The American Scholar by Ralph Waldo Emerson In the essay the American Scholar, Emerson portrays the scholar as a person who learns from three main things. These things by which a scholar is educated are by nature, by books (the past) and by action. Emerson uses nature as a comparison to the human mind where he states, “There is never a beginning, there is never an end to the inexplicable continuity of this web of …showed first 75 words of 537 total…

…showed last 75 words of 537 total…scholar without the heroic mind.”(299) Emerson wants the scholar to learn but question everything. “The true scholar grudges every opportunity of action past by, as a loss of power.”(300) Emerson also places a value on action. “The final value of action…is, that it is a resource.”(301) Through action man has transformed himself into Man Thinking. “The mind now thinks; now acts; and each fit reproduces the other…he has always the resource to live.”(301)