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diff --git a/29433-h/29433-h.htm b/29433-h/29433-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b525639 --- /dev/null +++ b/29433-h/29433-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1931 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson</title> +<style type="text/css"> + body {margin-top:100px; + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align:justify} + hr { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 75%;} +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Nature + +Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson + +Release Date: July 17, 2009 [EBook #29433] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATURE *** + + + + +Produced by Ruth Hart + + + + + +</pre> + +<center> +<h1>NATURE</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h3>R. W. EMERSON</h3> +<br> + + +A subtle chain of countless rings<br> +The next unto the farthest brings;<br> +The eye reads omens where it goes,<br> +And speaks all languages the rose;<br> +And, striving to be man, the worm<br> +Mounts through all the spires of form. + + + +<br> +<br> + +<p>NEW EDITION</p><br> + +<p>BOSTON & CAMBRIDGE:<br> +JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY<br> +M DCCC XLIX.</p><br> + +<p>Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1849<br> +By JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY,<br> +in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.</p><br> + +<p>BOSTON:<br> +THURSTON, TORRY AND COMPANY,<br> +31 Devonshire Street.</p><br> + +<p>CONTENTS</p><br> + +<table> +<tr> +<td align="right"></td> + +<td><a href="#1">INTRODUCTION</a></td> + +<td align="right">1</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">CHAPTER I.</td> + +<td><a href="#1">NATURE</a></td> + +<td align="right">8</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">CHAPTER II.</td> + +<td><a href="#2">COMMODITY</a></td> + +<td align="right">10</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">CHAPTER III.</td> + +<td><a href="#3">BEAUTY</a></td> + +<td align="right">13</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">CHAPTER IV.</td> + +<td><a href="#4">LANGUAGE</a></td> + +<td align="right">23</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">CHAPTER V.</td> + +<td><a href="#5">DISCIPLINE</a></td> + +<td align="right">34</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">CHAPTER VI.</td> + +<td><a href="#6">IDEALISM</a></td> + +<td align="right">45</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">CHAPTER VII.</td> + +<td><a href="#7">SPIRIT</a></td> + +<td align="right">59</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">CHAPTER VIII.</td> + +<td><a href="#8">PROSPECTS</a></td> + +<td align="right">64</td> +</tr> +</table> +</center><br> +<a name="0"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>INTRODUCTION.</p> + +<p>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? Embosomed for a season in nature, whose floods of +life stream around and through us, and invite us by the powers they supply, to +action proportioned to nature, why should we grope among the dry bones of the +past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe? +The sun shines to-day also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are +new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and +worship.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust +the perfection of the creation so far, as to believe that whatever curiosity the +order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy. +Every man's condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those inquiries he would +put. He acts it as life, before he apprehends it as truth. In like manner, +nature is already, in its forms and tendencies, describing its own design. Let +us interrogate the great apparition, that shines so peacefully around us. Let us +inquire, to what end is nature?</p> + +<p>All science has one aim, namely, to find a theory of nature. We have theories +of races and of functions, but scarcely yet a remote approach to an idea of +creation. We are now so far from the road to truth, that religious teachers +dispute and hate each other, and speculative men are esteemed unsound and +frivolous. But to a sound judgment, the most abstract truth is the most +practical. Whenever a true theory appears, it will be its own evidence. Its test +is, that it will explain all phenomena. Now many are thought not only +unexplained but inexplicable; as language, sleep, madness, dreams, beasts, sex.</p> + +<p>Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. +Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy +distinguishes as the NOT ME, that is, both nature and art, all other men and my +own body, must be ranked under this name, NATURE. In enumerating the values of +nature and casting up their sum, I shall use the word in both senses;—in its +common and in its philosophical import. In inquiries so general as our present +one, the inaccuracy is not material; no confusion of thought will occur. <i> +Nature</i>, in the common sense, refers to essences unchanged by man; space, the +air, the river, the leaf. <i>Art</i> is applied to the mixture of his will with +the same things, as in a house, a canal, a statue, a picture. But his operations +taken together are so insignificant, a little chipping, baking, patching, and +washing, that in an impression so grand as that of the world on the human mind, +they do not vary the result.</p><a name="1"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>NATURE.</p> + +<p>CHAPTER I.</p> + +<p>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. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +indubitably 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.</p> + +<p>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 maugre 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 cordial 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. 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 soever of life, is always +a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a +decorum and sanctity 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 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. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 nymphs, 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 worth in the population.</p><a name= +"2"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>CHAPTER II.</p> + +<p>COMMODITY.</p> + +<p>WHOEVER considers the final cause of the world, will discern a multitude of +uses that result. They all admit of being thrown into one of the following +classes; Commodity; Beauty; Language; and Discipline.</p> + +<p>Under the general name of Commodity, I rank all those advantages which our +senses owe to nature. This, of course, is a benefit which is temporary and +mediate, not ultimate, like its service to the soul. Yet although low, it is +perfect in its kind, and is the only use of nature which all men apprehend. The +misery of man appears like childish petulance, when we explore the steady and +prodigal provision that has been made for his support and delight on this green +ball which floats him through the heavens. What angels invented these splendid +ornaments, these rich conveniences, this ocean of air above, this ocean of water +beneath, this firmament of earth between? this zodiac of lights, this tent of +dropping clouds, this striped coat of climates, this fourfold year? Beasts, +fire, water, stones, and corn serve him. The field is at once his floor, his +work-yard, his play-ground, his garden, and his bed.</p> + +<p> "More servants wait on man<br> + Than he'll take notice of."—</p> + +<p>Nature, in its ministry to man, is not only the material, but is also the +process and the result. All the parts incessantly work into each other's hands +for the profit of man. The wind sows the seed; the sun evaporates the sea; the +wind blows the vapor to the field; the ice, on the other side of the planet, +condenses rain on this; the rain feeds the plant; the plant feeds the animal; +and thus the endless circulations of the divine charity nourish man.</p> + +<p>The useful arts are reproductions or new combinations by the wit of man, of +the same natural benefactors. He no longer waits for favoring gales, but by +means of steam, he realizes the fable of Aeolus's bag, and carries the two and +thirty winds in the boiler of his boat. To diminish friction, he paves the road +with iron bars, and, mounting a coach with a ship-load of men, animals, and +merchandise behind him, he darts through the country, from town to town, like an +eagle or a swallow through the air. By the aggregate of these aids, how is the +face of the world changed, from the era of Noah to that of Napoleon! The private +poor man hath cities, ships, canals, bridges, built for him. He goes to the +post-office, and the human race run on his errands; to the book-shop, and the +human race read and write of all that happens, for him; to the court-house, and +nations repair his wrongs. He sets his house upon the road, and the human race +go forth every morning, and shovel out the snow, and cut a path for him.</p> + +<p>But there is no need of specifying particulars in this class of uses. The +catalogue is endless, and the examples so obvious, that I shall leave them to +the reader's reflection, with the general remark, that this mercenary benefit is +one which has respect to a farther good. A man is fed, not that he may be fed, +but that he may work.</p><a name= +"3"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>CHAPTER III.</p> + +<p>BEAUTY.</p> + +<p>A NOBLER want of man is served by nature, namely, the love of Beauty.</p> + +<p>The ancient Greeks called the world <i><font face= +"Times New Roman">κοσμος</font></i>, beauty. Such is the constitution of all +things, or such the plastic power of the human eye, that the primary forms, as +the sky, the mountain, the tree, the animal, give us a delight <i>in and for +themselves</i>; a pleasure arising from outline, color, motion, and grouping. +This seems partly owing to the eye itself. The eye is the best of artists. By +the mutual action of its structure and of the laws of light, perspective is +produced, which integrates every mass of objects, of what character soever, into +a well colored and shaded globe, so that where the particular objects are mean +and unaffecting, the landscape which they compose, is round and symmetrical. And +as the eye is the best composer, so light is the first of painters. There is no +object so foul that intense light will not make beautiful. And the stimulus it +affords to the sense, and a sort of infinitude which it hath, like space and +time, make all matter gay. Even the corpse has its own beauty. But besides this +general grace diffused over nature, almost all the individual forms are +agreeable to the eye, as is proved by our endless imitations of some of them, as +the acorn, the grape, the pine-cone, the wheat-ear, the egg, the wings and forms +of most birds, the lion's claw, the serpent, the butterfly, sea-shells, flames, +clouds, buds, leaves, and the forms of many trees, as the palm.