This is a response to Ariane’s post.

I agree with your understanding of Emerson’s speech, “The Ameerican Scholar.” I believe he tried to convey that a scholar is not someone who sits and reads books but rather goes out into the world and experiences. A scholar is a scholar because he uses the foresight and ability to create rather than just dream. He talks about an “active soul” saying that every man is entitled to it and that this gives the individual the ability to see the truth.

As you mentioned, books are still a positive. They offer knowledge on many things such as history and the past.

I believe the reason why Emerson strays away from books in his speech is because he mentions that a genius is one who looks to the future and creates his own experiences to learn from, thus discrediting books about the past. Thinkers create the future instead of analyzing the past.

Action is the source of all creation. One cannot see truth without action since they don’t have experiences to reflect upon. They cannot be men without action. This is why one needs to learn from experience according to Emerson, which is also stressed by Rousseau as you have nicely mentioned. This is why books are simply not enough.

Last thought- “Life is our dictionary. Years are well spent in country labors; in town, — in the insight into trades and manufactures; in frank intercourse with many men and women; in science; in art; to the one end of mastering in all their facts a language by which to illustrate and embody our perceptions. I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived, through the poverty or the splendor of his speech. Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of to-day. This is the way to learn grammar. Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made..” This quote bothered me for hours. What does it mean life is our dictionary? And now I finally understand it. I believe this isn’t literal, that books aren’t a source of definition and clarity. But rather I think what he means here is that life and its experiences through ones actions are a better means of education and growth than those of a book. A book cannot dictate or define what happened in a moment in time better than one who witnessed it first hand. Therefore, life is a dictionary and each person has their own. The more you have in your dictionary the wiser you are and the knowledge in ones dictionary is a result of ones actions.