Materialists and idealists relate to objects and people differently. Materialists judge objects by appearance, size, and number: "larger" or "more" means "better." Idealists form judgments according to personal or intrinsic values, what Emerson terms "rank." They measure everything, including people, against standards they individually hold, not against standards that society deems acceptable. Rather than attempting to correct evil in the external world, idealists argue that we should focus on correcting any immoral flaws in our own individual moral characters.
Like idealists, Emerson believes that a person's ethics flow naturally from an inner disposition. His list of ethical characteristics is reminiscent of the code of conduct he presents in "Self-Reliance": "It is simpler to be self-dependent. The height, the deity of man is, to be self-sustained, to need no gift, no foreign force. Society is good when it does not violate me; but best when it is likest to solitude." Note that each person is a center out of which flow perceptions of the world, an image that recurs in many of Emerson's essays.
