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Transcendentalism
First published Thu Feb 6, 2003; substantive revision Fri Aug 30, 2019
Transcendentalism is an American literary, philosophical, religious, and political movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson. Other important transcendentalists were Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Lydia Maria Child, Amos Bronson Alcott, Frederic Henry Hedge, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and Theodore Parker. Stimulated by English and German Romanticism, the Biblical criticism of Herder and Schleiermacher, and the skepticism of Hume, the transcendentalists operated with the sense that a new era was at hand. They were critics of their contemporary society for its unthinking conformity, and urged that each person find, in Emerson’s words, “an original relation to the universe” (O, 3). Emerson and Thoreau sought this relation in solitude amidst nature, and in their writing. By the 1840s they, along with other transcendentalists, were engaged in the social experiments of Brook Farm, Fruitlands, and Walden; and, by the 1850s in an increasingly urgent critique of American slavery.
Answer:
The phone rang once Detective Banks <u>was writing</u> a report at the time and he was not happy about the interruption.
Banks <u>was driving</u> his car through the rainy streets of the city.
It <u>was getting</u> dark and the streets were busy.
People <u>were doing</u> Christmas shopping.
The pathologist <u>was waiting</u> for him.
Two police officers <u>were inspecting</u> the scene and others <u>were taking</u> pictures.
Sergeant Mullins <u>was sitting</u> in the patrol car.
He <u>was drinking</u> a cup of coffee.
When he saw Banks, he <u>was lying</u> on the ground got out and followed him down the alley.
Explanation:
The past progressive tense (also called the past continuous tense) is one of the tenses used to talk about events that took place in the past. Unlike the past simple tense, it refers to a continuing action or state.
It's formed with the past form of the verb <em>to be</em> (<em>was/were</em>) and the present participle (root + -ing) form of the verb (e.g. <em>Banks </em><u><em>was driving</em></u>...)
