NATURE

[Footnote 469:  Nature.  Emerson’s first published volume was a little book of essays, entitled Nature, which appeared in 1836.  In the years which followed, he thought more deeply on the subject and, according to his custom, made notes about it and entries in his journals.  In the winter of 1843 he delivered a lecture on Relation to Nature, and it is probable that this essay is built up from that.  The plan of it, however, had been long in his mind:  In 1840 he wrote in his journal:  “I think I must do these eyes of mine the justice to write a new chapter on Nature.  This delight we all take in every show of night or day or field or forest or sea or city, down to the lowest particulars, is not without sequel, though we be as yet only wishers and gazers, not at all knowing what we want.  We are predominated here as elsewhere by an upper wisdom, and resemble those great discoverers who are haunted for years, sometimes from infancy, with a passion for the fact, or class of facts in which the secret lies which they are destined to unlock, and they let it not go until the blessing is won.  So these sunsets and starlights, these swamps and rocks, these bird notes and animal forms off which we cannot get our eyes and ears, but hover still, as moths round a lamp, are no doubt a Sanscrit cipher covering the whole religious history of the universe, and presently we shall read it off into action and character.  The pastures are full of ghosts for me, the morning woods full of angels.”]

[Footnote 470:  There are days, etc.  The passage in Emerson’s journal is hardly less beautiful.  Under date of October 30, 1841, he wrote:  “On this wonderful day when heaven and earth seem to glow with magnificence, and all the wealth of all the elements is put under contribution to make the world fine, as if Nature would indulge her offspring, it seemed ungrateful to hide in the house.  Are there not dull days enough in the year for you to write and read in, that you should waste this glittering season when Florida and Cuba seem to have left their glittering seats and come to visit us with all their shining hours, and almost we expect to see the jasmine and cactus burst from the ground instead of these last gentians and asters which have loitered to attend this latter glory of the year?  All insects are out, all birds come forth, the very cattle that lie on the ground seem to have great thoughts, and Egypt and India look from their eyes.”]

[Footnote 471:  Halcyons.  Halcyon days, ones of peace and tranquillity; anciently, days of calm weather in mid-winter, when the halcyon, or kingfisher, was supposed to brood.  It was fabled that this bird laid its eggs in a nest that floated on the sea, and that it charmed the winds and waves to make them calm while it brooded.]

[Footnote 472:  Indian Summer.  Calm, dry, hazy weather which comes in the autumn in America.  The Century Dictionary says it was called Indian Summer because the season was most marked in the sections of the upper eastern Mississippi valley inhabited by Indians about the time the term became current.]