As one of the great philosopher-sages of Western culture, Emerson still matters; in fact, he has never been more relevant.

Self-Reliance (1841) helped articulate the ethic of American individualism. It is only 30 pages, and has the qualities of a concentrate.

Emerson called his philosophy Idealism, but it was not romantic, unrealistic or fuzzy. As Emerson scholar R Geldard has said: “It has a touch of granite in it”.

For Emerson, self-reliance did not mean a family carving out a life on the frontier. Emerson’s frontier - the place of real freedom and opportunity - was a mental landscape free from mediocrity and conformity.

The self-reliant person should be able to live in the world and improve it, not be just another product of it.

We tend to rely on things like sex, work success, eating and shopping for the feeling of aliveness. Emerson taught it is the inner domains which reveal real riches, peace and power.

Emerson thought it was silly to run around trying to reform and better the world, even giving to “good causes”, before we had found our place in it.

“All men plume themselves on the improvement of society, and no man improves.” Emerson

The yearning to fulfil our potential has always been human nature. Thanks to the personal development movement, we now see it as a right rather than a starry wish. The ideas in Self-Reliance are part of the intellectual bedrock of today’s self-help writers.

It is difficult to read Self-Reliance simply as an historical work, because you are easily pulled into Emerson’s orbit of pure responsibility and self-awareness, a world in which there are no excuses, only opportunities for greatness.