18.5: Sentences in Context

The following paragraph, from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, “Nature” (1836), has had all its punctuation (with the exception of a set of parentheses) and all capitalization (except for the firstperson singular pronoun and those which Emerson uses to indicate proper names) removed. We have added, in brackets, a definition for “maugre,” but no words have been removed from the original text. Re-punctuate the paragraph so that it makes sense to you; if you feel tempted to add/subtract words to render more clearly a passage’s sense, you are welcome to give in to that temptation. (Don’t worry about whether your “solution” matches Emerson’s original—you will find that there are various, equally-correct ways to edit this; besides, some punctuation rules have changed since Emerson’s time, and Emerson himself was rather adventurous with his comma usage, even for his own time.) The goal here is to put to use the basic rules you have learned regarding sentence structure in this chapter and thus make this passage (more) readable.

To speak truly few adult persons can see nature most persons do not see the sun at least they have a very superficial seeing the sun illuminates only the eye of the man but shines into the eye and the heart of the child the lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood his intercourse with heaven and earth becomes part of his daily food in the presence of nature a wild delight runs through the man in spite of real sorrows nature says he is my creature and maugre [in spite of] all his impertinent griefs he shall be glad with me not the sun or the summer alone but every hour and season yields its tribute of delight for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind from breathless noon to grimmest midnight nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece in good health the air is a cordial of incredible virtue crossing a bare common, in snow puddles at twilight under a clouded sky without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration I am glad to the brink of fear in the woods too a man casts off his years as the snake his slough and at what period soever of life is always a child in the woods is perpetual youth within these plantations of God a decorum and sanctity reign a perennial festival is dressed and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years 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 become a transparent eye-ball I am nothing I see all the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me I am part or particle of God the name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental to be brothers to be acquaintances master or servant is then a trifle and a disturbance 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