Essay•Philosophy•Transcendentalism•Nature Writing
Nature
Ralph Waldo Emerson(1836)
4.5
Pages: 48
Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-14-043689-1
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Nature is an essay written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, published anonymously in 1836. It is in this essay that the foundation of transcendentalism is put forth, a belief system that espouses a non-traditional appreciation of nature.
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Standing on the bare ground,—my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space,—all mean egotism vanishes.
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Nature
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Nature is the incarnation of a thought, and turns to a thought again, as ice becomes water and gas.
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 eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me.
Nature is not fixed but fluid. Spirit alters, moulds, makes it. The immobility or bruteness of nature is the absence of spirit; to pure spirit it is fluid, it is volatile, it is obedient.
Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact. Every appearance in nature corresponds to some state of the mind, and that state of the mind can only be described by presenting that natural appearance as its picture.
The laws of moral nature answer to those of matter as face to face in a glass.