This Day in History: 1803-05-25

Ralph Waldo Emerson born this day in 1803. Emerson writes the essay Nature in 1836, promoting the idea that a person can only know reality by discovering nature, through which God best expresses divine principles. This Transcendentalist philosophy also includes most of the great writers of the early 19th century, including Coleridge, Byron, Shelly, Keats, Thoreau, Ruskin, Whitman and many others. Nature is the “Universal Being”, Emerson wrote. “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.” In other words, Emerson and other Transcendentalists did not worship nature, they learned to worship God from nature. This has often been misinterpreted by those who, for political reasons, would like to paint the roots of environmentalism as mere nature-worship.  Also see Library of Congress resources on Emerson and the transcendentalists.