</p> + +<p>For better consideration, we may distribute the aspects of Beauty in a +threefold manner.</p> + +<p>1. First, the simple perception of natural forms is a delight. The influence +of the forms and actions in nature, is so needful to man, that, in its lowest +functions, it seems to lie on the confines of commodity and beauty. To the body +and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal +and restores their tone. The tradesman, the attorney comes out of the din and +craft of the street, and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again. In +their eternal calm, he finds himself. The health of the eye seems to demand a +horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.</p> + +<p>But in other hours, Nature satisfies by its loveliness, and without any +mixture of corporeal benefit. I see the spectacle of morning from the hill-top +over against my house, from day-break to sun-rise, with emotions which an angel +might share. The long slender bars of cloud float like fishes in the sea of +crimson light. From the earth, as a shore, I look out into that silent sea. I +seem to partake its rapid transformations: the active enchantment reaches my +dust, and I dilate and conspire with the morning wind. How does Nature deify us +with a few and cheap elements! Give me health and a day, and I will make the +pomp of emperors ridiculous. The dawn is my Assyria; the sun-set and moon-rise +my Paphos, and unimaginable realms of faerie; broad noon shall be my England of +the senses and the understanding; the night shall be my Germany of mystic +philosophy and dreams.</p> + +<p>Not less excellent, except for our less susceptibility in the afternoon, was +the charm, last evening, of a January sunset. The western clouds divided and +subdivided themselves into pink flakes modulated with tints of unspeakable +softness; and the air had so much life and sweetness, that it was a pain to come +within doors. What was it that nature would say? Was there no meaning in the +live repose of the valley behind the mill, and which Homer or Shakspeare could +not reform for me in words? The leafless trees become spires of flame in the +sunset, with the blue east for their back-ground, and the stars of the dead +calices of flowers, and every withered stem and stubble rimed with frost, +contribute something to the mute music.</p> + +<p>The inhabitants of cities suppose that the country landscape is pleasant only +half the year. I please myself with the graces of the winter scenery, and +believe that we are as much touched by it as by the genial influences of summer. +To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the +same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and +which shall never be seen again. The heavens change every moment, and reflect +their glory or gloom on the plains beneath. The state of the crop in the +surrounding farms alters the expression of the earth from week to week. The +succession of native plants in the pastures and roadsides, which makes the +silent clock by which time tells the summer hours, will make even the divisions +of the day sensible to a keen observer. The tribes of birds and insects, like +the plants punctual to their time, follow each other, and the year has room for +all. By water-courses, the variety is greater. In July, the blue pontederia or +pickerel-weed blooms in large beds in the shallow parts of our pleasant river, +and swarms with yellow butterflies in continual motion. Art cannot rival this +pomp of purple and gold. Indeed the river is a perpetual gala, and boasts each +month a new ornament.</p> + +<p>But this beauty of Nature which is seen and felt as beauty, is the least +part. The shows of day, the dewy morning, the rainbow, mountains, orchards in +blossom, stars, moonlight, shadows in still water, and the like, if too eagerly +hunted, become shows merely, and mock us with their unreality. Go out of the +house to see the moon, and 't is mere tinsel; it will not please as when its +light shines upon your necessary journey. The beauty that shimmers in the yellow +afternoons of October, who ever could clutch it? Go forth to find it, and it is +gone: 't is only a mirage as you look from the windows of diligence.</p> + +<p>2. The presence of a higher, namely, of the spiritual element is essential to +its perfection. The high and divine beauty which can be loved without +effeminacy, is that which is found in combination with the human will. Beauty is +the mark God sets upon virtue. Every natural action is graceful. Every heroic +act is also decent, and causes the place and the bystanders to shine. We are +taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in +it. Every rational creature has all nature for his dowry and estate. It is his, +if he will. He may divest himself of it; he may creep into a corner, and +abdicate his kingdom, as most men do, but he is entitled to the world by his +constitution. In proportion to the energy of his thought and will, he takes up +the world into himself. "All those things for which men plough, build, or sail, +obey virtue;" said Sallust. "The winds and waves," said Gibbon, "are always on +the side of the ablest navigators." So are the sun and moon and all the stars of +heaven. When a noble act is done,—perchance in a scene of great natural beauty; +when Leonidas and his three hundred martyrs consume one day in dying, and the +sun and moon come each and look at them once in the steep defile of Thermopylae; +when Arnold Winkelried, in the high Alps, under the shadow of the avalanche, +gathers in his side a sheaf of Austrian spears to break the line for his +comrades; are not these heroes entitled to add the beauty of the scene to the +beauty of the deed? When the bark of Columbus nears the shore of America;—before +it, the beach lined with savages, fleeing out of all their huts of cane; the sea +behind; and the purple mountains of the Indian Archipelago around, can we +separate the man from the living picture? Does not the New World clothe his form +with her palm-groves and savannahs as fit drapery? Ever does natural beauty +steal in like air, and envelope great actions. When Sir Harry Vane was dragged +up the Tower-hill, sitting on a sled, to suffer death, as the champion of the +English laws, one of the multitude cried out to him, "You never sate on so +glorious a seat." Charles II., to intimidate the citizens of London, caused the +patriot Lord Russel to be drawn in an open coach, through the principal streets +of the city, on his way to the scaffold. "But," his biographer says, "the +multitude imagined they saw liberty and virtue sitting by his side." In private +places, among sordid objects, an act of truth or heroism seems at once to draw +to itself the sky as its temple, the sun as its candle. Nature stretcheth out +her arms to embrace man, only let his thoughts be of equal greatness. Willingly +does she follow his steps with the rose and the violet, and bend her lines of +grandeur and grace to the decoration of her darling child. Only let his thoughts +be of equal scope, and the frame will suit the picture. A virtuous man is in +unison with her works, and makes the central figure of the visible sphere. +Homer, Pindar, Socrates, Phocion, associate themselves fitly in our memory with +the geography and climate of Greece. The visible heavens and earth sympathize +with Jesus. And in common life, whosoever has seen a person of powerful +character and happy genius, will have remarked how easily he took all things +along with him,—the persons, the opinions, and the day, and nature became +ancillary to a man.</p> + +<p>3. There is still another aspect under which the beauty of the world may be +viewed, namely, as it becomes an object of the intellect. Beside the relation of +things to virtue, they have a relation to thought. The intellect searches out +the absolute order of things as they stand in the mind of God, and without the +colors of affection. The intellectual and the active powers seem to succeed each +other, and the exclusive activity of the one, generates the exclusive activity +of the other. There is something unfriendly in each to the other, but they are +like the alternate periods of feeding and working in animals; each prepares and +will be followed by the other. Therefore does beauty, which, in relation to +actions, as we have seen, comes unsought, and comes because it is unsought, +remain for the apprehension and pursuit of the intellect; and then again, in its +turn, of the active power. Nothing divine dies. All good is eternally +reproductive. The beauty of nature reforms itself in the mind, and not for +barren contemplation, but for new creation.</p> + +<p>All men are in some degree impressed by the face of the world; some men even +to delight. This love of beauty is Taste. Others have the same love in such +excess, that, not content with admiring, they seek to embody it in new forms. +The creation of beauty is Art.</p> + +<p>The production of a work of art throws a light upon the mystery of humanity. +A work of art is an abstract or epitome of the world. It is the result or +expression of nature, in miniature. For, although the works of nature are +innumerable and all different, the result or the expression of them all is +similar and single. Nature is a sea of forms radically alike and even unique. A +leaf, a sun-beam, a landscape, the ocean, make an analogous impression on the +mind. What is common to them all,—that perfectness and harmony, is beauty. The +standard of beauty is the entire circuit of natural forms,—the totality of +nature; which the Italians expressed by defining beauty "il piu nell' uno." +Nothing is quite beautiful alone: nothing but is beautiful in the whole. A +single object is only so far beautiful as it suggests this universal grace. The +poet, the painter, the sculptor, the musician, the architect, seek each to +concentrate this radiance of the world on one point, and each in his several +work to satisfy the love of beauty which stimulates him to produce. Thus is Art, +a nature passed through the alembic of man. Thus in art, does nature work +through the will of a man filled with the beauty of her first works.