Nature: The Original Essay, with In-Depth Chapter Summaries to Support Modern Readers

“Standing on the bare ground–my head bathed by the blind air and uplifted into infinite space–all mean egotism disappears. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God.” First published in 1836, Nature was American lecturer, essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson’s first book. In it he explored ideas he would revisit again and again throughout his career: the importance of a direct experience of God unfiltered by history and tradition, nature as a conduit for spiritual discovery and the supremacy of intuition over rational logic in uncovering the highest truths. Nature is regarded as a seminal text of Transcendentalism, the major nineteenth-century literary and philosophical movement based in New England. This new edition includes in-depth chapter summaries to help modern readers interpret Emerson’s original text.