Ralph Waldo Emmerson (The Scholar)

In the scholar I think that the way that he introduces the idea of a scholar is refreshing because he seems to be looking at it from the bigger perspective.  Most of the time when I think scholar the image that comes into my head isn't the everyday person who is out working in the feilds or even in an office building.  In my perspective or the cliche that remains in my head is that of someone who is secluded, but he presents the scholar to be the opposite.  He presents the scholar as someone who is interactive with the world and the unity of things.  I find it interesting that he says, "The act of thought is transferred through the record."  When he talks about the past I suppose his point is that thought that is valuable is one that knows the thought of the past or else it would end to be a repetitiuve thought.  At least that is how I comprehended his writings on that subject.  In the end I guess it is true though because if we were simply to only think about what we now based on the present without any acknowledgement of the past then we would be stuck in some weird cycle.  Although I think that it would be difficult to be in that cycle when we are raised on the occurances of the past.  For example our parents who lived before us don't simply forget what happened in their lifetimes so in a way it is almost impossible for that big of a gap of unoriginal ideas to occur. Then he continues to talk about the role of books to say that they are to inspire new things.  I find that what he says there is true also because ideas generally are based (or inspired by) some previous knowledge in which different people draw new connections from. He also says that there is supposed to be a balance between a scholars inspiration from books and inspiration from their own experiences.  Then he continues to talk about how a true scholar goes and observes and from that observation they gain wisdom, but true wisdome is gained from the experience of things in nature.