Ralph Waldo Emerson's The Forest Unseen

In the book Nature, Emerson writes in a way that deals with the morals we have in our lives and how these things come from nature at its’ base form. Emerson says that nature is the things that are unchanged or untouched by man. When Haskell writes his journal entries in the book The Forest Unseen he refutes Emerson a good bit of the time. He does this by the way he focuses in on things too much and looks past their importance in the macrocosm we live in. Emerson says these things should not be zoomed in on but should just be looked at in awe. I feel that although Haskell refutes Emerson a good bit, Haskell is not trying to refute Emerson and at one point in his book he actually confirms a few of Emerson’s ideas.
“Every natural process is a version of a moral sentence. The moral law lies at the centre of nature and radiates to the

circumference. It is the pith and marrow of every substance, every relation, and every process. All things with which we deal, preach to us. What is a farm but a mute gospel?”

In this passage by Emerson, the idea is that all moral comes from nature. Every single little thing that happens in nature is a lesson, and that we should learn from this. These morals do not come from human touched nature; rather they come from nature at its most precious form. To find these morals we have to look at nature, at its base and understand the bigger picture of its processes and how they fit into our lives. Emerson then says that all of these things we see happen and that take place are all feeding us with morals. He then ends it with the question, “what is a farm but a mute gospel?” Here Emerson is asking what else is a farm besides a place that teaches us. We learn from the farm because of the events that happen there. It teaches us about our human values and faith. The main purpose is not to give us food or money, but to be a place for learning and knowledge.
In the Forest Unseen Haskell writes a journal entry that is different than most in his book. In the Entry titled “Chainsaw” Haskell writes with a moral question at hand. He decides to look at the big picture of nature instead of zoom in on specifics like he usually does. This style of writing is the type of writing that Emerson would support. In this entry Haskell starts by bringing up the question of whether or not human hand should be involved in nature? If so how much of nature should we use?
Haskell like Emerson proposes a question and makes the reader seek for an answer.

Then at the end of the “Chainsaw” passage, Haskell explains that he believes that by, “examing the fabric that holds and sustains us can we see our place, and therefore, our responsibilities.”(TFU 66.) Haskell is saying that this “fabric” that holds us together is nature. To find who we really are we must look at just this nature alone. Emerson says the same thing. He believes that nature is pure and is the place where we can receive our morals. Again, later in the passage Haskell supports Emerson. Haskell says that by having these direct experiences of nature that Emerson talks about we can learn about ourselves and in turn learn more about morality.
When we examine Haskell’s work “Chainsaw” some more we see he that he agrees with Emerson again. Haskell says that it is extremely bad to “destroy a gift that even hardheaded science tells us is immeasurably valuable”.(TFU 66.) Like Emerson, Haskell thinks that destroying nature or using it, as material for us is bad. Haskell and believes that to define it as a material takes away the special part of

nature.
Haskell compliments the ideas of Emerson when he writes this journal. He supports Emerson’s ideas that nature at its’ deepest roots does tell us about morality. He also supports Emerson’s thinking that nature should be used less for commodity. This in turn leads me to believe that Haskell does not want to refute Emerson. It might just be the case that Haskell gets his sublime experience from digging deeper than the surface. Maybe he just fails to see what Emerson sees from the macrocosm view. In all Haskell ends up confirming some of Emerson’s main ideas in nature.