Nature

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Overview

In his essay “Nature,” published by James Munroe and Company in 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson exhibits an untraditional appreciation for the world around him. Concerned initially with the stars and the world around us, the grandeur of nature, Emerson then turns his attention onto how we perceive objects. “Nature” seeks to show humanity a new form of enlightening the human spirit and urges the formation of a strong link between man and the Universal Spirit. Emerson sees nature as an inspiration for people to grasp a deeper understanding of the spiritual world, so he begins by asserting that humans need to develop their own sense of self and their beliefs. He believes that solitary reflection within nature is the best way to accomplish this.
Emerson also outlines the four ways that humans can benefit from nature; nature as commodity sustains life; nature as beauty provides inspiration and sensual awareness; nature as language suggests that words are imperfect descriptors, and that objects must speak for themselves; and nature as discipline allows people to find self-fulfilment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9791220209007
Publisher:	E-BOOKARAMA
Publication date:	02/27/2023
Sold by:	StreetLib SRL
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the son of a Unitarian minister and a chaplain during the American Revolution, was born in 1803 in Boston. He attended the Boston Latin School, and in 1817 entered Harvard, graduating in 1820. Emerson supported himself as a schoolteacher from 1821-26. In 1826 he was "approbated to preach," and in 1829 became pastor of the Scond Church (Unitarian) in Boston. That same year he married Ellen Louise Tucker, who was to die of tuberculosis only seventeen months later. In 1832 Emerson resigned his pastorate and traveled to Eurpe, where he met Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Carlyle. He settled in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1834, where he began a new career as a public lecturer, and married Lydia Jackson a year later. A group that gathered around Emerson in Concord came to be known as "the Concord school," and included Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Fuller. Every year Emerson made a lecture tour; and these lectures were the source of most of his essays. Nature (1836), his first published work, contained the essence of his transcendental philosophy , which views the world of phenomena as a sort of symbol of the inner life and emphasizes individual freedom and self-reliance. Emerson's address to the Phi Beta Kappa society of Harvard (1837) and another address to the graduating class of the Harvard Divinity School (1838) applied his doctrine to the scholar and the clergyman, provoking sharp controversy. An ardent abolitionist, Emerson lectured and wrote widely against slavery from the 1840's through the Civil War. His principal publications include two volumes of Essays (1841, 1844), Poems (1847), Representative Men (1850), The Conduct of Life (1860), and Society and Solitude (1870). He died of pneumonia in 1882 and was buried in Concord.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I.

NATURE

CHAPTER II.

COMMODITY

CHAPTER III.

BEAUTY

CHAPTER IV.

LANGUAGE

CHAPTER V.

DISCIPLINE

CHAPTER VI.

IDEALISM

CHAPTER VII.

SPIRIT

CHAPTER VIII.

PROSPECTS

Editorial Reviews

This volume cleverly combines Emerson's Nature with Thoreau's Walking in a single, affordable paperback. Though written nearly 30 years apart (1836 and 1862, respectively), the two works express similar feelings and make perfect companions.

Library Journal