"And the blue sky in which the private earth is buried, the sky with its eternal calm, and full of everlasting orbs, is the type of Reason."
— Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)
Work Title
Date
September 10, 1836
Metaphor
"And the blue sky in which the private earth is buried, the sky with its eternal calm, and full of everlasting orbs, is the type of Reason."
Metaphor in Context
Who looks upon a river in a meditative hour, and is not reminded of the flux of all things? Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence. Man is conscious of a universal soul within or behind his individual life, wherein, as in a firmament, the natures of Justice, Truth, Love, Freedom, arise and shine. This universal soul, he calls Reason: it is not mine, or thine, or his, but we are its; we are its property and men. And the blue sky in which the private earth is buried, the sky with its eternal calm, and full of everlasting orbs, is the type of Reason. That which, intellectually considered, we call Reason, considered in relation to nature, we call Spirit. Spirit is the Creator. Spirit hath life in itself. And man in all ages and countries, embodies it in his language, as the FATHER.
(p. 32)
(p. 32)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Emerson, R. W. Nature. 1836. Pagination keyed to Stephen Whicher's Selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson: An Organic Anthology Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957. <eBooks@Adelaide><Oregon State Electronic Edition>
Date of Entry
03/31/2010
