The Over Soul Rhetorical Analysis

(pg.292) “How dear, how soothing to man, arises the idea of God, peopling the lonely place, effacing the scars of our mistakes and disappointments! When we have broken our god of tradition and ceased from our god of rhetoric, then may God fire the heart with his presence.” There is a sharp contrast between a god of perception and the God of the universal over- soul. A god of perception is one defined by the senses or unstable, biased opinion and because of this is flawed like our senses. When analyzing Emerson’s “The Over- Soul” we must pay close attention to his rhetorical techniques because although we might not consciously see it, his rhetoric sways the audience reading his work in his favor. For example, in the preceding quote Emerson capitalization

(pg.282) “The nature of these revelations is the same; they are perceptions of the absolute law. They are solutions of the soul’s own questions. They do not answer the questions which the understanding asks. The soul answers never by words, but by the thing itself that is inquired after.” Emerson doesn’t believe we can define God through a scope of law and that instead each persons belief system should come through the action of questioning ones individual position. It is through that internal and personal struggle that one sees the true nature of the over- soul. Emerson’s position in the “The Over- Soul” is rather unique, through his work we see that although he is a spiritually oriented individual and believes in a higher being (The Over- Soul) he in fact holds himself to the same level as that soul and aims at discrediting the validity behind organized religions by arguing that belief in them causes a negative effect on our spiritual

He creates this idea that we should not spend our time praising those saints and gods that came before us. He believes that if we choose to live as though there was no history or great men before us that we are better able to aspire to greatness and perfection. Instead of relying on those from the past he believes we should decide for ourselves what we believe. (pg. 295) “It makes no difference whether the appeal is to numbers or to one. The faith that stands on authority is not faith. The reliance on authority measures the decline of religion, the withdrawal of the soul. The position men have given to Jesus, now for many centuries of history, is a position of authority.” Emerson further backs his position through his use of parallelism and satire in this quote.

He uses parallelism when he describes that “faith that stands on authority is not faith” and relates it to the faith of those religions that praise Jesus as he says “Jesus, now for many centuries of history, is a position of authority.” For this reason he creates this sort of satire against Jesus by discrediting him as a valid figure to be praised and followed and argues that by praising Jesus we actually cause a “withdrawal of the soul” by reversing