Human History versus Universal History
In "Hamatreya," Emerson affirms a broader, more spiritual outlook on history than that which emphasizes the individual achievements of particular men. He takes the long view, rather than the sequentially focused view. This outlook is consistent with that expressed in his essay "History" (published in his first series of Essays), in which he writes of the universal mind behind all history in all ages as comprehensible only through history in its entirety, and of each event throughout time as the "application of [the first man's] manifold spirit to the manifold world."
However, in putting the founders of Concord in proper historical perspective in "Hamatreya," Emerson exposes but does not scorn the men of whose fallacy he writes in the first section of the poem. Their efforts, after all, resulted in the development of the town he deeply loved. Moreover, philosophically at odds with their materialism though he was, Emerson admired and respected their steadfastness. In his 1835 discourse at the bicentennial celebration of Concord's incorporation, Emerson had helped to celebrate the accomplishments of these same men. Their efforts formed his personal heritage. In the poem, he presents the speaker's arrival at a stance conducive to true philosophical insight, but, at the same time, he reveals some degree of identification with the founders, even while making their error known. Because Emerson felt a connection to these men, the poem tacitly conveys a sense of how difficult it is to reconcile human experience with the universal and the spiritual, a theme also developed in the essay "Experience" and elsewhere in Emerson's writings.