</p> + +<p>The world thus exists to the soul to satisfy the desire of beauty. This +element I call an ultimate end. No reason can be asked or given why the soul +seeks beauty. Beauty, in its largest and profoundest sense, is one expression +for the universe. God is the all-fair. Truth, and goodness, and beauty, are but +different faces of the same All. But beauty in nature is not ultimate. It is the +herald of inward and eternal beauty, and is not alone a solid and satisfactory +good. It must stand as a part, and not as yet the last or highest expression of +the final cause of Nature.</p><a name="4"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>CHAPTER IV.</p> + +<p>LANGUAGE.</p> + +<p>LANGUAGE is a third use which Nature subserves to man. Nature is the vehicle, +and threefold degree.</p> + +<p>1. Words are signs of natural facts.</p> + +<p>2. Particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts.</p> + +<p>3. Nature is the symbol of spirit.</p> + +<p>1. Words are signs of natural facts. The use of natural history is to give us +aid in supernatural history: the use of the outer creation, to give us language +for the beings and changes of the inward creation. Every word which is used to +express a moral or intellectual fact, if traced to its root, is found to be +borrowed from some material appearance. <i>Right</i> means <i>straight</i>; <i> +wrong</i> means <i>twisted</i>. +<i>Spirit</i> primarily means <i>wind</i>; <i>transgression</i>, the crossing of +a +<i>line</i>; <i>supercilious</i>, the <i>raising of the eyebrow</i>. We say the +<i>heart</i> to express emotion, the <i>head</i> to denote thought; and <i> +thought</i> +and <i>emotion</i> are words borrowed from sensible things, and now appropriated +to spiritual nature. Most of the process by which this transformation is made, +is hidden from us in the remote time when language was framed; but the same +tendency may be daily observed in children. Children and savages use only nouns +or names of things, which they convert into verbs, and apply to analogous mental +acts.</p> + +<p>2. But this origin of all words that convey a spiritual import,—so +conspicuous a fact in the history of language,—is our least debt to nature. It +is not words only that are emblematic; it is things which are emblematic. 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. An enraged man +is a lion, a cunning man is a fox, a firm man is a rock, a learned man is a +torch. A lamb is innocence; a snake is subtle spite; flowers express to us the +delicate affections. Light and darkness are our familiar expression for +knowledge and ignorance; and heat for love. Visible distance behind and before +us, is respectively our image of memory and hope.</p> + +<p>Who looks upon a river in a meditative hour, and is not reminded of the flux +of all things? Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that propagate +themselves are the beautiful type of all influence. Man is conscious of a +universal soul within or behind his individual life, wherein, as in a firmament, +the natures of Justice, Truth, Love, Freedom, arise and shine. This universal +soul, he calls Reason: it is not mine, or thine, or his, but we are its; we are +its property and men. And the blue sky in which the private earth is buried, the +sky with its eternal calm, and full of everlasting orbs, is the type of Reason. +That which, intellectually considered, we call Reason, considered in relation to +nature, we call Spirit. Spirit is the Creator. Spirit hath life in itself. And +man in all ages and countries, embodies it in his language, as the FATHER.</p> + +<p>It is easily seen that there is nothing lucky or capricious in these +analogies, but that they are constant, and pervade nature. These are not the +dreams of a few poets, here and there, but man is an analogist, and studies +relations in all objects. He is placed in the centre of beings, and a ray of +relation passes from every other being to him. And neither can man be understood +without these objects, nor these objects without man. All the facts in natural +history taken by themselves, have no value, but are barren, like a single sex. +But marry it to human history, and it is full of life. Whole Floras, all +Linnaeus' and Buffon's volumes, are dry catalogues of facts; but the most +trivial of these facts, the habit of a plant, the organs, or work, or noise of +an insect, applied to the illustration of a fact in intellectual philosophy, or, +in any way associated to human nature, affects us in the most lively and +agreeable manner. The seed of a plant,—to what affecting analogies in the nature +of man, is that little fruit made use of, in all discourse, up to the voice of +Paul, who calls the human corpse a seed,—"It is sown a natural body; it is +raised a spiritual body." The motion of the earth round its axis, and round the +sun, makes the day, and the year. These are certain amounts of brute light and +heat. But is there no intent of an analogy between man's life and the seasons? +And do the seasons gain no grandeur or pathos from that analogy? The instincts +of the ant are very unimportant, considered as the ant's; but the moment a ray +of relation is seen to extend from it to man, and the little drudge is seen to +be a monitor, a little body with a mighty heart, then all its habits, even that +said to be recently observed, that it never sleeps, become sublime.</p> + +<p>Because of this radical correspondence between visible things and human +thoughts, savages, who have only what is necessary, converse in figures. As we +go back in history, language becomes more picturesque, until its infancy, when +it is all poetry; or all spiritual facts are represented by natural symbols. The +same symbols are found to make the original elements of all languages. It has +moreover been observed, that the idioms of all languages approach each other in +passages of the greatest eloquence and power. And as this is the first language, +so is it the last. This immediate dependence of language upon nature, this +conversion of an outward phenomenon into a type of somewhat in human life, never +loses its power to affect us. It is this which gives that piquancy to the +conversation of a strong-natured farmer or back-woodsman, which all men relish.</p> + +<p>A man's power to connect his thought with its proper symbol, and so to utter +it, depends on the simplicity of his character, that is, upon his love of truth, +and his desire to communicate it without loss. The corruption of man is followed +by the corruption of language. When simplicity of character and the sovereignty +of ideas is broken up by the prevalence of secondary desires, the desire of +riches, of pleasure, of power, and of praise,—and duplicity and falsehood take +place of simplicity and truth, the power over nature as an interpreter of the +will, is in a degree lost; new imagery ceases to be created, and old words are +perverted to stand for things which are not; a paper currency is employed, when +there is no bullion in the vaults. In due time, the fraud is manifest, and words +lose all power to stimulate the understanding or the affections. Hundreds of +writers may be found in every long-civilized nation, who for a short time +believe, and make others believe, that they see and utter truths, who do not of +themselves clothe one thought in its natural garment, but who feed unconsciously +on the language created by the primary writers of the country, those, namely, +who hold primarily on nature.</p> + +<p>But wise men pierce this rotten diction and fasten words again to visible +things; so that picturesque language is at once a commanding certificate that he +who employs it, is a man in alliance with truth and God. The moment our +discourse rises above the ground line of familiar facts, and is inflamed with +passion or exalted by thought, it clothes itself in images. A man conversing in +earnest, if he watch his intellectual processes, will find that a material +image, more or less luminous, arises in his mind, cotemporaneous with every +thought, which furnishes the vestment of the thought. Hence, good writing and +brilliant discourse are perpetual allegories. This imagery is spontaneous. It is +the blending of experience with the present action of the mind. It is proper +creation. It is the working of the Original Cause through the instruments he has +already made.</p> + +<p>These facts may suggest the advantage which the country-life possesses for a +powerful mind, over the artificial and curtailed life of cities. We know more +from nature than we can at will communicate. Its light flows into the mind +evermore, and we forget its presence. The poet, the orator, bred in the woods, +whose senses have been nourished by their fair and appeasing changes, year after +year, without design and without heed,—shall not lose their lesson altogether, +in the roar of cities or the broil of politics. Long hereafter, amidst agitation +and terror in national councils,—in the hour of revolution,—these solemn images +shall reappear in their morning lustre, as fit symbols and words of the thoughts +which the passing events shall awaken. At the call of a noble sentiment, again +the woods wave, the pines murmur, the river rolls and shines, and the cattle low +upon the mountains, as he saw and heard them in his infancy. And with these +forms, the spells of persuasion, the keys of power are put into his hands.</p> + +<p>3. We are thus assisted by natural objects in the expression of particular +meanings. But how great a language to convey such pepper-corn informations! Did +it need such noble races of creatures, this profusion of forms, this host of +orbs in heaven, to furnish man with the dictionary and grammar of his municipal +speech? Whilst we use this grand cipher to expedite the affairs of our pot and +kettle, we feel that we have not yet put it to its use, neither are able. We are +like travellers using the cinders of a volcano to roast their eggs. Whilst we +see that it always stands ready to clothe what we would say, we cannot avoid the +question, whether the characters are not significant of themselves. Have +mountains, and waves, and skies, no significance but what we consciously give +them, when we employ them as emblems of our thoughts? The world is emblematic. +Parts of speech are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the +human mind. The laws of moral nature answer to those of matter as face to face +in a glass. "The visible world and the relation of its parts, is the dial plate +of the invisible." The axioms of physics translate the laws of ethics. Thus, +"the whole is greater than its part;" "reaction is equal to action;" "the +smallest weight may be made to lift the greatest, the difference of weight being +compensated by time;" and many the like propositions, which have an ethical as +well as physical sense. These propositions have a much more extensive and +universal sense when applied to human life, than when confined to technical use.