One of the major influences on Emerson was the writings of Mme. de Stael. He read her systematically. Robert Richardson writes. "Emerson came back to de Stael over and over. She is one of his early constant reference points, one of the people he read and reread, turning the books a little each time like a kaleidoscope, so that a new pattern could emerge from the familiar elements."
Mme. de Stael thought that nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm. Etymologically, it means "god in us." In her work on Germany life and literature she writes that Enthusiasm is "the quality which really distinguishes the German nation," the quality responsible for its great achievements in literature, religion, and philosophy. This is a topic that Emerson would take up afterwards throughout his writings.
"Enthusiasm" seems to be pretty closely related to the state of being that I've written about before - being aware of the possibilities of life, engagement, etc.!
de Stael also thought that religion was too important to be restricted to Sunday morning. "Religion is nothing," she says, "if it is not everything, if existence is not filled with it, if we do not incessantly maintain in the soul this belief in the invisible, this self-devotion, this elevation of desire." Her ideal was that the whole of life should be "naturally and without effort, an act of worship at every moment."
This, too, feels related to Buddhist ideas of being mindfully aware of the present, in a state of openness, greatfulness, curiosity.
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