Self-Reliance

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; " I think that Emerson pulls together the true meaning of envy here. There is no place in our lives for it. We should be grateful for what we have, for that is what we have earned. "The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried ." Nature is an ever going circle of life. Things repeat themselves; and only the individual knows what they are capable of whether others support or put down their endeavors. If an individual follows what others has set for him and does not try what he feels he can do he will never know success. "A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace." This quote has should hung at the Unemployment Office. If everyone worked hard at what they are given and do their best they will find fulfillment in their live. If on the other-hand they they find ways out of work, commit theft at work or produce a poor product, they will not be fulfilled they will be sad and angry. "Infancy conforms to nobody: all conform to it, so that one babe commonly makes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it. " I love this quote even though Emerson has a deeper meaning, I can look back to when my boys were young and see how some of the most uptight adults turn into "blubbering idiots" as they coo and play with a new born baby. I think that Emerson is actually trying to explain to us that if there is a catalyst that is strong "the baby" those around it will conform to what is being said and done. America was new, he wanted those who read his essay to realize that in the newness there would be different roads to follow and it was up to them to conform to the positive. "They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is. " I will finish with this quote because I think this is what Emerson is trying to say throughout his essay of self-reliance. If each of us looks to what our gift is and our success from that gift without comparison to others we will be fulfilled in life. We are not to want more than we deserve from work or heredity. We are to be grateful for what we have, how we earned it and how we can benefit from it; we are to be "Self-Relient".