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.” 
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