In the late eighteenth century a literary and philosophical movement called Romanticism began. This movement was the emergence of a new consciousness in part spurred by the failings of the European Enlightenment.
It lived in the hearts and minds of individuals from many countries. It was awake in Goethe, Hegel and Fichte in Germany and in Coleridge, Keats and Mary Shelly in England. It came to America through Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller and the other American Transcendentalists.
Are you a Romantic? Yes you are, and here are five tell tale signs of a Romantic.
- You recognize that human beings cannot disconnect themselves from the natural world.
- You have a sense of style and accept that some choices are made purely based on aesthetic considerations.
- You see yourself as a unique individual who cannot be replaced by any other.
- When you eat at a restaurant you think about what you want to eat and don’t assume it will be the same as yesterday.
- You sometimes go window-shopping without a clear intention to buy anything.
If these statements apply to you then you are a Romantic.
You possess a consciousness that appreciates both the indivisible wholeness of life and the irreplaceable uniqueness of the individual.
You don’t believe that the universe is totally understandable. You accept that life is infinite and some aspects of it will always remain beyond our mind’s ability to understand.
You are suspicious of the use of power to manipulate and control and seek to find a more natural flow with the life process and surrender into want wants to happen rather than force things into being.
You are a Romantic.
About the Author
