WORKS TO READ FOR THIS SEMESTER

Week 1-7

WEEK 1
The world on the turtles back
emilythiell.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/file/view
NATIVE POEMS
NAVAJO
Song in the Garden of the House of God (from the Navajo corn-planting ritual)
Truly in the east
The white bean
And the great corn plant
Are tied with the white lightning.
Listen! rain approaches!
The voice of the bluebird is heard.
Truly in the east
The white bean
And the great squash
Are tied with the rainbow.
Listen! rain approaches!
The voice of the bluebird is heard.
From the top of the great corn-plant the water gurgles, I hear it;
Around the roots the water foams, I hear it;
Around the roots of the plants it foams, I hear it;
From their tops the water foams, I hear it.
The corn grows up. The waters of the dark clouds drop, drop.
The rain descends. The waters from the corn leaves drop, drop.
The rain descends. The waters from the plants drop, drop.
The corn grows up. The waters of the dark mists drop, drop.
Shall I cull this fruit of the great corn-plant?
Shall you break it? Shall I break it?
Shall I break it? Shall you break it?
Shall I? Shall you?
Shall I cull this fruit of the great squash vine?
Shall you pick it up? shall I pick it up?

Shall I pick it up? Shall you pick it up?

Shall I? Shall you?
As you all can see here, nature was important to these natives, and the spirit of
neighbourhood or clanhood (shall I ,shall you)
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HOPI
Korosta Katzina Song (from the Hopi corn-planting dance, with Kachinas wearing
rainbow masks)
Yellow butterflies,
Over the blossoming virgin corn,
With pollen-painted faces
Chase one another in brilliant throng.
Blue butterflies,
Over the blossoming virgin beans,
With pollen-painted faces
Chase one another in brilliant streams.
Over the blossoming corn,
Over the virgin corn,
Wild bees hum;
Over the blossoming beans,
Over the virgin beans,
Wild bees hum.
Over your field of growing corn
All day shall hang the thunder-cloud;
Over your field of growing corn
All day shall come the rushing rain.
The same goes for this poem. They prayed that their neighbours plants will grow well.
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The beginning of sickness - MAYAN

Then they adhered to their reason.
There was no sin;
In the holy faith their lives were passed.
There was then no sickness;

They had then no aching bones;

They had then no high fever;
They had then no smallpox;
They had then no burning chest;
They had then no abdominal pains;
They had then no consumption;
They had then no headache.
At that time the course of humanity was orderly.
The foreigners made it otherwise when they arrived here.
They brought shameful things when they came. . .
This was the cause of our sickness also.
There were no more lucky days for us;
We had no sound judgment.
At the end of our lost of vision,
And of our shame,
Everything shall be revealed.

Everything was fine and they lived in harmony with nature which protected them from
harm until the foreigners came.

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They came from the East - MAYAN
They came from the east when they arrived.
Then Christianity also began.
The fulfillment of its prophecy is ascribed to the east. . .
Then with the true god, the true dios,
Came the beginning of our misery.
It was the beginning of tribute,
The beginning of church dues,
The beginning of strife with purse snatching,
The beginning of strife with blowguns,
The beginning of strife by trampling on people,
The beginning of robbery with violence,
The beginning of forced debts,
The beginning of debt enforced by false testimony,
The beginning of individual strife,
A beginning of vexation.
A Navajo Morning Prayer

The Earth, my mother

The Universe, my god
Changing woman, my mother
Thank you, my gods
My mind, my spirit
My respect and my faith
You renew them in my life
You make my life good again
Thank you my gods
With this:
It is made Sacred
It is made sacred
It is made Sacred
It is made Sacred
Hymn to Ishcoshauahjqui
Hymn to Ishcoshauahjqui
In the Hall of Flames let me not put to shame my
ancestors; descending there, let me not put you to shame.
I fasten a rope to the sacred tree, I twist it in eight folds,
that by it I, a magician, may descend to the magical house.
Begin your song in the Hall of Flames; begin your song
in the Hall of Flames; why does the magician not come forth?
Why does he not rise up?
Let his subjects assist in the Hall of Flames; he appears,
he appears, let his subjects assist.
Let the servants never cease the song in the Hall of
Flames; let them rejoice greatly, let them dance wonderfully.
Call ye for the woman with abundant hair, whose care is the mist and rain, call ye for her.
With beauty before me, I walk.
With beauty behind me, I walk.
With beauty below me, I walk.
With beauty above me, I walk
With beauty all around me, I walk.
It is finished in beauty,

