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diff --git a/29433.txt b/29433.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfd42a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/29433.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1969 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATURE *** + + + + +Produced by Ruth Hart + + + + +NATURE + +BY + +R. W. EMERSON + + +A subtle chain of countless rings +The next unto the farthest brings; +The eye reads omens where it goes, +And speaks all languages the rose; +And, striving to be man, the worm +Mounts through all the spires of form. + + +NEW EDITION + + +BOSTON & CAMBRIDGE: +JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY +M DCCC XLIX. + + +Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1849 +By JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY, +in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + + +BOSTON: +THURSTON, TORRY AND COMPANY, +31 Devonshire Street. + + +CONTENTS + + + INTRODUCTION 1 +CHAPTER I. NATURE 8 +CHAPTER II. COMMODITY 10 +CHAPTER III. BEAUTY 13 +CHAPTER IV. LANGUAGE 23 +CHAPTER V. DISCIPLINE 34 +CHAPTER VI. IDEALISM 45 +CHAPTER VII. SPIRIT 59 +CHAPTER VIII. PROSPECTS 64 + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. +_Nature_, in the common sense, refers to essences unchanged by +man; space, the air, the river, the leaf. _Art_ 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. + + + +NATURE. + +CHAPTER I. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +COMMODITY. + +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. + +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. + + "More servants wait on man + Than he'll take notice of."-- + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER III. + +BEAUTY. + +A NOBLER want of man is served by nature, namely, the love of +Beauty. + +The ancient Greeks called the world _kosmos_, 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 _in and for themselves_; 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. + +For better consideration, we may distribute the aspects of Beauty in +a threefold manner. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LANGUAGE. + +LANGUAGE is a third use which Nature subserves to man. Nature +is the vehicle, and threefold degree. + +1. Words are signs of natural facts. + +2. Particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts. + +3. Nature is the symbol of spirit. + +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. _Right_ means _straight_; _wrong_ means _twisted_. +_Spirit_ primarily means _wind_; _transgression_, the crossing of a +_line_; _supercilious_, the _raising of the eyebrow_. We say the +_heart_ to express emotion, the _head_ to denote thought; and +_thought_ and _emotion_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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; + + --"Can these things be, + And overcome us like a summer's cloud, + Without our special wonder?" + +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 _scoriae_ 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." + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +DISCIPLINE. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +In like manner, what good heed, nature forms in us! She pardons no +mistakes. Her yea is yea, and her nay, nay. + +The first steps in Agriculture, Astronomy, Zooelogy, (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. + +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. + +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. + +Passing by many particulars of the discipline of nature, we must not +omit to specify two. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. _Omne +verum vero consonat_. 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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +IDEALISM. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Let us proceed to indicate the effects of culture. 1. Our first +institution in the Ideal philosophy is a hint from nature herself. + +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! + +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. + +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 _shadow_ of his beloved; time, which keeps her from him, is +his _chest_; the suspicion she has awakened, is her _ornament_; + + The ornament of beauty is Suspect, + A crow which flies in heaven's sweetest air. + +His passion is not the fruit of chance; it swells, as he speaks, to a +city, or a state. + + No, it was builded far from accident; + It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls + Under the brow of thralling discontent; + It fears not policy, that heretic, + That works on leases of short numbered hours, + But all alone stands hugely politic. + +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. + + Take those lips away + Which so sweetly were forsworn; + And those eyes,--the break of day, + Lights that do mislead the morn. + +The wild beauty of this hyperbole, I may say, in passing, it would +not be easy to match in literature. + +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. + + ARIEL. The strong based promontory + Have I made shake, and by the spurs plucked up + The pine and cedar. + +Prospero calls for music to soothe the frantic Alonzo, and his +companions; + + A solemn air, and the best comforter + To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains + Now useless, boiled within thy skull. + +Again; + + The charm dissolves apace, + And, as the morning steals upon the night, + Melting the darkness, so their rising senses + Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle + Their clearer reason. + Their understanding + Begins to swell: and the approaching tide + Will shortly fill the reasonable shores + That now lie foul and muddy. + +The perception of real affinities between events, (that is to say, of +_ideal_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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, +_we exist_. 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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SPIRIT. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 + + "The golden key + Which opes the palace of eternity," + +carries upon its face the highest certificate of truth, because it +animates me to create my own world through the purification of my +soul. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +PROSPECTS. + +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. + +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 +_metaphysics_ 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. + + "Man is all symmetry, + Full of proportions, one limb to another, + And to all the world besides. + Each part may call the farthest, brother; + For head with foot hath private amity, + And both with moons and tides. + + "Nothing hath got so far + But man hath caught and kept it as his prey; + His eyes dismount the highest star; + He is in little all the sphere. + Herbs gladly cure our flesh, because that they + Find their acquaintance there. + + "For us, the winds do blow, + The earth doth rest, heaven move, and fountains flow; + Nothing we see, but means our good, + As our delight, or as our treasure; + The whole is either our cupboard of food, + Or cabinet of pleasure. + + "The stars have us to bed: + Night draws the curtain; which the sun withdraws. + Music and light attend our head. + All things unto our flesh are kind, + In their descent and being; to our mind, + In their ascent and cause. + + "More servants wait on man + Than he'll take notice of. In every path, + He treads down that which doth befriend him + When sickness makes him pale and wan. + Oh mighty love! Man is one world, and hath + Another to attend him." + +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. + +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. + +'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. + +'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? + +'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. + +'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. + +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, _vespertina cognitio_, but that of God is a morning +knowledge, _matutina cognitio_. + +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. + +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. + +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.' + + + + + + + + +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.txt or 29433.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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