Artifact 3: Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance"

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote these lines in his 1841 publication “Self-Reliance”. What Emerson tries to point out in this work is something that is evergreen and especially important in today’s technologically advanced world. Sometimes the things we own end up owning us and we can forget that eventually these are mere tools for our comfort. good Emerson brings forth this point and tries to make the reader realize that underneath our expensive clothes and high-tech gadgetry, we ourselves are tools of nature and our creations should not control us. Another aspect of these words is that newer technologies build upon older ones and it is impossible to appreciate the totality of anything without understanding where we come from.

In Emerson’s work Nature, he points out that – “Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature never becomes a toy to the wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood.”

The idea that nature is not a toy of Man is an interesting point. Nature and its wonders are, in fact apparent in long-lasting creations of Man. Only those creations of Man which emulate certain natural aspects of humanity find their way into everyday lives and are deemed classics. Emerson’s writings were not meant as reason to forgo the pursuit of science or technological growth but a return to nature and the emulation of it in people’s lives, in my opinion.

Thoreau has similar ideas in his writings, especially highlighted in his 1854 work Walden. Thoreau is famous for his “dramatic act … [of] retirement for two years, two months and two days in 1845, 1846 and 1847 to Walden Pond, where he built a hut and studied nature to discover what she had to teach of moral and spiritual truth”. Walden itself is a work of documented teachings of nature. Thoreau points out – “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not be mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.” This infinite predictability of nature and expectation on part of Man relates to the idea of Emerson’s respect for Nature as well. This return to innocence and learn from the ways of our design are reasons why Thoreau and Emerson’s work itself is evergreen and still relevant today. Emulation of the nature of our environment is the key to healthy and peaceful existence, not the countenance of our spirits.