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Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson summary

     Emerson starts his essay with three quotations. The first is a Latin epigram which can be translated as “Ask no questions outside”. This means we should find answer to all our problems from our own hearts. The next is a Quatrain composed by Emerson. It says that a man should be guided by himself and good or evil comes to him only through his own acts. The third is quoted from “Honest Man’s Fortune” by Beaumont and Fletcher. It says man gets dynamism by being brought up by such ferocious creatures like the she-wolf, hawk and fox.

                                    Self-reliance is obedience to the Over-soul. It is actually God reliance. Emerson felt that man must surrender himself fully and act in accordance with the instincts of his soul. Through these instincts are the same as those forces that govern the physical universe.

                                    The doctrine of self-reliance is a consequence of the Protestantism inherited by Emerson. Emerson to define his idea of self-reliance more adequately. He believed that is divinity within the soul, and that it gave positive commands. The Over-soul being ethical, these commands are ethical. Thus self-reliance led Emerson to the religion of spirit.


                                Obedience to the Over- soul within man dispenses with all intermediate institutions. Self-reliance does not have a place for moral or religious authority. Self-reliance alone constitutes character and the appearance of character makes the state unnecessary. Emerson that argues that is people have “a reliance on the moral sentiment” and if they have “a sufficient belief in the unity of things”, then a society could be “maintained without artificial restraints”. 

                                 The thoughtful and virtuous tend to have “a deeper belief and reliance on spiritual facts.”Recent philosophy, he noted, has begun to reject material aids and to trust “the private self-supplied powers of the individual. He visualized the future as one that would apprehend “God in the ethical laws,” which laws are being illustrated everywhere. 

                                   A transcendental, universe self is present in every individual; and in the light of this idea self-reliance can be treated as individualism. Emerson wanted “men of original perception and original action, who can open their eyes wider than to a nationality”. The self-reliant one must then be able to include all in himself. He must become universal. Hence, his individualism is other than egotism.

                               Emerson expresses a form of belief in the importance of the individual which is independent of any personal relations he has with the world. There is an implication of a fundamental falsehood in every bit of Transcendentalism including Emerson. 

                                This criticism misses the values of the central teaching of Emerson. It is the doctrine expressed in the words, “Trust Thyself”. The individual is the unit of measurement. The law of all nature is in him. But man has wronged himself, and therefore men have become bugs, spawn and are called “the mass”.  

                              Then the individual becomes less than a man. If man is to be restored to manhood, he must trust himself. This “Trust Thyself” is possible if we have answered the maxim “Know Thyself”.

                               The individual must rely on himself for guidance. But he must at the same time recognize that other –selves too have a similar authority. Then one is prevented from setting up a tyranny of his own intuitions. Self- reliance is, thus, found on the democratic tolerance of others.

                             The greatest obstacles to self-reliance are the tendencies toward social conformity and intellectual rigidity. These tendencies led the people to believe in an external God, in the “superstition of traveling”, in the cultural influence of fine arts, and in hoping for social progress and reform. 

                              As against this, Emerson stated, “Whoso would be a man, must be a non-conformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred, but the integrity of your mind. Emerson is thus led next to explain what the self is. Only one’s own self can bring peace to him and he must endeavour to see the triumph of his principles, of his trust in himself. 


                         The essay on “Self-reliance” offers the meaning of the former in the clearest and most emphatic terms. He asks his readers to follow their impulses: “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men”- is genius. 

                Society controls our freedom of action, and it demands caution and conformity. But Emerson says, “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”He wants man to be mentally free: “Let him not deep or steal, or skulk up and down with the air of a charity-boy”. One should not be an imitator:  “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself”. 

                   This requires the acceptance of the sanctities called obedience and faith. Once man cultivates self-reliance, he can achieve great many things in all walks of life. They want of this self-culture carries men from land to land, whereas “the soul is no traveller”. Self-reliance is, thus the basic foundation of the new philosophy of life advocated by Emerson.


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