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A major source of these generative ideas was an intellectual movement that was neither a religion or philosophy nor a literary theory, although it had elements of all three. Transcendentalism is the view that the basic truths of the universe lie beyond the knowledge we obtain from our world, and through our senses. Through our senses, we learn the facts and laws of the physical world, and through our capacity to reason we learn to …

…life, transcendentalists found their deepest intuitions confirmed by evidence of a similar spirit in nature. Transcendentalists took many of their ideas from the Romantic traditions that some scholars believe originated in England. Armed with their perception of a universal soul, transcendentalist writers brought new intensity to these views of nature and self. It was above all Thoreau, combining transcendentalist ideas with superb talents as a naturalist, who developed this approach to nature as a symbol.