It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty,
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WEEK 2 & 3
PURITAN POEM
John Winthrop's City upon a Hill, 1630
Now the onely way to avoyde this shipwracke and to provide for our posterity is to
followe the Counsell of Micah, to doe Justly, to love mercy, to walke humbly with our
God, for this end, wee must be knitt together in this worke as one man, wee must
entertaine each other in brotherly Affeccion, wee must be willing to abridge our selves of
our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities, wee must uphold a familiar
Commerce together in all meekenes, gentlenes, patience and liberallity, wee must delight
in eache other, make others Condicions our owne rejoyce together, mourne together,
labour, and suffer together, allwayes haveing before our eyes our Commission and
Community in the worke, our Community as members of the same body, soe shall wee
keepe the unitie of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to
dwell among us, as his owne people and will commaund a blessing upon us in all our
wayes, soe that wee shall see much more of his wisdome power goodnes and truthe then
formerly wee have beene acquainted with, wee shall finde that the God of Israell is
among us, when tenn of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when hee
shall make us a prayse and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantacions: the lord
make it like that of New England: for wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty
upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us; soe that if wee shall deale falsely with our
god in this worke wee have undertaken and soe cause him to withdrawe his present help
from us, wee shall be made a story and a byword through the world, wee shall open the
mouthes of enemies to speake evill of the wayes of god and all professours for Gods
sake; wee shall shame the faces of many of gods worthy servants, and cause theire
prayers to be turned into Cursses upon us till wee be consumed out of the good land
whether wee are going: And to shutt upp this discourse with that exhortacion of Moses
that faithfull servant of the Lord in his last farewell to Israell Deut. 30. Beloved there is
now sett before us life, and good, deathe and evill in that wee are Commaunded this day
to love the Lord our God, and to love one another to walke in his wayes and to keepe his
Commaundements and his Ordinance, and his lawes, and the Articles of our Covenant
with him that wee may live and be multiplyed, and that the Lord our God may blesse us
in the land whether wee goe to possesse it: But if our heartes shall turne away soe that
wee will not obey, but shall be seduced and worshipp other Gods our pleasures, and
proffitts, and serve them, it is propounded unto us this day, wee shall surely perishe out of
the good Land whether wee passe over this vast Sea to possesse it;

Therefore lett us choose life,

that wee, and our Seede,
may live; by obeyeing his
voyce, and cleaveing to him,
for hee is our life, and
our prosperity.

ANNE BRADSTREET
The Author to her Book
Thou ill-form'd offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth did'st by my side remain,
Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad expos'd to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th' press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call.
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy Visage was so irksome in my sight,
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could.
I wash'd thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.
I stretcht thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run'st more hobbling than is meet.
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save home-spun Cloth, i' th' house I find.
In this array, 'mongst Vulgars mayst thou roam.
In Critics' hands, beware thou dost not come,

And take thy way where yet thou art not known.
If for thy Father askt, say, thou hadst none;
And for thy Mother, she alas is poor,
Which caus'd her thus to send thee out of door.
Anne Bradstreet writes of her experience being a writer. You may read the summary
online.

