Discussion Papers: Themes Across Centuries Scholar’s Insights

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Challenging Us to Go Beyond the Ordinary Just . served me well in my teens, Emerson s belie i forms
tude of the private man,” and his identification wih all forms of life, proved to be reliable guides during my adult years-First, that’s because he defined so beautifully the v eight generations of Americans regard as the basis o national character and core beliefs, particularly his evo i to what he called “the republic of Man.” He condemned the institution of slavery, championed the right of women to vote, and spoke out against the “wicked Indian policy.
In his journal, Emerson dreamed of an America that would one day be an “asylum of all nations, the energy of Irish, Germans, Swedes, Poles & Cossacks, & all the European tribes—of the Africans, & of the Polynesians [who] will construct a new race, a new religion, a new State, a new literature, which will be as vigorous as the new Europe which came out of the smelting pot of the Dark Ages. . . .” He truly believed, and made me see, how “It is our duty to be discontented, with the measure we have of knowledge & virtue, to forget the things behind & press toward those before.”