Nature Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature Analysis

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Recommended: Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson Analysis

An Expression of Nature In Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson creates his vision of the universe while trying to provide man’s purpose for existence within it. Emerson, throughout his eight chapters, attempts to go beyond the logic of what people think is their function, to a truer understanding of their soul and how it works in co-ordinance with nature to create a veritable life experience. He offers a vision that is not absolute, but rather ever-changing in its offering to each individual which, therefore, creates a unique experience for each person and one unlike any other before or after. At the forefront of his writing, seems to be the theme of reason and understanding, particularly how they work together to instruct man on God’s true plan. …show more content…

It is through this revelation that God is reaching out to man to provide an absolute truth, a connection between the soul and the spiritual world. This connection, he maintains, is “reason” and in “Spirit” he points out, “that spirit, that is, the Supreme Being, does not build up nature around us, but puts it forth through us…and we learn that man has access to the entire mind of the Creator and is himself the creator of the finite” (1016). Emerson seems to be offering that nature is not an existence in and of itself, but rather an offering of spiritual proportion that connects us to God’s truest intensions. In other words, through “reason”, one can infer that the material world exists as a direct link through which man can meet their Creator. Emerson further maintains “reason” as a true spiritual connection in his chapter titled “Prospects” when he notes that God will be recognized when “a faithful thinker, resolute to detach every object from personal relations, and see it in the light of thought, shall, at the same time, kindle science with the fire of the holiest affections” (1020). It can only be assumed that the faithful thinker that Emerson is referring to is the person who has gained an understanding of nature’s purpose and has, through reason, found their place within

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