Prologue
To sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings,
Of Cities founded, Common-wealths begun,
For my mean Pen are too superior things;
Or how they all, or each their dates have run,
Let Poets and Historians set these forth.
My obscure lines shall not so dim their worth.
But when my wondring eyes and envious heart
Great Bartas sugard lines do but read oer,
Fool, I do grudge the Muses did not part
Twixt him and me that over-fluent store.
A Bartas can do what a Bartas will
But simple I according to my skill.
From School-boys tongue no Rhetric we expect,
Nor yet a sweet Consort from broken strings,
Nor perfect beauty wheres a main defect.
My foolish, broken, blemished Muse so sings,
And this to mend, alas, no Art is able,
Cause Nature made it so irreparable.
Nor can I, like that fluent sweet-tongued Greek
Who lispd at first, in future times speak plain.
By Art he gladly found what he did seek,
A full requital of his striving pain.

Art can do much, but this maxims most sure:

A weak or wounded brain admits no cure.
I am obnoxious to each carping tongue
Who says my hand a needle better fits.
A Poets Pen all scorn I should thus wrong,
For such despite they cast on female wits.
If what I do prove well, it wont advance,
Theyll say its stoln, or else it was by chance.
But sure the antique Greeks were far more mild,
Else of our Sex, why feigned they those nine
And poesy made Calliopes own child?
So mongst the rest they placed the Arts divine,
But this weak knot they will full soon untie.
The Greeks did nought but play the fools and lie.
Let Greeks be Greeks, and Women what they are.
Men have precedency and still excel;
It is but vain unjustly to wage war.
Men can do best, and Women know it well.
Preeminence in all and each is yours;
Yet grant some small acknowledgement of ours.
And oh ye high flown quills that soar the skies,
And ever with your prey still catch your praise,
If eer you deign these lowly lines your eyes,
Give thyme or Parsley wreath, I ask no Bays.
This mean and unrefined ore of mine
Will make your glistring gold but more to shine.

To My Dear and Loving Husband

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love lets so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
This poem was written by Anne Bradstreet to show her undying love for her husband
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLONIAL WRITERS
The Wild Honeysuckle
Philip Freneau
Fair flower, that dost so comely grow,
Hid in this silent, dull retreat,
Untouched thy honied blossoms blow,
Unseen thy little branches greet:
No roving foot shall crush thee here,
No busy hand provoke a tear.
By Nature's self in white arrayed,
She bade thee shun the vulgar eye,
And planted here the guardian shade,
And sent soft waters murmuring by;
Thus quietly thy summer goes,
Thy days declining to repose.
Smit with those charms, that must decay,
I grieve to see your future doom;
They diednor were those flowers more gay,
The flowers that did in Eden bloom;
Unpitying frosts and Autumn's power
Shall leave no vestige of this flower.
From morning suns and evening dews
At first thy little being came;

If nothing once, you nothing lose,

For when you die you are the same;
The space between is but an hour,
The frail duration of flower.
You could see here that the poet writes and is immersed in nature, although he is aware
that nothing is permanent.
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On Being Brought from Africa to America

Phillis Wheatley
'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negro's, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.
A poem about slavery in America.
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WEEK 4
Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 March 22, 1758) was a Christian preacher,
philosopher, and theologian. He was a Puritan who lived his life according to the strict
Christianity that they had brought from England. He used the narrative style instead of
the poetry form to convey his Christianity messages.
The Resolutions
Edward Jonathan.
Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without Gods help, I do humbly entreat
him by his grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to
his will, for Christs sake.
Overall Life Mission1

1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to Gods glory, and my own
good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the
time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I
think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general.
Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.
2. Resolved, to be continually endeavoring to find out some new invention and
contrivance to promote the aforementioned things.
3. Resolved, if ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these
Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.
4. Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but
what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can avoid it.
6. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.
22. Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I
possibly can, with all the power; might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable
of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.
62. Resolved, never to do anything but duty; and then according to Eph. 6:6-8, do it
willingly and cheerfully as unto the Lord, and not to man; knowing that whatever good
thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of the Lord. June 25 and July 13, 1723.
Good Works
Time Management
5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I
possibly can.
7. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour
of my life.
17. Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
18. Resolved, to live so at all times, as I think is best in my devout frames, and when I
have clearest notions of things of the gospel, and another world.
19. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would
not be above an hour, before I should hear the last trump.
37. Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent,

