Ralph Waldo Emerson began as a Unitarian minister after graduating from Harvard Divinity

School but experienced a spiritual crisis after his wife's death, prompting him to withdraw from
the church. Settling in Concord, he found solace in nature, which inspired his transcendentalist
beliefs. Summarizing the ideology of Transcendentalism very briefly, Conn (1989) writes, “Two
ideas impressed themselves on everything Emerson wrote in those early, productive years:
the tutelary benevolence of nature, and the sanctity and autonomy of the individual.”
Drawing from Eastern texts, Emerson's philosophy centered on self-reliance, individualism, and
non-conformity, influencing American literature's pursuit of authenticity independent of English
influence.

The friend, Emerson, has a voice that was both shrewd and sympathetic considering his
nineteenth century audience. (eileen 2003) He explains that the four elements commodity,
beauty, language and discipline constitute nature. These are the final reasons for the existence
of the world. With commodity, Emerson means all advantages man has of nature. He describes
the earth to be a source of support and delight, which is there for humans

Accessibility of Universal Understanding/ Individualism

Nature expresses Emerson's belief that each individual must develop a personal understanding
of the universe. "Emerson became the symbol of the birth of American individualism inspired
by nature. His ideas focused on new national views, personal experiences, the universe over
the individual soul, as well as spiritual views and practices." (Amri 2018) Emerson makes clear
in the Introduction , "Our age is retrospective....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." Emerson thinks that by engaging with nature, everyone can
grasp the deeper truths of existence, whether through logical thinking or intuitive
understanding. And at the end of the essay, in "Prospects," he exhorts: "All that Adam had, all
that Caesar could, you have and can do."

Unity of God, Man, and Nature

Emerson envisions the universe from a transcendentalist point of view, where it is a unified
whole. God, humanity, and nature are interconnected expressions of divine order in it. He
emphasizes the importance of perceiving this unity to gain a deeper understanding of
existence. In the introduction he says, "A subtle chain of countless rings" to illustrate the all-
encompassing nature of the universe and sees each part of nature as reflecting the whole. In a
journal entry of July 13, 1833, he writes, “I feel the centipede in me –cayman, carp, eagle, &
fox. I am moved by strange sympathies, I say continually ‘I will be a naturalist’” (Emerson
1964: 200). This experience had life-changing consequences for Emerson and he became a
central figure in the Transcendentalist movement in Concord, Massachusetts. This notion of
interconnectedness is also found in his first essay Nature, "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." According to Emerson, our fragmented view of the world stems from a lack of
spiritual connection. But by embracing nature and seeking God's order within it, we can heal
this divide.

Relationship of Man and Nature

However, Unitarianism certainly influenced his mind. (WANZENRIED, 2019) The

anthropocentric perspective of Emerson shapes his exploration of the relationship between
man and nature. He sees both as expressions of the divine, with man holding a superior
position due to his intellectual and spiritual capacities. While man is part of the material world,
he transcends nature through his higher abilities. Nature serves man, providing physical,
intellectual, and spiritual sustenance. In the second chapter "Commodity", Emerson proves this
by writing, " Beasts, fire, water, stones, and corn serve him. The field is at once his floor, his
workyard, his play-ground, his garden, and his bed.....All the parts incessantly work into each
other's hands for the profit of man." Emerson emphasizes that nature's meaning lies in its
ability to communicate God's message to humanity. He describes how man harnesses nature
for various purposes, including material needs and artistic inspiration. "The useful arts are
reproductions or new combinations by the wit of man, of the same natural benefactors"
Ultimately, man imposes his will on nature, molding it to serve his needs and expressing himself
through its beauty and symbolism.

Matter and Spirit

Emerson emphasizes the superiority of spirit over matter throughout his essay "Nature." He
sees nature as a manifestation of the divine, designed to help humans understand the laws of
the universe and draw closer to God. In particular, Emerson explores the connection between
material and spiritual laws in "Language," where he argues that words and natural facts
symbolize deeper spiritual truths. He suggests in the first chapter that, "Nature always wears
the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath
sadness in it" He encourages readers to trust in intuitive reason to perceive spiritual reality.
Through intuition, we can move beyond a narrow focus on material facts and deepen our
understanding of the universe.

The Creative Power of Nature

For Emerson, nature is not static but dynamic, constantly evolving and renewing itself. He
celebrates the power of nature to inspire creativity and imagination, urging individuals to
embrace the awe and wonder of the natural world. "Nothing divine dies. All good is eternally
reproductive. The beauty of nature reforms itself in the mind, and not for barren
contemplation, but for new creation. For some people, it is not satisfying to solely admire
nature; rather, they want to express what they see in something they produce. This is art; “the
result or expression of nature, in miniature” In other words, the beauty they observe in nature
stimulates artists such as musicians, poets or architects to produce an artistic work.

The Vehicle for Language

Additionally, nature is, as Emerson writes, the vehicle for language as we express natural facts
with the help of it. According to him, natural facts stand for spiritual facts; nature thus
symbolizes spirit. He indicates that most proverbs circulating in humanity since ages, stem from
natural realities such as: “Make hay while the sun shines” or “A bird in the hand is worth two
in the bush” (Emerson 1971: 22). We see the world and suspect that there is a spiritual and
moral side behind it which has occupied humanity ever since. With language, we can verbalize
this.

Nature as Discipline

Further, Emerson explains that nature can also be regarded as a discipline. "In the woods, we
return to reason and faith." By the way it functions, it provides us with numerous lessons. He
believes that the various views we find in nature always stand for a phase in life and that we are
thus able to learn from it for every circumstance we find ourselves in. He argues that nature is
always neatly connected with religion and that important religious figures such as David, the
prophet Isaiah or Jesus also used nature as a source. According to him, “this is its public and
universal function, and is never omitted”

Emerson writes, “The aspect of nature is devout. Like the figure of Jesus, she stands with
bended head, and hands folded upon the breast. The happiest man is he who learns from
nature the lesson of worship” (1836).

Religion permeated everything Emerson ever thought or did; it was not a function of his
soul,it was his soul. . To sum Emerson's uttered religion, therefore, would mean to sound the
deeps of Emerson's soul as expressed by his every word of prose or verse. Even then his real
religion is not fathomed. All his writings represent the struggle to utter a religion that he
could never set forth with human symbols. My best thought of Emerson pictures him as a
man with the heart of a child. He stood before nature as one who wonders,
" the meanest flower that blows can give / Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."
(Hudson, 1920)
Hence ,He was a son of nature wandering forever, wondering forever, seeking forever; loving
always all things between the valleys of the sea and the cliffs of the clouds.