Path to Spitual Development - Essay Example

Path to Spiritual Development Order No: 176921 No: of pages: 2 Premium – 6530 Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) was one of the leading and most influential poets, lecturer and essayist of America in the 19th century. The pivotal aspect of his work was to explore and analyze the divinity of the individual soul and of Nature itself. His first essential work was called “Nature” which was published in 1836.Emerson had a great reverence for nature and felt that he had a mysterious connection to it.

To him it was a source of great consolation and inspiration from which he drew his strength and spiritual divinity. Like the great poet William Wordsworth, whose love of nature knew no bounds, Emerson too, not only appreciated the beauty of nature but also calls upon his audience to experience the impact it has in our lives.According to him, the true lover of nature is one whose inward and outward senses are in harmony with each other and has retained his infancy while traveling through to manhood.

He feels that if a person is one with nature, all egotism vanishes and he feels a part of God experiencing sanctity and perpetual youth. But the power to indulge or take delight in it does not rest with nature but within man or the harmony of both.Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862) was the protégé of Ralph Waldo Emerson, under whose tutelage began his writing career. His works on what constitutes true human and natural value has greatly influenced the later generations of writers and thinkers.

Thoreau took a sabbatical from civilization to spend quality time in isolation so that he could think, read and write at his own pace. This particular aspect of Thoreau’s fundamental ideal of living his life “deliberately” savoring every aspect slowly, had a great impact on American’s in the 21st century, who try to rush through things and achieve much more within the shortest span of time.Thoreau makes an eye – opening statement when he tells us that our lives are frittered away by detail and he calls upon us to lead a life of simplicity and not complication.

He compares our life to a “German Confederacy” and the nation with its so called improvements which are superficial and reduced to an overgrown establishment. He says that man craves for reality whether in life or death, so it is better to lead simple lives, closer to nature so that we would be more close to reality.So both writers, Emerson as well as Thoreau through their writings have given us a beacon of light to lead us through the maze around us giving us forethought and insight into what is good for us and what would eventually lead us to healthy spiritual development.