Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Nature"

     Although I understand Emerson's desire to throw out the old ways and bring in the new--"Let us demand our own works and laws and worship"--I think he is missing out on the conclusions drawn from the work done by people of the past.  I think there is something to be gained through tradition, even if it means we learn that the traditions were not good ones.  Maybe I seem to be contradicting myself here.  What I mean to say is that, from my understanding, Emerson is not interested in the past at all, he simply wants to throw it out and pay it no concern.  He doesn't even care to use the past traditions as a guideline for the future.  And the "new" he wants to bring in is largely concerned with experiencing nature and what we learn by doing that.  I would agree with Emerson that we can learn about ourselves and about God from nature, but the line between nature being created by God and nature actually being God is blurred a little by Emerson, in my opinion.  He gives a lot of authority to nature and talks about our interaction with it almost as you would talk about interacting with God himself!  However, I can agree with Emerson on some of his ideas about nature, even if I think he goes to the extreme with them.  I would agree that nature makes us realize how small we are and how little we can affect it in comparison to how much it affects us.  This is something I think we don't understand as much as Westerners.  Nature doesn't affect us as much because we can work around it--if it rains, we go inside.  If it snows, we plow it away.  It's only in events like a hurricane or a tornado that we realize how little influence we have over nature and how powerful nature is.  I would also agree with Emerson that nature can stimulate thought and that we are forever in awe of it; no matter how many times we see a sunset, we never cease to be amazed by it.  I think the way that Emerson speaks of nature is very romantic and beautiful, even if I think he worships it a little too much!