Nature

48 pages • 1 hour read

Nature

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1836

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Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes

Reading Check

1. What does Emerson reject in the opening paragraph of “Nature?”

2. What is nature, according to Emerson?

3. What should people do to simultaneously lose their egos and find the truth?

4. What term does Emerson give to the use of nature that involves providing people with what they need to live their daily lives?

5. While nature is beautiful in and of itself, what element perfects its beauty?

6. How is art (including poetry) related to nature?

7. From where does language, particularly the language that expresses moral or intellectual fact, derive?

8. In his chapter titled “Discipline,” what does Emerson claim to be “the pith and marrow of every substance, every relation, and every process?”

9. To what do poets and philosophers alike subordinate “the apparent order and relations of things” in nature?

10. If “the Supreme Being, does not build up nature around us,” from where does Emerson think nature comes?

Multiple Choice

1. Of what is the universe composed, according to Emerson?

A) constantly fluctuating phenomena

B) nature and the soul

C) the earth and the heavens

D) fundamental matter

2. What does Emerson imagine himself to be when he immerses himself in the woods and sheds his everyday identity?

A) a transparent eyeball

B) a beam of light

C) a rising breeze

D) a strong, tall tree

3. Why does the beauty of nature disappear if it is “too eagerly hunted?”

A) It is only temporary and quickly fades.

B) It is most glorious when there are no people disturbing its harmony.

C) It appears not when sought, but when virtuous actions summon it.

D) It is only a mirage that cannot withstand scrutiny.

4. What, above all, makes a single object beautiful?

A) a projection of complete harmony within itself

B) a high degree of uniqueness or rarity

C) an internal energy that corresponds to life itself

D) an inherent connection with the harmony that unites all things

5. If words are symbols or “signs of natural facts,” of what, in turn, is every “natural fact” a symbol?

A) some material fact

B) some spiritual fact

C) the human condition

D) the transience of life

6. When “the eye of Reason” guides a person’s vision, what are they able to see?

A) the spirit within all things

B) the material nature of all things

C) the physical laws that govern nature

D) the permanence of all things

7. Of the following, which is the fulfillment of “the use which Reason makes of the material world?”

A) scientific explanations of natural facts

B) technological innovations

C) poetry

D) analytical thinking

8. According to Emerson, who should individuals rely on to gain insight into universal truth?

A) their elders

B) themselves

C) religious leaders

D) scientists

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions with a response of one to several sentences. Use details from the text to support your responses.

1. What does Emerson mean when he writes, in the “Introduction,” that the current generation should also “enjoy an original relation to the universe?”

2. What is Emerson referring to in his explanation of nature as “Commodity” (Chapter 2) when he notes that “the useful arts are reproductions or new combinations by the wit of man, of the same natural benefactors. He no longer waits for favoring gales, but by means of steam, [. . .] carries the two and thirty winds in the boiler of his boat?”

3. Why are the works of rural poets preferable to those of urban poets?

4. Why do actions express the “central Unity” that pervades nature better than words?

5. If “Understanding” is knowing “every property of matter” through the observation and measurement of “sensible objects,” what is “Reason?”

6. Why does Emerson think that humankind’s post-industrial relationship to the universe is impoverished?

Quiz – Answer Key

Reading Check

1. the lessons handed down by past generations (“Introduction”)

2. all that is separate from people, including their bodies (“Introduction”)

3. contemplate nature in solitude (Chapter 1, “Nature”)

4. the commodity use (Chapter 2, “Commodity”)

5. the spiritual element (Chapter 3, “Beauty”)

6. art is the “abstract or epitome” of nature, or “is the expression of nature, in miniature” (Chapter 3, “Beauty”)

7. material appearances or natural processes (Chapter 4, “Language”)

8. the moral law (Chapter 5, “Discipline”)

9. Reason (Chapter 6, “Idealism”)

10. from within each individual (Chapter 7, “Spirit”)

Multiple Choice

1. B (Introduction)

2. A (Chapter 1, “Nature”)

3. C (Chapter 3, “Beauty”)

4. D (Chapter 3, “Beauty”)

5. B (Chapter 4, “Language”)

6. A (Chapter 6, “Idealism”)

7. C (Chapter 6, “Idealism”)

8. B (Throughout the essay, Emerson emphasizes that individuals must rely on their own intuition and reason to discover universal truth.)

Short-Answer Response

1. Emerson means that the people of his generation should not look to past generations for answers; rather, they should use their own senses to experience the world, and then interpret those experiences using their own reason and intuition (“Introduction”).

2. In “Commodity” (Chapter 2), Emerson surveys the various practical uses that nature serves for humankind. When he writes about the “new combinations” that “the wit of man” has devised, he is obliquely referring to specific innovations like the steam engine and the railway, and, more generally, to the burgeoning industrial revolution.

3. The rural poets are closer than urban poets to the spiritual truths embodied in nature (Chapter 4, “Language”).

4. Words are finite and cannot capture the vast dimensions of universal truth. By contrast, a moral action reflects and encompasses the full beauty and moral fiber that is at the heart of nature (Chapter 5, “Discipline”).

5. While understanding applies to the individual’s knowledge of the material world, Reason (a term that Emerson capitalizes) relates to the individual’s ability to see through the material appearances of the world and discern the moral law or spirit that unites everything (Chapters 5 & 6, or “Discipline” and “Idealism”).

6. Emerson believes that his generation’s relationship to the world is too utilitarian and empirical. In other words, he thinks people place too much value on nature’s commodity use and too much emphasis on measuring and analyzing the physical properties of nature. By paying too much attention to the material side of nature, people fail to grasp and benefit from the spiritual element that permeates the world (Chapter 8, “Prospects”).