Emerson's essay argues passionately that a person must trust his or her inner voice: that we all have a destiny given to us by God, and we all have to find it and cultivate it for ourselves. This is what Emerson means by self-reliance. We can't borrow the knowledge of who God meant us to be by conforming to other people's ideas. Emerson, among many other images, tries to impress on us that we can't really be nourished properly trying to eat...
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