Was Eustace Conway a Transcendentalist?

If we are using Emerson's model to prescribe a transcendentalist label - or not as the case may be - (and we most certainly would apply Emerson's train of thought it making this determination; he was himself considered the father of this line of thought) we must consider several different criteria before coming to a conclusion. Using Emerson's Nature as a referance, we can infer several of the following ideas. Eustace Conway all but forsakes his previous life at the age of 17 to live in nature (I use the term "forsakes" loosely, obviously he returned to certain aspects of this previously life, but for the purposes of this discussion, the term shall stand here). In so doing, he was able to cast off the constraints that modern American life had imposed upon him, gaining a greater sense of awareness about the natural world. These qualities seem to endow him with the transcendentalist properties that Emerson discusses in Nature. Emerson discusses that the purpose of Nature is to exist to inspire new creation, not simply "baren contemplation". This "baren contemplation" seems itself to be a phrase applicable to the modern American lifestyle. When people today survey nature, they do not recognize the beauty that is right in front of it. They pay it very little thought whatsoever, or in other words "barren contemplation". Eustace, despite all his failings, tends to recognize Nature for what it really is - or, at least moreso than most others. Eustace revels in Nature. He revers it; worships it; loves it. Not only that, but he is inspired by Nature to create as well as preverse in the case of Turtle Island. He is not content to simply view Nature complacently. One extremely telling passage from Nature is quoted below.


Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond its world, a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you. For you is the phenomenon perfect. What we are, that only can we see. All that Adam had, all tha Caesar could, you have and can do. Adam called his house, heaven and earth; Caesar called his house, Rome' you perhaps call yours, a cobbler's trade, a hundred acres of ploughed land or a scholar's garret. Yet line for line and point for point, your dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names. Build, therefore, your own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold its great proportions.


Has not Eustace built his own world in Turtle Island? Is it not his Rome, his heaven and earth, his veritable utopia? It would certainly seem so. The criteria Emerson sets down are certainly met. By these standards, does Eustace not fit Emerson's mold? The two appear to be very much kindred spirits.