This democratic ideal of all people benefiting equally if only they will shed the temptations of a materialistic life is evident throughout Western civilization's history. Perhaps the best-known version of this ideal is the Sermon on the Mount, especially these lines: "Blessed are the poor in spirit; / The kingdom of Heaven is theirs. / . . . / Blessed are the gentle; / they shall have the earth for their possession." In American literature, one of the best examples comes from Emerson's contemporary, Henry David Thoreau, who wrote in the "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" chapter of Walden: "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail."
Emerson's own contributions to this democratic ideal of equality so uniquely American are great. Not many writers can challenge his talent for a brevity of sentence that contains such daring power as this: "The simplest person, who in his integrity worships God, becomes God"; or "Behold, it saith, I am born into the great, the universal mind. I the imperfect, adore my own Perfect."
