SOURCE: Hopkins, Vivian C. “The Work of Art.” In Spires of Form: A Study of Emerson's Aesthetic Theory, pp. 105-146. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1951.

In the following excerpt, Hopkins explains Emerson's aesthetic theory as it applies to literature.

Form in Literature

In his lecture series on The Philosophy of History (1836-37), Emerson proceeds from the third lecture, on Art, to the fourth, on Literature, and defines the special place of literature in the creative world: “Whilst Art delights in carrying a thought into action, Literature is the conversion of action into thought. The architect executes his dream in stone. The poet enchants you by thinking out your action. Art actualises an idea. Literature idealises action” (lecture on Literature, 1836). For Emerson, the difference between literature and art thus appears in their expression of the ideal; literature is closer to the intellectual, the transcendental, art closer to the actual.

Deeming...