In the fall of the year that New York was evacuated (1783), General Washington had his headquarters at Mrs. Berrian’s, at Rocky Hill, in Jersey, and I was there: the Congress then sat at Prince Town. We had several times been told that the river or creek, that runs near the bottom of Rocky Hill, and over which there is a mill, might be set on fire, for that was the term the country people used; and as General Washington had a mind to try the experiment. What would a story written about this historical time most likely include?

a character receiving an order from General Washington to set the creek on fire
events resulting from a terrible snowstorm that occurred in February 1783
a conflict between city people and country people being resolved
General Washington's boyhood home in Virginia being described

The main theme in Emerson's essay on Self Reliance is Individualism. the philophy that emphazises the moral worth of the individual. In it, Emerson urges his readers to be self-suficient, not to follow blindly doctrines but their inner moral compass. He makes the point that a man, in order to be a full being, needs but himself, and sometimes away from society. This can be read along the lines: A man is to carry himself  in the presence of all opposition, as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he.

The textual evidence to support how Emerson's views of individualism relate to ideas of Transcendentalism can be read in the following lines: He who would gather immortal palms must not be hinderted by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. This idea alone is the basis of Transcendentalism, the belief that each person, individually,  has to find an original relation to the universe.