The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Chapter One
NATURE
I
TO GO into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from
society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me.
But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from
those heavenly worlds will separate between him and what he touches. One might
think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the
heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of
cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand
years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the
remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out
these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with the ... read full excerpt from The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson ebook