what sin I have committed, and wherein I have denied myself: also at the end of every
week, month and year. Dec. 22 and 26, 1722.
40. Resolved, to inquire every night, before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best
way I possibly could, with respect to eating and drinking. Jan. 7, 1723.
41. Resolved, to ask myself at the end of every day, week, month and year, wherein I
could possibly in any respect have done better. Jan. 11, 1723.
50.Resolved, I will act so as I think I shall judge would have been best, and most prudent,
when I come into the future world. July 5, 1723.
51.Resolved, that I will act so, in every respect, as I think I shall wish I had done, if I
should at last be damned. July 8, 1723.
52. I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their
lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done,
supposing I live to old age. July 8, 1723.
55. Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to act as I can think I should do, if I had already
seen the happiness of heaven, and hell torments. July 8, 1723.
61. Resolved, that I will not give way to that listlessness which I find unbends and relaxes
my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for itthat what my listlessness inclines me to do, is best to be done, etc. May 21, and July 13,
1723.
Relationships
14. Resolved, never to do anything out of revenge.
15. Resolved, never to suffer the least motions of anger to irrational beings.
16. Resolved, never to speak evil of anyone, so that it shall tend to his dishonor, more or
less, upon no account except for some real good.
31. Resolved, never to say anything at all against anybody, but when it is perfectly
agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor, and of love to mankind, agreeable to
the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden
rule; often, when I have said anything against anyone, to bring it to, and try it strictly by
the test of this Resolution.
33. Resolved, always to do what I can towards making, maintaining, establishing and
preserving peace, when it can be without over-balancing detriment in other respects. Dec.
26, 1722.

34. Resolved, in narrations never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity.
36. Resolved, never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call for it.
Dec. 19, 1722.
46. Resolved, never to allow the least measure of any fretting uneasiness at my father or
mother. Resolved to suffer no effects of it, so much as in the least alteration of speech, or
motion of my eve: and to be especially careful of it, with respect to any of our family.
58. Resolved, not only to refrain from an air of dislike, fretfulness, and anger in
conversation, but to exhibit an air of love, cheerfulness and benignity. May 27,and July
13, 1723.
70. Let there be something of benevolence, in all that I speak.
Character
8. Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile
as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as
others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in
myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.
12. Resolved, if I take delight in it as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such
account, immediately to throw it by.
21. Resolved, never to do anything, which if I should see in another, I should count a just
occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.
32. Resolved, to be strictly and firmly faithful to my trust, that that in Prov. 20:6, A
faithful man who can find? may not be partly fulfilled in me.
47. Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to deny whatever is not most agreeable to a good,
and universally sweet and benevolent, quiet, peaceable, contented, easy, compassionate,
generous, humble, meek, modest, submissive, obliging, diligent and industrious,
charitable, even, patient, moderate, forgiving, sincere temper; and to do at all times what
such a temper would lead me to. Examine strictly every week, whether I have done so.
Sabbath morning. May 5, 1723.
54. Whenever I hear anything spoken in conversation of any person, if I think it would be
praiseworthy in me, Resolved to endeavor to imitate it. July 8, 1723.
63. On the supposition, that there never was to be but one individual in the world, at any
one time, who was properly a complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having
Christianity always shining in its true luster, and appearing excellent and lovely, from
whatever part and under whatever character viewed: Resolved, to act just as I would do,