</p> + +<p>In like manner, the memorable words of history, and the proverbs of nations, +consist usually of a natural fact, selected as a picture or parable of a moral +truth. Thus; A rolling stone gathers no moss; A bird in the hand is worth two in +the bush; A cripple in the right way, will beat a racer in the wrong; Make hay +while the sun shines; 'T is hard to carry a full cup even; Vinegar is the son of +wine; The last ounce broke the camel's back; Long-lived trees make roots +first;—and the like. In their primary sense these are trivial facts, but we +repeat them for the value of their analogical import. What is true of proverbs, +is true of all fables, parables, and allegories.</p> + +<p>This relation between the mind and matter is not fancied by some poet, but +stands in the will of God, and so is free to be known by all men. It appears to +men, or it does not appear. When in fortunate hours we ponder this miracle, the +wise man doubts, if, at all other times, he is not blind and deaf;</p> + +<p> —"Can these things be,<br> + And overcome us like a summer's cloud,<br> + Without our special wonder?"</p> + +<p>for the universe becomes transparent, and the light of higher laws than its +own, shines through it. It is the standing problem which has exercised the +wonder and the study of every fine genius since the world began; from the era of +the Egyptians and the Brahmins, to that of Pythagoras, of Plato, of Bacon, of +Leibnitz, of Swedenborg. There sits the Sphinx at the road-side, and from age to +age, as each prophet comes by, he tries his fortune at reading her riddle. There +seems to be a necessity in spirit to manifest itself in material forms; and day +and night, river and storm, beast and bird, acid and alkali, preexist in +necessary Ideas in the mind of God, and are what they are by virtue of preceding +affections, in the world of spirit. A Fact is the end or last issue of spirit. +The visible creation is the terminus or the circumference of the invisible +world. "Material objects," said a French philosopher, "are necessarily kinds of <i> +scoriae</i> +of the substantial thoughts of the Creator, which must always preserve an exact +relation to their first origin; in other words, visible nature must have a +spiritual and moral side."</p> + +<p>This doctrine is abstruse, and though the images of "garment," "scoriae," +"mirror," &c., may stimulate the fancy, we must summon the aid of subtler and +more vital expositors to make it plain. "Every scripture is to be interpreted by +the same spirit which gave it forth,"—is the fundamental law of criticism. A +life in harmony with nature, the love of truth and of virtue, will purge the +eyes to understand her text. By degrees we may come to know the primitive sense +of the permanent objects of nature, so that the world shall be to us an open +book, and every form significant of its hidden life and final cause.</p> + +<p>A new interest surprises us, whilst, under the view now suggested, we +contemplate the fearful extent and multitude of objects; since "every object +rightly seen, unlocks a new faculty of the soul." That which was unconscious +truth, becomes, when interpreted and defined in an object, a part of the domain +of knowledge,—a new weapon in the magazine of power.</p><a name="5"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>CHAPTER V.</p> + +<p>DISCIPLINE.</p> + +<p>IN view of the significance of nature, we arrive at once at a new fact, that +nature is a discipline. This use of the world includes the preceding uses, as +parts of itself.</p> + +<p>Space, time, society, labor, climate, food, locomotion, the animals, the +mechanical forces, give us sincerest lessons, day by day, whose meaning is +unlimited. They educate both the Understanding and the Reason. Every property of +matter is a school for the understanding,—its solidity or resistance, its +inertia, its extension, its figure, its divisibility. The understanding adds, +divides, combines, measures, and finds nutriment and room for its activity in +this worthy scene. Meantime, Reason transfers all these lessons into its own +world of thought, by perceiving the analogy that marries Matter and Mind.</p> + +<p>1. Nature is a discipline of the understanding in intellectual truths. Our +dealing with sensible objects is a constant exercise in the necessary lessons of +difference, of likeness, of order, of being and seeming, of progressive +arrangement; of ascent from particular to general; of combination to one end of +manifold forces. Proportioned to the importance of the organ to be formed, is +the extreme care with which its tuition is provided,—a care pretermitted in no +single case. What tedious training, day after day, year after year, never +ending, to form the common sense; what continual reproduction of annoyances, +inconveniences, dilemmas; what rejoicing over us of little men; what disputing +of prices, what reckonings of interest,—and all to form the Hand of the mind;—to +instruct us that "good thoughts are no better than good dreams, unless they be +executed!"</p> + +<p>The same good office is performed by Property and its filial systems of debt +and credit. Debt, grinding debt, whose iron face the widow, the orphan, and the +sons of genius fear and hate;—debt, which consumes so much time, which so +cripples and disheartens a great spirit with cares that seem so base, is a +preceptor whose lessons cannot be forgone, and is needed most by those who +suffer from it most. Moreover, property, which has been well compared to +snow,—"if it fall level to-day, it will be blown into drifts to-morrow,"—is the +surface action of internal machinery, like the index on the face of a clock. +Whilst now it is the gymnastics of the understanding, it is hiving in the +foresight of the spirit, experience in profounder laws.</p> + +<p>The whole character and fortune of the individual are affected by the least +inequalities in the culture of the understanding; for example, in the perception +of differences. Therefore is Space, and therefore Time, that man may know that +things are not huddled and lumped, but sundered and individual. A bell and a +plough have each their use, and neither can do the office of the other. Water is +good to drink, coal to burn, wool to wear; but wool cannot be drunk, nor water +spun, nor coal eaten. The wise man shows his wisdom in separation, in gradation, +and his scale of creatures and of merits is as wide as nature. The foolish have +no range in their scale, but suppose every man is as every other man. What is +not good they call the worst, and what is not hateful, they call the best.</p> + +<p>In like manner, what good heed, nature forms in us! She pardons no mistakes. +Her yea is yea, and her nay, nay.</p> + +<p>The first steps in Agriculture, Astronomy, Zo<font face= +"Times New Roman">ö</font>logy, (those first steps which the farmer, the hunter, +and the sailor take,) teach that nature's dice are always loaded; that in her +heaps and rubbish are concealed sure and useful results.</p> + +<p>How calmly and genially the mind apprehends one after another the laws of +physics! What noble emotions dilate the mortal as he enters into the counsels of +the creation, and feels by knowledge the privilege to BE! His insight refines +him. The beauty of nature shines in his own breast. Man is greater that he can +see this, and the universe less, because Time and Space relations vanish as laws +are known.</p> + +<p>Here again we are impressed and even daunted by the immense Universe to be +explored. "What we know, is a point to what we do not know." Open any recent +journal of science, and weigh the problems suggested concerning Light, Heat, +Electricity, Magnetism, Physiology, Geology, and judge whether the interest of +natural science is likely to be soon exhausted.</p> + +<p>Passing by many particulars of the discipline of nature, we must not omit to +specify two.</p> + +<p>The exercise of the Will or the lesson of power is taught in every event. +From the child's successive possession of his several senses up to the hour when +he saith, "Thy will be done!" he is learning the secret, that he can reduce +under his will, not only particular events, but great classes, nay the whole +series of events, and so conform all facts to his character. Nature is +thoroughly mediate. It is made to serve. It receives the dominion of man as +meekly as the ass on which the Saviour rode. It offers all its kingdoms to man +as the raw material which he may mould into what is useful. Man is never weary +of working it up. He forges the subtile and delicate air into wise and melodious +words, and gives them wing as angels of persuasion and command. One after +another, his victorious thought comes up with and reduces all things, until the +world becomes, at last, only a realized will,—the double of the man.</p> + +<p>2. Sensible objects conform to the premonitions of Reason and reflect the +conscience. All things are moral; and in their boundless changes have an +unceasing reference to spiritual nature. Therefore is nature glorious with form, +color, and motion, that every globe in the remotest heaven; every chemical +change from the rudest crystal up to the laws of life; every change of +vegetation from the first principle of growth in the eye of a leaf, to the +tropical forest and antediluvian coal-mine; every animal function from the +sponge up to Hercules, shall hint or thunder to man the laws of right and wrong, +and echo the Ten Commandments. Therefore is nature ever the ally of Religion: +lends all her pomp and riches to the religious sentiment. Prophet and priest, +David, Isaiah, Jesus, have drawn deeply from this source. This ethical character +so penetrates the bone and marrow of nature, as to seem the end for which it was +made. Whatever private purpose is answered by any member or part, this is its +public and universal function, and is never omitted. Nothing in nature is +exhausted in its first use. When a thing has served an end to the uttermost, it +is wholly new for an ulterior service. In God, every end is converted into a new +means. Thus the use of commodity, regarded by itself, is mean and squalid. But +it is to the mind an education in the doctrine of Use, namely, that a thing is +good only so far as it serves; that a conspiring of parts and efforts to the +production of an end, is essential to any being. The first and gross +manifestation of this truth, is our inevitable and hated training in values and +wants, in corn and meat.