Emerson and Asia

To Emerson the word "Asia" had an emotional as well as an intellectual meaning. "Asia" was more than an Eastern continent, and it was more than the literature produced by that continent. It was a symbol for the unknown--for the other half of the world--for mystery, and romance, and poetry, and love, and religion. Emerson discovered the Neoplatonists for himself, and their mysticism was Eastern, and yet they spoke in the intelligible language of Plato. They defined the larger mysteries of religion in terms he could understand, and so encouraged him to his later exploration of the absolute East. Neoplatonism and Oriental literatures alike deal with intangible ideas, vague concepts, and often undefined thoughts. But Emerson belongs to the "definite and result-loving West" and this is the story of his interest in Asia, to better understand his relations with Asia and its literatures.