Emerson’s essay “Spiritual Laws” has a lot to say about being your own person. Like in “American Scholar” and “Self-Reliance,” Emerson puts an emphasis on not conforming to outside ideas of how a person should behave and what they should believe.
Early on, he bemoans how “our young people are diseased with the theological problems of originl sin, origin of evil, predestination, and the like. These never presented a practical difficulty to any man,–never darkened across any man’s road, who did not go out of his way to seek them.” He similarly attacks the practice of Sunday school: “It is natural and beautiful that childhood should inquire, and maturity should teach; but it is time enough to answer questions, when they are asked. Do not shut up the young people against their wills in a pew, and force the children to ask them questions for an hour against their will.” Emerson is condemning the way religion forces people to conform to certain ways of thinking, and forces people to ask questions, instead of discovering their own view of spirituality.
Emerson discusses perception a good deal. He argues that what is right and just is something to be determined by each individual, that what is right for one person may not necessarily be right for another. For Emerson, it seems, good is relative. It is not something that can be generalized for society. It’s a bold assumption, because that undermines the idea of rules and laws for society. Without guidelines society would, of course, dissolve into chaos. This either doesn’t occur to Emerson or doesn’t appear to be a real threat. He may be picturing a utopian situation, where there are no conflicting interests.
