Bull: The Difference Between Scholars and Bookworms

Continuing his dive into the ever-yawning "abyss of knowledge," Bull S. is currently exploring the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882).  American essayist, lecturer, and poet, Emerson led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century and - true to the form of IP - advocated for individualism not only as an educational approach but also as an existential philosophy.

Emerson continues to be studied in high school and college due, in part, to his piece "The American Scholar."  Delivered on August 31, 1847 to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge, Massachusetts, this speech saw him advocate for an observably independent American cultural identity.

One passage in particular stands out to Bull:

"'Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst.' 

'Yet hence arises a grave mischief. The sacredness which attaches to the act of creation, — the act of thought, — is transferred to the record. The poet chanting, was felt to be a divine man: henceforth the chant is divine also. The writer was a just and wise spirit: henceforward it is settled, the book is perfect; as love of the hero corrupts into worship of his statue. Instantly, the book becomes noxious: the guide is a tyrant. The sluggish and perverted mind of the multitude, slow to open to the incursions of Reason, having once so opened, having once received this book, stands upon it, and makes an outcry, if it is disparaged. Colleges are built on it. Books are written on it by thinkers, not by Man Thinking; by men of talent, that is, who start wrong, who set out from accepted dogmas, not from their own sight of principles. Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views, which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books.

'Hence, instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm. Hence, the book-learned class, who value books, as such; not as related to nature and the human constitution, but as making a sort of Third Estate with the world and the soul. Hence, the restorers of readings, the emendators, the bibliomaniacs of all degrees.'"

For Emerson's full speech, please click on the following link:  http:/​/​www.emersoncentral.com/​amscholar.htm.

(A portrait of Emerson.  Picture located at en.wikipedia.org.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over the above image.)