if I strove with all my might to be that one, who should live in my time. Jan. 14 and July
3, 1723.
27. Resolved, never willfully to omit anything, except the omission be for the glory of
God; and frequently to examine my omissions.
39. Resolved, never to do anything that I so much question the lawfulness of, as that I
intend, at the same time, to consider and examine afterwards, whether it be lawful or no;
except I as much question the lawfulness of the omission.
20. Resolved, to maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.
Spiritual Life
The Scriptures
28. Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may
find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
Prayer
29. Resolved, never to count that a prayer, nor to let that pass as a prayer, nor that as a
petition of a prayer, which is so made, that I cannot hope that God will answer it; nor that
as a confession, which I cannot hope God will accept.
64. Resolved, when I find those groanings which cannot be uttered (Rom. 8:26), of which the
Apostle speaks, and those breakings of soul for the longing it hath, of which the Psalmist
speaks, Psalm 119:20, that I will promote them to the utmost of my power, and that I will not be
wear, of earnestly endeavoring to vent my desires, nor of the repetitions of such earnestness.
July 23,and August 10, 1723.
Huswifery
EdwardTaylor
Make me, O Lord, thy Spining Wheele compleate.
Thy Holy Worde my Distaff make for mee.
Make mine Affections thy Swift Flyers neate
And make my Soule thy holy Spoole to bee.
My Conversation make to be thy Reele
And reele the yarn thereon spun of thy Wheele.
Make me thy Loome then, knit therein this Twine:
And make thy Holy Spirit, Lord, winde quills:
Then weave the Web thyselfe. The yarn is fine.
Thine Ordinances make my Fulling Mills.
Then dy the same in Heavenly Colours Choice,

All pinkt with Varnisht Flowers of Paradise.

Then cloath therewith mine Understanding, Will,
Affections, Judgment, Conscience, Memory
My Words, and Actions, that their shine may fill
My wayes with glory and thee glorify.
Then mine apparell shall display before yee
That I am Cloathd in Holy robes for glory.

WEEK 5 AGE OF REASON & REVOLUTION

Benjamin Franklin's speech regarding the constitution.
Monday, September 17, 1787, was the last day of the Constitutional Convention.
Pennsylvania delegate Benjamin Franklin, one of the few Americans of the time with
international repute, wanted to give a short speech to the Convention prior to the signing
of the final draft of the Constitution. Too weak to actually give the speech himself, he had
fellow Pennsylvanian James Wilson deliver the speech. It is considered a masterpiece.
The following is as reported in Madison's notes on the Convention for Monday,
September 17, 1787.
Mr. President
I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve,
but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced
many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change
opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be
otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own
judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as
most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever
others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope,
that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of
theirdoctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in
the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own
infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain french lady,
who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't know how it happens, Sister but I meet with
no body but myself, that's always in the right Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison."
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such;
because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of
Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe
farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in
Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so
corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too
whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution.
For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom,
you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of
opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect

production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching
so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting
with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of
Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the
purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I
expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had
of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them
abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in
returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor
to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and
thereby lose all the salutary effects & great advantages resulting naturally in our favor
among foreign Nations as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity.
Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing
happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of
the Government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore
that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act
heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution (if approved by Congress &
confirmed by the Conventions) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future
thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it well administred.
On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention
who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his
own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thomas Paine on age of reason
Here, we will be able to understand the age of reason. What Thomas Paine means by 'age
of reason' is that, we must not follow any faith blindly but we must be able to reason out
things before coming up with our opinion. The Age of Reason, is the name given to the
period in America during the 1700s when mankind was emerging from centuries of
ignorance into a new age enlightened by reason, science, and respect for humanity.
Below is some excerpts...
Age of Reason Introduction
by Thomas Paine
TO MY FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
I PUT the following work under your protection. It contains my opinions upon Religion.
You will do me the justice to remember, that I have always strenuously supported the
Right of every Man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine.
He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion,
because he precludes himself the right of changing it.
The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is Reason. I have never used
any other, and I trust I never shall.

