Nature

One of the most famous motifs in Emerson’s essay is the transparent eyeball, which becomes a symbol for man’s egoless, receptive state in wild plots of nature such as the woods. Becoming such a featureless organ, without the colored iris that normally distinguishes it, the beholder of nature is “nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God” (18). He forsakes his petty human particularities, such as an identity mixed up with his profession or property, for something far greater: the chance to become part of the vastness of creation and share in the nature of the original creator, God. The eyeball is also a sensory organ that enables the beholder to have direct access to the wisdom of God’s creation, without the intermediary of books or teachers. This idea complements Emerson’s philosophy of individualism and enlightenment through direct experience.

Transparency features as a motif on other occasions in Emerson’s essay, as it is used to describe the world that the true naturalist inhabits. For him, “the universe becomes transparent, and the light of higher laws than its own shines through it” (33). The higher laws are the ways of God that become obvious to those who contemplate nature.