hematician who was one of the first Europeans to openly accept Newton’s gravitational theories. He seems to suggest here that grief is but an illusion, because man is incapable of touching the human soul. Emerson continued with, “Grief too will make us idealists. In the death of my son, now more than two years ago, I seem to have lost a beautiful estate, - no more. I cannot get it nearer to me.” Now, Emerson reveals his inspiration for writing Experience. With the death of his son, Emerson had suffered the fourth major loss in his family, which had been long plagued by tuberculosis. His first wife died of the disease and had claimed the lives of his two beloved brothers. Emerson was no stranger to grief, and the more he tried to psychoanalyze it, the emptier he felt. After sustaining so much loss, one must steel oneself from any further blows.Next, Emerson wrote, “If tomorrow I should be informed of the bankruptcy of my principal debtors, the loss of my property would be a great inconvenience to me, perhaps, for many years; but it would leave me as it found me, - neither better nor worse.” Here, Emerson could easily be accused of insensitivity, equating the death of his son to the loss of property. Although it is difficult for a compassionate soul to describe the death of a child as an inconvenience, again, we must walk in his shoes for a moment. The losses he was forced to endure over a short period of time would have been a heavy cross for anyone to bear. If denial was the best way for Emerson to carry on, who could blame him?The paragraph continues with, “So is it with this calamity; it does not touch me: some thing which I fancied was a part of me, which could not be torn away without tearing me, nor enlarged without enriching me, falls off from me, and leaves no scar. It was caducous.” Critics were particularly harsh on Emerson for these seemingly unfeeling lines. However, M...