It has been my intention, for several years past, to publish my thoughts upon religion. I
am well aware of the difficulties that attend the subject, and from that consideration, had
reserved it to a more advanced period of life. I intended it to be the last offering I should
make to my fellow-citizens of all nations, and that at a time when the purity of the motive
that induced me to it, could not admit of a question, even by those who might disapprove
the work.
The circumstance that has now taken place in France of the total abolition of the whole
national order of priesthood, and of everything appertaining to compulsive systems of
religion, and compulsive articles of faith, has not only precipitated my intention, but
rendered a work of this kind exceedingly necessary, lest in the general wreck of
superstition, of false systems of government, and false theology, we lose sight of
morality, of humanity, and of the theology that is true.
As several of my colleagues and others of my fellow-citizens of France have given me
the example of making their voluntary and individual profession of faith, I also will make
mine; and I do this with all that sincerity and frankness with which the mind of man
communicates with itself.
I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.
I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice,
loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.
But, lest it should be supposed that I believe in many other things in addition to these, I
shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for
not believing them.
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the
Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I
know of. My own mind is my own church.
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me
no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize
power and profit.
I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the
same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man,
that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in
disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.
It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying
has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of
his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has
prepared himself for the commission of every other crime. He takes up the trade of a
priest for the sake of gain, and in order to qualify himself for that trade, he begins with a
perjury. Can we conceive any thing more destructive to morality than this?
Soon after I had published the pamphlet Common Sense, in America, I saw the exceeding
probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a
revolution in the system of religion. The adulterous connection of church and state,
wherever it had taken place, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, had so effectually
prohibited by pains and penalties, every discussion upon established creeds, and upon
first principles of religion, that until the system of government should be changed, those
subjects could not be brought fairly and openly before the world; but that whenever this

should be done, a revolution in the system of religion would follow. Human inventions
and priestcraft would be detected; and man would return to the pure, unmixed and
unadulterated belief of one God, and no more.
Every national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special
mission from God, communicated to certain individuals. The Jews have their Moses; the
Christians their Jesus Christ, their apostles and saints; and the Turks their Mahomet, as if
the way to God was not open to every man alike.
Each of those churches show certain books, which they call revelation, or the word of
God. The Jews say, that their word of God was given by God to Moses, face to face; the
Christians say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration: and the Turks say, that
their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from Heaven. Each of those
churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.
As it is necessary to affix right ideas to words, I will, before I proceed further into the
subject, offer some other observations on the word revelation. Revelation, when applied
to religion, means something communicated immediately from God to man.
No one will deny or dispute the power of the Almighty to make such a communication, if
he pleases. But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a
certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only.
When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it
ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and
hearsay to every other, and consequently they are not obliged to believe it.
It is a contradiction in terms and ideas, to call anything a revelation that comes to us at
second-hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first
communication after this, it is only an account of something which that person says
was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it
cannot be incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner; for it was not a revelation
made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.

WEEK 6 and 7
Its important for you to know what is Transcendentalism and its basic characteristics. We
will read 2 parts of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Part 1 on
Nature. We will also read Rip Van Winkle and sleepy Hollow by Irving Washington.
TRANSCENDENTALISM
Early Nineteenth Century - American Transcendentalism (AT):
A Brief Introduction
Note: Nineteenth Century American Transcendentalism is not a religion (in the traditional
sense of the word); it is a pragmatic philosophy, a state of mind, and a form of

spirituality. It is not a religion because it does not adhere to the three concepts common in
major religions:
a. a belief in a God;
b. a belief in an afterlife (dualism); and
c. a belief that this life has consequences on the next (if you're good in this life, you go to
heaven in the next, etc.). Transcendentalism is monist; it does not reject an afterlife, but
its emphasis is on this life.
The Assumed, Presumed, or the Self-Identified Transcendentalists:
Central Points of Agreement:
NOTE: The Transcendentalists, in keeping with the individualistic nature of this
philosophy, disagreed readily with each other. Here are four points of general agreement:
Basic Assumption:
The intuitive faculty, instead of the rational or sensical, became the means for a
conscious union of the individual psyche (known in Sanskrit as Atman) with the world
psyche also known as the Oversoul, life-force, prime mover and God (known in Sanskrit
as Brahma).
Basic Premises:
1. An individual is the spiritual center of the universe - and in an individual can be found
the clue to nature, history and, ultimately, the cosmos itself. It is not a rejection of the
existence of God, but a preference to explain an individual and the world in terms of an
individual.

