Monday, February 17, 2014

“Ralph Waldo Emerson - Selected Essays” - Nature

Nature
          Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the most important figures in the history of American literature. He lived through the age known as the ‘Flowering of America’. He had the distinction of being the ‘Man thinking of the New England Renaissance’. He published his essays in two different series: First and Second Series published in 1814 and 1844.  Each of Emerson’s essays has a sense of rising intensity in both meaning and form. As Matthew Arnold point out as,
“Emerson’s essays are I think
as they seemed to the wisest
English critic of the nineteenth
century, the most important
work done in English prose
of that century.”
          Emerson’s Nature was published in 1936. It was a little book of less than one hundred page without Emerson’s name on the title page. It began an epoch in American literature. In style and substance it marked the beginning of a literature which was national. It is thus the gospel of the new faith rather than, the record of an experience. Lifted by the excitement of recognition to the plane of prose-poetry, it is nevertheless a concise statement of the First Philosophy.

the fundamental concepts of Transcendentalism
          Nature expresses the fundamental concepts of Transcendentalism. It is a concise statement of his transcendentalism. Emerson opens this book with the current distinction between the Me and the not me, the Soul and Nature thereby establishing the first of provisional dualities. The Me is the conscious and the Not me is the objective of consciousness with which the Me is relation. Here is a triangle of relationships the value of which lies not in the absolute identity of Man, God, and or Nature, but in the common relationship between any two of the factors. Man may learn to worship God through the contemplation of nature.

‘first philosophy’
          ‘Nature’ has been called ‘first philosophy’. No doubt it is entangled in idealistic metaphysics. In June 1835, Emerson announced,
“I endeavor to announce the laws
of the first philosophy. It is the
mark of that their enunciation
awakens the feeling of the moral
sublime. No matter it contains
the whole sphere. So each of
these seems to imply all Truth.
          In announcing these laws, Emerson, who rejected all established doctrine, formulated a new doctrine composed of assumptions which experience had taught him. The ability to view experience in this two fold manner is the essential a quality of the first philosophy. Emerson uses the word ‘nature’ in two senses; the common sense in which he refers to essences unchanged by man and the ideal sense in which it is a phenomenal expression of the soul. The essay has eight chapters. (1) His love of nature and solitude, (2) commodity, (3) Beauty, (4) Language, (5) Discipline (6) Idealism, (7) Spirit (8) Prospects. Let’s discuss about them in detailed.

(1) His love of nature and solitude
          In first chapter, Emerson discusses the importance of Nature and its influence on human mind. To go into solitude a man need to retire both from his chamber and society. The author does not feel lonely while reading and writing. But if anyone feels lonely, let him look at the star. The heavenly bodies make man sublime. The starts awaken a certain reverence and for they are unreachable. Nature never wears a mean appearance.

(2) commodity
          A multitude of uses admit of being thrown into one of the following classes, commodity, beauty, language, and discipline. In Second chapter, Emerson talks on Commodity’ which is those advantage which our senses owe to nature. They give temporary benefit and don’t give service to the soul. e.g. The angels have multitude; air, water, light, clouds, fire. The author says,  
Nature in its service to man,
is not only the material and
but is also the process and the result.

(3) Beauty &  Language
Beauty is a second use which Nature serves a noble want of man, namely the love of Beauty. The ancient Greeks called the world beauty. The sky, mountain, the tree, the animal give us a delight in and for themselves. The Love of Beauty is Taste. The creation of Beauty is Art.  Language is a third use which Nature subserves to man. Nature is the vehicle of thought and in following three fold degree: (1) Words are signs of natural facts.  (2) Particular natural facts are symbol of particular spiritual facts. (3) Nature is the symbol of spirit.

(5) Discipline
          Nature is also a discipline for us. This use of world includes the preceding uses as parts of itself. Space, time, society, labour, food, the animal gives us sincerest lessons everyday. They educate two things: (1) Understanding (2) Reason. Every property of matter is a school for the Understanding. Reason transfers all these lessons into its own world of thought.

(6) Idealism
          Idealism delights all, man, and woman, including the frivolous. The world is an appearance and God teaches human being earnestly. God never jests with us. Our first institution in the Ideal Philosophy is a hint from nature herself. In a higher manner the poet communicates the pleasure mix with awe. Nature is made to conspire with spirit to emancipate us from his bondage.
The advantage of the ideal
theory is in the fact that
it presents the world in
precisely that view which is
most desirable to the mind.

(7) Spirit (8) Prospects
          In the chapter VII, Emerson investigates some essential facts related to man and nature. They are what is matter? and whence it?, and whereto? The first question’s answer is explained by ideal theory; idealism says that matter is ‘a phenomenon not a substance’. The second and the third facts have to be explained by ‘the recesses of consciousness’ or ‘the soul of man. The spirit is the closest God to us. Man’s spirit is related the Divine Spirit. Finally, Emerson arrives at the conclusion: those foundations of man are not in matter, but in spirit, whose element is eternity.
Man must trust Nature fully
to reach God.

         
To summing up, the essay is a manifesto of Emerson’s transcendentalism. Emerson’s approach to nature is multi-faceted. It is poetic, aesthetic as well as scientific. It is romantic, realistic, metaphical as swell as mystical. The essay is based on his concept of the ‘over-soul’ which visualizes an organic synthesis of all the diverse elements of human experience. Emerson’s philosophy of nature is therefore, all inclusive seeking to reconcile all contraries as critic H. H. Clark and Norman Forster remark,
“Emerson’s philosophy is a
way of living, not a system
of thought. His writing is the
record of his own, man thinking.”

No comments:

Post a Comment