"The Over-Soul" is the ninth essay in the 1841 edition of Emerson's Essays, and it remains one of the best sources of information about his faith. In it, he outlines his belief in a God who resides in each of us and whom we can communicate with, without membership in a church or the assistance of an intermediary church official.
The essay begins with two poetic epigraphs. The first is from English philosopher Henry More's "Psychozoia, or, the Life of Soul" (1647). More believes that moral ideas are innate in us. When we are born, we possess already the moral character that shapes our actions for the rest of our lives. Today, this idea is generally dismissed as too simplistic, for More does not consider what impact a person's environment and upbringing have on behavior.
Emerson chose this selection from More's poem because it addresses directly the soul that each of us has, plus the soul of God that encompasses all of ours. According to More, our souls — the many — partake of God's soul, what Emerson calls "the eternal One." The passage begins a theme evident throughout the essay, the theme of the many and the one. Here, Emerson focuses on our souls, but in other essays this theme includes humanity's participating in nature: All objects are part of nature's whole, but each is particular in itself. Without the many, there could not be the one; without the one, there could not be the many.
