American transcendentalism is essentially a type of practice by which the world of facts and the categories of basic common sense are, for a time, exchanged for the world of ideas and the categories of imagination (Myerson 28). The point of this exchange is, essentially, to enhance life by raising the self above the struggles and conflicts that weigh on the soul. As these burdens fall from concern, our souls rise to heightened experiences of freedom and union with the good; an enlightenment if you will. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are far and above the two most significant nineteenth century proponents of American transcendentalism.
             Space separates us from the ones we love and care for and the places we desire to be. Causation often seems to make particular outcomes unavoidable whether we desire them or not. Time brings all good things to an end and converts the living into the dead. Imagination frees us from these "undesirable" limits. We can imagine a world in which physical space and time is no more than an idea, thus enabling us to move from place to place at the speed of our own unique thoughts (Myerson 113). Emanation and fulguration make congenial substitutes for causation because they generate only that which is truly good and beautiful. We can view all things from the standpoint of eternity.
             Most philosophers start with theories, but the transcendentalists reversed this process. They began with practices and then made the attempt to establish those practices on solid theoretical foundations. However, these practices all involved abandoning certain facts in favor of ideas, leading them invariably to theories that are subjectively inconsistent and vague (Myerson 115). Their honesty would not allow them to spurn all facts, so they were ever at work reshaping intractable facts to fit their theories or stretching the fabric of their views to cover uncooperative facts. Unwitting victims of their own...