A Panel Discussion: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Bronson Alcott

Question 1: "What is Transcendentalism?"

Moderator: Our first question from the audience: What is Transcendentalism? It seems to be spoken of everywhere, yet no one can say exactly what it is.

Emerson:

I shall answer first, since I attempted a definition in our journal. I said:

"What is popularly called Transcendentalism among us, is Idealism; Idealism as it appears in 1842." — item hvd.32044054766886-04, idx id348

And I traced its philosophical lineage:

"the Idealism of the present day acquired the name of Transcendental, from the use of that term by Immanuel Kant, of Königsberg, who replied to the skeptical philosophy of Locke, which insisted that there was nothing in the intellect which was not previously in the experience of the senses, by showing that there was a very important class of ideas, or imperative forms, which did not come by experience, but through which experience was acquired." — item hvd.32044054766886-04, idx id443

In short: there is something in the mind that does not come from the senses — something prior to experience, something that organizes experience. That is the transcendental element.

But I must also confess, as I did then:

"there is no such thing as a Transcendental party; that there is no pure Transcendentalist; that we know of none but the prophets and heralds of such a philosophy; that all who by strong bias of nature have leaned to the spiritual side in doctrine, have stopped short of their goal." — item hvd.32044054766886-04, idx id430

We are not a sect. We are a tendency.

Fuller:

I would add to Waldo's definition what was written in our own pages:

"Transcendentalism, then, is 'the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively.'" — item hvd.32044054766894-01, idx id1882

And I would emphasize what that capacity means for moral life:

"the ultimate appeal on all moral questions, not to a jury of scholars, a hierarchy of divines, or the prescriptions of a creed, but to the common sense of the human race." — item hvd.32044054766894-01, idx id1978

Transcendentalism is not merely an epistemology — it is a moral democratization. It says that every person has direct access to truth, and that no institution can mediate that access.

Alcott:

I must offer my own definition, for I believe Transcendentalism is not merely a philosophy but a life. As was written in our pages:

"Transcendentalism is not a mere system opposed to other or to antiquated systems; but it signifies that Love-Spirit, that Life-Power, which uses all systems now presented, and develops new systems as they are required." — item hvd.32044054766886-05, idx id1149

And further:

"Transcendentalism is not 'hostile to old systems,' though it would supersede them by better life." — item hvd.32044054766886-05, idx id1129

The true transcendentalist, I maintain,

"has higher, nobler, lovelier work, than that of warring with the past, or abusing the present." — item hvd.32044054766886-05, idx id1135

Transcendentalism is not opposition but growth — the organic development of the soul toward its own fullness.

And I would say this, too:

"Every man is a transcendentalist; and all true faith, the motives of all just action, are transcendental." — item hvd.32044054766894-01, idx id1825

It is not a sect but a universal human capacity.

Emerson:

Well put, Bronson. And I would add the caution I offered:

"Shall we say, then, that Transcendentalism is the Saturnalia or excess of Faith; the presentiment of a faith proper to man in his integrity, excessive only when his imperfect obedience hinders the satisfaction of his wish." — item hvd.32044054766886-04, idx id438

It is not an excess but a presentiment — a foretelling of what faith would be if we were whole.

Question 2: "Why did you call your journal The Dial?"

Moderator: A reader asks: Why did you name your journal The Dial? What does a dial measure?

Emerson:

I believe I may answer this, for the naming passage appeared in our first editorial:

"And so with diligent hands and good intent we set down our Dial on the earth. We wish it may resemble that instrument in its celebrated happiness, that of measuring no hours but those of sunshine. Let it be one cheerful rational voice amidst the din of mourners and polemics." — item hvd.32044054766902-01

The dial is a sundial — it measures only the hours when the sun shines. We do not wish to chronicle darkness but to register light.