</p> + +<p>It has already been illustrated, that every natural process is a version of a +moral sentence. The moral law lies at the centre of nature and radiates to the +circumference. It is the pith and marrow of every substance, every relation, and +every process. All things with which we deal, preach to us. What is a farm but a +mute gospel? The chaff and the wheat, weeds and plants, blight, rain, insects, +sun,—it is a sacred emblem from the first furrow of spring to the last stack +which the snow of winter overtakes in the fields. But the sailor, the shepherd, +the miner, the merchant, in their several resorts, have each an experience +precisely parallel, and leading to the same conclusion: because all +organizations are radically alike. Nor can it be doubted that this moral +sentiment which thus scents the air, grows in the grain, and impregnates the +waters of the world, is caught by man and sinks into his soul. The moral +influence of nature upon every individual is that amount of truth which it +illustrates to him. Who can estimate this? Who can guess how much firmness the +sea-beaten rock has taught the fisherman? how much tranquillity has been +reflected to man from the azure sky, over whose unspotted deeps the winds +forevermore drive flocks of stormy clouds, and leave no wrinkle or stain? how +much industry and providence and affection we have caught from the pantomime of +brutes? What a searching preacher of self-command is the varying phenomenon of +Health!</p> + +<p>Herein is especially apprehended the unity of Nature,—the unity in +variety,—which meets us everywhere. All the endless variety of things make an +identical impression. Xenophanes complained in his old age, that, look where he +would, all things hastened back to Unity. He was weary of seeing the same entity +in the tedious variety of forms. The fable of Proteus has a cordial truth. A +leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes +of the perfection of the whole. Each particle is a microcosm, and faithfully +renders the likeness of the world.</p> + +<p>Not only resemblances exist in things whose analogy is obvious, as when we +detect the type of the human hand in the flipper of the fossil saurus, but also +in objects wherein there is great superficial unlikeness. Thus architecture is +called "frozen music," by De Stael and Goethe. Vitruvius thought an architect +should be a musician. "A Gothic church," said Coleridge, "is a petrified +religion." Michael Angelo maintained, that, to an architect, a knowledge of +anatomy is essential. In Haydn's oratorios, the notes present to the imagination +not only motions, as, of the snake, the stag, and the elephant, but colors also; +as the green grass. The law of harmonic sounds reappears in the harmonic colors. +The granite is differenced in its laws only by the more or less of heat, from +the river that wears it away. The river, as it flows, resembles the air that +flows over it; the air resembles the light which traverses it with more subtile +currents; the light resembles the heat which rides with it through Space. Each +creature is only a modification of the other; the likeness in them is more than +the difference, and their radical law is one and the same. A rule of one art, or +a law of one organization, holds true throughout nature. So intimate is this +Unity, that, it is easily seen, it lies under the undermost garment of nature, +and betrays its source in Universal Spirit. For, it pervades Thought also. Every +universal truth which we express in words, implies or supposes every other +truth. <i>Omne verum vero consonat</i>. It is like a great circle on a sphere, +comprising all possible circles; which, however, may be drawn, and comprise it, +in like manner. Every such truth is the absolute Ens seen from one side. But it +has innumerable sides.</p> + +<p>The central Unity is still more conspicuous in actions. Words are finite +organs of the infinite mind. They cannot cover the dimensions of what is in +truth. They break, chop, and impoverish it. An action is the perfection and +publication of thought. A right action seems to fill the eye, and to be related +to all nature. "The wise man, in doing one thing, does all; or, in the one thing +he does rightly, he sees the likeness of all which is done rightly."</p> + +<p>Words and actions are not the attributes of brute nature. They introduce us +to the human form, of which all other organizations appear to be degradations. +When this appears among so many that surround it, the spirit prefers it to all +others. It says, 'From such as this, have I drawn joy and knowledge; in such as +this, have I found and beheld myself; I will speak to it; it can speak again; it +can yield me thought already formed and alive.' In fact, the eye,—the mind,—is +always accompanied by these forms, male and female; and these are incomparably +the richest informations of the power and order that lie at the heart of things. +Unfortunately, every one of them bears the marks as of some injury; is marred +and superficially defective. Nevertheless, far different from the deaf and dumb +nature around them, these all rest like fountain-pipes on the unfathomed sea of +thought and virtue whereto they alone, of all organizations, are the entrances.</p> + +<p>It were a pleasant inquiry to follow into detail their ministry to our +education, but where would it stop? We are associated in adolescent and adult +life with some friends, who, like skies and waters, are coextensive with our +idea; who, answering each to a certain affection of the soul, satisfy our desire +on that side; whom we lack power to put at such focal distance from us, that we +can mend or even analyze them. We cannot choose but love them. When much +intercourse with a friend has supplied us with a standard of excellence, and has +increased our respect for the resources of God who thus sends a real person to +outgo our ideal; when he has, moreover, become an object of thought, and, whilst +his character retains all its unconscious effect, is converted in the mind into +solid and sweet wisdom,—it is a sign to us that his office is closing, and he is +commonly withdrawn from our sight in a short time.</p><a name="6"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>CHAPTER VI.</p> + +<p>IDEALISM.</p> + +<p>THUS is the unspeakable but intelligible and practicable meaning of the world +conveyed to man, the immortal pupil, in every object of sense. To this one end +of Discipline, all parts of nature conspire.</p> + +<p>A noble doubt perpetually suggests itself, whether this end be not the Final +Cause of the Universe; and whether nature outwardly exists. It is a sufficient +account of that Appearance we call the World, that God will teach a human mind, +and so makes it the receiver of a certain number of congruent sensations, which +we call sun and moon, man and woman, house and trade. In my utter impotence to +test the authenticity of the report of my senses, to know whether the +impressions they make on me correspond with outlying objects, what difference +does it make, whether Orion is up there in heaven, or some god paints the image +in the firmament of the soul? The relations of parts and the end of the whole +remaining the same, what is the difference, whether land and sea interact, and +worlds revolve and intermingle without number or end,—deep yawning under deep, +and galaxy balancing galaxy, throughout absolute space,—or, whether, without +relations of time and space, the same appearances are inscribed in the constant +faith of man? Whether nature enjoy a substantial existence without, or is only +in the apocalypse of the mind, it is alike useful and alike venerable to me. Be +it what it may, it is ideal to me, so long as I cannot try the accuracy of my +senses.</p> + +<p>The frivolous make themselves merry with the Ideal theory, if its +consequences were burlesque; as if it affected the stability of nature. It +surely does not. God never jests with us, and will not compromise the end of +nature, by permitting any inconsequence in its procession. Any distrust of the +permanence of laws, would paralyze the faculties of man. Their permanence is +sacredly respected, and his faith therein is perfect. The wheels and springs of +man are all set to the hypothesis of the permanence of nature. We are not built +like a ship to be tossed, but like a house to stand. It is a natural consequence +of this structure, that, so long as the active powers predominate over the +reflective, we resist with indignation any hint that nature is more short-lived +or mutable than spirit. The broker, the wheelwright, the carpenter, the +toll-man, are much displeased at the intimation.</p> + +<p>But whilst we acquiesce entirely in the permanence of natural laws, the +question of the absolute existence of nature still remains open. It is the +uniform effect of culture on the human mind, not to shake our faith in the +stability of particular phenomena, as of heat, water, azote; but to lead us to +regard nature as a phenomenon, not a substance; to attribute necessary existence +to spirit; to esteem nature as an accident and an effect.</p> + +<p>To the senses and the unrenewed understanding, belongs a sort of instinctive +belief in the absolute existence of nature. In their view, man and nature are +indissolubly joined. Things are ultimates, and they never look beyond their +sphere. The presence of Reason mars this faith. The first effort of thought +tends to relax this despotism of the senses, which binds us to nature as if we +were a part of it, and shows us nature aloof, and, as it were, afloat. Until +this higher agency intervened, the animal eye sees, with wonderful accuracy, +sharp outlines and colored surfaces. When the eye of Reason opens, to outline +and surface are at once added, grace and expression. These proceed from +imagination and affection, and abate somewhat of the angular distinctness of +objects. If the Reason be stimulated to more earnest vision, outlines and +surfaces become transparent, and are no longer seen; causes and spirits are seen +through them. The best moments of life are these delicious awakenings of the +higher powers, and the reverential withdrawing of nature before its God.</p> + +<p>Let us proceed to indicate the effects of culture. 1. Our first institution +in the Ideal philosophy is a hint from nature herself.</p> + +<p>Nature is made to conspire with spirit to emancipate us. Certain mechanical +changes, a small alteration in our local position apprizes us of a dualism. We +are strangely affected by seeing the shore from a moving ship, from a balloon, +or through the tints of an unusual sky. The least change in our point of view, +gives the whole world a pictorial air. A man who seldom rides, needs only to get +into a coach and traverse his own town, to turn the street into a puppet-show. +The men, the women,—talking, running, bartering, fighting,—the earnest mechanic, +the lounger, the beggar, the boys, the dogs, are unrealized at once, or, at +least, wholly detached from all relation to the observer, and seen as apparent, +not substantial beings. What new thoughts are suggested by seeing a face of +country quite familiar, in the rapid movement of the rail-road car! Nay, the +most wonted objects, (make a very slight change in the point of vision,) please +us most. In a camera obscura, the butcher's cart, and the figure of one of our +own family amuse us. So a portrait of a well-known face gratifies us. Turn the +eyes upside down, by looking at the landscape through your legs, and how +agreeable is the picture, though you have seen it any time these twenty years!