Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pre-reading

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was the most thoughtprovoking American cultural leader of the mid-19th century. In his unorthodox ideas and actions he represented a minority of Americans, but by the end of his life he was considered a sage. Although he studied philosophy extensively, he was not a critical or systematic thinker, but rather a channel for many religious, literary, and philosophical currents of the early 19th century.

Meetings with Coleridge and Wordsworth in 1833, and a continuing friendship with Carlyle, enthused Emerson with a fusion of the Protestant doctrine of self-reliance with the romantic doctrine of the primacy of personality, to both of which were added reverence for the genius and hero. Emerson encouraged a new generation to find “an original relation to the universe”. His romantic advocacy of self-reliance, based on a notion of the “god within”, diminished the authority of institutions and traditions and empowered the self. His famous works include “Nature” “Self-Reliance” “The Over-Soul” “Circles” “The Poet” and“Experience”. His speech “The American Scholar” is considered to be America’s “Intellectual Declaration of Independence”.

“Nature” was published anonymously in 1836. The essay brings together all of the basic tenets of Transcendentalism through a discussion of nature and its uses (commodity, beauty, language, discipline). It contends that expansion of the human soul is possible through a reconnection with nature and develops Emerson’s idea of the “Over-Soul”.

Prompts for Your Reading

1.What is your expectation of a philosopher’s account about nature?

2.Emerson suggests that we should look for solitude by simply looking at the stars. What does he mean? What does “what he touches” (Paragraph 1) refer to?

3.In what sense does the author speak of nature in this passage?

4.What does the author mean by “the most poetical sense”?

5.What does the author mean by saying “few adult persons can see nature” (Paragraph 4)?

6.What is a lover of nature like according to the author?

7.What effect does nature have on a person?

8.Who or what has the power to produce the kind of delight the author describes?

9.Make a list of major points concerning nature in this passage.

10.How does the author present his ideas? Through argumentation, narration, exemplification or description?

11.How would you describe the general tone of this passage?

[1] To go into solitude1, 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. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.

[2] The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood.

[3] When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind. We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects. It is this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the poet. The charming landscape which I saw this morning, is indubitably2 made up of some twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape. There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet. This is the best part of these men’s farms, yet to this their warranty-deeds give no title.

[4] To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, — he is my creature, and maugre3 all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me. Not the sun or the summer alone, but every hour and season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight. Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. In good health, the air is a cordial4 of incredible virtue. Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration.

[5] I am glad to the brink of fear. In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period so ever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum5 and sanctity6 reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, —my head bathed by the blithe7 air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism8 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. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintances, — master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature.

[6] The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them. The waving of the boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right.

[7] Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both. It is necessary to use these pleasures with great temperance. For, nature is not always tricked in holiday attire, but the same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of the nymphs9, is overspread with melancholy today. Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then, there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worthy in the population.

Notes

1.solitude: the state of being alone, especially when this is peaceful and pleasant

2.indubitably: in a manner or to a degree that could not be doubted when describing something definite

3.maugre: in spite of; despite

4.cordial: strong highly flavored sweet liquor usually drunk after a meal; showing warmth or heartfelt friendliness

5.decorum: the behavior considered to be correct, polite, and respectable

6.sanctity: the quality that is very important and must be treated with respect

7.blithe: something is done casually, without serious or careful thought

8.egotism: an inflated feeling of pride in your superiority to others

9.nymphs: spirits of nature who were depicted as beautiful maidens in Greek and Roman mythology

Questions for Further Thinking

1.Why does the author start the passage by relating to solitude?

2.It seems that in seeking solitude, Emerson doesn’t suggest that we should retreat to a study where we may read and write. What do you think about it?

3.Emerson says that nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. What do you think about it?

4.Since Miller, Locke and Manning all own different parts of the charming landscape, why does Emerson deny their ownership? According to him, who really owns the landscape?

5.What do you observe to be the different attitudes of adults and children towards nature?

6.If, according to Emerson, nature can reduce all forms of human relations to trifle and disturbance, what significance would friendship and socialization have to a person? Find out about Emerson’s thoughts on human relationships.

7.Do you agree with Emerson that the harmony of man and nature has the power to produce the greatest delight? Can you relate to some personal experience of this kind of delight?

8.Has the relationship between human beings and nature become different in a modern age characterized by knowledge and technology? In what ways do modern men regard nature differently from our ancestors?

9.Learn more about Transcendentalism and try to understand how it is different from empiricism. For example, transcendentalists argue that society and its institutions ultimately corrupt the purity of the individual. What does this mean? Would you agree?

10.Former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln called Emerson America’s Confucius. Would you find some evidence from this passage for such comparison?

After-reading Assignment

Oral Work

1.No matter where you grew up, in urban or suburban areas, you may have had some experience in the woods, in the mountains or simply in the countryside. Share your experiences with your classmates and discuss in what ways nature has had its effects on you.

2.Many Chinese philosophers, including Laozi and Wang Fuzhi, have also expressed their view of nature. Study the Chinese traditional views of nature and find out the differences and similarities between Emerson’s ideas and those of his Chinese counterparts. Present your findings to the class.

3.It is commonly recognized that people have to cultivate their wisdom by acquiring knowledge, which comes mainly from books or experiences. It seems that Emerson gives us another way: People can get wisdom from nature. Make a speech to illustrate this point with a human achievement inspired by nature.

4.Work with your partner(s) and find out the natural elements in the passages and their effects on human beings. Has any of these effect ever happened to you ? Or to what degree would you expect such effect to truly happen to you? Discuss with your partner(s) and find out how you may respond to Emerson’s ideas differently.

Written Work

1.In the modern society, people usually complain that they are anxiously busy with work and life, and they are eager to go back to nature, though few of them would completely retreat to life in the countryside. Instead, many of them choose to spend holidays in villages or even in the wild with their friends or families. Conduct a survey to find out how modern people choose to be in nature and feel nature, and how has nature affected them. Write a report to summarize your findings.

2.Modernization, industrialization and urbanization keep people far away from nature. Modern men, caged in the man-made world, keep encroaching on the surrounding natural world. How should urban planning take care of the harmonious relationship between man and nature? Learn the basics of scientific urban planning and write a review of what you learn.

3.Read more of Emerson’s works and try to understand more of his ideas. Write a book report summarizing what you have learned about Transcendentalism and its view of nature.