Emerson's Sublime Science - Romanticism in Perspectives: Texts, Cultures, Histories Author:Eric Wilson In 1831, Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, substantiating scientifically a primary intuition of thinkers ranging from Hermetic alchemists to Renaissance Neoplatonists to Romantic visionaries: matter is energy, a field of invisible force. The young Emerson, an adept in Boehme, Bruno, and Coleridge, immediately understood the ... more »implications of Faraday's revelation, writing in 1833 that this scientist had likely discovered the secret of life. Accordingly, Emerson's Sublime Science is the first book to explore the electromagnetic currents in Emerson's thought and art. The study focuses on the ways that Emerson channeled the galvanizing conclusions of Faraday into his senses of the cosmos, the sublime, and language. Illuminating the electromagnetic Emerson, Wilson also forges exciting connections between alchemy and chemistry, organicism and electricity, and poetry and science.« less