… all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance…. In the woods, we return to reason and faith.


There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, —no disgrace,


no calamity (leaving me my eyes), 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 am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant


line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature.


From Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Nature,” 1836


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