Opening Line
The essay kicks off with a metaphor. Not just any metaphor, but the metaphorical concept upon which the author’s entire premise is based. The commingling of the individual within the collective as a means for the collective to define themselves through the works and deeds of individuals is the essence of Transcendentalist thought so the opening metaphor is also reiteration of Emerson’s fundamental guiding philosophy.
“There is one mind common to all individual men.”
Eternal Recurrence
Emerson is no Nietzschean, but his theory of history does depend upon his own concept of eternal recurrence. In this case, it is not man who destined to eternally experience the same event over and over, but the event that that is destined to be repeated with each new human over and over. What has occurred in the past on a grand scale is destined to be experienced again on a continually less majestic level:
“The man who has seen the rising moon break out of the clouds at midnight has been present like an archangel at the creation of light and of the world.”
The Poet in the Essay
Emerson may be better known to some for his poetry than his essays and those readers should feel quite comfortable reading “History.” Throughout the essay, Emerson stitches together patterns of ideas and thematic conceptions with poetic imagery. At certain points, in fact, the language almost seems like someone spilled an Emerson poem onto Emerson prose:
“A man is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots, whose flower and fruitage is the world.”
How to Read History
The essay is also partly a guidebook. In addition to offering a Transcendentalist philosophy of history, Emerson provides instructional guidance on how one must read history in order to fully embrace and optimize its inherent power so that it does not merely lay dormant. Reading history cannot be the passive experience one learns in school. It must instead be approached by one as an actively engaged opportunity:
“to esteem his own life the text, and books the commentary. Thus compelled, the Muse of history will utter oracles, as never to those who do not respect themselves.”
How to write History
Emerson also takes exception to the manner in which history is written: superficially. What is considered the written account of history is all too often nothing but dates and names and places without context to the larger pursuit of the human mind. History is read in broad strokes because it is written in broad strokes. The result is that while history is a collective written account in which every individual can define himself, most do not really discover their individuality there is nothing which entices and tempts toward a broader and deeper exploration. The consequence for Emerson is that he is
“ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is.”
