Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- 1 Transatlantic Transcendentalism
- 2 Coleridge and Boston Transcendentalism
- 3 Nature: Philosophy and the “Riddle of the World”
- 4 The Landing Place: “Distinguishing without Dividing” and Coleridge's Method
- 5 Humanity: “Art is the Mediatress, The Reconciliator of Man and Nature”
- 6 Spirit: “An Influx of the Divine Mind”
- 7 Emerson's Nature: Coleridge's Method and the Romantic Triad
- 8 Coleridge and Vermont Transcendentalism
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Coleridge and Boston Transcendentalism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- 1 Transatlantic Transcendentalism
- 2 Coleridge and Boston Transcendentalism
- 3 Nature: Philosophy and the “Riddle of the World”
- 4 The Landing Place: “Distinguishing without Dividing” and Coleridge's Method
- 5 Humanity: “Art is the Mediatress, The Reconciliator of Man and Nature”
- 6 Spirit: “An Influx of the Divine Mind”
- 7 Emerson's Nature: Coleridge's Method and the Romantic Triad
- 8 Coleridge and Vermont Transcendentalism
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In September, 1836, on the day of the celebration of the second centennial anniversary of Harvard College, Mr. Emerson, George Ripley, and myself, with one other, chanced to confer together on the state of current opinion in theology and philosophy, which we agreed in thinking very unsatisfactory. Could anything be done in the way of protest and introduction of deeper and broader views? What precisely we wanted it would have been difficult for either of us to state. What we strongly felt was dissatisfaction with the reigning sensuous philosophy, dating from Locke, on which our Unitarian theology was based. The writings of Coleridge, recently edited by Marsh … had created a ferment in the minds of some of the young clergy of that day. There was a promise in the air of a new era of intellectual life.
(Frederick Henry Hedge)Coleridge's thought arrived on American shores at a pivotal moment for Emerson's maturation and for the development of Boston Transcendentalism. Why exactly did Coleridge create such a stir in America? Frederick Henry Hedge's comment above, made during the first meeting of what would later be known as the “Transcendental Club,” revealed several reasons why Coleridge “created a ferment in the minds of some of the young clergy of that day.” Hedge expressed the “dissatisfaction with the reigning sensuous philosophy,” and uncertainty about what could replace it, other than the nebulous desire for the “introduction of deeper and broader views.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Transatlantic TranscendentalismColeridge, Emerson and Nature, pp. 24 - 39Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2013