"It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive." Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862): US essayist, poet, naturalist; transcendentalist.

Transcendentalism: "A movement which developed in New England around 1836 and encompassed philosophical, religious, and social thought. Influenced by European romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy (the name comes from Kant's Critique of Practical Reason, 1788), the movement reacted against 18th-century rationalism and espoused an idealistic philosophy based on belief in divinity pervading the whole of nature and humankind. Members also pursued experiments in communal living and held progressive views on feminism and social issues. Central figures were Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau." (Oxford English Reference Dictionary)

"Nineteenth Century American Transcendentalism is not a religion (in the traditional sense of the word); it is a pragmatic philosophy, a state of mind, and a form of spirituality. It is not a religion because it does not adhere to the three concepts common in major religions: a. a belief in a God; b. a belief in an afterlife (dualism); and c. a belief that this life has consequences on the next (if you're good in this life, you go to heaven in the next, etc.). Transcendentalism is monist; it does not reject an afterlife, but its emphasis is on this life." (Perspectives in American Literature by Paul P. Reuben)

Other Links:
Transcendentalists
Paul P. Reuben: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide