Emerson's Nature: Chapter IV, Language

Emerson's Nature: Chapter IV, Language

By:Cleary, Drilling, Quinlan, Quinlivan, Smith

1. Words are signs of natural facts

Factual Examples: Emerson claims that every word represents an object in nature

Ex: Heart- Emotion

Right- straight

Transgression- crossing of a line

Spirit- wind

Supercilious (behaving as though one is superior)- raising of the eyebrow

Etymology: the study of the origin of words and the way their meaning has changed throughout history

Emerson claims that even abstract vocabulary is derived in some way from physical things.

Chapter 4 — Language

1. Words are signs of natural facts

2. Particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts

3. Nature is the symbol of spirit

In each section, Emerson explains the three points he makes in the beginning.

Chapter 4 Main Ideas

All words represent facts of nature or things in nature.

How Chapter 4 Fits in with Essay as a Whole

Everything is interconnected with nature.

Humans have fallen away from connection with nature through language. Language was originally beautiful poetry, but it has been corrupted over time by selfish desires.

Man needs nature for: commodity, delight, communication, and understanding of the world.

-Emerson's purpose in writing- human understanding of nature

God becomes accessible to all men through language.

-Solitude to achieve "wholeness"

All words represent something in nature.

Universal understanding between nature and human thought. Do humans give meaning to things or do they have innate meaning?

Humans use natural metaphors to communicate.

People use metaphors and parables with natural situations to communicate with each other.

All off nature (not jut language) reveals reality and allows discovery of the universe.

End of paragraph one he refers to Swedenborg's idea of correspondence

3. Nature is the Symbol of Spirit

2. Particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts

all of creation has a divinely

established order that starts at the very top

Spirutal Plane of Mind Natural Plane of Mind

God Creator World Created

Each of these levels is a less-perfect reflection of the one above

Mind/spirit Body

Spiritual Sense Literal sense of word

Intention Action

The Human language reflects the natural world above it

the natural world reflects the plane of mind

We use nature to correspond ideas in our language

from New Jerusalem Magazine

Nature has a moral aspect.

"We are thus assisted by natural objects in the expression of particular meanings."

Paragraph 10- 1.Did we really need all these amazing things in nature for grammar?

2.Nature must have some significance besides helping us with our language and affairs

"We are like travelers using the cinders of a volcano to roast their eggs."

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 travelers 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.

Quotes From Paragraphs 4-6

"But is there no intent of an analogy between man's life and the seasons? ”-rhetorical question

He describes the world as emblematic- symbolic

Nature is a metaphor of the human mind

Line 4 paragraph 4. “All the facts in natural history taken by themselves, have no value, but are barren, like a single sex" This simile puts special emphasis on the relationship between nature and man that Emmerson is trying to display. He compares facts of nature to a human thing which helps exemplify the connectedness between nature and man.

Line 5 in paragraph 5“And do the seasons gain no grandeur or pathos from that analogy?” Rhetorical question. This is very similar to simply stating it but is more convincing since it seems like the reader has a choice.

Paragraphs 4-6 Summary

-Man is able to be an analogist and can see the connectedness of everything in the universe and nature almost as a spectator.

- Nature is necessary to understand man and man is necessary to understand nature.

-Both feed off of each other and without nature there would be no purpose for man, without man there would be no purpose for nature.

-In its purest form, language is just poetry which can simply explain the connection between nature and man.

-There is a connection between things in nature like the sun and moon that effect how man lives. All spiritual facts are represented by natural symbols.

-These symbols form the basis of modern language. Because of this language depends on nature and this connection makes basic language appealing to man because nature in itself is appealing.

Vocab for Paragraphs 4-6

Capricious-given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior.

Pervade-spread through and be perceived in every part of

Analogist-a person who employs or argues from analogy a person who seeks analogies.

Pathos-a quality that evokes sadness or pity

Idioms-a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g., rain cats and dogs, see the light ).

Piquancy-a pleasantly sharp and appetizing flavor

“But marry it to human history, and it is full of life” Personification. Once again, trying to emphasize the special connected relationship between man and nature. Gives a human act (marriage) to nature.

Line 2 paragraph 6 “As we go back in history, language becomes more picturesque, until its infancy,”personification

Bibliography

"The Complete Works of William Shakespeare." The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.

Edwards, Tryon. A Dictionary of Thoughts; Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern. Detroit, MI: F.B. Dickerson, 1906. Print.

"EMANUEL SWEDENBORG." The Swedenborg Society. The Swedenborg Society, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Boston: Beacon, 1985. Print

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Chapter 4" Nature. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 8-12. Genius. Genius. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.

Escarpit, Robert. "Germaine De Stael | French-Swiss Author." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.

Francis, Robert Lee. The Architectonics of Emerson's Nature. 1st ed. Vol. 19. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1967. Print.

"Goethe: Aphorisms on Nautre." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.

“Guillaume Caspar Lencroy Oegger, 1790-1853” Guillaume Caspar Lencroy Oegger. Alcott, n.d.

Web. 01 Dec. 2015.

LaRocca, David. Emerson's English Traits and the Natural History of Metaphor. New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. Print.

Levine, Alan, and Daniel S. Malachuk. "Chapter 8." A Political Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Lexington, KY: U of Kentucky, 2011. 30-34. Print.

"Thoreau, Emerson, and Transcendentalism." Summary and Analysis. CliffsNotes, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2015

End of paragraph 10- quotes both Swedenborg and Germaine de Stael

Language hosts the truths of natural objects and natural phenomena, and illuminates the continuity of natural sciences with the ethical dimensions of culture.

Paragraph 11- catalog of examples of proverbs made by nature

How does it all relate?

Just as nature is a metaphor for the human mind, humans use nature metaphors and proverbs to tell our moral truths.

Paragraphs 4-6 give examples of how language comes from nature, an idea talked about earlier in the chapter.

Words

Devices

Paragraph 12- 14

Pepper-corn- small seeds- local, ordiary

Simile

Cipher- coded message, zero

-Rhetorical Question

Emblematic- symbolic

-Proverb

Axioms- self evident truth

Paragraphs 1-3 of Part II

Vocab:

perverted: having been corrupted or distorted from its original course, meaning, or state bullion: gold or silver considered in mass rather than value

Notes:

-Humans speak their thoughts on varying levels, depending on their character, truthfulness, and desire to share.

-In a corrupt society, language becomes more and more difficult to interpret and it is simplified. -Secondary desires such as riches, pleasure, power, and praise corrupt mankind because we become too focused on these things.

-Focusing on these secondary desires causes new imagery to never come about and leads to old words beginning to stand for things which they are not.

-People commit “fraud” by centralizing on the language of writers from the past rather than thinking for themselves.

Literary Devices:

Metaphor: “a paper currency employed, when there is no bullion in the vaults.” (line 6) *This compares the corrupted language to paper currency, as Emerson says that paper currency is employed ONLY when there is no gold standard (gold in the vaults). Language without a corrupted society would be much improved, yet we accept the corrupted version because mankind itself is corrupted, so it is the next best thing....a “necessary evil”*

Rhetorical Devices:

Parallel Syntax: “The corruption of man is followed by the corruption in language.” (line 2) *Repeats “the corruption” to emphasize that the corruption in humanity in cause for the corruption in language*

Alliteration: “...the desire of riches, of pleasure, of power, and of praise” (line 5)

*Of riches, of pleasure, of power, and of praise” is used to emphasize the negative aspects of the values that follow*

Anaphora: “...of riches, of pleasure, of power, and of praise” (line 4)

Creates rhythym within the sentence*

Paragraph 7

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.

-Metaphors

Expedite- quicken, to accomplish promptly

Particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts.

-Parallel Syntax

Alkali- a base — used in contrast to acid

All natural facts have a meaning to humans. All things and words are embolic (symbolic).

Terminus- the end of something

-Allusion

— Emerson talks about the relationship in god in all things

-Parallel syntax

— Emerson talks about going out into nature and using the transparent eye to see god in nature

-Quote from Macbeth

— Catalogue of Examples

— Explains that God needs to manifest himself in nature

-Catalogue of examples of opposites

-Uses capitalization for emphasis

— Explains how the spirit of God in nature is the extract of God's essence

-Parallel syntax

-Quote from Guillaume Oegger

— Acknowledges the difficulty of his message

-Quote from George Fox

— Through living in nature we can see God.

-Parallel syntax

— By practicing these unconscious truths become conscious knowledge.

-Quote by Coleridge

Non-tangible states of mind are represented by a picture in nature.

Paragraph 8

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, contemporaneous 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.

Vocab:

pierce: to see through

exalted: in a state of extreme happiness

earnest: seriousness

contemporaneous: existing or occurring in the same period of time perpetual: never ending or changing

Notes:

-Wise men refute this corrupted language and tie it in with visual concepts in order to add to its beauty.

-We get a much better understanding of language by using words that evoke imagery... “picturesque language”

-Humans tend to unknowingly visualize thoughts and language.

-Imagery in good writing is created by blending experience with thoughts. -Good writing features known truths.

Literary Devices:

Allusion: "....is a man in alliance with truth and God" (lines 2-3)

*References both truth and God to say that humans with an understanding of picturesque language are, therefore, in alliance with truth and God*

Personification: "The moment our discourse rises above the ground line of familiar facts....it clothes itself in images" (lines 2-3)

*Personifies discourse saying it "rises above" and "it clothes itself in images", the first saying that a willingness to go into "unchartered territories" with language will allow the language to be filled with imagery*

Imagery: "...a material image, more or less luminous, arises in his mind" (lines 5-6) *Describes a material image*

Allegory: "Hence, good writing and brilliant discourse are perpetual allegories." (line 7) *Good writing and brilliant discourse are never-ending allegories*

Rhetorical Devices:

Anaphora: "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." (lines 8-10)

*It is is emphasized at the beginning of three consecutive sentences to describe the aspects of the spontaneous imagery mentioned at the beginning of line 8*

Scoriae- the refuse from melting of metals or reduction of ores

-Catalogue

Abstruse- hard to understand

Rhetorical question used as a transition into paragraph two.

-Capitalization used for emphasis

Expositors- a person who explains

Reason- intellectual reason

Spirit- reason in nature

-Quotes

Paragraph 9

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.

Vocab:

curtailed: restricted; deprived of orator: a speaker

heed: attention

broil: an angry quarrel or struggle lustre: radiant light

Notes:

-The solitude of country life allows for a more advanced understanding of language. -Country life brings people closer to nature.

-Everyone knows more about nature than they realize.

-This unrealized knowledge is often not used by humans.

-Good writers experience nature without letting a corrupt society and politics interfere. -Nature will persevere above all, so we should have a sound understanding of it.

Literary Devices:

Personification: "woods wave" and "pines murmur" (line 9) *Personifies woods and pines by giving them human-like qualities*

Alliteration: "woods wave" and "river rolls" (line 9) *Repetition of w and r at consecutive beginning of words*

Rhetorical Devices:

Parallel Syntax: "...without design and without heed" (line 5)

Catalogue: "...again the woods wave, the pines murmur, the river rolls and shines, and the cattle low upon the mountains" (line 9)

Reason is logic and understanding