
Nature
- First published
- 1836
- Reading level
- Plain English
- Price
- Free
About the book
"Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson is a book-length essay published in 1836. This foundational work introduces transcendentalism, a belief system proposing that the divine suffuses nature and that reality can be understood through studying the natural world. Emerson divides nature into four usages—Commodity, Beauty, Language, and Discipline—exploring how humans relate to their environment. He argues that true connection with nature requires solitude, away from society's distractions, allowing individuals to experience spiritual wholeness and become one with the Universal Being.
- Nature
- Philosophy, American
Updated September 2026. Public domain in the USA. Text and summary from Project Gutenberg eBook #29433. Nature on Wikipedia.
More free books by Ralph Waldo Emerson
About Ralph Waldo EmersonEssays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays — First Series
Poems
Essays — Second Series
Representative Men
Society and solitude
The Conduct of Life
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, and Salámán and Absál
Letters and social aims
Miscellanies
The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol. I
English Traits










