it, Carlyle wrote of an altogether (totally) new (or hitherto unconceived) species of divineness, a divineness lying much nearer home than formerly. A divineness that does not come from Judea from Olympus, Asgard, Mt. Meru; but is in man himself, in the heart of every living man. The old "divineness" Carlyle speaks of is theism, which he compares to the Ptolemaic model, while Natural Supernaturalism is compared to the Copernican model. Just as the Copernican system superseded the Ptolemaic, Natural Supernaturalism represents "a 'revolution' [in 'our spiritual world'] such as never was before, or at least since letters and recorded history existed among us never was." Influence Carlyle's theory of Natural Supernaturalism was highly influential on British idealism. James Hutchison Stirling said that the chapter "contains the very first word of a higher philosophy as yet spoken in Great Britain, the very first English word towards the restoration and rehabilitation of the dethroned Upper Powers." Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, two admirers of Carlyle, were also inspired by it. It therefore contributed greatly to American Transcendentalism. The term has been used in a literary context (notably by M. H. Abrams) to discuss the work of Margaret Oliphant, Elizabeth Gaskell, Brontë family, E. M. Forster, Eric Pankey and William Shakespeare. Bibliography References Philosophy books Religious philosophical concepts Transcendentalism Thomas Carlyle