Charles Dickens on Transcendentalism

"...There has sprung up in Boston a sect of philosophers known as Transcendentalists. On inquiring what this appellation might be supposed to signify, I was given to understand that whatever was unintelligible would be certainly transcendental...I pursued the inquiry still further and found that Transcendentalists are followers of my friend Mr. Carlyle, or I should rather say, of a follower of his, Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson. This gentleman has written a volume of Essays, in which, among much that is dreamy and fanciful...there is much more that is true and manly, honest and bold. Transcendentalism was its occasional vagaries (what school has not?) but it has good, healthful qualities in spite of them; not least among the number a hearty disgust of Cant, and an aptitude to detect her in all million varieties of her everlasting wardrobe. And therefore, if I were a Bostonian I think I would be a Transcendentalist."

-Charles Dickens, "American Notes for General Circulation"; 1842

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