Emerson is not trying to advise everybody to be a nonconformist. He is addressing his remarks to intelligent individuals who are capable of understanding him. No doubt a lot of these individuals are already out of step with society already and feel guilty about it. A good example of a nonconformist in modern literature is Holden Caulfield in J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye. He can't help being a nonconformist, but he has...
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