of his indebtedness to Plato and his school. And although one can not reconstruct a coordinated scheme of Platonism from Emerson's work, one need not accept the view of Cabot, his biographer and friend, who writes: "In general, to look for the source of any way of thinking of his in the Neo-Platonists, or in any of the books he read, seems to me like tracing the origin of Jacob Behmen's illumination to the glitter of the pewter tankard which, he says, awakened in him the consciousness of divine things." The golden way lies somewhere between this negation and the other; only on a careful analysis of his work will the way be revealed.

1

1A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, I., 291.

CHAPTER II

NATURE

HE dualism in which the speculation of

TH

the Platonists culminates underlies Emerson's conception of the constitution of things. "What the world ends in, therefore," writes Plotinus, "is matter and reason, but that from which it arose, and by which it is governed, is soul." 1 In similar strain Emerson opens his exposition of the nature of the universe with the statement that "philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul." 2 These two elements-nature and soul-are the poles of Emerson's thought as a philosopher concerned with the ultimate postulates of thinking. Nature was the first topic that engaged his attention, although his final word on the subject was not spoken until he had elaborated his conception of soul.

In his Platonic sources there was a wealth

1 Five Books of Plotinus, 123.

2 Complete Works, I., 4.

of speculation on nature. Plato himself had left in his Timæus an account of natural philosophy of which the portion dealing with the conception of matter, or space, became of prime importance to Plotinus in his speculation on the same subject. In the third selection from Plotinus' Enneads contained in Taylor's translation of the Select Works, Emerson found a full outline of the position of Plotinus on this great topic. Proclus, too, had reviewed the subject as it was handled by the chief Greek thinkers and the passage containing his account Emerson had indexed under "Nature" in his own copy of The Commentaries of Proclus on the Timæus of Plato.1 Plutarch had embodied a mass of opinion on nature in his Morals.2 Emerson did not esteem the bulk of these opinions very highly; he thought them very crude; many of them puerile. But, he fails not to add, "Usually, when Thales, Anaximenes or Anaximander are quoted, it is really a good judgment." In Ocellus Lucanus, Emerson had a short treatise on the nature of the universe. And finally in Cudworth he found a

1 I., 8-10.

3

2 Morals, III., 104-193.

Complete Works, X., 310.

Digression Concerning the Plastic Life of Nature, or an Artificial, Orderly and Methodical Nature.1

From this Digression Emerson extracted a quotation from Plotinus which he used as a motto for the first edition of Nature. "Nature is but an image or imitation of wisdom, the last thing of the soul; Nature being a thing which doth only do, but not know." 2 The original extract from Cudworth which yielded Emerson his sentence reads: "How doth wisdom differ from that which is called nature? Verily in this manner, that wisdom is the first thing, but nature the last and lowest; for nature is but an image or imitation of wisdom, the last thing of the soul, which hath the lowest impress of reason shining upon it; as when a thick piece of wax is thoroughly impressed upon by a seal, that impress, which is clean and distinct in the superior superficies of it, will in the lower side be weak and obscure; and such is the stamp and signature of nature, compared with that of wisdom and understanding, nature being a thing which doth only do, but not know." 3 Later

1 The True Intellectual System of the Universe, I., 217

280.

2 Complete Works, I., 403–404.

8 The True Intellectual System of the Universe, I., 240.

editions of Nature appeared without this motto; but the firstling of Emerson's mind nevertheless testifies to its author's indebtedness to Platonism.

In the quotation from Plotinus is found the conception which characterizes one phase of Emerson's treatment of Nature. This phase is given in his theory of symbolism. Briefly put, the theory can be stated in three propositions: (1) "Words are signs of natural facts." (2) "Particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts." (3) "Nature is the symbol of Spirit.

Each of these statements summarizes a teaching of Platonism with which Emerson's reading had made him familiar. In his Cratylus Plato sets forth the notion of the philosophical import of words to the effect that they are imitations of real things; or as Socrates says, "names properly imposed are like the things, of which they are the names laid down, and are resemblances of the things.' Here is the source of Emerson's teaching of the symbolic nature of words.

The symbolism of things is a recognized tenet of the Platonists. Plutarch, especially,

1 Complete Works, I., 25.

2 Bohn translation, III., 391.