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

beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature.


The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is
the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable.
I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them.
The waving of the boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It
takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like
that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me, when I
deemed I was thinking justly or doing right.

Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does
not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both. 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.




_Chapter II_ COMMODITY

Whoever considers the final cause of the world, will discern a
multitude of usesthat result. They all admit of being thrown into
one of the following classes; Commodity; Beauty; Language; and
Discipline.

Under the general name of Commodity, I rank all those
advantages which our senses owe to nature. This, of course, is a
benefit which is temporary and mediate, not ultimate, like its
service to the soul. Yet although low, it is perfect in its kind,
and is the only use of nature which all men apprehend. 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.

"More servants wait on man
Than he 'll take notice of." ------