Back Ralph Waldo Emerson Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Foreword by Robert D. Richardson Jr.
  4. NATURE (1836)
  5. Introduction
  6. CHAPTER I
  7. CHAPTER II
  8. CHAPTER III
  9. CHAPTER IV
  10. CHAPTER V
  11. CHAPTER VI
  12. CHAPTER VII
  13. CHAPTER VIII
  14. EARLY ESSAYS AND LECTURES
  15. Pray Without Ceasing (1826)
  16. Ethics (1837)
  17. The American Scholar (1837)
  18. Cherokee Letter (1838)
  19. The Divinity School Address (1838)
  20. From ESSAYS, FIRST SERIES (1841)
  21. History
  22. Self-Reliance
  23. The Over-Soul
  24. Circles
  25. From ESSAYS, SECOND SERIES (1844)
  26. The Poet
  27. Experience
  28. Politics
  29. From REPRESENTATIVE MEN (1850)
  30. Uses of Great Men
  31. Montaigne; or, the Skeptic
  32. LATER ESSAYS AND LECTURES
  33. Emancipation in the British West Indies (1844)
  34. Woman (1855)
  35. Thoreau (1862)
  36. POEMS
  37. Concord Hymn
  38. Additional Reading
  39. Note on the Text
  40. Ask Your Bookseller for these Bantam Classics
  41. About the Author
  42. Copyright

There was this perception in him which makes the poet or seer an object of awe and terror, namely that the same man or society of men may wear one aspect to themselves and their companions, and a different aspect to higher intelligences. Certain priests, whom he describes as conversing very learnedly together, appeared to the children who were at some distance, like dead horses; and many the like misappearances. And instantly the mind inquires whether these fishes under the bridge, yonder oxen in the pasture, those dogs in the yard, are immutably fishes, oxen, and dogs, or only so appear to me, and perchance to themselves appear upright men; and whether I appear as a man to all eyes. The Bramins and Pythagoras propounded the same question, and if any poet has witnessed the transformation he doubtless found it in harmony with various experiences. We have all seen changes as considerable in wheat and caterpillars. He is the poet and shall draw us with love and terror, who sees through the flowing vest the firm nature, and can declare it.