"Emerson, Ralph W. - Nature Adresses and Lectures" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emerson Ralph Waldo)

speculative men are esteemed unsound and frivolous. But to a sound
judgment, the most abstract truth is the most practical. Whenever a
true theory appears, it will be its own evidence. Its test is, that
it will explain all phenomena. Now many are thought not only
unexplained but inexplicable; as language, sleep, madness, dreams,
beasts, sex.


Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature
and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate
from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes as the NOT ME, that is,
both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be ranked
under this name, NATURE. In enumerating the values of nature and
casting up their sum, I shall use the word in both senses; -- in its
common and in its philosophical import. In inquiries so general as
our present one, the inaccuracy is not material; no confusion of
thought will occur. _Nature_, in the common sense, refers to
essences unchanged by man; space, the air, the river, the leaf.
_Art_ is applied to the mixture of his will with the same things, as
in a house, a canal, a statue, a picture. But his operations taken
together are so insignificant, a little chipping, baking, patching,
and washing, that in an impression so grand as that of the world on
the human mind, they do not vary the result.




_Chapter I_ NATURE

To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his
chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write,
though nobody is with me. 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 what he touches. 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 envoys 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. Nature
never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort
her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection.
Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the
animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as
much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood.