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Chapter 2: Commodity
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Nature, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Unity and Interconnectedness
The Transformative Power of Nature
Religion, Science, and Individualism
Reason, Understanding, and Truth
Summary
Analysis
Emerson moves on to beauty, which is “nobler” than commodity. The Greek word for “world” is κόσμος, meaning “beauty.” To Emerson, beauty refers to the enjoyment that comes from objects’ “outline, color, motion, and grouping.”
Emerson points out the connection between the words “world” and “beauty” in Greek to emphasize how beauty is woven throughout the entire natural world.
Themes
Recognizing beauty has a lot to do with light (anything looks beautiful in the right kind of light) and the physical structure of the eye. To Emerson, “the eye is the best composer” and “light is the first of painters.” All natural forms are beautiful to the eye, because there is a “general grace diffused over nature.”
The word “grace” can mean elegance, but it also has Christian undertones. In this context, it refers to God’s favor, which is unearned. Throughout much of “Nature,” Emerson stresses that nature is imbued with the divine—so here, he’s perhaps saying that God’s divine grace is what’s “diffused over nature.”
Themes
Emerson outlines three different aspects of Beauty. The first is that looking at natural forms is inherently enjoyable. Living and working in society drains a person of their energy, whereas being in nature is nourishing and revitalizing for the Soul. Appreciating nature’s beauty means admiring nature’s various spectacles without searching for some kind of practical use.
The American Industrial Revolution was in full swing while Emerson was writing. During this time, technological advancements, railroads, and factories flourished, leading to more industrialized cities. But Emerson suggests that this kind of environment is actually draining and stifling, and that nature is the only cure. (Rebecca Harding Davis’s “Life in the Iron Mills,” set in the 1830s, paints a similar picture of life in the industrialized U.S.)
Themes
Emerson describes watching the sunrise peek over the hill by his house and looking out at the sea. These experiences are so moving that he declares, “Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.” He writes that the sunrise is his Assyria, the sunset is his fairyland, and nighttime is his “Germany of mystic philosophy and dreams.”
Having just gestured to the Industrial Revolution, which brought economic prosperity, Emerson declares here that all he needs is good health and a day in nature. These two things alone are enough to eclipse “the pomp of emperors” and make this kind of earthly “pomp” (spectacle) seem absurd. He likens different parts of the day to ancient Assyria, which was known for its vastness, power, and displays of wealth to underscore nature’s own vastness and power, power, and resplendence. And in likening the sunset to a fairyland and nighttime to “mystic philosophy and dreams,” he suggests that nature is likewise magical and mysterious.
Themes
Literary Devices
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People who live in the city assume that the countryside is only beautiful half the year, but Emerson underscores that every season has its own unique, ethereal beauty. Describing the yellow butterflies and richly colored plants that populate the river in the summertime, Emerson declares that “Art cannot rival this pomp of purple and gold,” and that “the river is a perpetual gala.”
Earlier in the chapter, Emerson suggested that good health and a day in nature are enough to outdo the “pomp of emperors” (and make that material version of “pomp” look ridiculous). He repeats a similar sentiment in this passage by calling the brightly colored plants “this pomp of purple and gold” and suggesting that even art, like material wealth, can’t complete with nature’s splendor.
Themes
The second element of nature’s beauty has to do with spirituality. Emerson explains that “Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue.” Nature’s beauty thus adds to the beauty of people’s heroic, virtuous deeds. And people who act virtuously are more likely to open themselves up to nature’s influence.
By drawing a connection between nature, beauty, God, and virtue, Emerson is again underscoring the interconnectedness of all things. By saying that beauty is essentially God’s stamp of approval (e.g., God approves of things that are virtuous, so he makes them beautiful), Emerson is also suggesting that nature is inherently good.
Themes
The third and final aspect of nature’s beauty is that it’s connected to the intellect. Emerson suggests that the intellect loves order, and order is a manifestation of the divine.
Here, Emerson suggests that the way things are ordered, or arranged, in nature is in part what makes them appear beautiful. Similar to the previous section, Emerson draws a connection in this passage between nature, beauty, the intellect, and God to emphasize that all things are united.
Themes
While Taste refers to the love of beauty, Art refers to the creation of beauty. Even though art can take many forms, all art is a reflection of the world—a microcosm of nature. Likewise, truth, goodness, and beauty “are but different faces of the same All.”
Just how nature is one unified whole despite being made up of lots of different elements, virtues like truth and beauty are different pieces or “faces” of the same unified whole. Emerson also takes a different angle in his argument about unity by suggesting that art isn’t just part of Nature but is also a microcosm of it (i.e., nature encapsulated in miniature form).
Themes
