What is Transcendentalism? What is the difference between Transcendentalism and Puritanism ?

Transcendentalism is the investigation of what is a prior in human knowledge or independent of experience, that which is vague and illusive in philosophy.Transcendentalism is best associated with the name of R.W.Emerson (1803-82), It was,in fact, American reaction against Puritan prejudices, human orthodoxy, old-fashioned metaphysics,materialistic phillistinism and materialism.
Puritans were those who, in the time of Elizabeth and the Stuarts, wished to carry the reformation of the Church of England further by purifying it of ceremony and their philosophy is known as Puritanism.Puritans were very strict and severe in morals and opposed to pleasure.