2. The structure of the universe literally duplicates the structure of the individual self - all
knowledge, therefore, begins with self-knowledge. This is similar to Aristotle's dictum
"know thyself."
3. Transcendentalists accepted the neo-Platonic conception of nature as a living mystery,
full of signs - nature is symbolic.
4. The belief that individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization - this
depends upon the reconciliation of two universal psychological tendencies:
a. the expansive or self-transcending tendency - a desire to embrace the whole world - to
know and become one with the world.
b. the contracting or self-asserting tendency - the desire to withdraw, remain unique and
separate - an egotistical existence.
Transcendentalism and the American Past
Transcendentalism as a movement is rooted in the American past: To Puritanism it
owed its pervasive morality and the "doctrine of divine light." It is also similar to the
Quaker "inner light." However, both these concepts assume acts of God, whereas
intuition is an act of an individual. In Unitarianism, deity was reduced to a kind of
immanent principle in every person - an individual was the true source of moral light. To
Romanticism it owed the concept of nature as a living mystery and not a clockwork
universe (deism) which is fixed and permanent.
A subtle chain of countless rings
The next unto the farthest brings;
The eye reads omens where it goes,
And speaks all languages the rose;

And, striving to be man, the worm

Mounts through all the spires of form.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, 1836
Transcendentalism was a 1. spiritual, 2. philosophical and 3. literary movement and is
located in the history of American Thought.
A Brief Chronology of Events

1832 Emerson resigns the ministry of the Unitarian Church - unable to administer
the holy communion.

1836 The annus mirabilis of the movement, during which Emerson published
Nature (the "gospel" of transcendentalism); George Ripley published Discourses
on the Philosophy of Religion; Orestes Brownson published New Views of
Christianity, Society, and Church; Bronson Alcott published Record of
Conversions in the Gospel (based on classroom discussions in his Temple School
in Boston, and provoking severe criticism); the Transcendental Club, also known
as Hedge's Club, met for the first time.

1837 Emerson delivers his Phi Beta Kappa address on "The American Scholar" at
Harvard, which James Russell Lowell called "an event without former parallel in
our literary annals."

1838 Emerson delivers his Divinity School Address at Harvard which touched off
a great storm in religious circles.

1840 The founding of the Dial, a Transcendental magazine, which "enjoyed its
obscurity," to use Emerson's words, for four years.

1841 The launching of George Ripley's Brook Farm - a utopian experiment.

Hawthorne was a resident there for a short time and wrote The Blithedale
Romance based upon his experience there.

1842 Alcott's utopian experiment at Fruitlands.

1845 Thoreau goes to live at Walden Pond.

1846 Thoreau is put in jail for his refusal to pay poll tax.

1850 Passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. The Transcendentalists found themselves
increasingly involved in abolition of slavery.

1855 Walt Whitman publishes his Leaves of Grass.

1859 Charles Darwin's Origin of Species is published.

1862 Henry David Thoreau dies.

Basic Tenets of American Transcendentalism:

Note: This list must not be considered to be a creed common to all transcendentalists. It is
merely a grouping of certain important concepts shared by many of them.

1. Transcendentalism, essentially, is a form of idealism.

2. The transcendentalist "transcends" or rises above the lower animalistic

impulses of life (animal drives) and moves from the rational to a spiritual realm.

3. The human soul is part of the Oversoul or universal spirit (or "float" for
Whitman) to which it and other souls return at death.

4. Therefore, every individual is to be respected because everyone has a portion of

that Oversoul (God).

5. This Oversoul or Life Force or God can be found everywhere - travel to holy
places is, therefore, not necessary.

6. God can be found in both nature and human nature (Nature, Emerson stated,
has spiritual manifestations).

7. Jesus also had part of God in himself - he was divine as everyone is divine except in that he lived an exemplary and transcendental life and made the best use
of that Power which is within each one.

