On all hands men's existence is converted into a preparation for existence. The end is lost in the means, life is smothered in appliances. We cannot get to ourselves, there are so many external comforts to wade through. Consciousness stops half way.
Reflection is dissipated in the circumstances of our environment.
Henry Hedge . I should have told them at once that I was a transcendentalist. This means participating in intellectual activities similar to those that the Transcendentalists themselves practiced. An important component of Transcendentalism, these were at once sermons, forms of entertainment, interpretations of other literary works, exhortations, provocations. . . . Lectures were not the only Transcendentalist mode of intellectual activity.