I am nothing. I see all. Transcendentalism affirmed Kant's principle of intuitive knowledge not derived from the senses. Each particle is a microcosm, and faithfully renders the likeness of the world. Transcendentalism, like other romantic movements, proposes that the essential nature of human beings is good and that, left in a state of nature, human beings would seek the good.
Society is to blame for the corruption that mankind endures.
This view opposes the neoclassical vision that society alone is responsible for keeping human beings from giving in to their own brutish natures. Perfectionism and optimism. See also the Romantic concept of the sublime, especially the ideas of Edmund Burke. We cannot analyze one of Mr. Emerson's discourses. He hardly ever has a leading thought, to which all the parts of his discourse are subordinate, which is clearly stated, systematically drawn out, and logically enforced.