8. "Miracle is monster." The miracles of the Bible are not to be regarded as

important as they were to the people of the past. Miracles are all about us - the
whole world is a miracle and the smallest creature is one. "A mouse is a miracle
enough to stagger quintillions of infidels." - Whitman

9. More important than a concern about the afterlife, should be a concern for this
life - "the one thing in the world of value is the active soul." - Emerson

10. Death is never to be feared, for at death the soul merely passes to the oversoul.

11. Emphasis should be placed on the here and now. "Give me one world at a
time." - Thoreau

12. Evil is a negative - merely an absence of good. Light is more powerful than
darkness because one ray of light penetrates the dark.

13. Power is to be obtained by defying fate or predestination, which seem to work

against humans, by exercising one's own spiritual and moral strength. Emphasis
on self-reliance.

14. Hence, the emphasis is placed on a human thinking.

15. The transcendentalists see the necessity of examples of great leaders, writers,
philosophers, and others, to show what an individual can become through thinking
and action.

16. It is foolish to worry about consistency, because what an intelligent person

believes tomorrow, if he/she trusts oneself, tomorrow may be completely different
from what that person thinks and believes today. "A foolish consistency is the
hobgoblin of little minds." - Emerson

17. The unity of life and universe must be realized. There is a relationship
between all things.

18. One must have faith in intuition, for no church or creed can communicate
truth.

19. Reform must not be emphasized - true reform comes from within.

POEM
WALT WHITMAN'S SONG OF MYSELF
I
I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil,
this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and
their parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never
forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.
2
Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are
crowded with perfumes,
I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it,
The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.
The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the

distillation, it is odorless,
It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,
I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised
and naked,
I am mad for it to be in contact with me.
The smoke of my own breath,
Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread,
crotch and vine,
My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the
passing of blood and air through my lungs,
The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and
dark-color'd sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,
The sound of the belch'd words of my voice loos'd to the
eddies of the wind,
A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms,
The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs
wag,
The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the
fields and hill-sides,
The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising
from bed and meeting the sun.
Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd
the earth much?
Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the
origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are
millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor
look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the
spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things
from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Chapter I NATURE
To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am
not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. Note But if a man would
be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will
separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made
transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence
of the sublime. Note Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should

appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; Note and
preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been
shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their
admonishing smile. Note
The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are
inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to
their influence. Note Nature never wears a mean appearance. Note Neither does the
wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity Note by finding out all her perfection.
Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains,
reflected the wisdom of his best hour, Note as much as they had delighted the simplicity
of his childhood.
When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the
mind. We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects. Note It is
this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the poet.
The charming landscape which I saw this morning, is indubitably made up of some
twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland
beyond. But none of them owns the landscape. There is a property in the horizon which
no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet. Note This is the
best part of these men's farms, yet to this their warranty-deeds give no title.
To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Note Most persons do not see the sun. At
least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but
shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and
outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy
even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his
daily food. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real
sorrows. Nature says, -- he is my creature, and maugre Definition all his impertinent
griefs, he shall be glad with me. Not the sun or the summer alone, but every hour and
season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour and change corresponds to and

authorizes a different state of the mind, Note from breathless noon to grimmest midnight.
Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. In good health, the
air is a cordial of incredible virtue. Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight,
under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good
fortune, Note I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration.I am glad to the brink of fear. Note In
the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough Definition, and at what
period soever of life, is always a child. Note In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within
these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and
the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return
to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, -- no disgrace, no
calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) Note which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare
ground, Note -- my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, -- all
mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the
currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. Note
The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be
acquaintances, -- master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of
uncontained and immortal beauty.In the wilderness, I find something more dear and
connate Note than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the
distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature. Note
The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult
relation between man and the vegetable. Note I am not alone and unacknowledged. They
nod to me, and I to them. The waving of the boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It
takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher thought or
a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right.
Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in
man, or in a harmony of both. It is necessary to use these pleasures with great
temperance. For, nature is not always tricked in holiday attire, but the same scene which
yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread
with melancholy today. Nature always wears the colors of the spirit Note. To a man

laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then, there is a kind
of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend. Note
The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth in the population.