Part 1 of Essay
In Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance, he writes of “the over-soul” and the belief that mankind is united through very similar beliefs through the “over-soul”. Our instinctive actions in making moral choices are all part of this over-soul. This over-soul exists universally among men and is the basi ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... evermore tends to pass into our thought and hand, and become wisdom, and virtue, and power, and beauty(52). In this quotation Emerson says that the common instinct instilled in man lets him see the truth for himself. This reality found from the shared over-soul, is the purest form of truth. All men have this ability to perceive the truth, and a common knowledge of goodness unites and unifies us all. Man’s instinctive actions in making moral choices are all part of the over-soul. Man can perceive that which ....