“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.” (Emerson 4)

The American Scholar was a speech given to the gentlemen of the Phi Beta Kappa Society in Harvard. The speech is essentially addressing the fact that many of the men in that room have never really worked or experienced real life. They are book worms who have lived their lives through their reading and through what they have been taught.

The quote stated above stuck out to me. As a student, who doesn’t know much outside the school system, this quote gets me thinking. Why do we assume that some authors are extremely knowledgeable? Because we were taught about them in school? Because our favorite professor told us so? These questions are brought up many times as a student. Emerson bluntly states what we’re thinking: these are men who were told were good thinkers, who were told they could write and tell stories. Throughout the speech, Emerson gives multiple examples of this. Emerson believes that only through action, you can truly be knowledgeable.

At first glance, the quote is something most students may agree on. However, there are always the scholarly students (like the Harvard) who would disagree. The fact that Emerson is speaking about these “great works” and “great writers” as people who were just born talented and did not actually experience anything real, is quite shocking. The students listening may not agree and may not be happy, since many of them may look up to those authors.

Many students who go to Harvard are those students who truly lived and loved school more than anything else. Their social life, sports, and other aspects were never more important. Yes, every case if different, but let’s assume that’s the vast majority. These students who have worked 18 years to get where they are, another 4 to get into this society, and most likely another 8 for a further degree, do not want to hear that their role models and favorite authors are not just talented, but wise amongst words.

The passage above is not to be taken lightly for, he’s insulting many of the books we’ve read. Emerson is no fool and is able to admit that the writers are talented, but that’s all he can say about them. He even says that they “start wrong.” What could that mean? That the authors stumbled upon brilliance? They did not work for it, nor did they struggle for it?

I could argue that students who have worked their entire lives to make it to a school like Harvard and be a part of the Phi Beta Kappa Society have worked very hard. But with this quote, is it possible that they just were born with it? I do believe that some are born with more intelligent capacity, with more advantages, weather it’s financial or genetic. However, can we doubt that they did not work as hard as the common man?