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This article reflects on the nature and modalities of Emersonian movement. Emerson the seer understands the necessity to go beyond the forms of old age (rest, conservatism, appropriation, inertia) which define his era; he endeavours to devise a practical philosophy linked to a poetic vision which is attuned to the laws of nature?the locus par excellence of the circulation of fluids. However he oscillates between the fantasy of unlimited substance and the desire to make things matter (in every sense of the term). For the ultimate project is ?the upbuilding of a man?: the aim is impressing the reader in order to regenerate him and reestablish the (textual and social) contact with experience.