Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson has many aspects of Transcendentalism in it. The title alone; Nature is a big part of Transcendentalism. Being "in touch" with nature is talked about in much of this piece of literature. At one point Emerson says "In the woods is perpetual youth". Another aspect of Transcendentalism is being able to get out of the physical realm and make a connection with God. Emerson talks about this when he says "I am nothing: I see all" and "I am part or parcel of God".
The thing that I found most interesting was, when Emerson talked about the stars, and how people take them for granted. He said that “If the stars should appear but one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore” and “But every night comes out these envoys of beauty”.
Self- Reliance by Emerson also has aspects of transcendentalism in it. A very important part of transcendentalism is that people are pure and that God speaks through them. One of the main things that is talked about in Self-Reliance is basically being true to yourself, and not trying to be like others. This is illustrated when Emerson says "Accept the place the divine Providence has found for you" as well as "imitation is suicide". They belief that they are pure, and therefore pure enough for God to speak through them would make trying to be different from the way they naturally are about the worst sin possible.
The thing that I found most interesting about Self-Reliance was in the last paragraph. Emerson talks about being misunderstood for saying what he believes even when it contradicts things that he had previously said. Hes say's "Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther", "and Newton". He say that it is not bad to be misunderstood, because great people are often mistunderstood.
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