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Emerson! his transcendental ideal is displayed in three texts!

the first is a description of The American Scholar. first, he laments the fact that man is divided into sects of laborers, which he sees as an indication that man is fractured into a multitude of stunted individuals. The Scholar is the delegated intellect, or "Man Thinking." the education of The Scholar is through three things: nature, books, and action. (can i take this time to point out that i am not sure if i have been consistent with my use of the Oxford comma? i think i'm going to quit using it from now on) for Emerson, "Know Thyself" and "Study Nature" are one in the same. nature is the measure of one's attainments. books, however, unlike nature, are subject to folly. when used properly, they are the best in imparting the past. when used incorrectly, they are terrible! one should only read when it inspires genius! one should only go to college to create. the layman hopes and regurgitates, but the genius creates! action is of utmost importance. there exists no Scholar without a heroic mind. inaction is cowardice, and without action, thought can never ripen into truth. life itself is the dictionary of The Scholar. drudgery, calamity, exasperation and want are all simply instructions in eloquence and wisdom.
the duties of The Scholar are to cheer, rise and guide men by showing them facts amidst appearances; they are the worlds' eye and the worlds' heart. it is within self-trust and self confidence that The Scholar should be free and brave.
the "sports of the office" are money and power, those things that are desired by "the herd" who, according to Emerson, need to quit sleepwalking through life and wake up to see what is of true importance: it is one soul which animates all men! what is important is the individual! individual governing is man treating man as sovereign nation treats sovereign nation! the near explains the far. the drop is a small ocean. a man is related to all nature. the True American Scholar knows that we cannot remain fractured in labor sects: if we all become one, we will form a Nation of Persons, each who believes themselves to be inspired by the Divine soul which also inspires all persons.

in his address to Divinity College, he harps on his notion of the transcendental divine. there is a difference between the empirical world and the world that we sense when our mind is open. moral sentiment is merely an insight to the perfection of the laws of the soul. we are and embody God. we get to know The Great by getting to know ourselves: it is invested in the power of the individual. one cannot receive instruction from another, just provocation. man should not merely be an appendage--he is whole and of himself. he is God!
JC alone saw that God incarnates himself in man. he was a true man, and the church has perverted this sentiment.

here, Emerson takes a page out of Paine and outlines two defects of the church:
1 deifying miracles and a Christ figure instead of the individual and beauty of the world
2 teaching as if Revelation happened only at the time of Christ, as if God is dead Now and we can only learn from Then.

this loss of true worship leads to the decaying of all things: genius haunts the senate and the market, not the temple; literature becomes frivolous; science becomes cold; society lives to trifles; age is without honor. the two errors of Historical Christianity lead to defrauding and disconsolating the worshiper.
love God without mediator, yells Emerson! without veil! without the church! God is, not was! He speaks, not spake!

fashion, custom, authority, pleasure and money are nothing in the face of the immeasurable mind. Emerson suggests not a method of a new doctrine, nor does he suggest a new system, since Faith makes us and not we, it. he says the remedy to all this is the Soul, always the Soul.

the Soul, of course, is tied into the importance he rest on the Individual. in "Self Reliance," he says that genius is to believe in one's own thought, and that what is true for oneself is true for all men. in every work of Genius, we see and recognize our own rejected thoughts. he offers two suggestions:
be a nonconformist, he says! it is easy in the world to live for the world's opinion, and it is easy in solitude to live after one's own opinion. the true earmark of greatness is to live in the world with still the perfect sweetness of solitude.
consistency is ridiculous, he says! it leads us to stick to opinions that cannot evolve. live ever in a new day! be misunderstood! to be great is to be misunderstood!

the essence of genius, virtue and life is spontaneity, instinct and intuition. this is true self-reliance. we lost it when we measured the esteem of others by what they have rather than by what they are.