Kyo 's Key Ideas from History
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

As a transcendentalist, Emerson prioritizes spiritual intuition over factual knowledge. He believes that laws are rooted in people's shared desire for an attainable sense of morals and intelligence.

He emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things, suggesting that individuals can see parts of themselves in other people, objects, and events from the past. People's daily relationship with nature, he argues, is their most genuine link to the past, as all individuals have become spiritually united with the natural world over time.

Emerson also discusses how all living things share the same divine design, and people attempt to capture the beauty of nature in their art and architecture. He believes that art and nature bring people together across time and space by evoking the same images and emotions in everyone.

Just as an artist must embody what they are painting to create it well, people must see themselves in history and vice versa to fully understand it.

Moreover, Emerson touches on how writing can help people comprehend and make sense of the past. He explains that characters in writing are representations of real people and are often used as symbols for universal human concepts such as pain, truth, or justice.

The lessons from these literary figures, according to Emerson, reveal the true meaning of life and should be valued more than facts that cannot be seen or touched. By studying literature, a person can learn how the general mind has evolved and remained consistent over time.

In conclusion, Emerson believes that personal growth and change are reflections of the same historical patterns at different levels of detail. The inner life of an individual is just one example of how the spirit and awareness of all things are one. He argues that the past of everything is collaborative because people could not have achieved their greatest accomplishments without being connected to the rest of the natural world.

Emerson ends the essay with a call to action, urging people to read and write history from a broader and deeper perspective, so they can understand the meaning of their lives in terms of the spiritual unity that links everyone and everything across time.