the role Transcendentalist Principles play in Thoreauvian civil disobedience. While the four principles defined above may seem arbitrary or overly absolute, I view them as a provisional means of establishing the movement’s core principles. Transcendentalism is an organic and fluid philosophy that lacks a strict theoretical framework; however, a certain degree of categorization remains necessary when analyzing a text. The four principles—the Over-Soul, Inner Divinity, Anti-Authority, and Self-Reliance—do not exclude one another; they are sub-classifications under the umbrella of Transcendentalism. Together, they help to constitute Transcendentalism; apart, they help to distinguish different aspects within the larger movement. Even though the categories are provisional, they facilitate a more systematic analysis of Transcendentalism.

4.3.2 The First Principle/ the Mystical Principle: the Over-Soul

Positing the existence of a fluid universal soul, the concept of the Over-Soul is based on a mystical belief that all individual souls are deeply connected to the soul of the Universe. The Over-Soul is the soul of the Universe, the creator, or the God that permeates all individual souls. The Over-Soul produces all souls, and all souls

comprise the Over-Soul. All individual souls are the different aspects of the Over-Soul and yet all belong to this greater Over-Soul. The soul of each individual is identical to the soul of the world and latently contains all that it contains.

4.3.2.1 The Essence of the Over-Soul

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Emerson uses the ocean as a key metaphor to explain the Over-Soul. Both the Over-Soul and the ocean have shared features: 1) they exist everywhere and remain the same essentially, 2) they play both beginning and end roles, and 3) they are fluid and flexible without definite physical boundaries. Emerson’s opening sentence in Essays introduces this notion: “There is one mind common to all individual men.

Every man is an inlet to the same and to all the same” (1). First, the soul is essentially the same whether it is the universal soul or an individual soul, just as water is

substantially the same whether it is in an ocean or in rivers, lakes, or inlets. If the Over-Soul is an ocean, then all individual souls are rivers, lakes, or inlets. No matter the scale, souls are all the same, just as water is the same in all different bodies of water. Next, the Over-Soul is the origin and the conclusion of each individual soul, just as an ocean is both the start and the end of each drop of water. The Over-Soul is the birthplace of an individual soul, and all individual souls complement the universal soul; the one (individual soul) and the all (Over-Soul) complete each other. Lastly, like water in its various forms, the Over-Soul is fluid rather than fixed, unconstrained by physical boundaries. Individual souls can freely access the Over-Soul, and vice versa. The macrocosm and microcosm communicate with one another regardless of physical boundaries. In short, Emerson uses the image of the ocean (the Over-Soul) and its inlets (individual souls) to characterize the Over-Soul as the same everywhere, as both beginning and the end, and as fluid and without boundaries.

4.3.2.2 Accessing the Over-Soul

I believe that Emerson’s description of 1) the Universe, 2) others, and 3) Nature reveal his understanding of the operation of the Over-Soul in relation to individuals.

To begin with, each individual is connected to the soul of the Universe. Emerson claims that “within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal

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beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE” (190).

This eternal ONE is the soul of the Universe that stays “at the centre of nature and over the will of every man” (99), waiting to be discovered by people. Once a soul links to the Universe, it becomes part of the past, present, and future of the world.

Moreover, Emerson states that the “power of man consists in the multitude of his affinities, in the fact that his life is intertwined with the whole chain of organic and inorganic being” (26). With these affinities, an individual finds a proper position in the Universe.

Second, individual souls can sympathize with one another at both personal and national levels regardless of temporal or spatial barriers. At the personal level, one can understand an ancient or foreign philosopher, despite differences in time and space.

Emerson writes: “What Plato has thought, he may think; what a saint has felt, he may feel; what at any time has befallen any man, he can understand” (1). Likewise, one can understand a nation by examining the experience of an individual. Emerson claims: “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn, and Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Britain, America, lie folded already in the first man” (2). The nation is a

macrocosm whereas the individual is a microcosm, and both are essentially the same, differing only in scale. In other words, the ability to sympathize with others reveals a Transcendentalist belief in how the Over-Soul works in relations among people.

Emerson’s assertion that individuals should foster awareness of the fluidity of Nature exemplifies the Transcendentalist belief that the ever-lasting spirit is more important than transient appearances. Emerson claims: “There are no fixtures in nature” (212). Adopting the metaphor of a cloud, Emerson writes that “Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same” (9) and that people are

surrounded by “this all-creating nature, soft and fluid as a cloud or the air” (9). The provisional, shallow, changeable, physical, and perishable nature of appearances and

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earthly concerns prompts Emerson to assert that “the soul knows them not” (9)

because it only knows their ever-lasting spirit. Nature, as the embodiment of the Over-Soul, reveals the distinction between the material and spiritual worlds.