Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter iv the harvest This chapter will be occupied with a review of Emerson's prose works; a succeeding chapter will handle the general characteristics of his prose, and a third will discuss his poetry. "Nature " is exceptional as a first work in which both the thought and the style of the author are perfectly mature and in which--by an even rarer exception--both are seen at almost their highest level. In the thought of this work, Emerson, always munificent, rises to sheer prodigality; it is, as Dr. Garnett says, "the most intense and quintessential of his writings"; with the exception of the doctrines of "Compensation" and "Self-Reliance," it virtually epitomizes his philosophy. Emerson's growth was that of a helix; first the core, central, vital, and compact, then the inner rings, then outer rings of more bulk and greater diameter as they recede successively from the central heart. "Nature" was the innermost, smallest, and most vital spire in the concentric structure. The review of the doctrine may be left to a future chapter, since it seems preferable to confine ourselves to the peculiarities or differentia of the works as we reach them in order of time and to reserve for subsequent collective discussion their common properties of thought and style. The plan of "Nature" is not only clear-cut and emphatic; it is one of the most effective plans in this form of literature. It is impressive, and picturesque as well as perspicuous: the poetic mind's submission, in this instance, to the restraints of obvious plan, may have arisen from the fact that the plan itself was poetic. The ascent of the ends of Nature from commodity to beauty, from beauty to language, from language to discipline, from discipline to spirit (passing over idealism as...