In Emerson’s address to the Harvard class of 1837, entitled The American Scholar, he names books as one of the three major influences upon scholars. However, in his speech, Emerson’s goal is to convince his audience that books “are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst,” and that in the world of academia, the latter is more prevalent. Emerson’s problem with books in the scholastic world is that it prevents scholars from forming their own philosophies on life because they spend their academic lives devoting themselves to the philosophies of the thinkers whom have come before them. In his words, “instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm.” Emerson notes that these works of the past are undoubtedly important, and many old books are worth reading in the present, but he also points out that the worth of past books is dependent on “how far the process had gone, of transmuting life into truth.” Life is not stagnant; as time progresses, the way people live changes, and for that reason what one reads in a book written centuries, even decades ago, may not be relevant, or easily related to, in the present. The danger lies in the scholars who “grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views, which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books.” These “bookworms” run the risk of never taking the time to formulate their own ideas of the world. This pattern will, in the opinion of Emerson, stagnate creativity.
Emerson on Books
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