From John Allison’s section of “American Theory and Criticism” in the JHopkins GtLTC:
While Emerson and the transcendentalists locate their inspirations and symbols in nature, Hawthorne locates his inspirations and symbols in texts. Texts link the present with the past and the future, as well as represent the dreamlives–the “private nature”– of writers. Thus, Hawthorne’s romance balances reality and imagination, intellect and emotion, masculinity and femininity, past and present