In “Nature,” Emerson stresses that while humankind used to enjoy a close, pure, harmonious connection to nature, this is no longer the case. Individuals and society as a whole have become corrupted, largely because people have become disconnected from their own intuition, spirituality, and sense of morality. But Emerson suggests that nature can heal humanity on both small and large scales. This starts on an individual level: if people spend more time in nature, it will revitalize and enlighten them, and this positive transformation will ripple out to the rest of society.
Writing in the mid-1830s in the U.S., Emerson suggests that corruption abounds on both the societal and individual level. Throughout the essay, Emerson underscores that nature teaches people moral and spiritual truths, if only people use their intuition (what Emerson calls “Reason”) to recognize and absorb these lessons. But people have grown physically and emotionally distant from nature—moving out of the countryside and to the increasingly industrialized cities, for instance—and so they’ve consequently lost touch with this key source of moral and spiritual guidance. Emerson writes that the average person’s “mind is imbruted and he is a selfish savage.” Drawing on the ideas of Transcendentalist writer Amos Bronson Alcott (whom Emerson refers to in the essay as the “Orphic poet”), Emerson explains that humans have corrupting desires—like the desire for wealth, power, pleasure, or praise—and that giving in to those desires further disconnect people from nature. Living in a society that’s physically set apart from nature and ungrounded in the kind of moral and spiritual truth that nature provides destroys a person’s wholeness. And this separates them even further from other people, nature, morality, spirituality, and their own selves.
Given that humankind’s growing distance from nature is responsible for this widespread corruption, Emerson suggests that it’s only through interacting with nature directly that people can better themselves, becoming more energized, happier, and wiser. Unlike society, nature has a rejuvenating effect on people. Emerson suggests that people who spend time in nature “retain[] the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.” In other words, even as a person grows old, their spirit stays young; they still possess a childlike energy, curiosity, and reverence when they live in close proximity to nature. Emerson uses the metaphor of a snake sloughing off its dead skin—revealing fresh, tender skin beneath—to illustrate how a person casts off their old age and is renewed in nature. “In the woods,” Emerson writes, “is perpetual youth.” Nature is also a source of joy, wonder, and emotional bliss. Throughout the essay, Emerson draws on his own experiences in nature. Each time, he uses joyful, emotionally charged language to describe his emotions. While he’s in the countryside, he “enjoy[s] a perfect exhilaration,” and admits, “Almost I fear to think how glad I am.” Nature’s sheer beauty brings about emotional bliss and fulfillment, as it “satisfies the soul purely by its loveliness.” Another important aspect of nature is the deep sense of awe that it stirs up in a person. Emerson likens the dawn to the ancient Assyrian empire (known for its vastness, power, and splendor), the moonlight to “unimaginable realms of faerie,” and nighttime to “mystic philosophy and dreams.” Emerson links nature to magnificent, indescribable, awe-inspiring places and things to emphasize that nature shares those same qualities and incites a similar sense of wonder within him.
Being in nature is also a positive form of escapism from sadness and puts a person’s day-to-day struggles into perspective. He explains how if a person were to be alone in nature and look up at the stars, the starlight “will separate between him and vulgar things” (in Emerson’s time, “vulgar” meant common, day-to-day things). Likewise, he suggests that when a person ventures out into nature, “a wild delight runs through [them], in spite of real sorrows.” With this, Emerson suggests that while a person may have very real problems in their life, nature has a bolstering, invigorating effect and can help a person put their problems into perspective. Taking this a step further, Emerson suggests that nature can even heal or solve a person’s problems. Speaking from his own experience, he writes, “In the woods [...] I feel that nothing can befall me in life—no disgrace, no calamity [...] which nature cannot repair.” Nature also provides crucial moral guidance. To illustrate this point, Emerson gives the example of a fisherman who learns “firmness” (i.e., strength of character) while out at sea: though the ocean waves crash forcefully over the rocks again and again, the rocks remain unmoved.
In the essay’s final chapter, Emerson stresses that the only way to return the world to its former utopia (in which humankind and nature lived in harmony) is through “redemption of the soul.” In other words, people need to become whole again on an individual level before the wider world can be redeemed, and this kind of personal transformation only happens in nature.
Related Themes from Other Texts
The Transformative Power of Nature ThemeTracker
The Transformative Power of Nature Quotes in Nature
The sun shines to-day also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.
But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these preachers of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.
The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence.
In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life—no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground—my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space—all mean egotism vanishes. 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.
It is necessary to use these pleasures with great temperance. For, nature is not always tricked in holiday attire, but the same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread with melancholy today. Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then, there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth in the population.
The misery of man appears like childish petulance, when we explore the steady and prodigal provision that has been made for his support and delight on this green ball which floats him through the heavens. What angels invented these splendid ornaments, these rich conveniences, this ocean of air above, this ocean of water beneath, this firmament of earth between? this zodiac of lights, this tent of dropping clouds, this striped coat of climates, this fourfold year? Beasts, fire, water, stones, and corn serve him. The field is at once his floor, his work-yard, his play-ground, his garden, and his bed.
To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone. The tradesman, the attorney comes out of the din and craft of the street, and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again. In their eternal calm, he finds himself. The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.
Therefore, that spirit, that is, the Supreme Being, does not build up nature around us, but puts it forth through us, as the life of the tree puts forth new branches and leaves through the pores of the old. As a plant upon the earth, so a man rests upon the bosom of God: he is nourished by unfailing fountains, and draws, at his need, inexhaustible power.
The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself. He cannot be a naturalist, until he satisfies all the demands of the spirit.