Fuller:

And the metaphor extends further, as the editorial made clear:

"Or to abide by our chosen image, let it be such a Dial, not as the dead face of a clock, hardly even such as the Gnomon in a garden, but rather such a Dial as is the Garden itself, in whose leaves and flowers and fruits the suddenly awakened sleeper is instantly apprised not what part of dead time, but what state of life and growth is now arrived and arriving." — item hvd.32044054766902-01

The Dial is not a clock — it does not tick through empty hours. It is a garden — a living thing whose growth itself is the measure of time.

Alcott:

I would offer my own Orphic Saying on this matter, which appeared in that same first issue:

"Thou art, my heart, a soul-flower, facing ever and following the motions of thy sun, opening thyself to her vivifying ray, and pleading thy affinity with the celestial orbs. Thou dost the livelong day Dial on time thine own eternity." — item hvd.32044054766902-01

The heart itself is a dial — it measures not temporal time but "thine own eternity." The Dial is not merely our journal's name but its philosophical principle.

Question 3: "What is the place of women in your movement?"

Moderator: A woman in the audience rises and asks: You speak of the soul's freedom, of the individual's access to truth. Does that freedom extend to women? Or is Transcendentalism a movement of men, for men?

Fuller:

I shall answer this, for I have given it more thought than my colleagues, and I edited this journal before Waldo took it up. The question I posed in our pages was this:

"Knowing this, can we wonder that many reformers think that measures are not likely to be taken in behalf of women, unless their wishes could be publicly represented by women?" — item hvd.32044054766878-01, idx id341

The answer is clear: women must represent themselves. No man can speak for us.

And I declared in the same essay:

"when inward and outward freedom for woman, as much as for man, shall be acknowledged as a right, not yielded as a concession." — item hvd.32044054766878-01, idx id372

Freedom for woman is not a gift to be granted but a right to be acknowledged. The distinction is fundamental.

I also wrote:

"What woman needs is not as a woman to act or rule, but as a nature to grow, as an intellect to discern, as a soul to live freely, and unimpeded to unfold such powers as were given her when we left our common home." — item hvd.32044054766878-01, idx id377

The point is not that woman should rule — it is that she should grow. The demand is not for power over others but for freedom to become herself.

And I noted the specific disabilities:

"she does not hold property on equal terms with men; so that, if a husband dies without a will, the wife, instead of stepping at once into his place as head of the family, inherits only a part of his fortune, as if she were a child, or ward only, not an equal partner." — item hvd.32044054766878-01, idx id334

And I observed that

"This self-dependence, which was honored in me, is deprecated as a fault in most women." — item hvd.32044054766878-01, idx id413

What is praised in a man is condemned in a woman — and that asymmetry is the very thing that must change.

Emerson:

Margaret has spoken with her characteristic force, and I would not presume to improve upon her argument. I would only add that the Transcendentalist principle, if it is true at all, is true for all:

"The transcendental philosophy alone legitimates human freedom, and vindicates, and at the same time assures, social progress." — item hvd.32044054766894-01, idx id2056

If freedom is legitimated by the transcendental philosophy, it is legitimated for woman as for man. There can be no exception.

Alcott:

I would say that the education of women has been among my deepest concerns. In my conversations and in my schools, I have insisted that the mind has no sex. And I would note what was observed in our pages: that

"In slavery, acknowledged slavery, women are on a par with men." — item hvd.32044054766878-01, idx id573

Where there is slavery, women share the condition of men. Where there is freedom, women must share that too.

Question 4: "What do you make of slavery?"

Moderator: A gentleman asks: Your journal has spoken of slavery. What is your position?

Emerson:

I would state it plainly, as our journal did:

"Slavery makes men our tools." — item hvd.32044054766902-03, idx id1288

And

"Slavery is wrong." — item hvd.32044054766902-03, idx id1290

There is no subtlety needed here. The reduction of a person to a tool is the very thing the Transcendentalist philosophy prohibits, for it denies the infinite worth of the individual soul.

