Emerson frequently uses pathos in Nature. It is worth noting that, although the term "pathos" is often used to apply to things that invoke negative emotions like pity or pain, Emerson in this essay mainly attempts to invoke positive emotions, such as a sense of wonder regarding the human spirit and nature.
For example, to argue that each individual, including the reader, has the potential for greatness, Emerson writes:
Know then, that the world exists for you. For you is the phenomenon perfect. What we are, that only can we see. All that Adam had, all that Cæsar could, you have and can do. Adam called his house, heaven and earth; Cæsar called his house, Rome; you perhaps call yours, a cobler’s trade; a hundred acres of ploughed land; or a scholar’s garret. Yet line for line and point for point, your dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names. Build, therefore, your own world.
Directly addressing the reader and comparing them to great men is supposed to make them feel wonder regarding themselves and their own potential. One is supposed to feel awe toward humanity in general, as well as awe towards oneself and one’s own life in particular. Emerson, by directly appealing to the reader's emotions, attempts to make his individualism more sympathetic.
Utilizing pathos as a persuasive method makes sense for Emerson, as it blends well with his poetic pursuit of beauty as truth. Emerson doesn’t have the same negative association with emotions or subjectivity that many writers do. Feelings, in Emerson's view, can be just as reliable as logic. Some concepts can only be understood by using emotion. For example, divinity:
We can foresee God in the coarse and, as it were, distant phenomena of matter; but when we try to define and describe himself, both language and thought desert us, and we are as helpless as fools and savages. That essence refuses to be recorded in propositions, but when man has worshipped him intellectually, the noblest ministry of nature is to stand as the apparition of God.
The way Emerson tries to persuade readers parallels how he thinks human minds perceive truth. He uses both logos and pathos because he thinks logic and emotion, philosophy and poetry, and truth and beauty are all intertwined. Pathos, for Emerson, is particularly useful in matters of the individual and the divine, where clear language and factual reasoning seem to be insufficient to express human experience.
Emerson frequently uses pathos in Nature. It is worth noting that, although the term "pathos" is often used to apply to things that invoke negative emotions like pity or pain, Emerson in this essay mainly attempts to invoke positive emotions, such as a sense of wonder regarding the human spirit and nature.
For example, to argue that each individual, including the reader, has the potential for greatness, Emerson writes:
Know then, that the world exists for you. For you is the phenomenon perfect. What we are, that only can we see. All that Adam had, all that Cæsar could, you have and can do. Adam called his house, heaven and earth; Cæsar called his house, Rome; you perhaps call yours, a cobler’s trade; a hundred acres of ploughed land; or a scholar’s garret. Yet line for line and point for point, your dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names. Build, therefore, your own world.
Directly addressing the reader and comparing them to great men is supposed to make them feel wonder regarding themselves and their own potential. One is supposed to feel awe toward humanity in general, as well as awe towards oneself and one’s own life in particular. Emerson, by directly appealing to the reader's emotions, attempts to make his individualism more sympathetic.
Utilizing pathos as a persuasive method makes sense for Emerson, as it blends well with his poetic pursuit of beauty as truth. Emerson doesn’t have the same negative association with emotions or subjectivity that many writers do. Feelings, in Emerson's view, can be just as reliable as logic. Some concepts can only be understood by using emotion. For example, divinity:
We can foresee God in the coarse and, as it were, distant phenomena of matter; but when we try to define and describe himself, both language and thought desert us, and we are as helpless as fools and savages. That essence refuses to be recorded in propositions, but when man has worshipped him intellectually, the noblest ministry of nature is to stand as the apparition of God.
The way Emerson tries to persuade readers parallels how he thinks human minds perceive truth. He uses both logos and pathos because he thinks logic and emotion, philosophy and poetry, and truth and beauty are all intertwined. Pathos, for Emerson, is particularly useful in matters of the individual and the divine, where clear language and factual reasoning seem to be insufficient to express human experience.