</p> + +<p>In these cases, by mechanical means, is suggested the difference between the +observer and the spectacle,—between man and nature. Hence arises a pleasure +mixed with awe; I may say, a low degree of the sublime is felt from the fact, +probably, that man is hereby apprized, that, whilst the world is a spectacle, +something in himself is stable.</p> + +<p>2. In a higher manner, the poet communicates the same pleasure. By a few +strokes he delineates, as on air, the sun, the mountain, the camp, the city, the +hero, the maiden, not different from what we know them, but only lifted from the +ground and afloat before the eye. He unfixes the land and the sea, makes them +revolve around the axis of his primary thought, and disposes them anew. +Possessed himself by a heroic passion, he uses matter as symbols of it. The +sensual man conforms thoughts to things; the poet conforms things to his +thoughts. The one esteems nature as rooted and fast; the other, as fluid, and +impresses his being thereon. To him, the refractory world is ductile and +flexible; he invests dust and stones with humanity, and makes them the words of +the Reason. The Imagination may be defined to be, the use which the Reason makes +of the material world. Shakspeare possesses the power of subordinating nature +for the purposes of expression, beyond all poets. His imperial muse tosses the +creation like a bauble from hand to hand, and uses it to embody any caprice of +thought that is upper-most in his mind. The remotest spaces of nature are +visited, and the farthest sundered things are brought together, by a subtle +spiritual connection. We are made aware that magnitude of material things is +relative, and all objects shrink and expand to serve the passion of the poet. +Thus, in his sonnets, the lays of birds, the scents and dyes of flowers, he +finds to be the +<i>shadow</i> of his beloved; time, which keeps her from him, is his <i>chest</i>; +the suspicion she has awakened, is her <i>ornament</i>;</p> + +<p> The ornament of beauty is Suspect,<br> + A crow which flies in heaven's sweetest air.</p> + +<p>His passion is not the fruit of chance; it swells, as he speaks, to a city, +or a state.</p> + +<p> No, it was builded far from accident;<br> + It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls<br> + Under the brow of thralling discontent;<br> + It fears not policy, that heretic,<br> + That works on leases of short numbered hours,<br> + But all alone stands hugely politic.</p> + +<p>In the strength of his constancy, the Pyramids seem to him recent and +transitory. The freshness of youth and love dazzles him with its resemblance to +morning.</p> + +<p> Take those lips away<br> + Which so sweetly were forsworn;<br> + And those eyes,—the break of day,<br> + Lights that do mislead the morn.</p> + +<p>The wild beauty of this hyperbole, I may say, in passing, it would not be +easy to match in literature.</p> + +<p>This transfiguration which all material objects undergo through the passion +of the poet,—this power which he exerts to dwarf the great, to magnify the +small,—might be illustrated by a thousand examples from his Plays. I have before +me the Tempest, and will cite only these few lines.</p> + +<p> ARIEL. The strong based promontory<br> + Have I made shake, and by the spurs plucked up<br> + The pine and cedar.</p> + +<p>Prospero calls for music to soothe the frantic Alonzo, and his companions;</p> + +<p> A solemn air, and the best comforter<br> + To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains<br> + Now useless, boiled within thy skull.</p> + +<p>Again;</p> + +<p> The charm dissolves +apace,<br> + And, as the morning steals upon the night,<br> + Melting the darkness, so their rising senses<br> + Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle<br> + Their clearer reason.<br> + Their understanding<br> + Begins to swell: and the approaching tide<br> + Will shortly fill the reasonable shores<br> + That now lie foul and muddy.</p> + +<p>The perception of real affinities between events, (that is to say, of <i> +ideal</i> +affinities, for those only are real,) enables the poet thus to make free with +the most imposing forms and phenomena of the world, and to assert the +predominance of the soul.</p> + +<p>3. Whilst thus the poet animates nature with his own thoughts, he differs +from the philosopher only herein, that the one proposes Beauty as his main end; +the other Truth. But the philosopher, not less than the poet, postpones the +apparent order and relations of things to the empire of thought. "The problem of +philosophy," according to Plato, "is, for all that exists conditionally, to find +a ground unconditioned and absolute." It proceeds on the faith that a law +determines all phenomena, which being known, the phenomena can be predicted. +That law, when in the mind, is an idea. Its beauty is infinite. The true +philosopher and the true poet are one, and a beauty, which is truth, and a +truth, which is beauty, is the aim of both. Is not the charm of one of Plato's +or Aristotle's definitions, strictly like that of the Antigone of Sophocles? It +is, in both cases, that a spiritual life has been imparted to nature; that the +solid seeming block of matter has been pervaded and dissolved by a thought; that +this feeble human being has penetrated the vast masses of nature with an +informing soul, and recognised itself in their harmony, that is, seized their +law. In physics, when this is attained, the memory disburthens itself of its +cumbrous catalogues of particulars, and carries centuries of observation in a +single formula.</p> + +<p>Thus even in physics, the material is degraded before the spiritual. The +astronomer, the geometer, rely on their irrefragable analysis, and disdain the +results of observation. The sublime remark of Euler on his law of arches, "This +will be found contrary to all experience, yet is true;" had already transferred +nature into the mind, and left matter like an outcast corpse.</p> + +<p>4. Intellectual science has been observed to beget invariably a doubt of the +existence of matter. Turgot said, "He that has never doubted the existence of +matter, may be assured he has no aptitude for metaphysical inquiries." It +fastens the attention upon immortal necessary uncreated natures, that is, upon +Ideas; and in their presence, we feel that the outward circumstance is a dream +and a shade. Whilst we wait in this Olympus of gods, we think of nature as an +appendix to the soul. We ascend into their region, and know that these are the +thoughts of the Supreme Being. "These are they who were set up from everlasting, +from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When he prepared the heavens, they +were there; when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened the +fountains of the deep. Then they were by him, as one brought up with him. Of +them took he counsel."</p> + +<p>Their influence is proportionate. As objects of science, they are accessible +to few men. Yet all men are capable of being raised by piety or by passion, into +their region. And no man touches these divine natures, without becoming, in some +degree, himself divine. Like a new soul, they renew the body. We become +physically nimble and lightsome; we tread on air; life is no longer irksome, and +we think it will never be so. No man fears age or misfortune or death, in their +serene company, for he is transported out of the district of change. Whilst we +behold unveiled the nature of Justice and Truth, we learn the difference between +the absolute and the conditional or relative. We apprehend the absolute. As it +were, for the first time, <i>we exist</i>. We become immortal, for we learn that +time and space are relations of matter; that, with a perception of truth, or a +virtuous will, they have no affinity.</p> + +<p>5. Finally, religion and ethics, which may be fitly called,—the practice of +ideas, or the introduction of ideas into life,—have an analogous effect with all +lower culture, in degrading nature and suggesting its dependence on spirit. +Ethics and religion differ herein; that the one is the system of human duties +commencing from man; the other, from God. Religion includes the personality of +God; Ethics does not. They are one to our present design. They both put nature +under foot. The first and last lesson of religion is, "The things that are seen, +are temporal; the things that are unseen, are eternal." It puts an affront upon +nature. It does that for the unschooled, which philosophy does for Berkeley and +Viasa. The uniform language that may be heard in the churches of the most +ignorant sects, is,—"Contemn the unsubstantial shows of the world; they are +vanities, dreams, shadows, unrealities; seek the realities of religion." The +devotee flouts nature. Some theosophists have arrived at a certain hostility and +indignation towards matter, as the Manichean and Plotinus. They distrusted in +themselves any looking back to these flesh-pots of Egypt. Plotinus was ashamed +of his body. In short, they might all say of matter, what Michael Angelo said of +external beauty, "it is the frail and weary weed, in which God dresses the soul, +which he has called into time."</p> + +<p>It appears that motion, poetry, physical and intellectual science, and +religion, all tend to affect our convictions of the reality of the external +world. But I own there is something ungrateful in expanding too curiously the +particulars of the general proposition, that all culture tends to imbue us with +idealism. I have no hostility to nature, but a child's love to it. I expand and +live in the warm day like corn and melons. Let us speak her fair. I do not wish +to fling stones at my beautiful mother, nor soil my gentle nest. I only wish to +indicate the true position of nature in regard to man, wherein to establish man, +all right education tends; as the ground which to attain is the object of human +life, that is, of man's connection with nature. Culture inverts the vulgar views +of nature, and brings the mind to call that apparent, which it uses to call +real, and that real, which it uses to call visionary. Children, it is true, +believe in the external world. The belief that it appears only, is an +afterthought, but with culture, this faith will as surely arise on the mind as +did the first.