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Ralph Waldo Emerson’s seminal essay Nature, published in 1836, stands as a foundational text of American Transcendentalism, advocating for a profound spiritual connection between humanity and the natural world. Emerson opens by lamenting that society has lost its direct engagement with nature, instead relying on the past for wisdom. He urges individuals to forge an original relation to the universe, to experience nature firsthand and draw their own conclusions.
Emerson defines nature broadly as everything that is NOT ME, encompassing not only the physical world of trees, rivers, and stars but also art and even one’s own body. He argues that nature serves humanity in four primary ways: Commodity, Beauty, Language, and Discipline.
Commodity refers to nature’s practical uses, providing for our material needs like food, shelter, and resources. However, Emerson emphasizes that this is merely the most superficial benefit.
Beauty explores nature’s aesthetic and spiritual allure. It manifests in three ways: simple delight in natural forms, the beauty found in human actions that harmonize with nature, and the intellectual beauty derived from contemplating nature’s underlying order, which inspires art and creativity. Emerson famously describes a moment in the woods where he becomes a transparent eyeball, feeling interconnected with the universal being and transcending his individual self. In this state, he perceives that Nature always wears the colors of the spirit, meaning our perception of nature reflects our inner emotional and spiritual state.
Language delves into how nature serves as a medium for communication and understanding spiritual truths. Emerson posits that words are symbols of natural facts, and these natural facts, in turn, are symbols of spiritual laws. For example, a firm man is like a rock. He suggests that living in harmony with nature allows for a purer, uncorrupted form of language, contrasting it with the secondary desires of society that distort meaning.
Discipline highlights nature’s role as a moral and intellectual teacher. Nature, through its consistent laws and diverse forms, instills a sense of order, precision, and moral rectitude. It teaches us about cause and effect, the limitations of matter, and the inherent unity within its apparent variety.
In subsequent sections—Idealism, Spirit, and Prospects—Emerson further elaborates on the philosophical implications of this relationship. He suggests that the external world might be a projection of the mind (Idealism), and that nature is a manifestation of the Spirit, or God. He believes that by recognizing the divine essence within nature, individuals can achieve a higher state of being and moral clarity. Nature ultimately calls for a spiritual awakening, urging individuals to reconnect with their intuitive sense of truth and to see nature not as a separate entity, but as an integral part of their own spiritual journey towards oneness with the Universal Being. The essay concludes with the optimistic Prospects for a redeemed humanity that reclaims its rightful place in harmonious unity with nature.
“Build, therefore, your own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold its law, and conduct you to a higher degree of power. You must obey your heart.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)
“Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“Standing on the bare ground—my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space—all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)• Title: Nature
• Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Type: Essay
• Publisher: James Munroe and Company
• Publication time: 1836
• Link: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/29433/pg29433-images.html
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