UR age is retro- 

 spective ^ It 

 builds the sep- 

 ulchres of the 

 fathers. It writes 

 biographies, 

 histories, and 

 criticisms. The 

 foregoing gen- 

 erations beheld 

 God & nature 

 face to face; we, through their eyes. Why 

 should we not also enjoy an original rela- 

 tion to the universe ? Why should we not 

 have a poetry and philosophy of insight & 

 not of tradition, and a religion by revela- 

 tion to us, and not the history of theirs? 

 Embosomed for a season in nature, whose 

 floods of life stream around and through us, 

 and invite us by the powers they supply, to 

 action proportioned to nature, why should 

 we grope among the dry bones of the past, or 

 put the living generation into masquerade 

 out of its faded wardrobes? The sun shines 

 to-day also. EMERSON 



Introduction to "Nature" 



