...live by the opinion of the world. It is very easy in solitude to be self-centered. But the finished man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."10 Emerson now experienced the true hardship of that principle and the peril that lay in...

...and not its result, defines the individual. Emerson describes the self-reliant individual as someone "who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude" (p. 57). This is achieved by trusting completely in one's instincts: "What is the aboriginal Self,...