</p> + +<p>The advantage of the ideal theory over the popular faith, is this, that it +presents the world in precisely that view which is most desirable to the mind. +It is, in fact, the view which Reason, both speculative and practical, that is, +philosophy and virtue, take. For, seen in the light of thought, the world always +is phenomenal; and virtue subordinates it to the mind. Idealism sees the world +in God. It beholds the whole circle of persons and things, of actions and +events, of country and religion, not as painfully accumulated, atom after atom, +act after act, in an aged creeping Past, but as one vast picture, which God +paints on the instant eternity, for the contemplation of the soul. Therefore the +soul holds itself off from a too trivial and microscopic study of the universal +tablet. It respects the end too much, to immerse itself in the means. It sees +something more important in Christianity, than the scandals of ecclesiastical +history, or the niceties of criticism; and, very incurious concerning persons or +miracles, and not at all disturbed by chasms of historical evidence, it accepts +from God the phenomenon, as it finds it, as the pure and awful form of religion +in the world. It is not hot and passionate at the appearance of what it calls +its own good or bad fortune, at the union or opposition of other persons. No man +is its enemy. It accepts whatsoever befalls, as part of its lesson. It is a +watcher more than a doer, and it is a doer, only that it may the better watch.</p><a name="7"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>CHAPTER VII.</p> + +<p>SPIRIT.</p> + +<p>IT is essential to a true theory of nature and of man, that it should contain +somewhat progressive. Uses that are exhausted or that may be, and facts that end +in the statement, cannot be all that is true of this brave lodging wherein man +is harbored, and wherein all his faculties find appropriate and endless +exercise. And all the uses of nature admit of being summed in one, which yields +the activity of man an infinite scope. Through all its kingdoms, to the suburbs +and outskirts of things, it is faithful to the cause whence it had its origin. +It always speaks of Spirit. It suggests the absolute. It is a perpetual effect. +It is a great shadow pointing always to the sun behind us.</p> + +<p>The aspect of nature is devout. Like the figure of Jesus, she stands with +bended head, and hands folded upon the breast. The happiest man is he who learns +from nature the lesson of worship.</p> + +<p>Of that ineffable essence which we call Spirit, he that thinks most, will say +least. We can foresee God in the coarse, and, as it were, distant phenomena of +matter; but when we try to define and describe himself, both language and +thought desert us, and we are as helpless as fools and savages. That essence +refuses to be recorded in propositions, but when man has worshipped him +intellectually, the noblest ministry of nature is to stand as the apparition of +God. It is the organ through which the universal spirit speaks to the +individual, and strives to lead back the individual to it.</p> + +<p>When we consider Spirit, we see that the views already presented do not +include the whole circumference of man. We must add some related thoughts.</p> + +<p>Three problems are put by nature to the mind; What is matter? Whence is it? +and Whereto? The first of these questions only, the ideal theory answers. +Idealism saith: matter is a phenomenon, not a substance. Idealism acquaints us +with the total disparity between the evidence of our own being, and the evidence +of the world's being. The one is perfect; the other, incapable of any assurance; +the mind is a part of the nature of things; the world is a divine dream, from +which we may presently awake to the glories and certainties of day. Idealism is +a hypothesis to account for nature by other principles than those of carpentry +and chemistry. Yet, if it only deny the existence of matter, it does not satisfy +the demands of the spirit. It leaves God out of me. It leaves me in the splendid +labyrinth of my perceptions, to wander without end. Then the heart resists it, +because it balks the affections in denying substantive being to men and women. +Nature is so pervaded with human life, that there is something of humanity in +all, and in every particular. But this theory makes nature foreign to me, and +does not account for that consanguinity which we acknowledge to it.</p> + +<p>Let it stand, then, in the present state of our knowledge, merely as a useful +introductory hypothesis, serving to apprize us of the eternal distinction +between the soul and the world.</p> + +<p>But when, following the invisible steps of thought, we come to inquire, +Whence is matter? and Whereto? many truths arise to us out of the recesses of +consciousness. We learn that the highest is present to the soul of man, that the +dread universal essence, which is not wisdom, or love, or beauty, or power, but +all in one, and each entirely, is that for which all things exist, and that by +which they are; that spirit creates; that behind nature, throughout nature, +spirit is present; one and not compound, it does not act upon us from without, +that is, in space and time, but spiritually, or through ourselves: therefore, +that spirit, that is, the Supreme Being, does not build up nature around us, but +puts it forth through us, as the life of the tree puts forth new branches and +leaves through the pores of the old. As a plant upon the earth, so a man rests +upon the bosom of God; he is nourished by unfailing fountains, and draws, at his +need, inexhaustible power. Who can set bounds to the possibilities of man? Once +inhale the upper air, being admitted to behold the absolute natures of justice +and truth, and we learn that man has access to the entire mind of the Creator, +is himself the creator in the finite. This view, which admonishes me where the +sources of wisdom and power lie, and points to virtue as to</p> + +<p> "The golden key<br> + Which opes the palace of eternity,"</p> + +<p>carries upon its face the highest certificate of truth, because it animates +me to create my own world through the purification of my soul.</p> + +<p>The world proceeds from the same spirit as the body of man. It is a remoter +and inferior incarnation of God, a projection of God in the unconscious. But it +differs from the body in one important respect. It is not, like that, now +subjected to the human will. Its serene order is inviolable by us. It is, +therefore, to us, the present expositor of the divine mind. It is a fixed point +whereby we may measure our departure. As we degenerate, the contrast between us +and our house is more evident. We are as much strangers in nature, as we are +aliens from God. We do not understand the notes of birds. The fox and the deer +run away from us; the bear and tiger rend us. We do not know the uses of more +than a few plants, as corn and the apple, the potato and the vine. Is not the +landscape, every glimpse of which hath a grandeur, a face of him? Yet this may +show us what discord is between man and nature, for you cannot freely admire a +noble landscape, if laborers are digging in the field hard by. The poet finds +something ridiculous in his delight, until he is out of the sight of men.</p><a name="8"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>CHAPTER VIII.</p> + +<p>PROSPECTS.</p> + +<p>IN inquiries respecting the laws of the world and the frame of things, the +highest reason is always the truest. That which seems faintly possible—it is so +refined, is often faint and dim because it is deepest seated in the mind among +the eternal verities. Empirical science is apt to cloud the sight, and, by the +very knowledge of functions and processes, to bereave the student of the manly +contemplation of the whole. The savant becomes unpoetic. But the best read +naturalist who lends an entire and devout attention to truth, will see that +there remains much to learn of his relation to the world, and that it is not to +be learned by any addition or subtraction or other comparison of known +quantities, but is arrived at by untaught sallies of the spirit, by a continual +self-recovery, and by entire humility. He will perceive that there are far more +excellent qualities in the student than preciseness and infallibility; that a +guess is often more fruitful than an indisputable affirmation, and that a dream +may let us deeper into the secret of nature than a hundred concerted +experiments.</p> + +<p>For, the problems to be solved are precisely those which the physiologist and +the naturalist omit to state. It is not so pertinent to man to know all the +individuals of the animal kingdom, as it is to know whence and whereto is this +tyrannizing unity in his constitution, which evermore separates and classifies +things, endeavoring to reduce the most diverse to one form. When I behold a rich +landscape, it is less to my purpose to recite correctly the order and +superposition of the strata, than to know why all thought of multitude is lost +in a tranquil sense of unity. I cannot greatly honor minuteness in details, so +long as there is no hint to explain the relation between things and thoughts; no +ray upon the <i>metaphysics</i> of conchology, of botany, of the arts, to show +the relation of the forms of flowers, shells, animals, architecture, to the +mind, and build science upon ideas. In a cabinet of natural history, we become +sensible of a certain occult recognition and sympathy in regard to the most +unwieldly and eccentric forms of beast, fish, and insect. The American who has +been confined, in his own country, to the sight of buildings designed after +foreign models, is surprised on entering York Minster or St. Peter's at Rome, by +the feeling that these structures are imitations also,—faint copies of an +invisible archetype. Nor has science sufficient humanity, so long as the +naturalist overlooks that wonderful congruity which subsists between man and the +world; of which he is lord, not because he is the most subtile inhabitant, but +because he is its head and heart, and finds something of himself in every great +and small thing, in every mountain stratum, in every new law of color, fact of +astronomy, or atmospheric influence which observation or analysis lay open. A +perception of this mystery inspires the muse of George Herbert, the beautiful +psalmist of the seventeenth century. The following lines are part of his little +poem on Man.</p> + +<p> "Man is all symmetry,<br> + Full of proportions, one limb to another,<br> + And to all the world +besides.<br> + Each part may call the +farthest, brother;<br> + For head with foot hath private amity,<br> + And both with moons and +tides.