Sauntering With Melville

Ever since reading the literature of transcendentalism, I've been intrigued by the notion of sauntering. I found it to be a wonderfully imaginative, self-reflecting, exploration of the ordinary. In the book I've found several instances of this, and each time it is mentioned, there exists an element of curiosity. In The Mast-Head we as readers get a glimpse of the mind as the body is in s sauntering mood. Ishmael thinks as he's in the mast-head, " a sublime uneventfulness invests you; you hear no news; read no gazettes; extras with startling accounts of commonplaces never delude you into unnecessary excitements..." I think the point here is that when we are sauntering we are removed from this world in a sense. With the only focus being on the subliminal subtleties of the self. This recession back into the mind from the chaotic outside world provides the environment for some of the most profound thoughts. In Walden this is what Thoreau was up to, simple thought without the "unnecessary excitements, because when we reduce our thought to one notion, the possibilities are endless, we leave our body and become emerged in one thing fully and as a result more profoundly. In the chapter Stubb Kills a Whale Ishmael says, "No resolution could stand it; in that dreamy mood losing all consciousness, at last my soul went out of my body; though my body still continued to sway as a pendulum will, long after the power which first moved it is withdrawn." This passage reminds me of a quote from Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell, that speaks of the union of the soul and body.

1. That Man has two real existing principles Viz: a Body & a Soul.
2. That Energy, call'd Evil, is alone from the Body, & that Reason, call'd Good, is alone from the Soul.
3. That God will torment Man in Eternity for following his Energies.

But the following Contraries to these are True.
1. Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that call'd Body is a portion of Soul discern'd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.
2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy.
3. Energy is Eternal Delight.

This idea that the body and the soul cannot do certain things due to their union, reason and evil are compromised as a result. With this notion of sauntering it seems we can reconcile some of these anxieties. If only we all had a mast-head to look out from.