"Nevertheless, far different from the deaf and dumb nature around them, these all rest like fountain-pipes on the unfathomed sea of thought and virtue whereto they alone, of all organizations, are the entrances."
— Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)
Work Title
Date
September 10, 1836
Metaphor
"Nevertheless, far different from the deaf and dumb nature around them, these all rest like fountain-pipes on the unfathomed sea of thought and virtue whereto they alone, of all organizations, are the entrances."
Metaphor in Context
Words and actions are not the attributes of brute nature. They introduce us to the human form, of which all other organizations appear to be degradations. When this appears among so many that surround it, the spirit prefers it to all others. It says, ‘From such as this, have I drawn joy and knowledge; in such as this, have I found and beheld myself; I will speak to it; it can speak again; it can yield me thought already formed and alive.’ In fact, the eye, — the mind, — is always accompanied by these forms, male and female; and these are incomparably the richest informations of the power and order that lie at the heart of things. Unfortunately, every one of them bears the marks as of some injury; is marred and superficially defective. Nevertheless, far different from the deaf and dumb nature around them, these all rest like fountain-pipes on the unfathomed sea of thought and virtue whereto they alone, of all organizations, are the entrances.
(p. 41)
(p. 41)
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
