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- Soul and nature --> unity
- nature provides self-reflection of the soul
- Interconnection between god and nature
- God is beyond reason - "physical laws"
- Accessed through imagination + intuition
Transparent Eyeball
Interconnection with God
"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."(Emerson 2)
"To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun....The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; ... even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food."(Emerson 1)
- Heaven + God allows people to see "Nature"
= Not "SUPERFIALLY"
- Interaction with Heaven is daily
- Religion --> to fully see NATURE
- "part of his daily food"
- Interconnection - God helps one see NATURE
Spirits of God
Symbols of Nature
"3. Nature is the symbol of spirit."(Emerson 3)
- Spirit
- divine forces
- God's influence --> creations of nature
- Nature symbolizes God's creations
- interconnection with God and religion
"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 firm man is a rock, a learned man is a torch. ...heat for love."(Emerson 3)
- Spirttual symbol = Nature
- Lion - enraged man
- firm man = rock
- God's spiritual symbols represent nature
- also associated with a state of mind
- shows connection to the soul
"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."
- Nature as a phenomenon
- Existence to spirit (God's creations)
- Attributed to religion
- Shows interconnection between God and Religion
- God created nature as a phenomenon
- Defined by "Cause and effect"
Nature as a Creation
Man Worshipping Nature
"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?"(Emerson 14)
- Through imagination, men are powerful
- there are no "bounds to the possibilities"
- However, this imagination is only achieved through religion and nature
- "unfailing fountains"
- resting "upon god's bosom"
- shows closeness and intimacy with religion
- familiarity
- religion and nature create limitless power
- for men
"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."(Emerson 13)
Devout - deeply religious
- shows that nature itself is deeply religious
Through nature, men can learn to respect religion and God
- nature --> helps explore Religion
- worhip God
Intuition > Reason
- Imagination and relying on emotions and feeling can achieve spirituality
- Logic Rationalism
- Philosopher - The Truth
- Imagination, Feelings, emotions
- The Poet - beauty
"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."(Emerson 2)
- Intuition and faith
- trusts his intuition that nothing can harm him
- no "calamity" or "disgrace"
- Power of intuition
Reason as an Assistance to Imagination and Intuition
Beauty vs Truth
Intuition to help one "exist"
"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..."(Emerson 8)
- Reason --> becomes the "best moments of life" when it becomes transparent (transparent eyeball)
- only possible through imagination
- helps vision become "transparent" --> through own eyes
- through IMAGINATION
"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. ... "The problem of philosophy," according to Plato, "is, for all that exists conditionally, to find a ground unconditioned and absolute."(Emerson 10)
- Poet - Beauty/ Intuition
- Philosopher - Truth/Reason
- Flaws within reason
- TO find an "absolute" ground
"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."(Emerson 11)
- Absolute = Intuition - Conditional = Reason
- Understanding intuition and imagination
= finally existing, living
- Intuition and imagination --> life, existence
Imagination - Limitless
Imagination > Reason
"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.."(Emerson 14)
- Imagination allows man himself to be the "creator in the finite"
- Gives men access to the creation of nature
- Imagining God and creation of nature
- Imagination provides men with "wisdom and power"
- positive connotations
- imagination --> makes men smarter and more powerful
"; 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. "(Emerson 13)
- "divine dream"
- the mind is a spiritual image
- created through imagination
- intuition allows the mind to picture the world
- carpentry and chemistry
- represents reason
- Idealism is much more than reason - requires imagination
Symbols + Elements of Nature --> Allow men to reflect
"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."(Emerson 1)"
- Alone --> reflection time
- Stars --> natural symbol that serves as a reflection for the soul
- Rays reflect heaven -- God
- allow men to worship religion and self-reflect
- "separate between him and what he touches"
- material world vs mental world
- cannot touch and feel the stars - separated from that material world --> nature
"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."(Emerson 1)
Nature --> serves as reflection to men
- Flowers, animals, mountains --> all improtant natural symbols
- Reflection for mankind
- Allow men to reflect wisdom during "best hours"
- recount the times when there was wisdom
Reflection of the State of Mind
Reflection of the Moral Truth
"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."(Emerson 3 )
- through human imagination
- humans can reflect on their state of mind through nature
- natural symbols (animals, mountains, plants, etc.)
- represent the state of mind
- allow individuals to reflect emotions through nature
"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..." (Emerson 5)
- natural fact (nature) represented by a moral truth (universal idea)
- Human morals (moral truth) is therefore reflected
--> through natural facts (nature)
Nature - Appendix
Nature as a reflection
of human culture
"Whilst we wait in this Olympus of gods, we think of nature as an appendix to the soul."(Emerson 11)
- "Appendix to the soul"
- Appendix = reflection, insight
- Appendix to the soul
- Nature reflects and provides insight on human nature
- Huamans look to nature --> insight + reflection
"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."(Emerson 12)
- The external world + nature
- Influences beliefs on views of nature
- Children
- reflects on oneself through the external world
- faith
“English/Language Arts 11.” Course, http://courses.oermn.org/
course/view.php?id=3§ion=5.
Haas, Tao de. “The Importance of Imagination.” About My Brain
Institute, https://www.aboutmybrain.com/blog/the-importance-of-imagination.
Olson, Samantha. “Your Gut Feeling Is Way More than Just a
Feeling: The Science of Intuition.” Medical Daily, 12 Mar. 2015, https://www.medicaldaily.com/your-gut-feeling-way-more-just-feeling-science-intuition-325338.
Rao, Srinivas. “Your State of Mind Is One of Your Most Priceless
Assets.” Medium, Mission.org, 6 Feb. 2017, https://medium.com/the-mission/your-state-of-mind-is-one-of-your-most-priceless-assets-1a9659cf1f8a.
“Transparent Eyeball.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10
Aug. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparent_eyeball.