I would also say:

"But if I am just, then is there no slavery, let the laws say what they will." — item hvd.32044054766886-01, idx id217

Justice abolishes slavery regardless of what the statutes say. The moral law stands above the civil law.

Fuller:

And I would connect slavery to the woman question, as I did in our pages. The comparison is explicit:

"It is with women as with the slave." — item hvd.32044054766878-01, idx id573

Both are denied the full exercise of their nature. Both are made instruments of another's will. The abolition of slavery and the emancipation of women are not separate causes but aspects of the same cause — the recognition of personhood in all its forms.

I would also note what our journal observed about the universality of the problem:

"The few have in all ages lorded it over the many, and this determines that the masses are born for servitude." — item hvd.32044054766894-01, idx id2071

Slavery is not merely an American institution but a recurring human condition — the domination of the weak by the strong. The Transcendentalist must oppose it wherever it appears.

Alcott:

I would offer a spiritual definition, as our journal did:

"Freedom, of mind; Servitude, of Force." — item hvd.32044054766902-04, idx id285

Slavery is the domain of force; freedom is the domain of mind. And I would add the warning that appeared in our pages:

"But where the spirit of the church is, there is slavery." — item hvd.32044054766902-03, idx id490

Slavery is not merely a legal condition but a spiritual one — the subjection of the soul to any power that denies its freedom. The church itself can become a slave master when it substitutes obedience for spiritual autonomy.

Question 5: "What is virtue?"

Moderator: A clergyman asks: You Transcendentalists speak often of virtue. What do you mean by it? Is it the same as the virtues taught by the churches?

Emerson:

I would offer the definition that appeared in our earliest volumes:

"The two constituent parts of virtue are benevolence, and justice; the former, the desire of being the disinterested author of good; and the latter, the desire of distributing this good among men." — item hvd.32044054766902-06, idx id492

Virtue is not obedience to a code but the active desire to create and distribute good. It is disinterested — not for reward, not for reputation, but for its own sake.

And I would say this:

"And this entireness of life is the condition and essence of Virtue and Genius." — item hvd.32044054766894-05, idx id845

Virtue is not a compartment of life — it is the wholeness of life. To be virtuous is to live entirely, not to partition the moral from the intellectual, the spiritual from the practical.

Fuller:

I would connect virtue to growth, as our journal did:

"Virtue increases, being sustained by wise men and just, As when a tree shoots up with gentle dews into the liquid air." — item hvd.32044054766878-05, idx id768

Virtue is organic — it grows like a tree, sustained by community and by the gentle dews of fellowship. It is not a fixed code but a living development.

And I would emphasize the moral quality of virtue as described in our pages:

"True goodness is loth to recognize any privilege in itself; it prefers to be humble and charitable; it tries not to see what will furnish a sufficiently severe test." — item hvd.32044089408439-06, idx id3466

Virtue is self-effacing — it does not advertise its own superiority or test others against its standard.

Alcott:

I would offer the spiritual dimension, as our journal did:

"Piety is unconscious, vascular, vital, — like breathing it is, and is because it is." — item hvd.32044054766894-05, idx id643

Virtue, at its deepest, is not a practice but a nature — as involuntary and essential as breath. And I would say:

"Fly from these, if you intend to open the sacred paradise of piety, where virtue, wisdom, and equity, are collected together." — item hvd.32044054766878-06, idx id1496

Virtue, wisdom, and equity dwell together — they are inseparable aspects of a single moral-religious whole. You cannot have one without the others.

Question 6: "What is the role of education in your philosophy?"

Moderator: A teacher asks: Mr. Alcott, you are known for your unconventional methods of education. What is the philosophy behind them?

Alcott:

I am grateful for the question, for education has been my life's work. The principle is simple: the mind must be drawn out, not filled in. As our journal noted, I have been described as one who

"adopted cordially his own methods." — item hvd.32044054766886-03, idx id1018

My method is conversation — not lecture, not rote, but the Socratic exchange that draws forth what the child already knows but does not yet know that she knows.

