What purpose does nature serve?
This is the question anchoring “Nature”, the landmark essay from Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Nature” embodies his Transcendental philosophy, posits the necessary connection between humanity and nature, and showcases Emerson’s trademark optimism. “Nature” is Emerson’s first published essay (1836) and marks the beginning of the Transcendental movement. He spent the remainder of his career lecturing and refining the theories originally laid out here.
Originally published as a 95-page book, the work is broken into eight chapters, each dealing with a specific way nature and man influence one another, and displays the interconnectedness of man with nature. The eight sections are nature, commodity, beauty, language, discipline, idealism, spirit, and a final section looking ahead to the prospects of humanity and nature in the future.
Emerson’s philosophy hinges on the realization that the brilliant thinkers and philosophers of centuries past, “saw God and nature face to face,” while we only experience ideas and nature through their words. Emerson encourages us to experience nature, morality, ideology, and every other aspect of life, for ourselves, investigating these things personally and coming to our own conclusions. We should bring fresh eyes to the universe and our experiences rather than relying on the theories and ideas of the past.
Nature and Commodity
For Emerson, divinity is present throughout nature and humanity. The problems we see between man and nature are due to humanity’s unresolved grievances within himself. Emerson does not explicitly detail what these grievances are, but we can surmise from his later work that he is alluding to the lack of personal values on an individual level through society, as well as exploiting and mining natural resources rather working in concert with nature.
The opening paragraph of his first section, also titled Nature, depicts how we take the natural world for granted, with a beautiful reflection on the availability of the stars, and sadly, the familiarity their nightly appearance brings,
“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 those envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.”
Further, as adults we grow immune to the charms and fascination of nature, far from the enthusiasm of children who love being outdoors and playing freely in nature. Emerson’s observation that the sun shines into the heart of a child, yet only into the eyes of a man is sobering. His words remind us of the amazing world we are surrounded by, yet often take for granted or ignore.
The next three sections details ways in which we use nature to glean insight into philosophical or spiritual problems.
Beauty
Nature calms and replenishes us just by her presence. It is the birthright, Emerson claims, for man to explore the natural world, though many of us keep ourselves to a tidy little corner of the earth. Being in nature makes us aware of the majestic and spiritual aspect running throughout the natural world.
It is in beauty we find the answer to Emerson’s fundamental question. The purpose of nature is to fulfill the desire for beauty in each of us. “The world thus exists to the soul to satisfy the desire of beauty.” The beauty and wonder of nature are meant to be observed and appreciated, not harvested for resources to build things we don’t even need and create waste.
Language
One of the most striking ideas Emerson presents involves the role and development of language. Language, if traced back far enough, illustrates that all ideas signify facts and that some of these natural facts convey spiritual facts. Emerson draws attention to the idea of light and darkness being reflected in our terms of knowledge and ignorance, where the light of knowledge eliminates the darkness of ignorance. Friedrich Nietzsche, who wrote passages of Emerson’s works into his journals, was surely inspired by this allusion and further developed the idea in Nietzsche’s On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense.
“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 symbols are found to make the original elements of all languages.”
Discipline, Idealism and Spirit
Though from a Unitarian background, Emerson here rejects the notion of a God separated from a physical earth, in favor of a pantheistic system, where divinity is found in all things. He details that what we call Reason in the intellectual setting is Spirit in the natural world. This Reason (spirit) is the creator in his Transcendentalist system. He would develop further these ideas in his essays “Circles” and “The Over-soul”, in his 1841 First Series.
“Nature is a discipline of the understanding in intellectual truths…. The moral influence of nature upon every individual is that amount of truth which it illustrates to him.”
Within nature itself are lessons of limits, likeness, and laws. We reflect these laws in our own conduct and societal rules. Emerson concludes that separation and gradation are marks of discernment, as nature illustrates that all things have value, but not all things are interchangeable.
“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 show his wisdom in separation, in gradation, and his scale of creatures and of merits is as wide as nature.”
In Idealism, Emerson describes the different appearances of reality as we move through life; the material world changes while a spiritual constancy allows humanity to remain the same. In this way, an individual exerts a certain power over the world, and uses it for his or her own purpose. The poet aims for beauty, the philosopher for truth. Emerson continues, saying that nature conspires with spirit to free us, or allow us to transcend the material world.
In Spirit, Emerson declares that humans and nature are created from the same spirit, and that nature is separate and apart from human will. Nature is the perfect iteration of this birthing Spirit, and humanity has erred. It is in communing with nature we are able to work back toward our formerly perfect state. Together, these sections summarize the aims of Emerson’s Transcendent philosophy, namely that by communing with nature, humanity can transcend the material world. Finally, Emerson looks ahead to the future with the statement that man must look within himself in order to repair this rift with nature. He makes a passing reference to man as an eternal creature, and his concept of history as biography, which he would later detail.
Reception and Influence
This essay, along with his two subsequent collections of essays, compose the bulk of his literary works. Emerson’s ideas were published and well-received throughout America and Europe during his lifetime, elevating him to international acclaim. He was a lecturer around the country, speaking on his philosophy as well as the abolitionist movement. He essentially began the Transcendentalist movement with this essay, as it attracted like-minded individuals, including his friend Henry David Thoreau to Massachusetts to advance this philosophy. Because his work straddles several disciplines – such as philosophy, literature, theology and social commentary – scholars and nonacademics from diverse backgrounds have been impacted by his work.
Final Thoughts
It would be an understatement to call Emerson’s initial essay a glittering splash in American literature. The optimism of Emerson bubbles through his prose reminding us to think individually and embrace the beauty of nature as a refreshing balm for the soul. He broke through the noise of ritualized tradition to encourage individuals to question their participation in those traditions. Undoubtedly, part of Emerson’s enduring appeal is related to his tireless belief in the ability of people to look within themselves and rise to the occasion of living well. The weight of an impending Civil War – where opposing ideas around tradition and value demanded thousands of lives – clings to Emerson’s words, making them all the more remarkable. Even in such a dark and interminable time, Emerson was convinced of the possibility lying within each of us, and it is this optimism which continues to inspire his readers today. While society has changed in some ways, the importance and beauty found in Emerson’s words is steadfast regardless of the setting.
