Zinnia: Simplicity in Emerson's "Nature"
I have always been attentive to the theme of simplicity in Thoreau's writing. I have been less attuned to it in Ralph Waldo Emerson's thought. But the other day, as I read "Nature" in the park while preparing to teach it, I seized upon this passage:
"A man's power to connect his thought with its proper symbol, and so to utter it, depends on the simplicity of his character, that is, upon his love of truth and his desire to communicate it without loss...When simplicity of character and the sovereignty of ideas is broken up by the prevalence of secondary desires - the desire of riches, of pleasure, of power, and of praise - and duplicity and falsehood take place of simplicity and truth, the power over nature as an interpreter of the will is in a degree lost."
Emerson writes this in the context of his discussion of nature and language - particular facts of nature are symbols of particular spiritual facts. Through truthful language stemming from simplicity of character we can link those natural facts to their spiritual origin.
I thought, for example, of the simplicity of zinnias. Until my recent visits to a community garden in Brooklyn, I had never really had the chance to regard these flowers - even though my own sister's name is Xinia!
Regarding a single zinnia of fuchsia petals and yellow stamens is sufficient to teach you that in simplicity lie truth, beauty, and goodness - if we will preserve these simple values and not lose them to complication and "secondary desires."
"A man's power to connect his thought with its proper symbol, and so to utter it, depends on the simplicity of his character, that is, upon his love of truth and his desire to communicate it without loss...When simplicity of character and the sovereignty of ideas is broken up by the prevalence of secondary desires - the desire of riches, of pleasure, of power, and of praise - and duplicity and falsehood take place of simplicity and truth, the power over nature as an interpreter of the will is in a degree lost."
Emerson writes this in the context of his discussion of nature and language - particular facts of nature are symbols of particular spiritual facts. Through truthful language stemming from simplicity of character we can link those natural facts to their spiritual origin.
I thought, for example, of the simplicity of zinnias. Until my recent visits to a community garden in Brooklyn, I had never really had the chance to regard these flowers - even though my own sister's name is Xinia!
Regarding a single zinnia of fuchsia petals and yellow stamens is sufficient to teach you that in simplicity lie truth, beauty, and goodness - if we will preserve these simple values and not lose them to complication and "secondary desires."
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