How does Emerson feel about isolation for the sake of isolation in "Self-Reliance"?

Emerson thinks personal isolation can be good from time to time. See what he says in paragraph 29:

I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching. How far off, how cool, how chaste the persons look, begirt each one with a precinct or sanctuary! So let us always sit. . . But your isolation must not be mechanical, but spiritual, that is, must be elevation. At times the whole world...

Emerson thinks personal isolation can be good from time to time. See what he says in paragraph 29:

I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching. How far off, how cool, how chaste the persons look, begirt each one with a precinct or sanctuary! So let us always sit. . . But your isolation must not be mechanical, but spiritual, that is, must be elevation. At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. . . But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. No man can come near me but through my act.

Emerson's point is that individuals need time away from the mob, society, and even their families. Only then can they discover their own identities and what matters to them. Only then can they successfully allow other people to come into their lives. Interestingly enough, Emerson published this essay in a compilation volume that came out shortly before his friend Henry Thoreau asked if he could build a small house to live in alone on the Emerson wood lot next to Walden Pond. Thoreau ended up living out the tenets Emerson speculated on in both “Self-Reliance” and “Nature.” While the writer-philosopher wrote down and publicized the ideas, the practitioner-philosopher went out and fulfilled them.