</p> + +<p> "Nothing hath got so +far<br> + But man hath caught and kept it as his prey;<br> + His eyes dismount the +highest star;<br> + He is in little all the +sphere.<br> + Herbs gladly cure our flesh, because that they<br> + Find their acquaintance +there.</p> + +<p> "For us, the winds do +blow,<br> + The earth doth rest, heaven move, and fountains flow;<br> + Nothing we see, but means +our good,<br> + As our delight, or as our +treasure;<br> + The whole is either our cupboard of food,<br> + Or cabinet of pleasure.</p> + +<p> "The stars have us to +bed:<br> + Night draws the curtain; which the sun withdraws.<br> + Music and light attend +our head.<br> + All things unto our flesh +are kind,<br> + In their descent and being; to our mind,<br> + In their ascent and +cause.</p> + +<p> "More servants wait on +man<br> + Than he'll take notice of. In every path,<br> + He treads down that which +doth befriend him<br> + When sickness makes him +pale and wan.<br> + Oh mighty love! Man is one world, and hath<br> + Another to attend him."</p> + +<p>The perception of this class of truths makes the attraction which draws men +to science, but the end is lost sight of in attention to the means. In view of +this half-sight of science, we accept the sentence of Plato, that, "poetry comes +nearer to vital truth than history." Every surmise and vaticination of the mind +is entitled to a certain respect, and we learn to prefer imperfect theories, and +sentences, which contain glimpses of truth, to digested systems which have no +one valuable suggestion. A wise writer will feel that the ends of study and +composition are best answered by announcing undiscovered regions of thought, and +so communicating, through hope, new activity to the torpid spirit.</p> + +<p>I shall therefore conclude this essay with some traditions of man and nature, +which a certain poet sang to me; and which, as they have always been in the +world, and perhaps reappear to every bard, may be both history and prophecy.</p> + +<p>'The foundations of man are not in matter, but in spirit. But the element of +spirit is eternity. To it, therefore, the longest series of events, the oldest +chronologies are young and recent. In the cycle of the universal man, from whom +the known individuals proceed, centuries are points, and all history is but the +epoch of one degradation.</p> + +<p>'We distrust and deny inwardly our sympathy with nature. We own and disown +our relation to it, by turns. We are, like Nebuchadnezzar, dethroned, bereft of +reason, and eating grass like an ox. But who can set limits to the remedial +force of spirit?</p> + +<p>'A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and +shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams. Now, the world +would be insane and rabid, if these disorganizations should last for hundreds of +years. It is kept in check by death and infancy. Infancy is the perpetual +Messiah, which comes into the arms of fallen men, and pleads with them to return +to paradise.</p> + +<p>'Man is the dwarf of himself. Once he was permeated and dissolved by spirit. +He filled nature with his overflowing currents. Out from him sprang the sun and +moon; from man, the sun; from woman, the moon. The laws of his mind, the periods +of his actions externized themselves into day and night, into the year and the +seasons. But, having made for himself this huge shell, his waters retired; he no +longer fills the veins and veinlets; he is shrunk to a drop. He sees, that the +structure still fits him, but fits him colossally. Say, rather, once it fitted +him, now it corresponds to him from far and on high. He adores timidly his own +work. Now is man the follower of the sun, and woman the follower of the moon. +Yet sometimes he starts in his slumber, and wonders at himself and his house, +and muses strangely at the resemblance betwixt him and it. He perceives that if +his law is still paramount, if still he have elemental power, if his word is +sterling yet in nature, it is not conscious power, it is not inferior but +superior to his will. It is Instinct.' Thus my Orphic poet sang.</p> + +<p>At present, man applies to nature but half his force. He works on the world +with his understanding alone. He lives in it, and masters it by a penny-wisdom; +and he that works most in it, is but a half-man, and whilst his arms are strong +and his digestion good, his mind is imbruted, and he is a selfish savage. His +relation to nature, his power over it, is through the understanding; as by +manure; the economic use of fire, wind, water, and the mariner's needle; steam, +coal, chemical agriculture; the repairs of the human body by the dentist and the +surgeon. This is such a resumption of power, as if a banished king should buy +his territories inch by inch, instead of vaulting at once into his throne. +Meantime, in the thick darkness, there are not wanting gleams of a better +light,—occasional examples of the action of man upon nature with his entire +force,—with reason as well as understanding. Such examples are; the traditions +of miracles in the earliest antiquity of all nations; the history of Jesus +Christ; the achievements of a principle, as in religious and political +revolutions, and in the abolition of the Slave-trade; the miracles of +enthusiasm, as those reported of Swedenborg, Hohenlohe, and the Shakers; many +obscure and yet contested facts, now arranged under the name of Animal +Magnetism; prayer; eloquence; self-healing; and the wisdom of children. These +are examples of Reason's momentary grasp of the sceptre; the exertions of a +power which exists not in time or space, but an instantaneous in-streaming +causing power. The difference between the actual and the ideal force of man is +happily figured by the schoolmen, in saying, that the knowledge of man is an +evening knowledge, +<i>vespertina cognitio</i>, but that of God is a morning knowledge, <i>matutina +cognitio</i>.</p> + +<p>The problem of restoring to the world original and eternal beauty, is solved +by the redemption of the soul. The ruin or the blank, that we see when we look +at nature, is in our own eye. The axis of vision is not coincident with the axis +of things, and so they appear not transparent but opake. The reason why the +world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited +with himself. He cannot be a naturalist, until he satisfies all the demands of +the spirit. Love is as much its demand, as perception. Indeed, neither can be +perfect without the other. In the uttermost meaning of the words, thought is +devout, and devotion is thought. Deep calls unto deep. But in actual life, the +marriage is not celebrated. There are innocent men who worship God after the +tradition of their fathers, but their sense of duty has not yet extended to the +use of all their faculties. And there are patient naturalists, but they freeze +their subject under the wintry light of the understanding. Is not prayer also a +study of truth,—a sally of the soul into the unfound infinite? No man ever +prayed heartily, without learning something. But when a faithful thinker, +resolute to detach every object from personal relations, and see it in the light +of thought, shall, at the same time, kindle science with the fire of the holiest +affections, then will God go forth anew into the creation.</p> + +<p>It will not need, when the mind is prepared for study, to search for objects. +The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. What is a +day? What is a year? What is summer? What is woman? What is a child? What is +sleep? To our blindness, these things seem unaffecting. We make fables to hide +the baldness of the fact and conform it, as we say, to the higher law of the +mind. But when the fact is seen under the light of an idea, the gaudy fable +fades and shrivels. We behold the real higher law. To the wise, therefore, a +fact is true poetry, and the most beautiful of fables. These wonders are brought +to our own door. You also are a man. Man and woman, and their social life, +poverty, labor, sleep, fear, fortune, are known to you. Learn that none of these +things is superficial, but that each phenomenon has its roots in the faculties +and affections of the mind. Whilst the abstract question occupies your +intellect, nature brings it in the concrete to be solved by your hands. It were +a wise inquiry for the closet, to compare, point by point, especially at +remarkable crises in life, our daily history, with the rise and progress of +ideas in the mind.</p> + +<p>So shall we come to look at the world with new eyes. It shall answer the +endless inquiry of the intellect,—What is truth? and of the affections,—What is +good? by yielding itself passive to the educated Will. Then shall come to pass +what my poet said; '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 spirit builds itself +a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond its world, a heaven. Know +then, that the world exists for you. For you is the phenomenon perfect. What we +are, that only can we see. All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have +and can do. Adam called his house, heaven and earth; Caesar called his house, +Rome; you perhaps call yours, a cobler's trade; a hundred acres of ploughed +land; or a scholar's garret. Yet line for line and point for point, your +dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names. Build, therefore, +your own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, +that will unfold its great proportions. A correspondent revolution in things +will attend the influx of the spirit. So fast will disagreeable appearances, +swine, spiders, snakes, pests, madhouses, prisons, enemies, vanish; they are +temporary and shall be no more seen. The sordor and filths of nature, the sun +shall dry up, and the wind exhale. As when the summer comes from the south; the +snow-banks melt, and the face of the earth becomes green before it, so shall the +advancing spirit create its ornaments along its path, and carry with it the +beauty it visits, and the song which enchants it; it shall draw beautiful faces, +warm hearts, wise discourse, and heroic acts, around its way, until evil is no +more seen. The kingdom of man over nature, which cometh not with observation,—a +dominion such as now is beyond his dream of God,—he shall enter without more +wonder than the blind man feels who is gradually restored to perfect sight.'</p><br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATURE *** + +***** This file should be named 29433-h.htm or 29433-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/4/3/29433/ + +Produced by Ruth Hart + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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