What does each paragraph in Emersons "Nature" really mean??

Question

Transcendtalism

Answer 1

Run over to the link below. It has a chapter by chapter summary. Here is a teaser.

Chapter I: NATURE

1.1 To have a direct relation with nature, with God's divine creation, simply go out and look at the stars.

1.2 The mind must be open to the appearances of nature in order to achieve true wisdom.

1.3 The mind that is truly open to nature's own truth is poetic. There is a difference between the poet and the engineer. The purpose or end of nature for the engineer or practical business person is that nature is a source of raw materials for human use; the purpose or end of nature for the poet is that nature is a beautiful order. The engineer sees the part; the poet sees the whole.

1.4 Because most of us look at nature only with our own desires in mind, we do not really see nature. We need to look at nature as if we were little children, without adult cares and needs. Adults are morally corrupt; children are innocent and able to have a direct relation with God's design. But an adult can be childlike if he or she is virtuous: "The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other." Nature arouses all the emotions in us, because there is something emotional in nature. The infinity of nature absorbs the finiteness of the human self. The finite self ascends to the divine perspective of God, it rises to the God's-Eye view of the world: "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." In the wilderness there is something that is as beautiful as humanity. Emerson's idea of the self in wilderness as an all-seeing spectator is very different than Thoreau's idea. For Thoreau, the self in wilderness is active.

1.5 There is a relation of correspondence or analogy between human being and all natural beings: for instance, there is a spiritual (occult) relation between people and plants. Nature and spirit mirror one another. This is an old Neoplatonic idea, which also flourished in the Rennaisance (Paracelsus), and which around Emerson's time was talked about by Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg founded a new semi-Christian religious sect. It was sort of "New Age".

1.6 What is essential is to be in harmony with nature. But to be in harmony with nature is to be in harmony with God's design; it is to be morally virtuous. Our relation with nature is emotional and spiritual: "Nature always wears the colors of the spirit." We project our emotions into nature, and nature reflects them back to us. Nature is a mirror of the moral state of the soul.