Ralph Waldo Emerson “Nature”

William Cullen Bryant “To a Waterfowl”

Philip Freneau “On the Religion of Nature”

from “Nature”

“Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. ... The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should we not have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? ... why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe? The sun shines to-day also. ... There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.”

(p. 508)RALPH WALDO EMERSON

from “Nature”

“In the woods, too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth ... In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befal me in life,–...which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground,–my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space,–all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball. I am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part and particle of God.”

(p. 511)

from “To a Waterfowl”There is a Power whose careTeaches thy way along that pathless coast, –The desert and illimitable air, –Lone wandering, but not lost.

And soon that toil shall endSoon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,And scream among thy fellows, reeds shall bendSoon o’er thy sheltered nest.

Thou’rt gone, the abyss of heavenHath swallowed up they form; yet, on my heartDeeply hath sunk the lesson thous hast given,And shall not soon depart.

He, who, from zone to zone,Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,In the long way that I must tread alone,Will lead my steps aright.

from “On the Religion of Nature”

The power, that gives with liberal handThe blessings man enjoys, while here, And scatters through a smiling landAbundant products of the year;That power of nature, ever blessed,bestowed religion with the rest

Born with ourselves, her early swayInclines the tender mind to takeThe path of right, fair virtue’s wayIts own felicity to make.This universally extendsAnd leads to no mysterious ends.

Religion such as naturetaught,With all divine perfection suits;Had all mankind this system soughtSophists would cease their vain dispute4s,And from this source would nations knowAll that can make their heaven below.