Every Ray of Various Genius

Emerson dispenses many recommendations in his seminal work "The American Scholar", but I found his most intriguing comments to be those that he made on the role of colleges in the education of the American. Said Emerson,

Colleges, in like manner, have their indispensable office, -- to teach elements. But they can only highly serve us, when they aim not to drill, but to create; when they gather from far every ray of various genius to their hospitable halls, and, by the concentrated fires, set the hearts of their youth on flame. Thought and knowledge are natures in which apparatus and pretension avail nothing. Gowns, and pecuniary foundations, though of towns of gold, can never countervail the least sentence or syllable of wit. Forget this, and our American colleges will recede in their public importance, whilst they grow richer every year.

I find this quote to be especially interesting in light of my experiences as an English major at Messiah College. In my four years at Messiah, I have undoubtedly been exposed to, as Emerson says, "every ray of various genius." I've traveled to Yoknapatawpha County with William Faulkner, discovered the Bloomsbury Group through Virginia Woolf, ventured into atheistic Mexico with Graham Greene, and seen the effects of colonialism through the eyes of Jamaica Kincaid. I've read Flannery O'Connor and Chinua Achebe, Christopher Marlowe and Arundhati Roy, Herman Melville and Dave Eggers. I've been both inspired and challenged by the vast richness of all that I have read and learned from. In short, my heart has been lit on "flame."

And yet, as much as I (and Messiah College) have fulfilled Emerson's call to arms, I have also, at times, felt that my fire has been put out by my education at Messiah College. Certainly this feeling has not occurred with the same frequency as having my heart lit aflame with knowledge, but it has still crept up from time to time. I have felt exhausted and overwhelmed at the prospect of reading another novel with a critical eye, underlining important passages for discussion and considering what I can contribute to my lit classes to get in my participation points.

My English education been a double-edged sword of sorts, igniting my passion and frustrating me all at the same time. While my professors have undoubtedly done their duty in exposing me to the best that literature has to offer, there has been the occassional, undeniable disconnect. So what am I to do with Emerson's urging? I will continue to read with a passion, reconciling my occassional frustration with the fact that it is natural to want to step back from time to time from that which we are so immersed in. I view "The American Scholar" as a type of encouragement through the hard times, understanding that by overcoming the overwhelming nature of an intense education in literature, the benefits will be bountiful. My heart can be aflame with imagination, and through a steady stream of books, nature, and action, I may receive Emerson's education of a scholar.