【美国人物志】拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生(6/12)

英语自学网

拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生，美国思想家，诗人。1836年出版处女作《论自然》。他文学上的贡献主要在散文和诗歌上。
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nature
Harvard University
"The American Scholar,"Ralph Waldo Emerson published his first book, Nature, in 1836. It made conservatives see him as a revolutionary. But students at Harvard University liked the book and invited him to speak to them. His speech, "The American Scholar," created great excitement among the students. They heard his words as a new declaration of independence -- a declaration of the independence of the mind.
"Give me an understanding of today's world," he told them, "and you may have the worlds of the past and the future. Show me where God is hidden...as always...in nature. What is near explains what is far. A drop of water is a small ocean. Each of us is a part of all of nature." Emerson said a sign of the times was the new importance given to each person. "The world," he said, "is nothing. The person is all. In yourself is the law of all nature." Emerson urged students to learn directly from life. He told them, "Life is our dictionary."