He is the axis of the star;
He is the sparkle of the spar;
He is the heart of every creature;
He is the meaning of each feature;
And his mind is the sky.
Than all it holds, more deep, more high."

Despite the teaching of the quotation just given,
readers of Emerson must not forget that in his



Ralph Waldo Emerson 55

outlook upon Nature he had more than one point
of view. As an inhabitant of the physical world,
he never denied the reaUty of matter; as an inhabi-
tant of the spiritual world, he did deny that niatter
is an ultimate reality. In a considerable number
of poems, such as The Humble Bee, May-Day, The
Adirondacks, The Snow-Storm and Musketaquid, he
treated Nature as any other poet might treat it;
sometimes, it is true, highly personifying it and
richly endowing it with such Ught as never was on
sea or land, yet still regarding it as a fact, as
having actual existence apart from himself. In
this mood he could write in May-Day the exquisite
Unes, —

" I saw the bud-crowned Spring go forth,
Stepping daily onward north
To greet staid ancient cavaliers
Filing single in stately train.
" I saw the Days deformed and low,
Short and bent by cold and snow;
The merry Spring threw wreaths on them.
Flower-wreaths gay with bud and beU;
Many a flower and many a gem,
They were refreshed by the smeU,
They shook the snow from hats and shoon,
They put their April garments on;
And those eternal forms.