I would also say, as was observed in our pages, that

"Of the moral qualities and social virtues of Alcott too much can scarcely be said in praise." — item mdp.39015030979598-06, idx id3325

Education is not merely intellectual but moral — the formation of character, not merely the acquisition of knowledge. And I would acknowledge the criticism that has been leveled at me:

"Certain details of the 'Fruitlands' regime, for which Alcott was responsible, may well excite, and have excited, doubts as to his sanity." — item mdp.39015030979598-06, idx id3309

I have been called

"a venerable Don Quixote, whom nobody can laugh at without loving." — item mdp.39015030979598-06, idx id3298

I accept the comparison. The idealist must be willing to appear foolish in the eyes of the practical.

Emerson:

I would add that education, in the Transcendentalist sense, is not the transmission of knowledge from teacher to student but the awakening of the student's own inner light. As I wrote:

"As we wish not to multiply books, but to report life, our resources are therefore not so much the pens of practised writers, as the discourse of the living." — item hvd.32044054766902-01

Education is the report of life, not the multiplication of books. It is living discourse, not dead text.

Fuller:

And I would insist that education must extend to women as fully as to men. The mind has no sex, and the soul has no gender. To educate only half the race is to cripple the whole.

Question 7: "What is nature to you?"

Moderator: A naturalist asks: You Transcendentalists speak often of nature. What is nature? Is it merely the physical world, or something more?

Emerson:

I would answer with the sentence from our journal:

"Nature is transcendental, exists primarily, necessarily, ever works and advances, yet takes no thought for the morrow." — item hvd.32044054766886-04, idx id439

Nature is not merely the physical world but the transcendental itself — the primary reality, the self-activating process that works and advances without conscious planning. Nature is the transcendental, made visible.

Alcott:

I would connect nature to the garden metaphor that names our journal. The Dial is

"such a Dial as is the Garden itself, in whose leaves and flowers and fruits the suddenly awakened sleeper is instantly apprised not what part of dead time, but what state of life and growth is now arrived and arriving." — item hvd.32044054766902-01

Nature is the living dial — the organic process by which life registers its own growth. The garden is not merely a place but a measure — a way of knowing what state of life has been reached.

Fuller:

And I would say that nature is not separate from the human spirit but continuous with it. The transcendental philosophy does not place nature over against the mind but sees both as expressions of a single underlying reality. As was written in our pages:

"Every form of civilization, every social institution, which in their first establishment are the result and expression of the transcendental element of man's nature, has its mission to fulfil." — item hvd.32044054766894-02, idx id63

Nature and civilization are not opposites but expressions of the same transcendental element.

Question 8: "What do you hope The Dial will accomplish?"

Moderator: Our final question: What do you hope this journal will achieve? What is its purpose?

Emerson:

I return to the editorial with which we began:

"As we wish not to multiply books, but to report life, our resources are therefore not so much the pens of practised writers, as the discourse of the living, and the portfolios which friendship has opened to us." — item hvd.32044054766902-01

The Dial is not to multiply books — there are books enough. It is to report life. To register, like the sundial, the hours of sunshine. To be, as we said,

"one cheerful rational voice amidst the din of mourners and polemics." — item hvd.32044054766902-01

Fuller:

And I would say that The Dial should be a place where women as well as men find their voices. It should report the life of all — not merely the life of the educated male. The journal that takes its name from an instrument that measures only sunshine should not exclude half the human race from its light.

Alcott:

I would say, as I wrote in my Orphic Sayings:

"Thou dost the livelong day Dial on time thine own eternity." — item hvd.32044054766902-01

The Dial should measure not the dead time of clocks but the living time of the soul — the eternity that is present in every moment of growth, every act of love, every opening of the mind to truth. That is what the Dial is for. That is what the Dial is.