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Nature

Ralph Waldo Emerson first publishedNaturein 1836. The essay served as one of the founding

documents of the Transcendental Club !hose members !ould come to include futureTranscendentalist luminaries li"e #enry $avid Thoreau %argaret &uller and 'ronson (lcott.

The Club convened its first meeting a !ee" after the publication ofNature led by Emerson.

The critical reception of his seminal !or" has shifted over time. Nature!as once dismissed as agospel of selfishness naive optimism and narro! parochialism. #o!ever scholars !ith the

benefit of hindsight no! understand his !or" as not only the harbinger of Transcendentalism

but also a modern rethin"ing of )toicism *lato and +ant.,n this essay Emerson outlines his initial ideas about the fundamental relationship of humanity

!ith nature !hich he !ould develop further in later essays. #is conception of this relationship

!as revolutionary for its time !hen many thought of humanity as separate from and above the

rest of the natural !orld and of nature as the mere reflection of human !ill-manipulation ameans for human ends.

,ntroduction and ature

/0ur age is retrospective/ Emerson begins. /,t builds on the sepulchers of the fathers. ,t !rites

biographies histories and criticism./ While earlier generations /beheld od and nature face toface/ the present merely sees the !orld through the eyes of the past. Troubled by this trend

Emerson as"s /Why should not !e also en2oy an original relation to the universe Why shouldnot !e have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition and a religion by revelation

to us and not the history of theirs/ (fter all /the sun shines to4day also. There is more !ool

and fla5 in the fields. There are ne! lands ne! men ne! thoughts. et us demand our o!n!or"s and la!s and !orship./

,n this !ay Emerson opens his essay !ith a s!eeping dismissal of those tools of insight based

on the past and a demand to understand the !orld 4 that is od and nature 7t!o sides of the

same coin for him 4 instead through our o!n personal direct relationship to and revelationsabout the !orld. The rest of the introduction is spent outlining !hat such an understanding !ould

entail and re9uire 4 its methods aims and definitions.(s the title of his essay suggests he grounds his approach to understanding the !orld in ature!hich along !ith the )oul composes the universe. 'y /ature/ Emerson includes everything

that is /not me/ 7i.e. separate from the )oul /both nature :as conventionally understood i.e.

those essences unchanged by humans li"e a tree or a river; and art :those essences mi5ed !iththe !ill of humans li"e a house or a canal; all other men and my o!n body./ i"e the )toics

Emerson believed that in nature could be found the source of moral principles and !ell being.

#o!ever in the present age he argues /fe! adult persons can see nature. %ost persons do not

see the sun. (t least they have a very superficial seeing./ &or seeing-understanding nature entailsnot only as"ing !hat nature is or ho! it operates but also /to !hat end is nature/

To pursue such an understanding of nature 4 an in9uiry he believes allied to science all of !hich

aims to /find a theory of nature/ 4 he does not appeal to other authorities on the sub2ect past orpresent but rather his o!n e5perience to craft a theory he believes self4evident and self4

validating. While this may not seem scientific in terms of ob2ectivity he argues /Whenever a

true theory appears it !ill be its o!n evidence. ,ts test is that it !ill e5plain all phenomena./ #issuccess in crafting such a theory arguably derives from his ability to immerse his readers in his

o!n e5periences as !ith the passage

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Crossing a bare common in sno! puddles at t!ilight under a clouded s"y !ithout having in

my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune , have en2oyed a perfect e5hilaration. , am

glad to the brin" of fear.(nother famous passage describes his e5perience as a /transparent eyeball/ a conduit for od as

he stands in natureniversal 'eing circulate through me= , ampart or parcel of od.

,n the ne5t sections Emerson outlines in detail and in ascending order of importance the

components of the relationship of humanity and nature< the common uses-aspects of nature 7see

/Commodity/ /'eauty/ and /anguage/ our lived e5perience vis4a4vis nature 7see/$iscipline/ and the manifestation of the universal-divine 7!hat he calls /Reason/ in nature

7i.e. Transcendentalism= see /,dealism/ /)pirit/ and /*rospects/.

Commodity

The most obvious and tangible aspect of the relationship bet!een humanity and nature is thepractical usefulness of nature as a source of ra! material and energy. Emerson observes that all

parts of nature 4 as material process and result 4 !or" to!ard the benefit of humanity