"
All who love nature or who wish to become interested in her should read at
least his _Woodnotes_, _The Humble Bee_, _The Rhodora_, _Each and All_,
_The Snow Storm,_ and _To Ellen at the South_.
Some of his philosophy may be found in poems like _The Problem_ (1839),
_The Sphinx_ (1841), and _Brahma_ (1857). The immanence of God in
everything, in the sculptor's hand, for instance, is well expressed in
_The Problem_:--
"The hand that rounded Peter's dome
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome
Wrought in a sad sincerity;
Himself from God he could not free;
He builded better than he knew;--
The conscious stone to beauty grew."
_The Sphinx_ thus expresses one of Emerson's favorite thoughts:--
"To vision profounder,
Man's spirit must dive,"
and concludes with the Sphinx's thought-provoking statement:-
"Who telleth one of my meanings,
Is master of all I am."
This line in _Brahma_:--
"I am the doubter and the doubt,"
shows his belief in the unity of all things, his conviction that all
existence and action result from one underlying force. His own personal
philosophy, that which actuated him in dealing with his fellow-men, is
expressed in the following lines, which are worthy a place in the active
memory of every American:--
"Life is too short to waste
In critic peep or cynic bark,
Quarrel or reprimand:
'Twill soon be dark.
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