Along with the Transcendental idea of "self-reliance," and individualism, Emerson seems to imply that it is through individual efforts and hard work that one achieves:
...no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him bestowed on that plot of land which is given to him to till.
An individual must achieve goodness through his/her own doing. This concept is the antithesis of the Calvinism of the Puritans who preceded the Transcendentalists, for their ideology held that there are those who are the "elect." That is, they are chosen as those who are good and will go to heaven; they are saved by their faith, not by good works. For the Puritans, good works do not count as penitence for sin, or as anything positive for a person. On the contrary Emerson implies that an individual can achieve goodness only by striving for it. Thus, goodness becomes a goal that lies within any individual's grasp and, as he also has remarked, "The reward of a job well done is the job itself," a statement in accord with the Bible's "As ye sow, so shall ye reap." [Job 4:8]
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